I have an idea about starting a community for entrepreneurs. I saw many online communities for entrepreneurs. I found most entrepreneurs use these communities to make contacts for their business. Is there any other thing entrepreneurs expect from an Online community? If you know something let me know it, I'll try to put it with my new community! Thanks in advance!
Be able to find suppliers or wholesalers for our line .. Preferably from our own country would be the best and easier for us ..
The main challenge is to keep them spam free esp if they are aimed at the "western" market as you get many many people from certain other countries spamming their fake products or low cost development etc but not actually adding any further value to the forum
Yeah, besides building contacts, a lot of entrepreneurs build relationships with others, which is a VERY valuable asset in the business world, as you already probably know.
Yes, the biggest thing I would use it for is to build relationships with other entrepreneurs. Being an entrepreneur can be difficult, I know my family and friends often try to discourage me or tell me I can't do it. Or why would you not just work a real job? Also I find it difficult to get a good perspective on new ideas, as most others don't think like I do, or don't take chances. So I would use a section to bounce ideas off others, to network, to get encouragement, to hear of successes, and to share with others. I would PRIMARILY use a forum like this for this purpose. MAtt
It is difficult to make them active and keep engaged in such community forum, alternatively social networking might be good than forum for connecting entrepreneurs, IMO.
Entrepreneurial News, Business News would be good sources. I would suggest inviting Business Coaches to the community and make them "expert" contact to coach entrepreneurs. It could be a good lead generation tool for the coaches too. They should make their time available at no charge and/or provide a commission to the community.
That's a pretty competitive area. Would be better probably to pick a niche within the field. B2B, etc.
Yea, try to go little vertical and start from your local niche targeting specific class of business people- a group of small business owner of specific categories would be good start IMO.