So I started a business..

[vtbub]

Hehe, they tell you that you can make money in the internet. What a load of horse shi.... Anyway, yes I have been rather absent from the FOFC community for a while and there isa reason, I've been trying to run an online business.

I certainly cannot say it's been overwhelmingly successful so far, but I have learned a great deal from the experience so far, and it only costs me $70 a month for this masochisim, about the price of a decent seat at Fenway.

First off, I want to thank the crew at Smart Guys Sports. That, when my attention was fully there, was successful beyond my wildest dreams. It is a real kick to se you and your buddies work posted and linked over at Sports Illustrated, the Washington Post, Deadball Sports and be emailing a guy at the NCAA Public Relations department on a more than occasional basis. Despite the sometimes lack of focus on my part in direction, 500-1000 hits a day was the norm. Wow!

No, SGS is not dead, just kind of hibernating. At times, it was a 13 hour a day job, others 10 minutes, all in all equal pay.

A friend of mine suggested to me back in January about going into some sort of internet retailing. The thought weas intriguing, and as she showed me a bit of the how to's and what not's, it sounded reasonable.

The premise was to sell sports jersey's and hats that the vendor would ship out and I would keep the left over money.

No, it was not a MLM business In fact, I had to become a legal business entity to even go this far. I filed paperwork with the State of Vermon t for a trade name and do the dba paperwork, doing business as, along with filings for the IRS and the Vermont Department of Taxes. This was in late January. Around that time, Box Score Communications was born.

We had done our homework and had found a potential vendor for dropshipping. Dropshipping is this, I place orders for sale either via auction or on a web site. You purchase said item. I place your order through the vendor and they ship. I, as a registered business get to buy at supposedly wholesale. You get your product and I make some, but not a lot, of money.

The best laid plans of mice and men....

I'll elaborte further on what was supposed to be a store called Couch Potato Sports jurned into a Jewelry and Software store, but not in this post.

http://stores.ebay.com/Bubs-Discount-Barn_W0QQssPageNameZl2QQtZkm

That is my store link, if you click on the me lgo, you can see a veryrecent picture and read more. This isn't a commercial for the business, I just need a place to vent. You can buy if you want.

In a day or two, how not to fax and how to piss off a potential vendee.

[vtbub]

Picture it, Burlington, Vermont, January, 2006.

A young orphan girl from Sicily,....oh wait wrong story.

After two weeks of research, filling out the required paperwork such as tax information and all the legal mumbo jumbo, it was time to select which vendor to distribute products. There was two distinct disadvantages that Box Score had, and still has, over a more established business. One, we had no references. In fact, we had a hard time even getting a business checking account because another bank was pissy over the last time my wife and I changed banks. As an side, the banker was quite cute, she is the branch president. It was a pleasant conversation until I realized she was my age. I felt small.

Anyway, our second disadvantage was that wherever we went to get products to sell, we really had nothing to show. Wholesalers want to make 100% sure that if you gain access to their product, you are selling it to the public and not for your own consumption. They want to see how you do business, which is quite understandable. We had the idea in selling sports stuff. I've never done sales, but I wanted to sell a product that I actually use and was famailiar with and hats and jerseies fit that bill.

We read over two possible vendors and since this still may happen at some time, I will refer to the one we applied to as vendor A. Vendor A did not requie that you go through a credit check and was willing to take new business. They were not real wild about auction sites, but the orginial plan we had had very little to do with eBay. After reading through the agreement and heming and hawing whether this was the right decision, we filled out the paperwork and set off to fax it and await for our millions.

Let me tell you something, it is not pleasant to walk around Burlington in the middle of winter. After a 20 minute walk through the pedestrian mall to navigate over horrible and narrow sidewalks, we arrived at FedEx Kinko's to fax our fortune. I have some great people working for me in other capacities, and the young lady with me that day was very patient. After finding the right doo for Kinko's, I ask where he fax was. We were pointed to a circa 1992 plain paper fax with a huge price tag. $2.00 for the first page and $1.50 for each page after, cover sheet for free. We had a ten page fax. $16.50 later, they got their agreement and from the website, a decision on our status would be forthcoming in five business days.

Yep, we would be able to sell winning Super Bowl merchandise that night, right?

Hehe, WRONG! We waited and we waited. Meanwhile supplies were bought, software was installed and plans were made to sell stuff that we had no access to. After one week, an email sent was not answered. After that, a canned answer to a phone call. At this point, we had shelled out $300 in set-up to sell nothing. I got a bit antsy. Two weeks passed and still no answer.

A second round of emails and phone calls led to them saying, we need to see a website before they decided. They waited two weeks to say that? We had already signed up with a jewelry vendor at that point, our next chapter, and between installing some nasty software and trying to recoup some of our start-up costs, the thought of learning two markets was not appealing and we withdrew from Vendor A.

It was a strange lesson to learn. I'm sorry, but $16.50 to fax a document is highway robbery, end of story. Second, if Vendor A had said from the get go that they had wanted to see a working website, they would have had one before I got antsy. In some ways, it was a major setback. I know very little about jewelry and whatever advantage I had in my mind about going into business had just went out the window. Improv is sometimes a good thing and next time, we delve into the wonderful world of PayPal and eBay.

[mooreadamc]

This is great. I have always wanted to do this on my own once i've repaid my student loan. Good luck. I will be reading.

[3ric]

Good to see you around on FOFC again, Ron. Did you get your neck problem sorted out?

[cubboyroy1826]

I am enjoying following along also. Sounds like my quest to get my brokers license in Illinois. This state has got to have the biggest pile of bureaucratic BS i have ever seen. Sorry to interupt now back to our regularly scheduled program.

[vtbub]

Good to see you around on FOFC again, Ron. Did you get your neck problem sorted out?

Yeah, I did, thankfully. Rest and heat pad for a week did the trick.

More tomorrow, and thank you all for reading.