Setting Up a Combination Business (Money Changer, Pawnshop, and Remittance Center)

With the intense competition across all industries, it can be hard to think of a business that will give you the best chance for success. To enhance profitability, enterprising people have been setting up combination businesses that are now revolutionizing many industries.

These businesses rely on synergy, which occurs when the total is more than the sum of its parts. These ventures are able to share assets, manpower or/and customers by offering more than one product or service in a single place.

Some of the most popular are laundromats paired off with water refilling stations, Internet cafes with coffee shops, and one the best business packages, the three-in-one combination of money changer, pawnshop, and remittance center.

The advantages of having a money changer, pawnshop and remittance center as a single business venture include:

1. A strong pull for customers that may also avail of the other’ services. In gathering funds for a major expense, for example, the family members of an OFW may receive their remittances from abroad, pawn jewellery in a pawnshop, and then change their foreign currency to pesos, all in your place of business.

2. The main product/service they provide all concern cash. Since you can get cash for the three businesses from a single fund there is lesser need to shell out a higher cash amount. Another cost savings is that the amount you spend in securing the place, like putting metal bars on the ceiling, will benefit all three businesses.

3. All three businesses need a large vault to store cash and valuables. Purchasing only one vault results in significant cost savings because these items can be very costly.

4. Much of their target market is the same or overlaps. This makes the image branding of the store easier. Designing the store, its interiors, promotion and marketing collaterals can be more cohesive since it targets the same market.

5. The manpower requirement is almost the same across all three businesses. For example, you can have only one store manager to oversee all the operations; the same goes for the staff and security guard.

6. Training needs overlap. Since all deal with cash, the training needed to acquire expertise in counterfeit monitoring and cash handling will prove extremely useful for all the three businesses.

7. The shop’s total floor area is not much more than if you just put up one business. The vault will occupy virtually the same space, and so will furniture and the people running the shop. With the exorbitant rental rates nowadays, it will be much easier to recover this expense with the additional revenues.

It is impossible to predict with certainty what business will click; but if you have three ventures in one shop, the chances of success are much higher. You have at least tripled your chance to make a profit! Want to know how to set up this business?

BusinessCoach, Inc., a leading business seminar provider, conducts seminars on How to Start a Money Changer, Pawnshop and Remittance Center Business. You may contact them at 727-5628 or 727-8860, or visit their website www.businesscoachphil.com for details.

Click here to view details of the seminar: Starting a Money Changer, Pawnshop and Remittance Center »

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.

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