Timothy
Parker Consulting Incorporated
|
|
|
|
Project Planning for the Bored In the last column we set about identifying a product or service we can sell over the World Wide Web. I promised that in this column I'd give you the basics of a project plan for the entire beastie. I also promised that we'd be doing something real, not selling fictional products to fictional people. So, here's what we're going to be doing in the rest of this series: setting up my e-commerce site. What's my site going to sell? Pre-configured servers. (I'm trusting all of you not to steal my brilliant idea, here.) Remember two of my key points for choosing an e-commerce product last issue were that the product must be something customers can't get in a local store, and can get cheaper from our e-commerce site. This meets both those criteria. I figured the product out this way: most people in business know very little about computers. Few business people know a gateway from a router, and even fewer know how to configure one. Suppose they could fill in a simple form or specify their requirements on-line, then a few days later get a box in the mail that they plug in and -hey presto - it works! Build on your strengths is the best rule for business. I know servers, the Internet, and all that associated stuff. I can configure a Web server, a gateway, a firewall or a router in my sleep. Sell my knowledge! Look at it this way. Suppose you need a machine for your small business. Why pay some consultant to configure it, buy expensive software, and then find out it doesn't work the way you hoped, anyway? I plan on getting no-name computers (unless the customer wants to pay for a name brand machine), load Linux or Windows NT (the former much cheaper), and whatever extra software the customer needs. The entire thing will be preloaded and preconfigured to exactly what the customer needs before it leaves my loading dock. Right down to setting up their LAN interfaces and Web servers, if required. A Linux-based Web server costs nothing more than the hardware and my time to load and configure it since Linux and the Apache Web server are free. Saves the customer a ton of time, doesn't it? They have a one-stop shopping experience for their servers. So, this is what I've decided my e-commerce site will offer: customized inexpensive preloaded machines especially suited for Internet applications. You have to come up with your own product niche, now, but if you're a VAR chances are you're going to be doing something with hardware and software. Identify your strengths, and figure an angle. It took five minutes and a coffee to decide what to sell on my e-commerce site. Right, I know what I'm selling. It's a narrow description of a product, so it should be easy to pitch on a web site. As mentioned in the last column I had a neighbor's kid research the competition for me, and I figure Dell and Compaq are not going to be direct competitors of mine (they cost too much and don't preload all the software a customer might want). I did a one-page business plan: I'm willing to spend a couple of weeks designing the Web site and setting it up, spend a few thousand dollars to host the site on someone's server, and will limit my expenses as much as possible. I have an exit strategy, too: if there is no sale in the next six months, my business is toast. Simple to come up with and stick with. Next, I need a plan. What's involved in setting up the e-commerce site? A number of things, all of which need to be done in approximately this order: establish a product list and production method, get a domain name, get a web host or set up my own server, design the Web page, set up the credit card services and secure transaction handling methods, establish record-keeping procedures, develop support and service mechanisms, advertise the business, reassess the business at intervals, spend the profits. That didn't take long to develop. Your plan may be as simple as this, or may get much more complex, depending on your nature and the size of your e-commerce business. I'm doing my site myself, but you may have several people or consultants doing yours. Modify the plan as necessary, but get the steps developed first. After you've got a plan, set milestones you will try to meet. The hardest parts of my plan are developing the product list (just what am I going to sell to customers and what options can I offer) and developing the Web site. The rest of the stuff is simple enough, some requiring a few minutes, some many days. But set goals and milestones so you know you're getting somewhere. This is a business, after all. Next column, we get started with the domain name and the Web host. |
|
Send mail to
tparker@tpci.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
|