continue ....(nakonez-to po delu :)giritFebruary 26 2007, 21:05:06 UTC
f) You need to set direct mail operation. I know somethings about it.
a. You identify who is your target market and buy lists from magazines who potentially service your market. There are also consolidators who collect names and can sell you, may be, something targeted. You also look at who is your competitor and try to buy their lists. b. You set 1800 number and calling center to accept your orders. You can set calling center in US (more $) or in India (less $ but worse quality). Normally people gave incoming calls in US. There is also a trick to make a distributed call center, where people take from their houses… I remember there was an airline (is it jetblue? ) that has that system… you can research ito it. Again, there are companies that sell calling centers - you do not need to do it from scratch. I understand about evaluating calling centers. c. You also need to hire a company who will push your mailings. I would not recommend doing it yourself. Push your mailing means the company places the addresses on the catalogs, and brings all that mail (it is heavy!) to the post office. There are a lot of things that go into direct mail campaign to make sure it takes place. d. I’d set a website as a combination. It is a very different thing, they substitute - not contradict each other. e. You set computer system that registeres your orders, purchases , returns. etc. I have no idea about it but again, search about inventory management systems. You also need the one that will have some at least basic tracking mechanism about your campaigns - this will allow you to know which lists give you customers , also whom to remail etc.
Of course it all costs money. You probably need financing and than people say … business plan etc. etc. Just take each step that I described above (including the ones in teh previous post, some of which might be wrong) and break them into smaller steps (just like I broke direct mail) - etc, until the steps are so small you can find the answer ‘how much it costs’ for each. Than you need to take care of the income side - you a) Think what type of prices you charge b) Need to put assumptions about your audience. How does this group like, who are they? Why they are underserved by existing catalogs? Here also goes all the stuff related to profitability of catalogs. I do not know any specific numbers, it is tough and volume-based business… there are a lot of vendors who do direct mail very well - but imbo the clothing is bad. If you want to research profitability of catalogs, pick a few and go online and try to find the one who are publicly owned by a company that is direct mail operation exclusively (or if they have stores - that they publish the data separately for direct operation).
However it is a lot of work. Mainly information finding work, probably about 6 months full time work. You can do it yourselve or hire people to write your b-plan. They will use google, just like you can do :) . Or you can pull agroup of people, each extert in their area - and make a collective business. You need to manage all those people , which is not an easy task. If you want, we can talk. I know Andrey. I can think about covering the piece I know something about… given you have other ingridients, this way or another.
Re: continue ....(nakonez-to po delu :)ilvsFebruary 26 2007, 21:24:54 UTC
Can I send you a private e-mail(s)? We discussed a lot with graffx over the weekend, and I can send you our letters so that you have more detailed image of this business idea and where I stand now, after discussing and thinking this over..
a. You identify who is your target market and buy lists from magazines who potentially service your market. There are also consolidators who collect names and can sell you, may be, something targeted. You also look at who is your competitor and try to buy their lists.
b. You set 1800 number and calling center to accept your orders. You can set calling center in US (more $) or in India (less $ but worse quality). Normally people gave incoming calls in US. There is also a trick to make a distributed call center, where people take from their houses… I remember there was an airline (is it jetblue? ) that has that system… you can research ito it. Again, there are companies that sell calling centers - you do not need to do it from scratch. I understand about evaluating calling centers.
c. You also need to hire a company who will push your mailings. I would not recommend doing it yourself. Push your mailing means the company places the addresses on the catalogs, and brings all that mail (it is heavy!) to the post office. There are a lot of things that go into direct mail campaign to make sure it takes place.
d. I’d set a website as a combination. It is a very different thing, they substitute - not contradict each other.
e. You set computer system that registeres your orders, purchases , returns. etc. I have no idea about it but again, search about inventory management systems. You also need the one that will have some at least basic tracking mechanism about your campaigns - this will allow you to know which lists give you customers , also whom to remail etc.
Of course it all costs money. You probably need financing and than people say … business plan etc. etc. Just take each step that I described above (including the ones in teh previous post, some of which might be wrong) and break them into smaller steps (just like I broke direct mail) - etc, until the steps are so small you can find the answer ‘how much it costs’ for each. Than you need to take care of the income side - you
a) Think what type of prices you charge
b) Need to put assumptions about your audience. How does this group like, who are they? Why they are underserved by existing catalogs? Here also goes all the stuff related to profitability of catalogs. I do not know any specific numbers, it is tough and volume-based business… there are a lot of vendors who do direct mail very well - but imbo the clothing is bad. If you want to research profitability of catalogs, pick a few and go online and try to find the one who are publicly owned by a company that is direct mail operation exclusively (or if they have stores - that they publish the data separately for direct operation).
However it is a lot of work. Mainly information finding work, probably about 6 months full time work. You can do it yourselve or hire people to write your b-plan. They will use google, just like you can do :) . Or you can pull agroup of people, each extert in their area - and make a collective business. You need to manage all those people , which is not an easy task.
If you want, we can talk. I know Andrey. I can think about covering the piece I know something about… given you have other ingridients, this way or another.
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