“It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now?”
Category: ebay
Boostrapping live
When rentoid.com was launched. I believed in the concept, the dream and the process. (still do).
So in order to make the site work I had to put some stuff to put up for rent. Stuff I didn’t even own – yet. Once the site went live, it needed stuff on it. But at that stage we had no members, so we had to populate the site. Content was and is King. Included in my listed stuff was a home gym. A rental came in for it. So I went and bought it. It cost me $400 to buy. I rented it out for $140. Then Sold it on Ebay afterwards for $280. (We now have other suppliers of gyms for rental on rentoid)
Net result:
A good user experience for a new member
A $20 profit
And I felt the excitement that goes along with bootstrapping; finding creative solutions, and most importantly, inventing transactions.
Ebay, Paypal and arrogance
You’ve probably heard that Ebay is about to enforce the use of it’s wholly owned payment service “Paypal” on every Ebay transaction.
The blogosphere and government regulatory bodies are up in arms about this. As they should be. In fact the ACCC (Competitive regulator in Australia) has just made a draft ruling blocking the move as Anti-competitive. Although Ebay claims it ‘significantly enhances protection of buyers and sellers against fraud” – which it may well do.
Here’s the thing Ebay – you’re clearly using monopoly power to force people to use a service you own, to extract more revenue. And your customers know this.
Startup blog says – Ebay should be true to the launch platform of being open, transparent, a market where users decide, what to pay and how to pay.
Never let the arrogance of success change how you treat those who made you successful in the first place.
Shop Front
Would you know what this shop is selling?
I wouldn’t.
Sometimes our shop front, work car, uniform, office, church or website is where the decision is made on whether or not our service is for them.
The good news is, just like a shop window we can:
- change it if we’ve got it wrong (all of us at some point)
- use for promotional purposes (Ebay)
- rotate the message (fashion outlets)
- keep it clean, defined and single minded (Google)
If our business is in the digital world we have the advantage of a low cost change over.
Start up lesson – make sure people know what you offer the instant they arrive.
Could it spread – Conclusion
You may remember the ‘rentoid rapper’ had some fun auctioning his breakdance mat on ebay. Did it spread?
It spread enough to get a bone fide $187.50 for a piece of cardboard with a bit of texta on it. Just through providing a bit of theatre – fun & money was invented.
The best result was the Q & A’s on the listing which all translate into the personality of rentoid.com You can check it all out by clicking here.
Start ups out there….Do something crazy!