Investor Required for Furniture Business

[Kristaps]

I currently run a furniture business in the UK and am seeking an investor to fund a new iteration of this business. Sales to date have been modest at approximately £400k in 18ish months with an AOV of approximately £900 and the profit margins are good. I should have done way more in sales but I had complications with manufacturing which caused a big gap in production during this 18 month period. This manufacturing issue has since been resolved hence my desire for investment in a new entity and setup.

I am looking for an investor to help fund the new venture. Investment required is £40,000.

I want to incorporate new product models that I can manufacture, create the proprietary 3D models and renders required for the product imagery on the website, a whole new brand and website and a fresh approach to advertising and marketing using everything I have learned from this first iteration of the business.

I have established good supply chains for my consumable materials and relationships that now mean I have a settled business model and plan going forward from manufacturing right through to delivery. I have the ability to disrupt this industry at some level and have thought long and hard about what I really need to do next.

This isn’t a crypto or gambling or fitness funnel type of business. It’s a real life business that takes a lot of work and needs the type of contacts and skills that I have which are hard to come by. This industry is quite small and over the past 18 months I have made many changes to the supply chain to improve both speed of production and profitability.

For full disclosure I came across this forum and successfully enlisted the services of a provider on this forum. They created me a nominee setup through which I ran this business including the card processing, bank account and companies house registration etc. I am open to discussions about the new setup for this new business as a new entity etc.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

What kind of furniture? Are you the manufacturer or a reseller?

 

[Kristaps]

What kind of furniture? Are you the manufacturer or a reseller?

Sofas, Armchairs, Ottomans and Footstools.

I am the manufacturer and have a leased warehouse premises here in the UK.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Can you post some photos of your products?
What are your unique selling points?

 

[Kristaps]

Can you post some photos of your products?
What are your unique selling points?

I have attached two photos however please bare in mind these are not the rendered images I use on the website, they are just images taken of the products before they are wrapped post production prior to shipping.

I have several unique selling points.

One USP is delivery time. Currently delivery time is 3-4 weeks but I can bring this down to 2-3 weeks and this is in comparison to 8-12 weeks from some of my direct competitors and most major retail sofa companies. I can also bring this further down to just a few days if I pre manufacture my most popular models/colours which I now know what they are.

Another is pricepoint. As i get my own image renders made I make my own versions of popular models and styles. I can manufacture some of the most popular sofas with high search volume for a competitive but still profitable pricepoint. For example I had one popular range and I then made several variants of that whole range just with different stitching detail.

Lastly is materials. Due to improvements with the supply chain I can now also offer a wide range of colours and fabrics compared to when I first started. I started off with just Velvet, now I can offer Fabric, Faux Leather, Teddy Boucle etc.

Basically I am able to offer popular styles of sofas as well as my own designed models at lower prices in comparison to the big brands and usually deliver it much quicker. I also get my own proprietary imagery made which i then own and is curated to look nice and sell the products well.

Hope this info helps you and any other interested readers that may stumble across this thread

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Why did you need a nominee to run your business?

 

[Kristaps]

Why did you need a nominee to run your business?

I didn't need to use a nominee but after coming across this forum I genuinely just wanted to experiment with setups.

My personal circumstances also meant it was attractive to put it in someone elses name and a few years ago i read a book that got me exploring offshore etc.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

I didn't need to use a nominee but after coming across this forum I genuinely just wanted to experiment with setups.

My personal circumstances also meant it was attractive to put it in someone elses name and a few years ago i read a book that got me exploring offshore etc.

This is a big red flag for any investor.

 

[Kristaps]

This is a big red flag for any investor.

Can I ask why? I am just being as transparent in my responses as possible. I am not looking for an investment in the nominee setup.

It was my first foray into this particular business area and I invested my own money in the nominee setup not really knowing where this business would take me. I did not want to jeopardise my already existing smaller businesses which all run Stripe or any bank issues if it failed.

As mentioned the current brand and setup is no longer feasible in the long term and I want a completely new setup and I am open to discussions about which shape the new entity etc takes.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

I suggest you run your business with a clean setup for 12 months, keep detailed accounting records, pay your taxes and then come back with data. At the moment I don’t see any reason why someone would invest.