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Going into the Fastlane adventure ... Right now !

Marcus B

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Jul 11, 2017
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Helloo forum,

I am currently working on a business creation, so I will post here the steps I have been through and my plan for the next few months / years, and upload it over time. If you have any thoughts or advices related to this new business, I would be glad to ear it and discuss with you.


A little background


25 years old, French, living in the south-west part of France (Pau), just finished my Master degree in business (with a specialization in corporate finance and cost control). My bachelor was in International Marketing, that's why I speak english.

Worked for a big company during the past 13 months in apprenticeship, and have been able to save 15 000€. I plan to invest around 10 000€ in the business.

Read The Millionnaire Fastlane in June : it convinced me to go for the business creation, although it had been on my mind since the beggining of my studies, 7 years ago. The company offered another comfortable 1-year contract but I declined to start my entrepreneurial dream.


The concept

After a few changes (of ideas and of partners), I decided to start it on my own.

I am very attached to food and terroir. You all know the french reputation for high quality alimentation : this notoriety is based on a great agriculture. My project is to home deliver terroir products (from local farms) directly to customers, thanks to an online platform.

It would allow consumers to have access to product directly from farms, even if they cannot go pick it up themselves. On the other way, it would allow small farmers to sell more of their products directly to consumers, short channel, without having to do anything new from their current strategy. They would then be less dependent from large retailers that can have a strong margin of negociation on prices.

Our main values would be transparency, simplicity, taste.


What I expect from this thread


To post in this forum has 3 main objectives for me :

- Hold myself accountable to what I previously said, so that I can measure the difference between what I expected and what I have really manage to achieve.

- Benefit from your experiences if some of you already work in this field, if you have knowledge to share, if you have reflexion to make this project grow into the right direction.

- Contribute back to what I learned on the different threads of this forum. I don't have so much experience for the moment, but I'm quite sure some of the things I'll go through will help someone one day in his adventure.


My plan

For the moment, here are the few next steps I planned

Before December 2017 = Building and clarifying the vision, the strategy, the business model of the company, realize the market study.

From December 2017= Start working on the website. I want to have a Minimum Viable Product for mid-February. At the same time, I'll create the legal structure I need to operate, start a few partnerships with local farmers (I am already in some networks), develop the commercial strategy.

March = Beggining of the activity on a small scale, to be sure I am able to deliver the products clients pay for. Once it'll work well, I will start communication and developing more partnerships. I would like to have an operating system that can deliver at least one hundrer products a week by July 2017.


To end this first message

I am very excited to go on this adventure as it has been on my mind since a long time. Do not hesitate to tell me the barriers you think I have to be careful about, and the details you would like to know to understand my vision / chances of success.

Thanks for reading all this message !
Let's go !

Marc B.
 
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inputchip

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Before December 2017 = Building and clarifying the vision, the strategy, the business model of the company, realize the market study.

From December 2017= Start working on the website. I want to have a Minimum Viable Product for mid-February. At the same time, I'll create the legal structure I need to operate, start a few partnerships with local farmers (I am already in some networks), develop the commercial strategy.

Don't fall into the trap of spending countless days creating a business plan that will end up changing anyways -- we call that action faking around here. A landing page can be made within a days work as well. Don't limit yourself to what you can do in a short period of time. Start today and take action.

Have you validated your idea at all? Gone door to door and see if people would sign up for this service? Ask strangers, not your friends or family.

Also, welcome to the forum. There's a lot of high quality content here. Follow the breadcrumbs.
 

Marcus B

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Jul 11, 2017
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Pau, France
Don't fall into the trap of spending countless days creating a business plan that will end up changing anyways -- we call that action faking around here. A landing page can be made within a days work as well. Don't limit yourself to what you can do in a short period of time. Start today and take action.

Have you validated your idea at all? Gone door to door and see if people would sign up for this service? Ask strangers, not your friends or family.

Also, welcome to the forum. There's a lot of high quality content here. Follow the breadcrumbs.

Thanks for your fast and very realistic answer. That is exactly why I'm here.
I haven't validated the idea for the moment. Some people told me they would be interested in this service (6 different) but I haven't gone door to door to ask directly to strangers.

Let you know as soon as I have results from this approach.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Thanks for the intro and welcome. And good luck with the development!
 
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Marcus B

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Jul 11, 2017
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Pau, France
Hello everyone,

I made my first sale today !!

As I was having a lunch for a friend's birthday, my phone had a notification of a sale of 151€ ! From a stranger living in the other side of the country ! Here is the story behind the beggining of the business and the work done since last post.

While validating my previous idea, I realized with Google Adwords that people were looking for food basket as a gift. I then decided that it would be a great beggining to test the market, test my skills and ability to run a business.

In the past two weeks, here is what I did to be able to sell and have a structure that can commercialize products :

Product

I did partnerships with 5 local high quality food producers : Honey, chocolate, wine, foie gras, jam and sweets. I concived 4 different baskets, in a range of price starting at 29€ to 109€ (for the "Prestige" basket). Picture are too big to upload them in the post so go check on the website if curious.
I did a first small command to show that I was serious, they then accepted to have me paying at the end of January. I then passed a command of 4500€ to have a stock of 150 baskets ready to sell.
Also bought baskets and every elements to make the basket highly valuable (personal card wishing good Christmas, red and yellow chips of wedging, the baskets, flashy stars, plastic packaging ...). Cost : for the moment, I spent around 1000 for the merchandise.

Website

I created a e-commerce website in 7 days, using Wix with a professional account (cost : 23€ / month without any engagement).
You can see the end result clicking here : www.mamiejo.com
Don't hesitate to give me feedback as it will help improve the quality of the overall service.
People can pay and command directly on the website, using Paypal and Stripe as a payment module. Cost ; 23€ + 43€ for DNS and hosting.

Administrative

I created the company and now have the immatriculation number and is officially registered as a company.
Sorry @MJ DeMarco, but for the moment I am a "sole proprietary" (the french equivalent) and not a real distinct society, as it would have taken too long and make me miss the opportunity of christmas. I am being accompanied by experts from a commerce organization that are currently calculating if it would be worth it to create a society or to wait a litlle bit longer (my current statut is tax efficient, easy and flexible to operate).

I also registered in the different services of the Government to be able to sell (alcohol licence to be able to distribute wine, food regulations and sanitary policies).
Also had to do a ontract with an insurance company to insure my car (as I am doing home delivery in my city) and the garage I am working in (in the basement of my parent's house).

Also opened a professional bank account. Cost : 8€ / month.

Logistics / Distribution

As I want to sell the food basket on all French territory, I did a contract with a transporter (TNT) who delivers everywhere in France in 24 hours. They come to pick up the boxes at my place.
For all commands here in my city (Pau), I deliver them directly to clients. Cost : 10€ for every box I send with their company.

Social Media

Did a Facebook page : @paniersdemamiejo - 137 likes (did a game/competition for people to win a basket today, 85 comments, good reaction from people and a cheap mean of communication and starting to positionnate the brand). Took a few FB ads to reach people. Cost : 30€
An Instagram page : @paniersgourmandsdemamiejo - 131 followers, good engagement from them on the pictures, an influencer with 19k followers from my region is organizing a competition to win a basket for Christmas. Took a advertising campaign for 10€.

Photos

Did a photoshoot with a professionnal to make the photos very attractive. It took us a fool afternoon to make 4 pictures. They are too big to upload them here, go to check on www.mamiejo.com. Cost : few products and engagement to work together in the future.

Branding

A professional friend is currently working on designin a logo and a graphic chart for the whole brand, with typographies. Cost : 250€.

Commercial strategy

I created a few documents to reach people (flyers and cards).
I will expose the products a lunch during this week at the work council of a big company of my town (around 2500 people working there).
I am currently prospecting companies from here (as a gift for christmas for partners and collaborators), associations, sport clubs.
Cost : 50€

Objectives

The minimum I would be happy with is 100 sales for December (already have them in stock).
Nevertheless, I secretly dream of selling 1000 baskets. I checked with the suppliers and they are able to supply in 3 days if I have a big command.

Every feedback from you guys will be highly appreciated ! If you have an insight about how to reach more customers around France so that they buy on the website and be delivered at home, I take !

Wish you a pleasant and successful month of December to end the Year the best you can, and hope you are all in great health.
The best for you and your families.
This forum is very motivating and reality-based. Thank you MJ Demarco for having creating this.

Marc
 

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