- How Many Thousands of Dollars does it cost to start a used car lot? Answer: Zero
- How Many Thousand Dollars Do You Need To Raise To Start A Huge Used Furniture Store? Answer: Zero
- How Many Thousand Dollars Do You Need To Start A Thrift Store? Answer: Zero
These are just examples but they will get you think. Every one of these have been done successfully. In fact all of them have been done and expanded from a one city start to a chain, all with an essentially no money start up.
Every one of these a few hundred dollars would come in handy but you can even get around that....which is another article.
The get a location, We say most businesses today you do not need a location but for these you do.......
How you do this, is
you find a large shopping mall or some huge lot *for the car business) that has been empty for a long time and you explain what your doing and you offer a going business that will almost certainly generate them some income on
a per centage basis.
Their property is generating no income now and you will get them some, and you agree to move on thirty days notice if they get a "live" tenant that will pay their regular rent. The property stays listed with all real estate people that find locations for lookers.
That's the huge empty super market or
empty corner of a parking lot etc concept,
is you do it on a per centage, you do good they do good. I have rented huge great stores for NOTHING. Mine was seasonal
and I paid them a per centage at end of season. They loved me because my business drew a lot of traffic to their dying mall. Nothing worse then an empty key store in a dying mall.
They would have
been wise to have filled it even if they had to pay someone to be there to draw traffic to their surrounding stores. You do know that in most malls the huge drawing traffic stores pay almost nothing compared to the little surrounding stores who live off the traffic pay. But when the key store leaves the mall is DEAD. or dying....
Part of your pitch....you will draw traffic and make the place look booming instead of like mall death warmed over.
Now maybe you are getting the idea on how you get a location for nothing.
You might event get them to kick in to help you get signing etc. (Another subject)
This is to their advantage to get that place humming and still be able to rent it if a biggee comes along... You help them get at least some incomes to pay the taxes and insurance etc and you Save their often desperate situation, so they don't get a trend going and all the stores move out of their mall etc.
You are not there asking for a favor, in renting you the location....you are there to help them out with their problem.
Are you getting on to how to do this yet?
There are book companies that buy out stocks from publishers of books left over.
These are called "remainders". They even have Remainder conventions or annual shows you go to buy remainders. Some people have gone in the Local remainder business with no money.
They went to three or four remainder book wholesalers and said I want to run sales in various cities for six weeks each city. I will need thousands of books, on loan, pay you for what I sell.
Then they went to local empty store owners in their prospective cities, rented an empty store on a small per centage agreement and brought in truck loads of books of all kinds. Their expense....shipping them in and how to do that cheap is another story....ask me....if don't get around to writing it.
They sold big name books $3 to $5 that sold for $25. Had kids books everything..
many of these going on right now...you may find one in your city. Sale of books paid for their employees etc. All costs there after came from sale of books they didn't own.
When sales dropped off they shut down.
as long as they kept going they stayed.
Some never did shut down and I know of one in Arizona going for years that started this way and kept going to this day is still operating.
My Christmas business, I became well enough known with people in the business (wholesalers) that the big department stores got 30 day credit from them. shipped in September or October and got paid 30 days later.
Most gave me unbelievable terms, I had good credit and offered to take all inventory in July, on the basis I did not have to pay for it until January. They did this cause their staff was doing nothing in July and were swamped all at the same time. Ship for all my stores on idle time and not have to pay for it until much later.
Sure I sold very little in July but I sold enough to use the entire income to pay my employees getting merchandise ready.
So you can often get merchandise, no out of pocket if you know how to "buy".
Another story...keep promising to write that.
Now the car lot..... operating for years, the one I know about...
He takes cars on consignment. You park it his lot...which is unmanned. You put all information on one of his forms in the window. People in the market for a car come to this lot to look over cars for sale by owner. He gets a small amount for parking the car.. and signing you up etc.
You have to be there the hours he is *very limited. and then he gets a percentage when you sell it. etc...not sure of the details but however he does it works. You can pay him a few bucks I understand and last i knew he would tell you how to do it...to the last detail.
Now the furniture store. Gal started one here, no money got up to six stores.
For example, i have several furnished homes that I am quitting renting furnished.
How do i get rid of furniture.? Run ads etc. I will be weeks doing nothing but showing mattresses etc. If there is a consignment store I just take the whole thing to them, say sell it and pay me a percentage.
A lot of people take it to Goodwill cause there is no option to get something out of it..
You set up in a huge store and sell it just like a regular furniture store, only thing is yours is used. You can take in furniture etc from motels, remodeling etc. if you have the room....and you have the room by renting a huge empty super market for nothing...but a percentage....of your sales.
Enough of that.... I am not writing a book on how to do it ....i am stirring up your ideas of possablity thinking.
Reverend Schuller went to Ca. To start a church, no money. Used this idea..
Was going to use an empty store and give the landlord a percentage of his Sunday offerings. Thinking over the possibilities, he found a drive in theater that would let him use it Sundays for a small per centage and the rest is history. People came to church, stayed in their cars, and he spoke from the roof of the drive in Theater concession stand, through their car window speakers.
That's "possibility thinking he called it.
Will write the how to start a thrift store on another article another time...
