[Progress Thread]Building a subscription based managed e-commerce solution

[joschi]

As the requests what I do and how I do it are getting some more I’ve decided to start this new thread. The old joschi crossroads thread is used for my personal development as this thread will be used for my current business idea and execution. I will answer any questions as good as I can . Any feedback would be highly appreciated so please tell me your thoughts and concerns, tell my wye my business is predestinated to fail or to success, tell me what I didn’t consider. Also tell me what you like or any questions that are related and my help you with your business.

What I am doing:
I am building a managed ecommerce Solution. Basically its nothing to fancy, I only have to program some small hacks as everything is based on worpress, woocommerce and many other related extensions.

The benefits for my customers are:
Central updates and backups
disaster recovery
use of own ssl certificates
professional server infrastructure
they only pay a monthly subscription
they don’t have to buy any plugins or services
tested plugins
200 Designs or own designs
support on any question regarding how to do something with the system or “how can I questionsâ€
social marketing covered with some automatisation
list products on ebay
use drop shipping
Many more features…

Where I am building this service:
Currently I am building this service for Germany. Later on I would like to extend it to Austria and Switzerland. In the next steps I will cover the UK and US
As it is quite common for Germany that people don’t like to do anything themselves I will offer the following upsells via 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party or my services: SEO, copywriting, marketing, product care and some more.

Who are my customers:
People who like word press but don’t like the technical hassle.
Entrepreneurs who need a shop system.
Offline businesses in Germany who want (need) a good Website (as an example: Home this is the homepage of my local mechanic lol)
Someone who want to sell something online and don’t want to spend big money on useless systems
people who need some amount of support and want their back covered when it comes to technical stuff.
Small and middle business.

What I’ve learned so far:
Most thinks don’t work as expected, I have to adapt finetune and change the plan a little all the time.
Sometimes it is technical stuff sometimes other. For example: I had 2 friends who liked the idea and told me they want to work with me on this. That was 2 weeks ago… Nearly nothing happened… NEVER rely on anyone except yourself on doing stuff for your business (it’s another thing if you pay this person) most people only work for money, not for equity.
DO IT YOUR SELVE TILL YOU HAVE THE MONEY TO PAY SOMEONE
You will come to a point where you have to spend some money. It’s a fact. Most people are scared of this. Deal with it.

Challenges to overcome:
Do all the work alone after my 9-5
Many legal stuff and issues in Germany. Besides that I will do it.
By the way, even if the system is completely in German language the Backend is completely English. So if someone wants to Beta test it in round about 4 weeks write me a message.

Questions? Ask!
Patrick

Drafted frontpage:
5d3d02902ef0f364bb3f3de9cc5ca50a.png

Drafted pricing table:
3eea81afbe8ad0f00996697cf7dd251f.png

 

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[valuegiver]

Who are your competitors? Shopify?

 

[joschi]

I’ve didn’t really found any big competitors for this business model so far.

If there is one it would be a mixture of wpengine and Shopify
It’s the niche of a niche. But to see it a little more realistic, everyone who offers a ecommerce solution is a potential competitor.

 

[KirbyRaymund]

so you aggregate different marketing services? is that it?

 

[valuegiver]

It looks like you're trying to convert wordpress into an e-commerce solution. I don't know how you're going to do this - writing plugins? JMHO, serious business builders don't prefer wordpress as our e-commerce platform since it is NOT designed to be one in the first place.

I’ve didn’t really found any big competitors for this business model so far.

If there is one it would be a mixture of wpengine and Shopify
It’s the niche of a niche. But to see it a little more realistic, everyone who offers a ecommerce solution is a potential competitor.

 

[joschi]

I don’t have to convert it since there are already great solutions. And I know it’s wasn’t intentionally build for that. Anyway, many people choose it because it is available and relatively easy to use. And there are some really competitive ecommerce solutions for word press. My target audience is not someone who want to sell 10000 different products, there are other solutions for that.

My target audience is someone who has a video series and want only paying members to see it, someone who has one to 100 niche products to sell and need a blog + great SEO, my target audience is the restaurant who want to present themselves with some events. And all have one thing in common; they don’t have the knowledge nor the time to learn how a server works, or to research 1000ds of plugins. Think of it like webhosting service, but with a managed word press who offers premium plugins without extra search pay and so on + the support if you need help with your installation.
It’s kind of hard to explain without giving you the wrong picture as English is not my native language.

With kind regards.

 

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[joschi]

Looking for the right type of company

Right now I am back to research again. Even if i have a small company to do all the money and tax stuff, it might be better to have one with limited liability.
There are 2 possibilitys, maybe 3. first would be the UG or "Unternehmens Gesellschaft". Its the German equivalent to the LTD or LLC which would be the other 2 possibilitys

Everything has it Pros and Cons and the decision is really hard.
With a UG i would have a German Company form which is good since it is my native language. On the other hand i have to save up 25% of the companys profit up to 25000€ and it is hard to get more money into the company! So i have to invest all at once kind of.

I could make a LTD and could hire a service who manages the company since i only need a ailing address in England. The bad thing here is that England is very restrictive when it comes to tax payments. only the director can personally sign it and you just have to do it in time, not a day later.

The LLC seems to be the best choice, but its hard to understand for me, since every state in America has its own rules. Plus you need an American citizen to found this type of company.

Any Input on this topic would be highly appreciated! Let me know what you guy think.

With kind regards
joschi