I found a need, and I shall exploit it!

[IAmTheJeff]

Perhaps I'm posting this a little preemptively, but I want to include my development process through to going live and, if all goes as planned, going from the curb (sidewalk/slowlane) to the fast lane.

Every time I search for a new mechanic or body shop, I get the google maps listings, then yellow pages, then individual SEO'd shops. Now, this really pisses me off. I want to fix this!

I found a few domains that are available, I also own a domain that would translate well for custom shops. I feel that the best model for this business would be similar to @MJ DeMarco's limo referral site, but as a subscription service.

I've talked to a few body shops and mechanics this week, including the one I work for, and interest in my idea has been positive so far. I still need to do my diligence on more of a national scale, but I feel that, particularly in highly populated areas, I should receive somewhere around 35% positive response. Now I know that there's a very good chance that it won't amount to a 35% conversion rate, but that's ok.

Ideally, I want to create a site that utilizes a user's location to suggest shops by specific need. Need an oil change? Why go to a full service shop to pay a higher price and wait longer? Need a bumper painted? This shop specializes in 24hr turnarounds. Conversely, you would want a lube shop to replace your motor, or that quick turnaround body shop to repair the crushed side of your BMW.

I don't see referral fee being an efficient model because many repairs are infrequent, and shops need to do their own scheduling based on their availability.

This fills the need of more customers for the shops, and finding the shops for the consumer.

The biggest issue I can foresee is pricing structure. I figure I will offer my site's services free or as a referral structure for three months, and convert to a monthly or yearly subscription after. Any thoughts? I will be updating this thread regularly as I develop my concept further and as I build my Fastlane opportunity. I will be keeping my day job, but will probably limit my hours as things begin to come together.

Thanks for any interest you may show in my journey!

-Jeff

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[DrkSide]

What does your service offer that I cannot find with a quick internet search?

Answer that and then ask if people would pay for it.

I would definitely go with a lead gen where the shop pays you for the lead. Pricing structure would be different for each expertise because a full body shop will not pay as much as an oil change shop. Ask the shops you talk to what a customer is worth and you can price off of this. My suggestion would be to stay away from commodity services such as oil changes. You could possibly run ads for them on the site but this is not going to be your money maker.

FREE IDEA: I had this awhile back and wrote it in my little black book. Make a "Crash 911" App for when people have an accident they can press a button and get a quick listing of local towing companies and body shops. You could also build insurance and police information in as well.

You can charge a lead for the towing service as well as the shop service and it is automated.

 

[osandu]

My wife was in a car accident (luckily she and my son who were in were fine). She called me first (it was 1 minute away from our house) and the other guy (I believe) called police or 911. Anyway, I was at the scene in 2 minutes and 2 towing trucks were already there, police came 5-10 minutes later. Towing guys are on standby and listen to police channels and are at the scene before anybody else plus they have referrals arrangements with local bodyshops and car renting companies and manage all these while you are still in shock...my two cents

 

[IAmTheJeff]

Thanks for the input! I just don't see a per- referral fee turning in to a reliable recurring income, particularly if I eliminate the quick cheap job type shops. I also feel that by doing a subscription based model, my clients would realize a lower customer acquisition cost.

In regards to your app, that's a great idea, but I'm not sure it's for me. Thank you, however!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[DrkSide]

Thanks for the input! I just don't see a per- referral fee turning in to a reliable recurring income, particularly if I eliminate the quick cheap job type shops. I also feel that by doing a subscription based model, my clients would realize a lower customer acquisition cost.

You need to test each method to see which is going to work. I see a body shop paying for a customer much sooner than a customer paying for a referral to a body shop.

 

[codo3500]

Thanks for the input! I just don't see a per- referral fee turning in to a reliable recurring income, particularly if I eliminate the quick cheap job type shops. I also feel that by doing a subscription based model, my clients would realize a lower customer acquisition cost.

In regards to your app, that's a great idea, but I'm not sure it's for me. Thank you, however!

When you're comparing Referral Fee Vs. Subscription you're not looking at it right.

It should equate to the same anyway. All it comes down to is a balance - either you're making more money, or the supplier is saving more money, you can't have both.

If you have 200 leads in a month, and you charge $3/lead, you made $600. If you had 12 subscribers at $50ea to distribute these leads to, you make the exact same amount. Let's say you charge them only $20, then you make less money on that model. Let's say you charge them $75/m, then all of the sudden, it costs more for the supplier to acquire a customer (Customer Acquisition Cost).

If you add more suppliers in, you dilute the benefit for every subscriber already in existence. So it's always going to be this balance, between how much they're paying for a lead, and what you're charging for one - the model referral vs. subscription is irrelevant other than in establishing the value to new clients.

Per lead model works better because it presents no risk. You'll find signups a lot easier, and this is critical in a 2-sided market. You will want to sign up as many as possible to begin with, or you'll have too much trouble establishing a userbase. With a referral model you can quickly accumulate one side of the market and be ready to go with all-out marketing on the other side.

P.S. With subscription model you can start by offering a free trial, but the drop-off rate is huge with this unless they see immediate value. They'll leave before you reach critical mass. That's just two-sided markets unfortunately.

 

[IAmTheJeff]

I see a body shop paying for a customer much sooner than a customer paying for a referral to a body shop.

I agree with that. I never intended to have the consumer pay for referrals to shops. I apologize if I wasn't clear - the shops would either pay a referral fee, or a subscription - either monthly or yearly. I think the subscription offers the best value for my client (the shop) and either way, the consumer (end user) wins.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[IAmTheJeff]

Codo - I see what you're saying, I think. So they pay PER LEAD, regardless of a service sold or not sold? In essence, could that not be double dipping - where I'm actually getting paid multiple times on one single lead?

Conversely, would a $3/lead fee be universal? A lead that ended in a $40 thermostat replacement and a lead for an engine rebuild would essentially be the same?

 

[codo3500]

Codo - I see what you're saying, I think. So they pay PER LEAD, regardless of a service sold or not sold? In essence, could that not be double dipping - where I'm actually getting paid multiple times on one single lead?

Conversely, would a $3/lead fee be universal? A lead that ended in a $40 thermostat replacement and a lead for an engine rebuild would essentially be the same?

It's VERY similar to the way MJ ran his Limo business. You could double dip; but be up-front about it, that you'll give the lead to X number of suppliers.

It has its issues, like dud leads, but you can just have a refund/credit system for that, I've seen that work.

The difficult part for you is obviously that not all leads are equal, you would need to categorize it and test, test and test some more. You would need to get feedback.

A great place to start is just get talking to people that own these kinds of places. Don't build it and THEN find out it's not what they want. Just ask them all the right questions, and let them speak. You may find out that they don't even want leads for Oil Changes; or plenty of other info you unfortunately can't guess.

 

[IAmTheJeff]

Ok, back it up. Let me take it back to basics and my absolute original idea.

Originally (pre-thread and pre-FLM explanation of MJ's limo site structure), my concept was as follows:

1. Create a database of service providers.
2. Offer this database to the consumer in EXTREMELY specific searchable form.
3. Monetize by approaching these providers about a monthly/yearly subscription to be listed on the database, therefore allowing them the opportunity to customize (to a certain extent) their listing.
4. See people like me be less frustrated looking for a good shop, see the shops have warm leads coming in, and making people happy.
5. Enjoy a laid back lifestyle of hanging out with my wife and kid after a couple years of customer service, selling, and finally selling to Google for $3.7B.

Okay, so #5 is a stretch, but everyone has a dream lol

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[IAmTheJeff]

@DrkSide - I forgot the fundamental reason why I am creating this. You mentioned that a simple search could yield the same results as what I'm building. The whole premise is that I can never find quality results via a simple web search. That's the "need" in my equation!

Wasn't sure if you caught that part before. This is NOT a selfish venture, aside from being a user of my own creation!

 

[Gale4rc]

I think the major question is, if you had this app already buit, how are you going to obtain customers?

 

[IAmTheJeff]

I think the major question is, if you had this app already buit, how are you going to obtain customers?

Not quite sure what you're asking here, Gale4rc....

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[DrkSide]

Not quite sure what you're asking here

You are working a two sided market with one side being consumers and one side being the shops. What you run into is the old "chicken or the egg" bit of you need shops before you get customers and you need customers before you get shops.

 

[IAmTheJeff]

My thinking was consumer first, monetization via the shops second.

 

[Gale4rc]

How are you going to get consumers to use your app?

In such a competitive space like you said, individual companies already doing SEO right... Chances are you can't really compete with that, is my guess ?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Revoked]

Ok, back it up. Let me take it back to basics and my absolute original idea.

Originally (pre-thread and pre-FLM explanation of MJ's limo site structure), my concept was as follows:

1. Create a database of service providers.
2. Offer this database to the consumer in EXTREMELY specific searchable form.
3. Monetize by approaching these providers about a monthly/yearly subscription to be listed on the database, therefore allowing them the opportunity to customize (to a certain extent) their listing.
4. See people like me be less frustrated looking for a good shop, see the shops have warm leads coming in, and making people happy.
5. Enjoy a laid back lifestyle of hanging out with my wife and kid after a couple years of customer service, selling, and finally selling to Google for $3.7B.

Okay, so #5 is a stretch, but everyone has a dream lol

Sorry man, but have you heard of Yelp? Don't know that you are going to get a slice of the pie with this.

 

[IAmTheJeff]

I have heard of Yelp, but haven't really considered them as a potential competitor because they are everything-focused. It is a nice site and a nice model, but there's so much stuff! I haven't found filtering the way I want for my site, so there is a way of differentiating myself. I'm not sure how they monetize, but I'll definitely look in to it more.

-Jeff

 

[IAmTheJeff]

Alright kids, now after some due diligence, it seems that monetization of this might (definitely would) be more difficult than I first thought. Should I scrap it or persevere?

After some deep thought and plenty of self evaluation, I realized that I was acting as a hard headed jackass, so my outlook on things has changed a bit. This realization has been sobering and enlightening, and I feel I'm genuinely prepared to move forward in my Fastlane journey.

That being said:

I have a bunch of other ideas that I'll be looking in to over this week, including a couple product importing concepts, an information product or two, and a campaign pointed towards high school students that could potentially help change their financial futures before they graduate.

I kind of really enjoy the last, since I REALLY wish something similar existed about 15 years ago when I was one of those starry eyed kids with huge expectations for a bright future.

For that one, I would REALLY like to partner with one, maybe two of you Fastlaners to fully optimize its potential. If any of you happen to be interested, let me know, and we can get in to more detail.

Questions and comments are more than welcome.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[codo3500]

Best advice I can give is to Validate properly. Make sure you know for a fact people will pay for your product before you build it. Don't write a book then try to sell it - try to sell the book, and if you can, then write it. It'll save you tonnes of time. It may take you 20 times before you find the right idea, but if you're validating one a week, that's 20 weeks - writing 20 information products and marketing them, well, that could easily take 20 months

 

[IAmTheJeff]

That is some valuable insight, and I will definitely implement that in to my plan. Thanks!

 

[Bigguns50]

Best advice I can give is to Validate properly. Make sure you know for a fact people will pay for your product before you build it.

I second this. I also want to ad to use your 'gut feeling' or instincts. If something doesn't 'feel' right don't ignore it. Explore it.
I say this from my own personal experience.

It'll save you tonnes of time.

Yes Sir. Idea-validate..then either dump it fast or pursue it fast.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[TedM]

Don't write a book then try to sell it - try to sell the book, and if you can, then write it.

That is evergreen advice.

 

[IAmTheJeff]

I don't know why, but I feel extremely discouraged today, like I can't get motivated. I have a feeling that my day job is really dragging me down, working 10 hours 5 days a week, then 5-8 hours on Saturday.

Makes me think, what are my REAL LIFE motivations for taking a Fastlane journey? To get out of the perpetual "rut" of go to work, make the owner money, get a paycheck, pay bills? That's one. To be able to give my family my time without regard to money? That's another. To have the ability to change people's lives in one way or another? That's a big one. Or how about the to be the inventor in the Lambo from MJ's past, to some kid now and be his motivation to follow his dreams. DING!!!!! That's the one! So why is it that I am getting discouraged? Well, I don't know, but it seems a little selfish now that I think of it.

 

[TedM]

I don't know why, but I feel extremely discouraged today, like I can't get motivated. I have a feeling that my day job is really dragging me down, working 10 hours 5 days a week, then 5-8 hours on Saturday.

you're not working very hard, really.

I'm not a productivity god, but for months i'd put in another 8 or more hours a week, working the same as you, plus another 2 hours a day for other daily obligations plus a wife and a bunch of kids.

what i am is a good project manager. make a plan for your end goal, map out the milestones you need to meet and the timelines and then work backward. come up w/weekly goals and monthly goals. you'll feel a lot better.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Deleted21704]

I think you're on to something, but here's my perspective. I think such a service should take shape as less of a new listing service and more of a real-time local bidding service.

This is a difficult problem to solve, but I think it does need to be solved. Google, Yelp, and existing resources are limited in their utility when it comes to specific, real-time business information like product & service availability and inventory--particularly when it is specific to a person's needs.

What do I mean? Sure, you can do a web search for shops specializing in a general type of problem. Let's take tire-mounting as an example, something I needed done a little while ago. Prices vary, sure, but there are deeper issues. Some shops don't do low-profile tires. Others' machines were broken. You can't possibly know this from Google or Yelp, and even then, you can't expect local business owners to keep that sort of information updated 24/7.

That's why there needs to be a more real-time, demand-based listing service. The customer texts their need to a control center, and that control center forwards your need to appropriate service providers in your area. Businesses respond to your request based on how well they can fulfill it--at that very moment, with regards to your particular situation. You (control center) charge businesses a fee to relay those responses to the customer, and of course, fees would be variable based on how visible that business wants to be to the customer (i.e., 1st place or 10th place).

There isn't even any additional equipment/website/profile setup needed on the customer's part or the business owners' part because it's all done by SMS.

As you can see, I've thought about this before. I didn't pursue it because it will require a LONG time to gather customers on both sides to make it a viable cash-generating business. But I don't see the future existing without it (or something similar).

Here's an example of something similar that launched in the DC area in 2012 but seems to have gone MIA since then (it would probably be worth exploring why):
http://www.sevasearch.com/

 

[Bigguns50]

map out the milestones you need to meet and the timelines and then work backward

Gold.

ome up w/weekly goals and monthly goals.

More gold.

We all have days like you. The difference between us and the wannabees is WE PUSH THROUGH. Even if we feel like shit for whatever reason and don't get much done in a day we still push. Have another cup of coffee...50 pushups...play with the kids for a bit...whatever to get you moving.

 

[IAmTheJeff]

WOOOOOOOOOW!!!!! That's brilliant! Is that something you're going to pursue?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Deleted21704]

WOOOOOOOOOW!!!!! That's brilliant! Is that something you're going to pursue?

lol it isn't brilliant until it's done. You should pursue it in Philly. I'll do it in DC. Then we merge and take over the country. Sound good?

 

[IAmTheJeff]

You guys are great, and I'm glad that I found this forum. It's a real pain in the a$$ trying to get something going while balancing work and home lives to boot, and I'm not planning on giving up on it. Just wanted to keep up on my mindset and try to grab a reminder of what this is all about!