Hi,
I know you're trying to help but what does any of this have to do with my original question?
I don't mean to sound rude or get defensive but I just needed help with a business proposal question I'm facing right now.
I didn't want to get into everything to try and explain the why's and how's of every detail because most people don't understand all that's involved with this dream and the curse on our private lives that keeps teasing us with getting close and then throwing a huge financial crisis in our way...FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS!
We don't have the privilege of coming from money or even to catch a lucky break once in a while. We have two jobs each and work our a$$e$ off ALL the time and we want to be self employed more than anything.
Without going into details too much, we need a minimum of 15 thousand to start. 20 to start better and 30 thousand is the goal to be able to run our business for at least two years with no further capital needed until that time.
You seem to think these two sites are basic and should cost only 100-300 dollars to set up and run to do what I want...I have gone through thousands of websites (basic ones) and none can do the extra unique things we will have and not even the basic stuff we need. I would love to pay only 1-3 hundred dollars for our site but then everyone would have an excellent website instead of all the poor ones out there.
After interviewing dozens of website companies locally we have found the average cost of a comprehensive site to be in the area of 8 to 14 thousand dollars.
Sound like a lot? Yes it does but after researching thousands of poorly designed websites and hundreds of online comic book stores, we've only been able to find a handful of sites we would want to emulate and incorporate our own fantastic ideas into.
The company we have chosen to go with has a proven track record and constantly wins awards for best website design each year. I guess I should mention, we don't know computer lingo or programing and therefore cannot build our own site ourselves..(I even took classes and courses which from a mistake of being put into the wrong class almost cost us 14 thousand dollars, it turns out the course to learn how to build websites does not exist in Winnipeg). In short they would do EVERYTHING technical for us and would be there for us long after the site is built leaving us to concentrate on the areas we excel in.
Needles to say we need professionals to build it for us while our expertise lies in the products, experience, marketing skills, customer service, being self employed most of our lives in other smaller projects, bookkeeping and the handling and shipping of products. I have never had to do an extensive bp before and it is taking all my skills and attention to get through it.
I have many things I could say about our business that would make it so much more than a usual small online store but I'm not about to give away all our hard earned secrets and the many, many things that make us unique and competitive to the stores we will be in competition with.
We already have most of the supplies for the store as well as an impressive inventory but without the proper funding for our killer marketing strategy and a powerful website we can't move forward properly.
Sure, we would love to bootstrap but not everyone has more than enough to pay their regular bills and have savings either...when you grow up with bad breaks and cancer you don't learn properly about rrsp's and mutual funds and have to jump right into the work force to help support your family. We even tried to get on track last year by buying our first ever mutual fund and promptly lost 800 out of 1500 dollars in our first year so we cashed out and cut our losses. Next time I'll invest in golden age comic books, they only go up in value (not down).
Anyways, this did turn into a rant after all but we've been through a lot lately and I wasn't looking to explain myself all over again....yes I know EVERYONE has it rough but some have it a lot harder than others.
We're not bad with money, we're just very unlucky in life but once you see the site in a year or so (hopefully) people will understand better. We just need our one break to make this a lifechanging moment.
Here's a list of over 400 people from Manitoba that got small business grants and what they received to show it is possible.
Canadian Government Grants & Loans Recipients - Case Studies and Success Stories in MB
Again, I know you meant well and I'm really not trying to be mean but I'm trying soooooo hard to get this going because I know it will be a goldmine and it is what I'm meant to do.
I love this forum and try to contribute to it, so I never want to offend or insult anyone because that isn't professional or even nice and we just aren't like that....we're just very tired right now.
Thanx for all the advice.
Hank.
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