as I said in PM not sure if everyone read. I got a mate who runs a self started in dec 2010 hosting company who I have talked about this idea in the past but never had time or enough people interested. He can provide a dedicated (free of charge) 1gbit server in europe, the benefit of this is if stuff goes wrong we got good customer support as he is admin of the servers and it cuts down monthly server charges to nothing if that is his investment into this. He also has programming skills which would help ease the load of one programmer/developer. he hardly sleeps too so good support for customers.
ill start the SWOT for you.
Strength
- Hobby Collectors (i.e. as making a site that tailors for hobby collectors).
that is really the only strength we have atm.
Weakness
- Finances to directly compete with big players (this will eventually turn into strength as profits grown)
Opportunities
- This is where most things we want in here.
ie. Unique experience
Threat
- Competing against other auction sites.
as I said in PM not sure if everyone read. I got a mate who runs a self started in dec 2010 hosting company who I have talked about this idea in the past but never had time or enough people interested. He can provide a dedicated (free of charge) 1gbit server in europe, the benefit of this is if stuff goes wrong we got good customer support as he is admin of the servers and it cuts down monthly server charges to nothing if that is his investment into this. He also has programming skills which would help ease the load of one programmer/developer. he hardly sleeps too so good support for customers.
There a LOT more strengths than that mate
Just off the top of my head...
1-Business is accessible by anyone - not restricted to locations
2-knowledge and experience from collectors (buyers)
3-support from collecting community - immediate 'potential' customer base
4-negative responses from eBay users - opens them to new sites
5-low cost setup - time/labour donations from people like Brett, Owen, Alex etc
I could go on and on!
The idea is to list EVERY detail and to analyze the results and focus on the most important things first!!
are you talking good reasons to do the project? or organisational strengths? because a strength is something done better and/or differentiates us from competition.
1 3 4 5 i would personally call them opportunities.
I would say 1 and 4 aren't strengths, 4 is definitely an opportunity which should be capitalised upon immediately. The others I would happily classify as strengths. I think you're thinking more about advantages?
Can we have a better way to list cards on our website then eBay!
I just hate trying to find specific things i.e
Gold Patch Panini Totally Certified Basketball Cards - If I don't type in the right thing in the search bar then I might never find what i'm looking for but if I don't narrow it down ill be searching forever.
This is for (Certified Gold)
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=certified gold&_sacat=0&_sop=1&LH_PrefLoc=2&_odkw=certified gold patch&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
This is for (Certified Gold Patch)
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=certified gold patch&_sacat=0&_sop=1&LH_PrefLoc=2&_dmpt=AU_FineJewellery&_odkw=certified gold&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
This is for (Certified Gold Patch Basketball)
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=certified gold patch basketball&_sacat=0&_sop=1&LH_PrefLoc=2&_dmpt=AU_FineJewellery&_odkw=certified gold patch&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
first of all, great idea guys and good luck to you all!! i dont have the time or money to help, but i will definately sign up to an account on the first day!!!
i know a few online stores using their whole advertising budget on google alone(where you get a first page search entry) might be expensive, but worth looking into
Also, when you get online, hitting the media circuit with emails (current affairs shows, morning news,radio shows, online news eg ninemsn.com etc etc)
im sure if you use the angle "ebay sucks, so were doing something about" someone will love to make big corp. look bad.
be pretty cool if you made it on a current affair or on ninemsn. alot of site hits with that.
The point of the exercise is to identify ALL strengths, not just the ones you think make you different from others. For example, number 1 - Business is accessible by anyone. Now this is a clear Strength. In many types of businesses, you are restricted to making your customer base from those who can either contact you or visit you. With a 100% internet based business, there are no restrictions. Just because this is the same as with eBay and other companies, doesn't mean that it isn't a strength of ours. We don't know whether any of these other companies have properly and effectively explored the possible advantages of the strength.
So in this case, after analysing the information/ideas derived from point 1, I can see that there are opportunities in present the site to more people than usual. What I mean is that because we have identified that anyone with a internet connection can access us, it means that we can focus on places that may not get reached by a normal marketing strategy - think if China.... there are Billions on people there, and we know there are cardboard collectors there, but their Government has banned Facebook, You Tube and many others so perhaps you would consider an alternative method of promoting your site in their country.
I know this is a Tangent, but it is a perfect example of why you should analyze even the most basic parts of the business, not just the obvious differences, because there can be a way to CREATE a point of difference where there isn't one.
And BTW, the reason I suggest the SWOT should be done by multiple people is proven by you guys (Bainy, Cobretti)! The same sentence can be interpreted in different ways and each person may see different objectives/possibilities as a result of it. In my list I said that having the support of the collecting community IS a strength because I know we have the option to use the collecting community for things like testing/suggestions on functionality etc - That, as a matter of fact, is a strength. Whereas Cobretti interpreted it as potential to have them actually making purchases. 100% correct both ways!So that is why we talk it out and discuss all the details.
I talk too much!
Ok guys...... with respect to what we are going to include on the site such as cards, books, stamps, coins etc...... well, this is one big thing we have to decide on and really put some good thought into...... I think at least to start off we need to have some sort of community support for each section; we don't want a lot of the sections of the site to end up looking dead like most other auction sites; with cards I know we will have the support of at least the OCT community, but with other stuff like books, coins etc we won't initially have that support unless we can reach out to the respective communities and drum up some support from them somehow.
Adam....... I'd be happy to help with the SWOT analysis, I will send you a PM with my email.
Hahaha....... well if you go into the BBall category FIRST and THEN do the search you wouldn't get stuff like gold rings coming up
Thanks man and great idea too!
we could just buy some really cheap old Australian coins from a coin store at like 10cents each and just put them up to appear like there is a market, to lure the bigger players.
I call it the "Keeping up Appearances" effect. Yes I use to watch way to many old british comedies haha.
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