Can you guys give me Feedback on my Online Business Idea?

[Dimman]

Originally Posted by FRSDREAMER

I accept constructive criticism whole-heartily. I wouldn't have planned on putting the car idea into reality until I graduated from college with a Mechanical Engineer Degree/Computer Science and have taken some Business Production Courses.

I do have a question though referring to a previous post...is it possible to become a Millionaire through a Web Design Company?

I would also recommend you look into APICS CPIM (Certificate in Production Management, I think?).

It gives good insight into the whole production process from a management point. Scheduling strategies, forecasting sales, inventory control, quality control, production constraints, etc...

It's an industry cert program, kind of like how IT people get certified for certain software.

Edit:

http://www.apics.org/careers-educati...ification/cpim

[ahausheer]

Originally Posted by FRSDREAMER

NEW IDEA...

Affordable Supercar:

Now the average Vehicle cost about 2-3k to Produce this excluding manufacturing cost, Materials, shipments, Worker wage, machinery and etc.

So in theory a vehicle that cost 20k is not a profit for automobile company in reality they're actually making they're money from leases which would be about 35-40k for car that originally cost 20k.

Well the question is, how can I make a Ferrari type vehicle that's under 40k for the Consumer?

The Question is the novelty in terms of my vehicle being marketable.

Ferrari's 458 Italia uses an Aluminum chassis, why exactly does it cost so much? Is it because of it's Monstrous V8 engine, High Tech Suspension, Formula 1 Gearbox, or because it's just a Ferrari?

-Sorry for my Rumbling, back to my idea....-

Affordable Super Car: Looks expensive but it's not, fast as hell, and uses basic yet reliable car attributes.

But wouldn't it just be a Sports Car, since the price would be low? Yes, technically speaking it would be a Sports Car, but I want to attract people's attention so I'll call it a Super Car.

Replace Magnetic, Electronic Dampening, and all that crap with a basic double wishbone suspension with front and rear strut bars. I personally the handling can still be perfected to a certain extent with these basic car parts.

Engine Ideas: Highly Modified Toyota Inline 4 (Turbocharged)
Highly Modified Honda 1.6 V-Tech (Supercharged)
GM LS V8 (They're phasing this Engine out production)
Twin Turbo V6 (Like the Best, but cost is a major Obstacle)
l
Chassis: Aluminum Chassis....I don't know what else to say. Double Wishbone Suspension, Strut Bars, Make it as Light as Possible. Keep it Under 3000 lbs. Mid-Engine layout.

Interior: Not expensive leather that's straight ripped off the back of Cows in the beautiful Valley's of Netherlands, but Synthetic leather that's nice and soft. Sport seats.

Drivetrain and Gearbox: 6 Speed Manual, 6 Speed Single Clutch. I would like for it to be a 7 Speed Dual Clutch but obviously cost is a factor.

I know you think I'm underestimating the cost of actually starting a Car Company, but it'll a small company. I'll limit production to about 2500-3500 a year. No more than 25 Employees actually working on the development of the car. Sorry USA, but I'll outsource the jobs and have the limited supply shipped over. Shipping is expensive, but I won't be shipping alot of vehicles. Maybe 100-250 a Month.

Ariel Motor Company has 7 Employees. Yes they're cars can be built by hand in 1 day and yes they only make about 100 or so per year, but they're concept of inhouse produduction show that it's possible.

I came up with some Designs, but they're not anything professional. They don't have dimensions. But they're just basic designs, not blueprints.

Your Thoughts?

An affordable super car is not a new idea. There are dozens of companies that have tried it and failed miserably. There are a few that made their owners somewhat wealthy and continue to this day. I dont think you could do it cheaper than companies like Factory Five kit cars. They keep everything as simple as possible and are afforded such luxuries such as not needing to be federalized which saves millions of dollars. There is caterham, and that mexican car company, etc, etc. Its being done and it will continue to be done. If you have the balls, the means, and a lot of luck you can do it, but be prepared to fail a few times. You need to learn about raising capital, private placement etc. You need a decent idea and a good amount of money. Try to attend something like sema or other trade shows they are great places to shmooze with investors.

[artizhay]

Originally Posted by FRSDREAMER

I considered this, but what would differentiate me from other companies?

You don't necessarily need to differentiate yourself from other companies. Rather, people needing websites often have no idea how to get started, so just approaching a business owner in the first place sets you apart from everyone else, because he now knows who to contact for his needs.

Regardless, our company does try to set itself apart as a personal, trendy, friendly company (our site at www.ink2pixel.com is "fun" rather than "corporate").

We also pride ourselves in providing complete solutions for our clients. Some companies only provide online marketing. Some only do web design. Others only do printing. In the end, your client has several companies to keep in touch with. From start to finish, our clients stay with us. We do their hosting, print and promotional items, complete web design and programming, and online marketing. We make their online and offline presence simple and easy to manage.

So you don't have to be some groundbreaking web company. You just need to make your customers understand the value you offer.

With your C++ experience, learning web design should be simple. HTML is understandably structured, and PHP is much less strict a coding language than C++.

As for your data sharing site, that would need to be groundbreaking since there is a myriad of other similar sites out there. If you're going to do it, you need to find a way to do it better than the others. For example, our client runs a professional network at virtuallatte.com. Sure, there are other professional networks, but we provide a ton of valuable content, one-on-one advice from experts, and the ability to earn stock in the company. So we set ourselves apart from others.

You could always open a web firm and use the revenue to invest in your more ambitious projects.

[FRSDREAMER]

Originally Posted by artizhay

You don't necessarily need to differentiate yourself from other companies. Rather, people needing websites often have no idea how to get started, so just approaching a business owner in the first place sets you apart from everyone else, because he now knows who to contact for his needs.

Regardless, our company does try to set itself apart as a personal, trendy, friendly company (our site at www.ink2pixel.com is "fun" rather than "corporate").

We also pride ourselves in providing complete solutions for our clients. Some companies only provide online marketing. Some only do web design. Others only do printing. In the end, your client has several companies to keep in touch with. From start to finish, our clients stay with us. We do their hosting, print and promotional items, complete web design and programming, and online marketing. We make their online and offline presence simple and easy to manage.

So you don't have to be some groundbreaking web company. You just need to make your customers understand the value you offer.

With your C++ experience, learning web design should be simple. HTML is understandably structured, and PHP is much less strict a coding language than C++.

You could always open a web firm and use the revenue to invest in your more ambitious projects.

Hey Man that's awesome that you do it all from Web Design to T-Shirts in one Company.

I would ask, how exactly did you start? And do you work from Home?

[artizhay]

Originally Posted by FRSDREAMER

Hey Man that's awesome that you do it all from Web Design to T-Shirts in one Company.

I would ask, how exactly did you start? And do you work from Home?

Thanks! I started learning web design when I was 10, but I didn't open a "company" till 2008 when I was...16 I guess. Had very few clients of course...

I have a partner now who does most of the selling, and we both work from home. No need for an office or anything really because we meet clients at their locations

[FRSDREAMER]

Originally Posted by artizhay

Thanks! I started learning web design when I was 10, but I didn't open a "company" till 2008 when I was...16 I guess. Had very few clients of course...

I have a partner now who does most of the selling, and we both work from home. No need for an office or anything really because we meet clients at their locations

That's Awesome Man! You get to work in your PJ's.

You must be a Workaholic if you're completing websites mostly by yourself. Do your Customers ask for a due date or do you give them an expected due date based You and your partner's workload?

I'm curious though, how much revenue do you think a Company would need to make a month to rent a office. I always envisioned cool to own a office in a Skyscraper or something.

[powertrip]

Originally Posted by FRSDREAMER

That's Awesome Man! You get to work in your PJ's.

You must be a Workaholic if you're completing websites mostly by yourself. Do your Customers ask for a due date or do you give them an expected due date based You and your partner's workload?

I'm curious though, how much revenue do you think a Company would need to make a month to rent a office. I always envisioned cool to own a office in a Skyscraper or something.

The best kind of business is one with low overhead. Renting an office is for the big players, start small so you dont go belly up in the first year of business. Keep in mind most companies dont last past the first couple years because its incredibly hard to break EVEN on profit for the first several years for any company.

TBH most people start personal private businesses as a tax shelter. Think about what assets you can add to the company that will REDUCE your net income. The goal is to post a loss for as long as possible while generating positive cash flow.

Have you considered how you want to setup the company? Partners? Capital? Etc. theres a lot more that goes into a real company than just hopes and dreams.

[FRSDREAMER]

Originally Posted by powertrip

The best kind of business is one with low overhead. Renting an office is for the big players, start small so you dont go belly up in the first year of business. Keep in mind most companies dont last past the first couple years because its incredibly hard to break EVEN on profit for the first several years for any company.

TBH most people start personal private businesses as a tax shelter. Think about what assets you can add to the company that will REDUCE your net income. The goal is to post a loss for as long as possible while generating positive cash flow.

Have you considered how you want to setup the company? Partners? Capital? Etc. theres a lot more that goes into a real company than just hopes and dreams.

What exactly would be the startup cost of Freelance Web Design?

I can't really see any major expenses besides maybe a Computer. Pay for Domain and Hosting services and maybe market your business through fliers or newspapers. Other than that I can't see any.

I plan to visit a Business Consultant to discuss setup. I know quite a few guys who know code like the back of they're hand. I know this one kid who is good with Photoshop, so that's a plus.

[artizhay]

Originally Posted by FRSDREAMER

That's Awesome Man! You get to work in your PJ's.

You must be a Workaholic if you're completing websites mostly by yourself. Do your Customers ask for a due date or do you give them an expected due date based You and your partner's workload?

I'm curious though, how much revenue do you think a Company would need to make a month to rent a office. I always envisioned cool to own a office in a Skyscraper or something.

I'm not exactly a workaholic. We try to stick with simple, local sites so we can do them in high volume and get them set up with local marketing which is a recurring fee. I can knock out a great, simple site in just a few days, though we do occasionally get the multi-thousand dollar orders for complex sites. An example, virtuallatte.com (though I only designed the frontend and picked up the backend from his previous designer), is a common type of site our high-end clients want (tons of functionality, sleek design, etc.)

A standard among many companies, at least as far as we've seen, for a turnaround for a simple site is 2-4 weeks, so we always quote that even if I can get the site running within a couple days. That way, we give an average expectation and the client is happy when we overdeliver, but we also don't run the risk of falling short of our expecations.

If they do want a site urgently, we can try to fit in our schedule, but it's first come first served, so we don't take on a project just for the cash and upset the rest of our clients by delaying them. Our client acquisition is steady enough that even if we have to turn down a site, it won't affect us in the long run revenue-wise, even though we may miss out on a potentially valuable client because there was just no way we could deliver within their time frame.

I have a great example from a couple days ago. We are currently working on about 3-4 sites, small sites that didn't cost a lot, and a prospect asked us to redesign an entire Facebook application for $4000 by August 31 so that he could better compete with a very popular application that makes roughly $1.5 million per year. Getting a massive design overhaul done by August 31 would have made it an 11-day project, which would mean I would have had to completely halt all other work and do his application, so we turned it down, though not before attempting to negotiate a later date.

As far as an office, I'm not sure, but I imagine it can't be much different than an apartment. I see ads all the time for $400-500 offices, but I don't know if that's usual. My apartment is $875 so I would likely just budget $1000 for an office. Though it's best of course to do thorough research and budget accordingly.

Also, in reference to your post to powertrip, I definitely wouldn't mind helping you with maybe outsourcing some of your work if you open up a firm. There is a lot of work, especially marketing, that people outsource to us so we can discuss wholesale pricing, etc. at a later time.

[FRSDREAMER]

Originally Posted by ahausheer

An affordable super car is not a new idea. There are dozens of companies that have tried it and failed miserably. There are a few that made their owners somewhat wealthy and continue to this day. I dont think you could do it cheaper than companies like Factory Five kit cars. They keep everything as simple as possible and are afforded such luxuries such as not needing to be federalized which saves millions of dollars. There is caterham, and that mexican car company, etc, etc. Its being done and it will continue to be done. If you have the balls, the means, and a lot of luck you can do it, but be prepared to fail a few times. You need to learn about raising capital, private placement etc. You need a decent idea and a good amount of money. Try to attend something like sema or other trade shows they are great places to shmooze with investors.

Well, the Mexican Car (MXT) is 60k, that's not really affordable to the "average" american.

What is a Caterham? (Sarcasm). In reality that's what's most Americans would say.

Why would I need to be federalized, if I could do inhouse production similar to Ariel Motor Company? I don't want to be a Big corporation, but a small rare breed automaker. Somewhat like Tesla, but smaller.

If I could receive 1 million from Angel Investor(s), it would allow me to create a CAD Automated Clay Model(200k),Worker Salaries(250k, 5 workers x 50k each), Trade Shows, and alot of other expenses.

P.S Maybe 2 Million to get started, for like Advertising, Production, Dealer Networks....

Their's alot indeed that needs to be considered, but if I learn the right stuff I think I could make it happen.

Tesla received 465 Million (ouch!), it makes think "how much would I really need"?

I'm to continue to learn about Web Design, Automotive Industry, and Corporate Finance. I'm going to keep thinking of business Ideas, examining the risk, strengths, and weaknesses. Maybe invest in the stock market. Thanks for all the Help Guys.

[Dimman]

Originally Posted by FRSDREAMER

Well, the Mexican Car (MXT) is 60k, that's not really affordable to the "average" american.

What is a Caterham? (Sarcasm). In reality that's what's most Americans would say.

Why would I need to be federalized, if I could do inhouse production similar to Ariel Motor Company? I don't want to be a Big corporation, but a small rare breed automaker. Somewhat like Tesla, but smaller.

If I could receive 1 million from Angel Investor(s), it would allow me to create a CAD Automated Clay Model(200k),Worker Salaries(250k, 5 workers x 50k each), Trade Shows, and alot of other expenses.

P.S Maybe 2 Million to get started, for like Advertising, Production, Dealer Networks....

Their's alot indeed that needs to be considered, but if I learn the right stuff I think I could make it happen.

Tesla received 465 Million (ouch!), it makes think "how much would I really need"?

I'm to continue to learn about Web Design, Automotive Industry, and Corporate Finance. I'm going to keep thinking of business Ideas, examining the risk, strengths, and weaknesses. Maybe invest in the stock market. Thanks for all the Help Guys.

Lots.

You've already glossed over equipment, facilities, purchase parts inventory and raw material.

Plus the time for all the R&D/testing that has to be done before a product can be released. This is pure operating cost since you have no revenue until you're selling cars.

[FRSDREAMER]

Originally Posted by Dimman

Lots.

You've already glossed over equipment, facilities, purchase parts inventory and raw material.

Plus the time for all the R&D/testing that has to be done before a product can be released. This is pure operating cost since you have no revenue until you're selling cars.

So'd you say 10 Million?

[FRSDREAMER]

Originally Posted by Dimman

Lots.

You've already glossed over equipment, facilities, purchase parts inventory and raw material.

Plus the time for all the R&D/testing that has to be done before a product can be released. This is pure operating cost since you have no revenue until you're selling cars.

One more question, would you buy a Ariel Atom Type Vehicle that had a roof/windshield, and had all the interior amenities of that of a full size regular vehicle would have for 15k?

Production would be a lot cheaper due to the capability of them being Hand built. What do you think Dimman?

[Dimman]

Originally Posted by FRSDREAMER

One more question, would you buy a Ariel Atom Type Vehicle that had a roof/windshield, and had all the interior amenities of that of a full size regular vehicle would have for 15k?

Production would be a lot cheaper due to the capability of them being Hand built. What do you think Dimman?

Yes I would.

If it were possible.

What is your cost/profit breakdown on this $15k car?