Starting a indoor go karting business

[Nathan S]

Hey everyone so im only 16 and i have an idea to start a go karting business and wanted to hear your thoughts and some info i can use to my benefit

So i live in a pretty decent town how ever there isnt really much stuff for kids and teenagers and its located by the sea meaning a ton of tourists come over.

So i thought maybe a go karting business would do great here as im sure loads of familys and freinds would love to try it.

What are all the costs i have to consider for this to happen, insurance, rent a place, build the track and ETC.

Would it be possible to start something like this with around £30k? (Thats if i save 70% of my paychecks until age 20)

Sorry for waffling im just so eager to start a good business one day doing something i enjoy and im completely new to all of this.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Hey everyone so im only 16 and i have an idea to start a go karting business and wanted to hear your thoughts and some info i can use to my benefit

So i live in a pretty decent town how ever there isnt really much stuff for kids and teenagers and its located by the sea meaning a ton of tourists come over.

So i thought maybe a go karting business would do great here as im sure loads of familys and freinds would love to try it.

What are all the costs i have to consider for this to happen, insurance, rent a place, build the track and ETC.

Would it be possible to start something like this with around £30k? (Thats if i save 70% of my paychecks until age 20)

Sorry for waffling im just so eager to start a good business one day doing something i enjoy and im completely new to all of this.

Sorry to say, but £30k might cover the insurance.

It's definitely not a budget idea. Probably best to focus on something smaller and build up

 

[MJD12]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

You seem ambitious which is great, but 30k to start a go karting business seems very optimistic to me. That probably wouldn't even cover the equipment you'll need to start. I'd say it would be closer to 300k than 30.

Surely there are other touristy ideas you can come up with that you can start with a lot less?

 

[Nathan S]

Sorry to say, but £30k might cover the insurance.

It's definitely not a budget idea. Probably best to focus on something smaller and build up

Yeah I know lol, I could say would it be possible to get a bank loan and tell them my business idea but they probs wouldn’t be giving me enough still, that’s if they even gave me a penny

 

[Nathan S]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

You seem ambitious which is great, but 30k to start a go karting business seems very optimistic to me. That probably wouldn't even cover the equipment you'll need to start. I'd say it would be closer to 300k than 30.

Surely there are other touristy ideas you can come up with that you can start with a lot less?

Yeah I just have so many ideas but I’m not sure what would work best within a 30k budget, I believe I can have 30k by the time I’m 20-21.

Here’s a few more ideas

- hire a crazy cart (if you know what one is) for a certain time. I have one and everyone always looks at me and asks where to get one and they say they really want one, so if people can hire those for 30 minutes to an hour.
Oh and you could even build a little cheap track for them to go on which you could make out of old tyres


- a rec room, so a place where people can go into a room with a bat and start smashing up broken TVs, Old glasses etc, you get what I mean.

I’ve had so many better ideas in the past I can’t lie but Ive forgotten them now.

Or some stuff to help me make money such as, get a buy to let mortgage

Buy a car park

Buy a old trashed out house and fix it up make it look better etc

Buy and sell cars on Facebook

Rebuild cars and make content out of it

Do you have any ideas?


I’m never 100% sure about my ideas as I really want to own a business one day and get it some what successful as it’s my dream to build up something from nothing and for my family to be proud of me

 

[Mark T Jones]

You can start a business with what is in your pocket/ bedroom / garage. It's what many successful business owners have done.

For ideas to become reality you need a mix of experience/insight, solid strategy and appetite for risk.

Any micro venture you start will contribute to those things

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Welcome to the family and well done for wanting to ignite the entrepreneurial flame!

As mentioned, you are probably missing a zero, but, this is a great time for you to start writing a business plan to see what starting this business would entail.

Look at all of the costs - upfront and ongoing. Work out marketing plans and pricing. Look at your catchment area and the number of people by age group... and all the rest of the bits needed to consider before you even think of spending your hard earnt money.

 

[BubbaWY]

Having had a quick look, you would be looking at a minimum of £3k per racing kart. Youd probably need at least 10 so thats your budget gone, sadly.

If you manage to save circa £30k by the time you are in your early 20's then thats putting you in a great position to start something.

Obviously by the time you get to that age, you might have found the love of your life and use the money as a deposit for a house. Priorities can quickly change.

But for now, dont lose your ambition and keep exploring start up ideas. Something which would get you excited and enthused about is the best place to start. And then research, research, research. Buy books about business. Maybe do some learn from home courses about business finance, etc.

Good luck.

 

[AvantageBroker]

Its great to see that you are ambitious and want to start a business at such a young age. Like the others have said, I think your budget is far off.

Dont let this stop you though;

- Make a business plan including your estimations of all costs, research competitors etc
- Go to banks, go to other companies that provide a similar operations and put to them why you think there needs to be a go karting place where you live. Whilst you may not be the "owner", it will still give you a great experience and they may want you helping with the operations over time.
- You may need to star a business that has a lower entry cost and then build up from there. Are there other cheaper activities that you could operate that cost less?
- As an entrepreneur, you will have many ideas but it is about evaluating the risk and likelihood of startup.

Good Luck!

 

[Nathan S]

Welcome to the family and well done for wanting to ignite the entrepreneurial flame!

As mentioned, you are probably missing a zero, but, this is a great time for you to start writing a business plan to see what starting this business would entail.

Look at all of the costs - upfront and ongoing. Work out marketing plans and pricing. Look at your catchment area and the number of people by age group... and all the rest of the bits needed to consider before you even think of spending your hard earnt money.

Yeah I can start by doing some research and get some practice in, make it a routine to do a random business plan until I get use to it.

What do you mean by catchment?

Thank you for your time as well thanks

 

[Nathan S]

Having had a quick look, you would be looking at a minimum of £3k per racing kart. Youd probably need at least 10 so thats your budget gone, sadly.

If you manage to save circa £30k by the time you are in your early 20's then thats putting you in a great position to start something.

Obviously by the time you get to that age, you might have found the love of your life and use the money as a deposit for a house. Priorities can quickly change.

But for now, dont lose your ambition and keep exploring start up ideas. Something which would get you excited and enthused about is the best place to start. And then research, research, research. Buy books about business. Maybe do some learn from home courses about business finance, etc.

Good luck.

It’s a really good thing I’m ugly then

See I’m not 100% sure what excites me, the only thing I can think off is cars. If I’m being honest, it’s thought of owning my dream car that thrives me on to create a successful business, it’s what motivates me the most.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Catchment area is the area people might travel from to visit you.

 

[fantheflames]

Hi @Nathan S! Welcome to UKBF, I hope it's the start of something great for you! And at your age, I'm thinking the energy you have could be put into a cleaning business or something along those lines, where you don't need much to start up. Are you good with computers? Or looking to work with your hands?

Most of the business owners I have worked with started with a viable business idea that was within their means. These are such great goals you have. Keep them with you until you're ready to open up a bigger business.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I started a business when I was young with a rusty old van and a couple of grand a long time ago
and I have still got most of it left