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Offline Consultant - Business Venture Scaling - In over my head -‏

by mdrich10
11 replies
Hey guys my name is Mark Rich and i joined this community about a month ago. Id first like to say thank you to everyone for providing such awesome content. I'm learning something new everyday.

That being said, i think i may have just got myself in over my head with a project i agreed to take on. I am relatively new to the internet marketing arena with about 1 year of part time experience.


Project Details:

One man approached me about setting up an e-commerce site to sell his "hunting widget." I went to the Google keyword tool and found over 100,000 searches per month looking for this "widget."

NO ONE ELSE IS SELLING THIS THING!!!

He makes these widgets by himself at home, but he has no clue on how to sell them on the internet or make money. Thus i offered him a business partnership where i would take 50% of all the profits if i were to set up everything.
(E-commerce Website, Optimization, Payment Gateway, fulfillment etc.)


Now Im pretty sure it wouldnt be that difficult to setup a simple Wordpress E-commerce site for actually selling these "Widgets."

The problem would be with SCALING the business.

- how do you go about finding a manufacturer to duplicate and mass produce his handcrafted widget??
- How do you find a good shipper to partner with the manufacturer??
- How does one split the profits 50-50?? (Separate business account? Payment Gateways?? Paypal??)
- Is there a general contract template for this type of business venture arrangement?? (I don't have a thousand dollars to pay a lawyer)


Guys i really need some help on this one, thanks a lot for any advise you can give me.

Please feel free to contact me anytime and thanks again.


Best Regards,

Mark Rich
skype - mdrich10
#‏ #business #consultant #head #offline #scaling #venture
  • Profile picture of the author Evolve91
    Try Google, or even youtube. Youtube videos have helped me when I get stuck, if there are any on the topic I'm looking into.
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  • Profile picture of the author MichaelHiles
    Here's the thing about scaling any startup.

    When you've got more orders than you can fulfill... the money necessary to solve all of those problems is pretty easy to come by... even in a down economy.

    Maybe check out the book "Crossing The Chasm" by Geoffrey Moore, where he talks about the threshold when a company goes from early adoption stage to Main Street mass market appeal and popularity.
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    • Profile picture of the author JJOrana
      Don't worry about it at this stage.

      What you need to do first is... SELL IT!

      Then, tweak and test your sales page, pricing, etc. until you reach a profitable conversion rate where you can buy more advertising not just adwords.

      I have a client now with 30,000 products on stock. These are USB stick that converts any device with USB port into a wireless device.

      They have amazing product.

      - Patent pending (spent $35k for lawyer)
      - Unique (no one else is selling it).
      - Great packaging.
      - Fulfillment.
      - Staff.
      - Merchant account

      Everything that you can think of, they have it.

      The problem is they can't sell it. They don't know how to sell it online.

      Finding manufacturer is easy, but selling it? That's the hardest part.
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      • Profile picture of the author MichaelHiles
        Originally Posted by JJOrana View Post

        Don't worry about it at this stage.

        What you need to do first is... SELL IT!

        Then, tweak and test your sales page, pricing, etc. until you reach a profitable conversion rate where you can buy more advertising not just adwords.

        I have a client now with 30,000 products on stock. These are USB stick that converts any device with USB port into a wireless device.

        They have amazing product.

        - Patent pending (spent $35k)
        - Unique (no one else is selling it).
        - Great packaging.
        - Fulfillment.
        - Staff.
        - Merchant account

        Everything that you can think of, they have it.

        The problem is they can't sell it. They don't know how to sell it online.

        Finding manufacturer is easy, but selling it? That's the hardest part.

        This is one of the most common problems in startups JJ.

        Most startups attempt to follow the product development model (I have an idea for a new product that will sell like hotcakes).

        But we already know that marketing drives the idea of getting customers first... THEN worry about making things efficiently.
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  • Profile picture of the author jayspann
    Build it. You start getting orders and there will be no shortage of people offering to solve all your other problems for a piece of the pie. That being said it's pretty easy to get anything made in China or Taiwan these days.
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    Offline Marketers: Are You Wasting Your VALUABLE Time On The Wrong Prospects?
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    • Profile picture of the author mdrich10
      "Just do it" seems to be the consensus here. Sounds good, thanks for all the help guys!!
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      • Profile picture of the author Mark Riddle
        Mark (good name by the way )

        I agree it seems to be too early for this project to look into full scaling.

        To answer your question from a mindset point of view.

        Start with the end in mind.

        Create a mind map of all that is involved, (even if you are only guessing)

        That will help you to see the smaller steps that you CAN take towards your end goal.

        With that thinking process, and revisiting it as you make progress you will automatically course correct along the way.

        Mark Riddle
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        Today isn't Yesterday, - Products are everywhere if your eyes are Tuned!
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulMark
    This is really cool, Mark. (Love that name too, by the way!)

    Anyway, I see you posted this a few days ago.
    Hopefully, by now you've set up a site based on his widget keyword, got an answer to you contract questions - if not have one already created. The main thing I'm wondering is if you really need a way to mass produce this widget right now.

    If it's not completely necessary right now, I'd just have him keep making them and selling them as he makes them.

    Either way, sounds like you've got a winner on your hands. Please update this thread letting us know how you're progressing with this.

    OH!! PLEASE SET UP A WAY TO GRAB CONTACT INFO.
    i.e. autoresponder!

    Take care!
    Mark
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    Just PM questions : Paul answers questions about rapid product creation, recurring revenue and creating online training programs. Mark answers questions about SEO, organic traffic, & local business marketing.

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  • Profile picture of the author TheShark
    Mark,

    Please be careful. If it has a market and can be duplicated, then someone will copy it unless you have protection (and can probably copy it for less money). It's best to keep something like this under the radar. I myself can get just about anything copied overseas within a very short period of time.

    I'm lucky and already have a legal staff to deal with the contracts, contacts overseas, and merchant accounts set up...and so do the people who will copy your client's work!

    Keep control of the web-marketing, get a good agreement (it doesn't have to be called a contract, but make sure it's in writing).

    Don't use standard contracts, make sure you get them customized for your situation.

    Remember when entering into any business arrangement..."Success has many fathers, but failure is but an orphan".

    TheShark
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  • Profile picture of the author SamyE
    I agree
    Keep Control of the web site, this way you control the deal.

    Start testing and find out what works, make sure you get your agreement in writing and that if covers who does what and when. Money can go into a special account then gets split up into two other accounts.

    You may be better of creating the web site and hading of the order to him for fullfulment and keep control while he deals with the manufacturing and creation.

    Do not under estimate the value of hand crafted merchandise. Hunters like that sort of appeal. Knock offs are another issue, so there may be some Chinese guys already in the market with cheap knock offs. That does not stop the hand made guys from making a living. It just means they got to get the positioning and posture right.
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    Samy Elashmawy Simple Sales Training
    Personal One on One Coaching, Training, and Consulting. Phone 201-467-4929 or Cell 201-926-9412. And Yes, I answer my own phone. If I am on a call, please leave a message and I will personally get back to you!

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  • Profile picture of the author mark healy
    get it set up and work on one problem at a time.thanks for a great post
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