BikeNut 0 Posted December 4, 2019 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
awc1000 93 Posted December 4, 2019 4 hours ago, BikeNut said: 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 welcome, i know a few bike dealers, they get by, but only by trading on the four fronts - new sales, used sales, servicing, and extras like clothing / helmets etc, guess it all adds up. decent used bikes are very hard to buy at trade money , retail margin is more like 15-20%. dont' know about new bikes, but presume selling new attracts decent used bikes in part exchange at the right money, which sounds like the hard bit. vat is the same as used cars - they come under the margin scheme, which is the difference between the buying and selling price, not added to the retail price, there is no allowance for prep costs - ie your profit margin was 1000 but you spent 300 on parts prep, you still pay vat on the full 1000, you can claim the vat back that came on the 300 though. been told selling clothing and helmets etc is quite profitable. can be quite seasonal too, unless you are servicing or selling new scooters. the few dealers i know have been around for years, i wouldn't say they have made a fortune, but they do always seem happy, unlike the car game at the moment. good luck. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FlorenceDude 0 Posted April 15, 2020 This is a very expensive business, how much capital do you have? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
delongtrevor 0 Posted April 15, 2020 (edited) I think this is a very cool idea that can bring a good profit. I wish I could afford something like this. Unfortunately, I don't have any savings to invest in something like this. But I can help you, I just know a great company at https://cheapmotorcycleshipping.com/about/ which is engaged in motorcycle transportation and also offer excellent prices for their services. I would trust them exclusively, as I have transported several of my motorcycles a couple of times and everything was done in the best conditions. If you are interested in this, you can contact me and we will discuss it in more detail Edited April 22, 2020 by delongtrevor Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
