I believe I have identified a large niche in the food market. Food market is great, from a business perspective. There will ALWAYS be demand for it, everyone has to eat right? I really don't want to give too much away here, but I'm looking for a UK investor(s) too work with, 30% equity (ONO). I'm not sure on numbers yet, but it will be over 150.000 GBP I look forward to your responses
I'm afraid I can't just "PM you my business plan" I can't let this gap go as easy as that, and to the work I've put in. I'm just using this forum to build a relationship with someone and then take it to the next step. This isn't a "e-business" or something which can be ran through the internet, its for a real market, not suggesting that E-markets aren't real, but you know what I mean.
Basically, it'll be for starting the business up. Depending on how much I/We can get from a loan, it may be used for the premises, staff, equipment of the first 6 months. It all depends, since there is no solid business plan, and haven't got a quote for a loan its all sketchy, but I believe it has the ability to be a booming business!
Don't share your ideas to public forum. Try to approach them via email or instant messenger. I understand that they want the details of your business plan but make it private for your own sake.
1. How can you expect someone to invest £150,000 ($300,000) when you haven't bothered to write a business plan? 2. You need to look into NDAs if you want to tell people your idea, but still keep it confidential. 3. You're being far too vague, this doesn't sound like something 99.99% of the people here can replicate tomorrow, so giving away a few more details to what exactly your intentions are wouldn't be a bad thing. 4. You're probably pissing up the wrong wall, for £XXX,XXX amounts, you're best looking for a business angel. They deal with startups. You can find business angels anywhere, they're also a regular feature at business trade shows, there's always a few in London so get going to some. 5. (This probably isn't much of a concern) but with the rising food prices, this may be a big threat to your business, particularly as the developing nations (China, India, Thailand) have stopped exporting basics like rice to feed their local populations. I'm not sure if this is a problem but something to consider.
I really appreciate your post, and I understand fully what you are saying. But I wasn't using this forum to get a investor, I was using it to see if there was interest to build a relationship with to then take it further and to be an investor. I will indefinably be using some sort of NDA, but at this stage it isn't really a necessary. I will at some point travel, and go to business trade shows, I'm relatively new to the business world, with general knowledge, but i'm able to identify niche's with in markets pretty well. I just hope that the fact I'm 17 doesn't put these investors off, Thats why I'm going to do alot of research till I'm 18 and have a firm idea of the market and whats needed, and then my age wont be a concern to any potential investors.
I'm 19 and from experience, it would be much easier to secure funds and be taken seriously if you were 10 years older. May I ask, when you start up, do you need a premises? Do you need a lot of staff? Do you need to purchase a lot of equipment? Do everything on a shoestring to prove that people will get a good ROI to offset the risks on dealing with someone so young. If you can secure £10k or so from your family to purchase the bare necessities, run the business for a few months, use your acumen to complete all the required financial documents (ledgers, P&L, accounts ect), prove you know your stuff, combine this with an extremely well written and thought out business plan (which will also explain how to plan to scale the business), and you can use this as leverage when dealing with angels and possibly banks.
You will get 0 serious investors...just "having your research done" doesn't qualify as a valid reason for people to pool $300,000 for you. You have no experience in the niche, no business plan, no previous history of startups and businesses owned, no undergraduate education, etc. I know I'm coming off as an ass, but you need a reality check. No one is going to loan you that money for a food startup, especially not in these hard times.
Yeah, alright. Well I have a long summer ahead of me which will give me the time. And due to my age, I may share it with a friend alot older, or someone in my family, like my Dad, who I can trust to have it in his name, so to speak. I'm sorry for not making it clear, I didn't mean that I'd use the phrase "having my research done" to persuade investors, but its what I'll do, just didn't want to list everything. I appreciate the criticisms though, and will indefinably take it on board. But yeah may not be the right time to jump in to things, "do my research" and what not, and make me stand out from the others.
Man at 17 you're going to need to do a lot more then research to get an investor/s to pool together the money you're looking for lol... Also how you plan on running the business at 17, you mention money would be used for premises, staff and everything like that but I don't see how you're going to manage that at 17 lol. Good luck with your idea though maybe someday in the future once you have a clearer idea on the actual business model then you'll have more success. Also like someone else mentioned above start smaller and work from there. If you start small and have good profit margins then you'll have proof your business is profitable and then an investor may come along for the ride. Until you give it a shot there is nothing to say your business plan is going to succeed, and most investors don't like too much risk when there money is involved. -Scott
Yeah, I understand, thats why I'm not going to rush in to things, wait till I'm at a reasonable age, and in the mean time look in to it more, and sort out a business model for the future. I may use a small stall in town, and test run my idea, see how successful it is, and if I get decent figures it'll persuade any investor(s) even more.
Provide more details please. I would like to know were my money will go and the security behind the money.
Spot on, and best advice you're going to get toots. If you do not invest time and effort, why would someone invest cash?