I don’t consider myself a serial entrepreneur, but over the past few years, I’ve tried starting a few websites as attempts to build side businesses apart from my personal finance blog. Most flamed out before opening up to real business, but instead of focusing on the problems of each business plan, I’d rather focus on the emotional side of starting a business.
Right now I am in the process of launching a new side business: a carnival submission service. I’m not the first person to offer this service, but I am very confident that the service I am offering is the best.
However, offering the best service is just a small part of the equation and I’m well aware of that. I have teamed up with another friend/blogger, David from Financial Nerd (he’s also a programming nerd) to make this a reality. We plan on blowing away the competition (other blogger friends, so hopefully it will be a friendly competition) by submitting to a much wider range of carnivals than what’s currently out there, offering more options, and doing it all at a fantastic price. Eventually, we plan on casting a wider net and targeting non-personal finance blogs, too.
Launching a business is scary, though. There are plenty of things that could go wrong, including technical issues. Everyone has experienced technical issues, whether with a presentation at work or with their blog being attacked. However, there are several things that scare me about this specific launch that has nothing to do with the service working (which it does, I’ve tested it plenty).
What Makes Me Worry About Launching
There are several reasons why I worry about being able to corner the market despite the great (and free trial) offer we are giving. Logic dictates that the best service at the best price will get the business, but not all decisions are based solely on logic. Here are my fears of launching my new service:
Nobody Will Be Interested – This is definitely the biggest worry I have, even if it is the least rational. The fact that the service is great really doesn’t make me feel better. If nobody responds or signs up, I will feel like a failure, even if the costs of failing are fairly low. I want to feel the pride of offering a great service at a great price and help people efficiently manage their carnival submissions. It could be a win-win for everyone – I make money offering a service, everyone else gets a fantastic service for a great price.
People Won’t Want To Switch – While I’m not going after my competitors directly, there will undoubtedly be some overlap. But getting people to switch to a better service is not always easy. If a new cable service came offering you a $10 discount and more channels, would you switch? Or would you not want to go through the hassle? While this switch might be a little easier, it’s still a step some might not want to take.
Some People Won’t Want To Pay For The Service – Some people would rather submit their posts to carnivals themselves, but the time we can save them is significant. Still, some people just don’t believe in paying for something they can do themselves. These are people who no matter how much value I provide, will not sign up.
How I’m Combating My Fears
I can’t control everything, but I want to do my best not to get stressed as we start. The service is all set and has been tested so I am very confident there will be no technical issues. However, there are things I can do to ensure this will be successful and help allay my fears.
Cast A Wide Net
I’m getting in touch with every blogger I know who might have a need for this service. I hope they will respond positively, and ultimately it’s a numbers game. We don’t expect (though how great would that be?) everybody to sign up. But the more people we contact, the more potential there is for me to get a significant number of personal finance bloggers to sign up.
Clearly Explain All Our Features
The one thing I won’t stand for is not giving users enough information or educating them enough about how our system works and why it is better than the others out there. Our registration page has all the information necessary, including that we are offering the a free trial of our service for 2 weeks. No questions asked. We want to show users that we provide them with excellent service before asking them to pay a penny. If they like it, we’ll charge them just $20 per month for the same, full service. It comes out to just pennies per submission.
Make It Easy For People To Sign Up
The registration form has just 6 questions so users can enter their information once and let me take care of the rest. There is no payment option right now because of the free trial. And after the free trial, we am offering an auto-pay option with PayPal so they don’t need to make a payment each month. We’re also providing options, because not every blogger is the same. So while some prefer to pick the post they submit, others will prefer to have us choose their “best” post (or every Monday post) each week. We want to make it really easy for clients so that they always feel in control and aware of what we are doing.
Not Worrying About Things I Can’t Control
The truth is that I’m not going after people who don’t want to pay for the service. I’m more interested in those that can see the incredible value of the service and can recognize that their time is worth way more than the amount they’ll be paying.
Starting a business is always scary, no matter how great the offer. I’m attempting to conquer my fears by being prepared and answering user hesitations and concerns before they even think of them. I am prepared, and excited for a great launch.
Is there anything else I should have done to prepare? What do you do to calm yourself before launching a new venture?
Bloggers can make a lot of money online. You’ll be surprised!
You really can’t worry about what you can’t control. I finally got the balls to create a Facebook page for my fitness site. I was worried because well, I have friends from random walks of life on my Facebook. I was worried about mixing the two. But then I realized that I have nothing to be afraid of. Full transparency.
Thanks Martin. I’m going for full transparency with this project and will be detailing everything from the launch process to things that go wrong and how we handled backup plans. I love reading about that stuff, so hopefully other people do, too.
One thing I worry about is pricing myself too low. I think $20 is too low for this but in the future if there is a lot of demand, I can raise prices for new clients. If others are charging $20 and I’m providing 2-4 times the value, shouldn’t I have higher prices?
Starting a business really takes a leap of faith. Doesn’t matter how many simulations you run pre launch, the outcome is never quite the same. I think the key is to keep at it for a long enough period of time where it does build momentum. Too many folks give up after a year or two and would probably succeed if they just kept it up. Expenses and lack of income are obviously big issues.
Spending money and time to market is also key. When your competitors have a huge head start and are spending money, you’ve got to do the same as well. Hope your carnival business does well!
I’m launching a coaching business right now. My main worry is that my clients won’t find value in what I am providing. As Sam said, starting business takes a leap of faith and that is what I did with my coaching business. One day I decided to put the service up on my site, and now I have a client that I have to figure out how to help. :)
All it takes it one signup and then you can live the rest of your life off of recommendations! Way to go!
STBS: I really do admire entrepreneurship! I mean it. It takes a special person to stop “talking” about doing something and actually build nothing into something. A rare talent indeed.
Now let me throw you a curve ball. I am currently using a VA to submit posts from all 3 of my websites to blogger carnivals for $2.50 per week. That is approximately 42 submissions each week. What kind of value do you believe you could bring to this service that would compete with what I am receiving now?
I do not mean to be a Debbie Downer or rain on your idea. But I do think is important to fully realize what your competition is like and what you’ll be up against. Though price is always a factor, I think that if you are able to successfully demonstrate to people what your service can do above the rest than you will be able to stand out and enhance your chances for success.
Thanks for the encouragement and I definitely appreciate the question. There are some other carnival submission services that I’m comparing myself to, but it sounds like personal VAs are another very good alternative.
There are a couple advantages. One, I submit to over 20 different carnivals, not just ones on blogger carnivals (and I’m sure you aren’t included in each of those each week, but that’s something we’re aiming to have a very high success rate with), so you’re likely definitely missing out on some inclusions. Feel free to check out the current list on the registration page that we will be adding to.
The other big benefit is having someone who knows the PF niche well and can handpick relevant posts for specific carnivals. So if you have a tax related post, a retirement related post, and a budget post, all from the same site, you would get included in the relevant carnivals, which helps the integrity of the carnival and possibly gives you more relevant links.
I know this service isn’t for everyone and that likely includes you. But for those who are doing it themselves or who are paying but not getting the number of inclusions they could be getting, I think this is a very attractive option worthy of consideration.
No matter how prepared you are or how many times you’ve been there, there will always be room for fear when one starts a business, which just makes things more challenging. I have a love-hate relationship with the stress that comes with entrepreneurship, but I just try to focus on doing better whenever I encounter setbacks.
I think I like the stress of starting a project, but I hate the feeling of helplessness and waiting. Sometimes things don’t depend on you and that kills me!
Good luck with this new project.
Thanks!
I don’t know much about carnival submission services or how much they cost. This seems like a valuable service though that you are endeavoring to create. I gladly pay for quality services that save me time. This looks like it would do that. I’ll check it out. Good luck!
I can relate to that fear as we still deal with it now that we’ve been running our business for three years. At the end of the day though, much of the irrational fear will get “you” nowhere. We just have to do what we can, concentrate on what we can control and let the chips fall where they may. It definitely looks like you have a plan and a way to deliver value which are key in my opinion. Best of luck in your new endeavor!
If you open up your carnival submission service to the food niche, I’ll figure out a way to afford to hire you and I’m sure I could get you a lot more business in that niche as well.
I have 2 main beliefs wrt entrepreneurship. 1.) Don’t worry about the outcome, focus on the process. 2.) Be patient, success usually comes slowly after years of toil. Best of luck!
Good luck starting your new project…its always a worrying time starting out something new. But hey nothing ventured nothing gained!!
Trying anything new is scary. With any big project or business you plan, prepare the best you can, take a leap, and go for it. Best of luck with your launch!
If you don’t keep trying, you will certainly have regrets later! I often see all the big chain fast food places in the same area and wonder why would they want all that competition. Competition makes everyone better!
Thanks for the encouragement! But um…do you think fast food chains have raised their quality recently?