Uk Skip tracing?

[JPalmer483]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently in N.I. working for a debt recovery agency. One aspect of my work is tracing and I believe there might be scope in starting my own company. I don’t have experience starting my own business but it’s my final year of uni so I thought I might as well take the plunge, my biggest fear is having a boss my whole life.
Just a few start up question
1. Does anyone have an idea of how much start up is?
2. How do you get capital for this, is crowd funding worth it?
3. How do you find tenders and clients for this type of business so that I’m not left in limbo
4. Is tracing a viable business without the other side of debt recovery such as calls and collections?

 

[Mr D]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently in N.I. working for a debt recovery agency. One aspect of my work is tracing and I believe there might be scope in starting my own company. I don’t have experience starting my own business but it’s my final year of uni so I thought I might as well take the plunge, my biggest fear is having a boss my whole life.
Just a few start up question
1. Does anyone have an idea of how much start up is?
2. How do you get capital for this, is crowd funding worth it?
3. How do you find tenders and clients for this type of business so that I’m not left in limbo
4. Is tracing a viable business without the other side of debt recovery such as calls and collections?

2. The often used best source of capital beyond yourself is the 3 F's. Family, Friends, Fools. If you cannot persuade them to risk money on you can you convince strangers?
Do you have sufficient following on social media etc who would contribute to a crowdfunding campaign?

 

[JPalmer483]

2. The often used best source of capital beyond yourself is the 3 F's. Family, Friends, Fools. If you cannot persuade them to risk money on you can you convince strangers?
Do you have sufficient following on social media etc who would contribute to a crowdfunding campaign?

Have no immediate people that can invest and no real social media following. Capital is a major issue, been hoping to start some business but that seems to be the biggest pitfall. How much oh a credit rating or business experience do you need for business loans? Really trying to get a grasp on starting from nothing.

 

[Newchodge]

Can you explain the title of the thread?

 

[JPalmer483]

Can you explain the title of the thread?

I wasn’t aware it was called skip tracing until this week, here’s the google definition
‘Skip tracing is an industry term used to describe the process of locating a debtor that can't be found at their place of residence. “Skip” refers to the person being searched for (derived from the term “to skip town”) and “tracing” meaning the act of locating the skip.’
Comes across a little in poor taste but apparently that is what it is (this might be more for pi’s but it’s the general idea)

 

[Newchodge]

I wasn’t aware it was called skip tracing until this week, here’s the google definition
‘Skip tracing is an industry term used to describe the process of locating a debtor that can't be found at their place of residence. “Skip” refers to the person being searched for (derived from the term “to skip town”) and “tracing” meaning the act of locating the skip.’
Comes across a little in poor taste but apparently that is what it is (this might be more for pi’s but it’s the general idea)

Thanks. I envisaged an industry searching for large rubbish receptacles.

 

[JPalmer483]

Thanks. I envisaged an industry searching for large rubbish receptacles.

Yeah, it’s a bit of a strange one, not many folk know about it. Can’t find any advice online really so that’s why I’m here

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

There is a market for it - someone I know used a tracer recently to confirm the address of someone he wanted to serve court papers to.
How much capital can you really need to start up something like this? What exactly do you need to spend money on?

What is stopping you from doing debt recovery as well - why just limiting to tracing?

 

[Mark T Jones]

I was also wondering how often skips went missing

In my day we just called them tracing agents - there is undoubtedly a market and you could start at fairly low cost by sub-contracting to the bigger companies. You need to establish whether the model is pay by results or flat fee.

I'd check whether this comes under FCA regulation (i'm pretty sure it doesn't but as it merges with debt collection it's best to be sure)

If you really need to get money, then Start Up Loans is an option. Forget crowd funding - by the time you've got your campaign sorted you could be up and running.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

I Imagine if you are already working in the business then you have a far larger understanding of whats required than many posters on this forum, whether you can make a living as a independent nobody else can tell you the answer al lot would depend on your selling skills to the potential customers of your service

What software you need and a full understanding of data laws would be a requirement with the GDPR being more of a hindrance than a help i guess

Payment would most likely be very slow as large companies are often very slow on payment, and investors seldom interested in startups without great experience in the field they intend to operate in, and require a well thought out business plan and cash flow projections as a first step along with some proof of management skills

 

[JPalmer483]

How much capital can you really need to start up something like this? What exactly do you need to spend money on?
What is stopping you from doing debt recovery as well - why just limiting to tracing?

I can commit £2000 into it (give or take around £500) so I suppose I have a laptop but I don't have fantastic IT skills and would need a system. Also access to databases such as Experian and lexis nexis trace I.Q are additional costs. I suppose with debt collection which I might going into eventually if a business ever took off requires staff and more regulation so its more additional time a costs. Hope to have this running by next christmas

In my day we just called them tracing agents - there is undoubtedly a market and you could start at fairly low cost by sub-contracting to the bigger companies.
I'd check whether this comes under FCA regulation (i'm pretty sure it doesn't but as it merges with debt collection it's best to be sure)
If you really need to get money, then Start Up Loans is an option..

I was wondering how you actually get to the position of getting a sub contract? Do companies post these or are they something you need to network to get. Because I work for someone I'm not sure how she approaches creditors and I don't want to start delving into in-depth questions incase she thinks I am looking to leave. I know its important to be CSA accreditation but I'm unaware of the costs.

What software you need and a full understanding of data laws would be a requirement with the GDPR being more of a hindrance than a help i guess
Payment would most likely be very slow as large companies are often very slow on payment, and investors seldom interested in startups without great experience in the field they intend to operate in, and require a well thought out business plan and cash flow projections as a first step along with some proof of management skills

Investment seems to be my biggest issue. I might be able to convince a few people to help found the business to throw in another few thousand but I don't want to dilute the process too much. Too many cooks type of thing. I have a few friends that are IT savvy (degree qualified) who aren't working atm so i was thinking of making the most of that.
Also would an inter from a uni be a good thing for a start up, like a second year IT student we could get on a free placement to help build the system.

 

[Colin_W]

My immediate reaction is that you have identified that you need money, but not how much or what it's for.

I would suggest creating a list of all expenses you expect to incur during the first six months (at least), then adding a bit to each, then going back over the list to identify the expenses you REALLY need to spend in that time (and why).

There probably is demand for your service, the big question is whether you can tap into that demand. For example, the big financial firms probably don't farm out one trace at a time, they would most likely wait until they have a batch and then assign that batch to one supplier. You might not be able to deal with a batch at one time, and you might struggle to get on the PSL for a biggish firm. Could you offer your services to the suppliers who already get this work? This could be a low-risk way of creating a reputation which can provide leverage when bidding for your own contracts.

If you already work in the industry, could your current employer become your first client?

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Its no use thinking about setting targets, when you appear to know so little about the subject. You need to learn to talk to people to be able to get answers without questioning them, to learn as much as possible about the trade and requirements from your employer. you dont ask "how i become like you?" but something along the lines of "You must have had to pass many exams to be in this industry?" just showing a general interest and not direct type questions, to show a interest in advancing up in the company

Making sales take time and giving them a reason in using you, with limited experience it's hard to see anyone using your services, payment times could easy stretch from 30 to 90 days after completion of the work, nobody does favors for startup's

Read up on the GDPR, as data will be your requirement and things have got much harder and fines following, for breaches of the regulations, many small firms no doubt still work the old days procedures before GDPR but at huge risk, so information is harder to obtain now

Forget help from grads, you have to understand the problems to be able to write the software and as you don't know anything at present, how are you going to tell them what you want and how to get it, especially in a industry which is very small and of little chance of making making software they could sell to others, so rather a dead end type of time consuming activity , when they could be designing the new wonder app to make themselves billionaires