User Power
Value/Post Ratio
68%
- Aug 23, 2015
- 34
- 23
Hi everyone,
Thanks for reading my thread. I’m a 20 year old “wantrepreneur” who is looking to start his own business. Still in college, which is bad because it eats my time, but the upside is I have no living costs of my own, which allows me to focus on my money-making efforts without fear of bankruptcy.
I have had one other project – a Wordpress blog – which didn’t take off unfortunately. The failed venture gave me some technical knowledge however, and I’m confident I can take this business on a profitable path.
Part of why I ditched my previous project is because of some Fastline insights: it failed the command of Entry, Control, and Time. A bad score.
This idea I’m having will hopefully score better: it’s a subscription based business (like the Dollar Shave Club) that delivers monthly a variety of flavors of a consumable with an active, buying, hip audience.
First of all – I am in Europe. The subscription-box type of business model is starting to emerge around these parts, but mostly the market remains untapped. This is where I, hopefully, can fill a Need and provide value through delivering quality samples and rare, unheard-of flavors. Once the subscription model is gaining traction, I will hopefully be able to “ride the wave” and profit from being one of the first of its kind. I have observed other such businesses do very well btw!
Still with me?
Tomorrow I will buy a domain name. I’m on the fence about the name. I’m tempted to go with an exotic TLD to show a trendy, current image. Something like: name.club . Or should I go with nameclub.com anyway? Does it matter at all?
I know how to set up a website with Wordpress. There are several pieces of software designed specifically to create subscription-based businesses, but at 20 dollars/month this won’t make me profitable until I hit a certain number of subscribers. I will probably go with WooCommerce and associated plug-ins and see how that works out – once I gain subscribers I can upgrade to specific software. I’ve considered even doing it manually for the first few subscribers (get them to pay me via Paypal and manage everything offline with Excel). Thoughts on this?
I’ve already crunched some numbers through Excel, and I have a very accurate estimate of costs and profits involved. Still an estimate, however!
Things I need to do:
· Figure out how much packaging + branding of boxes would cost
· Figure out how much I can expect to pay for top notch design work for the website
My game plan is as follows:
1. Order a tiny amount of product, boxes, and other miscellaneous items (stickers, flyers) that get sent to customers
2. Get the website up and running
3. Ask my family to sign up, get feedback, and refund them – this is basically an exercise to manage this operation on a micro-scale
4. Once everything runs smooth, offer subscriptions at half the price for the first x amount of subscribers, and offer bonuses via “refer a friend” campaigns
5. Reach out to my personal network
6. Hopefully by this point I have at least some subscribers and I’m able to turn a profit (however small) which I can spend on advertising and reaching out to influencers
7. Get feedback, adjust, improve & repeat.
Right now I have some exams I have to get through, but I plan on working on the website on the side. Once the exams are over, it’s go time.
Please feel free to share your thoughts, I’d very much appreciate it.
Thanks for reading my thread. I’m a 20 year old “wantrepreneur” who is looking to start his own business. Still in college, which is bad because it eats my time, but the upside is I have no living costs of my own, which allows me to focus on my money-making efforts without fear of bankruptcy.
I have had one other project – a Wordpress blog – which didn’t take off unfortunately. The failed venture gave me some technical knowledge however, and I’m confident I can take this business on a profitable path.
Part of why I ditched my previous project is because of some Fastline insights: it failed the command of Entry, Control, and Time. A bad score.
This idea I’m having will hopefully score better: it’s a subscription based business (like the Dollar Shave Club) that delivers monthly a variety of flavors of a consumable with an active, buying, hip audience.
First of all – I am in Europe. The subscription-box type of business model is starting to emerge around these parts, but mostly the market remains untapped. This is where I, hopefully, can fill a Need and provide value through delivering quality samples and rare, unheard-of flavors. Once the subscription model is gaining traction, I will hopefully be able to “ride the wave” and profit from being one of the first of its kind. I have observed other such businesses do very well btw!
Still with me?
Tomorrow I will buy a domain name. I’m on the fence about the name. I’m tempted to go with an exotic TLD to show a trendy, current image. Something like: name.club . Or should I go with nameclub.com anyway? Does it matter at all?
I know how to set up a website with Wordpress. There are several pieces of software designed specifically to create subscription-based businesses, but at 20 dollars/month this won’t make me profitable until I hit a certain number of subscribers. I will probably go with WooCommerce and associated plug-ins and see how that works out – once I gain subscribers I can upgrade to specific software. I’ve considered even doing it manually for the first few subscribers (get them to pay me via Paypal and manage everything offline with Excel). Thoughts on this?
I’ve already crunched some numbers through Excel, and I have a very accurate estimate of costs and profits involved. Still an estimate, however!
Things I need to do:
· Figure out how much packaging + branding of boxes would cost
· Figure out how much I can expect to pay for top notch design work for the website
My game plan is as follows:
1. Order a tiny amount of product, boxes, and other miscellaneous items (stickers, flyers) that get sent to customers
2. Get the website up and running
3. Ask my family to sign up, get feedback, and refund them – this is basically an exercise to manage this operation on a micro-scale
4. Once everything runs smooth, offer subscriptions at half the price for the first x amount of subscribers, and offer bonuses via “refer a friend” campaigns
5. Reach out to my personal network
6. Hopefully by this point I have at least some subscribers and I’m able to turn a profit (however small) which I can spend on advertising and reaching out to influencers
7. Get feedback, adjust, improve & repeat.
Right now I have some exams I have to get through, but I plan on working on the website on the side. Once the exams are over, it’s go time.
Please feel free to share your thoughts, I’d very much appreciate it.
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