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| Subject: There's more than 1 way to start a business | |
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Author: Dennis S. Vogel |
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Date Posted: 22:58:11 10/06/06 Fri In reply to: Baby Driver 's message, "Re: How do I start a Valet Service (parking)?" on 14:57:46 10/06/06 Fri Thank you to adding to this thread. Some of what I advise you to do is adapt what I wrote to Sims about a music-oriented business. But before you go too far, I’m trying a reality check. I’m not insulting you, I want you to do your due diligence. How do you KNOW those businesses have more potential? Even if the population in the city is the same or larger than in the past (when the businesses started or may’ve been more successful), the demographics & situation could be a different. If the businesses are less successful now, there are reasons & those reasons may not have anything to do with parking space. The business owners may not know what happened, because they didn’t do their due diligence. Or if they realize what happened, they may not admit it—even to themselves. Is the crime rate higher? If so, is the prevalent crime aimed at people or property? Can your business realistically reduce this without making you liable if it doesn’t lower crime? Example- If a valet (with a cell phone & camera) is watching vehicles; criminals may avoid trying to steal those vehicles, but guaranteeing it would be expensive. Is the population’s median income (& purchasing power of that income) high enough? Is there adequate mass transportation? If so, maybe the problem isn’t lack of parking space. How many customers would these businesses get per customer vehicle? On average, would 1 person or 5 use each vehicle? If, on average, 5 customers would come in each vehicle, a restaurant or theater could be filled without a large parking area. A special night for a single’s group could max out the parking. Would these businesses appeal to couples or families? Of course, it could depend on the movie & the night. Could you have a successful business if the demand for it was only on Fridays & Saturdays? Are these businesses close to each other? Would customers eat a meal, then watch a movie or vice versa? If so, parking spots may be occupied for 3 hours & the walk, from available spots, could be longer than 10 blocks. If a store, place of worship, employer, etc. with a sizable parking lot doesn’t stay open at night, its lot may be available. Vans or a bus could be used to transport customers from the lot to the restaurant or theater. But then, would valets be necessary? Could movie tickets be sold at the parking lot to avoid having every customer wait in line by the theater? A store owner may let you use/lease a parking lot if the store isn’t liable for injury or damage & the store can get more income (from you) this way. But maybe the store isn’t open at night because outside lighting is too expensive? A dark lot isn’t suitable for a parking business. Or maybe the area is prone to thick fog at night. Maybe the combination of valet parking, plus store traffic would be enough to pay for lighting. But who would take the risk of investing in the lighting before the demand is known? Even in mid-summer, there may not be enough sunlight after 9:00 PM to start your business (to get enough money to buy the lighting before winter). You may not be able to afford to start a business before you know how much demand there is. You may be able to set up a test by getting a charitable group (with good, mature drivers) to do a valet-parking fund-raiser. But even if it’s very successful as a fund-raiser, it could fail as a business since valet-parking patrons may want to help the group raise funds. But these same people may not return without that inducement. You could use a survey to test which patrons would use a professional valet service, but the results may be skewed because what people think, & say they’d do, can be much different when it’s time to pay for something on a regular basis. Plus, a charity can do things for donations more cheaply than a business can do, seemingly, the same things. Businesses have significantly higher expenses & liabilities. People may overlook a minor problem done by a charity, but press the same issue if it’s done by a business. If a group gets a $10 donation, it could cost you more than that per customer to run your parking business. Prospective customers may refuse to pay you enough to be in business, especially if the charity did it for less than you could. If you test this way, you should make it clear the charitable group is helping you test this, otherwise it’ll seem like you set up your business & pushed the group out. If you start your business, the group could switch to cleaning your customers’ vehicles for donations. By setting up a test like this, you may be able to work without cooperation from the other businesses. But if you sell movie tickets, the theater owner may require you to post a disclaimer to inform people YOU, not the theater are liable for injury & property damage & loss. Plus, you may be required to formally, in a contract, indemnify the theater. Dennis S. Vogel thrivingbusiness@email.com Are you waiting results from your marketing investment? Why? Your target market isn't waiting for you; they're getting benefits from somebody else. You should at least be learning while you wait. Here's free information to help you get results sooner. http://web1.lakefield.net/~thrivingbusiness/ [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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