I've come up with the following business plan and I'd like to hear some opinions on it. This is my plan to make money doing what I love, which is riding my motorcycle: 1. Buy a short, catchy domain name 2. Paint a unique design on my bike featuring my URL 3. Use the domain to sell gear from an affiliate program 4. Print business cards with my URL and give them to people 5. Advertise my URL on my helmet and other gear 6. Make enough money to buy myself a new bike Does that sound like a good business plan? I've never written a business plan before but I was inspired to write this one. To start this business I will need a small amount of money to buy the part I need to fix my bike, some paint, and some new gear because right now all I have is a helmet. How can I find someone who might be willing to invest in my business? And if I do create this business will it then allow me to write off gas every time I ride the bike, repairs, and even eventually a new bike as business expenses? Thanks for reading this -Amanda
I think it's going to take a lot more than that - promoting a site in order to make 'serious' money is a long, hard business, you need to promote it all over the web, advertise, seo your site and sell sell sell.
A lot has to go into a business plan, especially researching how many others are in your niche, how strong they are on search engines, and forecasting how well you'd do if you enter a market that's already been long established.
Droopy420 - I think some of the advice you are getting is a bit off base. What it appears to me you are trying to do is more of a guerrilla marketing approach, when others here are strictly using online methods. I've been in the motorcycle industry, so I may have a few ideas for you: 1. Domain names are easy, and for about 10 bucks you can get on the internet with relative ease. So go buy your name and get that outta the way. The other expense for this will be the actual development of the domain which can be handled a few ways. You can buy a website template and get a functional site up within a day or two. As I don't know your level of knowledge with regared to website dev and content writing, etc. I can't really speak to how you will be able to address this issue. The most cost effective way would be to find people on this forum who can do it for you. Out sourcing is pretty economical, just make sure you use people with good feedback from others. 2. Painting your bike. This could be expensive. I would go find a painter, maybe you know of one trying to break into the scene or a small shop building on their reputation. The idea would be to partner up with them, you get your bike painted for free and in return you promote the hell outta them. It gets them exposure and you a paint job. You could probably work out something on a referal basis, X amount of dollars for every paint job that's a result of your promotion. 3. Finding an affiliate for gear. Shouldn't be too tough, there are enough shops out there that it wouldn't take too long to find some with affiliate programs. Look through bike magazines, local shops, online, etc. This is more time consuming than anything else. 4. Business cards. A good idea for sure. I've found great resources online that can print anything you want and at a very good price. The only thing you'll need is a digital version of your logo, but even that's not totally necessary to get some simple cards made. 5. Advertise. This should be vinyl graphics....stickers. Cheap and effective. Plaster those bad boys all over where you know bikers go. Go to your local track and give them to racers or anybody with a van or trailer. The farther away from where you live the better so look for out of state license plates. As I see you're in Georgia I know you have some great tracks around you, go to as many as you can. Even other types of racing, drag, Nascar, dirt track, motocross, anything where people go to drive shit way too fast. 6. Making enough to buy a new bike. New?? Or new to you? Big difference between the two. The road you are attempting to go down could be a pretty long one being as you are trying a more grass roots approach, but there is nothing to say you can't make it happen. Finding people to invest. Much harder unless you hit up family. You should take the time to come up with a budget for everythging you want or need. Look at it from the standpoint of "no one is going to give me anything for free", that way you are looking at worst case scenario figures. If you get lucky and get something donated, great. If not, you still know what you need to get your idea off the ground. As for taxes, check with a local tax person, but until you register your business name you won't be able to write off the you money spent against anything. What you want to do won't be easy, but nothing worth having is. If you want this bad enough, go out there and do your best to make it happen. Who cares what others think, this is you and your passion. If you fail, at least you can say you did your best and you will certainly have learned something. If you succeed, it will taste oh so sweet to have done it! Good luck!
Why do you want to do this? What is your vision? Or is this something you just want to try out? What is the endgame? I think the first thing you need to do is define what it is you want to accomplish. Specifically. Amount and all. Then you can find a way to make your business fit that idea.
I'll have to agree with w3bmaster. Build your site on something you really like don't worry about trying to monetize on it right away. That will only cause real big headaches,and could potentially end up costing you lots of money. build your site slow,put lots of thought into your content. Make sure your content is relevent to your niche. Had I taken my own advice I would have probably saved hundreds of dollars. Read posts in forums. Do searches in the forum for questions you have. Remember first put alot of time and thought into your website content. Then I can almost guarantee you'll make money on it later. How long just depends. russell P.S do it for the love of the niche not the money . one more piece of advice keep your reputation good.
Thanks for the great advice, Super Guru. I really appreciate it. I can build the site myself. I have plenty of experience building websites so that will be no problem. I was going to paint the bike myself also with the help of my dad, but I think your idea is much better. I'm sure I can find a local painter on craigslist or somewhere to partner up with. I could exchange some of the ad space on my bike for a paint job and also offer to give out their business cards. I will probably get some stickers printed along with my business cards and give those out for free to people. I have a book about taxes that I've just started reading. I will finish reading that, and if I'm still confused I'll talk to someone about it. I will also look into registering my business name. jwilson you gave some good advice too, thanks. I will sit down and answer those questions and also come up with a detailed budget. And Russell, I don't think I will have any problem creating interesting content for this niche because it's something I'm very passionate about. Honestly even if I don't make enough to get myself a new bike I will still have fun with this project. Thanks again everyone -Amanda