[Jbyrne629]

I want to open my own store that sell video game consoles, games and accessories. I am writing my business plan and all is going well. I really dont have any money that i can pour into it. I would need to have some kind of money to put down on a loan right? I dont know what avenues to go about obtaining that financing. Can anyone help me?

[daveleighton]

I know there are creative ways to get start up capial, unfortunately im not the one who could tell you. However, I do know how to get money from the bank. The best way to maximize the amount of your loan from a bank is to have good credit. This means you need to have a credit card or even 2 cards would be better. Make small everyday purchases that you know you have the money for and ALWAYS pay your credit card bills on time. The longer you keep paying your bill on time the more your credit score rises, meaning the more money the bank will loan you. If your serious about getting a loan, you NEED to have good credit. I recomend reading a book by: Suze Orman called "Young, Fabulous and Broke". It will teach you how to significantly raise your credit score.

Good Luck,
Dave Roberts

[Jbyrne629]

I should have mentioned that my credit score is alredy in the mid 700's.

[akula]

Jbyrne629, yes i can help.
what do you think are the top three financing tactics for your kind of business, as applied by US entrepreneurs?

[kinkarso]

Ask your bank! I was actually able to get a good amount from my bank for one of my online projects. It's amazing how much you can get just by asking.

PM me, and I'll send you my pdf business proposal.

Thank you,
Donny

[Jbyrne629]

Hi sorry been a little busy.
Now let me respond here:
Akula:
I guess the top three financing techniques used by people looking to get into what I am trying to get into would be:
Bank Loans, Family Loans, Finding Investors. They are the best I can come up with

[shoppingnow]

I have recently ran into an old flame of mine. We got to talking and she told me that she was working on developing a boutique talent agency in LA. I told her that I was working on a record store idea. After arguing about whether or not it would work, she finally told me this. "I think that you should get a grant to start this so that when you fail it won't bankrupt you". This understandably pissed me off, but she gave me a site to look at and I did so begrudgingly. I looked at what they offered in the e book and I bought and read some of it. There are so many programs and loopholes that it makes me dizzy. It takes patience and time, but this is the best way that I know could yeild some results. If you would like to take a look the site is Welcome to Grants for All! The Largest Grant and Financial Resources Directory on the Net!. I would recommend this to someone who is serious about getting a business started. A couple of weeks and you will get a response. As long as you don't have millions they seem to want to help, but if you have millions why are you on this forum. I can't wait to show her my flourishing record store and tell her if it wasn't for her I would have never been able to do it. That would probably make her have a heart attack. I am still waiting on a reply from the government, but they said it would take about 2 weeks for one. I am already buying records for the store. Wish you all the best of luck.

[akula]

Originally Posted by Jbyrne629

Hi sorry been a little busy.
Now let me respond here:
Akula:
I guess the top three financing techniques used by people looking to get into what I am trying to get into would be:
Bank Loans, Family Loans, Finding Investors. They are the best I can come up with

Jbyrne, no that's incorrect
in 2008, anyone who sells electronics (and who has half a brain) will keep overheads low and start their business by contacting drop shippers and then listing drop shipped items on ebay/amazon etc

in that sense, the most widely used financing techniques for electronics retailers are savings, customer finance, consumer credit and trade credit (not Bank Loans, Family Loans, Finding Investors). use these four tactics, keep overhead to a minimum and you'll be fine to achieve breakeven, turn cash positive and expand your venture in other directions.

kinkarso, you must be a special kind of stupid if your advice for someone who's never operated a business, is to run out and sign up for a bank loan.

[RagdollOp]

You might try this. I have had luck with it and its alot better than a bank.

Prosper


You can also lend money and make interest.

[Jbyrne629]

All good ideas.
Only I'm Not really interested in all electronics, just video games and their accessories. I know about drop shippers as I use them currently on ebay and am having some success. there really aren't any dropshippers that will drop ship video games. The only one i know of is Fillpoint and they laughed me off the phone. They told me they don't do start ups because their main clients are best buy and wal-mart.

[akula]

Originally Posted by Jbyrne629

I want to open my own store that sell video game consoles, games and accessories. I would need to have some kind of money to put down on a loan right?

Jbyrne, you're making a choice to sell retail consumer products. That's not a good choice for someone coming up in the business world. Selling to consumers is extremely expensive, uncertain and (hence) highly unfinanceable. It requires branding, inventory and service. To breakeven, you're gonna have to be pushing hundreds of sales to hundreds of different customers. This equates to massive cost of customer acquisition and low life time value per customer. To close, keep and upsell each customer requires extensive investment (because you're selling an undifferentiated good). Your profit margin is gonna be less than 20% (for the same reason), you have no competitive advantage, plus you're in a highly competitive industry with high barriers to entry. And what's upside for you dealing with all this shit? It's low and it's uncertain.

Correct the problem and spend some time doing opportunity selection the way it's supposed to be done. If you're gonna be investing your self into something, make sure that (at least) you're selling a highly differentiated, premium priced product to a captive market. With this opportunity selection, your chances for a 100+x exit increase to a point where financing is much less of a problem.

If you ignore this advice (and continue to screw up opportunity selection), the only person to blame for all the failures that you're gonna catch is your self only.