i have wanted to set up a small company for a while now and i have a few ideas one being a body jewelery shop as there is no good shops in the wirral area for this type of thing.

also the other was selling alcohol via the internet or phone and delivering it to houses in the wirral area, but the question is would a alcohol licence be needed for this?

Yes you will need a licence for the retail sale of Alcohol, this will require you to take a course/exam.

I have a mate who is already running a 'dial a drink' company down there (funny enough I was talking to DD while I used one) anyway you do need a licence but it is quite easy to get,I could get details for you if you want but he is not going to welcome the competition mind??

You can't get a licience if you have a conviction for violence though,if you have then forget it (that said you can get another person to carry a licence for you) I never said that (wink wink)

The body jewellery idea, I can understand what you're saying about there not being anywhere decent, but to be honest with a family member in the piercing business, all types of jewellery can be bought from catalogues in most piercing studios, they arrive within a few days, and they come from worldwide.

The other thing is, the internet takes away all of the need for shop fronts, shop insurance, staff wages etc...if you have a source of good body jewellery perhaps you could set up an internet store, rather than one that you walk into, or a stall at markets, piercing/tatoo conventions etc.

but people wouldn't use the internet for body jewelery if they could get it from a shop cheap and dont have to wait and dont have to pay postage costs.

In Birkenhead there is:
Beyond (and there prices are sky high and never get anything different in)

Fluffykins (or something like that)
(now they are ok prices but again they have good good range of products in and its the same old stock all the time)

and people dont want to have to wait for delivery or go out the way of ordering from a catalogue.

and i am in contact with a company who can offer me good deals when buying in bulk.

My missus had a jewellery shop in Chester. She sold Pilgrim stuff and became their sole trader - they set up shop in Cheshire Oaks after she closed the shop. They made decent but unpredictable trade through the year, but they make a fortune on Valentines day and Christmas.
The best advice is do research - her shop was over £1000 per month and it was tiny, it was in a prime shopping area, but on one of the walkways that didn't have a lot of 'pedestrian access'. The worst thing you could do is pay rent on a shop that doesn't get people passing through.

Maybe they get the same bulk deals, hence the overload of stock.

Beyond have more catalogues than any other place I know and can get stuff in by the end of the week. I cant see body jewellery making money when you have to pay rent etc out for a shop, perhaps a stall in the newish Quiggins place, opposite the old Rapid, whatever it's called in Liverpool. There really isn't a market for the stuff in Birkenhead, perhaps Liverpool or Manchester, but by footfall of customers Birkenhead has more people who would go into Argos for a belly ring, than a proper shop.

What about doing the 'biz' course. Its for people planning to set up a new business?
Has anybody got any more info?

to set up selling body jewellery and to carry a big range it would tie up a massive amount of money. some stuff you can buy in will cost 30 pence, other items, odd plugs etc can cost best part of £20 EACH!! 10 sizes, 4 colours so there's £800. so you can easily carry in excess of £2000 of stock that may take a couple of years to sell, if it sells at all.

there are plenty of companies that will offer you bulk deals at a good price and if you are lucky the quality may be good, try to then place small orders and a lot of them wont want to know.

buy stock from asian companies and you run the risk of not getting what you ordered, have seen this happen many a time. i buy all my stock from two uk based companies as i know i will get what i ordered and 99 times out of 100 will arrive next day.

any advice you want feel free to ask, but the best advice i can give you is not to bother

I support quite a few business start ups and my advice is go for it, there is support available as Rudebox mentioned through Wirralbiz. I started my business 5 years ago and whilst tough at times is the best step I ever took. I now employ 12 people, which is the real reward.

http://www.wirralbiz.biz/site/

More Advice? Do your research, find out what competition is in the marketplace and see how they operate, wirral biz will help you to develop a business plan based on evidence rather than guesswork.

You will know whether its a goer within a few weeks, am sure there is also funding available to help you with setting up am sure Biz can advise on this also.

If you want some guidance on this am happy to give you an hour of my time.

K

Prince's Trust as well if you are under 30. Suppliers usually take back old stock if they're not sold, and you will have an account with them after a while so you pay when you sell.
West Kirby is also a good area.

There is little point in deciding to start a new business, unless you know there is a demand for your product/service. With your idea's ranging from selling alcohol through to selling jewellrey, it suggests to me that you have not really thought it through yet - you need to get some professional business advice, conduct a vast amount of market research to see what gaps in the market exist, that you have the means to exploit, and draw up an in-depth business plan, with solid founations and structure.

It will take time, maybe months, but it will be worth it, trust me, and I may sound harsh, I don't want to come across that way, but I don't want to see you start a business with no future, and risk losing it all, and wasting your hard work and effort 9 months down the line, because you have never been able to crack the market your entering.

I still have my own business, and have been running it for 8 years now, and I was seriously lucky, because when I started it, there was amassive gap in the UK market for the niche service I was able to provide at the time - and it helped that my start-up costs and overheads were very low, so there was very little risk attached to it. I also, luckily, just prior to the recession, launched a new budget "no-frills" service, and that has worked wonders revenue-wise, during the recession so there is money to be made, even now!
However, the market is now saturated, especially from a personal consumer point of view, and has been for 4 or 5 years, and I have had to adapt my market catchment, and now mainly concentrate on higher revenue corporate customers instead - which has improved things all-round, more money and less work. But I see people (rivals) starting up businesses selling the same thing, undercutting my pricing etc, thinkin people are only interested in price etc, and then I watch them struggle, and fall within a matter of months, because they have thought it was easy money, or it was an expanding market, or the big boys were too expensive etc, and they have not done adequate research prior to starting up, which would have saved them a lot of money, time and hassle!!

So go get some good advice, and above all, best of luck, as said above, these are tough times for many businesses and market sectors, but tough times, just as much as good times, provide plentiful opportunities for people to exploit - it just a question of doing your homework, getting it right and reaping the rewards in years to come!

A good way too make money is buy cars and bikes at bargain prices and sell them on thats what id do haha

And most of wiki to. But unfortunate Thers no money in cars anymore. There's to many in the game.