I need a web designer so that we can make serious money...

[adrianh]

Idea time again. I've struck upon an absolutely brilliant idea to make a $h1tload of money. What I need is the services of a web designer. The website will have to be commerce enabled and certain aspects will have to be set up to my specifications. It is nothing terribly complex. I think that one of the ecommerce platforms can be adapted quite easily.

There is one thing that is different to normal proposals in that I am not going to pay you up front. I am willing to give you commission on sales. If I were to pay you up front then you would get one cash payment and I will probably never see you again. If you work with me in the manner I propose then you will be assured of a regular income provided that you make sure that the website runs without any problems and that you would do the occasional tweak that might be required. The website belongs to me and you take no Copyright on my idea. We would of course have a contract stating that you will get your commission as long as the site is up. The reason I need this in place is because I refuse to give away rights to my ideas.

Another way to do it is for me to put the entire site up with something like OsCommerce and to muddle along and have tweaks done on an ad-hoc basis. It is dangerous because I've already had one of my OsCommerce sites trashed.

The idea is not pie in the sky, I already have artists on board whose art is sought after. The potential artist base and client base is truly boundless.

It's your choice, you can come in with me and make serious money in the long term.

[Justloadit]

The potential artist base and client base is truly boundless.

It's your choice, you can come in with me and make serious money in the long term.

Adrian, sounds like you are taking some MLM terminology here..........

[Greig Whitton]

The idea is not pie in the sky, I already have artists on board whose art is sought after. The potential artist base and client base is truly boundless.

It's your choice, you can come in with me and make serious money in the long term.

Could you provide more details about what exactly your idea entails? I'm open to the proposal in theory, but I'd need a lot more information about the business model and growth strategy before I committed to the terms that you are proposing.

[adrianh]

hmmm...

Not at all, if there is one thing that I have then it is really good viable ideas. I have all the pieces in place except the website. I've got artists, products, suppliers and customers. All I need is to tie them all together. It's this simple, the artist get commission, I take a cut and the web developer takes a cut, nobody else!

[adrianh]

I suppose it is unreasonable to ask a person to go in with me on those terms without them knowing what they are getting themselves into but I am also unwilling to lay it all out on the table to see if people are keen.

The more I think about it the more I think it will be better to put the entire structure in place myself and then have somebody do the tweaks that I need. I will put two websites up in parallel, the real one and then also the development one. The development one will be used as a platform to do the tweaks.

Ok, I've made my decision while writing this post. I think it best to go it alone. I will show you what I'm up to once it's up and making money!

[wynn]

Ok, I've made my decision while writing this post. I think it best to go it alone. I will show you what I'm up to once it's up and making money!

Too slow fatso!!!

[vieome]

My only response would be to post the following questions?

This is regards to kinds of thinking .

System 1 Thinking
Fast and Automatic

System 2 thinking
It's slow; it's deliberative; and it's takes a lot of effort

Example

A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How many cents does the ball cost?

If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how many minutes would it take for 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how many days would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?

[adrianh]

I'll say this much, this is going to be an on-going cash cow of note. It's amazing how a couple of separate ideas can be interlinked to form a cool concept. It's one of those things that crystalized in my head this morning while speaking with a well know photographer.

[adrianh]

@vieome - you got me, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about!

[Justloadit]

Good luck Adrian

[vieome]

@vieome - you got me, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about!

Perhaps if I provide the answers it might help.

A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How many cents does the ball cost?

5C

If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how many minutes would it take for 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

5 Mins

In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how many days would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?

47 Days


I was just trying to follow your train of thought. It seems that the idea that someone might nick your idea made you eventually keep it to yourself. So then I got to wondering if it is an idea that you are going to eventually put on the web, how do you still protect that idea? Then I got to thinking in general about how entrepreneurs try and solve problems and it is by solving problems that they create opportunity. Then I thought about some general logical problems above and what type of thinking it takes to solve them. So in a sense my post was simply the thought process that came into my head, as a result of reading the thread in its total.

But I guess the final question is once you put the idea into the e-commerce website for the world, how do you protect the idea then?

[adrianh]

@vieome

Of course the idea will be out there for any one to copy and it may even be out there already. I'm not saying it's the most wonderful thing since sliced bread. All I want is to implement it and make some money. I build model trains for a living, do laser cutting and all sorts of other stuff. All those things have been around for many years. There are people out there who do it better than me and there are people who do it worse than me, yet I make good money from it.

You see, I have many ideas, some good, some bad and some downright stupid. I can think of another 2 ideas. One would take a massive buy in from a big industry player (if I can patent it) and the other would require the purchase of about R50K of equipment and franchising the idea. The point that I am trying to make is that I can see what it will take to get things up and running. The current idea is not particularly brilliant and it will not make millions, it will simply create a steady turnover that has the potential to grow over time. I can't see it growing into the largest thing in the country, hell it will serve a fairly vertical market, but nonetheless, if I look at the input requirements i.e. a website and a bit of logistics vs. some of the other products and ideas that I have then it is simply a no-brainer.

I simply want to get it up and running as I see fit without the risk of somebody doing the same thing before I am able to get good buy in from my client base. The other thing of course is that if I do it myself and quietly get on with it then it will simply serve a market and not draw too much attention as to its workings from outside its client base.

Lets say you decide to build a website to sell yo-yo's to all the schools around your neighbourhood. You know that yo-yo's are in fashion and that you could make good money provided you can supply a yo-yo with each kids custom logo. Ok, so lets say you need a developer to write a program to allow the child to create his logo online. Remember, this all assumes that you do not really know how to do that custom program. Will you then go out and explain to every developer that you meet how you plan to make money from your custom yo-yo website aimed at the local schools....of course not. You want to get the site up, you want to get the yo-yo trade going it your local market and then slowly expand it into town and hopefully into other towns. So lets say you are doff and you tell the local developer all about the workings of your yo-yo website, he tells you that its a crap idea and that he's nit interested. What stops him from simply going ahead and doing it. You maight say, ahh, you will make him sign a non-disclosure agreement up front, cool, so he tells his buddy in a different town....

[HR Solutions]

What about Mark from Red Giant .......... Ive used him a few times and he is good .

[Justloadit]

What stops him from simply going ahead and doing it. You maight say, ahh, you will make him sign a non-disclosure agreement up front, cool, so he tells his buddy in a different town....

He does not have the machinery or the know how to do the logo, so he effectively would be stuck.

Sometimes we run around in circles because we can make it, we think every single soul on the planet can make it, but what we forget is that we as individuals have put in thousands of hours of learning and developing our skills, that we simply sell our know how at crap prices, simply because it comes easy to us.

i hope you are not falling into that trap.

I agree that we need to keep the ideas close to our chest, but not so close that even we can not see the wood from the trees.

Business is a partnership along the chain to make the product sell, if you strangle the chain, then no product gets sold.

It is not simple to balance, and this takes skill developed over years of failures and some successes.

[Richard S]

Good luck Adrian. Have you ever tried elance?