Welcome to the DAD.Info forum: Important Information – open to read:
Our forum aims to provide support and guidance where it can, however we may not always have the answer. The forum is not moderated 24 hours a day, so If you – or someone you know – are being harmed or in immediate danger of being harmed, call the police on 999.
Alternatively, if you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123.
If you are worried about you or someone you know is at risk of harm, please click here: How we can help
Hi Folks
My full time job contract with my employer ended recently and now I am out of work. I am in my mid forties, so finding it a bit difficult to get a job. I am now thinking of starting up my own business.
Can someone tell me if there is any free business advice/mentoring available from any organisations for people in my age group? I would need advice from the very bottom i.e. deciding on what type of business to start up, and the way to start it up etc.
By the way, I did contact my local business of chamber of commerce regarding this, and was told to look on line !!
Thanks in advance for your responses.
Hi,
My advice would be unless you are going to start up a business that you know a lot about then don't start one, it isn't easy and most start up businesses fail within the first 12 months of trade.
I know you spoke before about a chip shop, this wouldn't be too bad, but again if you don't know anything about the business it self then be very careful or you could lose a lot of money trying to make it profitable.
If you were going to go ahead, then I would look at something that doesn't take a lot of outlay to start and also something that doesn't cost too much in expendature, something you could do from home maybe so that you don't have the cost of runing business premices as that is where most of your money will go, that and staff so if you can work from home with just yourself going out too customers then that would be the best. A lot of companies are now trading on line only to sale goods through ebay and similar sites so that could be something to look into, maybe import some stock that you think will sell and start listing the items, you can package them at home then so wouldn't need to outlay any money up front except for stock and pacaging, you will have to be organised though with getting things shipped.
Maybe if this is something you would consider, then go out and find some things that you think would sell from the high st or costco buy small amounts and see how it goes, if they sell well you could then look at importing higher numbers at lower costs and start to make money.
I don't know if there is any online advice about starting a business though.
GTTS
Thanks GTTS
If you google, Prince's Trust Business Plan Templates, there may be some information which may be of help to you.
Welcome to the DAD.info forum.
We don’t like to set ‘rules’, but to make sure that you and the other dads are kept safe, we have some requests. When engaging with the forum, please be aware of the following:
- The forum is not moderated 24 hours per day.
- Many of the moderators do so on a voluntary basis. Whilst they may be able to provide some guidance, advice or support, they may not be able to deal with specifics.
- We are not an emergency crisis service so if you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call emergency services.
- If you are concerned about the safety of a child, please click here to find the support you can get for them (link to new page)
- If you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123. They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
We hope you find this forum a supportive environment and thank you for joining us.