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Don't listen to the naysayers and nanny-poos. Be persistent and willing to learn and you'll shift the odds in your favor. This is a personal journey as much as

by lrm242 16y ago

Don't listen to the naysayers and nanny-poos. Be persistent and willing to learn and you'll shift the odds in your favor. This is a personal journey as much as anything else, and only you can walk it. Just the the other day I was talking to a small boutique baker (cakes, cookies, etc) and she was telling me how confusing it was to try to setup an online store. I said, "Have you heard of shopify?" and she said, "Uhh, no". You might find that your hardest part of this is getting to those customers because they don't know what to look for. Take care, good luck, and stay strong.

irahul 16y ago
> Don't listen to the naysayers and nanny-poos. I read a lot and I have developed a selective comprehension. For anyone whose thoughts I admire, I found a lot I disagree with. For example, the recent debate about "Linus vs C++", there is a lot to disagree in Linus's criticism of C++, but from where I see, he is making some very valid points and if we cut the flame, it's an interesting post. I am trying to apply the same principle here. I am filtering the not-so-polite words, pondering over what the critic has to say and then making the decision if I agree or not. For example, I don't agree with "having a formal business plan". I have considered it and I don't see the usefulness of it. >You might find that your hardest part of this is getting to those customers because they don't know what to look for. This. This is the biggest hurdle I have. I can pull off the technical aspects of the product and I can work on the SEO and have it featured on Google search results when you search for "online store". It might not concur exactly with my plans but atleast I know how to go about it. But I have no damn clue how do I reach the customer base who needs the service but is ignorant towards it. I know there are a lot of people who want to have online stores. I know many of them use shopify and I see that shopify advertises more than 6000 stores. This puzzles me. 6000 is too small a number for the web. I might sound over confident but frankly, I am not very concerned about shopify. I am willing to compete over prices and features. But what concerns me is there is a huge untapped market segment and I have no ideas how do I capture them.
- lrm242 16y ago
  > But I have no damn clue how do I reach the customer base who needs the service but is ignorant towards it. This is the key issue you need to dig into. Everything else is cursory. Don't go randomly talk to customers. Don't do market research. Go find a group of customers that you can effectively reach and then figure out how to find more of them. Is it single person bakers, like the person I mentioned? If so, what magazines do they read? Where do they buy their supplies? Do they hang out on specific online forums? What channels can you use t get your unique message across to them? This is trial and error. Finding a niche like this will help you not differentiate on price, but instead, differentiate on unique features your niche is interested in.

by lrm242 16y ago

irahul 16y ago

> Don't listen to the naysayers and nanny-poos. I read a lot and I have developed a selective comprehension. For anyone whose thoughts I admire, I found a lot I disagree with. For example, the recent debate about "Linus vs C++", there is a lot to disagree in Linus's criticism of C++, but from where I see, he is making some very valid points and if we cut the flame, it's an interesting post. I am trying to apply the same principle here. I am filtering the not-so-polite words, pondering over what the critic has to say and then making the decision if I agree or not. For example, I don't agree with "having a formal business plan". I have considered it and I don't see the usefulness of it. >You might find that your hardest part of this is getting to those customers because they don't know what to look for. This. This is the biggest hurdle I have. I can pull off the technical aspects of the product and I can work on the SEO and have it featured on Google search results when you search for "online store". It might not concur exactly with my plans but atleast I know how to go about it. But I have no damn clue how do I reach the customer base who needs the service but is ignorant towards it. I know there are a lot of people who want to have online stores. I know many of them use shopify and I see that shopify advertises more than 6000 stores. This puzzles me. 6000 is too small a number for the web. I might sound over confident but frankly, I am not very concerned about shopify. I am willing to compete over prices and features. But what concerns me is there is a huge untapped market segment and I have no ideas how do I capture them.

lrm242 16y ago
> But I have no damn clue how do I reach the customer base who needs the service but is ignorant towards it. This is the key issue you need to dig into. Everything else is cursory. Don't go randomly talk to customers. Don't do market research. Go find a group of customers that you can effectively reach and then figure out how to find more of them. Is it single person bakers, like the person I mentioned? If so, what magazines do they read? Where do they buy their supplies? Do they hang out on specific online forums? What channels can you use t get your unique message across to them? This is trial and error. Finding a niche like this will help you not differentiate on price, but instead, differentiate on unique features your niche is interested in.