I have a business idea and would like (honest) opinions

[shirlls]

I have a 2 year old and due twins in November so will be finishing up work for the foreseeable future in October due to child care issues. After having my son I went from full time down to part time and have already taken a huge financial hit, my amazing OH works full time and does most of the financial providing for the family. I don't want to rely on benefits to live, not that there is anything wrong with it if circumstances dictate that you may have to, however I would like to do something as well as being a mummy and hopefully have a slightly better quality of life financially for my family, and be able to provide more.

I have an idea which I plan to put into action shortly, however have a few reservations about the viability of the idea. People I have asked for opinions have said they think it could work, however these people are friends and colleagues so I'd like some neutral opinions.

After having ran a couple of small business myself (therapies (which I still do) and cupcakes) I understand how little response you can get from advertising extensively, how much competition there is, and also more significantly, how expensive advertising is. I have also noticed as a customer how hard it can be to find a good supplier of whatever I am looking for (e.g. a florist, or a childrens entertainer for a party, cake supplier, etc). So my idea is.... a 'business agency'. I advertise the agency extensively and people phone up for free to ask for a list of e.g. cake suppliers in their area, and the revenue I get is from business paying me a small monthly fee for being on my books, the idea being if I have a large number of business signed up I could make a relatively good wage from it and there are little outgoings involved (all I need is a pc and access to the internet, both of which I have). The fee would be affordable and not too pricey, like a couple of pounds a month as advertising is costly but I would help them get some business in and their names out there for those just starting out, or even just existing business wanting to attract more custom. Also, it would be helpful for the general public as it is a free service and instead of googling for what they are looking for, they come to the one place (e.g. me!) and I match them with a list of suppliers in their area or what meet all their requirements, etc.

There would also be an interactive element, where I'd have a business facebook page and have 'business of the week' where I advertise a business on my books daily and if the business agrees, do a short advertising burst and advertise them on a lot of business sites. I could also run some competitions with some businesses who agree. All these is free extras for those paying to be on my books. I don't yet know exactly what incentive I could provide, but for a small incentive I was also going to invite feedback from clients about their experience of businesses they have experience with through me (as a way of monitoring the quality of those being advertised by my business).

I have done a risk assessment on it and obviously the main risk is that I could advertise or recommend someone to a client and them let them down or not be suitable, I will have to have a think about how I'd deal with this and of course, I'd need to get clients to make it work lol. Reservations aside, I feel this idea, if it worked, would be easily done from home on my pc and I could work it around the kids. My educational background is in media and advertising and PR so I could make use of my studies too.

What do you all think? Be honest now

 

[supertabby]

It doesn't sound like you have a usp (unique selling point) unless I'm misunderstanding the business idea? If I was a customer looking for custom cake makers in Manchester why would I come to you - and wait for a reply - instead of googling "custom cakes manchester" and getting instant results? What's the incentive to go through you?

 

[shirlls]

It doesn't sound like you have a usp (unique selling point) unless I'm misunderstanding the business idea? If I was a customer looking for custom cake makers in Manchester why would I come to you - and wait for a reply - instead of googling "custom cakes manchester" and getting instant results? What's the incentive to go through you?

I take your point, that is something I may need to work on - an incentive for going through me. The element of trustwould be there (which is where the risk I mentioned about needing to know those on my books were reputable and provided a good service) so people would be more likely to come to me to make sure they get a reputable business to supply or do whatever service is is they were looking for. Sometimes googling businesses can be a little 'cold' and I know I sometimes feel better by using a business directory, or I even find it a little easier looking up a directory than randomly googling it as sometimes google doesn't give you the best results and directories are more specific. I think I will need to work on what would inspire people to come through me, however I would offer a very specific search where directories and google can't. So my usp would be I would do a more specific search and be a trusted source of suppliers and businesses. I do accept I will need to do some more research and work on incentives.

 

[Kate&Lucas]

I'm thinking along the lines of the PP.
It sounds a bit like RatedPeople but on a wider scale and over the telephone. Imo the reason the internet works so well is people want to avoid that 'personal touch' and are wary of salespeople. It might just be the way that I think but as a customer I'd be wondering whether, if a company is paying out to be listed with your directory, are they going to add those costs to my product/service? I don't personally use the likes of RatedPeople for this reason.
Also, given your fee to advertise, am I going to find a more comprehensive list of businesses with a quick search on Yell?
Is it local or Nationwide? If I call you from a small town and you've not reached out there yet, are you going to tell me you can't help even though Google might show lots of companies?

I work for a small business and we do get this sort of thing through on a fairly regular basis, new business directories that claim to have something different and asking us to pay to get listed with them. We pay a ton listing with the main directories who guarantee us a lot of custom (and it works), so there's just no incentive there. They never seem to do very well unfortunately.

 

[x__amour]

It's basically SEO/SEM just not on the internet which is where the majority of local exposure is anyway. You could try and learn SEO and promote business's that way but for your idea I'm not sure how much profit you will gain tbh.

 

[HBGirl]

I wouldn't use a service like that. I have Google.

 

[sophxx]

I Own a few business and there's no way if pay money for this when I just do my own advertising. Sorry

 

[smileyfaces]

I would personally rather just google for instant results as a PP said.

 

[Eleanor ace]

I wouldn't personally use a service like this ebcause I'd think there was some catch- it may be free but they're going to try to push certain services on me, or ask me to sign up to something which costs money- I know that isn't what you will do but that's what I'd think. I might have read it wrong but are you only going to include services who have opted in and paid you a small fee? If so the number of services you have on your books for each area (bespoke cake makers, for example) will be much smaller than the number I'd find by Googling or looking in the Yellow Pages.
I'm far from a business expert though!

 

[lilyd]

For me there would be two problems. The first being that you cannot guarantee that the company is reputable, they will not be answerable to you, so the customer would get no additional security by using you.

Secondly, I wouldn't trust an advertising company to have my interests at heart rather than those of the company that is paying you to advertise.

Really sorry to be negative x

 

[Rhi_Rhi1]

Sorry I would just google

 

[shirlls]

Thanks everybody for your feedback. It was just an idea I had and thought I'd get it out there. It would seem it isn't really going to be viable so I guess it's back to the drawing board!

I am trying to come up with an idea I could start with no heavy start up costs, and that I can do from home. I am trying to avoid all the work from home commission-based jobs out there, e.g. Avon, Kleeneze, Arbonne, Usborne books, etc but there doesn't seem to be anything else

 

[Kate&Lucas]

Like a PP said you could try the likes of SEO? Or running social media accounts for businesses, maybe volunteer a little so you have a bit of a portfolio and contact small businesses in your area offering your service for a fee - just an idea