Moving My Offline Business To New Countries
I wanted to post this here as I think people at this forum have the experience and willigness to give me a hand, advice or even join me in my offline venture.
About me:
I am in Finland, and I have been an entrepreneur for 8 years. My business has been building websites for local businesses, doing SEO for them, etc... and I have made a very good living out of it as there is no competition here, and it is impossible for non-natives to enter the market.
But 2 months ago, I was introduced to a new loyalty program that is destined to help smaller businesses to start and to run a loyalty program for local customers. The good thing is, that the loaylty card works in every business that has accepted to be part of it. For example, I buy a lot of electronics from a french online retailer and get 5-25% off on list prices (that are already 20% cheaper than here at home). And also, on my recent trip to Dubai, I used the card at a restaurant, and a jewellery store to get an extra 5% off a present for my wife.
Business owners like the program because it gives them savings in B2B sector. My neighbour owns a small cosmetics store, and by entering the program she was able to save on buy-in costs, and increase her cut by 5% without raising prices. It might seem small, but when competing against the big brands, its a big win for a small retailer.
The loyalty program works very well in Europe, but there are not enough people yet to make it a huge player, and basicly the show so far is run by franchisees that believe money runs in by itself.
I've doubled my yearly income in a month so this was a huge win for me, but I'm now looking into expanding to other European countries, USA, Canada and India. I have some contacts in USA but none of them are business-mind oriented.
Basicly, I bought the franchise ID (just like opening a Mcdonalds), and went off to present the idea to potential customers. Nothing new to what I was doing before. The thing is that if I sell the program, I don't make money immediatly. I make money when when the business/private person uses the card, 1% of the price they paid, and 0.5% on every transaction their client makes.
But on every sale I get points that add up to a bonus, and my current bonus is € 5k per month + about € 10 K per month from card uses. I have only 22 customers who are using their card, and they have sold the program to their partners (78 in total), and I make 0.5% from those transactions.
Some people here have accused the program of being a pyramid, but it isn't because the guy who sold the program to me, doesn't make any money from my clients. It is like a fast-food franchise: You buy the franchisee ID, and then build your business, get bonuses, etc... BUT you don't pay hefty sums on your revenues to the mother company.
The program need to be understood first to understand the huge potential. And like any business, this is not for those after a quick buck or who think business+work don't walk side by side. I want to own the markets now, when there is no competition yet.
So here in Finland, with only 100 people as my clients directly or undirectly, I am able to hit € 15K per month, and increasing. So it is probably very clear why I would want to move to bigger markets.
So, any help, advice or questions on how to expand will be mostly welcome. And also, if there are interested people in USA, Canada, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Holland, France, Sweden, Turkey and India to get more information on how to join, the legal stuff and other specs, just PM me or lets talk about it publicly in this thread.
- Miksu
-
SEOMasters -
Thanks - 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4722739].message }}-
FromTheFrozenNorth -
Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4723645].message }} -
-
-
Colm Whelan -
Thanks - 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4724341].message }}-
FromTheFrozenNorth -
Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4724955].message }} -
-
-
micalmartyin -
Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6315275].message }} -
-
everge -
Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6342946].message }} -