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- Sep 13, 2012
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In the spirit of JackEdwards I'm going to use The Fastlane Forum as my way to give back and hopefully motivate those who are sitting on the sidelines wondering "when".
My background:
Full-time Internet professional since 2005, but I spent the entire time self-employed where my income was predicated on my personal labor. So this is my first true "fastlane" venture. Typical mid-twenties something internet engineer, who I am isn't going to be nearly as important as what I create so...
The startup:
Last summer I came across someone who I was personally made aware of that makes nearly all of his money in online direct response marketing (and he was in the millions). His niches were pretty massive and I realized that I could probably do what he's doing. So I broke down the best practices for that industry over a few months, got a little money together, bought inventory, and made all of the marketing materials myself, chose a marketing angle and went for it.
Black Friday comes and goes... Things are running behind and not launched yet... Then December 3rd rolls around and business starts coming in as well as the sales and just like that I'm in business. My margins are healthy and I'd better not disclose who I am or what the niche is, but aside from that I'll be sure to clue you guys in as much as possible.
I ended up spending all of December to test & retest everything. Different pricing points, billing models, and penetration strategies. When January rolled around I put everything on pause after the first week so I could focus on the actual automation and scaling of the business. The sales that came in were all of the testing I needed to know that I have a business, so it was time to focus on the logistics and operations of the business so I'm not the one managing fulfillment, billing, managing the marketing, and acting as the accountant.
In other words, it's time to take fervent and calculated action.
So what's my business model?
Well, firstly I'm in a multi-billion dollar industry that's fragmented and relatively unregulated. It's in the consumable goods space and being forwardly integrated my end buyer are individual consumers.
I've decided to take what's been a relatively merchant-centric business and add a little legitimacy to it. Many of the companies partake in deceptive marketing practices and billing methods while they go from one trend to the next. I'm going to come in and build a customer service-based company (think Zappos) that retails other products at extremely competitive pricing while selling my own line of products to the same customers.
Starting Capital?
Well, since I've already spent money & resources on inventory, marketing materials, incorporation, phone systems, raw goods my restarting budget is only $5,000. Keep in mind I simply put things on hold while I restructured to handle larger volume, my margins are pretty healthy and my variable costs are minimal at the moment (my official headquarters is a bedroom lol). I will be reinvesting nearly every dime and the sales process is instant...
What are the margins like?
On my line of products: Gross x 10 x12. On the products I'm retailing I'd rather not say.
Competitive advantages?
As of right now it'll be speed of implementation, access to data, and flexibility of stratagem. In other words, I seriously think I can outsmart the competition.
In all honesty, competition isn't even in my mind right now. I'm sure that if I execute properly I'll do just fine. :coolgleamA:
So here's the lean startup:
More details will come as I progress, which I plan to do quickly and efficiently. Let's just say I think I'd even give Hannibal a hard-on.
Day 0: I'm almost done building the final solution retail website based on a popular CMS & e-commerce solution. That marks day six of development.
My background:
Full-time Internet professional since 2005, but I spent the entire time self-employed where my income was predicated on my personal labor. So this is my first true "fastlane" venture. Typical mid-twenties something internet engineer, who I am isn't going to be nearly as important as what I create so...
The startup:
Last summer I came across someone who I was personally made aware of that makes nearly all of his money in online direct response marketing (and he was in the millions). His niches were pretty massive and I realized that I could probably do what he's doing. So I broke down the best practices for that industry over a few months, got a little money together, bought inventory, and made all of the marketing materials myself, chose a marketing angle and went for it.
Black Friday comes and goes... Things are running behind and not launched yet... Then December 3rd rolls around and business starts coming in as well as the sales and just like that I'm in business. My margins are healthy and I'd better not disclose who I am or what the niche is, but aside from that I'll be sure to clue you guys in as much as possible.
I ended up spending all of December to test & retest everything. Different pricing points, billing models, and penetration strategies. When January rolled around I put everything on pause after the first week so I could focus on the actual automation and scaling of the business. The sales that came in were all of the testing I needed to know that I have a business, so it was time to focus on the logistics and operations of the business so I'm not the one managing fulfillment, billing, managing the marketing, and acting as the accountant.
In other words, it's time to take fervent and calculated action.
So what's my business model?
Well, firstly I'm in a multi-billion dollar industry that's fragmented and relatively unregulated. It's in the consumable goods space and being forwardly integrated my end buyer are individual consumers.
I've decided to take what's been a relatively merchant-centric business and add a little legitimacy to it. Many of the companies partake in deceptive marketing practices and billing methods while they go from one trend to the next. I'm going to come in and build a customer service-based company (think Zappos) that retails other products at extremely competitive pricing while selling my own line of products to the same customers.
Starting Capital?
Well, since I've already spent money & resources on inventory, marketing materials, incorporation, phone systems, raw goods my restarting budget is only $5,000. Keep in mind I simply put things on hold while I restructured to handle larger volume, my margins are pretty healthy and my variable costs are minimal at the moment (my official headquarters is a bedroom lol). I will be reinvesting nearly every dime and the sales process is instant...
What are the margins like?
On my line of products: Gross x 10 x12. On the products I'm retailing I'd rather not say.
Competitive advantages?
As of right now it'll be speed of implementation, access to data, and flexibility of stratagem. In other words, I seriously think I can outsmart the competition.
In all honesty, competition isn't even in my mind right now. I'm sure that if I execute properly I'll do just fine. :coolgleamA:
So here's the lean startup:
- Consumer goods retailer & line of products.
- The individual products can be seasonal in nature, but generally are evergreen.
- As of this moment the marketing mix is entirely Internet based, but that will change when capital and opportunities free themselves at opportune moments.
- I'm the only sales staff at this second, but I'll be automating within week one and hiring when needed. The wife is the bookkeeper.
More details will come as I progress, which I plan to do quickly and efficiently. Let's just say I think I'd even give Hannibal a hard-on.
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Day 0: I'm almost done building the final solution retail website based on a popular CMS & e-commerce solution. That marks day six of development.
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(I did spend the time to make sure we're now PCI compliant though, so it hasn't been a total waste of time.)
). I'll gladly trade URLs with you and what not, I'd rather simply not post it in public.
). I haven't heard about Google Merchant Center before. So I researched it and have seen that it's not available to my actual country(still in Romania, but moving to Germany from March where this service is available).
