Idea #2
There's no particular order to the way I'm numbering these new business ideas by the way. So number two is something that a colleague and I first discussed a couple months ago. WheelTechnology This one's not even an internet based concept. It all came about because my friend and colleague had an acquaintance who was importing chrome auto wheels from China to the United States. The things is that the acquaintance doesn't speak English, and he had some overstock inventory to sell off at some pretty good prices. What we're talking about here are the after-market wheels in the 20" and up sizes. We threw together a quick website and cold called and emailed a handful of possible medium sized, independent retail outlets. So far, no luck. But the opportunity spawned an idea. We've established a direct relationship with the manufacturer. Now we can go directly to the manufacturer and have custom designed wheel produced and shipped directly to potential clients here in the United States. Now the trick is finding someone who is interested in having their own wheel designs made into a product that they can sell. We can even assist in getting the designs fleshed out. The benefit of this concept is that it's harder for someone to copy this idea, as our prime strength is the relationship directly with the manufacturer. The downside is that we simply have no track record in the auto wheel industry. In addition, I have some concerns regarding liability if anything were to ever happen with one of the products that causes us to get sued. The manufacturer is quite reputable, and produces wheels for major brands in the States, but you never know. So like every idea, it's going to take some man-hours get this concept rolling to profitability, and some legal review.
- posted by Drew @ 11:07 AM  

 
Idea #1
I'm reluctant to give the full details on all eight business ideas just yet, as I don't want to inspire competition before I even get off the ground. But I will reveal enough to give you a picture of where things stand.
An undisclosed Apartment Site (name protected to prevent competitors from getting extra info from this site) This was the first idea I came up with back in college. In 1998 my roommate and I began the initial concept development on the site. The idea was to provide a service to college students to help them find apartments. The concept was unlike other apartment search sites of the time because it was focused on students only. The Apartment Site was the prototype and the plan was still is to launch the site at other universities as well. To-date the site is functional, has a fair number of visitors and is ready to actually generate some revenue. The only problem is selling the advertising. Since I live in Houston, and the potential advertisers are in Indiana, in person selling is difficult. I've taken one trip to visit with potential advertisers, and they indicated a high level of interest, but I have yet to get a commitment. This leaves me with a couple of options.
1) Shut the site down and forget about the whole idea.
2) Find someone local to do some sales leg-work. It is a college campus, so there have got to be some students looking for experience.
3) Forget about the location for the current site and focus on a location closer to where I actually live and get myself out there to sell.
4) Find another revenue source that doesn't require face-to-face selling.

There are a few other lesser issues which I'll go over in the near future, but getting the revenue portion of the model is the biggest problem. Stay tuned for the details on idea #2 later today.
- posted by Drew @ 9:46 AM  

 
The Beginning
Welcome! So this is the first post. Let me introduce myself. I'm in my late twenties, live in Houston and work for a large international consulting firm. I've worked for this firm for a little over four years now. I joined immediately after college and have stayed put since then. I graduated in 1999 just before the bubble burst and instead of joining a dot-com I decided to join one of the Big 5 accounting/consulting firms. The main reason for joining this firm was not because I anticipated the dot-com crash and knew to go to a more stable company, but because my girlfriend (now wife) lived in Houston and I had an opportunity that paid fairly well there. Going to consulting didn't feel like a glamorous move, but it did provide good experience and paid a decent salary. Looking back over the past 4 years it seems I made a pretty good choice. A job at pets.com would not have faired well.

In college I worked with a roommate on creating a site to help students find apartments. But once I started working, there was never time to get the site working just right. I did pour in the hours over weekends, but to do it right I think you need to put yourself into it 100%. Over the past four years I've continued to put time and money into the site with no revenue to show for it. Also over the past four years I've been developing the concepts for an additional seven business ideas.

So here's what this site is about... I've decided to chronicle the path I take and hope the experience I convey here will not only solicit feedback and suggestions from others, but also help those in a similar situation decide what course of action is best for them. Within the next couple months I will decide to either continue trying to make my own business run on my spare time, or I will quit my job (with a regular paycheck) and go for broke. Stay tuned for more...
- posted by Drew @ 6:19 PM