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View Full Version : A Little Overwhelmed, but Optimistic


TS_eXpeed
04-11-2010, 12:12 AM
Hey everyone!
I'm new to the forum, and thought I would chime in.

I first read 4HWW about a year and a half ago and was immediately inspired (as I'm sure anyone with an entrepreneurial drive would be after reading it). For the past year and a half I had my muse idea and everything. From what I can tell, it would be a great product. It's in a niche market that isn't really being served despite there being somewhat of a demand (from what I can tell through some searching, other forums, etc). I just re-read it about 3 weeks ago and was again inspired. I'm just a little overwhelmed. I'll start out with a little bio below...if you want to skip the 'boring' stuff and get to the meat of my question/reason for the thread, just skip past the italicized stuff. :)

I'm 19...going to be turning 20 next Sunday :D. I'm in school with about a 6 months to a year left before I graduate with a Bachelors in Business Administration (with a focus on Finance). I currently do not have a job, but am thankful to be extremely blessed in that my tuition was covered for me from my now passed grandmother back when I was a baby when she invested in a guaranteed tuition plan for me (Texas Tomorrow Fund to be exact) as well as setting up a mutual fund when I was little so it could grow and be used to support my living costs while in school. My parents are also extremely supportive and am very grateful for that. With that said, I don't currently have any student loans whatsoever, but my motivation to never have any is what is driving me to start up my muse.

Despite having that mutual fund, everyone knows the market took a huge hit back in 2008 and that was the year I entered school. The fund lost just under 50%, and as such it is almost drained.

At the very least I want to start up my business so that when the fund does run out here soon, I can support myself (I'm hoping it'll allow for a lot more than just supporting my basic needs, but I would be content with just that as well). Thankfully, my father never lost his job during the economic downturn and would have no problem...and desire even, to support me after it runs out so I wouldn't have to worry about student loans. Even so, I'd rather not have my parents chuck out their own money. I'm grateful but at the same time would rather be able to support myself. I honestly would just feel bad and feel the need to pay them back even though they wouldn't want me to. I'm starting to digress but hopefully that gives a picture as to why I wanting to do this. I'll continue with the main reason for me thread below.



Alright, so the reason I started this thread is because as I said, I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm super pumped, enthusiastic, excited, optimistic....every positive adjective you can think of, but my problem is that I don't know exactly where to start...or more-so kind of an 'order' of things.

I feel like I know all the things that need to be done...just not it what order. I have a very Type A personality with things of this nature and as such as well as what I like to call 'OCD tendencies'. I want to have everything planned out and in order before I even start. Here's some of the questions that have been running through my head...

What exactly should I do first?
Should I hire a VA (something I intend to do) at the very beginning?
When should I contact manufacturers?
Should I wait to set up a website until I find out pricing from potential manufacturers?
What about the magazine idea Tim talks about? When should I inquire about those and should I do that before doing another step?


I just feel a little disorganized and like I don't know where to start. I know this is my thing. I know I can do it. I just need a little guidance on where to start out. Another reason I'm slightly hesitant is fear of failure. And only reason is, is because of the fact that I'm a college student with no job and don't want to get myself into debt because of a business idea that ended up not working or was tested and showed that it wouldn't be as successful as I thought. I feel like my mind just threw-up everywhere on this thread....so I hope if you got to the end here you can understand where I'm coming from.

I just need a little initial guidance. :)

Avex
04-11-2010, 02:58 AM
It's great to see that you are coming along and are on your way to entrepreneurship! I'm also a bit disorganized and am starting to notice how my mood greatly affects how or what I can work on at the moment.


As for suggestions, I would say test your muse for pricing. There's no reason to go to the manufacturers if there's no market or it's not profitable.

While Tim's book is excellent and I have read it 5 times now, I supplemented it with "escape from the cubicle nation" by pamela slim and "the E-Myth revisited", all together they paint a much broader picture of entrepreneurship.

As for magazine ads, I would not go there unless you have read the "secrets of power negotiating" which Tim Ferris recommends at the end of his book. This is really good stuff. The book already paid for itself, due to a couple discounts that I got. And I'm not even applying all the principles ! :)


You can also begin by familiarizing yourself with creating a website, and google adwords.

TS_eXpeed
04-11-2010, 03:56 AM
Thanks Avex!
That may not be a bad idea. The only concern I may have for not even approaching a manufacturer at first is, what if the product cost considerably more than what you thought it would to manufacture resulting in your desired selling price-point that you advertised in testing to not be what you really want?

Other than that, I think you might be right. I also just posted a thread in the Automation section as just today since I've been researching things (been in Barnes and Noble for the past 5 hours, haha), I have concerns on whether my muse is a good idea or not now. :(

I'm trying to stay optimistic though.

Avex
04-11-2010, 09:42 PM
haha, I have mood swings as well :)

"The E-Myth revisited" book suggests that you have 3 personalities competing within you - the entrepreneur, the manager and the technician.
I'm very excited when I think about the product, but then the "reality" sinks in. I'm not sure as to what to do during these periods. Maybe work on the details of the business? Generate content or get leads? Plan/structure? I"m still trying to figure the answer.

Knowing the exact manufacturing price is useful, but I would expect it to vary greatly based on the quality and your ability to negotiate. Will your increased manufacturing price still land your product in the 50-200$ range after 8-10 times markup?

liam75005
04-12-2010, 01:32 PM
It is a mix of things : you should have a sufficient clear picture of your product, its full development cost, its per unit cost (cf chapter about "finding the muse" in 4HWW) to assess which product would make sense to go ahead with.

Once you have selected the product, then you should prepare the website (or get it outsourced) to test your market.

Keep things organised, one thing at a time and you ll get there, but it takes time, so get started asap !