Boat based business

[Grey Rose]

Im thinking of starting a little shop from my boat, selling essentials. Milk, bread, loo roll, tobacco etc.

1. How likely is something like this going to work and...

2. How do i go about business liscence, etc.

 

Any thoughts / ideas welcome.

Just imagin I know nothing but have a boat and can count.

[dor]

This subject has been discussed more than once - do a search of the forum.

 

Basically you need a commercial licence which is expensive.

[Timleech]

Im thinking of starting a little shop from my boat, selling essentials. Milk, bread, loo roll, tobacco etc.

1. How likely is something like this going to work and...

2. How do i go about business liscence, etc.

 

Look at

 

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/images/B...d_and_Wales.pdf

 

for a start

 

Tim

[anhar]

Im thinking of starting a little shop from my boat, selling essentials. Milk, bread, loo roll, tobacco etc.

1. How likely is something like this going to work and...

2. How do i go about business liscence, etc.

 

Any thoughts / ideas welcome.

Just imagin I know nothing but have a boat and can count.

Forget it. The costs and hassle of the legal and regulatory impositions for running a retail business from a boat are so high that you cannot make any profit on the minuscule turnover it would make. You will almost certainly lose money.

 

You did ask.

 

regards

Steve

[RichardH]

I assume you would be relying on passing trade from boats.

 

I nearly missed pulling up at Ivor Batchelors pair of 70ft working boats at Easter when I needed fuel and they are pretty difficult to miss - so the first thing in my mind to consider is 'how are people going to notice me and stop'

 

The second key issue is how are you going to order fresh produce and store it in quantities great enough to make any brass?

 

Most boaters plan their routes to stop at shops and stock up which could mean you are solely reliant on emergency passing trade

 

I'm no Alan Sugar but I would say forget it.

 

If you are in a honeypot location a tearoom with a few tables might be more successful with the walkers et al.

 

Which reminds me of the time I left the Moonraker floating tea rooms in Slaithewaite at a 45 degree angle due to not watching what I was doing with the lock !

[denboy]

my boat was built as a working tug when i went through all the paper work that was on the boat i found an old commercial lic from 1989 which cost £1300 no wonder he packed it in

[bottle]

Hi

 

Sorry another don't do it, as has been mentioned, commercial licence (even with discount because of low turnover) expensive, then public liability insurance ( I can see the insurance brokers rubbing their hands)

 

Stock availability/price/storage/sell by dates.

 

Put your money in a good savings account you will make more profit.

[WJM]

Cheer up you lot - Great Britain - former economic powerhouse of the world - what happened?

 

Four Ps - Product, Price, Promotion, Place.

 

Study Ice Cream and Burger Vans and copy their business model - seasonal, high margin impulse purchases - done properly your core idea is entirely workable - just needs tuning.

[carlt]

Cheer up you lot - Great Britain - former economic powerhouse of the world - what happened?

We stopped stealing other countries wealth. I blame the abolition of slavery.

[WJM]

"We stopped stealing other countries wealth"

 

Who said we ever stopped - now we just call it liberation from evil dictatorship (ouch!)

[carlt]

"We stopped stealing other countries wealth"

 

Who said we ever stopped - now we just call it liberation from evil dictatorship (ouch!)

OK, once upon a time we kept the lot for ourselves, now we wait to see what crumbs the yanks will chuck us.

[Grey Rose]

Thanks for the advise so far, getting the idea that most occasional boaters probably wouldn't need me and I would be wasteing my time with them.

Just thinking of the amount of times iv bin asked where the nearest shop is by holiday boaters.

I live on the canal and quite often my car has to be parked a good 5-10 min walk away.

Wouldn't it be cool if I knew that tomorrow the milk/bread/teabag (whatever) boat wud be round my way. If I had a regular circuit people wud begin to rely on me. maybe, possibly. Guess you'll have thoughts.

Cheers

[Noah]

Every couple of years I try to get over to France on my bike stopping at small, off-the-beaten-track farm campsites. I can’t carry much in the way of provisions and I’m always glad that someone always turns up at breakfast time, invariably in an old Citroen van, selling fresh croissants, newspapers and suchlike. Last year I got chatting to one such entrepreneur and he boasted that his weekly profit was equivalent to around 50 quid! He revealed that the secret of his “success” was diversification, which he demonstrated that day by providing a laundry service (his wife) and the use of his welder to repair a broken bracket on my panniers. In the evening his wife provided a taxi service when I was incapable of walking to my campsite.

There is always a demand for a friendly service that provides essentials or luxuries that would not otherwise be readily available, even though it may not be the route to great wealth.

 

Noah

[arlow11]

a little question,if i had a small butty or tender and traded from that would it make it cheaper if i also had a seperate boat for residential purpose ? also if i sold stuff on ebay or privately and its was collected from the boat would this be allowed? ie if i made knomes on the boat ansd sold them on ebay? (theoretical question im keeping my army of knomes)

[carlt]

a little question,if i had a small butty or tender and traded from that would it make it cheaper if i also had a seperate boat for residential purpose ? also if i sold stuff on ebay or privately and its was collected from the boat would this be allowed? ie if i made knomes on the boat ansd sold them on ebay? (theoretical question im keeping my army of knomes)

I guess what BW doesn't know won't hurt them. This is probably why they feel no pain.

Edited June 28, 2007 by carlt

[Hairyloon]

I don't think this is the first time that the general consensus of this forum is "It won't work, the licence would make it uneconomic".

 

Doesn't that tell you something?

 

It tells me something: either you're a bunch of miserable pessimists, or that the fees structure is fundamentally flawed. Or possibly both.

 

Now the first point may be true, but I doubt that there is anything anyone can do about it, and they probably shouldn't if they could.

 

The second point is certainly the main culpret, and I think it is something we shouldn't be prepared to put up with.

[drunkensailor]

Absolutely. BW have been told in no uncertain terms that they need to bring in more money, but they make it prohibitively expensive for a small business to start up. Well done.

[dor]

It tells me something: either you're a bunch of miserable pessimists, or that the fees structure is fundamentally flawed. Or possibly both.

 

Now the first point may be true, but I doubt that there is anything anyone can do about it, and they probably shouldn't if they could.

 

The second point is certainly the main culpret, and I think it is something we shouldn't be prepared to put up with.

 

 

It's not just the BW trading licence fee, it's the public liability insurance, commercial boat insurance (to cover your stock), the wastage due to carrying perishable foodstuffs. Also, if you are going to be following a regular route as suggested, then you will not be a CC so will need a mooring as well. And then what will your turnover be for the odds and ends that you sell?

 

I don't think this is to do with being a pessimist, just simple cashflow.

[WJM]

Oh you pessimists! - thats why you never see a Burger or Ice Cream Van anymore - NOT! Find out how they do it and apply the same model, they have all the same challenges and still make it work. And if BW are moving to a more commercial business model that opens the opportunity to negotiate reduced rates or a free start up period. Achievement is born out of thinking around the obstacles, not standing banging your head against them.

 

Vending 'Ye Olde Shakespearian Traditional English Canal Ice Cream' from your side hatch at Bancroft Basin to Japanese tourists for £3.50 a cone?

[Gary Peacock]

Don't laugh but I fancy doing a floating restaurant.

 

Decent food and party bookings etc not too many covers to keep it realistic and I think it might be just viable.

 

Just need a bit of finance to get it off the ground.

[NB Alnwick]

One of the real barriers to this sort of business is that most of us have become too greedy to live on the modest profits that a small enterprise like this is likely to produce.

 

We ran a village post office for ten years and the income from a six figure turnover worked out at substantially less than the national minimum wage - you can earn more by working for someone else and avoid all the hassle - sadly, that is why such businesses are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

 

Do it to provide a useful service, a little pocket money and an absorbing pastime by all means but don't hold any ambitions of earning a comfortable living . . .

[WJM]

"you can earn more by working for someone else"

 

If everyone took that approach there wouldn't be anyone to work for!

[NB Alnwick]

"you can earn more by working for someone else"

 

If everyone took that approach there wouldn't be anyone to work for!

 

As I said - many people expect a higher income and standard of living than can be earned by running a small local business.

 

That is why so many have disappeared - this includes village shops, blacksmiths, garages, post offices, pubs etc.

 

Anyone who thinks that it is important to keep these local businesses going for the benefit of the community should try running one!

 

It isn't much fun working seventy or more hours a week for a return of less than £2 an hour - and if you put the prices up - the customers are very quick to point out that goods and services can be obtained cheaper from the big conglomerates . . .

[Grey Rose]

Creating pocket money as you put it would be the idea. I'm a bit too lazy to try to get rich.

I'm afraid I'm not caught up in the making as much money as you can fever. I really just thought it would be fun and useful. I will look into it with licensing authorities etc.

Thanks for all your advice everyone. I'm ignoring most of it, but you knew that would happen.

 

xx

Edited July 4, 2007 by Grey Rose

[Machpoint005]

It is possible to make a very comfortable living running a small business, but you need the right product(s) or service(s) at the right price. I've been self-employed for 18 years.