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what to do ??

hello everyone.

last night got to know about rodinhood last night from mr.tarun( nailbites). he suggested me to join therodinhood.com for great discussions. seriously reading all the discussions and thoughts from different people.

as all the people sought help from rodinhood team , so i am not the exception. i want the same.

first telling about myself me 24 years old, actively part of family business which is related to iron scrap , trade of recyclable products. though i am quite satisfied with my business but i want to diversify my business.

so i have decided (after thinking thinking, few small battles with dad), to start on line portal related to t-shirt for beginning(i know today everybody is doing t-shirt and all such stuff, but can’t help it out i love the concept as i wanted to do 2 years back but after scolding from dad i thought what a rubbish idea, but i am damn sure to start it and no chance of shelving it this time) and further to spread to other things( if i am able to  flourish).

to start with it i have whole 6 months left as i wanted to start in winters but with suggestion of an intelligent guy plan was postponed till summers.

i want advice from all you guys how to start it, want to hear actively from all the people, like what should be the course of action, do’s and don’ts.how to cover up various things, different concept’s that quite possibly don’t come to my mind.

what i have done till now is that i am done with my first level of capital, that’s very safely kept aside, not withdrawing much from capital of current business.

GUYS BE MY MENTOR I WANT YOU ALL AT EVERY STEP. SUGGEST WHAT TO DO IN LEFT TIME.

 I HAVE ALREADY REGISTERED WITH DOMAIN NAME, TRADEMARK REGISTRATION, LOGO PATENT WILL DONE IN WEEK’S TIME.

i have name my company FAITH&HOPE   and trade mark will be F&H.

sorry all for boring with such lengthy stuff and pathetic english.

sahil khurana 

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28 Comments

  1. waiting to listen from you guys!!!!

  2. Let’s get started Sahil – with 3 quick questions:

    – You know that everyone is doing T-Shirts and they have been doing it for past few years. What would you do differently. (Don’t tell me you’d have ‘better’ designs!)

    – How do you plan to make yourself seen/heard – having a good product is not enough. Again – what would you do differently than what is being done right now by other guys

    – Third – what’s your team? Have you identified what are the skills required to run the show, what all can you do and what are the critical skills gap? These skills gaps would need to be filled-up by your co-founders or founding team members

    You don’t need to reply to me – but reply to yourself. Come back to me if you need help once you have figured this out.

    Happy to help

  3. thanks sir for asking such questions. seriously i have reply to few of them only.you have not asked to reply but still i want to if will not tell how will i’ll be getting your suggestion.

    1. i m not talking about trading other’s product, but manufacturing own brand. i have used products of many of these companies so know about thier quality well and most do.

    just for sake of innovation and creativity i can’t sell anything which doesn’t match my ethics.i don’t believe that printing the index finger, or creatively writing down “fuck” makes you cooler.it can make people notice, but still masses don’t love it.

    possibly i don’t have better designs but i will not even lag behind, and if every upcoming enterprnuer start thinking that oh!! that’s already available than there will be no startups beacuse in way or another everything is existing already. i don’t believe that single institution has enough to satisfy all. if that had been he case there could had been no infosys, no samsung,even indian company like aditya birla was not running different companies (louis phillipe,peter england) who are nearly serving the same objective and many other who were doing nearly same but still were different.

    2. that’s the question i am here to ask. i want you to mentor me, in what way to be different.that’s the case i want to act so early , i am slow learner..loll

    3.at the moment i am the one, major problem is that while doing start up it’s hard to make understand because no wants to waste his/her time. no one wants to even think as they think whatever one is doing is currently the best and there could be nothing better.

    i have not largely discussed with many about the plan because people around me think what ever i say is nothing more than joke.

    on the name of team i just have my uncle who retired as IT head of renowned pharama company, and he is eager to help…..rest is???

    sir my main motto is not only clothing but in actual youth brand in every way, not in words but in real word i want to serve youth with every best way i can.if am able to land my first step properly than i can hope for best….otherwise……..

  4. thanks everyone for your valuable suggestions…

  5. Hi Sahil

    Good to see that you are so excited with the product and what you are doing. I have few questions so that I can understand in a better way how I can help you.

    I guess you have mentioned that you want to sell your own brand and the reason is that you are planning to give high quality clothing unlike others Correct? Now have you figured out from where you are going to get the cloth? How you are going to make it? Do you have a sample ready? Have you figured out the cost of a t-shirt? Are you going to provide customized t-shirt or just ready made? What will be your profit margin? Have you thought how you are going to deliver the product? any tie ups with courier? And the list goes on..

    Keep the answers ready and let me know we shall discuss it in more detail. I can be reached via email on dhaval.parikh33@gmail.com but you may surely reply here so that others can also see and give their suggestions.

    Cheers!!

  6. Hey Sahil,

    While you will get 100 great inputs my only and only adive is that answer Q1 from kanchan. You are still running away from it. Yes theres  aInfy and TCS too. Theres a Pepsi and Coke too. But my friend

    1. Their POSITIONING is very different
    2. Their market is sufficiently large
    3. The marketing budgets to get new customers is monster sized

    Have the budgets of Coke and any shitty TShirt company will still run! Don’t say theres a market. Show what segment of the market is currently untapped. How are you different. And by different we mean remarkable. Assume I would give you the first 1000 customers for free. What will you do with them that the idea spreads for itself?

    Quality is always expected. Whats different! Rethink. Can you do something that you can challenge the giants and kick their ass off without burning cash? What is your Competitive advantage?

  7. Theres no harm in doing a everybody’s doing it venture as long as its done differently. There are a lot of order a designer t-shirt online venture and here’s my two cents on executing a different model 

    a. Throw $ 1000 out there and initiate a t-shirt design contest on 99designs, you should get 4-6 amazing designs 

    b. Put these up for sale and share the proceeds with the designers 

    c. Dont build a custom website / use existing online sales or e-commerce tools 

    d. If you get six customers you have a business whose usp is “A marketplace for t-shirt designers to see to enthusiasts” 

    Make sure you have the best people advising you, dont waste your time on Gyan Gurus there are too many of them out there who give you generic advice but nothing specific of of value add that helps you execute 

    Feel free to ping me at startupville@gmail.com , am happy to help 

    Best 

    Ashwin 

  8. seriously sir i don’t have reply that one thing at the moment.

  9. thanks sir , all the answers have been posted to your mail id.. seek your reply.

  10. Good advice on not going with a custom website and using e-commerce tools. 

  11. thanks sir, i am only afraid of gyaan guru”s . surely will contact you.

    at the moment i am at sampling stage for the t-shirts(non -printed)..once i will be over with it i will looking for designs. as i am aiming to launch e-commerce one by april whereas if everything goes as per plan products samples will be available for booking for offline market with agents by december.

    and sir seriously i feel that every body can something different that doesn’t mean that it’s based on physical standards there are something you can”t tell but others feel.and really i don”t know at this stage that how will be i different.

  12. @ Kaushik , I know about this company in Chennai that makes really great clones which you can buy from $ 200 – $ 400 Its a good way of starting a tried and trusted model quickly 

    Any tools you know of ? 

  13. no, not really. I have not really digged into it. Sorry.

  14. sir ecommerce tools is fine but how you define custom  site

  15. I guess buy custom site he means something from scratch. You may use tools like shopify, joomla, oscommerce and such CMS which have in-built plugins though the only problem there could be customization flow + layout. I mean yes its possible but sometimes a bit difficult. So you need to keep all options open in my opinion depending on your idea about UI/UX.

  16. thank you…think have to learn lot of things…from you people. 

  17. sir i was checking joomla, shopify they are very interesting….i am loving rodinhood listening so honest advices.

  18. Sahil, I love your spirit.  You have decided to go with what you love and that will stand by you when the going gets tough.  Plus you have your entrepreneurial family background so you will watch your operating bottom-line like a maniac.  🙂 

    The question everyone is asking is one of USP – what is your unique sales proposition.  But lets put that aside for a moment.  The tee shirt market is a commodity market and you need big moolah to spend on advertising to make an impression with the up market crowd.  

    There is an old sales maxim – What do you need to sell? Answer: A hungry crowd.  Find the hungry crowd that “needs” your tee-shirts.  Look at mobile.  Internet mobile access is exploding.  By 2014 mobile data traffic will be more than desktops.  Figure out how to sell to the common man through the mobile.

  19. thanks sir , it was pleasure listening to you and i will make sure to keep your suggestions in mind while making the marketing planning and seriously telling that concept regarding mobile is great…thanks sir..

    love to share upcoming events with you.

  20. Please do you can reach me at abey(at)clickmantra.in

  21. Dear Sahil

    All you need is a website and an inventory and you can get started any time. I would skip any details on these stuffs as you can get them easily by googling.

    The prime focus of yours should be how to make your customer visit again. Advertising can only gain you first time customers, but treating them with right quality of product  and in a right manne can only make them return.

    I am not a sales guy, but I am a very prudent customer. Here are my observations.

    If a portal lacks good design, I would ignore shopping over it.

    Once I decide to shop, if I see any erroneous behaviour on the payment page, I shall abandon the purchase immediately.

    On average, nearly 30% of online transaction fails. If my transaction fails, I would panic and lose my cool. If I donot get a warm and soothing response from you that time, I shall think twice in doing any future business with you.

    If the goods are not delivered on time, my reaction wont be healthy. If I have to call you several times regarding the delivery of ordered goods, please understand this was my last business with you.

    If goods delivered are not upto the quality as boasted online, I shall never buy from your website again.

    Most of the e-commerce portals offer 30 day money back guarantee. If I am not satisfied and want to return it, I would definitely not like to hear, “Sir, we cannot return it back”, “We donot offer refund but only credit” or  any other crap excuses. Actually, I would want you to bear a small loss for a big long term gain.

    If you spam my mailbox unnecessarily,  I shall NEVER buy from you. The same applies to Tele-marketing calls and SMS.

    Above are some of the issues customers face with most of the present e-commerce companies. So, if you are able to address these issues, all my clothing budget would land into your bank accounts for sure (Here is one possible answer to the big question asked by many- “What difference are you going to make?” )

    Having said this, before you begin,  define your working model CLEARLY which satisfies both business  requirements  and and behavioral whims of the customer. The key is to put yourself into the shoes of customers and never make assumptions.

    Best Wishes

    Abhi

  22. One more point

     Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, an online retailer of shoes that was acquired by Amazon, wrote a book titled ‘Delivering Happiness’ and called for a customer service strategy as a differentiator for your company. If you get, try to read it

  23. abhishek love you brother!!!.every point you said, yes nearly every point you said is what i want to do. maybe i lack million dollar but thats surely i am gonna do right away. possibly in beginning i could lack some of things, but i assure customer satisfaction (quality, service), are my prime motto, sometimes there would be situations where something will surely go wrong, may be technical failure or anything, i assure that you as customer will find the most appropriate reply..

    and thanks a lot, i will love to share further details with you.

  24. love to read that….will surely try to get it.

  25. ordered the book sir!!!! friendly advices are always acceptable. thanks again.

  26. Hey Sahil,

    If everyone else is doing T-Shirt, why don’t you do ‘Shorts’, guess no one is doing that. And the ones we get in market have limited designs/types. 

    Cheers!

  27. thanks ravi for suggestion. i just checked this after long time, surely will make sure that i catch up with shorts to and that too quickly, but as if now i have moved quite ahead in concern to t-shirts and some funds have already been invested so not possible to shelve it but off course addition is always possible.

  28. Sahil, did you manage to get your store online.. how had been the journey and how far have your reached. Looking to hear from your.

    Amit
    +919811122212
    https://www.72interactive.in

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