Business Opportunities and Ideas

[michaelm]

Hi, I have developed a site that could benefit anyone who uses any transportation or courier services. I have been in the courier industry for the last 20 years and have always known but never took it any further on how to save people using a courier huge money. An example is: I am in South Africa and I need a 3kg document collected in London and sent to me. Calling my local courier, they would quote me ZAR1400 for this service. If a London based courier company collects and sends me these same goods, they would charge me as little as ZAR538.00 (saving ZAR862) That is a huge saving for any private individual or even company. The user will pay the transporter / courier via escrow payment. Once the goods are delivered, the user will release the funds. This will put the transporters mind at ease knowing the funds remain in a secured intermediary trust account that neither they nor the shipper can access until the transaction concludes.

The website is auction based, a user submits their requirements, an email is sent to registered transporters in the area the collection address is. The transporters will bid on the job. The user will select a bid.

The Partners in each country must find and verify that all transporters who register from their country are legit. Once a transporter is verified and legit, they will get a “Verified” status. This will be to keep the site from becoming a scammer’s paradise. Any transporter can register and bid but we would be very strict on who gets the “Verified” symbol.

The system is 1 Main Site and 60 Local Sites. The Main website is for all Import Shipments (From another Country to Yours) and will be in US Dollar. The 60 Local Sites will be for all Domestic and Export Shipments and will be in that countries currency.

My idea is to give a person or company in each of the 60 countries the local site, they will promote, advertise, market their site and keep all profits made from their local and export shipments. They will all also be affiliates to the Main Site and also get a certain % share of any import shipments their users have done via the main website.

The sites have all been built and tested all seems fine!!!

Online Transportation is growing and people are always looking to save money. I have also got a small subscription site based on transportation leads. It has been going for about 2 years now and brings in a nice amount of extra income every month. The new project will be bigger and better but I need help.

Two similar site would be uship and shiply that I have found. They are doing very well by the looks of things. They are more local orientated; my idea is local and international

I am stuck and don't know the way forward

Where to from here?? How does one find 60 Reliable Partners in 60 Countries? I could do it all alone, but having 60 Partners in 60 Countries all working towards the same goal would be the best in my opinion.

Regards

Michael

[John]

Sounds like a sound business idea.

Why not approach some of the larger courier firms in each location to see if they would like to partner? Whilst the top firms might not be interested the 2nd tier firms might well be interested.

Regards, John
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Editor of Business Opportunities and Ideas

[michaelm]

Hi John, Thanks for the reply

I think I would prefer to try non-courier type partners first. As the website would be transport / courier related and having a courier company as a partner might cause problems and other courier companies might not like the idea of using the site if they know a competitor is running it.

I think finding people in a similar situation as myself is the way I'm going to try first.

Any users out there wanting to make some extra cash, has computer skills, has some funds to market / advertise, is honest and reliable, able to get courier companies in your country to register on our website --- PLEASE GET HOLD OF ME!!! We can make this huge if we work together.

This is as the domain says, a Business Opportunity and Idea

[John]

It should be irrelevant who runs it. You need to attract courier firms to the site on the basis that they have to be where the customers are.

So driving customers is your key priority and a firm already operating in this market has the best chance of doing so. Alternately follow the Rightmove model and look for several players to get involved.

Regards, John
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Editor of Business Opportunities and Ideas

[moyo]

My feedback

Idea is brilliant, but it seems to me you will have too much going on all in one time. It's fair to say there's no point having an idea if you cannot execute it properly.

The initial idea of the business is good, I say this because their are others out there doing this and are doing it very well obviously at a more smaller scale then you will be doing it (if it works out) Which does make me think why have they not thought about internationally? Possibly too complexed to handle?

60 people looking after 60 pages, all working togeather seems more like a dream then a realistic idea. Why don't you start of like your competitors local to begin with? Build a brand then I am pretty sure, once established your dream will become closer to reality.

Prove your idea first, then others may follow. Set up one country and see how it does, that way atleast you can say to Mr A "this is making real money"

[saf]

Instead of 60 websites try this approach:

01 - Narrow down the two counties that you think will have the most parcels going back and forth. E.g. it might be that a lot of people in South Africa send parcels to the England or vice versa.
02 - Find as many reputable dealers for those two countries, contact them and let them know about yourself.
03 - Then promote in those countries while still having a link on your website for couriers from other countries to sign up (or at least register an interest).

This way you can create a successful route between two countries and you will find that others will follow. Also once you start making money you can revise your business plan for expansion into other countries and look for investors.

You will have to make sure that all couriers are carefully vetted, so you will need to find governing bodies in those countries and double check that the courier is signed up with them and is trustworthy.

The benefits of doing this as I have said is that you will get to keep complete control of the business and also keep more profits, also it will serve as a testing ground.

[michaelm]

Thanks for the replies,

I thought the 60 sites shouldn't be to much of a problem because they would be basically the small version of existing type websites as mentioned above. The problem is finding the 60 people to run the websites. Each of the 60 sites would promote only their own country. Just a case of many hands make light work. Together they will all form this big idea. Why is it so hard to give away a business opportunity? I've spent the time & money developing the system, I am hosting all 60 sites.

But Yes, maybe the best way is to start small and go from there. My worry about that was, if i setup a specific route eg. South Africa and UK but then someone wants a USA shipment.

check courierservicesworldwide.com it might explain my idea better than my words

and again, thanks for all the input

[moyo]

My point is, why not setup a local courier bidding something abit like shiply. Start of with one country, establish a brand and move onto another country until you have enough country pages to be thinking about international.

This way you have a greater chance as there are thousand of self employed drivers and are alot more easier to get on board then companies.

The real question when thinking about the international option is assesing whether it's a starting point or an ending point. It really does seem like a long term goal rather then one to just fall right into.

Anyway good luck on your business venture

Moyo

[Refined]

It does sound like a very good idea, the way I see it is a cross between someone like 'confused.com' and 'ebay' but for the shipment/delivery industry. As stated many times before I would of thought starting 'smaller' would be better, for example just in the UK or since you currently work in the industry you may be able to find out the most common shipping route with the UK.

As for the 60 business partners, I'm not too sure on this idea, yes many hands makes light work but also too many chefs spoil the broth. You should be the owner, director, whatever you want to call yourself and then maybe go in with a business partner. Set up the smaller business then when you venture into new countries you do your research for what they want and appoint a business director for that country to look after that country. I just feel that would be a better idea that you employe someone to do that instead.

I feel your frustration as well with creating an idea but no one taking you up on it, I myself have several ideas but trying to find that business partner is easier said than done. I would offer my services but I don't have the computer skills you wanted and have no experience of this industry