“If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” - Isaac Newton 1675
Movie giants, your advice is needed. Input from others is also important. Can I operate a movie business as a side hustle successfully or must I be there around the clock? I understand that I may have to be there for a month or two to estimate daily earnings, and also operate the business sometimes to observe the market. I have another income generating activity that I dont wish to forfeit, but sometimes I find myself with free time during the day and I would like to use it wisely. Can I generate 100k gross profit from a single movie shop if I implement my plan well? How hard/easy is it?
→ I could use some extra income but for it to make sense, the side hustle has to yield 70k net per month or more in net profit. Since I have never operated such a business, I would appreciate knowing whether this income is achievable in a single location or not. If yes, how hard/easy is it?
→ I can spend four or more hours at the movie store during the day when I am free. I am self employed so I can conduct impromptu check-ups on the biz. If I hire a guy/lady, should I give them targets or what should I do to maximize returns and minimize employee theft?
a boot leg dvd will go for average of 100 bob a piece, that means for you to get the 100k monthly (gross), you need to sell atleast 1000 pieces monthly (not a tall order, thats around 34 copies daily). now add the cost of rent in a good place with serious traffic, and the cost of the employees, purchasing the blank dvds , cost of downloading/pirating the movies.
all those (among others) and you realize that a net of 100k is quite a tall order
In the estates, one movie costs Ksh 50 if on DVD and Ksh 30 if the customer has a flash disk. The cost of downloading movies is negligible because I have unlimited high speed internet at home. The profit per each movie sold is therefore roughly Ksh 30. 100,000/30=3,334. 3,334/30=111. Therefore, in simpler terms, can I sell 111 movies per day? Is it possible?? Sorry, I meant 100k GROSS or 70k net
several things
[ol]
[li]selling at 50 or 30 does not directly translate to a 30 bob profit[/li][LIST=1]
[li]is the home internet free? [/li][li]is your time free? [/li][li]is it a self service such that you dont need to hire someone to handle customers[/li][li]whats the capex for equipment?[/li][li]rent?[/li][/ol]
[li]selling 111 copies on a daily basis is very tricky, think along the following lines[/li][ol]
[li]how many homesteads do you have in the estate?[/li][li]even with 50 homesteads, will they religiously watch 2 movies/series daily (weekends when nursing a hangover? maybe… but weekdays…?)[/li][/ol]
[/LIST]
answer those queries and you will realize you need to greatly lower your expectations in terms of returns
Don’t know the dynamics of “movies business” but the general rule in a new business is to get an estimated profit (100000) then set it to a realistically 30% conservative figure of 30000. Now can you sustain the business with that income for a year. Don’t go to a biz thinking you will break even in the first year and still make a profit. Get enough seed money to survive the first year as you build clientele, pay bills and recoup your investment. In the second year you can now target profit with foresight and experience of the first year.
The 30 bob is gross profit, before I deduct those expenses that you have listed.
One flat alone has more than 50 houses mostly bedsitters and one bedrooms. Most people have laptops in the area because they are either senior students, working class bachelors or young families (one child mostly). The demographic of adults is mostly below 35 yrs. The area is densely populated and the competition is weak/undercapitalized.
Thank you for the response. I can survive for a year before it stabilizes because it is a side hustle. I have another profitable business that I rely on heavily. I just want to diversify my income a little bit. To answer your question, yes. I can sustain the business with that income for a year.
Forget selling movies unless your shop is in upcountry where no one has proper internet connections in their homes. @Ice_Cube can find you some threads where this has been discussed at length…or better yet ask @Tommy Lee Sparta vile new players in the biz are destroyed.
Having affordable unlimited internet means people can easily subscribe to Netflix (1000 shs per month, all you can watch), download torrents and/or stream from sites like bmovies.to.
Movie shops are relatively easy to start, so they’re popping up all over the place. As a beginner, you have to start your own collection of movies (don’t lie to yourself about your 1 tb personal collection. It is not enough, you’ll need to download movies and series night and day for like 6 months before you can confidently state you have a decent stock. Alternatively, you can buy from already established guys.) Plus unless you’re starting at a very high traffic location, you’ll need to gain customers.
Nowadays, Gikuyu TV, Meru TV and all these other stations popping up show movies immediately they get a clear copy. They’re basically pirating, to a wide audience. You will excitedly download Thor Ragnarok and sell only 2 copies, coz they have already watched it. So you’ll need to concentrate on series.
You will play hide and seek with kanjo and copyright people.
Solution:
Make it a movie shop, gaming palour and/or cyber cafe. Also sell other things like flashdisks, data cables, earphones etc. Do printing, scanning, binding, typesetting lamination na kadhalika. Officially you’ll be running a movie shop, but at some point movies will only account for like 20% of your total sales. Ukitegemea movies pekee utalala njaa, or you’ll find yourself boosting the business with earnings from the other business, at least for the first few months.
Lakini if you’ve done your homework, surveyed the area and found it suitable, then go for it. Every business is unique, no matter how alike it looks to another. Alafu itisha @Chifu mawaidha zaidi.
This is very useful information. Hadn’t thought along the dimension of games and selling computer accessories in the process. That would be perfect because the market (for movies), is the same for the accessories/games most of the time.
Then good luck to you and God bless. Your putting up your own money and employing someone. Once it stabilizes try adding Mpesa to increase the income and keep the attendant busy.
The idea of combining computer accessories with the movies business is surprisingly amazing. Computer accessories are high margin items. The same people who buy movies are most likely to own computers at home. It allows one business (computer accessories), to piggyback on the movies business and maximize on space. It is quite an eye opener. Thank you @captain obvious
Apologies if I sound insensitive, 10 bedsitters in a single floor? Kwani they are the size of bathrooms, how do you open the door after squeezing a bed into it
I intend to run the business alone for the first month and study its nitty gritties. For the second month, I can hire an assistant but still be there as I induct him to the business. After three months I can adopt a hands-off approach but watch it closely by spending a minimum of three hours daily on the premises to take stock etc. Once In a while, I can spend a whole day to have a rough estimate of the daily earnings in case they have changed and adjust the targets upwards.
Just a quick thought: Do we have approximately 111 new movies per day? Where are those 111 clients? Hata Kibera ndio kuna high population, do they have a ferkin’ time to watch movies? Wacheni ujinga. Movie business is overrated for nothing. This is not the time we used to do movie rentals or so.