Reply to: Plan B - Open a pharmacy

[lukemg]

Big respect to anyone looking at a plan B, especially a proper business but this sounds like a good way to end up working stupid hours in a shop.
Aviva shares are yielding 8% at the mo, fill boots...

[Notanimby]

We too have been looking at opening a pharmacy, up here in the West of Scotland, our lad is the pharmacist an dwe would be in partnership with him

It is easier to buy an existing business than it is to start from scratch, applying for a license can take years.

Applying for a business loan to start a pharmacy is very straightforward, banks will indeed lend up to @90%. Even the pharmacy wholesalers will fund the purchase of the business for you.
It is seen as a very safe business proposition indeed.

One pharmacy near us went (@ 6/7 years ago) went for shop fixtures, fittings & stock £60K business - £800K. It's now worth £1.5 million for the business.

It is more than running a shop, you need fully trained an qualified dispensing staff as well as the pharmacist

[TestMangler]

Why would Plan B want to open a pharmacy anyway ?

Does the useless Mockney white rapper not have a succesful recording career ?

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

All I will add is:-

Do your research and ensure you are confident in your own business model. You can use CUK for sounding out ideas but 99/100 posters on here think they're Dragons Den entrepreneurs when in truth it's only 1/100 who actually bother to put their money where their mouth is and open a real business. All the rest don't have the bottle and they remain IT contractors because they can't even hack getting into management let alone going it alone in true business.

Let Excel be your friend, and if that stacks up, go for it, it's only ever money you risk and it's better to be a 'had a go and failed' than a backseat 'I told you so'.

(Succeeding is even better though)

Yep can't disagree with that. It's not easy to be an entrepreneur but contracting has definitely pushed me in the right direction towards the possibility of being one....

[MarillionFan]

also looking at other options e.g. buying an existing business with normal hours.....

All I will add is:-

Do your research and ensure you are confident in your own business model. You can use CUK for sounding out ideas but 99/100 posters on here think they're Dragons Den entrepreneurs when in truth it's only 1/100 who actually bother to put their money where their mouth is and open a real business. All the rest don't have the bottle and they remain IT contractors because they can't even hack getting into management let alone going it alone in true business.

Let Excel be your friend, and if that stacks up, go for it, it's only ever money you risk and it's better to be a 'had a go and failed' than a backseat 'I told you so'.

(Succeeding is even better though)

[northernladuk]

also looking at other options e.g. buying an existing business with normal hours.....

Good luck with that. Daltons is saying they are around £800K a pop

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Surely if your OH and your family friends who are qualified pharmacists open a pharmacy then it's up to them? FWIW unless you're a qualified pharmacist you're going to struggle to make money while others do the work as you'll need at least 3 x Pharmacists (working 50 hours) to cover 100 hours of opening.

What does a good pharmacist charge? £50k a year minimum. That's best part of £200k in my book total cost to employ. What is the profit margin pharmacists make?

Even if you cream in 20% you're looking at £1mln in sales before you've paid for the staff.

My advice is that unless your OH has very very very good experience in the management of a pharmacy (not just dishing out pills) then avoid. If you don't know it will work and can produce the numbers to prove it I'd guess you don't know enough about it.

also looking at other options e.g. buying an existing business with normal hours.....

[Sockpuppet]

I just can't think of a good plan B which is feasible.

Surely if your OH and your family friends who are qualified pharmacists open a pharmacy then it's up to them? FWIW unless you're a qualified pharmacist you're going to struggle to make money while others do the work as you'll need at least 3 x Pharmacists (working 50 hours) to cover 100 hours of opening.

What does a good pharmacist charge? £50k a year minimum. That's best part of £200k in my book total cost to employ. What is the profit margin pharmacists make?

Even if you cream in 20% you're looking at £1mln in sales before you've paid for the staff.

My advice is that unless your OH has very very very good experience in the management of a pharmacy (not just dishing out pills) then avoid. If you don't know it will work and can produce the numbers to prove it I'd guess you don't know enough about it.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Will let you all know how it goes....

[MarillionFan]

Try buying Kamagra online - they cost a pound each. You can sell them round the clubs for £10/£20 a go.

Of course you have to tolerate going into a club....

Pssssst. Over here mate. Want to buy some pills.

[BrilloPad]

Try buying Kamagra online - they cost a pound each. You can sell them round the clubs for £10/£20 a go.

Of course you have to tolerate going into a club....

[MarillionFan]

You can't just 'open' a pharmacy.

You need to apply for a license. The license can be used to cover a specific area for prescriptions. These are designed to ensure that there is coverage within a specific area. The for example a dispensary at a local surgery cannot provide/fulfill prescriptions for patients within specific areas that are covered by a pharmacy.

Then of course, once you have the license for a given area/population, then you need professionally trained staff etc etc.

I only know this from a discussion with the local pharmacy that opened a few months ago with the chap who had been a consultant opening and obtaining licenses for pharmacists(he deciced to do it himself. Now my local surgery will not dispense to us because of his license). It seems to work on a population/pharmacy ratio.

From someone else I know(who's brother in law owns a number of pharmacies) he reckons they are incredibly profitable at 80/90% and his BIL makes a bloody fortune. Personally having run different shops on the high street I'm not convinced.

Have you ever thought of Thai Tat?

[SueEllen]

If I were you - I'd look at the area where you are, Number of Doctors Surgeries you would be serving/catchement area etc.

Like I said - not wanting to rain on your idea - and with your other half already a Pharmacist - better placed than most to find out the info/viability etc.

Maybe partnerships with GP's in your area would be something to look at - (repeat prescriptions sent to your shop perhaps ....)

Virtually every doctors surgery I've been to has a pharmacy within 5 minutes walk whether it's a chain such as Lloyds, Boots or an independent. And if they haven't there is normally a good reason for it i.e. lack of retail space due to the surgery being in completely residential area, everyone in the area preferring to use the local branch of the chain pharmacy or the supermarket.

[seyre1972]

Supermarkets - starting to provide Pharmacy/prescriptions

Hi -

not wanting to rain on anybodies parade - but near where I live - Tesco / Sainsbury have embedded Chemist/Pharmacies in their stores.

We still have a Pharmacy on the Village High Street (which I prefer to use myself) - but I don't believe Supermarkets would take a punt on Licenses/Stock/Staff etc without doing the research to show it would be profitable.

A quick Google on "SuperMarket Pharmacies" returns quite a few articles.

If I were you - I'd look at the area where you are, Number of Doctors Surgeries you would be serving/catchement area etc.

Like I said - not wanting to rain on your idea - and with your other half already a Pharmacist - better placed than most to find out the info/viability etc.

Maybe partnerships with GP's in your area would be something to look at - (repeat prescriptions sent to your shop perhaps ....)




Regards,


seyre

seyre

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

I think he is using us as a sounding board to see if we can point out any issues or potential issues he hasn't already thought about.

Having people a distance removed raising issues means that you are likely to see questions and issues you haven't previously thought about.

One additional issue may be wholesale suppliers. Do you know who they are and what are their rules and requirements before they supply you.

cant see the harm in getting other people's views on issues. However much you know and have researched, others will always have other information and viewpoints. No point being arrogant in what you think you know...