Setting up a boating business

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petem

petem

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If I wanted to set up a boating business in my spare time, how easy would it be?

I assume that importing a product and selling it to the trade / retail market in the UK is a viable option. Space to keep a modest quantity of stock and shipping wouldn't be an issue as I have friends that could do this for me. IT (web, eCommerce, stock control, pay per click advertising, etc) wouldn't be an issue, nor would book keeping as I could do all of these myself.

I could probably devote one working day a week to the venture. I wouldn't want to fork out a load of cash up front, but equally wouldn't need to draw from the business until it was established. Target earnings would be £20k per annum after a year or so.

So what would be the biggest challenges? Locating a suitable product would be one I guess. Sales and marketing aren't a great strength of mine although pitching a product to buyers wouldn't phase me.

Any thoughts? Am I being deluded!?

Pete
 
Would you start by trawling the trade shows, picking a product and persuading the manufacturer that you're the right person to represent the brand in the UK? sorry if it all sounds a bit like "The Apprentice"!
 
If your target earnings are £20,000 pa, assuming a gross margin of say 20 percent , you will need sales of £100,000 pa. What product are you thinking of that can reach annual sales of that? The boating market in the UK is really quite small and scattered over many different products. It is also very cyclical, disappearing to almost nothing in recessions.
"Been there, done that, lost the T shirt" is the experience of far too many who set out full of optimism.
Sorry to be so cautious!
 
Possiibly a bit off piste but...

it has been known for a piece of marine equipment,especially electronics,to be sent off to back China by some "enterprising" rival to have it cloned but with few definable differences and remarketed back onto the UK market at a much reduced price,usually over Ebay.
It can all be done in a few months including some very natty packaging indeed with your brand name on the box.
Something to be aware of ?
 
Resolution said:
If your target earnings are £20,000 pa, assuming a gross margin of say 20 percent , you will need sales of £100,000 pa. What product are you thinking of that can reach annual sales of that? The boating market in the UK is really quite small and scattered over many different products.
Click to expand...

Well I guess a product that is semi consumable would be a good start. Fenders, socks, warps, etc but that's a crowded market I guess. alternatively go to the other extreme and go for a product like horns (Piers, would be interested in your experience if you read this).

If someone reads this and knows of a product that they've only been able to purchase abroad then PM me!

Resolution said:
It is also very cyclical, disappearing to almost nothing in recessions.
"Been there, done that, lost the T shirt" is the experience of far too many who set out full of optimism.
Sorry to be so cautious!
Click to expand...

Not too worried about "losing the T shirt" as this would be a side line (I already have a 'proper' job).
 
If you want to have a side-line business the most important skills are sales and marketing. Everything else can be outsourced. If those are not your strong suit then I would advise not to bother. People won't come looking for you to buy stuff, you will have to get out there.
 
Backlit boat names. If you can find a way to do this for a few hundred quid instead of a couple of grand, you could do well. It's a subject that comes up here fairly regularly, which suggests to me that there's a bit of demand out there.
 
petem said:
I assume that importing a product and selling it to the trade / retail market in the UK is a viable option.
Click to expand...
Well its a lot better idea than manufacturing. An old boss of mine once said that manufacturing was a mug's game and he was dead right. Far easier to make a few % selling what somebody else has manufactured. The main problem you will have is finding a product that somebody else isn't already doing but at the same time there is a market for. The boating industry is a mature industry and you'll be lucky to find a niche that somebody hasn't already filled and even if you do, don't expect it to be easy to sell because people are resistant to change and resistant to innovation. Expect to do a lot of foot slogging going out to see potential customers
 
Benefit of boat market is there are rich buyers and there is lack of info on what's out there. Toby sells kahlenbergs horns first by educating the customer that they even exist then providing the info

So you could sell:
Names as Jimmy says
Maretron- this is awesome but there is no knowledgeable UK supplier. I've bought 20k and would buy more if I could get tech info
Lumishore lights
Custom ribs by novurania nautica Aquascan. They will make proper custom and Williams have proved the market but there is no custom supplier for outboard rib tender buyers. Williams just won't do outboards. MyAG and I bought ours directly in Florida sheesh and a UK dealer would have been great
Unbreakable glasses that are glass not plastic
Custom carling switches with custom engraved legends or pictures and Audi BMW esque red backlighting. Available but hard to find.
Those little bottles of premium brand cosmetics like in swanky hotel, to put in cabins. I buy tiny purple Elemis but have to buy 1000 bottles of each of shampoo, shower gel, conditioner, body lotion etc and that's a bit much tbh
 
petem said:
If I wanted to set up a boating business in my spare time, how easy would it be?

I assume that importing a product and selling it to the trade / retail market in the UK is a viable option. Space to keep a modest quantity of stock and shipping wouldn't be an issue as I have friends that could do this for me. IT (web, eCommerce, stock control, pay per click advertising, etc) wouldn't be an issue, nor would book keeping as I could do all of these myself.

I could probably devote one working day a week to the venture. I wouldn't want to fork out a load of cash up front, but equally wouldn't need to draw from the business until it was established. Target earnings would be £20k per annum after a year or so.

So what would be the biggest challenges? Locating a suitable product would be one I guess. Sales and marketing aren't a great strength of mine although pitching a product to buyers wouldn't phase me.

Any thoughts? Am I being deluded!?

Pete
Click to expand...

Go for a Purple Burgee online store, they seem really popular... :)

Seriously though, if you are in a boat rich area, in terms of Marina's and volume with loads of out of county owner; go for service based ideas rather than product.

For example, I've grown a housekeeping business from scratch in the last three years...now employing three full time staff - coordinating, training and supporting a team of self employed Housekeepers. You must be pretty well networked Pete....customers are easy to find if you offer a quality stern to bow annual agreement.


I don't clean the houses BTW, just steer the team and ensure that we keep to the schedeule of the business plan and our objectives.

Just a thought :)
 
Friends started 'Marine Teak' a while ago. Basically spotted a gap and sourced a quality product that they could sell at very reasonable prices. It appears to me that they have effectively created a bit of a market but they have put a lot of effort into marketing (shows, boat jumbles etc). A lot more effort than one day per week I suspect.
 
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jfm said:
Custom ribs by novurania nautica Aquascan. They will make proper custom and Williams have proved the market but there is no custom supplier for outboard rib tender buyers. Williams just won't do outboards. MyAG and I bought ours directly in Florida sheesh and a UK dealer would have been great
Click to expand...

Yup thats a good point. I bought a tender at Dusseldorf made by an Italian manufacturer Surmarine http://www.surmarine.it. The quality, attention to detail and price was excellent but they are also willing to customise their products as well. They have a dealer in the UK but judging by his website they don't push the products very hard

Another area that Pete could look at is quality helm seats. I recently searched for new helm seats for my boat and the range and quality of seats offered in the UK by the likes of Outhill and Toomer & Hayter is very poor. There are several US manufacturers of quality helm seats like Stidd, Lebroc, Bentleys who as far as I'm aware are not represented in the UK
 
I had a go with a little boat business about five years ago. As others have said UK market is very small. I visited and did deals with various trade distributors. Because the market is so small they all want 50% mark up , and the chandlers want another 30 to 40%. which surprised me at the time but I now understand why. The perceived wisdom was a really good selling product in the UK would be 500 a year. Not many at all to cover the costs of all the overheads. I sold a few thousand into France and Spain. The biggest boat market by numbers by far is the us but margins are tiny and its dominated by West marine. In Europe France,Spain and Scandinavia are 2 to 3 times bigger than UK. I stopped after 2 years as it became more hassle than its worth. Luke who sells marine teak has picked a good product with a good selling price and margin. I think he sells them all direct too off the internet and small magazine ads so he gets the bulk of the profit. If you want volume then as others have said you need a product boat owners consume , antifouling, anodes etc
 
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I lost a lot of money setting up a boat business in 2000.

I was foolish to think I could make a living selling new boats - I couldn't.

The places that make money from it do it as a sideline to other things OR they are selling a well established brand with good margins.

I think many believe the sales will be higher than they are - as said before, volumes here in UK are low.

So if you can find something with some demand, small overheads and decent margins it may be ok - but £20k a year from it part time, I doubt that's doable.
 
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