Back to business after my holiday, I had a few slight issues with OvenKing, but they’re all now resolved, while I was away for a week OvenKing ended up breaking its record, for taking over a 7 day period, but we now really understand that the cross selling between carpets and ovens, seems very beneficial, and doubling our income, as of course everybody who has carpets has an oven,

We are now in the domestic cleaning industry, as I might say, is not an appealing, desirable nor glamorous sector, neither where I envisioned myself being, at this stage in my life, but however its keeping the wood from the trees, so I will keep flogging away at both business until such time I am able to sell out, or Franchise to the correct level, and hopefully end up with a business a bit more desirable, but money is money and when things are going well it makes any business enjoyable, but unfortunately at this stage as with any business I am on the ground level with it, and I am finding myself out there cleaning carpets, which I don’t really mind that much vise versa too.  So the cross selling is working very well, hence the start of CarpetLocal, which is launching on the 23^rd August, which should, in a very short space of time double our income.

I have however managed to cheat a bit by not actually cleaning an oven to date, I do hope I can keep that record up!  If I don’t, I might end up putting my head in an oven and turning the gas on!

I still feel as hungry as I was 25 years ago and I still think I will end up achieving my end target of where I want to be!

So keep your eyes peeled! You might see me carpet cleaning in Bournemouth soon!

I would like to take today to share an update on the business side before I embark on another holiday next week. On the whole things are very good business-wise with both Self Trading and Clearance Catering Supplies both selling out our warehouses of stock, which leaves us open to accept many new offers for clearance stock from within these industries.

We have had a great couple of years buying up large parcels of stock but don’t seem to be able to purchase any more as the recession seems to be having more of an effect for companies now than it ever has. Companies are less willing to part with their excess stock to make room for more they all seem to be holding out with the stock for better money, cracking down on their own sales offering 70-80% off.
We are actively looking for big parcels of stock up to a value of £1million + to refill our shelves as they are currently looking quite sad.

Being quite a diverse business man I tend to be able to cover myself when one side of a business begins to show a sign of shortfall and build up a separate venture to cover myself this way. I am continually finding that online affiliate businesses are ticking over nicely and our launch of YBISWorld in the USA has proven to be a great success with plans to open up offices in the USA in 2014.

Oven King, our newest venture is proving exceptional oven cleaning services in Poole, Bournemouth & Christchruch to be a good opportunity for any budding franchisees, we’ve only recently launched back in May 2013 and have already developed into a fully fledged business with both website and rounded marketing platforms in place leading to steady streams of enquires and bookings being made for our oven cleaning services. We are now even at this early stage considering putting a 2nd van on the road to meet the ever increasing demand. Once we have attained a level of 4 vans on the road then we feel we will be in a position to offer nationwide territories to franchisees with our attractive entry package that is currently being developed in time for this opportunity to become available.

So, the day after returning from my family holiday in Dubai just so happens to also be the official launch day for Oven King Ltd. The team have been hard at work behind the scenes conducting vast amounts of market research, kitting out the first of our service vans, sending staff off for comprehensive training and we are now ready to launch our brand into the market place.

Our intention will be to roll out a fleet of vans within the Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch postcode sectors initially establishing a reputable and respected multi-van operation becoming a local name for professional local oven cleaning.

With a combination of our own marketing efforts and the consistent delivery of the highest standards of service Oven King hopes to become an established household brand in as quick a time as possible. Ultimately we aim to be rolling out franchises by early 2014 with secure revenue coming from our local fleet proving the strength of the Oven King business model, offering training and a fully equipped service van included in the cost of a franchise, something which other oven cleaning franchises do not offer from the outset.

With a strong business plan and the idea to sell 40-50 franchise sectors a year to an ultimate goal of nationwide coverage in the region of 250-300 individual franchises Oven King has the foundation in place to become a market leader within 5 years. Subject to things going to plan after 12months there are other franchising opportunities that also appeal to me that I may be looking into at a later stage.

Disappointing news for our Sierra Leone deal

If you have been following my blog recently then you might be aware of a pretty big deal that I have been working on over the past few months.

My plan to purchase a large selection of power generators to connect to Sierra Leone’s national grid to provide power for an additional 300,000 homes in the area has recently fallen through as the Local government opted to purchase a more expensive selection option of Caterpillar generators worth over $5 million.

It would seem that although our generators met the specifications that they were looking for because we were unable to offer the back up and support at the flick of a hat by sending trained technicians to oversee the units we were not a suitable candidate for the job. We can’t win them all the time.

These units are still available however and we have began receiving enquiries from Scandinavia for them already. Our plan to continue to supply heavy plant equipment to developing countries is still in motion and I hope that this can prove a fruitful pursuit for me in the near future.

We are however, still looking for a total of 300 articulated tractor units for a deal taking place in India and sourcing these has been a slow but steady process. If anyone has any other units available we are still trying to source more as we will always have a need for this type of equipment and plant.

Clearance Catering Supplies Update

Clearance catering supplies is continually busy with us being offered and buying a vast amount of ex-Olympic catering equipment. We seem to be getting offered absolutely everything from kitchen appliances, gastronomes, crockery, cutlery, tableware and much, much more!

This has proven a great boost to my catering business and I look forward to receiving more. It would be a great idea to hold onto a lot of this equipment, store it securely and make offers to the companies looking to cater for the Olympics in Brazil for the 2016 celebrations, but unfortunately finances wont allow us to keep hold of it for three years as cash flow these days is key to success. This however is what Mc Donald’s seem to be doing at present as they dismantle and ship in segments their massive portable pop-up restaurant which served over 13,000 meals a day during the Olympic peak with around £60million in turnover over the Olympic period, not too shabby.

I find this an odd contradiction considering the Olympics is the embodiment of health and fitness which Mc Donald’s does not have a great track record for, however it seems their pockets run quite deep in the marketing department as far as sponsorship is concerned. Mc Donald’s and fitness do not go together.

I’m keen to receive many more catering supplies and if anybody is interested in clearing large catering parcels or looking to kit out their restaurants or bars with discounted catering equipment then give us a call. Clearance catering supplies continues to be well on the way to becoming a force to be reckoned with especially over the next few years.

My experience with abandoned containers and clearance stock

Abandoned containers have always proved to be quite interesting especially when you have been dealing with unwanted and clearance stock for as long as I have. Channel 4 are still trying to chase me down to see if I would be willing to help supply them with an ongoing supply of random stock within containers for a TV show that they are trying to put together.

This show seems to be a bit of a spin off from a similar show in the US but with their own twist. The show involves contestants bidding blind on a selection of abandoned containers on the docks, one by one the doors to the containers are opened and each contestant is allowed to make a bid on the stock contained within. After a round of bidding the winner is allowed to take the stock to a storage facility and then attempt to sell it on for a profit, or loss.

They go about selling the stock by setting up various market stalls, boot sales and using online medias like eBay & Amazon to do so. If done right then a show in the UK could be quite entertaining and the guy who makes the most money each week might get an offer from me for employment, ha! Whether it’s a case of the contestant picking the right container or just a bit of luck I don’t know but it will be interesting nonetheless.

I would like to see if Self Trading could play a part in the show and if assisting in this project could prove a mutually beneficial route to go down.

It could certainly prove a good bit of publicity for us; they may even want some of my staff to take part as this all sounds good. This got me thinking about the reality behind REAL blind bidding on abandoned stock.

On one occasion an opportunity arose to bid on an abandoned container in Liverpool that had been sat at the docks for over 4 years. It turned out the original owner had died some time ago and their relatives had not attempted to claim the stock of which there was no inventory for, which was quite odd. After some digging around my team and I realised that the container belonged to a close member to one of the original owners of the Rolls Royce family! Which got me thinking that maybe, just maybe there could be something of extreme value hidden away within this container and I quickly made my bid.

To my surprise my bid was accepted and I was eager to see what I had bought, however the very night before I was due to travel up to view the contents of the container it turned out miraculously that the relatives had now claimed the contents of the container and my bid was declined… seems to be that there definitely was something of value contained within and maybe a pre world war 2 Rolls Royce was inside and the docking manager fancied it to himself to span me the lie to make a higher bid on the contents himself…. who knows, I should have followed it up.

Most recently I had been offered an abandoned container of stock from a Russian who had recently immigrated to Australia. For the life of me I can’t understand why he would want to take all of this crap with him as it would cost 3 times more to do so than what seems to be the visual value of the contents.

It’s quite a fun thing dealing with all these abandoned containers and we have bought many in the past and have done ok from a lot of them profit wise. But if we do end up working with channel 4 in the future we’d be more than happy to do so.

Aiming for the rich list with clearance catering supplies

One of the things I like to do every now and again is browse through the Daily Mirror’s UK rich list and often proves an insight into what markets and businesses are currently flourishing. 20 years ago I thought I would have been able to get on the rich list myself, but as I get older the chance is getting slimmer and slimmer. What won’t change is my drive, determination and passion in business and everything that I do.

What gave me some real food for thought last night, the reason for writing this blog and calling a staff meeting this morning is that I have been running Clearance catering supplies successfully for the last 2 years. What brought us into this market originally was the £1 million worth of catering stock that I bought from both Berghoff and 3663 back in 2010.

We purchased this stock, listed it online and as a result clearance catering supplies was born providing me and my company with a steady income for well in excess of a year now. Since seeing Nisbets and other catering companies top the rich list with Nesbits estimated worth amounting to £440 million I’m thinking… hang on… I need to get my act into gear here.

These companies aren’t doing anything clearance catering supplies isn’t, they have just been doing it a lot longer than we have. I’m sure their teams haven’t got anything that I haven’t got to concentrate on getting my catering company to the next level.

Clearance catering supplies has been great over the last 12 months and initially I was only aiming at clearance parcels for resale but after discussing this with my team I have decided to bring in lines where there is continuity from the manufacturers worldwide in the aim to gain a regular customer base on top of my existing one and see if we can build up over the next 5 years to a healthy sized company.

I might not make the rich list but I’ll certainly get where I want to be with one of my companies in the near future. If anyone knows of any clearance catering parcels currently available or unwanted stock then as always feel free to contact me.

Daryl

Onwards and upwards for Self Trading Ltd

Self Trading Ltd seems to be running at a whole different level at present as we are gaining more and more international enquiries and as a result starting to make a good quantity of high level contacts. Our most recent project includes a job of 15 containerised power generators with a 24.75 Mega Watt output to be shipped over to Sierra Leon to connect to their National grid also including a variety of transformers. This total job will amount to in excess of $4million and will act as a great kick start for Self Trading to go worldwide in the form of Self Global.

We have also been asked to quote for a supply of 400, 40 foot tractor unit trailers with 2 or 3 axels which is a separate job which we will need to purchase as soon as possible. If you know anyone who might be able to help in this regard then I would love to hear from you. We are not expecting to accumulate this quantity of trailer units from one source and may have to look at multiple sources to get the amount we require.

At present we are working on our Self Global website to assist us in this period of growth. We are now in the market to acquire a selection of heavy plant equipment so again I say, watch this space! This new venture of Self Trading is proving quite interesting at present.

If anybody is interested in selling big parcels or clearance goods including heavy plant equipment worldwide then we could be your people.

Daryl

In search of the right franchise

Over the last few years it has been a pleasure to build and work with a team of professionals that have the capabilities to master any task that I throw at them. Most recently I have been in search of a good franchise that will act as a means of providing continued stability alongside my many successful businesses.

It will be my intention to fly out to the United States attending many franchise shows to look around and see what kind of opportunities are currently out there and to see if any unique opportunities are worth replicating here in the UK where the market is still in its infancy.

As mentioned in previous posts, sometimes buying into an established brand can work out far better for you than attempting to establish your own brand yourself. It enables you to hit the ground running instead of starting out with a rock tied to your back from a sitting position. There is more risk when starting out your own venture from scratch in a relatively untested market, pushing a marketing campaign and putting the time and effort into a business that might not prove fruitful.

I am excited to be building a new venture to add to my already successful portfolio of businesses and if this means making a success out of something and franchising my opportunity off, like I have done so many times before then I am happy to get the ball rolling. There are many opportunities out there from home cleaning services, fast food establishments right through to specialist online services that can be bought into as franchises, I stick by my team and we are excited to make the most out of what we have got in the future.

My online franchise opportunity continues to be a strong business for me, with our expansion into the States seeing some great interest so far. I am very keen to see how this progresses and I look forward to keeping you updated on its progress.

Daryl

Back to blogging again!

Hi guys, as you may have noticed I haven’t been blogging for a year or so. My blogs have become quite family orientated as of late and although this is not a bad thing as family should and always will come first, my blog will be taking a turn back to my business endeavours and talk about what is new for 2013.

Over the last 12 months my team and I have been profusely digging our heels into some good businesses. My trading group has expanded over 2012 with a new spin off site due to be launched, aiming to claw back a vast majority of the market share within the clearance, surplus and redundant stock markets. Clearance catering supplies has also proved to be an incredibly profitable income stream for me with us looking into purchasing more job lots of catering supplies this year with offers coming in from redundant Olympic venues across the UK already and many more.

Regular visitors to my blog will have read about my performance/affiliate marketing franchise which we have been involved in since January 2012, where we are offering people the chance to earn an uncapped income, from home using one of our pre-made ready to go affiliate businesses. My online franchise is doing very well with us expecting to launch within the United States at the end of the first quarter of 2013. I’ll keep you posted…

Going back to franchises, one thing I have noticed over my many years in business is that sometimes it’s not a bad bet to actually invest in a franchise, at least one you can be passionate about. The time, effort and money involved in investigating in your own business opportunities as well as testing the market far exceeds the requirements involved in simply joining an established franchise. As a result of this I am looking at establishing or purchasing additional franchises in the future that might prove fruitful for me and my team.

It’s good to be back to regular blogging, it allows me to keep you all updated on my successful business life and read all the great comments from you all as things progress. Please feel free to ask me any questions about any of my businesses or ask me for advice and I’ll gladly share my money making tips with you.

Thanks all,
Daryl Self