You may be able to help me with this business concept problem...

Based on what little you've said here...nope. It's not that I don't think you're on the up-and-up, but with such vague details there's no way to really call it.

You're jumping ahead. I'd suggest getting a book on starting your own small business. This will guide you through making detailed business plans and testing the viability of your plan (people often survey potential customers, talk to similar businesses, etc.)

At that point, you'll have answered your own question. You'll either know why people will buy it, or you'll realise they don't want what you're hoping to sell after all.

The Bawlin Sox said:

I have a totally new business idea for the service industry. I’ve identified a need and found a way to satisfy that need.

(The idea could make me a fortune. So I know you’ll understand me keeping the exact details to myself.)

The problem is that, 1) I am an unknown quantity; I have no track record to fall back on, and 2) I’ll be promoting an entirely new idea to the buying public.

So, can you think of any ways in which I might persuade prospective clients that I’m on the up and up, that I'm sincere, that I know what I'm talking about, and that I can “deliver the goods?”

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Scott Adams points out that whenever he brings up a new idea for a product on his blog, he gets two responses:

1. That won't work -and-
2. That is already a successful product, so you aren't original.

You may get similar responses here ... at least if you gave people enough information to go by.

And it gets worse - my concept comes at a relatively high price.

Click to expand...

Are you saying that it is impossible to provide the service to someone for free (or a reduced price) to get a successful track record ?

Mac

1) I'm betting the idea is not all that original.
2) Without details, nope, can't help you. (Also, you may want to watch implying that the people you are requesting help from are thieves.)
3) I don't do expensive. These days, very few people do.

It involves a part-time Personal Assistant (provided by me) taking over and managing certain activities* in my client’s life for a period of approximately 13 weeks (X as many clients as I can generate). The clients would be drawn from a base of people sharing these same activities.

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I see.

You are providing services as a P.A - but getting economy of scale by limiting yourself to only providing the services if other people want them as well.

You could start by doing low-risk activities. For example - the wedding planning task would be a high risk - people want everything to go in a very precise way, with little margin of error. So with no track record, it might be hard to convince people to get you to do it.

So why not start with the tasks that we all need to do, but rather wouldn't ?

For example - I'd sign up (and pay!) for a service that mails me de-fleaing stuff for the cat every month. To be honest I tend to forget when it needs doing, and it would be a whole lot easier if I could just put my credit card details into a website and get them to send it to me once per month. (Or every second month - whatever the packet recommends)

Same for de-worming tablets, etc. It would be low risk (because I'm not risking a major event if the de-fleaing tablets are delayed) and those things have a ridiculous mark-ups, so the person with the website should make a fortune. (eg: The cat defleaing liquid I use has a resale value of about $30 thousand dollars per litre !! (The amount in the tiny ampule is less than a mL)

I'm sure the liquid inside doesn't cost that.

That's a business I'd happily pay money to.

Mac
(PS: I know that probably wasn't your idea - but it's just one of those things that bother me. Feel free to use this idea if you like)

Forgive me for saying, but this has fuck-all to do with writing, so I'm wondering why it isn't in Office Party or TIO...

The Bawlin Sox said:

AW Roundtable
For those more peripheral or general discussions

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About writing!

Do you see ANY other threads in here about small business ideas? Relationship questions? Gardening tips? No?

Last time we moved house, our estate agent and solicitor were meant to handle everything. That's what we paid them for. They told us what needed to be done, and we did it: none of the things which we did could have been done by anyone else (signing contracts, etc).

I can only see your service working if you have specialist knowledge and training. Are you a solicitor? A financier? Or a surveyor, perhaps? Do you have any background in property law, finance, mortgage brokering (?), or estate agency? Without it I can't imagine anyone putting you in charge of their house move--it's stressful because it's so important. It can't be left to just anyone.

Thing might be different in the USA, but here in the UK I don't think there's a market for your services, I'm afraid. And the prices you suggest are ridiculously high for doing stuff that you're probably not qualified to do.

You proposing something like this?
http://www.conciergelondon.co.uk/
or this
http://www.kenadia.co.uk/

$15k AUD !?

No way! For a start, I'd still end up doing all the annoying things that I'd like to get dealt with automagically.

Like filling out the change of address forms. Sure - you could do it for me. Once I gave you a complete list of all accounts, companies, details, passwords, customer numbers etc - but the amount of work to do that would outweigh the benefit.

There are already moving companies that do everything point-to-point .. so you pay a lot more, but they pack all your rooms from scratch, move and then unpack - even filling up the drawers again.

It's basically that plus a cleaning service ?

I'm not sure why I would hire a P.A for $1,250 per week who would be doing so little in terms of actual hours spent per week organising this kind of thing. I could just use one of the many 'P.A by the hour' services instead.

And if things like organising a new school for the kids would be involved - I would worry how much of that I *could* farm out.

I don't see why it would be so profitable for you, either.

Let's say you are fully booked - in fact x 1.5 booked. That only gives your business a gross income of $90k per annum. After you take out superannuation, professional indemnity insurance, etc you'd be left with less. A salary of maybe $60k.

But if you were a P.A. normally - you could expect $70k per annum - without any overheads!

Good luck !

Mac

willietheshakes said:

Forgive me for saying, but this has fuck-all to do with writing, so I'm wondering why it isn't in Office Party or TIO...

Click to expand...

When he first posted, there were no details -- notice the edited post -- so it could have been writing. You know, yet another way to revolutionize the publishing business by having someone submit your manuscripts for you, or something like that.

Will move elsewhere now.

your idea is very unoriginal.

The Bawlin Sox said:

(This is the closest I could find to an Off-Topic sub-forum)


I have a totally new business idea for the service industry. I’ve identified a need and found a way to satisfy that need.

It involves a part-time Personal Assistant (provided by me) taking over and managing certain activities* in my client’s life for a period of approximately 13 weeks (X as many clients as I can generate). The clients would be drawn from a base of people sharing these same activities.

If it makes it any easier for you to understand, you can call these activities “their daughter’s wedding.” It isn’t this, but the illustration may help you.

*The idea could make me a fortune. So you’ll appreciate why I’m keeping the exact details to myself.

However, it may be difficult to get the concept off the ground.

This is where you come in - you may have suggestions for ways around the difficulty.

The problem is that, 1) I am an unknown quantity; I have no track record to fall back on, and 2) I’ll be promoting an entirely new idea to the buying public.

And it gets worse - my concept comes at a relatively high price.

If I was the buying public, I’d be wary of me.

So, can you think of any ways in which I might persuade prospective clients that I’m on the up and up, that I'm sincere, that I know what I'm talking about, and that I can “deliver the goods?”


Thank you for your input.

Click to expand...

yea, i agree with some of the other posters here.





posted from tweetdeck for cray at 10:59 am est.

I suggest reading some books on how to start your own business.

What you're suggesting is not an impossible task, but you're going to have to do what every other business has to do - spend money on marketing to convince your target market that they need your services.

Which means, unless you have the money yourself, you'll have to come up with a viable business plan and convince people with money to invest in you and your idea.

You might also want to try beginning with a few smaller, less expensive projects (friends/family/friends of friends etc.) to get you started and develop good word of mouth/referrals.

Okay, first, totally unoriginal. Moving services are common. What you're offering is an add on to lugging the furniture around. You'd be better off trying to convince moving companies to refer you.

Second, for you to do all of the paperwork, change of address stuff for people, they're going to have to give you a lot of sensitive personal information. Change of addy at the bank, they want my account numbers, the government, they want my SIN, credit card numbers... I think you see where I'm going with this. I wouldn't even give this stuff to a friend (who would have to write it all down, whereas I have it in my head) who could lose it, or accidentally give it to someone who would abuse it. Why the hell would I give this information to a total stranger to whom I'm also giving $13K (you're totally insane on that btw. I'd say the value of the service is no more than a few hundred, 1K if you can fleece someone into it).

Good luck.

jennontheisland said:

Okay, first, totally unoriginal. Moving services are common. What you're offering is an add on to lugging the furniture around. You'd be better off trying to convince moving companies to refer you.

Second, for you to do all of the paperwork, change of address stuff for people, they're going to have to give you a lot of sensitive personal information. Change of addy at the bank, they want my account numbers, the government, they want my SIN, credit card numbers... I think you see where I'm going with this. I wouldn't even give this stuff to a friend (who would have to write it all down, whereas I have it in my head) who could lose it, or accidentally give it to someone who would abuse it. Why the hell would I give this information to a total stranger to whom I'm also giving $13K (you're totally insane on that btw. I'd say the value of the service is no more than a few hundred, 1K if you can fleece someone into it).

Good luck.

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word

If you're going to go into business for yourself, the first thing you need to do (as was suggested above) is read about starting a small business.

Take a course. Or three.

Do the research. Then do some more research. Then some more. Chances are, someone is already doing what you propose to do. If not, then you really do have to wonder whether or not you have a viable idea. I'd be more worried, especially if it's a service business as opposed to manufacturing, if people weren't doing it. There's probably a very good reason if they aren't.

How much is the competiton charging? What services (exactly) do they provide? Who are their clients? What areas of service, or what clients, are they missing that you can serve?

If the idea excites you, then you have to buckle down and do the work. Don't worry about someone else stealing your idea--if it works for you, you can bet within months there'll be imitators out there anyhow. Your job is to find your niche, a niche nobody else but you can serve as well as you can serve them, and then do it.

Helping seniors move is a growing business. You won't get rich doing it, but you can make a living if that's what you want to do. But if you determine the price point before you determine what the market will bear, you're setting yourself up for failure.

jennontheisland said:

Okay, first, totally unoriginal. Moving services are common. What you're offering is an add on to lugging the furniture around. You'd be better off trying to convince moving companies to refer you.

Second, for you to do all of the paperwork, change of address stuff for people, they're going to have to give you a lot of sensitive personal information. Change of addy at the bank, they want my account numbers, the government, they want my SIN, credit card numbers... I think you see where I'm going with this. I wouldn't even give this stuff to a friend (who would have to write it all down, whereas I have it in my head) who could lose it, or accidentally give it to someone who would abuse it. Why the hell would I give this information to a total stranger to whom I'm also giving $13K (you're totally insane on that btw. I'd say the value of the service is no more than a few hundred, 1K if you can fleece someone into it).

Good luck.

Click to expand...

Change of address cards at the US Post Office are free. The only cost is a stamp to put on the cards you send to magazines, etc.

Change of address for your utilities is free. You contact the phone/electric/water/cable company and say "I'm moving here on this date, please make sure it's switched over then".

Change of address at the bank or credit union is free.

DO YOU SEE WHERE I'M GOING WITH THIS?

And I know enough people where the only costs of moving is to offer to pay for their gas and a pizza party.

Otherwise, there are established moving services that have been around for much longer that I'd trust before a new company. Yeah, I'd look at the costs for the newer company but I'm a bit of a snob and I'd probably go with the company that's been around longer, even if they were more expensive.

But this is just me.

If you still want to form this company, we're still the wrong place for more information.

The Bawlin Sox said:

Thanks for all that. Quickest way for me to reply is to say look at waylander's links in the post above yours.

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Your question was 'Would you consider a fee of AUD$15,000 to be reasonable?'

My reply was 'No'. And it is still 'No' - even after looking at the links.

Why would I change my mind? Of course the super-wealthy pay a fortune for concierges.

But your post didn't seem to be talking about a concierge service for the super-wealthy. After all - there are already existing businesses for that.

Instead you were describing 'a whole new business for the service industry'.
I interpreted (obviously wrongly) that your new business idea was aimed at the average consumers.

So who is this business aimed at ?

If the business is aimed at average consumers, my answer remains.

Mac