Progress thread-Just so you guys can help me stay motivated and accountable

[biggeemac]

So my wife and I are opening shop out of our house. We have our product of choice picked......have done a lot of research, we are users of the product and believe in it, we have some customers and have made some sales. I have hired a buddy of mine that I have worked with before on some general coaching. He is very successful. I've worked with him before and trust him. We already have some paying customers.

Thanks for listening.

 

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[DeletedUser2]

ill watch

 

[biggeemac]

Great ! Its an honor to have the dude that inspired me to get off my a$$ and get this thing going in the first place now observing my actions (or lack of). Thank you sir !

 

[biggeemac]

Wifey received her $200 order today and had did $95 in sales within the first hour. Yeah, this gives me hope that we picked a good product.

 

[andyredsox]

- Nice post man, it is very inspirational, especially to some newbie’s who wants to start their own business. Keep it up, and congrats.

 

[biggeemac]

Update -

Had a coaching/planning conference with my buddy today. He was the one who originally introduced me to TMF in the first place and did a youtube interview with MJ. He confirmed what I suspected, that our product niche is a goldmine. Of course, he never really noticed it until we brought it to his attention. We had a brainstorming session and many of the ideas were very cool. There are so many ways it can be monetized, so i am, of course, very excited.

So we have our plan together. We believe we have chosen our distributor and will be placing an order with them probably today or tomorrow. Also will be incorporating to keep our butts safe. Also will be ordering business cards today. We will also be working on some other marketing to-do's this week.

Stay tuned.

 

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[biggeemac]

Ok, so something interesting has happened. While working on this business, I have uncovered another need. There doesnt appear to be an app on the market anywhere (Mac, Win, Google play, Marketplace, Etc) that keeps a bundle of tools available for those individuals who wish to start a business similar to the one that I am starting. There are apps available, but they are all lacking SOMETHING. The product we are going to be selling is HIGHLY customizable with many accessories and configurations that require specific calculations. This product is still somewhat in its infancy but is gaining huge traction.

So here is what I am thinking. A wordpress site that sells my products isnt good enough. I see plenty of those sites available. But what if I could get a wordpress site built that allows an individual OR business owner to be able to order my products at wholesale or retail price, and also has the tools available on a subscription basis to be able to do the calculations necessary to customize the products without having to hunt and search for individual apps to perform the calculations and keep track of the repeat customers and their specific configuration? Many of these customers will be repeat customers. I am thinking out loud, but if anyone is familiar with the best way to outsource the development of a wordpress site and do custom plugins/widgets, any suggestions or PM's would be helpful.

 

[DeletedUser2]

"done for you" services do really well btw. and yes, PM me if you are serious about going down that road


Z

 

[magneto]

Ok, so something interesting has happened. While working on this business, I have uncovered another need. There doesnt appear to be an app on the market anywhere (Mac, Win, Google play, Marketplace, Etc) that keeps a bundle of tools available for those individuals who wish to start a business similar to the one that I am starting. There are apps available, but they are all lacking SOMETHING. The product we are going to be selling is HIGHLY customizable with many accessories and configurations that require specific calculations. This product is still somewhat in its infancy but is gaining huge traction.

So here is what I am thinking. A wordpress site that sells my products isnt good enough. I see plenty of those sites available. But what if I could get a wordpress site built that allows an individual OR business owner to be able to order my products at wholesale or retail price, and also has the tools available on a subscription basis to be able to do the calculations necessary to customize the products without having to hunt and search for individual apps to perform the calculations and keep track of the repeat customers and their specific configuration? Many of these customers will be repeat customers. I am thinking out loud, but if anyone is familiar with the best way to outsource the development of a wordpress site and do custom plugins/widgets, any suggestions or PM's would be helpful.

I've been a programmer for many years and have been a part of teams who have developed web applications and windows software for small and medium sized businesses. So I'm talking from experience here.

The truth is, the kind of web application you've mentioned will take at least a few thousand dollars to develop, even if you outsource to India. Also, you're going to meet many programmers who call themselves software engineers, who will build software which is buggy and slow. You might end up having to spend some more money to get the bugs fixed after your application goes live.

So, I strongly recommend against getting a custom web application (or Wordpress plugin) developed, if you cannot afford to take such a huge risk.

Go with a regular Wordpress website for the time being, and if possible, charge a fee to your clients to outsource the calculations and customization recommendations to your company. Help them out the old-fashioned way on the phone or email. Good customer service/support will immediately set you apart from all those companies selling from their regular Wordpress websites.

This way you'll also get to learn if it's feasible to pour in thousands of dollars to get the application (or Wordpress plugin) developed. You'll also find out which parts of the service are the most important or time-consuming, and need to be automated.

Only then, outsource to get the most important part of the service automated or built as an application. Get more features developed in small iterations overtime and you'll considerably minimize your risk this way.

 

[biggeemac]

Update - Test products came in from China today. Everything looks legit and professional. I must admit, im feeling kinda warm and runny right about now ready to really get the ball rolling. Ordered business cards. Domain and email hosting is all set. Getting ready to drop a little cash on a wordpress theme, business logo, and banner. Business google phone number and sales email address are all set. Signed up for a mail chimp account so we can get an email list together for email marketing.

I also signed up for an internet marketing course that my buddy and his partner are running about using youtube to promote your business and products. Had the first class on Monday. Very excited.

I will keep you all in the loop. Thanks.

 

[biggeemac]

Ok, just ordered my first load of product. My total came out to just over $2000. Should be able to flip this into around $7500 with the pricing that we have in place.

Internet marketing is going well. Working on youtube videos and mailing list. Will be showcasing one of my unique products. I am currently using the product and I really like it. I'm going to demo the product on my youtube channel which should gain some interest in the product. I had my manufacturer send me 5 more samples so that I can see what kind of interest I get in them on amazon.

 

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[Eskil]

Very exciting. Care to share a little bit about what product market you're in without getting too specific?

 

[biggeemac]

Unfortunately, there is nothing i can say without just coming out and saying exactly what it is. Sorry, gonna keep working at it and i may reveal later. But considering im in a house full of want/entrepreneurs, just not sure. But I would share at the next pancake thingy.....hopefully i can make it.

 

[biggeemac]

Update......

my first REAL shipment is on its way here from Hong Kong. Im pretty excited to finally put our money where our mouths are . Website/blog is coming along, as is my youtube channel. I will be heavily utilizing youtube to drive traffic.

More to come.

 

[biggeemac]

So we got our shipment a few days ago. Everything is going well.

I decided that after my supplier denied a request from me that it was time to find a second supplier. The new supplier appears to be more accomodating, has more product, a lower MOQ, pretty much replies to me instantly over email, is cheaper than my current supplier, and my sales rep speaks pretty good English. I ordered some sample product. If all goes well, they will be my #1 supplier. I will keep the other supplier as a backup.

The wife and i decided last night to take a break and spend an evening NOT working on the business after having worked on it every evening and weekend for about two weeks straight. I think we both had a mental crash at the same time . I did do some research and made a youtube vid for about an hour and then went to the bedroom and watched a movie and vegged out the rest of the evening. Wife took the kids to taekwondo after work and then came home and had a drink and went to sleep. We will be back at it tonight. She informed me the next day that the dojo master would be VERY interested in getting some of our product to his family members back in Israel.....so there may be an exporting opportunity in our future as well. He said that there would be a HUGE need for our product there

The website isnt ready to be open to the public yet. Right now, the wife is still selling product to co-workers and referrals. We're not making a whole lot because we are concentrating more on getting our system up rather than getting customers, but we are very profitable with the items we are selling

I am enjoying learning this process. I have a better understanding of learning the "process" that Vigilante talked about in https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/fastlane/35694-addicted-passive-income-deposits.html (I dont seem to have access to this thread anymore, btw.....booooo

ONWARD !!