Buying a Business

[Big Blue Plymouth]

Anyone here got any experience of buying a small retail business (specialist garden centre, in this case).

Would be interested to know how to go about establishing if somethings going to be a goer or not.

I guess it all boils down to price and how profitable the business is by hiring an accountant to look at their books.

Be interested to hear from anyone who has taken the plunge....

[mattfx]

Anyone here got any experience of buying a small retail business (specialist garden centre, in this case).

Would be interested to know how to go about establishing if somethings going to be a goer or not.

I guess it all boils down to price and how profitable the business is by hiring an accountant to look at their books.

Be interested to hear from anyone who has taken the plunge....

Not done it myself but a friend has; took on a bespoke cake and hand made chocolate shop. Very small operation, 3 employees if you included herself making the cakes. Part time cake maker left due to a personality clash, she sacked off the chocolate maker after a few months because he was expensive and slow in her opinion (I don't think she really knew anything much about making chocolate...)

Her business is now well.. Just her. 3 years on since she bought it and it's just her in her shop, making bespoke cakes for occasions. The shop is now half the size; she re-apportioned the unit and downsized then rented out the other part to someone else in order to supplement the income. Overall, I'd personally say it was a f****** disaster. When she gets too busy she pretty much relies on family and friends to come and help her out.

Clearly there are more issues here other than just the deal she did in the first place; the business was clearly split in two halves and she effectively killed the other half when she let the choccy maker go.

My only input would be one of logic rather than anything else; Make sure you know a little about the industry you're going to be buying into, or know that you have contacts in the right places to service your requirements when you have them. You can't really put a price on industry insider knowledge i'd say.

[mattfx]

Should've added - be really interested to see how this pans out if you go forward with it.

[Antman]

Why is somebody selling a profitable company?

[northernladuk]

Can't helping thinking if you don't know how to do that what is the point of considering it? Surely you've got have the knowledge and ability to make it viable and then go look for the right one? That sounds more like a business plan for a cafe not a specialist business?

[northernladyuk]

Anyone here got any experience of buying a small retail business (specialist garden centre, in this case).

Would be interested to know how to go about establishing if somethings going to be a goer or not.

I guess it all boils down to price and how profitable the business is by hiring an accountant to look at their books.

Be interested to hear from anyone who has taken the plunge....

Mf's got a sledge shop on the market.

[Big Blue Plymouth]

Should've added - be really interested to see how this pans out if you go forward with it.

Cheers. I'm definitely going to look into it.

I used to work as a landscaper & have kept my hand in over the years so I know about plants & gardening. Don't know anything about retail though.

Don't think this is going to be me main income stream though so will probably have to get some WFH contracts and/or hire a bod to run the place.

[Big Blue Plymouth]

Can't helping thinking if you don't know how to do that what is the point of considering it? Surely you've got have the knowledge and ability to make it viable and then go look for the right one? That sounds more like a business plan for a cafe not a specialist business?

Plenty of folks do.... Pipedream becomes reality and all that.

Admittedly, the fact it's right on my doorstep in the middle of rural Dorset is a bit of a driver.

[Lance]

Anyone here got any experience of buying a small retail business (specialist garden centre, in this case).

Would be interested to know how to go about establishing if somethings going to be a goer or not.

I guess it all boils down to price and how profitable the business is by hiring an accountant to look at their books.

Be interested to hear from anyone who has taken the plunge....

you will end up owning your own job, never having a holiday, never being able to trust staff and make less money than contracting.
I've seen many do it. The only ones where it will work is if there's nothing else they can do.
You'd have to work your balls off to earn half what you would contracting.

[MarillionFan]

I've had three retails shops in my time. Started with one in 2003, upped that to two a few years later, then reconsolidated them and then moved the business to another location before closing again in 2013. I used to import furniture and gifts from Asia & mix it with stock from the UK (including sledges :-) )

To NLUK's point, just because you don't have experience in something doesn't mean you can't try it. You get experience doing it, so it's a moot scaredy cat point of the view of the world he has.

How do you know if it's going to be successful? Planning & analysis.

I don't do anything without modelling it first. For the first shop I was able to hire an experienced manager and buyer. After a year, turned out they weren't that good, so got rid of the buyer as they almost bankrupt the company, but again it was a learning experience and so having people around you helps to get that by osmosis.

My models for each shop were accurate to within 5% and so I was able to plan & deal with issues as they occurred.

But as someone else pointed out, I was then tied to the shops. Impacted weekends, staff issues, always having to do something etc and to be honest contracting always made more cash.

So damned if you do, damned if you don;t