Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello all,

I am sure there have been many posts like this one but I would  appreciate any advice and or direction on my idea.

I want to design and manage a website that includes retail and an online community such as Start up Nation.  I have absolutely no background in designing a website or managing one.  Yes books would be a great tool however like many other entrepreneurs I have great ideas and want them to happen now.  Are there companies or services that I can buy to assist me in my venture?  Also I have read here that some folks are willing to partner or give "a piece of the action" for these services-I have no inclination of doing so.

I have the domain name and business partial business plan but need some direction on putting things in motion.

Any advice os greatly appreciated.  Please feel free to ask any questions about my venture as well.

Thank you,
4

I would look into a free forum package like smf or there are others. then you can find companies that will create a great website and do everything for you. You just got to look around. I went with a company called Mystic Liquid and they were great.


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Credit Card Counseling / Small Business Owner

Hmmm...sounds pretty ambitious. If you take the SuN site as an example, I can tell you that some money was put into this baby. What you see of the SuN site today was nowhere where it was 1 year ago. I know because I was here a year ago and this site has gone through alot of changes.

The challenge with most visions like yours is trying to find the balance b/w your ambition and your budget. Find a developer who can not only work within your budget but will show you how to bootstrap appropriately. There are alot of good designers but only a few who know what the marketing ROI is in regards to certain features of your website. Those are the ones that you want to talk to because they become a good sounding board for your ideas. Any designer can conceptualize your ideas into code. But a business-minded designer can not only conceptualize but also tell you which ideas are good and which are not good. In essence, that designer becomes your online business consultant.

If you don`t know anything about design, then I`d like to think you already know the answer to that. Why spend, say 10 hours of your billable time trying to design something that would take someone else 3 hours to do?

Food for thought.
Dean

One of the problems with ideas is that they`re abstractions. That`s a problem because a Web site and online community are a reality. Between the idea and the reality is the execution.

Anyone can do anything, pretty much, if they have enough money. :-) So sure, if you have the money, you can hire all kinds of people to build a site for you. But the major question every one of those employees will have, is going to be: "What is this site going to actually do?"

In some ways, your question is like another one: "I want to build a transportation system. I don`t know anything about designing cars, trains, railways or roads. Is there someone who could help me do this?"

Absolutely. All it takes is money.....and knowing what kind of transportation, how it will compete with established systems, who will want it, and why you want to build it. :-)