As I sit here, wondering exactly how to describe my business, a lovely gentleman the other day told me that Sustainable Café is a “drop shipping” business.
In a nutshell, I am advertising goods from other businesses… for an item to be purchased and sent onto a third party… in affect, I think Sustainable Café might well be that second party.
I read that dop shipping businesses are really good starting places for people who want to establish a successful business, so here goes.
I’m sure there are loads of other ways to start a business, much like one of my competitors who are doing very well. They started their business by having a market stall which eventually became a whole seller which eventually is now a very successful online business with over a £15m turnover.
It should be noted they started their business journey 20 year ago or more…
For me, it was the Covid lockdown which inspired me to develop Sustainable Café. Granted, now it is in very early stages and I should have started this actualization process five years ago, but I had to think about it, experiment with ideas, work out the profit margin and even potentially get ripped to the tune of thousands like what nearly happened a year ago.
For context, a guy who claimed to be a very wealthy Arab gent said me would invest a ton of cash into my business, only for the whole thing to be quite a sophisticated con. With thanks to my diligent bank, I almost paid thousands into a black hole which I would never see again. “Legal fees” are a stickler, aren’t they?!
An interesting aspect about these legal fees setting up this dop shipping business is how I will have to ask a lawyer to draft a water tight contract between Sustainable Café and the partners we will work with.
At the moment, my budget is quite tight, but it seems there are really a lot of add ons in building this business. They say add a 10% contingency for everything. I’m starting to think that might be more in the region of 15% at least!
The good news is that I am definitely saving the cash to have the capital ready in January when I will meet with an accountant and if she gives me her blessing as in “this has legs”, then I will go for it and commission a web developer to make my site… (beautiful).
Am I scared?… hell yes. This is a massive investment, both financially and personally. It will take a lot of cash, loads of thought, time, and utter commitment, of which I am ready!!!
I will keep writing my blogs and update social media, but in the meantime, be very careful of my own outgoings so I can accumulate plenty of capital to make this project a reality in April ’26!
Thank you so much for reading my blog and being involved with the early part of this project.
With warmest wishes,
Mark Banham
Founder and Director of Sustainable Café
