Check out my new business-Feedback appreciated

[winvest]

I normally wouldn't give too much of an introduction about the business because the website should speak for itself. However, since this isn't a mainstream service/product I've provided you with the following background info.
The business is simple.
Market Target: Dental Offices in united states. (there are 220,000 of them)
Market Situation: Dentists use their drills (aka a "Handpiece") on patients 20 or so times a day. After each patient, the drill is required to be sanitized.
Market problem: When the handpiece is sanitized, the ball bearings and internal mechanisms slowly break down and it becomes inoperable over time. A dentist can no longer see any patients without a working handpiece. Handpieces need to be fixed quickly and reliably and for a reasonable price.
Market Solution: My business provides online handpiece repair service to dentists. Dentists (or office managers) go to the website, request a repair, and mail in their handpieces to my repair center. Within 2 days the handpiece will be repaired and mailed back to their office. *Think Netflix for handpiece repairs.

Some key points:
1. A Dentist needs to have their handpieces repaired 10-15 times a year.
2. I'm making 30 - 40 margin on each repair.
3. It takes 20-30 minutes to repair one handpiece.
4. I am not doing the repair work myself.
5. I get paid by CC by the dentist before it is repaired.

Things to remember: (aka my excuses;))
1) The site is a work in progress(and always will be). I don't have my logo yet (getting it through 99designs.com)I will officially launch the site on Jan 1st
2) I will be adding more graphical elements.(handpiece pics)
3) I did all the design and copy myself. (I'm no expert in either).
4) I'm using a stock website template. There has been no modification.
5) I put the site together in 1 and 1/2 weeks while running another business.
6) You aren't the target market. Dental Office Managers are (think older ladies).

Please feel free to ask questions, poke holes, be a pain in the ass, or give me a couple of encouraging words!

Just don't launch a copycat site before I do! ;)

Repair Dental
Easy, Fast, and Reliable Dental Handpiece Repairs

[Merlin]

I think your site is a great starting point - I suggest putting less focus on developing your site and maximum focus on getting customers. A quick google search reveals tens, if not hundreds, of competitors. What is your plan for getting your site in front of the eyeballs of these 'old ladies' in dental offices? You can bet that many of them aren't googling for who to choose - and will probably go with whoever makes their life easiest, which is why many of your competitors are offering free mailers, 1-day turnaround, etc.

[winvest]

Merlin,
Thanks for checking out my site and actually looking at the industry i am trying to break into!
My #1 priority is to make this service very easy for the office managers. I will be offering free starter/mailing kits, I'll be sending direct mailers, and email marketing campaigns. I will also partner with companies that are already established in the dental industry and create joint marketing campaigns.

If you had a chance to look at the handpiece repair services, you will notice that most of their websites are terrible and do not provide any functionality or simplify the process. They are essentially brochure websites. In order to request a repair, dental office managers have to fax/call in their requests and then call to follow up to get an estimate. Lots of manual paperwork with now tracking of the repair process. My service makes this process so much easier.

Thanks again for your feedback! Care to cast your vote above? More feedback is welcome!

[winvest]

hmmmmm...125 Views on this thread and only 1 Vote? Come on guys don't be shy..... ;)

[Sven]

That is some marketing info for you. Do not blame the reader for not voting ;-) Questions are crap...

Interesting muse but I second Merlins questions

[winvest]

Thanks for your input.

[Monkiii]

I would say it's a good concept - if you can differentiate yourself - that just needs some work (it's not "bad design" perse). Thus, none of the questions fit my opinion.

Anyway, my questions would be:

1. What differentiates you? What can you offer that (almost) no one else is?
2. What benefit beyond "news and Special Offers" (yawn) are there for joining you mailing list?
3. What's your risk reversal? IE what assurance do people have that if it isn't right for them, they'll still be made happy?
4. Why should they trust you? Where's your credibility? Tim has an excellent section on building this in the book, although personally, I'd be going for a couple of video testimonials on the site, which you can get easily enough at the start by offering a free service in exchange for them sharing what they thought of the service.
5. See question 1.

Joint ventures sounds like a good idea, although remember that most JV partners like to see that you have credibility before promoting you to their list. See point 4.

[winvest]

Thanks for your feedback Monkiii.

Differentiating factor
After the service has launched and I have some good data, I will offer a monthly service plan to the dentists. They will pay a monthly fee and get a X amount of handpieces repaired each month. This will be a discount for them compared to paying per each handpiece repair.
Risk Reversal
I provide a money back guarantee if they try the service and don't like it. Also i provide a warranty for repairs that still need work within a specific time frame.
Credibility
I plan on having testimonials, CC logos, and Handpiece brand logos in the site to add some credibility. I'll review Tim's credibility section once again.
Joint Ventures
I do have some connections in the dental industry. I don't think it will be a problem to get on their email newsletters as a preferred service provider for handpiece repair.

Thanks again!!

[Recoveringfool]

Checkout the slides on Tim's blog post: How to Create a Global Phenomenon for Less Than $10,000 (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/12/13/how-to-create-a-global-phenomenon-for-less-than-10000/)

He has some very interesting test results on site layout and design.

A couple of ideas: maybe switch your button text to something more grabbing than "request..." Seems soft. He moved a "sign up for free" button from the bottom to the top middle of the page and saw a conversion increase by 16% or something, just from that one move. Your button is also at the bottom now.

[winvest]

@ Recoveringfool, thanks for the feedback and link. I'll check it out. I was actually going to move the button to the middle of the page. I also hear what you are saying about "request" I'll have to think of a better word...... thanks again!

[djhelliweld]

Hi

Just a wee bit about myself/situation.
I am British, 43 years young and I already have a condo in Malaysia and a house in Indonesia. We have some investments but I dont think they will generate enough income to provide the lifestyle we require.

Our situation is kinda complex British and living in two Asian Countries.

We need a means to generate an extra $4000 a month and then we are cruising.

Now the possible lucky break is:- while I was in India I found a great supplier of fly tying equipment (I am a keen angler) The quality is very high due to the fact that their core business is in hospital and dental equipment.

Maybe we can sell something to your 220,000 dentists. All the info is on my Malaysian PC and I didnt know anything about www.gotomypc.com last week. You are already targetting the 220,000 dentists if we can sell something they need its an added bonus I think? Maybe it can go in the returned package, keeping the cost down??

Let me know what you think and I will get back to you with some products and prices, the fly tying equipment was real good value.

Kind Regards

David

Thanks in advance DavidI normally wouldn't give too much of an introduction about the business because the website should speak for itself. However, since this isn't a mainstream service/product I've provided you with the following background info. Here's the website (http://www.repairdental.com)

The business is simple.
Market Target: Dental Offices in united states. (there are 220,000 of them)
Market Situation: Dentists use their drills (aka a "Handpiece") on patients 20 or so times a day. After each patient, the drill is required to be sanitized.
Market problem: When the handpiece is sanitized, the ball bearings and internal mechanisms slowly break down and it becomes inoperable over time. A dentist can no longer see any patients without a working handpiece. Handpieces need to be fixed quickly and reliably and for a reasonable price.
Market Solution: My business provides online handpiece repair service to dentists. Dentists (or office managers) go to the website, request a repair, and mail in their handpieces to my repair center. Within 2 days the handpiece will be repaired and mailed back to their office. *Think Netflix for handpiece repairs.

Some key points:
1. A Dentist needs to have their handpieces repaired 10-15 times a year.
2. I'm making 30 - 40 margin on each repair.
3. It takes 20-30 minutes to repair one handpiece.
4. I am not doing the repair work myself.
5. I get paid by CC by the dentist before it is repaired.

Things to remember: (aka my excuses;))
1) The site is a work in progress(and always will be). I don't have my logo yet (getting it through 99designs.com)I will officially launch the site on Jan 1st
2) I will be adding more graphical elements.(handpiece pics)
3) I did all the design and copy myself. (I'm no expert in either).
4) I'm using a stock website template. There has been no modification.
5) I put the site together in 1 and 1/2 weeks while running another business.
6) You aren't the target market. Dental Office Managers are (think older ladies).

Please feel free to ask questions, poke holes, be a pain in the ass, or give me a couple of encouraging words!

Just don't launch a copycat site before I do! ;)

without further ado.....
Here's the site (http://www.repairdental.com)
Repair Dental
Easy, Fast, and Reliable Dental Handpiece Repairs

[winvest]

Thanks djhelliweld,
I'm not sure what you are suggesting. maybe i am missing something?
P.S. why did you include a link to gotomypc?

[LBreitst]

Winvest, I didn't vote since none of the options quite lined up to my thoughts.

I think that so far everything is great, but it will take more than a little work to get going (just like anything else).

Even though there are competitors, I see your biggest advantage being that this is something you are passionate and knowledgeable about.

Especially, since you can utilize your real-world connections to help push traffic and marketing for the website, I think that if you stay persistent you will do great.

[winvest]

@LBreitst Thanks for the positive and encouraging words! :D

[REOBULK]

If the re-ordering is as predictable as once a month or more, by your stats, maybe you can simply schedule replacement delivery before the items break. Give a good discount for this "service" and fish upstream......;)

[bill-e]

hey, looks good, great niche. One suggestion would be to put a heavy emphasis on customer service and consistent execution. I know that dentists/dr's have very trusted and tight networks, if you can be referred you will go along way with this niche. Also, are you prepared to handle the volume if 5% of the dentists in the US decided to send their equipment?

[winvest]

@REOBULK
Thanks for your comments. - I like the way you are thinking. I plan on using my stats to offer a monthly service plan.
@bill-e - I agree exceptional customer service is going to be one the main differentiators between my service and the others. I am prepared to handle a high volume of repairs off the bat. From the actual repair work to CRM, I've built a system that should be able to handle that type of volume. Dealing with 5% of the market is a good challenge to have!

Thanks guys! Happy New Year!

[Griffin]

The design isn't bad at all! I'm sure it's probably a stock design, but it's clean and easy to use. :) That is what's most important.

The pre-paid label is a nice touch. I actually have a couple of recommendations for that, rather than the site as a whole. Put an area for their order/request/repair number or make the bottom half of the pdf a form that they include inside the package with that same info. That way you don't have to hunt down their order by business address. You could also have them print out their invoice and include it, but it might have fewer conformists :D Having it the bottom half of the PDF means they get reminded and also have already printed it out. The carrot is that they'll save $xx by using your mailing slip.

This is a great idea and I wish I'd thought of it. :)

[winvest]

The design isn't bad at all! I'm sure it's probably a stock design, but it's clean and easy to use. :) That is what's most important.

The pre-paid label is a nice touch. I actually have a couple of recommendations for that, rather than the site as a whole. Put an area for their order/request/repair number or make the bottom half of the pdf a form that they include inside the package with that same info. That way you don't have to hunt down their order by business address. You could also have them print out their invoice and include it, but it might have fewer conformists :D Having it the bottom half of the PDF means they get reminded and also have already printed it out. The carrot is that they'll save $xx by using your mailing slip.

This is a great idea and I wish I'd thought of it. :)

@Griffin Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm still having trouble figuring out how to get each customer's invoice/repair info to export to a printable document that is pre-formatted with the shipping label on the top and repair info on the bottom. That way they could fold it in half with the shipping label exposed. My repair center will receive the handpiece and know exaclty what to do with it without looking it up.
I don't want the customer to have to manually handwrite the repair info after they have already typed it in. I want the process to be seamless for the customer and me. Thanks again!!

[winvest]

Hey Guys, I just wanted to thank you all for you input, advice and encouraging words. You have helped me immensely and you were great sounding boards while I was working on the site by my self. After 1000+ views on this thread and 160 direct visits to the site, i am going to take the link off this thread. I don't want to mess with my Analytics and search engine ranking. Hope you understand. Of course it shouldn't be hard to find the site yourself!
Thanks again!!!