Edit - Big's Business

[Big-E]

EDIT -

Here is a picture I took (although blurry from the lighting in the building, of which I didn't realize until I had the camera home) of an aisle in the warehouse to give an idea of the amount of items I have to sell. This is just one aisle of 9 in the building, which has open boxed and packaged material, there is another building next door which has unopened boxes stacked to the ceiling, but we have no place else to store them.

Here is the image -



And the interest that followed suit, I would also like to make a proposal.

Currently, I have been baking an idea in my head for the past couple weeks as a business adventure - with no overhead attached.

My proposal:

Currently, my uncle and father run a business in which they sell automotive accessories ranging from fasteners, body clips to various electrical accessories. They currently have a warehouse filled with close to half a million in inventory - of which I have complete access too. I ran it past my uncle, and father regarding access to the product and they agreed. We worked out the figures, and I would be required to sell only $2700-3000 of product each week to take in $700/week profit (in my pocket) - for only something which will require little time to pick orders (if sales do not exceed what is anticipated). However, since I will be doing sales online - I would require a large online database of products of which I will need to program. Currently, as I have no overhead in this project - I am not making any money. However, I have put my name in for a couple of grants through the Government of Canada and my province in hopes of attaining some cash.

Thus, I propose:

A. If anyone is interested in helping with programming the website (php/mysql) and has experience in doing so, contact me via PM.

This anticipation will be:
1. For now, this will be non-paying; however, if the site is to make me money you will be rewarded for your services (which I will keep track of all contributions and assign a worth in Canadian dollars on each contribution).

I will also be interested, when the site is finished, that people pen-test the site before I launch it to the public. The same thing will apply as the aforementioned, you will be payed in the event that I do profit from this adventure. (Of which, if I market accordingly I can accomplish)

Some notes on the website:

I have access to hard to get items; an example that comes to the top of my head is a clip for a 1960's mustang which is used to hold down cable lines which is proprietary to this model, and can be purchased at a dealer for approx. $5/clip - we carry it, and sell it for a mere $1/clip. (also, this clip is pretty much guaranteed to break if you do any restoration of the car, so anyone rebuilding this model car, will require them)

We also carry a lot of grade 8 bolts, which are hard to find in rural areas (these are industrial grade bolts, thus would be good for farmers etc..).

But mainly, my target audience would be people doing restoration to cars and they can do one stop shopping online for all their fastener, and automotive needs.

Now, is anyone interested?[/img]

[DNR]

When I got out of high school, my dad put me to work for him as a independent rep. I sold auto repair manuals for Mitchell Manuals. We had the eastern part of michigan, and between me and my dad we made sales rep of the year like ten years in a row. When the company went to repair and parts info on CD-ROM we converted our customers at $4,000 a pop. I made $2,000 a month, working 10am to 3pm, then I'd go play volleyball at the local beach. That was at 18 years old.

You do want to catalog your parts for the internet, if you are going to db it for yourself, you might as well utilize it for the web. Don't limit yourselves to auto resto people, local shops would like to order parts at the most current prices, and with a great delivery - you do have a plan right?

All you need is a webhost. You need to buy a domain and get started. If you work on the digital images of the parts, someone can code the pages.
The content you are creating though is time sensitive- part prices change and so must the prices on your net, so it has to be updated by your db. So you do need a real webmaster.

You can also design the webpages to email you so you can order parts you don't have!

You got a real project here, and I respect that you are trying this for a family enterprise, may you all get rich.

DNR

[Big-E]

You have me misunderstood, I believe - my whole project is to sell my dad/uncles product online. But then thing is, I need to create a target audience and resto. people would be most beneficial to me, based on the fact that anyone can buy from distro. depots and get a better price - but I will sell at lower quantity's (as they will only sell in bulk). We also buy from the aforementioned depots, but because my uncle worked for one of the largest distro. company's in North America for like 10 years..he gets a VERY good price on everything, and thus, we can pass the cut to our customers. We have gained a very good domestic customer base (they already tackle all of our province).

My customer base will strictly be on the internet, and this will only be a side project where I can pick the orders at night - as a typical order can add up pretty quick, it will only take approx 10 orders/week to make $1000+. As I don't anticipate people will be buying 1 fastener here and there, but rather 50 fasteners of various kinds.

What will attract people?

Currently, as it stands in most places (I assume), when people go looking for their supplies
they have to visit numerous stores before they can find all the specific fasteners/nuts/bolts/etc that they need, adding the price of gas, time and inconvenience it would be much more worth it to visit a website, select what you need, pay shipping on the product and wait maybe 5 days for the product. Also, chances are our prices are MUCH better than any store kicking around a city. As I said, we have great buying power, and the clip I mentioned - I asked my dad about it and he said there is a 80% markup on that clip..imagine how much the dealers are marking that up? That is just one single example.

As for price changes? As my uncle has good buying power, and we're already marking up products 50+ points, we can afford 2-3cent changes on products (which is typically what they fluctuate at). On top of that, if something is to change prices we only change it when we bring in a new shipment of items which would be only once every 1-2months.

I have it well thought out, and I have thought out numerous variables to each problem which could arise.

And finally, it will help out my uncle/father greatly as the quicker they can move the product the better. As each second passes, so does a potential 1cent here and there that could be made on each product, so if I am helping moving the product, then they are benefiting here. However, my aim is to not get rich, but to give me a substantial project experience - and if its successful then great.

[computathug]

I see this as a good way to make yourself a partner in an already established business. Your idea is good and although you are looking at this as a sideline for experience, this could be what you dad's and uncles business needs to take it through the roof. You may not want to do this for a living but any job is worth doing if it makes money and always keep your options open. What you are actually proposing to do is market the business to another target audience not already covered. Plan it as more than just a website and database but also as an advertising campaign. Running on the web can only open more doors if run the right way. Good luck with your project. You sound like you know what you want to achieve but set a plan of action in motion and work to it.

[mo2332]

i know theres some cool shoping cmses that let u have a product and a pirce and sell it

[Big-E]

i know theres some cool shoping cmses that let u have a product and a pirce and sell it

The code is all open source, and therefore, people can create exploits easier than if they where to try exploiting my own, closed source, code. I will take security over ease of a pre-developed shopping cms. Plus, they would have to be modified to meet my needs anyway.

[Big-E]

By the way, I figured out the name, I am going to call it AHFOnline - (Automotive Hardware and Fastener Online), in which the parent company is Automotive Hardware and Fasteners (which is my father and uncles business, whom I am drawing from).

Anyway care to do a logo?