Hit a snag? Turning a website idea into reality?

[kawasakirider]

Hi everyone, long time reader and a huge fan of the forum. I don't often post, though. I feel like I don't have much to contribute and would rather read and learn.

Quickly some facts about me... I'm 23, I live in QLD, Australia and I've spent the last few years self employed and at university. I run a mobile mechanical repair business and deal cars and bikes.

However, I'm at a bit of a road block and would like to ask some questions...

I've racked my brain for the past few years to come up with a fastlane idea and in the mean time like I mentioned, I've been at university and flipping vehicles on the side. It's not fastlane, but I make between 5 and 10k per vehicle and I'm always rolling around in something nice, so that's a bonus.

I recently had an idea that I believe IS fastlane, it's for a website offering a service where I'd charge people a small monthly fee.

Now, I thought my idea hadn't been done, so I contacted a web development business and the guy pointed me in the direction of a few sites that offer somewhat similar services.

I reviewed them and explained aspects of my service that were fundamentally different and how I could monetise my service in a way that these other sites haven't/couldn't, the developer was impressed and agreed that my site could be successful if implemented and executed properly.

The fact that these other services exist and they're being used validates my idea, but I have different ideas for my site that I believe would blow the competition out of the water.

Now my problem is this... I'm not a website developer. I have two other people on board, my father who is prepared to help me invest some money into the idea and a friend of mine who does know his way around code.

I'd like a well known company to build the site. Even though my friend could probably make something, I don't think it would be as well executed a product as a professional company could provide. I want him on board not to build everything, but for his expertise and guidance when pitching the idea and also developing the idea with a programmer.

I know a lot of you will say that me not building the site would violate the commandment of entry, but I don't necessarily agree - I'm borderline computer illiterate and while I will be making sure I'm involved with every step of the build, for me to actually learn to build the whole thing and make it clean and functional is a task that isn't going to happen. I'm going to have my hands full just making sure the developer has everything planned out for him in detail, plus I've got a long road ahead as far as marketing and raising capital is concerned.

My question is, how do I take this from a mere idea to something more than that? I can really only afford 10-15k at the moment and that would pretty much evaporate all my savings.

I need to work out a plan with limited money to put this into action.

I'm basically asking where the hell I can go from here? I know that's the million dollar question and I'm almost asking to be spoon fed, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I don't even know who I could contact about raising capital for the full site, who I could contact to help with marketing, etc.

I guess I could contact marketing firms, but I still need to have the investors behind me to do that, but I'm at a loss as to how to find them.

Do you guys think it would be enough to make a simple presentation outlining the website to an investor, or should I have a prototype to show them?

I've been trying to find something fastlane for years and now that a viable idea has finally come to me, I'd hate to let it slip away because I executed it poorly.

Thanks for any advice, it's greatly appreciated.

 

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