Undercapitalized: Another word for stuck in first
posted October 15, 2009 - 2:54pmI have the concept. Hell, I even have the products. I can pick them up, handle them, admire them, and imagine them sailing out the door, one order after another.
I have the company name, and I own the domain. I even have the
beginnings of a functioning website. Go see for yourselves – http://bluehatman.com.
What I don’t have is a website that functions the way I want, particularly the shopping opportunity. I call my store BHM Mercantile, and it is supposed to have various aisles down which a customer might wander. No shopping cart. This is all pretty much custom, made-to-order merchandise. So a facility for direct email contact, the means to begin a dialog, is much more important than a shopping cart. I’ll need a PayPal button for the moment the dialog ends and a down payment is forthcoming. These would be the basics. And I had hoped to have these basics up and running by October 1. I had hoped to get out ahead of the holiday season, such as it is in this economy, and begin the effort of driving traffic to the website.
But today is October 15 and I am not any nearer my objective. The fundamental, underlying issue – and one that is so incredibly common to any entrepreneurial effort – is capital, or the lack of it. I don’t have the capital to actually go out and hire someone to initiate the website design I have in mind, to take a Wordpress theme and tweak it into shape. These are not skills I happen to have. I have other skills. So I can trade. I can barter. I just can’t pay. And that’s the rub.
When you end up in the trade/barter economy, you have no leverage. The guy who swore up and down he would help me out, that all I had to do was pick a theme, load up my digital imagery, and produce appropriate editorial copy, and he would take care of the rest – that guy has disappeared. Poof. Gone. After several attempts to connect by email, texting, and voice messaging I did get a voice message back telling me he was really busy. Which was a relief. This is a guy who hangs out with biker gangs and uses his pyro skills to blow up junker cars in the desert, for fun. So at least he wasn’t dead. Just useless.
I have contacted other people who have the skills and figure a trade is an ok idea. But they, too, are busy. The best they can do is put me in the queue. So my timing is shot, and I may as well look toward having everything running the way I want by the first of the year.
The lesson here is simple. Trading and bartering isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s a great thing. But it flies in the face of the basic laws of capitalization. If you want something and you want it now, you had better be able to pay for it. Money talks; nobody walks.Otherwise, build in more time. Maybe twice as much time. Because the workflow won’t be mechanistic. There will be no schedules, no program managers. Instead, it will be an organic process, like the flow of a river. And you can’t leverage running water.
[For more writing by Blue Hat Man, click here]
Join Xomba Today
Do you like to write? Would you like to make a little extra money on the side? These people do. Join the Xomba community today.
Become a Member
Comments
Thanks
Thanks for all the good feedback. Cheers, Blue Hat Man
Blue Hat Man: He's on fire!!!
PS
As your fellow feature writer stated in his comments for http://www.xomba.com/don%E2%80%99t_quote_%E2%80%9Chourly_rate%E2%80%9D_upfront_your_services
and my personal experience with the Amazon stores, you do better if you have seperate websites for seperate services. Wagon-Load Power Shopping did poorly on the site. All people bought was books! Imagine that an author's page and people only want books. Wagon Load Power Shopping featured automotive wagon parts, wagon furniture and decor etc.
Anyway have one website for furniture and your articles revolve around furniture making and home decor, and another website for your online writing. Blogspot by google hosts free websites.
Anyway that's why I'm droppng Wagon Load Power Shopping and putting L Wagen's Bookstore on my L Wagen's Author Page instead!
Oh ask Jeremy do delete Mr. Ring tone down below and he will do it for you!
I had a brainstorm!
I think I solved your problem!
I looked at your website and I noticed it was set up like a lot of my author's friends who write and sell their own books.
This is what they do. They self-publish their book. (or in your case make your own furniture) and then they apply as third party vendors on Amazon, Amazon sells their book, collects the payment, and pays them a vendor fee, etc. The author ships the books however after geting the shipping info from Amazon. Okay, following me so far,
And then they apply as an Amazon affliate, you give your website in the application you see. Then once approved you set up an Amazon store with your products in it only. Amazon gives you the code to set up your own store within your website. In my friends case, they offer their books, the magazines that carry their article, and a select number of friends books. Okay, people order your own vendor products through your website Amazon Affliate Store and you collect an affliate fee.
Amazon takes care of collecting the payments, and the coding. They pay for credit card processing etc., and of course they also sell your products through their own website, and other people who want to carry your products in their Amazon Affliate store.
Now you don't have to have this arrangement forever. I guess you sign a contract, but when time is up and you get enough money you can start up your own store independent from Amazon if you like. You will have more money.
Links below so you know what I'm talking about.
http://www.amazonservices.com/content/sell-on-amazon.htm?ld=AZFSSOA
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/main.html
Here's my website. I'm now setting up L Wagen's Bookstore. Unfortuantely, I have no self published books to put in it, yet, but I'm working on the project. Until then I will sell other people's books.
http://www.lwagen.blogspot.com/
Okay I don't know Stephanie Meyer personally but here is her Author's page with her Amazon affliate bookstore. If it works for her, best selling author it will work for you!
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/
Options
You could try two barters.
I don't know what you've been offering to trade the web site design for. It's possible that though the people with those skills want what you are offering, they have other needs that are more pressing.
Perhaps you can find some one for whom what you have is what they want immediately, who will be able to offer a web designer what they want immediately.
It may not be as hard as you think.
I myself like bartering and I do it when I can.
I find that a lot of business people do barter.
It's just that they call it "reciprocity".
I hope your problem gets solved soon!
Sorry things are not working out.
Sorry things are not working out, have you tried Rent a Coder. I have a xomblurb about it. If you use the site to hire a programmer to get your website up and running please use my referral link, so I get the referral dollars. Thanks. Xomblurb below. I am not a programmer I signed up as a writer, and data entry person.
http://www.xomba.com/discover_new_way_hire_information_technology_experts
oops...
oops...
Visit: "Along The Merry Way..." - Good Reading Every Day
A story I have heard many times from creative people...
They have wonderful ideas, very creative things to share or sell, but no money to get things moving. Also bartering did not move things along as hoped. Great article that many can relate to. Hope you find the person you need.
Thanks for sharing.
Two options for funding your Blue Hat Project
Prosper.com
Kiva.com
Regarding Kiva; they just opened up lending to Americans. If you've seen the name "Kiva" somewhere, its probably off a PSA (Public Service Announcement). Google does a lot of PSAs with Kiva. It's been open to third-world countries and not Americans, even though its based in the USA.
But, as of a couple of days ago its been opened to Americans. I read the change on Google News, and heard about the change on KGO - ABC Radio - San Francisco.
Well, good luck with your project. +1
May your blue hats GO GREEN all the way to your bank...
Visit: "Along The Merry Way..." - Good Reading Every Day
Post new comment