The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Looking for feedback on my idea. Be honest!

Idea threads

Gsuz

If you want the crown, you gotta take it
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
242%
Jul 3, 2012
454
1,099
I know that execution matters and ideas are a dime a dozen, but I would still like some feedback on this whole concept as there is always a certain kind of danger to fall in love with your idea too much and overlook potential flaws.


I am grateful for any kind of feedback and I promise to document every step of this journey on these forums once I start it, so that others can possibly gain some useful insight.




This is a mixture of various other ideas I had. The main idea behind this is that every person likes to be appreciated for the work they are doing. From personal experience I know that employers often lack the time or effort to show their employees that they are doing a good job. Employees on the other hand often feel underappreciated and not valued enough for what they are doing.

This is what I have in mind:

A subscription based service that allows businesses to send customizable vouchers together with a letter or a giftcard each x months to its employees.

Everything can be customized: The type of voucher (Amazon, local businesses), the money amount per voucher,the letter/giftcard text, the envelope.

Imagine receiving a black envelope with golden letters containing a personalized letter saying "Dear John Miller, we thank you for your excellent work this month yadayadayada" and a voucher worth $20.

Pretty cool.

This has various benefits for business owners: Increases motivation (studies saying by up to 30%) as money is not the only motivational factor and loyalty to the company (employees feeling valued), differentation (standing out) raises corporate feeling, creates buzz, employees talking about it, press talking about it "First company in XYZTOWN to do that",cost effective way to increase productivity


The pricing is something I'm not really sure about. This business model obviously relies on scale rather than magnitude.
My idea is to charge voucher value + $5 + extras. So if someone wants $10 vouchers it would cost him $15 for the voucher, a customized letter/gift card text and shipping. If he wants to brand the giftcard, wants another envelope etc he has to pay extra, like +$1/extra. Another approach would be to offer multiple versions without the customization. eg. Silver (voucher value +$15) Gold(voucher value +$17,50) Platinum (voucher value +$20). Silver being the basic version, Platinum obviously the version with all the features like branding, black envelope, silver/golden letters. Disadvantage of going that way is that the customer can not fully customize it, on the other hand it avoids feelings of mental overload as there are less decisions to make.


I envision a website similar to wonga.com with a professional, but not too techy look that makes use of sliders to allow setting the number of employees and the voucher value. So if someone entered 300 employees and a voucher value of $10 it would then say below:

For as little as $15 per person you can make 300 people up to 30% more productive, 20% more loyal, 15% happier OR you can hire 3 new people.

[BUTTON] YES, I want to SUPERCHARGE my employees!


That button would then link to the nextstep of the sales funnel which is an account creation page or the beginning of the customization process.



Fast forward..at the end there would be 3 shipment options:

  • without any names sent to the business address, so they hand them out themselves
  • with names sent to the business address, they hand them out themselves, but it's more personal
  • sent directly to the employee, element of surprise, best effects. This would require the customer to enter all the employees data which could be quite time consuming. So I would use a script saying "It would take you voucher number x 10 seconds to enter that data manually or you can give us a call at 000/000000 which takes about 60 seconds and let us do the rest" I would then have them send me a list via email or fax and enter the data myself.



Long term plan is to offer a wider variety of products like books, food, flowers, day trips to choose from and also get motivation coaches and the like on board and offer personal coaching for executes, group coaching and so on. You could also leverage the user base to get discounts on the vouchers to increase the profit. I talked to a few businesses saying "If I would bring you 1000 customers, would you give me that $10 voucher for $5?" and most of them agreed.



To advertize the site and get customers I got a few things in mind: Send free samples to editorial offices of newspapers and websites in exchange for an article after contacting them via Email or phone, media buys on news sites and a simple referral program where the referrer gets 10% of the ordered vouchers once. Also I will cold call every business from A to Z in my area.


If you've read this far, thanks for your time! I appreciate it.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Entourage

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
154%
Sep 12, 2012
227
350
29
I like the idea, but I'd make the formula 20/50/100

Also try to haggle 15% from the business where the voucher is spent ;)
 

100k

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
149%
Oct 20, 2012
1,529
2,284
There is only 1 way to find out if this works and if you have a business.

Start small, go to local businesses and offer them this (dont ask them - sell them the service) and see if they want to spend their money on that!

I suspect they may not want to, but then again what do I know about small shops and big corporations?!

Sorry to be harsh, but lets try to keep it real.
 

2KidsinUT

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
105%
Aug 2, 2012
43
45
Utah
I like your idea, but I don't know much about business or corporate environments... so I ran your idea by someone who does, my dad... and he really likes your idea, especially your ad (but he recommends starting with $20 vouchers or higher). His advice... first, keep it very simple until you build an initial client base, then test new features. He said that less choices make it easier to buy; second, don't confuse environments and try to be a single solution to all businesses. Either target the high-end market where egos rule and where volume is low but prices much, much higher (charge % fee), or target everyone else where prices are low but volume is high (charge $5-$10 fixed fee). If you opt for everyone else, target niches, like professional businesses. Third, start now, before the up coming holidays.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

CTamme

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
51%
Sep 27, 2012
65
33
QC, Iowa
I know at the hospital system I was working for they were being very careful about the dollar amount of gifts they gave to employees because of the tax implications. Something like gift cards had to be under $50. So you might want to research that side of things but most smaller companies don't worry about this at all.

You could also market this to send to customers as a thank you. I imagine possibly realtors or maybe car salesmen could utilize a service like this.

Also target the goofy holidays like administrative assistant day and nurses day and national whatever day when a company is looking for something to give to their specific to that day employees.

Interesting idea.
 

100k

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
149%
Oct 20, 2012
1,529
2,284
Sounds like your dad is a smart man, take his advice and ACT!

Good luck. Keep us updated.
 

JasonR

Maverick
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
544%
May 29, 2012
2,102
11,425
Las Vegas
I think it's a solid idea and worth a shot. Sometimes a nice, surprise (cheap) gift goes a long way in terms of recognition then a raise. Especially if the gift is given in front of others.

However, if your idea caught on, I don't see much barriers to entry. At least you'd have the brand recognition - but you need a super creative, unique, short name (ez. Zappos, Google, etc.).
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

100k

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
149%
Oct 20, 2012
1,529
2,284
Jason has a good point, the entry barrier. But if you build a strong relationship with the people in charge then they could stay loyal for years.


Also, getting a gift for every client might be a tough sell (especially every month), but how about a "GIFT AWARD" where each month you can submit the best xxx from your company, or the person that has made the most progress that month and the boss rewards that person by submitting their name and photo to your "GIFT AWARD" website that has millions of visitors every month and they also get a gift basket as a recognition for their hard work.

Trust me, that would def. get employees to work harder so they can be up on a big site like that.

Think of it like the Grammy's of the working people.
 

Gsuz

If you want the crown, you gotta take it
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
242%
Jul 3, 2012
454
1,099
There is only 1 way to find out if this works and if you have a business.

Start small, go to local businesses and offer them this (dont ask them - sell them the service) and see if they want to spend their money on that!

I suspect they may not want to, but then again what do I know about small shops and big corporations?!

Sorry to be harsh, but lets try to keep it real.

You're right, I went to around 20 business owners and they really bought into it, tho I had no product as I'm still figuring out things. But most of them liked the idea, some of them liked it, but told me they had no money for this.

I like the idea, but I'd make the formula 20/50/100

Also try to haggle 15% from the business where the voucher is spent ;)

Great idea! Thank you.

I like your idea, but I don't know much about business or corporate environments... so I ran your idea by someone who does, my dad... and he really likes your idea, especially your ad (but he recommends starting with $20 vouchers or higher). His advice... first, keep it very simple until you build an initial client base, then test new features. He said that less choices make it easier to buy; second, don't confuse environments and try to be a single solution to all businesses. Either target the high-end market where egos rule and where volume is low but prices much, much higher (charge % fee), or target everyone else where prices are low but volume is high (charge $5-$10 fixed fee). If you opt for everyone else, target niches, like professional businesses. Third, start now, before the up coming holidays.

Wow, thanks a lot! I really appreciate what you did and great feedback from your dad. He really hit the nail on the head with his advice, especially with keeping it simple. I will offer 4 versions, 20/50/100 + fixed fee and above 100 + 10% fee.
I will mainly target high volume markets, but if someone wants to spend more, he's free to do so.

I know at the hospital system I was working for they were being very careful about the dollar amount of gifts they gave to employees because of the tax implications. Something like gift cards had to be under $50. So you might want to research that side of things but most smaller companies don't worry about this at all.

You could also market this to send to customers as a thank you. I imagine possibly realtors or maybe car salesmen could utilize a service like this.

Also target the goofy holidays like administrative assistant day and nurses day and national whatever day when a company is looking for something to give to their specific to that day employees.

Interesting idea.

Yeah, I checked that and where I live businesses can give non-money vouchers up to 600ish euros/year per person w/o caring for taxes whatsoever.

Love that idea! I think that my website will have three different pages "For employees", "For customers" and "For business partners" with each having a slightly different sales pitch.

I will definitely keep that in mind aswell, thank you so much.


I think it's a solid idea and worth a shot. Sometimes a nice, surprise (cheap) gift goes a long way in terms of recognition then a raise. Especially if the gift is given in front of others.

However, if your idea caught on, I don't see much barriers to entry. At least you'd have the brand recognition - but you need a super creative, unique, short name (ez. Zappos, Google, etc.).

Yeah, part of my inspiration came from that very same experience. You're right about the brand recognition and the importance of the name, spent hours at night brainstorming about that, all I could come up with was Motivy. :smash:

Jason has a good point, the entry barrier. But if you build a strong relationship with the people in charge then they could stay loyal for years.


Also, getting a gift for every client might be a tough sell (especially every month), but how about a "GIFT AWARD" where each month you can submit the best xxx from your company, or the person that has made the most progress that month and the boss rewards that person by submitting their name and photo to your "GIFT AWARD" website that has millions of visitors every month and they also get a gift basket as a recognition for their hard work.

Trust me, that would def. get employees to work harder so they can be up on a big site like that.

Think of it like the Grammy's of the working people.

Yeah, he has a good point and building a strong relationship with them is certainly VERY important.


WOW! That's an amazing idea and it got my head spinning in a whole new direction.





tl;dr: Thanks for all the feedback, I will keep you updated.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top