private members' club for families

[pippiLS]

So do you think £10 per week for access to a stylish child-friendly club (with tasteful soft play areas etc) is a big ask?

DH thinks it's too much and no none would pay it whereas I think £520 for annual membership of a place where people with babies/toddlers go and meet other mums/dads/nannies, have a decent coffee (maybe even a tasty, healthy lunch), relax in comfort and attend classes with their little ones is an OK price to pay.

Am I being unreasonable to be considering opening such a place as a business venture?

[chillychicken]

Plenty of people enjoy running their own business, I just don't, not at the moment anyway!

I take maybe 14 days holiday a year, I'm pretty much constantly on call, I earn half of what I would if I worked for someone else, I work long hours, I won't be able to take maternity leave and it's stressful. Basically, the buck stops with me and it's difficult to balance work/life nicely. I'm constantly thinking about work. Money, customers, suppliers, staff, legal cases (thankfully not many of those) and do you know what? People are bloody hard to please. It's actually a pretty thankless task.

Don't get me wrong, some days are great. Some customers are amazing, in fact the majority are, but it's the minority that stand out. Some days I stand back and I'm so, so proud of what I've achieved. Other days I go home, go straight to bed and cry myself to sleep.

[pippiLS]

Chilli that sounds tough. Ii guess as long as there are more of the feeling proud days than the other sort you just keep going. 14 days is a severe lack of holidays, is there no one to 'stand in' for you?

[Teeb]

It's highly unlikely there is anyone to 'stand in for' the boss in a business in its infancy op, not unless you can hire very well paid competent managers who you trust implicitly, and even then you don't want to leave it.

What would be the sort of salary you'd hope to achieve? 12k, 25k, 50?

[chillychicken]

No, there's no one who can cover me whilst I'm away. If I'm off work, we lose money and I come back to a backlog of paperwork.

I really don't want to put a damper on your plans but I'm trying to give you an idea of the reality. Some people are much luckier and will take 5/6 weeks holiday a year - I can't do that. Even when I am off, I still work. I bounce ideas around, I have the phones diverted through to me so my staff can continue to work interrupted, I answer emails, I work on my website. It never stops. It can't stop. If I stop working on the business, there will be no business and I can't do that. I'd lose my sole source of income so would lose my house & my employees would lose their jobs. It's a massive responsibility actually.

I thought it'd be great being your own boss and having no one to answer to but the reality is far removed from the dream. There is always someone to answer to as well, whether it's your accountant, Companies House, HMRC...

I really urge you to go into this with your eyes wide open. Don't do what I did. I'm lucky that my business is growing year on year but it's been really tough along the way and looking back I do wish I'd stayed in an office job, working 9-5 for someone else.

[chillychicken]

teeb is right and even 10 years down the line, I trust my staff but they do not have access to the accounts software or bank accounts. If I wanted to take on someone who could do that sort of thing, I'd have to pay them double what I pay myself. I just cannot afford to do that.

And of course, the first thing to happen when money is looking tight one month? You don't pay your own wages. Everyone else has to be paid first. That's if you even take a wage for the first few years.

[HeyLuciani]

Chillychicken is spot on. OP, there is so much to consider when you are running your own business. DH has his own company and whilst there are lots of benefits for us, it can be really tough.

He works long, long hours, usually including weekends. We are lucky to take enough holidays but it’s not without compromise. Even though DH has a business partner, he will be in phone contact frequently and will respond to all his work emails. I can’t remember us ever taking a holiday without working.

OP, If you don’t have huge funds to start a business and no business partner, it will be just you shouldering the responsibility in the first few years. Without funds it can also be difficult to grow and would take a while for the business to reach a decent level of income. There will be months when you can’t afford to pay yourself. And months when you don’t have enough to even pay the staff. (Our ‘home improvements’ savings went into the company to pay the wages a few months back, not got it all back yet!) Before going into any business with considerable overheads you need to consider where you will get the funds to plug the gaps in your cashflow. Eg Could you afford to pay £5k/10k in to the business at short notice and not get it back for a long while/ever?

Also in relation to cashflow, you need to consider the downtime in your business. In our industry, our clients wind down for about a month over Christmas. No invoicing done = not much money coming in a month later (which also happens to be the month for the VAT payment...it’s a constant juggle).

If you still really want to run a business, as you don't have any experience, maybe do a basic business course first? – learn a bit about bookkeeping, cashflow forecasts, marketing etc. And you really do need to get clued up on HR/Employment issues, H+S, tax, insurances and legal responsibilities if you want to employ staff and have a business which is open to the public. I also second suggestions to get some work experience in the field of business you want to work in.

Other thoughts.....the £5k fee you mentioned...DH is a member of fancy members club and pays less than £1k – for that there are plenty of work areas, lounges, bars, restaurant, free film screenings, exhibitions, talks etc. For £5k I’d expect all of that plus sports facilities, pool, spa, exclusive events...and more.

Good luck with whatever you do, but please don’t rush into any business without a lot more research and planning

[pluCaChange]

Is your teaching experience in primary or secondary? If the latter, I'm surprised it hasn't occurred to you to go into tutoring. No venue required, up front, just, presumably, a CRB check. You could later expand it into after-school care, with add-on tutoring for a few, while your staff member(s) wrangle(s) the others.

I'm aware this is a service, not a place or ambiance, but it's a clearly beneficial service, and doesn't tie you to money-sucking premises, staffing and maintenance.

[pippiLS]

Thanks for the idea pluCa but I've done some tutoring and it's not for me. It's not very rewarding as invariably the students/their parents usually have an agenda that you have to fit into.

[pluCaChange]

Never mind I"m sure there are plenty of people mining this thread for ideas, so it may appeal to someone.

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

"invariably the students/their parents usually have an agenda that you have to fit into."

In what way, OP?

[foslady]

Who's/when are you going to clean it?
Who's/and when going to get the pee/the food/drink out of the carpets/soft furnishings?
Who/ when are you going to keep on top of the fabric of the building?
What are you going to do with parents who want to chill and just read the papers whilst their dc's run amok unsupervised (esp with those lovely wooden missiles toys?
What about school holidays when there are the older siblings - twice as many siblings with no extra facilities?
It's fine if people respect your building, but not everyone will and the footfall you'll need will result (if it works) in high maintenance/replacement costs.

Surestart/stay and plays work because they have good supervision rates

[pippiLS]

Thedoctrine, nothing sinister, just in terms of needing that A in Physics so wanting to concentrate on past papers or the like.

[pippiLS]

A friend brought this company to my notice as having what she described as a 'watertight business plan'. I would be interested in hearing what all you business types think, I'm still deciding.

[LittleBearPad]

at parents wanting the tutor they've hired focussing on past papers having an agenda.

Would you set up a similar type business to the one you've linked to?

What would you make?

[Unexpected]

What is so "watertight" about that company? They are furniture makers, no?

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

Right back a

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

With this company, which is well funded and heavily advertised:

www.made.com

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

OP, the reason I asked what you meant by clients having an agenda is that I fear your past experience of schools hasn't really brought home "the customer is king/queen" message. Most of your posts have been about the space or business you want to create, rather than "I see this that and the other in our local market, but none of X, where X is really successful in towns A, B and C which are similar to BSE" etc.

Of course people pay a tutor to get them through exams, not to inspire them. If they wanted inspiration, they can watch Feynmann on YouTube for free. But the point is - anyone paying for a service has an agenda for that service. People paying for the Farmers' Club may have an agenda to socialise, or to use the business lounge fairly cheaply, or simply to get a parking space with one or two added extras. You have to fit to your customers' agendas, not vice versa, WHATEVER business you do.

I'd really recommend you work in some commercial operation before taking your plans further, whatever shape they end up being.

[pluCaChange]

They're not furniture makers. Note the mention of shipping containers: they design and market in the UK, but production would be elsewhere (China, as likely as not, although it's possible it could be somewhere like northern Poland).

pippi, admit it: you're advertising to us now!

[pluCaChange]

Concentrating on past papers sounds a sensible use of tutoring time. Surely it is only an "agenda" if the past papers are pushed when what is really needed is a thorough going-over the basics, or if a child is exposed to material which is otherwise ludicrously far from their level, e.g. expecting an uplift in exam results from bombarding a GCSE pupil with university-level lectures.

[pippiLS]

I wish pluCa!

With Swoon, they do all their selling up front and only order in when they've made the sales - pretty low risk I guess.

[pluCaChange]

They still have to make the models (properly costed), pay design and sales staff up front, maintain business premises, etc. Then they have to wait until their orders are filled (probably a 40ft container), before they can be paid back. It's not as big a risk as mass production, but there is a certain amount of up front cost.

[LittleBearPad]

But it will involve a significant investment in working capital though. The manufacturers etc will all have to be paid before the customer pays. Making a sale and receiving the cash for it are quite different things and whilst for furniture I wouldn't mind paying a deposit up front. I'm not sure I'd want to pay too much upfront when it isn't clear when the furniture will arrive from China or wherever.

[traininthedistance]

I'm late to this thread and haven't read it all, but I would be interested in joining something like this if there was one near to me. I can imagine that bit would work well in London or other similar SE cities (Cambridge, Oxford) where housing is expensive so many people have a reasonable amount of disposable income but not much space or garden at home. I find it difficult to get to local baby groups because of my working hours, and would love a members space where I felt at home/could meet the same bunch of other mums and kids/have a nice coffee and so on. If I had the spare disposable income and lived in London something like Maggie and Rose looks fab! I'd use it more often than I'd use a gym. I'd probably expect to pay 10/per week if you included free coffee and about 35-40 per month (cost of gym membership round here) if you didn't.

However, I can't imagine it being a way to make serious money for you or anyone else, for all the reasons people have given. I should think it would be a labour of love not a money-making exercise - partly repaying you in creating a community that you would enjoy. But I can't see it turning a huge profit, because a lot of the costs would be rent/property and labour/services. That's okay though, if you aren't motivated primarily by the idea of making a lot of cash.