bluesman4961
PARKED
About a month ago I had the idea to use scrap wood from a junk piano and scraps left over from the acoustic guitar building process to make some belt buckles. Then a friend suggested that I could make belts out of an old fire hose.
I cold emailed several luthiers and one offered to send me a small box of scraps for the cost of shipping. I already had the wood from an old piano, and I bought an old fire hose off EBay. After a few weeks in the garage perfecting my designs and technique I had several belts and buckles ready to go.
Then I read The Millionaire Fastlane and didn’t really like my idea. I thought my idea was pretty interesting, but after reading the book I had a few problems. The biggest one was that it wasn’t based on a need, and the second was I could only make so many, it would violate the law of effection.
Anyhow, this past week there was a 10 day festival in the county I live in. I know a lady that owns a coffee shop on the square and she said she would display my buckles for free, and I didn’t have to be there. It’s usually $400 for a 10ftX10ft space and you have to be there. I decided I would test them out and see if anyone was willing to buy them for the price I wanted. So, I called my creation Reedu Buckles, had my wife make some fancy business cards/tags and gave them to the lady to display outside of her coffee shop.
It wasn’t a prime location, mostly not my target market, and it rained for three of the ten days so my buckles weren’t on display those three days. I ended up selling two buckles for $35 a piece giving me a $60 profit!! Since I use scrap wood it’s really cheap only costing me $5 a buckle and I can make about three per hour.
I thought if two people bought my buckles without any targeting or marketing there had to be more. So, I started thinking how I could overcome my two problems.
My solution to utilize the law of effection is to teach my little brother how to make the buckles so I can work on the business. Then I’m going to borrow the business model of Abe’s Market which is a seller of natural products. “Abe’s Market is the online marketplace for great natural products. We connect buyers seeking amazing natural products with the people who make them.†Is how they describe themselves. There is also a web site called digs.com that does a similar thing to Abe’s market with apparel, home décor, beauty products and a few other things. Both of these places have an application process to sell on their sites.
So I’m thinking a combination of Abe’s Market, Digs and Etsy. Reedu would be like Abe’s Market and Digs by connecting artisans that make awesome, functional, art (belts, buckles, necklaces, etc.) out of repurposed material with the people who want to buy those products. To sell they would have to go through an application process. It would be more niche than Digs and Etsy.
I guess this could also solve a need for the artisan by allowing them to focus on making amazing stuff and not having to worry about becoming a business person. It would also give consumers a place to go for cool apparel that they would know meets a certain standard of “greenâ€. They wouldn’t have to waste time searching for the products they want.
I’m still unsure if this is the best business to get into. There is a lot of competition in the “green†industry. But, I have been screwing around for about the last year being interested in starting a business. Somehow I always find some reason why it won’t work. Even if this isn’t the best idea I’m thinking I should go with Richard Branson’s motto and say “screw it let’s do itâ€. I sure as hell haven’t made any money in the last year thinking about it. Time for action!
Thoughts? Advice? Criticisms?
I cold emailed several luthiers and one offered to send me a small box of scraps for the cost of shipping. I already had the wood from an old piano, and I bought an old fire hose off EBay. After a few weeks in the garage perfecting my designs and technique I had several belts and buckles ready to go.
Then I read The Millionaire Fastlane and didn’t really like my idea. I thought my idea was pretty interesting, but after reading the book I had a few problems. The biggest one was that it wasn’t based on a need, and the second was I could only make so many, it would violate the law of effection.
Anyhow, this past week there was a 10 day festival in the county I live in. I know a lady that owns a coffee shop on the square and she said she would display my buckles for free, and I didn’t have to be there. It’s usually $400 for a 10ftX10ft space and you have to be there. I decided I would test them out and see if anyone was willing to buy them for the price I wanted. So, I called my creation Reedu Buckles, had my wife make some fancy business cards/tags and gave them to the lady to display outside of her coffee shop.
It wasn’t a prime location, mostly not my target market, and it rained for three of the ten days so my buckles weren’t on display those three days. I ended up selling two buckles for $35 a piece giving me a $60 profit!! Since I use scrap wood it’s really cheap only costing me $5 a buckle and I can make about three per hour.
I thought if two people bought my buckles without any targeting or marketing there had to be more. So, I started thinking how I could overcome my two problems.
My solution to utilize the law of effection is to teach my little brother how to make the buckles so I can work on the business. Then I’m going to borrow the business model of Abe’s Market which is a seller of natural products. “Abe’s Market is the online marketplace for great natural products. We connect buyers seeking amazing natural products with the people who make them.†Is how they describe themselves. There is also a web site called digs.com that does a similar thing to Abe’s market with apparel, home décor, beauty products and a few other things. Both of these places have an application process to sell on their sites.
So I’m thinking a combination of Abe’s Market, Digs and Etsy. Reedu would be like Abe’s Market and Digs by connecting artisans that make awesome, functional, art (belts, buckles, necklaces, etc.) out of repurposed material with the people who want to buy those products. To sell they would have to go through an application process. It would be more niche than Digs and Etsy.
I guess this could also solve a need for the artisan by allowing them to focus on making amazing stuff and not having to worry about becoming a business person. It would also give consumers a place to go for cool apparel that they would know meets a certain standard of “greenâ€. They wouldn’t have to waste time searching for the products they want.
I’m still unsure if this is the best business to get into. There is a lot of competition in the “green†industry. But, I have been screwing around for about the last year being interested in starting a business. Somehow I always find some reason why it won’t work. Even if this isn’t the best idea I’m thinking I should go with Richard Branson’s motto and say “screw it let’s do itâ€. I sure as hell haven’t made any money in the last year thinking about it. Time for action!
Thoughts? Advice? Criticisms?
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