Although I have a dedicated workshop at home (a converted bedroom) family issues etc are meaning it is driving me mad being at home all the time. It also causes issues with security.
I also have a few other business ideas in the pipe line (nothing to with IT) and also going to brush up on my web development skills and start offering B2B websites.
Training is also an other area and I am moving my business towards. At the end of the year I really hope the repair market is only 60% of what I do instead of 80%.
Anyway I have signed up for a new workshop, it is self contained but I cannot 'retail' from it as such. E.g I can have customers coming and going but it cannot function as a shop. It has to be really by appointment only which suits me well as I won't be there all the time anyway.
Its 4.5 miles from my house in another part of the city, but its only 15-22 minutes drive depending on the traffic and is just 3 minutes drive from my supplier.
It is in a big business park with lots of other businesses there so I hope that will be a bonus. I mentioned the place before on here, it isn't a nice part of Manchester but it has 24/7 security with locked gates, I drove in the night before I signed the lease at 7:30pm and a man instantly came out to ask what I was doing so I am happy it is secure. I will also wire up IP CCTV so I can monitor it from home. It is alarmed too. It is more secure than the bedroom I am operating from and it will stop my mother moaning about somebody having to be in the house all the time.
. I just hope the feeling of going to work and being at a place with a load of other businesses will also motivate me, something which I have been lacking so much lately.
I will post pictures when I get the keys on Monday . I am quite excited about it. I have a budget of £150 do it up, cheap paint, cheap carpet and a few new desks. I am a member of a builders cash and carry so I can get all the wood cheap. So all next week I plan to kit it out and hopefully I will be ready to trade from there at the end of this month
I have had this business park in my mind for a while but the distance kept putting me off, then family events over the past two weeks left me wanting to move home and find a flat. I quickly realised if I moved out I would still need to keep the workshop at home as I cannot operate from a bedsit/1 bed flat. The idea of an office worked out so so much cheaper and I can stay there all day. Only coming home in the evenings and at weekends I am usually out till the early hours anyway .
I have driven from the new office from the parts of Manchester where I work, and it is all 15-25 minute drive away .
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Sounds ideal. I hope it works out ok for you.
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I should point out I already have lots of cat cabling, Ethernet sockets, the computer equipment, printers, tools, chairs, monitors - the lot.
The £150 is simply to build two desks and paint it, so £150 will easily cover it.
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>>>family events over the past two weeks left me wanting to move home <<<
Is ithe unit big enough for a bed? Whilst you may not be allowed to live there, a casting couch for your home spun porno movies could give you new opportunities:)
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The idea has crossed my mind but the long term idea is to make enough from new business ideas to afford to move out anyway, if I have a business separated from my parents house I have no reason to stay at home. I think if they did catch my sleeping there I may find out to see my tenancy is terminated :p. My unit is right next to reception too, so they might wonder how I can be so busy to need to work all night.
I also have a base in Anglesey in the form of a Vango if things get really bad :D.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Fri 8 Jun 12 at 14:27
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Well done Rattle for having the gumption to give it a go.
Hope it is the start of bigger and better things in all aspects of your life.
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Good luck sunshine, I hope it all works out for you - fortune favours the brave.
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Yes best of luck. As you realise you will be better off getting out of the fixing PC market if you can. Offering services (like training) should bring in better income. As will some of your other ideas.
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4.5miles = 15minutes cycle away.
Save £ and get fit.
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.......or get knocked off your bike and lose £££ while unable to work thru' injury.
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Yes and in the part of Manchester it is in, you don't want to be carrying laptops while on a bike. It will be a difficult explain to the customer that was mugged while cycling to work and carrying your computer!
I do have a bicycle but its strictly for leisure purposes only. I may sometimes occasionally get the bus if I don't have any call outs and I have a lot of PCs there to work on and I also have a ticket. Am slightly worried it will increase my mileage by about 30-50 miles a week and my car will be on 10,000 miles by the end of the summer. By 20,000 the bills start coming in for new pads and rubber etc.
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>> Am slightly worried it will increase my mileage by about 30-50 miles a week and my car
>> will be on 10,000 miles by the end of the summer. By 20,000 the bills
>> start coming in for new pads and rubber etc.
>>
Rattle, I love your ability to always look forward to problems that may /may not happen. Cars need consumables, its a fact of life! Forget about the Panda - its a tool to help you achieve your objectives, and if it needs a bit of TLC along the way, then so be it. In 12 months time you will be earning so much that a few pads and a couple of tyres will be the least of your worries!
Good luck, I think you've made the right decision, and don't forget all the help that you may be able to get from some of the agencies supporting small / start up business's - In the current climate there may be more help than usual
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>>4.5miles = 15minutes cycle away.
You need to be fit to average 18MPH around Manchester. I used to average 14MPH cycling to work around my sleepy town. I notice it's down to 11MPH since I retired.
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Good luck Rats, glad to see your making progress, let us knows when you make the first million :-)
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Let me know when you're on the Island and you can use facilities here - buy you a beer !
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>> Let me know when you're on the Island and you can use facilities here >>
Rattle - be afraid; be very, very, afraid!!
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Last time I was out that way he fled the country.
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Not this year ! Planning some holidays in September - subject of a later thread - maybe a simple one, could be a bike one or long-haul to the US !
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Not sure when I will be down now, having a lot of dental problems which means I am on a lot of anti biotics and camping without drinking is pretty pointless. And the new office will take up all my time at the moment.
I am hoping if the weather turns nice towards the end of June/early July I will go down then. All depends how busy I am with work too. Usually when I go camping its very short notice, e.g the weather is nice this week, I don't have any jobs booked in etc.
Got a four day holiday in Blackpool in early August as well for a punk festival.
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>> >>4.5miles = 15minutes cycle away.
>>
>> You need to be fit to average 18MPH around Manchester. I used to average 14MPH
>> cycling to work around my sleepy town. I notice it's down to 11MPH since I
>> retired.
>>
Can't be done in Manchester unless you run red lights or have access to off-road cycle tracks the whole way.
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Hope it works out for your Rattle! was thinking the other day you had been quiet of late....
>Can't be done in Manchester unless you run red lights or have access to off-road cycle tracks the whole way.
I once kept up with a (stopping!) bus on average all the way from South of Fallowfield (I'd like to think Didsbury, but that may be stretching my memory!) to the Met Uni. Couldn't do it now, mind you I was probably half cut at the time...was most of the time I was a student!
Last edited by: RichardW on Sat 9 Jun 12 at 17:10
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>> I once kept up with a (stopping!) bus on average all the way from South
>> of Fallowfield (I'd like to think Didsbury, but that may be stretching my memory!) to
>> the Met Uni. Couldn't do it now, mind you I was probably half cut at
>> the time...was most of the time I was a student!
>>
Drink a bit more and you can usually beat them!
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I regularly go from home into the city in the morning. I go via the back of the university.
I pass the same cyclist soon after getting on the main road and we swap the lead all the way to the uni, where we part company. He is the ' tour de France ' type, though. Lycra and a backpack. Never looks behind...relies on others to keep him alive ! One day, an electric car will get him.
But then he's not carrying all the kit I have to, nor could he on a bike !
Ted
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Just taken on a new offfice - Skip
