Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Business Plan

We are attempting to write our first business plan.  And so far, we can see why people say it takes time - and boy can it be a pain if you're not entirely sure of what you're doing!  Neither of us majored in business (or even minored)...and boy, is it testing our brain power!  However, it is forcing us to think about all aspects of the business - from all points of view.  We are lucky in that out of our 4 parents, 3 of them have previously owned their own businesses, so we can get help.  But...we are head strong (perhaps hard headed is a better term) and want to do at least the rough (very rough) draft first, by ourselves, before we show it to anyone.  This way, it shows that we are indeed very serious about it, and that we have given a lot of thought to this.


We have contemplated several different types of business ideas, but this is the one that stuck.  The plan is, to start with an online store (currently we're set up with Ebay @ JnS's Coins and Collectibles, but want our own site soon), then move on to a true, brick-n-mortar shop.  Yes, we realize that we're probably going somewhat backwards on this - but we think it might actually work.  We think that if we can market and make a profit from the online store, we can use those profits to help start the physical shop, and then we can run both at the same time - using our online store as an extension of our physical shop.  Does this make sense to anyone else out there?  Or are we just totally wrong on our way of thinking?

The other reasons we're wanting to start out that way is because this is going to have to be a part time thing in the beginning for us.  We are hoping that it will go from being a part time gig to being full time for at least 1 of us, then being full time for the both of us.  Also, if we start out with an online store and work up from there, it will hopefully save us from having to exhaust our credit!  As naive as it may be, we want to be as debt free as possible, both in life and business.

So - have you ever written a business plan?  Do you have any tips or tricks?  Do you own your own business (physical or internet)?  What do you think about people that work for themselves?

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Yes - We have made some changes!!

As I'm sure you've noticed - we've changed our names, our description, our picture - and we've also somewhat changed our mentality.  We've been getting more and more serious about working for ourselves - and we realized that we've left you completely out of the loop!  *our bad!*

We have decided to start with a online coin shop and from there, work up towards having the cahoona's to open a true n' blue, brick-n-mortar store.  We still have our Ebay store ** J n S's Coins and Collectibles**, but hope to use this blog, word of mouth and our Ebay store to help drive traffic to our own website. 

However, before we crank up our own website - we decided that we want to be totally legit about it.  Get the proper licenses, permits, etc. so when it is time to move into a real store - we'll already know the players and the game.

Do any of you have your own store or web-store?  Any suggestions or advice??  Any and all help is greatly appreciated!