The Wholesale Forums

[SEANYBOY]

What would you need to do to go about starting a business such as ebay? I have the idea and I think it would work and as Im off fo summer Im willing to dedicate that time to doing it... I assume the wost bit would be actually getting the infastructure of the site up and running...who would do that? What kind of prices would it cost for the setting up and maintenance of the site etc??

Obviously its not the same as ebay because clearly no-one can compete with them...but its a similar idea for a certain market. Obviously i dont want to go into details, but any help would be GREATLY appreciated...seriously. I dont know what to do next!

Sean

[blavann]

I think it would be very complicated to set up.

Since ebay were recently sued for allowing counterfiet goods to go through their system, I think a lot of legal advice would be needed.

Unless you're planning on using an outside escrow, you will also need advice on money.

Data protection too, seeing as you will be holding peoples details.

I think you're getting in way too deep here, but then the only website I ever made was a stupid coolpage site, lol

[MathewLisett]

your not wrong, ive nearly spent just over 2 years or more getting all my ideas down, doing the reasrch, seeing what the consumer is after, what sites work and what doesnt.

Like i have found out and ill say it to you .

whats is your main aim of the business
who are you tryignt o atract
whats the focus on the site going to be
how are you going to be different than the others out there
whats your price range
what theme you after
do you have an idea of the software yuwish to incorporate into the site
do you have any rules thought out for yourself as for what you will allow on the site and what you wont allow
what do you aim to change on the site that makes it different, and is this aim realistic
what is your time period in which you feel is the safe period for the business to be doing ok
do you have a pay scheme such as billing, payments, memberships, discounts etc
do you aim to employ people later on, straight away or not at all


these are the few things i have come across and been asked myself whilst attempting basically the same thing. and its been really helpful. my head does hurt quite a bit at times but thats what painkillers are for lol.

Oh and instead of just thinking what the site could eb right now, think of what you wish it to be like in 2-5 years down the road so that you have an aim and can see the setup and other osts from that and in effect be ahead of youself before you have started. becuase my ideas climbed and climbed and has been quite extensive, but when speaking to what i call "hopefull helpers" i do have to state what i aim for as a basic starting point to get the business up and running otherwise they will simply say its impossible and costs are too high which would be true.

hope this helps.

[SEANYBOY]

yeh thats very true, and I would certainly be interested to know how much it would come out at...I think it would be worth it though for many reasons. thanks for the input.

[SEANYBOY]

Originally Posted by MathewLisett

your not wrong, ive nearly spent just over 2 years or more getting all my ideas down, doing the reasrch, seeing what the consumer is after, what sites work and what doesnt.

Like i have found out and ill say it to you .

whats is your main aim of the business
who are you tryignt o atract
whats the focus on the site going to be
how are you going to be different than the others out there
whats your price range
what theme you after
do you have an idea of the software yuwish to incorporate into the site
do you have any rules thought out for yourself as for what you will allow on the site and what you wont allow
what do you aim to change on the site that makes it different, and is this aim realistic
what is your time period in which you feel is the safe period for the business to be doing ok
do you have a pay scheme such as billing, payments, memberships, discounts etc
do you aim to employ people later on, straight away or not at all


these are the few things i have come across and been asked myself whilst attempting basically the same thing. and its been really helpful. my head does hurt quite a bit at times but thats what painkillers are for lol.

Oh and instead of just thinking what the site could eb right now, think of what you wish it to be like in 2-5 years down the road so that you have an aim and can see the setup and other osts from that and in effect be ahead of youself before you have started. becuase my ideas climbed and climbed and has been quite extensive, but when speaking to what i call "hopefull helpers" i do have to state what i aim for as a basic starting point to get the business up and running otherwise they will simply say its impossible and costs are too high which would be true.

hope this helps.

Very, Very useful, its greatly appreciated. I dont expect to wake up tomorrow andfor the whole thing to be set up, but I have no idea where to start in setting up such a site etc... as the previosu poster said there are legal costs involved and such like. im determined though!

[MathewLisett]

and to help you out from which i have foudn quite hard still.

find the following.

server setup ...whats needed for your start and main aims
server costs and maintaince for the above.
hosting , even though you can get hosted these days for less than £1, look the hosting company up and read reviews, and that goes for the server company aswell, the last thign you want is for the server your business is on to be doen like 50% of the time.

shop aroudn with the prices and reviews see whats what and compare.
look aroudn other sites, and i wouldnt stick to just shop/auction sites as thats the first mistake i made, look at any site , and if your looking for say a flash content site and animation look at say movie and gamer sites. see how they operate and note down what you like and dont like and note the site down for later reffrence.

try to find out what thoe sites are made from , what software etc is used, and see if you can ask how long it took an what the ball mount was for the setup.

and the hardest thing i have foudn at present is trying to get finacial help, why? well you need details of why you need finaical help so therfore you need100% of the above details to expalin what the costs are, and when you are lieterally unable to come up with anyting, you have no chance of a deal.

and like with ajsquare, i spent near 4 months trying tog aina quote from their superb breathtaking services they supply, yet took them that long to give me justa quote which ive been told by some is extremely high amount ie 6.7k gbp

[SEANYBOY]

6.7k?!?! jeez... so you're looking at 10k+ to set something like this up arent you? Plus marketing. Not a cheap deal at all

[MathewLisett]

well thats the quote i had for just the web design which wuld have beena script and open source script at that, which woudl mnean from what i understand is that i or anyone i get to alter the script to suit my needs i can do so without any legal worries, i really still have no idea what a script is apart from a tv program , but according to a friend who does web desining for a business (who said he didnt have the time to help becuase he was so busy, but was avaliable for advice) stated that its an open script you really need to go for.

Now with marketing, dont forget busiensses before the internet got by marketing by unique manner of ways, so dont just rely on the net such as google etc, but also gont say no to them either.

a large abnner on you car/vehicle or family and friends just like what you see on buses etc , they are not as expensive as they once were and they are so effective, espcially for those that dont go on the net for shopping etc .

but with you saying not a cheap deal at all. if you come into thinking this whole thign was a cheap and easy way to go about it, well that was the 2nd thing i messed up with becuase i was fooled into thinking it was going to be cheap and easy by a so called friend by the name of chuck keenan who does cdk systems.

oh and thankfully if it now works out via a friend on the net , i think its either his missus or sister that he passe me onto , but she is doign a degree in web design and was very happy to help out and has offered to do the site as part of her degree which is a massive bonus espcially when if you in my position and money is on short supply.

how ever she had stated to which i totally agree, the fact that the whole web design of the site would be copyrighted under her, which isnt an issue becuase i knwo you can buy the rights later on. and at least she will gt free advertising via the site being there etc.

at this point where i am right now, is that im gettig very angr with companies that are not professional in their way of comunication such as ajsquare , that wotn give you the time of day to potetential customers, the fact that you can see an opening to a better online experince since eby is going down faster than a pile of ++++ on mount everst, and to know that you still quite frankily stuck half way, knwoing that if peope didnt mess you about etc, you coudl very well be making a profit and making a name for yourself ina good way where you want to be.

[Saajan]

eBid is a business like eBay but would go on there and sell? Same thing if you create a new auction site, why would people come to your site instead of eBay?

[MathewLisett]

i will not answe that as ive answered that so many times and came againsta brick wall every time simply becuase the person assking the quetion simply can not see how the business would work, just becuase places like ebay and ebid are out tere already. and to give a quick example s that ebid came just 6 years ago and they have done more than 500 million profit in that time , so even if they are not beating ebay, they are still profiting and dfoing well for what they are oing.

and ebay where they are at the moment, maybe this is the time for a "fresh start"