Great idea but overwhelmed

[trisca]

Hi, I have a great idea for an online business. I have the name and have registered a .com and .co.uk.

What I'm realising now is how much is involved in making my idea a reality. Both in money and in people skills (I guess using more money to get those people skills.)

So now I'm feeling overwhelmed and seriously wondering if I can pull this off. I can put a bit of money into this but not enough to pay 3 salaries let alone build a complex bespoke website.

I don't really want to involve friends as I want to keep them as friends.

Where do I begin? Or do I just give up now?

Can't you start a bit smaller? Do you really need a complex, bespoke website right from the off?

Check out www.yola.com easy site to create your own website very cheaply. Use istockphotos.co.uk for professional photos you can buy for your site/pr etc. go to business link for start up advise. Put together a financial plan - ideally by month. Take deep breathes and go for it. X

Doing it on your own is always difficult. I am told most good businesses are a result of a good team of people, rather than one person's efforts. Could you consider building a team of partners in the business as the first step?

I don't know who to bring in. I'm a foreigner and know lots of people with great skills but unfortunately they're all in Canada and this idea is just for the Uk market (initially anyway.)

My problem is the success of the idea depends on a great website, so I can't see a canned website working.

I'm not sure how to set up a monthly financial plan. I can't see getting any success or sale without a great website.

My gut says JeffTracy is right, I need a team, the problem is I've been a stay at home mother for the past 12 years, I don't have a track record at all, why are great people going to want to partner with me?

I think you need to give us more of a clue - why do you need a complex bespoke website? and even if you do - you could get it done fairly cheaply using peopleperhour or rentacoder

what people skills do you need? and why do you need to pay three salaries?

Where are you based? I'm in Gloucester and have a great web developer building some complex stuff for a good price for me as he has the skill to adapt rather than go bespoke. I've built up an amazing team (writers, artists, admin and finance) and would be happy to pass on details but not really helpful if you're in Peterborough!

I'm in Surrey.

I need a complex website, at least I assume it's a complex website, because I need it to do several things and the value proposition sort of depends on a great website. (sorry, I don't really want to give away the idea on an open forum.)

I will check out peopleperhour and rentacoder, thank you! I have also come across a website that connects you with students to hire called conceptcupboard, is anyone familiar with them?

I guess not really three salaries but I can see tasks that would take different skill sets to do (social marketing, writer/website managing, managing products, dealing with the money.)

Waitingforme, how did you build your team?

...are they good quality people that will build/manage a website for equity? How do I find them?

I'm a web designer. PM me your idea and I'll tell you if I think you need a complex website.

If you have a look on workinstartups there are lots of adverts on there for co-founders.

Also, if you can get to London next Friday then there's a startup day for people that want to be entrepreneurs at the Google campus - tickets are only about £20! im quite disappointed i can't make it.

Simlondon do you have any further details on that event? it sounds right up my street but when i googled it, I couldn't find anything (apart frpm a dhrupal day on one of the google campuses but that was free and also just a co working day, nothing more). Sorry to hijack thread OP!

secondincome.eventbrite.co.uk/

It's walkable from Liverpool street.

Thanks very much sim. Quite fancy a peek at the google campus!

It's not actually the googleplex - it's a joint working space aimed at start-ups sponsored by google.

Report back on the day if you do go :-)

Hi, I am in the same boat as you, have a big idea, have done research/spoken to potential customers to convince me that it is viable and need to get to the next stage. If you read up on lean startup methodology it makes the case for creating the minimum amount of technology to get the idea up and running in order to get a customer base and be able to secure funding. I am coming round to the idea of finding a tech co-founder over paying someone to build it because if you find the right person they will add value/ideas too. There are co-founder speed dating meetings - www.meetup.com/Developers-Entrepreneurs/events/117969722/.

PM me if you want to chat informally/bounce ideas around.

I've had a bad experience with PeoplePerHour recently - will pm you a web person to avoid!

After loads of talking we set up our own, its the only practical way as other wise it costs to make the slightest change and the free sites are very limiting.
We used this host
www.lcn.com/web_hosting

Sorry only half the info.
They give you Serif software for free, its excellent, when you call Serif to unlock the software they will try and flog you an upgraded version for about £40 more, we haggled and got it for £20 with the book, its excellent, read the book and two weeks of spare time we had a proper website, both companies are uk based so you can just call for help

OP - I built my team via networking. Most groups (such as BNI) let you attend twice as a guest. I followed up and made the effort to get to know people. They then introduce you to others.

The more you can help others (eg. Pass on the number of a florist to a friend getting married, give the details of a copywriter to your web developer brother), the more you create good feeling but don't worry if you can't give leads.

Google networking + women + city and you should get some groups for your list. Then add the national ones (BNI, 4Networking). Finally, look on social media - Google "Jelly" + city to start off.