Thread: JOURNAL of Opening a New Business

Updates:

1) I ended up not leasing the space since my experiment didn't make me comfortable enough with proceeding and the manager I was going to hire didn't follow through. I've found a vendor to outsource the process.

By getting a lease/hiring a manager I was turning a profit center into a cost center so this is a better approach (reference: accounting).

2) Still formalizing a deal with two suppliers. I don't want to start something until I know it will back out.

3) My other venture doubled in sales. It should exceed $100k/mo in sales so it's been taking more focus. The growth has compounded from previous experiments.

4) Took on a partner to sell in Europe

Did you outsource the sales force to a sales service? If so was it US based and what other services, if any, do theyoffer like marketing, customer service, etc.?

Nice work speed+

Originally Posted by Pete799p

Did you outsource the sales force to a sales service? If so was it US based and what other services, if any, do they offer like marketing, customer service, etc.?

Nice work speed+

Yes to all three questions. I like to do one thing it at a time because it makes it easier to isolate problems so, for now, just sales. I heard a wise angel investor once say: "I don't understand means no." Thanks.

Unrelated: When I drink coffee/later at night, I have a heightened sense of optimism and creativity. I find paper/pen is not great. I like to sync up ideas/tasks with my tablet and android with an app like springpad.

Thanks for documenting your venture. It's great to see people in action.

Help us out and give us a little more insight into your venture.

• Is the end user consumer or business?
• What is the turnover rate for the buyer? Something they buy once a year? Once a month?
• Is the market wide or niche related?
• How are you approaching prospects? Cold calls by phone? In person?
• What's your leverage? Price? Service? Uniqueness?

Best of luck to you and wishes for much success.

What sort of businesses have you ran in the past? (retail, consulting etc)


What sort of business are you creating now? From your posts I get the impression that you are selling software B2B, but idk

If so, where did you get the idea to do this?



Looks like you are making good progress. Keep it up!

Originally Posted by pro

Yes to all three questions. I like to do one thing it at a time because it makes it easier to isolate problems so, for now, just sales. I heard a wise angel investor once say: "I don't understand means no." Thanks.

Thanks you for the answers.

I was wondering what your compensation structure looks like. Are you paying your sales company a base rate plus comission or just comission or just base? Is your product something proprietary or are you wholesaling another manufacturers product.

Originally Posted by Tiger

Thanks for documenting your venture. It's great to see people in action.

Help us out and give us a little more insight into your venture.

• Is the end user consumer or business?
• What is the turnover rate for the buyer? Something they buy once a year? Once a month?
• Is the market wide or niche related?
• How are you approaching prospects? Cold calls by phone? In person?
• What's your leverage? Price? Service? Uniqueness?

Best of luck to you and wishes for much success.

- consumer with affiliate partners
- varied: some one-time and some ongoing - bimodal distribution depending on satisfaction
- niche
- online and phone only
- relevant marketing and proven product

Originally Posted by AcquireCurrency

What sort of businesses have you ran in the past? (retail, consulting etc)

What sort of business are you creating now? From your posts I get the impression that you are selling software B2B, but idk

If so, where did you get the idea to do this?

Looks like you are making good progress. Keep it up!

- Web/Mobile/Financial Services
- Memberships
- Idea: found demand through some partners, ran some experiments, and filled the gap

The focus is to improve our margins, and trim risk so we can scale.