Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

          You are missing TJ`s point Edgar.     TJ isn`t referring to a site that is uncompleted or unuseable.  He is talking about a concept, an idea of a business that would provide a completed website, shopping cart, and in addition - coaching by a third party other than the web designer and shopping cart administrator.    A go between who can provide the customer with one on one instruction on how to use their website, advise what they need to to do get their business started, and to share ideas with that person with regards to marketing, vendors, product display/description, licenses needed, etc.   It would be the complete package and the web designer won`t have to lose time from concentrating on site building since all of the learning phase for the customer would be handled by someone else!

      I think it is a great concept!  And since I started completely from scratch not only with getting www.Boxerhaus.com started, but also as a new business owner who had never started a business before and found myself  overwhelmed at times not knowing where to get certain resources or knowing all I needed to do or even what would be best to do!

        I actually owe TJ a huge thank you in responding to a post I put up on the SUN forum months ago asking for help from someone with online retail experience who would be willing to mentor me.   TJ was the only one who stepped forward and offered to "take me under his wing" so to speak and with that he shared more of his time and experience than I ever imagined anyone would for a stranger!!  

      The assistance TJ has given me personally has proven to be invaluable and I truly believe my store would not be where it is and my knowledge of an online store would not be at the level it is now had it not been for TJ`s help!  So he gave me EXACTLY what he is proposing here on this thread - a business that provides the WHOLE package from a complete online store website to an advisor with regards to running an online store for one price. 

      Would I have paid $4,000 to $5,000 for this type of package???  Absolutely!!!  I think it would be money well spent and certainly a worthy and affordable investment for a new business owner!

-------------------------

Beth Downey
BoxerHaus.com
The Ultimate Boxer Shopping Experience!
www.BoxerHaus.com

Beth, Thank you for the kind words. But I guess the answer to my question is ...

Most folks are not as fortunate as you or I am. Many new start-ups DO NOT have the $4000 -$5000 to design and impliment a full solution e-commerce web site.

The sad point is that without investing those type of dollars into a fully professionally designed web site and e-commerce solution, and also have a strong marketing, SEO plan, and another few thousand dollars to last the first few months ... most folks are destined for failure.

And that is where the "fast buck freddies" of this world ... touting "big buck" via the web ... make their $1000 - $1500 selling half-*ss solutions, with very little follow up, or coaching.

As PT Barnum said ... "There`s one born every minute"

And especially now on the web.

Well, it was a good idea ... but seeing the lack of feedback to this concept ... I can only conclude that most folks don`t have a "pot to pee in ... let alone a window to throw it out" when it comes to boot-strap financing a start-up.

Most of the small companies and start ups that we deal with opt for a simple site and very good SEO / Internet Marketing, if they don`t have all of the money for a full e-commerce site with top-notch CMS and all the other whiz-bang stuff. 

-------------------------

Christina, please don`t think that I was referring to anyone here as a "fast buck freddie". I understand that the start-up e-commerce market is filled many high quality companies out there, including yours.

However, I was wondering if there is a niche out there may be looking for full service ... or are most of the e-commerce start-ups simply "testing the waters". And have virtually no money to invest in a solution that has incredible success with search engines (natural listings) simply because the way the data base/ shopping cart is designed. And the data base is off-line too, for easy product management. And not many stores can rival the speed of GoTruckStop`s or BoxerHaus`s store and product/catagory presentation.

I don`t think many folks can argue with the search engine success that GoTruckStop.com has had over the past 7 months. Folks are paying big "pay for clicks" fees with Yahoo and Google to be on pages that GoTruckStop.com has 1st page (top 5) natual listings on. And that success for GoTruckStop.com took less than 6 months to accomplish.

I`m amazed that sooooo many folks settle for the standard .asp and .php solutions out there, simply because that`s all they can afford.

Again, please don`t think that I was referring to anyone here at SuN as a "fast buck freddie".

No, don`t worry, I wasn`t thinking you were referring to anyone in particular as a Fast Buck Freddie. I, too, have seen people get taken by web developers that really didn`t provide them the solutions they needed for their business.

I was just saying, we try not to let people get uncomfortable with the price of the solution we`re developing for them. We talk with them about what their goals are, and then give them their our opinion of what will be most effective for their dollars, but in the end it is ultimately their decision. And I thought it was interesting that several of them have chosen better SEO / Internet marketing over other potential features to choose from.


-------------------------

So, with everything that I`ve spoken about ... a customized web site (with email, stats .. all the standard goodies), a fully integrated off-line data base, shopping cart w/ secured cc processing and PayPal interface, 1 year of hosting, a SEO submission package and the full service business and web coaching ... what would that cost?

Christina, I`m not trying to nail you down to a specific price ... just wondering what neighborhood a package like that would be in.

 

Well, since I`m never the one who specs out the projects, that`s something I haven`t got a very good idea about. However, I can try to get a ballpark range next week.

-------------------------