Thread: Home Inventory Web App - Ready to make it big

Originally Posted by andviv

Did you do it yourself or hired somebody for this?

I like the video too. I'm going to be putting together a video for kickstarter soon and that's the route I want to go. Where did you get it done?

What does the "DEN" stand for in the name? Sorry if that was posted earlier.

Originally Posted by andviv

I like the video.

Did you do it yourself or hired somebody for this?

Congrats on the video, it is very good.

I also like the video. I like this idea, it is a good one. Keep at it. This one might pan out..

Originally Posted by TJPB

What does the "DEN" stand for in the name? Sorry if that was posted earlier.

I would assume Den as in your home, aka, your den.

I liked the video. It told me how your business can benefit me. Just keep plugging along. Keep an eye on the news, watch for bad storms that do damage. They just had major flooding in Florida...were you pounding out articles about ways those people could get help? or could of been helped if they had your service? or setting up a collection drive in your company's name to help them? You should. You have a great service that can get lots of publicity during a catastrophe...be like a politician..never miss an opportunity to use a catastrophe to your advantage.

I would go to Hurricane prone areas, flood prone areas, tornado prone areas...and give the service away for free (for now), you need testimonials. So you need to get it into the hands of people likely to use it. Go door to door if you have too.

Sue

Great video! I'd definitely be an 'ambulance chaser' and target disaster areas, floods, fires, hurricanes etc... You could get a TON of free publicity on local news channels in those areas.

It's kinda like insurance, you don't think about it until after you need it. Your hot market would prob be those who already had a loss. You might want to JV with disaster recovery firms. I think the key is to make the data entry easy as possible for people, I think that is the biggest sticking point for those who haven't suffered a loss. It could be a great business oppty you could sell to people looking for part time income to go into a home and do the inventory for the homeowners. I think you'd get thousands of people interested in paying you for a nice turnkey business opportunity package. They'd pay you to go sell your service.

Originally Posted by CommonCents

It's kinda like insurance, you don't think about it until after you need it. Your hot market would prob be those who already had a loss. You might want to JV with disaster recovery firms. I think the key is to make the data entry easy as possible for people, I think that is the biggest sticking point for those who haven't suffered a loss. It could be a great business oppty you could sell to people looking for part time income to go into a home and do the inventory for the homeowners. I think you'd get thousands of people interested in paying you for a nice turnkey business opportunity package. They'd pay you to go sell your service.

I was just thinking along the same line, But in all my hard thinking I keep coming back to two big problems with this deal..

1. Would you really invite someone into your house to take pics of the major items you want to make sure you have pics of incase they get ripped off, destroyed in a fire, etc..? I wouldn't.. To add to that, I dont see that happening in an hour or two.. cataloging, taking pics, writing down SN, etc..

Seems to me even the independent guy would need to make 50 bucks an hour to make it a realistic biz opp.. and how long would a house take, 8. 10,15 hours maybe. So a house alone could run $500-1000 bucks. Is that to high, I think it might be?

2. Say I took the pics myself.. Do I really want pics of my prized possessions floating around on the web, someone that even though the site says it is secure? Is it? I would spend every night thinking that I know that some site somewhere has pics of my gun collection, my paintings, my gold toilet.. etc..

Just found this....

Home Inventory Software, Home Management Software, Home To Do ? HomeZada

and

http://www.pcworld.com/article/23665...readsheet.html

Originally Posted by JackEdwards

I was just thinking along the same line, But in all my hard thinking I keep coming back to two big problems with this deal..

1. Would you really invite someone into your house to take pics of the major items you want to make sure you have pics of incase they get ripped off, destroyed in a fire, etc..? I wouldn't.. To add to that, I dont see that happening in an hour or two.. cataloging, taking pics, writing down SN, etc..

Seems to me even the independent guy would need to make 50 bucks an hour to make it a realistic biz opp.. and how long would a house take, 8. 10,15 hours maybe. So a house alone could run $500-1000 bucks. Is that to high, I think it might be?

2. Say I took the pics myself.. Do I really want pics of my prized possessions floating around on the web, someone that even though the site says it is secure? Is it? I would spend every night thinking that I know that some site somewhere has pics of my gun collection, my paintings, my gold toilet.. etc..

I agree with Jack on this one. This would be a thieves dream!

Originally Posted by TJPB

Great progress! I like your site and the video is good. I don't get your tag line of "own what you own" but that is probably just me.

Personally, it would take me months to catalog everything I own and I have no desire to do it myself. Might be worthwhile to focus on newlyweds.....just starting to amass household items.

Also, you should add screenshots of the specialized reports you feature along with shots of the data input pages.

Thanks! The "own what you own" just means to get a handle on the things you own and be able to manage them. The dream is to have it be a all in one item 'control center'.

I don't have any screenshots of the app since it's free and I figure they can sign up to see it, but following my strategy of being a mint.com I probably need to follow suit.

Originally Posted by Likwid24

I like the video too. I'm going to be putting together a video for kickstarter soon and that's the route I want to go. Where did you get it done?

Elance, you really have to explore the contractor's work. Some of them are just awful. I mean, I'm sorry if they spend a lot of time on it, but I'd be embarrassed to have my name in 85% of the animations done for people on Elance. Definitely look for smooth flowing vector...that's just me.

Originally Posted by BeingChewsie

I liked the video. It told me how your business can benefit me. Just keep plugging along. Keep an eye on the news, watch for bad storms that do damage. They just had major flooding in Florida...were you pounding out articles about ways those people could get help? or could of been helped if they had your service? or setting up a collection drive in your company's name to help them? You should. You have a great service that can get lots of publicity during a catastrophe...be like a politician..never miss an opportunity to use a catastrophe to your advantage.

I would go to Hurricane prone areas, flood prone areas, tornado prone areas...and give the service away for free (for now), you need testimonials. So you need to get it into the hands of people likely to use it. Go door to door if you have too.

Sue

When I was reading Guerrilla Marketing I thought of something similar to this. Basically going out to the scene of a fire and handing someone $50 (for a night in the hotel and what not) and a business card with my website having a coupon code for a free year. Just an idea...but yes...I like where you are going with it.

We are a tornado and fire ridden area so I think I have a lot of turf to help out.

Originally Posted by JackEdwards

1. Would you really invite someone into your house to take pics of the major items you want to make sure you have pics of incase they get ripped off, destroyed in a fire, etc..? I wouldn't.. To add to that, I dont see that happening in an hour or two.. cataloging, taking pics, writing down SN, etc..

Seems to me even the independent guy would need to make 50 bucks an hour to make it a realistic biz opp.. and how long would a house take, 8. 10,15 hours maybe. So a house alone could run $500-1000 bucks. Is that to high, I think it might be?

This is why I didn't want to do this path. Also, there seems like so much liability and reputation to be tarnished if a customer had a bad experience. It seems like it would be impossible for the customer NOT to associate that bad experience with YOUR name...even if it is a independent inventory guy...unless your company name not being revealed was part of the terms...still scandalous.

Originally Posted by JackEdwards

2. Say I took the pics myself.. Do I really want pics of my prized possessions floating around on the web, someone that even though the site says it is secure? Is it? I would spend every night thinking that I know that some site somewhere has pics of my gun collection, my paintings, my gold toilet.. etc..

Obviously people store more dangerous information online already. However, one safeguard that I have on this is for people to have the OPTION to put in their address, city, state, zip, etc...

Some people won't think twice about entering the info, but others might get restless at the thought of that. In one sense, I DEFINITELY want anonymity for my users on this issue. On the other hand, I would like to collect some amount of information to be able to do analytics. I would love some advice on this, it's an issue that's been bothering me.

Originally Posted by TJPB

Just found this....

Home Inventory Software, Home Management Software, Home To Do ? HomeZada

and

Download a Free Home-Inventory Spreadsheet | PCWorld

Competition and a jank method, both I knew existed and both I plan to beat.

I don't know if you'd be interested in this idea, but why not use the inventory as a step towards peer-to-peer renting? People buy large TVs right before the SuperBowl sometimes and return it. I wouldn't mind renting my TV to a local... I'd make $50 and they wouldn't pay restocking fees which are probably over $50 depending on the set. Or lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, digital cameras... etc... of course the price tag / rates would be different per item, but I think peer-to-peer / social renting could be a great complementary service to your inventory site.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by narcninja

This is why I didn't want to do this path. Also, there seems like so much liability and reputation to be tarnished if a customer had a bad experience. It seems like it would be impossible for the customer NOT to associate that bad experience with YOUR name...even if it is a independent inventory guy...unless your company name not being revealed was part of the terms...still scandalous.

You have a lot to learn.

For example, If you truly went after insurance agencies with a deal like this, you have a lot to learn about business. But you got gumption, a nice site so keep at it.

Originally Posted by narcninja

Obviously people store more dangerous information online already. However, one safeguard that I have on this is for people to have the OPTION to put in their address, city, state, zip, etc...

Some people won't think twice about entering the info, but others might get restless at the thought of that. In one sense, I DEFINITELY want anonymity for my users on this issue. On the other hand, I would like to collect some amount of information to be able to do analytics. I would love some advice on this, it's an issue that's been bothering me.

Actually, the kind of people you are looking for will think twice, I don't think you will pull the teenage apt crowd, Your customers will be older, much older, it's takes time to accumulate stuff they want to keep. Also time and experience has taught them to be careful and not as trustworthy as someone younger. Add to that, they really don't understand this web stuff.. Not good.

Also, you give them the option to put in their address? well to charge their C.C. they all have to put in their address and trust me they will think somewhere, somehow, their CC is tied to their account, which no matter how much you tell me is secure, isn't.

For example you might be a one man shop now, Are you using your own servers? Cause if you are hosted somewhere else, that means someone else can see your files...

Having said that, I like your idea. I think your pay plans are kind of crazy. but besides that, this business might have a great chance.

Originally Posted by JackEdwards

You have a lot to learn.

For example, If you truly went after insurance agencies with a deal like this, you have a lot to learn about business. But you got gumption, a nice site so keep at it.

I'm saying I think this is a terrible idea. Are you saying it's a great one?

Originally Posted by JackEdwards

Actually, the kind of people you are looking for will think twice, I don't think you will pull the teenage apt crowd, Your customers will be older, much older, it's takes time to accumulate stuff they want to keep. Also time and experience has taught them to be careful and not as trustworthy as someone younger. Add to that, they really don't understand this web stuff.. Not good.

That's why I try to make the interface and sign up as easy as possible. I know I will be targeting the 30-40+ married couples who have built up enough things worth saving.

Originally Posted by JackEdwards

Also, you give them the option to put in their address? well to charge their C.C. they all have to put in their address and trust me they will think somewhere, somehow, their CC is tied to their account, which no matter how much you tell me is secure, isn't.

I have payments options only available through PayPal at the moment...nothing stored on the site.

Originally Posted by JackEdwards

For example you might be a one man shop now, Are you using your own servers? Cause if you are hosted somewhere else, that means someone else can see your files...

Even if I owned my own stuff, they could still get hacked. I'm just trying to break the identifier between someone's stuff and WHO they are or WHERE they are.

Originally Posted by JackEdwards

Having said that, I like your idea. I think your pay plans are kind of crazy. but besides that, this business might have a great chance.

I'll take both of those as compliments I do plan on simplifying the pay plans though...

Hello,

I am curious to an update on how this site is going for you. I am an insurance agent, although I am trying to start my own online business. I can see you having some printed materials dropped off at local insurance agencies. We get solicitors all the time at the office auto glass repair guys and restoration guys and I always try to help them out.

Your service would be a god send to anyone dealing with a total loss claim on their home. Obviously some insurance agencies are a lot larger than others. The small guy might be more helpful to you although it is going to be a lot of knocking on doors.

I'm passionate about graphic design and love the design of your site. Good Job! -Emily