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Nutrition Business

Alan at SE

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Dec 15, 2007
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A few friends and I believe the nutrition business is booming. There are only a few MAJOR companies out there such as bodybuilding.com and dpsnutrition.com and the typical stores such as Vitamin Shoppe and GNC. Everyone is realizing that they need to get in shape and hit the gym with the aid of supplements. We personally have enough knowledge about what products and brands are out there. We have already sourced a few wholesale companies.

You might ask what we will do different from other companies. Honestly, I can't tell you I've thought much about it but to 'try' to provide better prices and quicker shipping.

What we want to do is start small with an online based store working out of our home/garages. I personally possess a good amount of computer knowledge and believe I can manage the osCommerce store. I'm an IT major and have worked with websites in the past.

What do you guys see for the future in this particular market?

Another issue is that we are college students still and while we have bright ideas, money is an issue. I know it is going to cost a lost initially. Any ideas of how much? 50k+? How do we go about funding this?

What I believe to be the biggest advantage on our side is that we are friends with WVU football star Owen Schmitt. He is going NFL and there is no doubt that he will support us. He will be KEY to marketing.

So any insights and tips will be greatly appreciated.:cheers:
 
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LightHouse

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So what exactley is your plan? to sell all sorts of Pharmas via an ecommerce store? or narrow it down to one in specific and expoilt it?
 

6.0_bull

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Nov 27, 2007
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I have some almost first hand knowledge in this business my best friend has been in this business for almost ten years ….

Here is what I know via what he has told me and some of my personal thoughts…

He runs a online nutrition eCommerce site and has a major drop shipper to distribute his products , protein powders ,supplements etc all over the US and Canada at both a retail level and a wholesale level .

There is a huge mark-up in these products at a retail level including eCommerce ,the more you buy the cheaper you get it at a wholesale level witch is a given now that being said
Considering what he has told me, and from what I have seen, when he first started this business he was racking in the cash hand over fist especially considering he had started doing this business at an early state of eCommerce and especially for this kind of product
With huge demand and very little to no competition online …Another thing is at the time he started with quite a large capital investment and had the advantage of huge bulk orders
And was able to sell his products at a much lower price then the average retail store , there for his orders were just flowing in….

However over the last 5 years there are literally hundreds of online retailers of bodybuilding /fitness product sites online and now competing with him at same prices so his business has been cut down to 20% of what he use to do even though he has been branded for almost 10 years and has built up a clientele list.

This is why with any new venture is it of utmost important to do your thorough research and find out who your competitors are how many, prices etc before you venture into anything.

You might also want to consider starting your own product line, witch might be a much more profitable venture considering you have Owen Schmitt that would be a huge asset to your marketing campaign, and would be more applicable to marketing versus an eCommerce venture. But of course eCommerce with your new product line would be essential to distribution and Branding , I would suggest taking a look at Muscletech a perfect example of a company that started from nothing and now does tens of millions of dollars in sales due to there great product line and use of athletes for marketing in there campaigns.

Hope this helps …….Best of luck
 
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mtnman

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Oct 3, 2007
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I say niche it or ditch it. Supplementation is pretty broad and there are many other major players other than the ones you mentioned. I have purchased from most of them. In my opinion, you'll have to do something better than getting them the same shit that everyone else markets, quicker. Also, many products offer declining health rather than improving. This will be a long term problem in my opinion. I'm not trying to be discouraging in any manner, just make sure you do your DD before you shell out the benjamins. You wouldn't want to end up tied to some tracks with a freight train headed your way.

Also, why are you doing this? From what I gathered, it's because you think the industry is booming. This is not good enough. To make money? Not good enough. This is involved in the health industry, so for long term you really have to help people to have a lasting business. This goes back to your mission statement if you guys have thought about a business plan.

For example...

What product or service can you provide to make someone enhance performance, energy, appearance, etc...while not declining their overall well being. This would provide a niche, as well as, a long term consumer relationship. After all, selling people products that don't benefit them as a whole, will die off eventually, just as they do.

I'm confident you have something here though, just needs a bit of tweaking. :hl:
 

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