Jenseng93
New Contributor
Hello all.
So I'm 27 and from the UK. My family has always been self employed and I followed in their foot steps.
In my early to mid 20s I followed in my father's footsteps and did shows and events with various attractions and rides. It was okay but I was never great at it and spent far too much money on just random things and didn't improve the business
At 24 I ended up going to work in a warehouse for a year. It was easy and steady money. But something didn't feel right and I knew there was no chance of me getting any further as options to move up the ladder were limited.
At 25 my dad said he was planning to try and buy an amusement arcade down the coast and offered me the opportunity to help him.
I sold the assets from previous attraction business (they had been in storage for a year) for 7k and brought several machines for the arcade.
Overall the business is growing with a more custom year on year and I have brought several more machines.
I'm currently sat at around 5k in assets (the machines depreciate due to wear and newer models coming out.) £3200 in an investment fund and £7200 in cash. By the end of the year the machines should hopefully have earned me another 5k. So in total I should have 16k in cash and 5k in assets by the end of the year.
(Typing that paragraph out has made me feel a bit better about my situation as I didn't realise how much I had.)
Recently I've been watching financial videos and came across MJ's ideas. I have brought his books and am currently reading Fastlane.
It's been an eye opener for me as I've realised I have been living in the middle of the road. I have just kind of gone through life and haven't thrown myself at it as a real entrepreneur.
So the plan is to keep investing. And to grow my income. This winter, when it's off season, we plan to expand the arcade as we have more room we're not currently using. I will buy several more machines which will increase my yearly income.
I also want more passive income. The problem with an arcade is it needs baby sitting everyday it's open (which is most days of the year). It does not yet do good enough to warrant full time staff running it for us so I'm in here most days.
Its basically a job and when my dad mentioned that in 15-20 years it will hopefully be mine and we will be well on the way to paying the mortgage off I realised if I don't expand I won't be retiring until at least 70!
I have lots of free time in the winter so I plan to use this time to investigate several ideas and potential opportunities.
I have identified two problems that I may have solutions to solve.
Problem 1: People who day trip to the seaside need cash.
We have a large car park opposite us and every day during tourist season we have large amounts of people who come in looking for a cash machine. I know several of the businesses around us also have the same thing happen.
It seems people in the area need cash but the nearest cash machine is a 5 minute walk the opposite way from the beach.
Most businesses in the immediate area either don't want to have a cash machine on their premises, or atm companies won't install one as they believe the income of said business is not high enough.
I believe there is an opportunity here and I have two solutions.
1) Run a cash back system from the arcade. This is the less profitable solution but would be easier to implement. A small charge would bring in some income and it'd be fairly passive as it's just blend in with the day to day running of the arcade.
2) Ask the local council if they would be willing to have a pair of cash machines installed on the car park. This would have higher set up cost but I believe there is a higher potential for profit. The running costs would also have to be carefully worked out as the car park is only busy around the school holidays and the summer.
Problem 2:
Running an arcade is expensive. There are huge costs that eat into revenue, it's also dead in the winter and we rely on the school holidays and summer.
Solution:
What I need is an arcade that can be open 24/7, does not need to be constantly operated by myself or staff and is not restricted to the local area.
What I have just described is basically an online gaming app. Which there is a hundreds if not thousands of.
However there does not seem to be one that offers a chance to win real prizes. People could collect points by playing the game and they can be exchanged for prizes, which would then be posted to them.
I could also look into drop shipping so I wouldn't even need to store or post stock myself.
This would be a much bigger undertaking and needs much more research.
So any way that's my story so far. I'm looking forward to finishing MJ's books and reading more forum post on here.
Feel free to respond if you have any suggestions or comments.
So I'm 27 and from the UK. My family has always been self employed and I followed in their foot steps.
In my early to mid 20s I followed in my father's footsteps and did shows and events with various attractions and rides. It was okay but I was never great at it and spent far too much money on just random things and didn't improve the business
At 24 I ended up going to work in a warehouse for a year. It was easy and steady money. But something didn't feel right and I knew there was no chance of me getting any further as options to move up the ladder were limited.
At 25 my dad said he was planning to try and buy an amusement arcade down the coast and offered me the opportunity to help him.
I sold the assets from previous attraction business (they had been in storage for a year) for 7k and brought several machines for the arcade.
Overall the business is growing with a more custom year on year and I have brought several more machines.
I'm currently sat at around 5k in assets (the machines depreciate due to wear and newer models coming out.) £3200 in an investment fund and £7200 in cash. By the end of the year the machines should hopefully have earned me another 5k. So in total I should have 16k in cash and 5k in assets by the end of the year.
(Typing that paragraph out has made me feel a bit better about my situation as I didn't realise how much I had.)
Recently I've been watching financial videos and came across MJ's ideas. I have brought his books and am currently reading Fastlane.
It's been an eye opener for me as I've realised I have been living in the middle of the road. I have just kind of gone through life and haven't thrown myself at it as a real entrepreneur.
So the plan is to keep investing. And to grow my income. This winter, when it's off season, we plan to expand the arcade as we have more room we're not currently using. I will buy several more machines which will increase my yearly income.
I also want more passive income. The problem with an arcade is it needs baby sitting everyday it's open (which is most days of the year). It does not yet do good enough to warrant full time staff running it for us so I'm in here most days.
Its basically a job and when my dad mentioned that in 15-20 years it will hopefully be mine and we will be well on the way to paying the mortgage off I realised if I don't expand I won't be retiring until at least 70!
I have lots of free time in the winter so I plan to use this time to investigate several ideas and potential opportunities.
I have identified two problems that I may have solutions to solve.
Problem 1: People who day trip to the seaside need cash.
We have a large car park opposite us and every day during tourist season we have large amounts of people who come in looking for a cash machine. I know several of the businesses around us also have the same thing happen.
It seems people in the area need cash but the nearest cash machine is a 5 minute walk the opposite way from the beach.
Most businesses in the immediate area either don't want to have a cash machine on their premises, or atm companies won't install one as they believe the income of said business is not high enough.
I believe there is an opportunity here and I have two solutions.
1) Run a cash back system from the arcade. This is the less profitable solution but would be easier to implement. A small charge would bring in some income and it'd be fairly passive as it's just blend in with the day to day running of the arcade.
2) Ask the local council if they would be willing to have a pair of cash machines installed on the car park. This would have higher set up cost but I believe there is a higher potential for profit. The running costs would also have to be carefully worked out as the car park is only busy around the school holidays and the summer.
Problem 2:
Running an arcade is expensive. There are huge costs that eat into revenue, it's also dead in the winter and we rely on the school holidays and summer.
Solution:
What I need is an arcade that can be open 24/7, does not need to be constantly operated by myself or staff and is not restricted to the local area.
What I have just described is basically an online gaming app. Which there is a hundreds if not thousands of.
However there does not seem to be one that offers a chance to win real prizes. People could collect points by playing the game and they can be exchanged for prizes, which would then be posted to them.
I could also look into drop shipping so I wouldn't even need to store or post stock myself.
This would be a much bigger undertaking and needs much more research.
So any way that's my story so far. I'm looking forward to finishing MJ's books and reading more forum post on here.
Feel free to respond if you have any suggestions or comments.
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