Dear CD's,
I see people writing about business ventures in Canada in someone elses sucess stories.
May be we can discuss here.
When I was in Canada, my pet venture was to open a Gas station. I know that many people open Gas stations but my mantra for sucess was the following:

All Canadians like free stuff. Canadians also like coffee. Coffee is retailed in Gas stations for atleasr $ 1.3 a cup. To make it may just take me $ 0.10 per cup. I wanted to give free coffee to all who use my Gas station. In this way, many people (esp. somali taxi drivers at night) would come to full Gas just for the free coffee.

What do you think of this? May be some CD can follow my idea. Get LEO's coffee from India (250 gm = Rs. 100 only) and make filter coffee and distribute.

Murali

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

As I read in Adam's post in franchises, he was talking about Second cup. Previously Blue_Peafowl was talking about Subway.

Frachise business is a scam. You could loose all your hard earned money. Besides there are chinese, jews and rich Gulf people who take the best locations and franchises like Tim Hortons.

Italians can just come and do Pizza business. They can just put on their name and start it and it will click. Once when I was doing a project in NewMarket, I walked to a no name pizza store. It was run by Sri lankans and Pizza was around $ 5.99 + tax. I thought that it was cheap. But the pizza was uncooked and toppings partially cooked. So I ate the toppings and threw the pizza base. Similar joints exists in Tamil nadu and Kerala.

Therefore what if we come up with a good idea which will appeal to all. String hoppers or idly's appeal only to a certain section of the people. The Pakistani Biriyani at Dundas and Hurontario is a hit but only among indians and pakisthani's. Besides the profit margin is not too great.

Bread is a universal food. I am thinking that if someone opens a store which will give you toasted bread with infill's, it will not only sell well but also the profit margin will be good. The joint should also have coffee (similar in taste to Tim's) and sweet donuts or buns (as many Canadians have sweet tooth).

Hope some well enterprising Desi copies this idea and grows big.

Murali

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

You DON'T make much on gas ..the margin is only 3-4 cents a litre . This is GROSS revenue..NOT profit..from that you have to pay employees, credit card fees , GAS theft , rent , lease, employee salaries etc.

So your NET profit is ONLY 1-1.5 cents a litre after everything on the actual gas.

Most gas stations in GTA average about 3-4 million litres each year . So at 3 million litres at 1 cent profit , you only make $ 30,000 per year profit..if you just sell gas.

The gas is just to bring you in ..the real profit is on Car Wash , Selling cigarattes, lottery tickets, coffee, pop, chips etc.

So if you give coffee for free you will lose a major chunk of your revenue. Plus these free loaders will clog/crowd your gas station just for FREE coffee ..so other genuine motorist when they see the big lineup, who might actually buy something in your store after filling gas will go somewhere else to fill gas & buy their chips,pop, car wash etc ! So it will be a double whammy for you !

The freeloaders might just fill $ 5.00 of gas & NOT $ 50 of gas ..and just come in for FREE coffee & a NOMINAL fillup..crowding/clogging your gas station & huge lineups of cheap people ..and the other $ 50 & full tank fillup customers who are also buying other stuff will be going to the gas station down the road !

Think of gas station as a convenience store with a gas station attached to it !!! ( just for namesake the gas station is there )..you make next to nothing on gas.

Sometimes you have to go to the gas station at 4 am in the morning in a snow storm bcoz the gas trailer is coming to fill your underground gas tank in your station. Its NOT an easy job & risky job too..with thefts, robberies, abusive customers etc.

The real profits are made by SHELL , ESSO , Petro Canada etc ..not the individual gas retailer station owner

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Originally posted by tamilkuravan

Dear CD's,
I see people writing about business ventures in Canada in someone elses sucess stories.
May be we can discuss here.
When I was in Canada, my pet venture was to open a Gas station. I know that many people open Gas stations but my mantra for sucess was the following:

All Canadians like free stuff. Canadians also like coffee. Coffee is retailed in Gas stations for atleasr $ 1.3 a cup. To make it may just take me $ 0.10 per cup. I wanted to give free coffee to all who use my Gas station. In this way, many people (esp. somali taxi drivers at night) would come to full Gas just for the free coffee.

What do you think of this? May be some CD can follow my idea. Get LEO's coffee from India (250 gm = Rs. 100 only) and make filter coffee and distribute.

Murali

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Thanks Adam,
Nice insight.
I agree that Smokes/ lottery / candy are a major income source other than Gas. Agree with you on that.
I had a friend who had worked for such a no name gas station from 2003-2006 at JAne and Dundas interesection in Toronto. The owner was a sikh and his employees were all pakisthani's. My friend used to be paid $ 8 in cash per hour. SOmetimes my friend would use the credit card to withdraw cash to get PC points and then send also the money home. He would use the balance transfer option to get money on low interest. He used to also tell me that smokes / lottery were great revenue spinners.

So now let us take Gas station out of the equation.

How about a local coffee shop / cheap sandwich shop. Some of the sandwich prices in Toronto are just downright outragious.

On a side note, we were informed of a good no name sub shop in Eglington - Younge or st. clair that used to sell subs for $ 2. I think it was run by a jew. There used to be a very big crowd to get this sub which may have easily been sold for $ 3.5. His profit margin may be lower but the quantity of selling is more.

Murali

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

How about No Name Dollar Stores ?

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Fido.

Fido,

No Name $ stores selling what?

Already the Dollar stores are selling at the lowest prices. You canot beat that. If you want you will have to open a $ store and get stuff from the same place (China) as they get their stuff from.

Previously Indian grocery stores were decent. Now too many players are there.

One of the best businesses (low level) is food. Food is needed by everyone but you will have to reach the max. customers with the same type of food. In Food the margin of profit is more.

In Kerala, No name KFC is a decent hit. People like Chicken legs and French fries.

Specifc Indian texiles can be imported and sold (like banians, under wears, inner wears, scarfs etc). They are dirt cheap in India and as far as I know, it is an unexploited field in Canada.

Murali

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

MCG,

This reminds me of my Uncle who lives in Las Vegas. A shrewd and a successful businessman that he is, bought and owned a strip club a few years ago. I was still in India back then and he just casually told me that he bought an adult business. He raked in quite a mullah with the business and then sold it off in a few years.

As long you're desensitized, the sky's the limit in the Western business world.

Another successful acquaintance of mine in Delhi, who was a pure vegetarian owned a restaurant that served and is famous for the Non-veg food.

Binness iz Binness!