Pros and Cons of turnkey site/hosting and doing it yoursel

[ExplorationsDivine]

I am researching my business plan and trying to understand the best rout to take. I have found several (after searching through hundreds) of websites that seem legitimate. While I know it is a risk for getting scammed, and honestly cannot afford to be, it seems to be a good choice for me. If I do everything from scratch it leaves me with a very confusing and weighty burden: inventory, shipping and vendors. It seems all of the advice and preference for building an ecommerce store has left that bit out. If I find a company that truthfully and honestly provides hosting, drop shipping, customer service, etc. would that not be much more simple? I am sorry if the question seems naïve, and doubly so if I have posted this question in the wrong section: this is my first thread on this website and I hope I am using it correctly!! I would greatly appreciate any advice, wisdom, and help you can provide! Thank you all and have a wonderful day.

[dsieg58]

It's a good choice for some people in some situations. No one but you knows your personal situation and the amount of time and money available. The thing to keep in mind is even if find that dream site, you're going to be giving up significant profits for the ease and "hands off" convenience you're aiming for. If someone else is taking care of all your fulfillment needs, that leaves you with marketing. It's a full time job which can/will also eat into profits. If you're looking for someone to do fulfillment and marketing, and leaving you with just sourcing products, there aren't that many players left in the game. Meet Amazon, your new boss. (and competitor)

Your only other option is to outsource all the various activities. If you do that, you'll need a very high profit margin to pay your outsourcers and still make money.

I hope this helps.

[Kay]

You've asked a lot of questions there! That's perfectly fine as far as we're concerned. The reason I mention it is because it may lead to you getting yourself in a wee bit of a muddle. I think you may be trying to do too many things all at once. Can you see a way to map out a path for yourself and take it step by step?

You want to have your own business (you said so in your introductory post). Will you build or buy a site? There are pros and cons of both ways. Understand the benefits each might offer for you and then decide on your approach to creating your own business. (Check out our Buying a Website forum for more info and ask if you have further questions.)

You probably want to have an eCommerce site. Why? Have you explored other options? What skills and interests do you have? I'm not asking these questions because I want to know the answers. These are questions you should be asking yourself. There are numerous ways to create an online business. eCommerce is only one of them. (Have a look in our Make Money Online forum, we have loads of info and discussion about eCommerce in there.) Consider your options and if you still choose eCommerce then at least you'll understand what's involved.

All the things you mentioned, such as hosting, inventory control, etc are things which will be necessary for you to understand even though you decide not to do these for yourself. You increase the odds of being ripped off if you don't know how to do them yourself. People can tell you any old rubbish and you won't know if they're talking BS. In any case, it's probably better not to put too much control of your business into another party's hands. For example, most of us on EP recommend never to buy a domain and get hosting from the same company. Yes, it seems easier to do that when you're starting out. But if you take a little extra time and separate the two, you could be saving yourself a lot of trouble in the long run.

Turnkeys? As with everything, there are pros and cons. Don't ever be fooled by "potential" and don't underestimate how much effort it will be to create interest and traffic for a newly purchased turnkey. Plus it's most likely just one of many clones, and there'll be plenty of other people in exactly the same boat trying to compete with the same thing.

I hope this provides you with some food for thought and keep posting if you have more questions!

Please don't jump into buying a site if you're not sure what you're doing. Run it past us if you're thinking of buying. If it's on public sale and if it's any good there's a good chance someone here will have already spotted it, so don't worry about us competing with you.

Good luck.

[ExplorationsDivine]

Thanks for the feedback so far!

I do realize that marketing is a full time job, and am prepared to invest my time and resourses into each aspect of my business. It does, however, feel as though the other aspects (afore mentioned inventory, customer service, shipping, etc.) would be full time jobs individually! I don't express this from a standpoint of being unable to handle everything or a lack of understanding the blood, sweat and tears as well as sacrifices that come with this responsibility. Rather that at this time I can't quite my day job!

I understand that no one can give me a yes or no answer; but I do apreciate being able to bounce ideas nd thoughts off of heads far more knowledgable than my own!
So far it seems the best advice Ive gotten is that I will probably fail. Nothing prepares you for a risk like reallity!

[KenW3]

@ExplorationsDivine, What is your name? You haven't yet told anyone what you are thinking about doing, so your replies are all over the place and probably overwhelming?

What Are you planning to do? Open a store? If so, then you don't need to worry about anything other than what to sell and for how much. Period. Once you know that, list it for sale on eBay, Webstore, Etsy to get started and see how sales work.

If you want your own store, you don't buy a turnkey. You go to BigCommerce.com, Shopify.com, Volusion.com, Vendio.com and open an account. You get a free trial to see how it works, and you read the manual. You don't buy or build a site, you don't buy hosting, you don't need a domain name, you're not ready for any of that and don't need it. All you need is a product or service to sell, after which you can start.

It does, however, feel as though the other aspects (afore mentioned inventory, customer service, shipping, etc.) would be full time jobs individually!

I hope you're not trying to talk yourself out of even trying? I get the impression the dialogue above is leading to grossly over-thinking the process you need to follow to start your business. There is no inventory control needed to start a store, just a product. Starting out, inventory control means having something to sell, nothing more. There is no customer service until you have at least one customer - then how much of a job is a single purchase from one customer? It sure is not some full-time job. When you have a sale, you ship a single item (which takes a few minutes to box and label (which also is not a separate full time job)).

So far it seems the best advice Ive gotten is that I will probably fail.

That's the overwhelming complexity I also perceive from the dialogue so far, which is why I'm posting this. To start a store, you don't need to buy a turnkey site. You don't need to buy any site. You don't need a fulfillment service because you have no sales. Marketing is not a full time job, it's a matter of letting people know what you have in your store through social media. No, you don't need to subscribe to hosting because that's provided from one of the above services with your store. No, you don't need a domain name yet, as any of the above will provide you with a subdomain on their name.

If you think you're going to fail, you will. People who succeed either have no other choice or are self-motivating.
...and no, you never quit any job until your business is making more money than your current salary.
...and yes, you -can- do this if you set your mind to it - just like tens of thousands of other store owners.

You want to start a business? You can be in business in a day, Ken