Anybody with a killer idea or business that needs financing?

BizMaker

I am seeking to inject some capital into either a new or existing business in exchange for partnership.

My philosophy is to work hard, make money, be happy, and have a lot of vacation time (hence the partnership). My background is in senior management of IT but would like to diversify and seek out new challenges.

lomb

alot of succesful business is self financing, most of the ideas people get approached with are a scam essentially. u really need to see heavy investment on the part of the 'partner' to put in a penny as well as bank references.
also usually in a partnership one partner goes and robs the other, its the nature of the beast. be careful, thats my advice.

i71jskz5xu42pb

Well this guy for a start.

If you are legit, have a lot of time/money/experience Enterprise Ireland might consider putting you on their Angel Investor/Mentor network. As I understand it it's basically a program that pairs start-ups and entrepreneurs with people who have been around the block and are willing to share experience. You'd be giving guidance for free in exchange for the opportunity to access early stage ventures - obviously putting you in a good position to invest if you think the idea is good.

BizMaker

PaschalNee: I already looked at the post for the couple looking for 35k and it looked a bit vague. I also heard about Enterprise Ireland's Mentor program but presumed that it was a voluntary effort on behalf of the mentor without much of a return (except for helping out young entrepreneurs). Will look into more though. Thanks.

Lomb: Thanks also for the input but I been around the block a few times, so hopefully I will be able to spot the scammers. (I’ll get them to put up their first-born child as collateral).

davewepal

Hi BizMaker

I suggest you steer clear of the startup business-mentoring program also. There will be a lot of innovative ideas out there. But anyone can have a good
Idea. It is implementing that you should be looking into...
From Experience and working part time for enterprise Ireland. It is a good facility for startup businesses, but I would say non-productive investors

First Question

1. Why a new Idea? A small business in the process of expansion would be more productive, at least you will see proven track record of some form.

2. Do you have a background in business? I suggest read a book or two at least if you have no experience and assess common returns that you might expect to receive on your initial investment. And more importantly the massive pitfalls.

3. What type of business sector are you interested in investing in?. I suggest that if you find a business idea that you really like. Pay an analyst to review the document for you. It might be the best 1000 euros you every spend in your life time.

4. Are you looking to make large returns, or are you interested in participating in a new venture. I suggest if you are just interested in a new venture and want to get your hands dirty, find and open source project www.sourceforge.net that has lots of potential and invest 1 or 2k in one of the projects, and try to contribute... that is if you are interested in getting into the IT sector.

Hope this helps.

Merrion

What sort of investment would you be talking about and would you be looking at being a silent or active partner?

BizMaker

Merrion: I am a hands-on guy, so I would be an active partner. The type of business needs to be interesting and somewhat profitable.

Davewepal: Checking out SourceForge as we speak .....

davewepal

there is alot to look at Biz Maker.

Some interesting projects on sourceforge.net and freshmeat.net. Alot of work needed in learning how to generate revenue from opensource projects.

Can you elaborate on the IT management role you were in.

If you could elaborate a little futher on your skillset... then I might be able to point you in the right direction.

How innovative a project are you looking for. Obviously the more innovative usually the more complex and usually more high risk .

Do you have any experience in any of the following areas.
1. project managment
2 process analysis
3.programming especially c++
4.Marketing

If a project presented itself that would be of an innovative nature that you require, would you be willing to sign an NDA or non disclosure agreement...

hope to hear from you soon

Gilgamesh

Hey Bizmaker, are you just looking for something in the IT sector or would you be interested in different areas, e.g. Retail etc.

I am quite interested and also a bit sceptical (of course) as I don't know you, but if you are interested in Retail opportunity then I might have soemthing that could interest you. Meeting up would be a must to discuss this though.
I am serious about this and hope you are too. A few people know what I do around here and a lot know the potential of this business.

cheers

Gilga

ninebeanrows

Well ye know if ye want to invest in something that i like to call
a business. (eg My website ). If i had money eg a few grand
i could really over haul so much and provide an excellant online weather
service for both Ireland (primarily) and then hopefully the U.K.

I am a very ambitious person ( even if i have no reason to be ) but
i've always dreamnt of leading a Weather Service to great success
both online and after we've conquered that, offline.

There is a surprisingly large amount of industries that need weather
information, you have numerous weather hobbiests and then you
have an organisation like Met Eirean doing all this!!!!!!!!

Come off it they're stuck back in the early 90's! We need a fresh, young
and vitalised approach to weather. Weather is supposed to be exciting,
not dull and boring! Things have come so far and Met Eireann is providing
probably 20% of information it could make available to the public. They still feed primarily off our UK neighbours while the best data available is from the US and the fact that we don't even have our own modelling data is just crazy!

Anyway if you want to help a weather crazed fantatic take over the
industry then please go ahead and inject some finances to my veins
and lets roll!

davewepal

Hi Weather Check.

Wish you the best for your venture and your willingness to expand. I suggest that investment is not really what you need at this point in time.

You definitely have a niche market. I can just imagine brides to be getting sms weather updates for their big day etc.!

Advice
Viral Marketing.-> that is the buzz word you will need to concentrate on to expand your site and generate potential revenue.

By viral I mean. Get your forum active. get anyone and everyone to sign up and put a simple automated system in whereby each member receives weather updates on varied dates they require.. Insert a "tell a friend option"

You could then consider a simple sms system or shortcodes option. Where u text a short code number or name ie 80098 to receive your "personalized weather report for that day." www.daopay.com probably would probably be a decent sms gateway you could utilize.

In relation to your website. I suggest you use a content management system. it allows you to update content in seconds etc and many more neat features like user calendars etc. Lots of added contributions that you might be able to harness you’re your system. http://www.mamboserver.com/ it is free open source software and easy to install.

Hope this helps for your world weather domination

Regards

davy

ninebeanrows

davewepal wrote:

Hi Weather Check.

Wish you the best for your venture and your willingness to expand. I suggest that investment is not really what you need at this point in time.

You definitely have a niche market. I can just imagine brides to be getting sms weather updates for their big day etc.!

Advice
Viral Marketing.-> that is the buzz word you will need to concentrate on to expand your site and generate potential revenue.

By viral I mean. Get your forum active. get anyone and everyone to sign up and put a simple automated system in whereby each member receives weather updates on varied dates they require.. Insert a "tell a friend option"

You could then consider a simple sms system or shortcodes option. Where u text a short code number or name ie 80098 to receive your "personalized weather report for that day." www.daopay.com probably would probably be a decent sms gateway you could utilize.

In relation to your website. I suggest you use a content management system. it allows you to update content in seconds etc and many more neat features like user calendars etc. Lots of added contributions that you might be able to harness you’re your system. http://www.mamboserver.com/ it is free open source software and easy to install.

Hope this helps for your world weather domination

Regards

davy

Cool Dave! Many thanks! I'll have a look into the SMS thing as that's
something i've tried before on an amateur basis and got a quite a few sign
ups! What i really need after i set something like that up is lots of
advertsing and that means lots of money!

Off course that's quite a while down the road as my site has been neglected
of late!

I never expected to get a investment offer but it's always worth a try

Thanks again Dave and any other advice will be gladly taken onboard

davewepal

hi WeatherCheck

Advertising can be a costly affair.

Some Tips and Tricks
www.webceo.com -> this is a similar tool that a marketing company would use to SEO(search engine optimization) your website. Familiarizing yourself with this software could save you thousands... and hopefully SEO you to the top of google.ie and the likes for valuable keywords.

Viral Marketing-> forums are hot on the list of ways to viral marketing these days. I would not say to blatantly advertise your website on Forums. But if you have a service that forum types could use, then there is in effect no intrusion. I know SEO guys who spend their days just looking for apt forums to post and it can be very cost effective way to advertise.

u don’t have to learn all the info but c how the pro's do it http://www.webmasterworld.com/

The intention of the previous post was not to state you don’t need funding. It was to help you attain maximum opportunity to expand and with the above completed make serious bid for funding requests...

Hell I like the idea myself...

if you wish to provide me with the following
1 list of your competitor’s websites...
2.your geographical region.
3.your experience in weather reporting.
4.your progress to date.
5. Your thoughts on your customer base, as I would not be familiar at this point.


I would love to look at it further, if nothing else I could give you a quick assessment of potential. You definitely have a niche market, what you are looking for would take Me about 1 month to complete, at least I could assess the potential for it. Some projects are good revenue generators, if there was enough room to get 2 hands in the
Cookie jar at one time.. then who knows where the post could lead

Hope to hear from you soon

Regards

davy

ninebeanrows

Cheers Dave i'd be interested in that but im pretty sure i
don't have the qualifications!

I'll PM with all the stuff you need later today or tonight as im going
to a Christening today

Merrion

BizMaker: You should consider adding your details to TheBusinessShop.ie's "Investors seeking business" section. That's where I'll be looking when I am ready for external investement.