Aquarius
09-01-2007, 07:39 AM
Hello Everyone!
I'm a 26yo recent college graduate. Its taken me some extra time to finish school, but I feel I have grown more as a person through this process and the struggles I have been through during the past few years as a result. In any case, I'm at a great crossroads in my life where I can get stuck in a cubicle for the next 50 or so years, or start out a business of my own and see where it takes me. In all likelihood (sp?) I'll have to do a little of both at this point in my life to make ends meet. In any event, I just finished reading 4HWW a few nights ago, and it has gotten my creative/entrepreneurial juices flowing. However, I have some questions and hope those more experienced than I can help.
I have been reading many of the posts on this forum, and it seems that the general consensus says its better to "look for a market" before developing a product and seeing if a market for it exists. Well - I was brainstorming earlier and came up with a product first. Unfortunately, its something that already exists heavily on the internet and in the real world - candles. However, I have some ideas for more sophisticated candle forms/jars (you wouldn't believe the amount of ugly "country kitchen ball jar candles" for sale on the internet! yuck!), or even candles made of different materials than normal. How would I go about finding out if this is a viable product? I realize I'd have to factor in production costs and time to make the physical candles (if I were going to go this route vs using a dropshipper, etc), and I'm just confused where to start. My mind has been running at 60mph - thinking of a company name, URL availability, etc - but first and foremost how do I figure out if this would even be a profitable venture? There is so much competition out there - so who knows? Plus - if I wanted to go the luxury route and sell candles for $40 or $90 or whatever - how do I even know if that market is out there? I'm not completely sure about the Google Adwords thing either - if I put "candles" or "luxury candles" as a search term in there, how would I even know if my link is distinguished from any other out there - AND - wouldn't I need to have the website and product created in the first place? I guess I'm just a little overwhelmed and have a case of the "which comes first - the chicken or the egg" syndrome.
Tim said to sell/market something you know/are interested in. I'll admit I have a little to learn in the process of making these candles - but I know classy/upscale products from the "shabby chic" products I have been finding on the internet - and this seems to be a void I am sensing. But maybe its not profitable and that's why no one went after this niche. How do I go about finding this out? Thanks so much for hearing me blab - I truly appreciate it! :)
-Jesse
I'm a 26yo recent college graduate. Its taken me some extra time to finish school, but I feel I have grown more as a person through this process and the struggles I have been through during the past few years as a result. In any case, I'm at a great crossroads in my life where I can get stuck in a cubicle for the next 50 or so years, or start out a business of my own and see where it takes me. In all likelihood (sp?) I'll have to do a little of both at this point in my life to make ends meet. In any event, I just finished reading 4HWW a few nights ago, and it has gotten my creative/entrepreneurial juices flowing. However, I have some questions and hope those more experienced than I can help.
I have been reading many of the posts on this forum, and it seems that the general consensus says its better to "look for a market" before developing a product and seeing if a market for it exists. Well - I was brainstorming earlier and came up with a product first. Unfortunately, its something that already exists heavily on the internet and in the real world - candles. However, I have some ideas for more sophisticated candle forms/jars (you wouldn't believe the amount of ugly "country kitchen ball jar candles" for sale on the internet! yuck!), or even candles made of different materials than normal. How would I go about finding out if this is a viable product? I realize I'd have to factor in production costs and time to make the physical candles (if I were going to go this route vs using a dropshipper, etc), and I'm just confused where to start. My mind has been running at 60mph - thinking of a company name, URL availability, etc - but first and foremost how do I figure out if this would even be a profitable venture? There is so much competition out there - so who knows? Plus - if I wanted to go the luxury route and sell candles for $40 or $90 or whatever - how do I even know if that market is out there? I'm not completely sure about the Google Adwords thing either - if I put "candles" or "luxury candles" as a search term in there, how would I even know if my link is distinguished from any other out there - AND - wouldn't I need to have the website and product created in the first place? I guess I'm just a little overwhelmed and have a case of the "which comes first - the chicken or the egg" syndrome.
Tim said to sell/market something you know/are interested in. I'll admit I have a little to learn in the process of making these candles - but I know classy/upscale products from the "shabby chic" products I have been finding on the internet - and this seems to be a void I am sensing. But maybe its not profitable and that's why no one went after this niche. How do I go about finding this out? Thanks so much for hearing me blab - I truly appreciate it! :)
-Jesse