Doing the shopify challenge, just want some opinions.

[bsiege]

Right now I havent done any design yet. All I have been doing is compiling all my muses and determining which one to go for and I wanted some opinions.

So my muse will either be something I am wholesaling or something I will patent and manufacture. I will not be abl to go into specifics on the potential patents (bc then I wouldn't be able to patent them).

My Startup Capital- 5000-10000 US dollars

Current position- student w/ internship, so I have very little skills

For the wholesale idea I have a middle eastern connect for the best arabic tobacco (different then US tobacco), this is a very niche market, there is only one supplier in the US and the tobacco is very low quality. Also, because the connect is rather exclusive I am set to block out other competitors.
My question is is it worth it to tap this market, it only has 1000 local google adsense in the US which is rather low? Also how would I test if something is worth going for would I use the 4HWW method of then creating a site and then seeing how many people reach the final buy page. I was going to do this but was worried I would los customers if they found out my product was sold out.

As for manufacturing my potential inventions. Do I even have enough money to manufacture the most basic of products, I mean here is the significant costs assuming I get a provisional patent:
Plastic Injection Mold-2000
Manufacturing to be worth the bulk- 5000
Website Ads- 5000

I'm already overboard, and that doesnt include the money I blow during my tests on seeing if the idea actually sells.

Thanks guys, any input is great.

[esben]

Some thoughts (I'm not extremely experienced, so take it as input):

@Tobacco: If it were sold out, you could capture their email and let them know when you're back up in stock. I'd also expect that if your deal is that exclusive, buyers would return for more tobacco once they are smoked out :) so you should think of lifetime value.

@Patenting: If you don't have an army of lawyers to back it up, and no strategy to sell it, what's the point? It's extremely expensive and unreliable.

[bsiege]

its all good, I don't have much experience either.

Good point with capturing their email, I hadn't thought of that/forgot it, I think I need to reread four hour work week now that I am finally applying it.

And as for the patent stuff, I don't fully know how I should go about that. Because I am basically forced to patent it and invest tons of money in manufacturing before I even know if it will have considerable demand. Kind of a problem for me, since my capital is very limited. I mean I could just do the website test, do the capture email thing and if I get enough demand in like a week, I will determine whether I will go foward and manufacture the idea or drop it.

By the way a provisional patent only cost a $100 and you can write it up yourself w/o a lawyer, patents are mainly important when your company becomes bigger or you sell the company.

Thanks for the input, it is very helpful. I'll have to find an html programmer for capturing their email. I'll have to figure that out.

[liam75005]

Give something for free to your readers in exchange of their capture email.

Really forget about patenting, too many efforts. Being copied is actually a great advertisment in itself.

Good luck

[bsiege]

Thanks for the advice on that. Ya I think I may go for one of my ideas that is not really patentable. I'll post it up soon, it is quite awesome and really cheap to make; the original inventor I think failed to commercialize it. I'll throw up the biz plan for reviews, I'm sick of worrying about people copying me. I'm kind of a paranoid inventor which is bad because it has held me back.

And as for my failed muse, it was definately a fun time, gettin in to sick parties, VIP in the frats. Eh, too bad. Next one.

My only problem now is finding out how to manufacture the damn thing, because I have 3 base materials that are needed, 2 of which are custom and 1 is generic. Then I just gotta put it all together. I'll look into it I guess.