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Time to get off my arse..

20K views 70 replies 10 participants last post by  Twon 
#1 ·
And start putting the gears in motion..

Plan: to open my own auction house at home, progressing to an auction house/antique centre.

Starting this weekend I am going to enrol to do whatever qualifications I need to become an official auctioneer.
I have worked in an auction house for 18 months, and although I love it, I don't feel like I'm progressing as fast as id like. I think I'm getting stuck with all the donkey work and not getting enough out of it.
The plan will be made so that I can move home in a couple if years & have my first auction a month after.

I will be looking at holding the auction in a rented building, 4 days per month, 1 auction every 2 months, with 1000 lots minimum per auction, minimum lot value £40-50.
It will be a one man operation for the first few auctions, with friends & family helping out on the 4 days of each auction.
I might also look into the government apprentice scheme, has anybody any experience with this?

I fully think I can do it, there are 2 auction houses within a 30 mile radius, but they are a bit crap, neither are online, they don't catalogue properly, or photograph lots, put estimates on each lot & none of them are online.

I'm going to start a business plan tonight, of anybody has any advice or links to check out please point me in the right direction..

I'm 27 & want to get this show on the road :)
 
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#31 ·
2.75% on the transactions. If you're going to be putting big amounts of money through card payments I suggest looking at izettle over paypal as it'll take more cards and work out cheaper. It's the exact same machine. The first gen paypal machine had a shite battery and wasn't great at connecting through bluetooth.

If you need any help with a website let me know and I'll see what I can do. I'm a web developer (although I'm working on apps at the minute in my new job). On my website we take payments via the Paypal system but it can take cards as well.

As far as banks go....... long story short, if you go into the red they'll all screw you sideways regardless of who they are and who you are because that's what they do. Keep on top of the numbers, vat accounts, and various tax returns etc and you'll be grand.
 
#32 ·
The reason I suggested Paypal was not just for the reader but for your account as well.

If you can take the vast majority of your payments via PP (either sending someone an invoice or using the card reader) you have no need for a business account and can operate your banking from a normal daily-type account.

This is where imho banks are losing out. Transactions are done increasingly via gateways like PP and their whole 'business banking' ethos is BS unless you run the local penny arcade and need to physically use their services on a daily/weekly basis.

I probably use my actual bank account a dozen times a month, if that as everything goes through PP. The thing I like most about PP is the accounting functionality.
 
#33 ·
Cheers guys!

I have an office space sorted for when I go home, it's going to be small for the first few months, I'm trying to keep costs down so its got enough space for me to set up a PC/Printer, an area to photograph & then shelving so I can box/store the smaller stuff. My parents have a large store so I can keep larger items in it if I need to, though I am going to try to avoid big items of furniture..

It has a load of cafes around it too, so I can go to them if I need to meet clients :)

I am now looking to get a local phone number that forwards straight through to my mobile? Anybody have any ideas?

After 3 months my first auction will be over, so I will have some extra cash to move into a proper unit, but as a small start up, I think it'll do the job :D

So I am finishing off my website & gonna get a stack of flyers printed up, so I can do some leaflet drops over xmas :) I already have a few people signed up to the site & a few people want to put stuff in! (An antique shop has even contacted me about putting a lot of high end stuff in!)

:)
 
#34 ·
Bt offer call forwarding. You just pay a monthly fee for it. Personally I don't see the point. It's cheaper to buy a pay as you go or a sim only contract and just use a mobile for business calls. I think most people are used to dialing mobile phones from websites now.
 
#37 ·
'Launched' my Facebook page tonight & am already up to nearly 200 followers & have had a few emails about people wNting to put stuff in!

Flyers have been order so should be arriving home around the same time as me, which is in good time for the Christmas shoppers & people wNting to have s clear out around Christmas :D
 
#39 ·
the plan is to get people to email through pictures of what they want to sell, which gives me time to do a bit of research & check out values or what they sell for at auction, they I can say yes or no.

We have a local auction house already, a mate was going to bid on a white fiver a few weeks ago, until they announced it was a framed photocopy.. which they still sold for £2.. What was the point?? :lol:
 
#40 ·
I don't know if this would be any use to you mate but I could build you a system where people can upload their images online and you can respond with an email with the value and a yes or no response at the click of a button.
I build a site like this for a project a couple of years ago so I should still have the code for it.

What's your facebook page?
 
#48 ·
My tip would be to use instagram as a primary source for posting pics. Link it to facebook so anything you post on instagram automatically goes on facebook, then link facebook to twitter so it posts on twitter after that. Use instagram for single images and use facebook posts to put up gallerys or posters or advertisements. Twitter will just naturally sit behind them and repost all of it.
 
#56 ·
First post of 2016!

I have had a load of enquiries about people putting stuff in, and I already have nearly 100 lots that have actually been put in :)

I'm back in manchester/Warrington till Saturday morning, then it's straight home to see 3 people who are putting things in!

I am also trying to transform the old office I will be working out of.. it's wrecked, so the plan is to build a stud wall over one of the actual walls (it's destroyed with damp & is in the process of getting plans drawn up so no point in actually fixing it because it will be tumbled next year for a rebuild). The stud wall will be covered with pallet wood so it should look tidy and be a good back drop to photograph against, and I am going to replace the old carpets with those carpet tiles, since they are cheap and I can put them down myself.

I think it's going pretty good so far, since the only advertising I have done is a facebook/instagram/twitter page & leafleted some houses :)

At the end of the month I will be putting ads in some local papers too :)
 
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