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| | | BabyFodder
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 9/23/2006 10:53:51 AM
Posts: 1, Visits: 4 |
| I have an idea for a new website that I believe has A LOT of potential.
However, I am 19, about to be a sophomore in college, and have no idea where to begin.
Do I start the website, hope it stays afloat, and then approach the VC folks so they can finance the growth of the website? Or can I just show the VC people my idea and have them finance me without any website, employees, office, etc exisiting?
Thanks for the help!
Thinker |
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| | | Fodder Emeritus
Group: Moderators
Last Login: 1/28/2008 9:05:38 PM
Posts: 101, Visits: 186 |
| | Thinker, Start your website first, figure out the revenue model, make some money, and then (perhaps) you'll be in position to seek venture capital. As a general rule... DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME TRYING TO RAISE VENTURE CAPITAL FOR AN UNPROVEN IDEA! Especially if this is your first business venture and/or you are without a track record of building successful entrepreneurial businesses. Good luck!
Dr. VC
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Cynicism is not an end, but a means to reach objectivity. |
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Fodder Chief
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 3/4/2008 5:30:47 PM
Posts: 179, Visits: 845 |
| Great question. I think most people vastly underestimate what it takes to create a successful business, online or otherwise.
Websites are enticing because you don't need to have a physical place of business. Plus, you hear stories about incredibly lucky people who struck it rich with crazy schemes like selling pixels.
In reality, any business, online or otherwise, requires solid fundamentals. Those get rich quick schemes might work once for a few lucky people, but your chances of success in this manner are similar to winning the lottery. In my opinion, not worth the money.
You must be solving some type of problem for some target audience. There must be a way for you to make money off that target audience.
However, don't let this dissuade you. Giving it a shot is the best way to try this out and learn about what it takes to build a successful website or business. I guarantee that the experience will be worthwhile to you. My suggestion is to put together a group of people who have some of the necessary skills required to build the site. Find a designer, find a programmer, etc. Get these people to work for free in exchange for a piece of the pie. Personally, I would spend little time worrying about the details of the partnership -- you'll soon learn who is seriously about it and who isn't. Once things start clicking, formalize things, incorporate the business, and set up a formal partnership with these folks.
Ben |
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| | | KinderFodder
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 1/1/2007 8:52:11 PM
Posts: 7, Visits: 14 |
| | before you sit down and start building your website, I would write the business model, I would survey customers, I would find out who is your competition what products and or services are they offering and at what price are they offering product/services at. The next step I would setup a test group to survey them, I would have them varing in age of no more then 5 years appart. that will allow you to narrow and focus on your marketing group. Articles about your business/service they are always helpful. Example google who has garnered the market in search engins, is just about everyone, but they also focus in specific areas such as web vidios which are primarily targetted to younger audience, while younger people are watching those videos companies like nikey who sell apparel/etc target that with advertisments. Doing that builds nike a lot of brand awareness. Which brings me to my next point on articles/press releases you need to learn how to write a good article/presss release doing this will help your business tremendously, also before you build your site get a blog build it first then work on your site, you need to have ready content to put on your website so you can begin marketing it right away.
www.sroachart.com cool cloths fun place to shop
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KinderFodder
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 1/14/2007 7:27:14 PM
Posts: 14, Visits: 15 |
| "You must be solving some type of problem for some target audience. There must be a way for you to make money off that target audience."
Advice that EVERY business should strive to keep in mind every bloody moment of operations. Without this, there IS no business.
Robert H. Teesdale, President
Magonaga Industries, Inc.
6160 Firestone Blvd
Unit 104 Box 113
Firestone CO 80504
www.magonaga.com |
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