- This topic has 23 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 20 years, 6 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Hi,
Being keen to be a part of this I filled in the application form before I realised details had been posted. Then repenting at liesure and reading the blurb I wondered if I would be, as a one man biz, considered sufficiently resourced to actually participate, it all came over as `big operation stuff`.
I would not be able to hold finished goods stock – maybe one on the van – and my home office would not be manned all the time. I am sure there are many such like me in the UKW forums. How and will you discriminate?
Laurence
Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
laurenceuk wrote:Hi,
Being keen to be a part of this I filled in the application form before I realised details had been posted. Then repenting at liesure and reading the blurb I wondered if I would be, as a one man biz, considered sufficiently resourced to actually participate, it all came over as `big operation stuff`.
I would not be able to hold finished goods stock – maybe one on the van – and my home office would not be manned all the time. I am sure there are many such like me in the UKW forums. How and will you discriminate?
Laurence
I also voiced my concerns about such matters to Ken and his reply has been very helpful. Laurence, I think the word you are looking for is accommodate, not discriminate. 😉Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
Exactly. We are not looking to discriminate at all, quite the opposite. We’re looking to include as many people as possible and alter traditional nethods to suit modern times and business practise, for the independents that is.
For example, we’re looking at various methods where you can retain your customer and not have the full cost of the sale on your business so that you can remain below the VAT threshhold. We’ve not quite worked it out fully yet, we’re still going over the figures etc., but it is possible to do this.
What you have to bear in mind here is that we are trying to help you guys, not hinder you or burden you as if we did that we’d be no better than what we’ve all seen before. That’s not what we want to be.
K.
Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
Level 2 is for One man operations.
Whether you hold stock or not is up to you and what response you wish to give to your customer.
We will be able to deliver to Main areas within 3 days and greenfield within 5 days.
So as a one man operation you can control what you sell and in turn what you service. If over a two year period you sell 50 appliances, they will generate service work for you, both in guarantee and extended warranty.
We can only deliver to yor pemises at the moment.Your resources are controlable by you. If you see the bigger picture here and decide to carve out considerable sales for yourself, you are in effect supplying your own work for 5 years. Will you continue to put your resources into lower paid work?
The whole project has been designed to create a level playing field for every business, and one man operations are the majority within the UK.
Gone are the days of unfair distribution of work due to old boys clubs. Our system allows you to participate at your own level, you’ll get out more than you put in but the ratio is the same for every business. It allows for multiple businesses within the same postcodes all selling and servicing to their own customers.
Hope that helps.
Kevin
Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
Very helpful indeed.
Thanks for the clarification and teasing that out.
Yes, `accommodate` is much the better word I should have used. 😕
Laurence
Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
kheath wrote:We will be able to deliver to Main areas within 3 days and greenfield within 5 days.
I think for the ‘one man operation’ it may be worth considering a stock holding of one machine? The reason I say that is very often a sale can only be finalised ‘on the spot’ or the moment you write an old machine off! (BER). Your customer being faced with a machine in her kitchen that doesn’t work will very likely go for the UKW machine as long as you hold one in stock ready for immediate delivery. Otherwise she is away to ‘the sheds’ as the “greenfield 5 day delivery” might kill the deal.
Speaking personally, I reckon if I can get 30day credit on a UKW washer to hold it in stock, I may easily be able to shift one every month!!!
(Thinks???….Mind you, I only have a fully stocked Astra Van so I have no room for a crated washing machine to deliver if I sell one….I guess I had better go to the expense of getting a trailer and trailer hook fitting for this idea to succeed 😕 )
Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
Martin wrote:
(Thinks???….Mind you, I only have a fully stocked Astra Van so I have no room for a crated washing machine to deliver if I sell one….I guess I had better go to the expense of getting a trailer and trailer hook fitting for this idea to succeed 😕 )
Or a roof rack.. 😆Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
iadom – I saw at the ukw meeting, that you like myself, had been working out in anticipation!!
Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
I did have a brisk walk early on Saturday morning, went to look at Bosworth Field, where the Lancashire Hotpot’s stuffed the Yorkshire Puddings. 🙂
I believe you know a couple of squash playing friends of mine from DS Supplies, Stoke.Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
Martin wrote:I think for the ‘one man operation’ it may be worth considering a stock holding of one machine? The reason I say that is very often a sale can only be finalised ‘on the spot’ or the moment you write an old machine off! (BER). Your customer being faced with a machine in her kitchen that doesn’t work will very likely go for the UKW machine as long as you hold one in stock ready for immediate delivery. Otherwise she is away to ‘the sheds’ as the “greenfield 5 day delivery” might kill the deal.
I agree, it reminds me of the several times I sold washing machines to customers whom I’d visited to look at a repair whilst on my way to deliver a new washing machine. Because I also had others in stock back at base, I was often able to sell the one I was on my way to deliver because I could “deliver” a new one immediately. My experience of selling washing machines showed me that if you haven’t got one in stock you are likely to lose the sale.
Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
OK, I’m trying to make sense of all this and to see the project through I have a number of concerns?
The first of which is that as the machine cannot be delivered DIRECT to my customer and the realisation that if that was indeed possible the delay in getting that delivery would scupper a deal in favour of the sheds. Which means, as I said before, I would have to maintain a stockholding (in my garage) of at least one machine.
Next problem is that in order to deliver that machine by myself to my customer I will need to invest in a trailer and towbar.
That’s my next problem?….Cost???????????
To get a decent trailer (not Halfords crap) will cost me £600 🙁 So how many machines will I need to shift to get back into the black on that deal I wonder?
Next concern is that for, my part at least, this deal had better be rock solid and up and running, long before I am willing to shell out on such and outlay. Unless of course the delivery to the customers door issue can be resolved by UKW? And as far as disposing of the old machine is concerned, then thats my customers problem and she will have to get the local council out to get rid of it ( locally thats just £10 anyway) so that’s not an issue. 🙂
Now the thing is that the majority of those likely to sell these machine are exactly in the same position as me (one man with one small van) so I am sure they, sooner than later, will draw up the same conclusions. 😕
Finally I am not sure of the breakdown on the costings here? The machine is £400 retail of which I pay UKW £320 ? ….not sure on that either 😕 And whatever the cost is per unit, are the terms strictly 28-30 days?
Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
IMHO if you aren’t geared up to sell big heavy washing machines, then it’s not really a good idea to try selling them unless you decide that’s where your future lies and then invest in it. I used to be an Authorised Hoover sales dealer and sold dozens a week but only because I had them in stock and could deliver the same day or the next.
I packed in selling washing machines when I spit up my partnership. I had to deliver them on my own and had nowhere to stock machines so after 18 months I decided it wasn’t worth it. You can sell, and beat the sheds. You can’t beat them on price or on interest free offers, but you can beat them by getting a washing machine to them immediately and “installing, testing and demonstrating it” as I used to say.
The best selling point of this project is that you can now also promise that if anything goes wrong, YOU can deal with it for them. I am sure if I could have offered that as well when I was a dealer, I would have sold twice as many. Plus, the under warranty work is a big bonus.
Whether it’s viable to sell washing machines from home, as a sole trader is debatable. Whatever extra money you can make wont count for much if you do your back in trying to deliver one on your own (unless you have proper equiptment)
Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
Martin, quite simply if you’re not geared for it then, you’re not geared for it. I have to assume from your comments that you don’t currently sell appliances, which is fine, but it’s new ground and we’re not forcing anyone to do anything. 😉
Direct to home delivery is HUGELY expensive. So much so that, currently, it’s just stupid to even think about it as you start talking at £50 a box. So we’d far rather pass that as an install fee from the site, if any are sold off here, to the Level 1 in that area and pay them that cash as opposed to some logistics company that probably wouldn’t do as good a job. Okay, so we lose the “every UK postcode” thing, but the point is that it’s better for us.
Payment terms are basically up front until such times as we have a trading cashflow as, quite simply, we have to stump up, up front as well. That said, we have already got plans to have regional depots where you can walk in, pick one up and deliver it. Kevin can tell you more on this.
K.
Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
Time for some plain talking.
We (ProjectX) company have a rather large bill to pay at the end of February 06, including Vat its £91,509 that pays for the first shipment in January.
I have in the last three days convinced out partners that we will shift these units in February, so have placed another delivery for February, which means in March I’ll have another £91,509 to shell out.So, just so you all understand the situation………
We (ProjectX) company don’t have the cash reserves to offer/allow you guys credit terms at all. So if you want to buy and stock one, fine. But you can’t use our credit to do it.
However there are opportunities (there always is!). For example, we are looking for regional stockists, a company who could store perhaps 10 appliances for us. We will fund the purchase of the appliances, the stockist will use the stock to “deliver, install, instruct and demonstrate” to customer who buy direct from the website, we of course will pay for the install @ £50.00 plus Vat. That improves the site service, the “regional” gains through the install work and by us allowing him to draw his own sales from our stock holding with him. Confused, I hope not. The advantage is, the “regional” can pay us as his payment clears, yes its credit terms buy only a matter of days.Interested?
The exact details are by face to face meeting only, if you are interested you need to tell us (admin@ukwhitegoods.co.uk). Be patient, we have a timetable of events, this is a little way down the list, but as it’s been brought up by Martin, ok.
We are open for business in every sense of the word, if you have a proposal, lets hear it!
Martin, Re read the level 1 and level 2 conditions. To be level 1 its generally expected that it will be a multi engineered business, you Martin are a level 2.
Therefore you can sell an appliance, with installation (remember its install, connection, demo and function check) as an extra, and the work will pass to the level 1, in your area. You still get the 5 year work as the selling agent, the level 1 gets well paid for the install, we do the administration and co ordination. If we then have a regional who stocks this can all be organised to “flow”. You have to believe in the “idea” we have put together, this is independents working for each other on an unprecedented scale, it comes back to unity/confidence/trust….it’s what UK Whitgoods is all about.Utopia?????
Reality, for me and many who will read this post.
Kevin
Ps, or look on ebay for a trailor and sack barrow, and a Charles Atlas work out book seeing as your a wee fella 😉
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.