Also, choose something that you're truly, truly passionate about. You're going to need it to have the staying power to get it *all* done and be successful. :)
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Also, choose something that you're truly, truly passionate about. You're going to need it to have the staying power to get it *all* done and be successful. :)
Thanks to everyone for the feedback. Try2bfrugal, what do you think is a good place to start learning how to code to build such a directory? I can put up a website that is static using tools like Weebly and make it look pretty good, but not sure how to make a searchable one. Any advice welcome. I had also thought about the expansion possibilities. Another directory style idea I had is to do a searchable site for GF restaurants. San Diego area had one and it was immensely helpful when we went there, but it was still pretty basic. Twin Cities doesn't really have anything apart from some lists of restaurants.
Zoeb, here's where I think I didn't make myself clear earlier in the discussion. I am not interested in a single big huge business. Don't get me wrong, I think your business and your success at it is interesting, inspiring, etc., but it's not the model I'm aiming for for us. The thought of that doesn't sound doable to me at all, for many of the reasons you discussed - lots of ideas, etc. (which of course, isn't at all to say that YOU are not a person with lots of ideas. I think you are great. :) ) I have come to see myself as a scanner or multipotentialite (thanks to much readings of Barbara Winter, Barbara Sher, blogs like Puttylike, etc.) and am still understanding all of what that means. That doesn't mean I'm flighty, or won't follow through/act. I'm still gaining clarity on all my different ideas and how different profit centers would even fit in our lives - that's why I'm here trying to hash these things out, and that's ok. :)
Let's stick with one idea right now, maybe. I can't bring myself to clearly describe all fifty that I have, not ONE of which I would want to be a whole entire big huge singular business. Perhaps a combination of half a dozen of them or so, or more or fewer, depending on when. :) That may have been why in order to convey that "I have lots of ideas! Look!" they came off as vague, when really, under the website category I have about six different models in mind and have thought through many aspects of each.
Barbara Winter makes this metaphor in her book Making a Living Without a Job, page 115:
So at least I'm clear on that much. :)Quote:
Chase Revel, the founder of Entrepreneur magazine, pointed out that it's easier to earn $1000 a month fro ten little businesses than it is to earn $10,000 a month from one big source. I thi of creating profit centers as being akin to what a juggler does when spinning plates on top of sticks. The juggler walks out on the stage with ten sticks and ten plates but doesn't begin spinning them all at once. Methodically, he of she positions the first plate on a stick and gets it into motion. Once done, the juggler moves on to the next, and the next, and so forth. Eventually, all ten of the plates are spinning away, each with its own momentum.
Your success can be created in a similar fashion. You can't produce a lineup of profit centers in a single effort. Follow the juggler's example. Take your first idea, get it started, stay with it until it develops its own momentum, then go on to your next idea, and so on. And, yes, some of your plates will fall on the floor and shatter. Do what the juggler does - pick up another plate and start spinning!
So, the foreign language directory. First, there is no good site to locate this information all in one place. People, especially parents and other teachers, frequently ask me if I know of tutors or classes, particularly in Spanish, for their kids or themselves. And so in researching these offerings in order to help my friends and acquaintances, I've come to realize there are tremendous offerings of many different language classes in our area, some through public schools or community education organizations, some through private institutions, and some through individuals. So then I started thinking of how I could compile all that into a single location that would be easy to use and professional looking. I know what I'd want the final product to look like - searchable by text input or drop-down menus as well as by map. Perhaps there can be a basic, free listing, and then a swanky, paid listing option with graphics and/or special offers. I'd want there to be a free listing because I think part of the success of the site will be if there are many, many options to find. I might even have to do some of the listings myself in the beginning, at least links to webpages of existing programs I happen to know about. I want it to be a site with a catchy enough name where two dads can be chatting - one about how he wants little Billy to start taking preschool Spanish and the other can say, "Oh! I heard about a site for that, it's _______ and they have all kinds of ideas." Language classes for kids will be the initial focus, and I can advertise through Google or FB ads and other social media, something I've been learning about and toying with for "advertising myself," so to speak, last year when looking for a job.
So for this particular idea, I know I need to document this plan in some sort of organized fashion because I'm sure I haven't thought of everything, and I run up against the business plan wall. Puglogic had posted a good one page business plan template earlier in the thread, maybe I should go find that. Because a multi-page, hugely involved business plan will kill me. I can do one, and I know I need to cover all the bases, but simpler would be better. Not cutting corners, just the basics for a first try. Just like I have done with other successful multi-step projects in my past, I need to write out all the steps and begin proceeding.
Still trying to figure out what that coding step will look like, or maybe I don't even need to learn a coding language. Not even sure where to start looking to figure this out. I'll ask a friend at work this week, and also hope that someone here has some ideas.
I feel like I'm hogging up this whole thread now. Sorry!!
fidgie it's your thread, you can hog it all you like!
I like your idea of directory for language learning opportunities. I might approach the technology of it by paying pros to design it and then you learn how to maintain it with updates, adds & deletions, etc. I don't know about the technology of building databases delivered through the web, but in my world we use a lot of expensive databases that one does NOT access for free ('cause the content and technology costs $$$ to build) and --let's just say there is a wide range in quality of these products.
As for the "business plan" sure you've got to have one but if you are self funding as I'm sure you will be, you don't need a formal document to present to a bank for a loan. I've seen a number of friends do those over the years and they go no where. The one page business plan is very cool. Long formal business plan documents tend to be academic exercises.
Very cool idea--and because you are in education you know that money for promoting service is lean or non-existent from many educational places, so that will be one hurdle to get over. They will want you to do it for free, and your idea of a simple free listing is good because you really WILL have to be The Go To Place on the web for language learning opportunities. This is a great idea because if it takes off in the Twin Cities it can be cloned for other geographic places and using the same technology.
The most recent experience I've had with this kind of concept was just last week when I investigated a directory/database of media contacts. At one time a local public relations firm published an annual directory (in printed form) of media contacts, divided into sections such as radio, tv, daily/weekly/monthly print publications. The directory listed contact names phone numbers and address, publishing deadlines, web urls. They would issue occasional updates through page replacements. The subscription was several hundred dollars a year.
Then about 8 years ago it moved to a subscription database form, where the buyers purchased access to it, delivered through the web and accessed via password. Now it doesn't seem to exist as a standalone web product. Since the local Press Club has a password-accessed "Media Directory" I'm guessing that the Press Club took it over. I'm not sure who is making money on it now, someone has to be paid to update it, but that might be a part time clerical type person.
I just have a plain HTML directory, but it is old, no longer gets much traffic and needs to be rewritten. So I do not know if one was starting out today the best software choice. I would just look at what other top ranked directories are using. You don't have to be innovative on the software - use the "the good artists copy, great artists steal" idea. I don't mean to violate anyone's copyright, just use the same basic ideas and whatever software platforms are popular for directories ranking well today. It is also easier if you go after low competition / high potential earnings terms. You might want to read the book the Long Tail if you have not read it yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by fidgiegirl
The thing with Internet sites is they are cheap to put up if you do the work yourself. The people I see fail are the ones that order the marketing T-shirts and coffee mugs with the company name before they have ever even figured out how to put up a free blog that makes $1 a week. If you can figure out how to make a blog, site or directory that makes $1 a day, then expand on that site or lather, rinse, repeat. You can support yourself on $1 a day sites if you have enough of them in proportion to your annual expenses. Then if your income isn't tied to a major job market, you can move to a low cost of living area and lower your expenses quite a bit, so you don't have to make as much to have the same basic lifestyle and eventually be FI. Plus with being self employed you may be able to deduct some of your current expenses like a home office, work related journals, Internet cable costs, health insurance premiums, etc. so your taxes might be lower. Even if you never are self supporting in your side business, the extra income, if you have the time, will still help you to reach your FI goals faster.
Kelli, I don't remember who hosts your blogs, but they may already have a couple of choices as part of their hosting plans. My hosting is through lunarpages and they offer both MySQL and PostgreSQL as database engines you can use with other software (or to roll your own). It might be worth checking out WordPress, too, to see if anyone offers database extensions or hooks to engines like MySQL (likely).Quote:
Originally Posted by fidgiegirl
My suggestion, though, is that you take a good look at the already-invented wheels, though, before you choose to build your own. There are many many Web sites that offer a collection of resources/external URLs to visitors. They may not cover language classes in the Twin Cities (great for you!). But it's the content and some superficial stuff (colors, fonts) which will make your site different, not the concept. You might want to look at some Web sites you've found helpful in the past (like that California GF restaurant database), View Source in your browser, and see what they're using for their databases (you can search the Web for the info you find in comment boxes). Secure the template (many are free) and start building the data. Frankly, keeping that data up to date will take plenty of time on its own; you likely do not want to chew into site-maintenance time lovingly hand-crafting all kinds of code or even severely customizing existing templates beyond field names, etc.
Take it from someone who worked at a large company that insisted that major software programs couldn't possibly reflect the unique widgets we made for a breathless world: a widget is a widget. We spent a lot of time customizing and then re-customizing software because we'd painted ourselves into a corner with our unique view of the world. Don't do that. There are plenty of open-source tools out there and many templates which will let you minimize the time you spend customizing and give you more time to work on the information of value -- the content.
I agree about using open-source tools as much as possible, so that you don't have to craft and recraft the coding as you go. It takes a lot of time, all of that.
And I do think it's a great idea, the question is -- how is it amortized? Do businesses pay for marketing? Do people join the subscription list for a fee? HOw does it work? to make money?
From there, how much money can it reasonably and realistically make, and how long will it take to get there before you can so easily "toss another plate in the air?"
And trust me, each of these things is a *big* business -- much bigger than you think it is. One of my friends is the director of one crafting event company. They run 3 events per year right now, and it's pretty much a full-time job. It in no-way supports her family (her husband has a job). Her kids are in school, so she works on it then, and then a bit on weekends. It's a lot of planning and marketing, those events.
Another friend of mine runs a blog that is modestly amortized (advertisers). I believe she's priced her advertisers out of the market (ie, a simple event listing is $50 for 30 days, whereas I can use other event listings for free with much better viewership and overall much greater impact in the market -- so I suggested she drop her price to $15 per month, and that more of us might give her business support. I don't mind tossing $15 in that direction to raise my profile, and those sorts of investments (at that price point) have worked well for me in the past in terms of attracting 1-3 people to something that cost them $125-140. So, great ROI.
Anyway, she works on that thing pretty much like a full time gig AND pays an assistant to work on it (via trade in yoga). The reality is that the blog basically makes no money, and that frustates and upsets her. She's been running it and trying to amortize it for over 5 years to no avail (though admittedly, she won't listen to successful people give her ideas, but whatever).
Another friend of mine runs a 'curated' etsy shop. Basically, she creates some material for it, but she also gathers jewelry that she likes from other people who make it. She hand picks things and markets them and so on. This way, it's not all on her to make every item (which makes it difficult, btw, to make any income because it takes a lot of time to design and hand-make jewelry, and so by having several people working for her, she basically "cosigns" all of their stuff, and when they sell, she gets a bit and they get a bit.
Luckily, her husband has a job, too, because otherwise they wouldn't eat. She's been doing this for about 4 years now, and the profit margin is slim. It mostly feeds her habit of loving to make jewelry.
There's nothing wrong with any of this -- but I'm just pointing out that *one* of these ideas can take *a lot* of a person's time and energy just to get it off the ground and earning some income. And, I suppose since each of them is making *some* money (less than $50/mo) on their different web ventures, they *could* "toss another plate in the air" -- but the current plate takes up a lot of time and effort without a ton of financial return to them, and as such they don't have a whole lot of time to toss another plate up there.
On the flip side, I have a friend who designed and created one of those voucher sites. He was a great at giving vendors (like me) exactly what we wanted. He was very clear in how it would benefit him and us, and they had a great process involved. It took him about 2 years to develop and establish well -- and we were one of his first big clients coming in regularly (quarterly voucher deals). We worked well together. He sold that business for $2m, which then caused the whole business to go completely to sh*t, at which point there were several other companies on the scene (currently, there are 3 main ones -- his is no longer one of them) and I went with the most professional and best of the three. This company was recently sold as well, so we don't know if we'll be continuing with them or not -- or with any at all.
So, it's not like it *can't* be done. But, I will tell you that he and I were up past midnight one night because I had a major issue with his company, got wind of it around 9 pm, was able to get out an email to him around 11 pm, which he answered at 11:30 pm, and then we had an online chat about it until 1 am -- both venting about the cock-up, as well as figuring out what needed to happen to make it all go well and good. So, it's not as if his business was "never work a day in your life again!"
And for what it's worth, he's still working -- he's just tossed another plate in the air. . . his current focus being the development of Apps. He's got two launched and two beta -- but none of them is selling very well at the moment, so he's looking at his market position.
In my own business life, i've spent the last 3 years getting this business off the ground. It's sustained us since 6 months in, and we're now hitting that comfortable profit margin. My work has dropped down to classes plus about 8 hours a week. 4 of those are administrative, the other 4 are my work to expand and continue.
My business looks big, i suppose, but it's just following the idea of "toss another plate in the air" under one banner/idea. If you take out my "job" (the teaching), then it's really only about 4 hrs of administration per week for me, 4 for my husband (marketing/etc), and then add another 4 for me under "business development" -- or getting another plate in the air.
In addition, as I said, we have another business venture idea underway. This one is really to serve a niche that DH noticed, and we're going to see how it goes by starting out relatively small and getting rolling from there. Luckily, it's very low cost for us to start it -- and we are putting it on an accessible growth plan that doesn't over-extend us considering the primary business that supports us does need our attention. So, we want to keep this at about 4 hrs a week while we set it up (i'm drafting the business plan now), and then launch it in September. We'll start marketing in earnest in July, and we have plenty of great opportunities to market through many of our local networks and contacts from then until launch date.
From there, I'm also looking at starting a farmer's market in our community. I thought about a food cooperative, but that's a lot of heavy lifting. I also considered a community garden, but there's no profit in it, so it would have to be a volunteer gig for me -- so maybe down the track. But a farmer's market could create a modest profit over time, and would be relatively simple to set up. But, I need to know about the market's interest, and so I have started a process of "tupperware parties" which I use as market research.
I simply ask a few friends to invite some friends from the neighborhood to get their input on whether and what sort of farmer's market they might like. We all bring nibbles and I buy cases of wine for these things (luckily, on coupons), and then after about 40 minutes of chit-chat, we head into an our of focus-group facilitation to see what sorts of products interest people, what sort of "flavor" the market might have, etc. I've even collected the marketing materials of a variety of small and medium local farmers -- to see which brands and information appeals to the people who live here and which do not. I consider this a long-term side project. It is unlikely to get off the ground this year, and possibly not even next year. Maybe a year from Sept when spring comes -- but. . . who knows?
Most of our markets are in the city, and not everyone wants to make the trek or fight for parking. There's a high end, an all-organics/small producers, and one that focuses on unique ethnic produce. Two are just big-old conventional ones (cool though, still, to wander around). Our community's interest seems to be on local, sustainable, and 'good story' in terms fo the producer. I find that really interesting.
Those are basically 3 different big plates -- all of which have multiple sub-plates.
So, I've just started one of my sub-plates in the yoga business.
I've had a client base in a small town on the south island since 2007, and I visit them intermittently to do trainings and classes. I've been working with a studio there to try to form a dynamic partnership where i help develop their business and also serve my client base. But, we haven't been able to come to terms.
So, it got me thinking. I started talking with people in my client base, and . . . well anyway. . . after a lot of discussions, I just decided to go independent. I was a little afraid, because I was like "how will the word get out there? OMG!" After a modest freak out and budget analysis, Dh came up with a brilliant method of handling it all, and through some of my connections, I even have press lined up. LOL figures. It really is a small town.
Anyway, I'll be going there once a month, and then if things grow according to my plans, I'll have teachers trained and be able to take on premises. Even prime locations in that town are super inexpensive -- I found that shocking. Office spaces on the main drag with more space than what I have where I am for $1600/mo (inclusive of tax and outgoings). So, once the client base is developed, then we'd be able to make the leap and that gets our second location going!
It's really fun to have something percolate for a couple of years and then finally have a break through! yay!
Awesome, ZB!
I took a bit of a break from this thread because I was getting so overwhelmed - still am! But that's ok, everytime I come back to thinking about some of my ideas I learn a little more and think through it all a bit more and you all help with that and I appreciate it very much. Now I am going to review the thread for that one-page business plan link.
You might just try your best idea first, and then if that doesn't work go down your list. I had several false starts trying to find something I could do on my own until something clicked. I took a lot of classes at the local colleges along the way.Quote:
Originally Posted by fidgiegirl
Anyone have experience with The Right Brain Business Plan book? I am liking it . . . I like that it starts you out at the formulating an idea spot, which is where I have issues (above).
An icky meeting at work has me thinking about this again. I like my actual work, just not the related BS.