BikeNut

Hello Fellas! I am considering selling up a large portion of goodwill in my current business in order to start a business in buying and selling motorcycles, and the odd car. I have a LTD company, and my plan is to continue to operate my new venture under my existing company. The reason why I am predominantly looking at selling motorcycles; is because not only am i a motorcyclist; and I love them, but I figure that I can sell more stock from a smaller space than I can with cars, with the same markup in sales revenue, and I wont need to apply for trade plates or motor-dealer insurances as I will collect and deliver the bikes in a van/trailer. My questions are. 1.) Is it worth registering for VAT from day 1 , I do plan to turn this into a sizeable bike dealership within 5 years. And is VAT chargeable on sales of used bikes? 2.) What is the best sort of stock to buy, is it better and more profitable for newer stock 1-3 years old, or would it be better profit to risk selling older, possibly more problematic bikes? 3.) Financing, how would i be able to set up financing as a dealer through someone like close brothers, or motonovo? 4.) Marketing, are there any website CRM systems that are off the shelf, and enable me to advertise and market my stock? 5) Markup, I have done some armchair research, and from what I can see it tends to sit around the 30% region depending on the desirability of the product at the time. Any ideas or suggestions to the contrary..? 6) Warranty & consumer rights.. I have no ideas on that Thank you for reading this, I await your feedback. Best Marc