How about starting some food related business and spreading it all over Lahore? DHA,Gulberg and Johar town are places with maximum flux. There is a chance of growth as well.
With the growing midddle class there is a very good market for imported cars from UK. I have no personal experience but was told that its a very decent profit and the investment is very low risk. Cras like Mercedes C class, Audi A4, and BMW 3 Series and few more have a very good market in Pakistan , provided you keep your margin of profit relatively reasonable.
Besides you can do much of the car search online , choose the right cars, and develop some business relatinship with these guys who will do all the paper work for you in the UK at a resonable rate.
Suppose you can keep it as side business as it does not require your full time presence , most work is done online, you park your car and advertise online.
Arif bahi i did see your reply that furniture business is not giving good return..but as far as i know most listed business ideas are giving around 34-40% return and some even more..
So you can recover your investment in very short time
Consider giving a second look to all templates may be it will click or you can go for franchise option a good restruant/fastfood/footwear/bakery will be good.
And in your budget it will work
Regards
Dear I would suggest to buy the agriculture land and develop an orchard of grapes or any other valuable fruit. The return would be decent In Sha Allah and better than any other business.
regards,
Zahid
Talha - we are focusing on mid size business.I have discussed it with my friends, their objection is more like western educated engineers + MBA, with business experience and money they want to do something where they can really utilize their intellectual as well. They do not want to get into street business.
Zafar - that is thoughtful, i wonder how much dealing one will have to do with government when importing cars.
Waqas - Can you provide the link for listed business. If you niche for interior design. I like the idea, as one can own the phases from design to producing + services, one will have less competition this way. You can make margin high as 100%.These days alone properties buying selling is giving more than 40%
Zahid - I have thought of agricultural and also diary milk & stuff. Do issues I am facing, if you go in rural area then get ready to bear guns and fight to rural mafia over land issues, etc. These days you if stay strategic, try to keep business under 1 roof.
I also liked ISBase Idea - having construction + architecture design services, also you can do buying selling of plot on side as well.
Another idea I would like to bring in forum for discussion. How about online services. Yes online services but for FREE!
Can someone think of idea where we provide service (or something of value, fulfill any need) to end users online but do not charge them, instead charge advertisers or vendors.
AOA,
A very good discussion and very interesting.
I would suggest a construction business. Profit and loss is there but at a very minimum. E.g now days property is way down but it wont be for ever and will recover and who can sustain this property fever will rise on top.
If your considering construction business than few tips to keep in mind is the location of the plot even if you have to pay extra to get a better plot,its better.
Dont go for one kinal or even 10 marlas...start off with 5 marla. The construction cost your looking at is between 30 and 35 lacs.Total construction time is 3 to 4 months.
So for example the plot price is 30 lacs and your cost of construction is 35 making a total of 65 lacs with the time span of 6 months.You can make anything between 20 to 25% profit. If you have enough funds than buy another plot and when it sells you can start on the next one.
To get into the business you will have to live with this much profit.
During all this construction you can search for plots which are cheap now but will have a decent price by the time you finish with your 2 plots thats when you can look at a profit margin of between 30 to 40%.....
The only draw back is you will have to deal with the worst kind of ppl (Thats the labor)They will lie and will cheat you.just keep one thing in mind that no one is honest in construction field only than you will be saved.
I hope i dint scare you off lol..
Best Regards
Purchase a ups batteries in winter from companies and sell them on very good profit in summer because they are always short in summer.
HT - Yes we discussed this option, however it is bit confusing when you mentioned the profit of 20-25%. Because profit of more than 20-30% is normally we are making by investing in plots and other real estate investment. Shouldn't doing a business output more profit margin?
Imran - Good idea, but price war will be certain. We are discussing ideas, which involve product + service, it doesn't have to be that but should be a way we can differentiate our offering. In case of UPS you cannot do that.
Plus we are a looking at doing mid size business around half a million dollars.
Arif bhai koi bhi business Kar Lain just remember 1 tip:
Don't sell blankets in summer !
Don't sell ice in winters !
Common sense is required in any business
ISBase - Off course common sense is always required. We are brainstorming here are business ideas for Lahore crowd.
Let me give a bit marketing touch to this discussion.
What are your top problems in daily life in Lahore?
So brother your interest is information technology(IT)? Pakistan is a virgin market for that and there is a lot of work needed to be done in this niche.
Go for IT, we really need IT enthusiasts like you to take our country to the next level of IT development.
But again, put some money in IT and the remaining in some other business. But always do what interests you the most.
ps. I have studied accounting. Have you heard about ACCA? But professionally i am pursuing IT because it interests me.
May ALLAH bless us with success.
Aameen
Dear brothers,
I would like to share my last 2 years experiences;
This land is very tough by people behaviour, weather and by living. So please thing again on the idea of doing business in pakistan.
Problems;
no law n order
no business transaction security
no person would like to return your money on time
biased advisors
many more what I couldn't write only feels pain!
Solutions;
don't do any business which involves credit
select the business in which u would pay others
avoid energy dependant business
select the businees on the availabilty of dependable people
Based on the above u would feel I blocked ur many choices but it's reality what u would face here. Therefore better come and establish a business and go back and again come back and develop another one and when u would feel now is the time andsituation with it u could live then migrate back here.
Duaoon ka talabgaar.
An expat, on 50-50 to become again expat :(
Millions of Pakistanis are running successful businesses in Pakistan. Where there is a will, there is a way. Allah gives barakaat in your business.
So no need to feel discouraged. Retail and consumer businesses operate on cash transactions and no collectibles remain pending. Plus manufacturing businesses are doing well. People have installed their own power generating sets so all they need is diesel.
Population is increasing day by day so as the need for edible items. Cities like Lahore, Isb, Karachi have daily consumption of millions liters of milks and tons of meat.
Just start something to get your fair share from the market. I would suggest to go for an Environmental controlled Dairy farm with Exotic breeds from USA or Scandivian countries. Go for different approach to get high profits. Establish your SCM in such a way so that there will be no division of profit between product and consumer.
All the best.
Zain - I am in IT and has worked with one of the world biggest consulting worlds in area of sales, delivery & implementation, I know A-Z about it. When you say IT, it is very broad, specifically which area in IT do you see opportunity.
I have thought alot about it before in context of Pakistan.
-Providing IT services to government, you know how it goes, so it is big NO.
-Private sector, how local deman looks like especially in it service management and hosting or even development. Also i rather do a cash business instead of IT makes more sense.
-Also thought of keeping family in Pak, and do sales in abroad establish small firm in Pak while offsourcing work to pak. But then i will have to live away from my family, and it defeat the purpose of moving back to pak.
Let me know if you have any specifics.
Insan - First of all thank you for taking time out to write such a long post.
I do feel your pain bro, but i will feel more pain if in future my grand sons & daughters will be becoming part of this culture and society and going out of islam. I am well aware of the issues in pak. Idea is when you live in a place where law is "no law" then you live accordingly and deal accordingly. You need to live with the mentality which will help you survive. As Pk1 said if there is a will, there is a way.
Now your solution part,
Yes you are correct, i have kept those options already in mine, i only intend to do business which doesn't involve credit.
You will never find the dependable person, you should know how to train, monitor and control.
Yes, i have been taking care of it, i started investing in real estate and most of my investments are maturing or will be maturing soon, i will be getting rents while I establish myself.
Insan, Thanks again for your sharing your thoughts!
Raza - Do you have any numbers to support along with idea?
Also, i was thinking the other day, How is the Banquet hall business in Lahore area? Does anyone have any ideas about that?
If you are an IT guy.
start a Software house and Sell Services to foreign countries. Pakistan is a best place to get talented resources at very cheap rates
try to check zameen , rozee , pakwheels revenue :)
there are allot of potential markets that are still not touched.
For that I will have to have sales unit in overseas, which is very costly to initiate.
@MUHAMMAD
as i myself is an Engineer, there are thousands of software houses that are running with out any overseas sales unit.there are thousands of software houses that are running with out any sales office,
for providing services even an email campaign / or telephonic conversation is enough ...
you can establish any product as well market is not saturated.
the hard fact of this world is those who have money they don't have idea.
those who have idea doesn't have money :)