How to test your muse?

[jhero]

Hello every one,

I want to start testing my muse, but i don; t know how to do that.

My muse is to make t-shirts whit my own prints for soccer fans.
But the only manner to generate soccer fans(from my club) to mine website is advertising in a Matchmagazine from my soccerclub to attract soccer fans to my website.

now my questions

1. because it is a select group for new t-shirts(soccer fans from my club)
in my eyes its not possible like tim's idea trough p.p.c So i thought to adtvertise in a matchmagazine whit one t-shirt and a link to mine website.

Have anybody off you a other idea how i can reach my potential customers?

2. But when the potential customers are on the site i don't want to sent them away whit the message at the moment are the shirts not in stock

Does anybody have an idea how to solve this?

[Jake541]

Survey your target market.

Here are a few free ways to test your idea.

*Idea 1: Create a survey at surveymonkey.com and email your target market (assuming you have a list).

Idea 2: If you belong to a large social network (like facebook or myspace) you are sure to find a group or two that is closely related, if not exactly, to your target market.

Idea 3: Ask your question in Yahoo! Answers.

Example Survey/Question:
Which of the following 5 products would you be most likely to buy in the next 30 days if it were available?

1.) Product1 Design1
2.) Product1 Design2
3.) Product2 Design1
4.) Product2 Design2
5.) Product3 Design1
6.) Product3 Design2

Just submit a few surveys, and join a few quality forums and groups, and ask around. Most people don’t mind taking surveys, some people even do it as a second income. Needless to say, this step is crucial. Plan, Research, and take your time. Good things will come your way.

Best of Luck to You!

- Jake

[italian_job]

Hi

as you have rightly pointed out, I agree that your project is not "automated online business system" material

Just sell your T-shirts putting a stand during the matches and add an ad to the Monday section of your local paper where all the soccer results of the weekend are reported.

Careful though cause T-shirts are not consumable products, so are you really willing to start a business where you always have to chase new customers to make a sale, and there is no customer RETENTION and REPEAT business with the same customer?

I understand your passion for this project, but also the feasibility of the project to build an automated online business sales machine (that's what you are after, right?), is key.

Always think in term of "is this business replicable? if i sell X, can this customer come back for more, so that i dont have always to chase brand new customers?"

It is all about customer ACQUISITION (which is always tough) Vs customer RETENTION and repeat business.

Repeat business, customer retention and consumable products will give you income STABILITY (which is what I want).

Hope this helps you

Danny

[kamakiri]

With your plan, I would say that the only way to get going is to do a test run of 50-100 shirts, and see how they sell. Like many people mentioned, it is hard to sell more than one to a person though.

Do you have the silk screen set up? If so, then it is much easier to test stuff. If not, it looks like they are priced at $199 to thousands on ebay. That might be the way to go. It is not a hands off business, but you might be much more successful selling your services to the teams.

Every year they need uniforms (with screen printed numbers and names on them), and they sometimes sell t-shirts to fans as fund raisers. It is much easier to sell 50-100 shirts at a time than to sell one at a time. That way will also give you an 'annuity' of yearly repeat business.

Just my 2 cents though