Home – New › Forums › Selling online › Advice Needed To Finalise Building A Store
- This topic has 19 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 11 months ago by dj_nitro.
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April 18, 2015 at 5:06 pm #991520Up::0
Thank you for stopping by,
I have spent the last few weeks while recovering from injury considering options for buying and selling online.
I was initially looking at listing items on Ebay.com.au but believe I could handle the responsibilities asociated with my own online store.
I have spent the last few days asking social network friends if they have had experience with online stores and a part from ebay stores and facebook pages there wasn’t much experience in ecommerce to go on.
I still have concerns over costs and initial outlay to get an online store build and running. They differ depending where you look!
I’d like to hear people thoughts in regards to the following options:
-Free software to download and build my own store
-A template design
-A store designed by professionals
Monthly costs asociated and whether items are limited or payments based on sales, any maintence required by the website ect – relevant links to see any better options!
I also like the idea of a web page.
I would use this to display information in regards to items we specialise in with links to other websites for further investigation if a person wanted more information.
How will this impact costs?
Initialy i would like to specialise in collectable items including video game consules, hardware and games.
Second hand and brand new in packaging.
I also would like the ability to increase this to other areas if sales are generating. And this could mean looking to overseas wholesalers for items I beleive i could find a market for!
I would also like the abilitiy to still list items in Ebay.com.au with an opportunity to link to my websites minimising all costs and other online sales site that i have become familiar with over the last few months.
I would like to be able to link my store to social networks, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and anything else that is cost effective.
Would appreciate any insight to best go about this whole process as well.
If you are a web desginer looking for a job if you like to send or post what you can create and supply for an individual starting out such as myself I be happy to consider what you have to offer and a ball park figure what give me something to consider as well.
I am happy to use Australia Post for domestic packages and delivery and hadn’t considered all options for internetional delivery but would if I had some way of knowing what percentage of sales they could possibly generate?
I also would be happy to use pay pal and if there is a safe mode of payment for differnet forms of direct debit cards would be interested to hear of these and possibly would consider this option.
Hopefully they can all be filtured to a familiar account?I have read up on everything i list here but information is different depending on where you look to access it from.
I would like to keep my costs as low as possible to see if it is financially viable initially and still be able to expand if it happens to be profitable.
I thank everyone in advance for their time and look forward to reading any relevant information
~ dj nitro
April 18, 2015 at 8:36 pm #1181903Up::0dj_nitro, post: 212226 wrote:I still have concerns over costs and initial outlay to get an online store build and running. They differ depending where you look!I’d like to hear people thoughts in regards to the following options:
-Free software to download and build my own store
-A template design
-A store designed by professionals
There’s no shortage of info or opinion here on the best way to approach this situation … just hit the search box and you’ll find out how many opinions there are.
Here’s mine for what it’s worth;
Free software (or just pushing a button on shared hosting to install it), is a great way to learn (the hard way) about being online, be it ecommerce or just promoting your business. BUT I think it’s a crap way to actually make money, the learning curve is too steep to compete with what’s already out there, especially given the rapid changes taking place in best practise.
A template is fine if it’s a good one, but how do you assess what a good one is? If you go on visual appeal (yours), likelihood is you’ll get it wrong. What looks good may be crap for converting sales or getting indexed properly.
A store built by a pro is definitely the go if you’re serious, but obviously the biggest risk financially.
I think all of the above is why pre built (template) hosted options (a la Shopify etc etc) are becoming so popular, even though some of them have serious limitations on their cheaper options.
If it was me (as a solo operator) I’d go for the best hosted or managed option I could find/afford. Why reinvent the wheel? The successful ones are successful for a reason. Maintenance and due diligence are a big part of an ecommerce site, I’d leave it to experts and concentrate on the business, not building and maintaining the site.
If the idea’s a winner and you need custom built, you’ll have an established cash flow. If not, you’re only out of pocket for month to month running expenses testing it out – not a large capital outlay.
There’s plenty of talent in this area post regularly, so I’m sure you’ll get pointed to some good options.
Good luck with the venture.
April 18, 2015 at 9:54 pm #1181904Up::0dj_nitro, post: 212226 wrote:Great set off questions for someone just setting out, more people should ask or at least ponder these before jumping in.
The section I have quoted from your post, is very critical, what do you consider as low as possible. My reasoning for asking is that I have seen a very wide numbers quoted on this forum, for how much it will cost just to start up and than ongoing costs there after for up keep and maintenance. I am not going to quote any off them as to me no one can give a valid quote without knowing your full requirements.
But you need to have in mind what that budget is based on your product you have given an indication of what you plan to seel, but do you see these as high value, high profit, and therefore lower sales numbers for your expected profit. Or low value ,low profit, but high sales volume to achieve the same profit.
Because these are also factors which will fall into consideration.
How much sunk cost are you prepared to put in, if the venture doesnt work dont take thatquestion as a dont do it as I am all for trying different things, I have a few in the melting pot, some will never see the light of day, others are at the lets go look at website phase. But what I am saying is what is your allocation for this, as that could make a huge difference on what someone can offer you and thus potentially change the bigger picture for your offering.
The big thing to do first it to research the market for the product you are planning to sell. You mention Ebay, the only cost with trying out the market on Ebay is to pay small fee’s if you sell a product. I can hear a few people saying “SMALL” fee’s, but if you think about it say for arguements sake you pay $5 to Ebay on each sale, that a lot of sales you can make before you hit the $1000’s that you will invest in a website. And I am not suggesting you stay there, but you can see if your expectations for your prodcut sales are relaistic, with only a small investment rather than a jump in the deep end.
Just thinking out aloud, as you mention a few times in your post concerns about cost, plus this way you can start selling today, while everything else is rolling into place. And don’t forget if you do try Ebay, when you have your website up and running when you send out product, put in a card pointing people to your website with some incentive for future purcahses via that. A good promotional vehicle for your new website.
Ok, son has to go to tennis in the rain, i’ll stop now
April 19, 2015 at 4:31 am #1181905Up::0dj_nitro, post: 212226 wrote:Thank you for stopping by,I have read up on everything i list here but information is different depending on where you look to access it from.
I would like to keep my costs as low as possible to see if it is financially viable initially and still be able to expand if it happens to be profitable.
I thank everyone in advance for their time and look forward to reading any relevant information
~ dj nitro
Hello and hope the injury is improving for you but good to see you are filling in the time.
There is great information at http://www.digitalbusiness.gov.au it contains lots of practical information that is pretty accurate.
We did a presentation on building a business plan for ecommerce which you can find on Slide Share it is a couple of years old but still accurate – http://www.slideshare.net/ecorner/e-corner-ecommercestrategy2013. The issues of costs and some example information can be found from around slide 26.
It is important to have a budget and to manage it but looking for the cheapest alternative won’t always provide a workable solution.
dj_nitro, post: 212226 wrote:Monthly costs asociated and whether items are limited or payments based on sales, any maintence required by the website ect – relevant links to see any better options!There is always maintenance required on a website or online store and the really cheap or free options very often need the most maintenance.
If you use open source and build it yourself then you will need to make sure you keep up with patching and vulnerability issues. You will also need to manage your own hosting.
If you go with a hosted solution where everything is included then the monthly costs might be higher but the service provider is responsible for the technical maintenance and security.
You, of course, have to maintain your content and keep the website up to date. That will take time and you need to allocate a few hours every day to the website. If it is successful that might end up being many hours a day.
Monthly costs include:
- Website hosting or hosted package
- PayPal fees (or payment gateway fees if you accept credit cards etc).
- Shipping costs via Australia post
- Marketing costs (buyers won’t just find your website you have to promote it)
- Maintenance
- Your time
- Packaging costs
- Your product costs (cost of good sold)
If you are selling a $100 collectable on eBay you can expect to pay around $11 – $14 dollars (without a eBay store).
You can find a eBay fees calculator at http://www.fees.ebay.com.au/feeweb/feecalculator. You should do some basic calculations to determine what your costs will be for a month with eBay based on different scenarios.
So lets say you sell 10 products a month average price $100 then it will cost you $110 – $130 (excluding shipping cost and PayPal fees). Total cost including Paypal fees and Shipping $227 – $247 / month.
Hosted online store packages start from $50 – $100 / month. If you sell the same 10 products your PayPal fees would be around $27 and shipping say around $90 (i.e. $9 / package). Total cost per month $167 – $217.
Of course there are lots of other variables but the main issue is marketing costs. These can blow up pretty quick and far exceed the cost of the website.
Often you hear that eBay does the marketing and to a degree that is true however successful eBay sellers still spend on marketing.
Hope that gives you more ideas to chew on.
John
April 22, 2015 at 11:25 pm #1181906Up::0Greg_M, post: 212228, member: 38207 wrote:Free software (or just pushing a button on shared hosting to install it), is a great way to learn (the hard way) about being online, be it ecommerce or just promoting your business. BUT I think it’s a crap way to actually make money, the learning curve is too steep to compete with what’s already out there, especially given the rapid changes taking place in best practise.A template is fine if it’s a good one, but how do you assess what a good one is? If you go on visual appeal (yours), likelihood is you’ll get it wrong. What looks good may be crap for converting sales or getting indexed properly.
A store built by a pro is definitely the go if you’re serious, but obviously the biggest risk financially.
I think all of the above is why pre built (template) hosted options (a la Shopify etc etc) are becoming so popular, even though some of them have serious limitations on their cheaper options.
Thank you Greg_M!
Honesty is something I appreciate. A good read and addresses my main concern.
Unfortunately everything you list is already the understandings I have come to myself.
A template is fine in any form if it provides you with the necessities that you require and the monthly costs associated with the purchase as stated by the company are something you are prepared to account for!??
I am not prepared to purchase a template design that allows the designing company to restrict my item numbers or demand a financial percentage of sales I generate. The profit margin is minimal as it is and damned if I’m giving money away for no real reason other then hosting which is a necessity.
I am happy to learn how to create and maintain an online store. I don’t have anything better to do! I learn quickly and easily and I adapt. I haven’t put a line through this option as yet.
I am happy to allow professionals to design on my behalf but won’t be roped into believing anything they would need to provide for a client such as myself would be anything but standard and they would already have their own templates that they could adjust for anything we’d look at adding to it for my own preferences!
I’m happy to hear all realistic charges and costs with this option but can not believe with the competition in this field at staggering that someone can not offer an individual a better price then what I find advertised by companies online already?Again thank you Greg_M … helped me to realise what I understand is somewhat globally accepted.
April 23, 2015 at 12:55 am #1181907Up::0bb1, post: 212229, member: 53375 wrote:Great set off questions for someone just setting out, more people should ask or at least ponder these before jumping in.
Thank you bb1.Firstly can I say that your reply came across as someone with wisdom and experience and I appreciate the need to tread cautiously.
What I understand from your post is a need to implement a market strategy!Great advice! Rest assure I have one well in advance.
I will endeavour to post relevant information for further consideration.
bb1, post: 212229, member: 53375 wrote:what do you consider as low as possible..I can not answer this question realistically. My idea of fair wouldn’t represent reality.
This is a question somebody has the answer too. That I know, and someone has the ability to offer their services below those that I find through search engines and advertisements. Just like any service.
I’m still not clear on the mandatory costs all web stores face regardless??
- Website hosting or hosted package
- PayPal fees (or payment gateway fees if you accept credit cards etc).
Maintenance
Knowing his would then help to shape my budget knowing what overheads I need to cover but whatever they are I will cover them just want to ensure I get the best and lowest charges possible!
- Shipping costs via Australia post
- Marketing costs (buyers won’t just find your website you have to promote it)
- Your time
- Packaging costs
Your product costs (cost of good sold)
All these costs are known and recorded
bb1, post: 212229, member: 53375 wrote:The big thing to do first it to research the market for the product you are planning to sell. You mention Ebay, the only cost with trying out the market on Ebay is to pay small fee’s if you sell a product..I have studied Ebay. It’s hard not too. They monopolise so much online real estate they are basically cyber bacteria. I have spoken with Ebay consultants sharing my concerns about the service they provide and easily worked out processes that dishonestly influence many aspects of their service. All they could say is ‘there is an element of risk when using this service.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_eBay
Outside of Ebay I am familiar with Amazon, Might Ape, Fishpond, Gumtree, Tag N Trade, Can We Haggle, Lloyds Auctions – among many other possible sites where I can list items for sale as an individual. I have many other ways through social networks to sell items as well. Not my issue really.Finalising the best and most cost effective online store possible.
I’ll ask this question as I’ve never seen any reference to it?
Is it possible to purchase a second hand store? Perhaps known as an online business opportunity?
I still may list items on Ebay.com.au and link my store via the profile and try to entice potential buyers.
I have a excellent knowledge of my product. That will become obvious once my many different social networking profiles are linked to my web address.
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I have capital tied up in rare and hard to find stock that I need to turn over to buy more. I will strategically use listing to draw buyers to my store and the quality of product and knowledge that I am prepared to share in regards to items of a collectible nature should continue to have one time visitors continue to visit.
April 23, 2015 at 1:32 am #1181908Up::0John Debrincat, post: 212242, member: 2969 wrote:Hello and hope the injury is improving for you but good to see you are filling in the time.There is great information at http://www.digitalbusiness.gov.au it contains lots of practical information that is pretty accurate.
We did a presentation on building a business plan for ecommerce which you can find on Slide Share it is a couple of years old but still accurate – http://www.slideshare.net/ecorner/e-corner-ecommercestrategy2013. The issues of costs and some example information can be found from around slide 26.
It is important to have a budget and to manage it but looking for the cheapest alternative won’t always provide a workable solution.
Thank you John! Fantastic post! It does indeed give me options to chew on!
Firstly I must say your post reads as a person extremely knowledgeable so thank you. I certainly will follow your links and look at the relevant information.
The under lining cliché in this message seems to be ‘you get what you pay for!’I couldn’t agree more.
The only concern I find is online entities that are good at what they do realise there is a formula for everything and are extremely well drilled in applying their experience to making others believe they are something that they aren’t.
Online dating is a sham, you don’t get any value for money no matter what they would have you believe is a better method to success.
Ebay – Shopify, how can they justify their charges when they don’t supply you with anything but their ‘financially self motvated’ ideal of the best way to sell products.
It’s like playing a poker machine.
They attract you with the colourful lights, music! (or promise of massive traffic flows you still have to learn how to tap into)
They are happy to supply everyone with the thought you can win, but the odds are forever stacked against you and the only winners are those that don’t play their poker machines in the first place.
The relevance being they over charge out of greed for profit and control of online markets and commodities. I won’t contribute unless I am also getting what I want from their websites!Thank to everyone, extremely wise and thoughtful … I shall battle on
~dj_nitroApril 23, 2015 at 6:22 am #1181909Up::0Seems you may be looking down the barrel of DIY to get the flexibility you need.
Nothing wrong with that, I’m all for having a go. As long as you have your eye’s wide open and can stand the learning curve.
If you do go DIY (at least cost), that leaves you with one of several free Open Source shopping carts, or a bolt on plugin for one of the content management systems such as Joomla, Drupal or, current flavour of the month WordPress.
All of these are not hard to get started … most shared hosting plans will make them little more than a button push on an admin panel. But here’s the rub … they all just give you a very basic piece of machinery, and from personal experience a lot of shared hosting is crap, which can make the curve even steeper. Expect to spend hours on a regular basis keeping your site “clean” and be prepared for surprises outside your control (you have no say in server security and maintenance).
To overcome this you’re generally looking at a Virtual Private Server, but that’s probably going to cost as much or more than the bottom to mid range plan at somewhere like Shopify (probably why they’re winning).
Not sure if you have any coding experience, but a theme/template is little more than a paint job on a car, not the underlying power train. Themes et al can be bought cheaply or in many cases are free. I’d be looking for reviews or the number sold as some insurance against poor underlying code structure.
Of all the freebies I’ve used, WordPress is the simplest to install themes and screw around with.
Your not going to escape paying some sort of payment gateway to process transactions. I personally find Paypal a pain, both as a user (too much friction to get where you want) and too convoluted and restrictive as a business (let alone the fee’s). There’s plenty of discussion here (if you search) on gateways. I’m personally currently looking at Stripe (new to Aus), not sure how the fee’s stack up (2.somthing % +.30 cents per transaction) but it’s API’s suit my code base on a project and allow me to accept major cards direct.
In the sprit of entrepreneurship (and you don’t mind being close to the edge), and you do pick to go with WordPress … drop me a line greg@subby.io and I can show you how to leverage a free site on top class Cloud hosting (Amazon Web Services), BUT don’t ask me to secure or maintain it.
Cheers
April 23, 2015 at 7:49 am #1181910Up::0Greg_M, post: 212514, member: 38207 wrote:Seems you may be looking down the barrel of DIY to get the flexibility you need.Nothing wrong with that, I’m all for having a go. As long as you have your eye’s wide open and can stand the learning curve..
I am really enjoying this honesty Greg_M!
Unable to quote the relevant points as the entire posts seemed to be of relevance.
I have no experience writing code. Quite aware of how this relevant to anything we see on our screens mind you and caught the social network on television the other night and although I was working my way through a bag of potato chips found it easy to understand the mind frame that is also required to have an idea and believe in it and push yourself towards the goals you set for yourself, and outside of the rubbish that they over dramatized for better viewing understood the bigger picture exactly why this is important to keep working at what you are trying to develop.I remember back to 1989, 90 & 1991 myself and close friend considered paying for and running our own BBS site. That was the closest you would come to cyber space back then.
Fast forward a few years to a company called Microsoft and the release of an operating system that revolutionised the use of home computers and single handed responsible for the tech boom we know today.What I find disappointing is that didn’t Microsoft set out to harness online traffic or restrict users in any way and so developed their operating systems with value for money in mind and gave us all the opportunity to explore cyberspace and see what was possible with this new horizon human kind had discovered.
Where it became this battle for control, power, influence and ownership by massive online and real life entities is hard to say. Big entities continue to grow through financial acquisitions and with online tracking technology bought out in 2009 and developed for personal gain have a stranglehold on what they can allow and ability to locate what they see a threat and buy it!
ebay started collecting online companies financially beneficial to its cause over in 1999, everyone knows of Pay Pal, but they acuminated companies that influence prices, security, legal obligations, subsidiaries buy shares in major online companies Google for example, use this search engine and it takes 6 pages to get to a reference that isn’t ebay related!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_eBay
The most significant purchase there I believe, and that isn’t everything they have ever smothered, is Positronic Inc! They developed the tech of Machine learning which is a scientific discipline that explores the construction and study of algorithms that can learn from data.
Once others realised the influence certain entities had to unknowing consumers online Apple found a way to harness this influence before consumers got online a massing huge amounts of wealth in process quickly followed by Samsung and many others.
My point being Microsoft could have claimed ownership back in 93!
Probably should have in hindsight, now find themselves competing for control through harnessing consumers and insisting on financial gain at any opportunity!
It internet is a joke and nobody as an individual can compete against that!
They stack the odds in their favour yet make it all look random.
Then offer to help at a price?? It’s unethical!
They have the ability to search the internet and remove information that shows them in less flattering light. They know where we go! They know what our habits are! They treat people as statistics, just sheep, and once you realise that, the whole process doesn’t seem overly worthwhile unless you can find what it is you want to fit your needs!
Greg_M, post: 212514, member: 38207 wrote:In the sprit of entrepreneurship (and you don’t mind being close to the edge), and you do pick to go with WordPress … drop me a line greg@subby.io and I can show you how to leverage a free site on top class Cloud hosting (Amazon Web Services), BUT don’t ask me to secure or maintain it.It’s funny that you finished with this.
One, I don’t know you, therefore my trust must be earned before I’d consider any security measures unknown to me, secondly, no way would I give someone control or access to my payment accounts or products, haha! That’s funny, but believe what you say is a fair observation, as DIY with no programming experience has major failing as a an option due to possible security breaches!
I am going to look through the forums and view stores others have made or own and see what is available as I’ve never really even looked at them!
Thank you Greg_M!
April 23, 2015 at 12:29 pm #1181911Up::0Great! Prestashop has obviously decided to try and increase their 0.5% of the market share by aligning with Facebooks and their shopify knowing it’s the only hope they have of long term survival!
…. and Magento, which takes 30% of the market share for e-commerce, was successfully taken over from a buy out of 100% shareholder and there by becoming the controlling interests by a lil company called Ebay in June 2011 having taken a 49% stake in January!Where is anything still not compromised by these online succubus’s?
Cause if you can’t spell that out for yourself I’ll help! C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E R-I-P-O-F-F, controlling 30% of a non contaminated marketplace that poses the biggest opposition financially to your stranglehold for online sales supremacy just gives you the ability to charge what ever prices you want!
This is crazy! I’ll find something, they’ll have to buy me out one day too!April 23, 2015 at 8:24 pm #1181912Up::0After the great advice given I linked up with all relevant information that members had posted!
bb1 and e-commerce’s links were pretty well the best source of information anyone starting out could read for piece of mind and absolute reassurance. The slide show is worth a look for invaluable tips that one should consider but for me starting out big business is on there own!
Soooo after all that I’ve decided to DIY, to keep my costs at a minimum.
(costs and charges are massively over priced and disappointing when you dig down and release why, one day I hope to change this for the better so everyone can have a fair go online!)
I realise this is the hardest option and that challenge alone inspires me and that security can be an issue from cyber terrorists and hackers, reason many leave it to the over priced kings of drama, but am confident after what I have researched if I follow the proven formula, stick to the path, I should be right!
Writing code, I assume some people can invent code? I’ve never tried to learn and wouldn’t know or understand what the fundamentals are to do make code or script but I can liken it to a musical instrument that once you know where the basic chords are you can start to put them in your own arrangement and make a new song of your own?
I like the idea of learning this as I realise no one knows how to get traffic to their door better then the next person. Clearly search engines are compromised and other ways need to be found to break the stranglehold!
I might discover a system that works for me?!
I am familiar with HMTL though, whether it’s similar to code or is code who knows but I have read that anyone designing by themselves will need to consult with a professional web designer and need a good team around them?
Hopefully not! I’m going in alone!
Thank you our honest talking contributor Greg_M who pointed me in the direction of CMS suppliers Joomla. I think I might use this to build the site. Unless someone can unequivocally say there is a better product to use for free also? Possibly because of the plug ins or ability they have that this doesn’t? It seemed to have everything I wanted and I looked at 10 that were rip offs and then this which is free and basic and all I need to start with.
Australian commercial domains (.com.au) $24 min 2years
Small-to-medium e-commerce websites $200 to $300 year (300 = $25 month)
I still need to find the perfect host! I am happy to pay $25 a month if required but cheaper if it suits my needs is a bonus too!
… but these are the over heads I face currently.I have taken 3 pages of notes just on what I need to build my store.
From T&C’s – store policies to customer relations feedback.
From providing a search engine for customers to the use of metadata for sitemapping.
Tips on how to make the site phone friendly to checking to ensure all links work, pages load, check shopping cart after changes and before the grand opening!I now know what a favicon is and what purpose an SSL Certificate serves. Who would have thunk it … I took note of the common mistakes as listed when i read them and ready to go!
Along the way I visited other stores and no offense to whoever stores they were I’m going to use theirs sites as a welcome matt to clean my shoes to enter mine once it is completed and has my dj_nitro finish to it! haha, I can only hope
My theme will be one that people remember guaranteed!
Thank you everybody, if anyone knows of n Australian based host that is awesome please share them with me as the most tiring part is constantly being disappointed by those taking advantage by leaving out options that clearly should be there when others can offer it!
‘ll be back to let you know how I went or perhaps looking for advice on something from my follow web designers!
April 23, 2015 at 9:12 pm #1181913Up::0I think you may have misconstrued my offer, or more likely I worded it badly … I would not require or want any access to your account or business in any way.
Having decided that you will DIY, and probably go Open Source (read free) you will have little option but to go for shared hosting given your budget.
What I was suggesting is a way to have your own free account (perfectly legit) that leverages off world class scalable Cloud services … it requires no coding ability, but it does require thinking outside the box using options that you are unlikely to find unless you frequent the world of serious web development.
Here’s one, https://www.openshift.com …
Cheers
April 23, 2015 at 10:08 pm #1181914Up::0To be honest, much like yourself, you probably worded it fine just that I had no idea what you were actually talking about with the jargon you used and cloud was something I didn’t know existed until the last 14 hours. EBay’s ecommerce builders had a massive plug for cloud I did open the link in another tab and read it or possibly skimmed believing whatever it was was too advanced for me right now. Either that or my hatred of these big companies taking over just blinds me … I’ve been online since day one. I made my first purchase on ebay December last year! I have ranted on Facebook to only my friends through who don’t understand what they were doing or why I am sooo passionate about it!
I’;m passionate because I used to like going to a website that someone paid for out of the own pocket and participating in their fun and games, or finding a new game that was cool with a good community. Not being followed, not having my browser tell me there is no certificate at this site! Not having ads pop at from a place I accidentally visited 3 weeks ago! They have ruined it! And these idiots who now frequent social media, celebs, writers, sports people whoever and talk about trolls and keyboard heroes like they have a clue about what has changed and what a troll actually was as opposed to just someone who disagrees with them … anyway I digressReal life is same, the small business is not gone, but if he had an interest in something that was financially beneficial to big business they’ve bought it, Oz’s big supermarkets, they bought the trucking companies, they bought out the middle man, then they bought they petrol station for fuelling, expanded into hardware supermarkets because they could under price Mitre 10, McEwans, Jim’s Hardware, then they bought restaurants because they have food! liquor stores, to sell in their restaurants, and now insurance because they need a lot of it and they aren’t going to increase their own premiums … where does it stop??
They own nearly everything on the Monopoly board and there’s nothing left for us so we accept our fate to be dictated too!
I shared a story that I went to buy a new phone and wanted a clam shell and the lady at the electrical department said ‘we don’t stock those anymore’
So I asked why? and she said ‘Because people don’t want them anymore, they want smart phones!’ I asked ‘Are you serious??’
She was looking at me confused as I was abrupt and people were listening in and I angrily yelled ‘What did I just ask for!’And that day I realised the power and opportunity companies producing these smart phones had already seen and were just going to push them onto public hoping that they’d fall for the fad of buying a product they don’t even need to make a mobile phone call and increase online traffic through their devices and charge idiots a 6000% mark up for an upgrade that did nothing but better police how they spent there time online!
haha! I’m sorry, I wish I could link this to twitter cause they eat my stuff up!
Back to you my helpful friend, I’m going to have to look it up again to see what the hell we are talking about? But don’t get me wrong I can advance through learning like a house on fire and quite frankly I don’t know anyone on the planet that I could discuss any of this with in a back and forth conversation sooo if I’ve impressed anyone with things I’ve done I wouldn’t know?
If that makes any sense?
I apologise if anyone didn’t realise I deliberately took your offer out of context to try and avert attention away from the fact I had no idea what you were offering! haha!
But am also am happy to do everything! Would rather that.
You’ve offered it a second time and your honest! sooo I’ll go and have a look at what you are trying to explain to me and come back and give you some feed back of what I think!?
And thanks, just goes to show, a stranger is possibly a friend you just hadn’t met yet!
April 23, 2015 at 11:00 pm #1181915Up::0Great thread guys a lot of relevant information.
Just thought I put my commercial accounting hat and add some value to the post. Bert already mentioned about sunk costs – developing a website is a sunk cost because you can’t use the money spent on that for your future decision making – It is a strategic decision you take to go in that path. But, mind you it may become an asset if things work out.
There are 3 things you need to be aware of in your decision making. There are Variable costs, Fixed costs and Overheads (again fixed and variable). Firstly, the fixed costs are the ones you need to keep to the minimum when you are starting up. High fixed costs means steep break even point. Fixed costs are the ones that doesn’t change with the volume of your sales. For example Web hosting costs, Rent, telephone bills, internet, warehousing costs etc anything that you pay on monthly of yearly irrespective of the sales. Meaning you need to pay for these irrespective if you make a sale or not. Secondly, make sure your variable costs are reasonable. Variable costs are the costs that vary with volume of sales. For example – Cost of goods, paypal transaction costs, postage and delivery, packaging costs etc. These costs you don’t incur if there are no sales. Advertising, promotional expenses, selling expenses etc come under partly fixed and partly variable it depends on how the transaction is structured. Thirdly, you need to make sure you have enough gross profit percentage to cover all the fixed costs and leave you a profit in the business.
Most of the costs you spend starting up a business would be sunk costs including setting up a website, setting up a office or home office, registering a business, setting up a company, the costs pay to accountant and lawyer to set up a company etc. Because if you decide not to go ahead with the business then you can’t recover these costs. If you are concerned about money then try to minimize these initial costs.
So, to conclude minimize your initial outlay, minimize your fixed costs, start with reasonable variable costs (with minimum terms) with good gross profit margin.
April 24, 2015 at 1:02 am #1181916Up::0hosting platform that automates the provisioning, management and scaling of applications so that you can focus on writing the code for your business, startup, or next big idea.
Key Benefits
SpeedReduces the time required to build and deploy your applications by letting you focus on your code and innovation rather than infrastructure provisioning and administration.
ChoiceGives you the widest choice of programming languages, frameworks and runtimes including Java EE6 with JBoss EAP.
Open SourceLeverages an open source platform and standards-based components to ensure application portability and eliminate lock-in.
I understand what this is offering but unfortunately I have no previous experience with these programs so impossible to even know what they are capable of! And this is the first online businesses venture i’ve decided to become involved in as predominently I’ve been an online gamer who ran facebook groups and started a page when facebook developed Shopify that was dedicated to my local area only and i went and collected small pages with anything from 100 likes to 1000 and wrote them up like an add on my page and they loved it, recognition, sooo i told them to have their community how ever big or small encouraged by the aministration to like my page centrally, the glue that holds all the smaller pages together, and then if you totalled all the likes from those pages combined we’d have a viewing audience of 8000 people to which i then advertised everyones pages too and they became aware of them and liked those pages, which their friends saw, encouraged everyone to keep sharing so they could find these great ideas and clubs they never knew existed! It was a killer conceipt but moving to slow, because it destroyed facebooks proposal to pay to have your page seen with boost and whatever they are offering!To be honest it was a conceipt that was too hard to believe wasn’t a scam by those i’d picked to participate.
And don’t get me wrong i was going to sell my shit in there!
But concentrating on this project right now and giving it the respect it deserve so i endeavour to set it up with out any mistakes that can ruin it … hopefully!
So developing an app that makes life easier isn’t possible because I haven’t experienced this life style yet!
No doubt I’ll have ideas eventually, i’m famous for it, hence i’m here, but nothing but the basics right now as it is a massive learning curve!
Unless i’m overlooking something that is obvious to you more experienced web heads?The funny thing about reading this is that I have a book next to me full of app ideas for smart phones.
I have this one particular idea that those i have explained it to just tell me to stop everything else and just get that idea developed. I try to explain that to implement it correctly would require funding and possibly looking at $50k aud in advertising alone!
They don’t understand app ideas can be stolen and beleive they encourage first time app enthusists to take a sucessful app and copy it!
If this works out for me i will develop the idea cause if it took off in Australia alone it could generate a million dollars with in a year possibly faster depending on how quickly the concept spread!
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