Hello All,
I am self employed with about 36 months of experience in trading in electrical equipment and printing machinery.
I, along with my friend am interested in starting a B2B product & services portal catering to the Indian printing and packaging industry for which I look forward to discuss with you and gain some inputs.
Having worked in the printing industry for close to 2 years, found that industry requires a platform for selling off used second hand machinery. The likes of Olx/ Quikr/Indiamart have not been able to cater this segment effectively. Indian Printing Industry is heavily dependent on foreign technology in terms of machinery. A great chunk of this is used machinery from other countries.
Even the new machinery manufacturers both from India as well as abroad would be keen to penetrate the untapped segments using a portal that caters to the industry.
My idea is to provide a platform for the sale of second hand machinery in the initial stages. Once, I have a heavy traffic for sale & purchase of second hand machinery, this traffic becomes the target for sellers of first hand machinery.
At this juncture, the idea is to sell product space to New Machinery Mfrs, Service Providers, Consumables providers.
Growth Plan:
In case of states with our personal stronghold like – Gujarat & Maharashtra, & few regions like Delhi & NCR, Coimbatore, Bengalooro, we are planning for in-house staff for promotions.
As we grow, we propose franchise model of growth.
Marketing Idea:
– Direct contact with links in the industry and industrial associations. (In-house & Franchisee)
– Participation in trade fairs
– Whatsapp Campaign/ SMS Campaign
– Social Media Marketing
– Word of mouth using contacts in the industry
– Internet Marketing (Email Marketing, SEO, SEM, PPC, Adwords, Blogging, Newsletter)
I need to your guidance on the following aspects:
- How do we estimate the feasibility of the business?
- What critical questions do we ask ourselves to ascertain that this venture would be a success? I look forward for your inputs and valuable guidance.
- How to create it as a self sustaining model, right from the starting, so that we can avoid funding beyond a certain limit?
I am a marketing person, not a tech guy and hence only know bechna. The site along with initial promotions pertaining to digital marketing is to be outsourced, but I am keen to create in-house knowledge & talent to sustain. Pl. throw a bit of light on this too.
Looking forward for your views.
Email: 31.shrikant@gmail.com
Twitter: @31shrikant
