Setting up a new business

[MtB]

I passed by the Oxfordshire Narrowboats hire base today. Not easy, for all the moored up hire boats.

 

OTOH they are fitting out a new shell obviously going to be yet another hire boat, and the business is run by a bloke who is no fool.

 

MtB

[Cruising Mike]

Nice feedback guys. Obviously it's not wise to get into something with rose tinted glasses on so it was essential to hear the bad side of it. There are other options besides hiring, such as a hotel boat or a personal shop sort of thing on board.

[bargemast]

Having the boats for your hire-fleet, or owning a hotel-boat doesn't automaticly give you the clients you need to make it work.

 

If you're new in the trade it may take several years before your business is known by the potential clients.

 

One possibility to make it work quicker would be to buy a well known, and still operating hotel-boat, complete with their bookings for your first season.

 

The better hotel-boats often have return bookings, happy clients of the previous years that come back to discover another stretch of the waterway system on the boat they are familiar and happy with.

 

I've owned a beautiful hotel-barge, but because of a great lack of money that was needed for publicity (no internet in those days) it was too hard to get clients, and I only just made enough to survive.

 

The clients I had loved the barge, and didn't understand why I wasn't booked more often, the people I sold the barge to, were more successful because of the publicity my ex-passengers made for me and my barge by talking about it with their friends, and friends of friends back home.

 

It all takes time, which I didn't have enough of, still I have no regrets, it was a good experience.

 

Best of luck,

 

Peter.

Edited March 31, 2015 by bargemast

[RichardH]

We have hired boats 3 times over the last four years. The first was from a " conventional " hire company with a fleet of boats and it was great. A very good week where all went as planed. It was our first hire ever and was what we expected it should be. It was obvious that the hire firm had all their ducks in a row a d knew what they were doing. I have heard the firm spoken about on here. The boat we hired was Juniper so if you know Juniper you will know the firm.

The next 2 boats that we rented were from what I think is fair to call them privateers. They were people that had two boats. One for their own use and one to rent out. The first of these was on the Llangollen and the other on the Lancaster. We had big problems with both of these boats and were forced to cut one holiday very short by one breakdown and greatly inconvenienced by the other although we did finish our holiday on that one.

Neither of the " privateers" seemed to have mechanical/ technical skills of their own and relied on other people to assist with our breakdowns. The costs of hiring from these two was slightly cheaper but not much. Maybe they were victims of their own success in that the boats were in demand and therefore not maintained to a good standard due to constant hiring and a lack of skill by the owners.

I think if you have the skills and are able to maintain your boat/fleet to a good standard then you have half a chance of doing well. If you don't have the skills then walk away and don't get involved.

The "privateers" are very damaging to the industry. They don't pay VAT, don't lease yards, don't have staff, probably aren't in trade bodies etc etc. This of course makes the weekly rental cheaper leading to cries of 'why can't the big boys match it'.

 

Your experience probably sums them up - they think it is an easy way to subsidise a boat but come quickly unstuck when the situation wobbles.

[Machpoint005]

If you want monkeys, pay in peanuts.

[PaulG]

Calculate your working capital carefully, including an allowance for the infrastructure that you need. e.g. waste disposal, bulk diesel storage and dispensing, etc.

In my experience everything costs a bit more than you expect it to.

Cash flow is very important and boat hire is a seasonal business - there will probably be a time of the year when there is little or no income but the bills will continue to arrive.

Make sure you pay the VAT man on time!

Cash is king. Most businesses go tits up when they run out of money, not necessarily because of lack of profit.

[Arthur Brown]

Work out how you are going to attract customers and get them signed up, that's what pays for everything.

[Semitrad]

Sadly all the good advice given in this thread is likely to be ignored if a "dream" is involved. Can the O.P, with no experience, run a startup business any better than the existing businesses? Why would customers go to him rather than another- first reason could be price, but that brings it's own problems.

 

I began our own repair business after redundancy and from the start were purposefully more expensive than other local competitors, but we gave our customers better service, fast turnaround and truthful answers, also even faster corrections to problems that arose.

[crispy]

We (Chas Hardern Boats) have been running a small family hire company for over 40yrs so have, as they say, been around the block until we are quite dizzy.

 

Advice for a newbie : make sure you are a practical person who can turn your hand to numerous mundane tasks. You need to be able to construct a quick and functional repair in the middle of nowhere at times.

The ability to dismantle a toilet to remove blockages being a good start -with a smile on your face!

 

Sunday evening 7.00p.m ,you are dressed and ready for a meal out with friends. A customer calls, the only toilet on the boat is blocked and full to the brim. Do you a) get back in your overalls and jolly off to sort it out for them hoping you will be offered a cup of tea. Tell them to run for the bushes and cross their legs till morning?

 

Ditto : a customer expected at 3.00p.m is late and will not be with you until 9.00pm. Of course you are there to greet them with a smile.

 

It is a life style and not a job. There are no set hours of work and you are available 24/7 when your boats are out.

 

Better fewer boats well turned out than loads looking tatty .

 

Your reputation will be earned through hard work & attention to detail and the customer rightly expects the things provided on the boat to work.

 

Whatever people say -and on this forum sometimes you would think hire company owners wear gold plated overalls it is not a job with huge financial rewards, especially at the family end of the business.

 

But all all it is a brilliant lifestyle and we love it.