top 3 small scale business

[tikyo123]

If I am to invest P500K, give me your top three small scale business and why?

[iraya]

a grocery store, a parlor and 5/6.

[tikyo123]

Thanks... iraya

Wag lang yun 5/6 at hindi legal yon...

Suggestions please....

[tazbivr]

tikyo first tell me what is your line of work? Never gett into anything you have no background in or are not fully familiar with.Butas na walang hangganan yun pre.

[tikyo123]

I'm into computer. I have a computer shop but I'm thinking of venturing to other businesses, I'm willing to study before I venture to it.

[Leigh]

Business for the Investment of P500,000 Just click on the link for some franchising opportunities.

Food is always good, like Potato Corner, or the Rice in a Box business.

Since you have computers already, am not that sure about the nature of your business now but have you ever thought of Network Gaming? You can just upgrade your computers and if you have a good location, the return of investment will be pretty fast.

[Mokkori]

I have to agree with Leigh... your location is gonna be the most important factor in the success of a network gaming business.

This may sound a little bad, but the most ideal places for network gaming are definitely near schools... give yourself a radius of at most one kilometer from locations such as highschools, universities, churches, malls, etc. Any farther is out of the question. Try to also consider how much competition you're gonna be having in that area... if the shops that are already there aren't making any money, then that area may not be condusive to such a shop.

Advertise yourself as well... The more people see you the better... which means you're gonna have to spend for a panaflex signboard or something similar which, depending on the size, can cost from anywhere between 10-20K. In short, do anything and everything short of dancing naked in the streets to get attention to your shop. The market for network gaming is still there... people just need to know that you're there to give em that!

Your computers are gonna be your second headache. (Yes... I do mean HEADACHE!) A fairly good system will range somewhere between 30-35K a pop. Then an average 16 port hub would come at about 8-9K while a high quality one can go for as high as 18-20K. Throw in about 10-15 bucks per meter of data cable, 15 bucks for each 8-pin connector... and about 3-4K for Windows. (each computer)

Which I will emphasize on by the way... I'll highly insist that you get a legit copy of Windows for EACH workstation. Of course you don't need that many Windows to run em all... heck you can run em all from just a copy but in doing so, you'd be taking one helluva risk with the authorities... Microsoft Phils. sends out people to check out network gaming shops to make sure that they're not pirating Windows, and though I don't know the exact legalities, I can say that the repurcussions of piracy is not worth the risk.

Another thing about the computers. If you're really on a tight budget, throw in good money for a good CPU, Videocard, you can skimp a bit on the RAM if you really have to since you can just slap on some more later on if you need to... but there really isn't any way to upgrade a CPU or a Videocard... you'll have to buy whole new ones when the time comes for it. On the average... the systems you get should last you at least 18 months and 24 months at most. Get at least a 17" monitor... go below that and your customers won't even give you a second thought.

Necessary games as of the moment are the latest versions of Counter Strike and Red Alert 2. Some still look for Star Craft though I'd say about only 1 in 10 customers do.

Another tip is to make sure that your staff is well equipped to handle technical problems when they come up. Nothing turns of customers more than computers that keep on hanging and not having someone attend to them right away.

I'll say that computers will hang eventually if not often, no matter what you may do. But I think that keeping the customers happy by giving away free minutes when the PCs fail is a good way to keep in their good faiths.

In the long run... to turn in a relatively good profit, I think that an occupancy ratio of at least 75% is necessary... it shouldn't go any lower than 60% though... depending on your rent and your power consumption, you may be losing money at that rate so be carefull.

[Krakista]

Mokkori: What are the probabilities that a rival gaming shop be put up very near your shop? Are there ways to block or discourage these gaya-gaya businesses from getting a slice of your market?

[Mokkori]

Krakista

As far as I can tell, there's no real way to keep other people from openning a network gaming shop similar to yours. When the market is there, you'll always have competition.

Other shops may not necessarily be bad for you. I think that the best way to deal with this is to make sure that your competency level matches or exeeds that of your competition... make sure your computers are in good working order, have a friendly and capable staff, have competitive prices... other minor factors that may count are ambience, overall comfort... oh... and just recently, there seems to be this issue that popped up in my area about the "smell" of the shop... apparently there were a couple of shops near my joint that let some really smelly food in their place... now customers don't even go in because of it...

On another thought... having competition in the same area can also be good in that if there are a good number of network gaming shops in an area and an equally good market to support it, then your area may be frequented more often by a larger market since your area may be considered as network gaming central! Having a whole lot of players around and having the really good ones in your shop helps attract customers.

[lupuS]

I was going to recommend you buy a Japanese sedan and operate your own taxi (self-driven). I just realized that an entry-level Toyota Corolla now costs P530,000 and fuel is almost P20 a liter. So this business is now unprofitable at prevailing fare tariffs.

[ducksoup]

There's a thread like this somewhere here. Didn't that thread win an award for something here in PeX?

Anyway, if I remember correctly, one suggestion given in that thread was a barber shop.

I remeber that the person who posted this suggestion gave supporting figures that showed how financially rewarding this sort of business is.

I suggest that you look for this thread. It just might help you out.

[JohnDiaz]

Originally posted by ducksoup
There's a thread like this somewhere here. Didn't that thread win an award for something here in PeX?

Anyway, if I remember correctly, one suggestion given in that thread was a barber shop.

I remeber that the person who posted this suggestion gave supporting figures that showed how financially rewarding this sort of business is.

I suggest that you look for this thread. It just might help you out.

I think it's the 1m business.

[Leigh]

Ducksoup, this is the thread that you are referring to : Starting a business with one million pesos