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Q.
Hello,I have a
fairly successful home based business I started in my spare bedroom 2 years
ago. I started from nothing and grew the business dramatically to over
$120,000.00 in the last year. Growth has slowed but consistently gains over
last year.
So the problem you
might ask? Well, I have outlined goals for myself and my company that are
pretty lofty, but given what I've already achieved, they don't seem completely
impossible anymore if I could just figure out how to proceed... I know what I
want to do with it, have it fairly detailed plan in mind but what I need is a
business manager or something... kind of like "Here's my idea and how I
want to achieve it, now here... make it happen!" Am I crazy or are there
people who do this?
What I want to do is
form a franchise for my business and sell it to others as a home based
business. I'm hoping, if things go according to plan, to be able to have all
my domains working as separate businesses that I will lease to people who want
an Internet Business but don't have a clue how to start it or to do the web
work and "lease" it to them (for lack of a better word) while I
remain control of the domain name until the lease period is up. (Say... a
year, or whatever we agree on.)
In a nut shell, I
will have a website with the product catalog. Each domain will be linked to
that store catalog, though the business will be owned by several different
people. They pay me an "Upfront" fee $3500.00(again I haven't worked
out all the figures yet) for an established running business. (Like they
walked up to a fully furnished Sears store and all they had to do is unlock
the door.)
The up-front, non
refundable fee covers the website, fully automated, the product, hosting fees
etc, everything in a nutshell. I get and keep a copy of the credit card they
want to use for their business and I charge them a monthly fee of $150.00 for
the domain, web hosting & maintenance of the catalog.
When they get an
order a copy is sent to them and one to our Wholesale Warehouse. Each order is
product that will be purchased from our Wholesale store. We use our merchant
account to process their sales , and we will charge them a flat .50( or
whatever) per transaction.
If they want to get
their own Merchant account and process their own sales we will have an option
for that as well. Then our Wholesale Warehouse will drop-ship their order to
their customer, using the name of their business so the customer is never the
wiser. This will save the business owner from having the huge expense of
Inventory and the space to store it.
They do not have to
look for distributors and they don't have to do packing or shipping. Their
customer is happy and never knows it didn't come from where it was ordered
from. At the end of each day the warehouse sends out all the tracking numbers
to the various business's and each one is responsible for dealing with their
own customers.
They could quite
conceivably do 30,000.00 to 60,000.00 the first year. All they have to do is
advertise and bring in the business, we would do the rest. Then after the
agreed on price is met, they have the option of continuing on with us doing
the work and paying us a fee, or they can go on their own and at that time the
domain would be transferred over to them.
If they don't work
at their growing their business and or stop making payments, I redirect the
traffic they have built to my site and resell the domain again. That way I
have a steady flow of increasing income. If everything works according to my
plans, I will turn my currant business over to be packed & shipped from
our Wholesale warehouse just like any of the other business.
That would free up a
lot of my time to help others grow their business's and I would hire some
workers to work in the warehouse & shipping area. Well that's my plan, and
I think it will be very beneficial to everyone, all the way around! If someone
had offered me a chance to own my own business out of my home with a built in
warehouse, no having to look for suppliers, no minimum orders, no mess, a
built in order desk and someone to fill the orders, all I have to do is
advertise and get people to my site (Like any business) and watch the checks
roll in I would have jumped on IMMEDIATELY!
As part of the
business set up I will have a service submit them regularly (once a month) to
1600 search engines for the first year, so technically the first day they walk
into it they could be receiving orders. Here is a good example: I started
submitting one of my newest sites to the search engines in December. I haven't
advertised anywhere else yet, been to busy and I have had 64 orders on it so
far this year! Just think what it could be doing if I had the time to promote
it correctly?!
So conceivably,
there is great potential for the new business. Also I won't let anyone who
buy's in sit there and struggle for direction, the better they do the better I
do so they don't have to worry I'm going to take their money and give them no
direction.
That wouldn't be in
anyone's best interest so they have that added assurance that we will do our
best to help them succeed. So that is it...I have poured my ideas out to
you... WHO do I contact to make this a reality? Where would you go with it? I
need a business councilor or something, someone who can help me structure
this... who is it that does that sort of thing??? Thank you for listening to
me. I'm sorry if I bent your ear so to speak.
Best Regards,
Rita L. LaGrow Owner
- Gallerio.com
Advice
by Tammy Harrison
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Tammy Harrison is a successful
home-based working mom for over five years. She holds a degree from Mizzou in
Consumer Economics. Her business focuses on Marketing and Creativity for Small
Businesses and she is currently the Independent Creative Representative for
Home-Based Working Moms (