| Slimebeast said: I don't think you are overthinking it. It's interesting that a big trend in business lately are all these middle-ware solutions who specialize in services. Instead of launching a site that simply sells the end product they launch a service that guides the consumer in finding the right products (or guides the seller at some level of the distribution chain, but as a regular consumer I seldom get to see that end of it). It's probably the only way as a newcomer to compete with the already established and with the giants. |
There's much less risk that way. All you end up losing in the long run is your time. Plus it makes for a much more agile business model that can shift to meet future needs. Furthermore, it offsets some of the leg work to the ones seeking the service.
There are still risks involved I'm sure, which I'll likely find out. This will be my first venture into my own business.
It kind of started recently when I started working for store credit at a local used game store. My hope was that i could work for enough store credit to buy items and sell them back at a reasonable enough price online to make it worth my while as a job (I have other reasons why I didn't want to pursue an actual job).
I quickly discovered how difficult it is to get a reasonable price even when you're getting your products free, let alone when you are buying them even wholesale. Furthermore, I talked to the owner of the store and found out he was only 26 and started his store at the age of 21. He now has two local stores in only five years and the largest selection in town.
So I thought to myself; if he can do it at 21, I can do it at 26. From there, I started considering my own unique skill set and how I would go about it and I decided on an online approach (since I majored in computer science). I also thought about the general direction that the market is heading. With digital distribution taking a larger share of the physical market I decided that whatever idea I came up with had to be flexible enough to meet the changing demands and not risk falling flat on its face if the used market dies out in the next five to ten years.
How do you breathe again?
