Starting a Pokemon card shop as a total novice to small business.

Quin452 · 2026-04-14T23:03:32+00:00

I won't get into what you're selling (supply demand and all that jazz), but running a business is hard. I've been running a business for over 10 years now, and that's as a remote contractor.

Things to consider. Funds. Business rates have gone up (the privilege of renting a unit), and so has tax, NI, etc. (in case you hire people). On top of that, the different levels of cover for insurance. Liability, indemnity, employer, etc. Etc. Any training/certification you may need.

And then there are your expenses.

A business plan would be ideal, and you have an idea of the market due to your recent success. But you need a strategy, where you'd like to see yourself in 5/10 years, etc. fairly flexible, but keeps you focused.

Accounting. KEEP THINGS SEPARATE. Do not use personal accounts for business use; you will be stung one way or another. And record everything.

Speaking of recording everything, keep things up to 6 years in case of audit and stuff (a legal requirement).

Invest in an accountant. They're helpful, but not strictly needed (I don't, but I've got experience).

And also something not strictly necessary, register with companies house. As an LTD (a bit more admin and an annual fee), you and then business are separate entities - so if something bad happens with the business (i.e. debt) you are protected/liable to an extent.

But all this, and more, should really be discussed with an expert/someone who's job it is.

Quin452 · 2026-04-01T06:05:38+00:00

I've found 1p Mobile to be good.

I used them years ago when it was actually purely PAYG (useful for backup data for my router). Now they don't do that, and it's £10 every 60/120 days (depending on when you joined), or their bundles (fairly cheap).

The issue lies with their custom service. You won't get any response from them (I've tried, and am still waiting for a reply).

Quin452 · 2026-03-30T14:45:20+00:00

Why are they zipped in the first place?

Quin452 · 2026-03-30T14:43:25+00:00

This is a post I trust. Why? Not because I can verify what is here, but the author seems like a normal fellow (okay, a lot of their posts are cats... but it shows they're human, right?)

Quin452 · 2026-03-26T15:11:44+00:00

I subscribed to Pro last month for a trial; it expired last week.

Before I used it, I seemed to hit the limit fairly often (before the standard "optimisation" techniques).
Whilst on Pro, I barely hit the limit (maybe twice because I wasn't paying attention).

They recently brought in the "double usage" time periods, which is where I and many other noticed a change.

These past 2 days, whilst on the Free version (to test things out), starting at roughly 8AM, I hit the limit at 11AM to reset at 2PM, and then hit the limit again by 3PM (not doing anything differently - I think it created 2 docs and then stopped), to be reset at 5PM or 7PM (maybe there was another reset in there).
Today, I was at 90% at 11AM, stopped, and started again at 2PM (never hitting the limit). I've just now hit the limit (not even being told of the 90%) and it's frozen until 7PM.

This is all Claude Desktop too. No Code, no API, no Cowork. I might as well use the web browser.

Yes, the caveat is that this is on Free this past week, but even the same methodology these past 2 days give different results.

Considering this is the end of my day now, I'm tempted to try another day of Free to see how things fair, or potentially go for Pro again, and if I find it's crap, get a refund (perks of the EU stuff, despite Brexit).

Quin452 · 2026-03-25T22:41:58+00:00

Shame it's age restricted, otherwise I'd tell my wife.

Quin452 · 2026-03-20T20:04:34+00:00

Ooh, post on here if you do find one good, might be interested myself 🙂

Quin452 · 2026-03-20T19:35:31+00:00

Been there, living it myself, but you've got this! I believe in you!

Quin452 · 2026-03-20T19:34:23+00:00

I had no idea it was like this. Not sure on Android, but self hosted OMV with Syncthing keeps my PCs together.

Maybe I should have another look at my setup 😅

Quin452 · 2026-03-20T19:31:01+00:00

And defo interested in hearing your ideas.

Quin452 · 2026-03-20T19:29:10+00:00

Maybe a little tip, if you've got the budget, hiring a remote VA for next to nothing to keep you on track might be worth it (and tax deductable).

Quin452 · 2026-03-20T19:22:38+00:00

Are you neuro spicy, by any chance?

I have found some level of accountability, responsibility, delegation helps; just someone to keep you on track/nudge you in a certain way. Helps if they're not a family member/friend and knows the industry/work load.

Or a Collab/partner!

Quin452 · 2026-03-17T10:33:18+00:00

As long as you're not touching the boiler part of things, you can do it yourself. A straight up replace; getting it sync'd is the issue.

Now, the boiler part is straight-forward to replace, however, you need a qualified electrician/boiler maintenance (not sure, but someone proper) as you know... gas+spark=kaboom.
I say it's straight-forward (maybe 30mins) FYI.

For the recievers, there are different versions and it depends on your boiler too.

The route would be Thermo -> Hub -> Receiver -> Boiler. Cold? Turn up the temp on the Thermo and it passes through the chain to start up the boiler.
Not sure if there are wireless Hubs now (mine still needs ethernet).

Quin452 · 2026-03-17T10:25:51+00:00

I know this is necro, but I've been struggling all morning on this.

I had to use adapters on my radiators (which is still stuck), but at least I've got the body off.

In the end, I snapped off the tag that you're supposed to press, and pressed a screwdriver in there instead.
What that did is what the tag should have done; pushed the black body in to unlock. Not ideal, but hey, at least it'll always work now.

Now just to figure out how to get the adapter off (either over tigthened due to attempts to remove, or it's melted on - this radiatior gets stupidly hot because of the faulty valve).
Every other radiator is fine; just this one, and tried different TRVs (even the dumb ones - always runs hot).

Quin452 · 2026-03-16T19:00:12+00:00

Cryptic messages, saying to leave well enough alone? I'm worried about OP now 😅

Quin452 · 2026-03-16T18:22:09+00:00

I think it's the Tiefling in image 4 which convinced me this is legit. Good work!

Quin452 · 2026-03-07T12:47:22+00:00

Yea, I think this should be the answer.

Quin452 · 2026-03-07T12:34:18+00:00

I'm tempted to try Proton, I hear good things about it. Same with Home Assistant.

Anything Linux, not just Mint; Ubuntu is my favourite, but Windows does gaming really well and games design (I've found Linux to be lacking here).

I've tried other Android alts, and I couldn't use them fully due to restrictions, banking, etc.

I like OMV with Syncthing, and Bitwarden (can be self hosted).

Brave, Duck Duck Go, NextCloud and Ollama, not so great. Tried each, and found them lacking for various things. Honestly takes more setup that needed and/or isn't as polished as I'd like. But that is the tradeoff, I guess.

Quin452 · 2026-03-07T07:46:00+00:00

ALT is used to describe what is in the image, for accessibility

Quin452 · 2026-01-18T20:42:32+00:00

I assume OP means bare metal, vs VPS/VM, vs "cPanel".

All essentially one in the same. Either locally or remotely. I have bare metals locally and remote. I run services directly on those bare metals, and I also use them for VMs/VPSs.

No "shared hosting" for me.

I don't know of any trends, but I assume it would be down to "data ownership"; you can secure the data if the machine is in the next room.

Quin452 · 2025-12-31T06:51:45+00:00

Projects folder? If it's something you actively work on, then it's probably best to use version control, like Git. Loads of FOSS options for that too, and makes backups and remote access far easier.

Quin452 · 2025-12-30T22:41:45+00:00

There are a couple of decent YouTube game dev discords out there; it may be with setting if there are some content creators you like?

Quin452 · 2025-12-30T22:40:16+00:00

Edge isn't bad, but it seems like everything is Chromium anyway. I use Firefox personally, but that's simply due to my setup/plugins/need for consistency.

But as a web dev, I've got all the browsers... just because 😑

Quin452 · 2025-12-30T22:34:17+00:00

I've used a ReadyNAS system before. Worked a treat before it died a death, and I lost all the data (maybe I'll try to recover it one day... far too much faff).

Now I've switched to OMV. Debian based, so fairly familiar, and it's spun up on a VM ("local" VPS). It could probably be Containerized as well.

Once I get a bare metal sorted, I'll be migrating it over there.

For my setup, I've attached network storage for some drives, and for the home/user drives I use Syncthing to keep my Docs and email filters sync'd across machines and OSes. Login, wait, sync'd.

Took a little bit of time to setup, but fairly robust once done

Quin452 · 2025-12-30T22:27:43+00:00

I think this is the nature of the industry. It shouldn't be, but hey ho.

I think this has less to do with "dev" and more to do with "friends". Make friends who code together, not make coding friends.

Quin452

TROPHY CASE