Plan B

[MarillionFan]

I think it's been mentioned here, but soft play is a gold mine, with large start up costs. The amount of rain in the West Country means kids have to have an outlet, and there are not that many. Very tempted to kick one off this year, but it's 7 days a week, and hard yakka (have you been to one?).

The real money though, is with the food and coffee sales you make incidently.

Wife is building a business plan at the moment.

I agree with that. There is a good opportunity but it needs to be right. Spent some time on Daltons recently getting accounts to build a model. Just not sure I fancy outlaying a good six figures though.

For me I think I'll move into importing and wholesaling in more depth. When I had the shops I imported a number of containers of stock from Thailand and Indonesia, wholesaling some of it. There was one particular wholesaler i liked the look of. Summer garden furniture and Xmas gift decorations. They were going blazing guns, I was spending £15k a year with them and they got bought out by a larger company that last month went bankrupt because they'd messed around with their company bank account the bank pulled their overdraft, the distribution company didn't get paid, held the stock, then sold it to a competitor. Ergo a £12m business folds overnight. I've made an enquiry about the first company and have booked my trip to the Canton Gift Fair in October.

[eek]

I agree with that. There is a good opportunity but it needs to be right. Spent some time on Daltons recently getting accounts to build a model. Just not sure I fancy outlaying a good six figures though.

For me I think I'll move into importing and wholesaling in more depth. When I had the shops I imported a number of containers of stock from Thailand and Indonesia, wholesaling some of it. There was one particular wholesaler i liked the look of. Summer garden furniture and Xmas gift decorations. They were going blazing guns, I was spending £15k a year with them and they got bought out by a larger company that last month went bankrupt because they'd messed around with their company bank account the bank pulled their overdraft, the distribution company didn't get paid, held the stock, then sold it to a competitor. Ergo a £12m business folds overnight. I've made an enquiry about the first company and have booked my trip to the Canton Gift Fair in October.

Its a good plan but my concern would be how big is the actual market. Going around ironbridge and the surrounding area during the summer all the shops are selling the same tat because there are so few wholesalers left to buy from.

It could be a brilliant market with too few competitors, it equally well could be a dying one.

[Old Hack]

It is a big outlay, but if you look at the figures, 2 hours for £5 per child, at least a coffee and cake per adult at about £5 and on a rainy day at least. Look at the numbers you can hold safely, and say there's an operating window of about 8 hours, and go from there. I believe, genuinely, you can bank over £1k a day net. It can be up and running without too much handholding within 6 months, and you can then look at either playing golf, or getting another one up and running.

However, there's another angle we're looking at, which I don't want to go into yet, as we need to approach the right people, which would see this increase many times.

However, it will cost a big number to get off the ground straight away, and this is what, I believe, holds a lot of people back.

[Mich the Tester]

It is a big outlay, but if you look at the figures, 2 hours for £5 per child, at least a coffee and cake per adult at about £5 and on a rainy day at least. Look at the numbers you can hold safely, and say there's an operating window of about 8 hours, and go from there. I believe, genuinely, you can bank over £1k a day net. It can be up and running without too much handholding within 6 months, and you can then look at either playing golf, or getting another one up and running.

However, there's another angle we're looking at, which I don't want to go into yet, as we need to approach the right people, which would see this increase many times.

However, it will cost a big number to get off the ground straight away, and this is what, I believe, holds a lot of people back.

Isn't there a lot of regulation involved in any service aimed at kids?

[Old Hack]

Isn't there a lot of regulation involved in any service aimed at kids?

There is a maximum number of children per area of equipment and the people you employ have to be cab'd as such, but outside of the normal H&S not especially so, in our research.

[Mich the Tester]

There is a maximum number of children per area of equipment and the people you employ have to be cab'd as such, but outside of the normal H&S not especially so, in our research.

Oh, OK. I know that here in NL there are lots of regs about furniture; I know a chap who makes and sells furniture for infant schools and he's rolling in money because the stuff costs about 10 times as much as standard furniture; no sharp edges, no poisonous stuffage in the materials, which is all fairly simple and do-able; the costs go into getting it all tested and approved. But then he makes the money because nobody else wanted to make the huge investment in that market.

[Old Hack]

Oh, OK. I know that here in NL there are lots of regs about furniture; I know a chap who makes and sells furniture for infant schools and he's rolling in money because the stuff costs about 10 times as much as standard furniture; no sharp edges, no poisonous stuffage in the materials, which is all fairly simple and do-able; the costs go into getting it all tested and approved. But then he makes the money because nobody else wanted to make the huge investment in that market.

Ah, yes, the manufacturers of the equipment have to addhere to all of that, but you'd be buying it with all of that baselined at source. Inside the actual softplay, only what I have mentioned come to the fore. However, as I said, the wife is doing her due diligence as part of the business plan.

[MarillionFan]

Its a good plan but my concern would be how big is the actual market. Going around ironbridge and the surrounding area during the summer all the shops are selling the same tat because there are so few wholesalers left to buy from.

It could be a brilliant market with too few competitors, it equally well could be a dying one.

Not a dying one. There will always be wholesalers for smaller retailers. The market is getting smaller as supermarkets destroy the retailers but there is always a need for suppliers. The Autumn Fair International 2012 (and spring) is the main gift fair of the year. There is also a furniture fair twice a year at the NEC.

What's interesting(and most people won't have a clue about this) is how wholesaling tends to work in these types of markets. For example as a retailer you put your order in for Xmas goods to wholesalers in February. For Summer goods, you do it in September. From a wholesaling perspective the suppliers who attend the shows in Feb/Spring are showing goods that they do not have.

They have effectively gone to the Spring Fairs in Asia to buy samples/start to design products for the next year, so you have to be a year ahead of the market. Hence when you see all the Xmas goodies in Feb or garden furniture in September the wholesaler doesnt have any stock at all, and more importantly they haven't placed their orders with Asia yet!

At the tradeshows the suppliers then take proforma orders. They then have an idea of how much stock they need at the end of the shows, then place their orders for manufacturing. That tends to take 3/4 months. Then when the stock comes in they want paying, at which point some people change their proforma orders/cancel them etc and any last minute orders at say the Autumn fair for Xmas items. Which as a retailer, when you turn up at the Autumn fair expecting to see shedloads of xmas stuff there never is any(!!!).

Part of me is thinking of just doing the garden furniture though and contracting the other half of the year.

[Old Hack]

For me, the danger has always been that contracting never goes away, from a contractors mind. I just know if we got a succesful business up and running, my wife would run it, and I can see myself getting back into contracting, as the money is so good. The temptation is just so unavoidable.

[MarillionFan]

For me, the danger has always been that contracting never goes away, from a contractors mind. I just know if we got a succesful business up and running, my wife would run it, and I can see myself getting back into contracting, as the money is so good. The temptation is just so unavoidable.

Exactly. Everytime I used to work in my own shops I'd think, I could pay someone cheaper to do this & coin it in elsewhere.