Cathedral Automotive 2 Posted March 25, 2017 Evening all, My name is Simon and I am 34yrs old, worked mainly in sales roles up until 12 years ago when I joined the public sector. Passion for all things petrol has seen me trade my way through 40+ cars of my own often making a tidy sum as I work my way up. I love the process from beginning to end and have found myself looking for an out from my current job. I currently have the benefit of working shifts with long blocks of days off, often in the week when my wife is at work and my daughter is at school. I have decided to use this time wisely and with a recent offer of some early inheritance from my mother, am going to setup a small unit selling cars. I intend to work this on an appointment basis with my website being my forecourt, plenty of flexibility with shifts and days off for meeting prospective clients, buying stock, cleaning, preparing etc. I hope to build this slowly over a number of years, no income to be taken from the business in the first 2 years, everything reinvested. Have a unit lined up, 5mins outside the city in rolling countryside plenty of flexibility on lease and enough room to get us started with option on a bigger unit on site if we need it. Got a few busy weeks ahead prepping unit, painting etc. but I have a vision of how I want it to look and will work hard to pull it together. Looking to stock 4-6 cars between £6k-£12k, have spoken with warranty company WMS, made contact with Close Brothers for finance and assistance with gaining FCA compliance, driveaway insurance scheme being setup with Lloyd Latchford and bank account in the process of being opened. Intending to do this the right way, it's a long term plan for me and although the initial months/years are going to be hard work, that will hopefully all change when I am able to make the transition and leave my full time employment. I have fantastic support from my family who are happy to muck in if/when required. There is a wealth of information on here which has already helped me no end and no doubt I will come up with questions along the way. The biggest thing I am considering at present is the best avenue of advertising with good arguements for and against AT. Although with their lowest 'tariff' at £500 a month I am struggling to justify that at present. Just wanted to initially say hi and introduce myself. Any observations on the above are welcome, appreciate I might be classed a 'part time' Trader but fully intend to put 100% into this venture and make it a success for my family. Simon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cathedral Automotive 2 Posted March 25, 2017 Thanks Tradex, I certainly hope to and a lot of the people/companies I have been touch with and have been through recommendation or positive feedback on here. I have just found out that AT do as PAYG for the trade which could suit me in the initial stages. I just need to understand how it presents to the customer when they are looking through the listings i.e does it look like any other trade advert? Thanks for your welcome. Si Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
justina3 518 Posted March 25, 2017 Welcome along, with the value of cars your looking at i would say at sadly is the way forward, also i would look at other options regarding warranties plenty of threads to read through on here and make an informed choice. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cathedral Automotive 2 Posted March 25, 2017 Hi justina3 Tjanks for your post, I had a look through some warranty posts but my biggest problem was a lot of them were looking for numbers, in the early days I don't anticipate doing 10+ a month. It felt, through conversations with some of them, that the minute I only put through 3 or 4, that they would be on the phone and chasing me for more. WMS were quite the opposite and understood I was starting out and it would be a 'slow burner' with hopefully bigger numbers in the future. I am happy to take any other advice on others that could be worth speaking too or that might be able to help given my model that I will be working too? Thanks again Simon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
justina3 518 Posted March 25, 2017 Self warranty is the way forward in my view each to there own really does depend on what you sell value how much you pull out of them on average so many variable factors but for me doing it myself wins hands down. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andymc1973 199 Posted March 25, 2017 stick 100 quid in the pot after each sale 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
It's me 613 Posted March 25, 2017 hi are you specialising? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cathedral Automotive 2 Posted March 27, 2017 Not planning to be too 'niche' to start with but perhaps later on we will. Anyone have any experience of AT pay as you go adverts? Simon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cathedral Automotive 2 Posted March 27, 2017 Yeah I think I worked it out to be 8-10, on that basis in the early days I think PAYG for me will work hopefully things will go well and an account will make more financial sense. in terms of the spot trade ads, to Joe Public do they look like a normal trade advert or will it look like a private ad? Simon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
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