Am I being unreasonable about starting up my business?

[geekchic9]

I'm honestly looking for feedback, not just "You go, girl!" type answers.

I just set up a site that is in its early stages of development . See my sig for the link if you're curious. I'm developing a study skills course on it that will be free. Additional courses will cost some (but not a lot) of money. Right now, the site is costing me money, about $10 a month. I don't think that's a bad cost since I just started it.

I just told my boyfriend about the site. He is very upset, because it is costing me money. He basically said that if it was earning me some immediate money, that would be good, as if starting a business that is in the black immediately were possible for a beginner like me. But, I am in a lot of student loan debt, and he is worried that I am wasting my money.

Is this just foolishness? I really want to get this project off the ground. I would buy my services, so I figure other people may want to as well. So, tell me if I'm acting foolishly or not. I'm not sure if it would make a difference, however, I will hear you out. Again, I'm honestly looking for feedback, not just "You go, girl!" type answers.

Thanks for reading.

[New Every Day]

$10 a month? That's really not a big deal. It's a paltry sum to start a business.

I'd be asking more about additional costs. For example, how are you going to advertise? What kind of marketing budget do you have? I'd be a bit more ruthless about fleshing out the details of what you want the site to do, how you want it to work, etc.

I'd also propose this idea. Set a deadline for the "success" of the business. For example, if the business is not making $XXX by December 31, 2007, then my plan of action will be...

That way, he knows it's not an open-ended thing and that you are giving yourself a deadline for making a go of it.

I don't know if this helps or not, but it's just a couple of ideas.

[Nathan]

Whether or not the website is a success you should be glad you atleast gave it a shot and gained some experience in starting/running a business. You have to start somewhere, and it won't get cheaper then $10 a month. Any money you make from the venture will just be a bonus. Learn from it IMO

[geekchic9]

Originally Posted by New Every Day

$10 a month? That's really not a big deal. It's a paltry sum to start a business.

Yes, that's what I thought, too.

I'd be asking more about additional costs. For example, how are you going to advertise? What kind of marketing budget do you have?

My budget is quite small (only a few hundred dollars), but I don't think I need to be shelling up the big bucks with all the free/cheap resources around the Internet.

I am definitely going to have an affiliate store for the books I'm going to require for the courses. I was going to use Amazon, but a person I've discussed this with suggested www,booksamillion.com, because the books are often cheaper there. However, so are the profits I would make from it, so it's a tossup right now. Perhaps both? Or neither one? Any recommendations from people using affiliate programs would be great.

I am also thinking about using Google advertisements, such as Google search, AdSense, and so on, but I also want to respect the privacy of the people who will use this site, as Google tends to peek at information on the site to generate ads.

A lot of the financial aspects will be discussed next week with the person I've mentioned earlier. I respect his opinion because he's an experienced CPA, and if there's anything I need help with, it's accounting. We would have discussed this earlier today, but our meeting was canceled today because of bad weather.

I'd be a bit more ruthless about fleshing out the details of what you want the site to do, how you want it to work, etc.

You're right about that. I've seen subscription sites for these sort of courses: Take all of the courses individually for $2400, but instead you can save money by paying for this $300 yearly subscription. Make them think they're getting a good deal. That sort of thing. I'm leaning toward that. But does it make good business sense? That's another thing I will have to ask the accountant about next week.

I'd also propose this idea. Set a deadline for the "success" of the business. For example, if the business is not making $XXX by December 31, 2007, then my plan of action will be...

That way, he knows it's not an open-ended thing and that you are giving yourself a deadline for making a go of it.

I don't know if this helps or not, but it's just a couple of ideas.

I like this other idea, too. Perhaps I could make it so I make a certain amount a month. I'm thinking of being realistic here, but perhaps I should do like Steve did and hang up a sign in my room that says, "$5000 a month." If I made $5000 a month, I would be out of student loan debt in no time. *sigh* However, that may be too big of a stretch. I don't know. I need to think about this.

Thanks for the ideas.

[Jill]

In the scheme of things $10 a month is very little.

One thing I learned fairly early on in my business is that it takes money to make money. Yeah, you can do a ton for free with the Internet (although not as much as you used to be able to do), but there are some things worth paying for.

Decent hosting is one of those.

Your bf shouldn't be being so negative about that, imo. You seem to be approaching your business with a professional attitude, which is great. You could have gone with a free host, but that would not have been the professional thing to do as those types of sites do not exude much confidence from those who visit them.

[shameless plug]You might want to sign up for my newsletter also, as it might give you some good ideas for your site as far as search marketing goes[/end shameless plug]

[richie]

the investment you are telling is not a big amount,if you find it big ,move to some cheap host ,as your site is mostly content based ,you don't need a good host,
morever like someone said earlier keep a deadline and keep learning free marketing techniques to promote your content ,if your content is genuine ,you are bound to be success,but even if you don't get success ,simply don't worry ,many people like me have started their 1st project and fall down with no profits but what you learn is what going to be useful in the long run , if you thinking of getting quick money i don't think its easy to find unless you have a very unique good idea

[ahimel]

Originally Posted by geekchic9

Right now, the site is costing me money, about $10 a month. I don't think that's a bad cost since I just started it.

I just told my boyfriend about the site. He is very upset, because it is costing me money. He basically said that if it was earning me some immediate money, that would be good, as if starting a business that is in the black immediately were possible for a beginner like me. But, I am in a lot of student loan debt, and he is worried that I am wasting my money.

$10/month? I don't have any income at all, and I wouldn't worry about $10/month. Can your boyfriend honestly claim that he doesn't ever waste $10 in a month?

Offer to buy him Starbucks twice a month, or a CD once a month, or something, so he can "waste" $10/month too. I promise you'll get WAY more benefit out of starting this business, whether it succeeds or not, than he'll get out of his coffee.

[geekchic9]

Originally Posted by ahimel

$10/month? I don't have any income at all, and I wouldn't worry about $10/month. Can your boyfriend honestly claim that he doesn't ever waste $10 in a month?

Offer to buy him Starbucks twice a month, or a CD once a month, or something, so he can "waste" $10/month too. I promise you'll get WAY more benefit out of starting this business, whether it succeeds or not, than he'll get out of his coffee.

Yeah, you're right. It will be a learning experience whether or not my business makes any money. And my boyfriend and I both waste a lot more money than $10/month!

[copla]

Originally Posted by geekchic9

I'm honestly looking for feedback, not just "You go, girl!" type answers.

I just set up a site that is in its early stages of development . See my sig for the link if you're curious. I'm developing a study skills course on it that will be free. Additional courses will cost some (but not a lot) of money. Right now, the site is costing me money, about $10 a month. I don't think that's a bad cost since I just started it.

I just told my boyfriend about the site. He is very upset, because it is costing me money. He basically said that if it was earning me some immediate money, that would be good, as if starting a business that is in the black immediately were possible for a beginner like me. But, I am in a lot of student loan debt, and he is worried that I am wasting my money.

Is this just foolishness? I really want to get this project off the ground. I would buy my services, so I figure other people may want to as well. So, tell me if I'm acting foolishly or not. I'm not sure if it would make a difference, however, I will hear you out. Again, I'm honestly looking for feedback, not just "You go, girl!" type answers.

Thanks for reading.

First off, what are your credentials for offering this service? What is/what was your GPA, what was/is your major, what level of education are you pursuing/pursued? Second... if the audience is apathetic college students, why would they pay 300-2400 dollars about study skills? Then, finally, do you know enough and are you learning enough about study skills to fill regular, useful content for the next five years? I think the free study skills resource would be a brilliant market if you are able to write it engagingly, and build up a good Google ranking, but you have to be able to fill a lot of content, moreso than your free course- because people will take your free one and not bother with the ones you have to pay for. You might get some money here and there from your pay course, but nothing consistent. Because, honestly, what college student is going to pay that amount of money, or any money, for a study skills course?

[ahimel]

Originally Posted by copla

You might get some money here and there from your pay course, but nothing consistent. Because, honestly, what college student is going to pay that amount of money, or any money, for a study skills course?

On the other hand, if you can get 10 people per month (or .00000144% of internet users) to pay $1, you've paid your costs. And you get experience either way. Even if this isn't the business that makes you millions and allows you to retire at age 35, it's quite likely that you'll gain skills and ideas that will be used whenever that business comes along.

[geekchic9]

Originally Posted by copla

First off, what are your credentials for offering this service? What is/what was your GPA, what was/is your major, what level of education are you pursuing/pursued?

Fair question. I have a BA in English from Texas Christian University with a 3.175 GPA. However, I'm not going to facilitate all of the courses--at least, I don't plan to do so. I'm trying to recruit my boyfriend to facilitate a mathematics course--he is a Ph.D. candidate in mathematics. But, he won't touch it till I've proven myself business-wise. That will take some time.

Second... if the audience is apathetic college students, why would they pay 300-2400 dollars about study skills?

Wow. Two big assumptions there. My audience is not apathetic college students. Perhaps my blog entry gave you the wrong impression....my audience is busy adults who want a Great Books education. Right now, I'm not sure what my prices will be on the other courses, but I'm thinking in the $100-200 range, not $300-2400 like you're suggesting. The study skills course is free and most likely will stay free.

Then, finally, do you know enough and are you learning enough about study skills to fill regular, useful content for the next five years? I think the free study skills resource would be a brilliant market if you are able to write it engagingly, and build up a good Google ranking, but you have to be able to fill a lot of content, moreso than your free course- because people will take your free one and not bother with the ones you have to pay for. You might get some money here and there from your pay course, but nothing consistent. Because, honestly, what college student is going to pay that amount of money, or any money, for a study skills course?

Starting with your last question, I'm giving the study skills course away for free to entice people and see if they like what they see, and more importantly, if they are committed to learning. Sign up doesn't begin for 2 weeks, and I'm going to come up with the course content for that course by then.

I completely agree that I need more courses. But I need to determine my budget first to see how much I will charge for each course, how much people will pay, how much facilitators want to earn--those issues I will discuss with my accountant this week. I also plan to talk to a lawyer about using certain books in my courses and intellectual property rights. That's an entire issue someone brought up that I did not think about immediately. I may have to use books in the public domain, at least at first, for the paid courses.

I plan to cover a lot more of the market than just study skills. Theology, Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Literature, things like that. In fact, I had an entire list of categories earlier, but my boyfriend made fun of me for the fact that no courses were listed under each category, so I took it down.

I really appreciate your questions. Perhaps I should update the site with these things so I can show that more is going on than meets the eye when you first look at my site. Thank you.

[Brutha]

To give you some numbers, most offline services are able to sell their paid plan to around one percent of the people who get the free plan.
That should be your goal.

But I don't think you will get 300$ for a yearly subscription for content you produce yourself parttime.

Making money from Amazon/Google is probably the better plan.

Maybe you can find a way that people can only take your course when they buy the course book through your amazonshop?

If 100 people buy three books a year for your courses a 10$ you gain 20% from amazon. That means 100*0.2*3*10$=600$.

With a paid plan you get only on person for the same courses that pays you 300$.

I would rather try to make the money through the Amazon route.

[geekchic9]

Thanks, Brutha. The amazon affiliation is mainly to get things going. When I actually have several courses on my site, I think I'll start the subscription plan then. 1% of people who pay for the courses is a reasonable guesstimate. I'm also thinking about Google ads--something I will discuss with the accountant this week, but I would like your feedback on that as well.

[Savage]

You'll get far more educational value from spending $10/month on your business than you will elsewhere. It's not that tough to earn $10/month from a web site. You only need a tiny bit of traffic to do it. Sell 10-15 books a month via Amazon's affiliate program, and you're there.

Keep in mind that you can deduct the $120/year from your taxes (on your Schedule C if you're in the USA). You don't even need to register a DBA for your business, since you're free to do business under your own name.

You can also deduct any other legitimate business expenses, as long as you have a legitimate profit motive for the business.

[geekchic9]

Thanks for the tax information, Steve. I need to write all of this down so I have something to talk about when I meet the accountant and the intellectual property lawyer.

[Brutha]

I'm also thinking about Google ads--something I will discuss with the accountant this week, but I would like your feedback on that as well.

I wouldn't know how to make the math for google ads, since I have no idea what your keywords are worth and what click-through-rate you can except.

Overall I would think that Google Ads are good when you give your content away for "free", but I wouldn't like Google Ads for people who pay for the site.
If people pay the except the to get no ads.

[NoelKuhl]

I think you've got a good plan. Good luck with it! I'm curious about the prices though. Very few people I know will pay for anything online that costs 100 to 200 dollars, especially for something that is yet to prove itself.

[Camilla]

Sorry, but I can't help but throwing in just a small "You go girl!"

18 months ago I decided to start doing shop design. The first thing I did was to rent an office space. It cost me about 300 dollars a month, and I didn't make any income for the first 4-5 months. Was that a waste of money? Maybe. But I know for a fact that

a) I was perceived as a serious business by potential clients, because I wasn't running it from the kitchen table,
b) Because everyone else took me seriously, I eventualle had to take myself seriously
c) I would have given up during the first year if I hadn't had a lease, that it would take 3 months to get out of. More than once it made me think "Well, I have to pay for this space for three more months anyway, so I might as well give it another go!"

You just can't start a business without the right tools! (and they differ from person to person/business to business). Saying that you shouldn't spend 10 dollars or get support before you have proven yourself is as stupid as refusing to give a person a hammer before they have proven they can put a nail in the wall without it!

Your boyfriend should be grateful to have someone with goals and perspective in his life - there's a lot of women out there, who needs a lot more than 10 dollars a month to be satisfied!

- Camilla

[Still Growing]

Geek Chic,
You question was really about your boyfriend's reaction wasn't it?

His being "Very upset" was probably not about $10 but about other things. Maybe he is afraid you will have to spend more time working on this rather than being with him. Maybe he is upset because you did not consult him and he is seeing a different, indpendent side of you come out. Maybe he views you as an extension of himself and since he did not contribute to the idea it can't possibly be good..

I'm not trying to berate your boyfriend; you are both very young. The point is not about the $10 or about your boyfriend. The real test is how you deal with this business and how you deal with his reaction.

I would recommend to set a boundary with him immediately by telling him "Maybe you are right but I want to give this a try. Can you help me give it a shot?" You may be surprised by his reaction.

The fact that you are an active participant Steve's site says a lot about you and the fact that you are trying to start a business while still in school is very impressive as well. Remember that its not really about the money or really about this business working or not. Even if you loose money it will be the best investment you ever made and thats in yourself...

Good luck,

Still Growing.

[CeciL]

Websites are not successes over night. You need to put in A LOT of MARKETING TIME. That is what will make or break your website. Throw in some google ads and don't be afraid to spend even more in targeted traffic from adwords and yahoo marketing. Plant the seeds now and maybe in a few months you could be making a decent amount of money from the site and if not it is a great learning experience. Just like school, you might not have aced it but you learned something.

Like Steve mentioned home business are great tax breaks. Say you use 1/4 of your home for business. You can write off 1/4 off you household bills and things you get for your business. (Internet, PC, Office supplies, Books and whatever.)

What you can do is just take the minimum tax break I think it is like $5,000. Makes doing the taxes much easy and you don't have to state each item individually.

At this point unless your accountant and lawyer are free I would dump that money in to marketing.

[escapee]

Yeah throw in some google ads or YPN ( i have seen many webmasters earn so much better with Yahoo ). Redesign the site with a more professional layout. Since the site is about liberal arts . One of the good ways i can think of to optimize the Click through rate of the ads is to place beautiful liberal artistic images beside the targeted ads ......

You might also be interested in SEO as it's one of the best forms of free marketing. Good luck

[zpivat]

Hi geekchic,

I don't think you're being unreasonable. You can let your boyfriend know that it takes money to make money. As long as right now you're not spending more than you're making, that's okay I think. Start small, emulate the successful ones, persist, focus, test, test, and test.

$10/month for hosting is not bad, but I know of a good one (which I personally am using) that costs less than $5/month. PM me if you want the link .

Good luck!

[chicagosuccess]

Originally Posted by New Every Day

I'd also propose this idea. Set a deadline for the "success" of the business. For example, if the business is not making $XXX by December 31, 2007, then my plan of action will be...

That way, he knows it's not an open-ended thing and that you are giving yourself a deadline for making a go of it.

See, I think if your desire is to make the business work, you can't put a deadline on when you're going to give up. To me, that's employee mentality and sets you up for failure. I'm not saying don't have goals, but don't put a drop dead failure date. No, "If I'm not doing X by X date than I'll quit." More, "My goal is to be making X dollars by X date." The great thing about obtainable goals is that even if you happen to miss them, they can be reset.

[Isis Kali]

Originally Posted by chicagosuccess

See, I think if your desire is to make the business work, you can't put a deadline on when you're going to give up. To me, that's employee mentality and sets you up for failure. I'm not saying don't have goals, but don't put a drop dead failure date. No, "If I'm not doing X by X date than I'll quit." More, "My goal is to be making X dollars by X date." The great thing about obtainable goals is that even if you happen to miss them, they can be reset.

Good advice. Running a business is never linear, whereas being an employee usually is. You have to think of your goals in a different fashion, one that doesn't bring some sort of grim spectre of "FAIL!" if you happen to fall a bit short. A dollar goal is a great idea, because then you'll be in more of a mindset to diversify and optimize all of your income streams.

As far as your man is concerned...mmm. He sounds a bit jealous. I don't know. He may be threatened. Could it be that he's always wanted to start a business, but doesn't have the same self-starter mentality that you do? He could be resenting you. Starting a business is a sign of major growth, or at least the beginnings of it, and people don't like change. You will change, I guarantee it, and you may want to start surrounding yourself with people that have different mentalities and goals. I'm struggling with my closest friendship right now, because my goals and outlook have changed. Just something to think about!

[chicagosuccess]

I agree with Isis when it comes to your boyfriend. Also, it may be just because he was ingrained with the concept of a job being the answer. Many people fear getting into self-employment because they don't see it as "safe" or they see it as "too risky." My guess it that he believes he's just looking out for your best interests and is trying to protect you. Be up front and let him know that you understand that, but you're following proven success models, and if he's still got issues ... then you can call him a jerk.

Just remember - success is revenge!

[Cathy]

I'm hesitant to comment here as I think I represent the evil establishment. I took 7 years of latin in high school & college. We did plenty of Vergil & Homer & Ovid. I have a PhD (biochem) & MBA. I teach the occassional class at a University. I'm a big fan of education in all of its forms. I'm also a major supporter of entrepreneurship, so certainly embrace the idea of starting your own business. $10 per month is certainly a miniscule amount to dedicate to a new business. There is a lot of good advice above on ways to monetize your site or deal with your boyfriend. I will only comment on your proposed educational materials.

In looking through your materials, I am a bit bewildered. When I have chosen my teachers, one thing that I personally always sought out was some expertise in the subject matter being taught (business experience for MBA, research for science, martial arts credentials, etc.). Your bio as currently outlined suggests that your boyfriend (a mathematician) has better reading comprehesion and analytic skills than you do, yet you are the one designing the classes. This does not inspire confidence. As you move to paid classes, this may kill your business if you do not line up more course facilitators with more impressive credentials-either scholastic or professional.

Since this is marketed as an alterative to a traditional BA, if people are going to pay for your classes, what do they get at the end? They won't be getting a degree so you need to provide them something else, ideally skills. So what skills will they have at the completion of each course? or the entire course of study? For example, in my MBA program I took a class called "lauching technology ventures" where I learned to write business plans for technology companies (marketing, pro-forma financials, how to write an executive summary, what financing options would be best, etc.) It was team taught by venture capitalists, PhDs in accounting, local entrepreneurs who lauched successful companies, etc. who between them had all of the necessary skills and expertise to teach this material. This was just one class of many where I knew from the class outline what tangible skills I should be able to expect by the end of the class. Many of my classes were available either in the classroom or on-line. How do you plan to differentiate your course offerings from accredited institutions with on-line self paced learning? Since my MBA was from a state school, the tuition was only about $900 per class (under grad classes were cheaper). Not much more than you plan to charge, but with the difference that I'd have another piece of paper at the end that continues to have some value in the working world.

Many Universities are now offering degree completion programs to the non-traditional students you plan to market your classes to. How will you compete with these accredited institutions who offer night and weekend classes to older working parents to finish their degrees? How are your planned classes different or better? How is your program different than say a book club where all the participants are reading books together and discussing what they learned (as you mentioned you planned to learn along with the other participants in your bio)? <-- note I'm not saying that this is not an effective way to learn only that I'd personally be hesitant to pay to join a book club where the facilitator had no more knowledge than I did on the subject.

In spite of my perhaps pointed comments & questions, I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.

[munish]

Helen Keller: “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” So which will it be for you? Have you chosen the daring adventure, or have you chosen the nothing?

steve pavlina-Time is so much more precious than money. You can afford to lose all your money in the pursuit of your dreams. You can go broke over and over and just keep on going. But what you cannot afford to lose is time. Money can be restored. Time cannot. Even if you have no money at all, you can still think and take action. But when you run out of time, that’s it — game over. Each day of your life that passes is another day gone, never to return again. If you are paralyzing yourself with an external definition of security, you’re squandering you’re life away. If you aren’t spending your precious time working on your dreams — today, right now — then you’re just counting the days until you die. That external security will never come. The external factors will never be just right. If you are waiting for external security, you’re waiting for death. And in the meantime, you’re forgetting to live.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/index.php?p=48