Business Idea... seeking advice

**cmiller3809** · 11-11-2010 08:48 PM

Hi, my name is Chris. I'm new to the website but was looking for help. I'm only 19 years old and a full time college student currently. I had an idea to try to create a business that almost just serves as a network function. I wanted to create a way for other college students on campus here to try to sell their old and used class text books, class packets, and even their own hand written notes to other students on campus enrolling in the same classes.

I came up with the idea to try to help students make more money off of selling their old books from previous semesters directly to kids looking specifically for that book. I was going to act as almost a "middle man" and link the buyer to the seller. I wanted to create a list of books separated by major and courses that people could browse through and try to find what books they were looking for.

Going directly to the book stores up here and using their text book buy-back programs is a complete rip off. You barely get a fraction of the money back that you originally paid for the books, whether used or new. I wanted to help out other students with financial needs with this website. Students will be able to sell their books for more money than they could get back from bookstores, while on the other end of the spectrum students can buy all of the books they need for a cheaper price than retail. It helps both the buyer and seller. I know many people that would do this all of the time but it can be difficult to find friends that are enrolling in classes that you already took.

I'm not sure about how to make the profit though. I could try to create a website similar to Amazon, except on a much smaller and specific scale, where I try to take a very small percentage of their sales as a commission. Or I could also do something more simple like creating a list similar to PennySaver where I charge students a reasonable fee to list their books for sale on the website or on some other sort of list.

I just wanted to know though how to go about starting something like this and whether anyone could give me any advice with the idea. I also was curious as to if there were any legal issues with this.
I may be a business student, but I am pretty uneducated in this area and was seeking some professional assistance.

Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.

**nabors** · 11-11-2010 11:22 PM

So I log into your site create an account input my email and zip code (worth lots of money) I then post my book for a particular class or school. Someone wants to buy the book say they are out of state and need the book you could make a percentage from shipping and handling. Always nice to have some ppc ads on the site maybe a few good organizations you support perhaps even have a share book program? Perhaps if students focused on sharing their books and networking to use other peoples books then everyone would be happy and you could cut the whole money situation out of the mix and just make funding off of ad's on your page I mean on the real note if you are generating traffic to the site I am sure people would be willing to endorse your efforts a lot faster if you where going the non profit route "the name non profit can be misleading" You can still make a decent amount of "paycheck" not sure if this sparks any ideas but I am all for helping have a blessed day!

DJ

**xoithitquay** · 11-12-2010 01:08 AM

The thought of this internet business actually came to me while I was almost asleep last night and as I went over and over it in my head it may be something that I will test out to see the profitability. Now what you will need before even attempting this is a blog preferably self hosted wordpress. You will also need experience with affiliate marketing and internet marketing. I will cover some of the basics, but for this website to truly succeed it will need to have traffic fueled by the search engines. Another point I would like to make before I explain my idea is I have not tested this idea so it could be like so many others I have had and not make any money whatsoever. Now even though the specific fishing website idea may not make any money I can assure you that affiliate marketing with a blog does work so you may want to adapt these ideas to a different product.

**KyleXY** · 11-20-2010 06:50 AM

So for starters, the first thing that comes to mind regarding this market is...

1. Chegg.com - A textbook rental website where students can rent and return textbooks at a fraction of the price AND sell books to if they already bought it for a better rate than simply selling back to book store.

2. Craigslist

3. Half.com

4. eBay.com

Those are your first potential problems to overcome, but not the only problems you may have. Other problems exists as well such as textbooks going dead after a particular term simply because you were unfortunate and they decided to change books or upgrade editions.

While I clearly see what you're trying to do, Chegg is currently dominating that market with multi-million dollar transactions at rapid rate. Just something to look into as your idea evolves

**SMBEnterprise** · 11-20-2010 08:32 AM

What I like is the fact that there are companies out there like Cheng that are actually successful in what they do. What I would do is, instead of reinventing the wheel, analyze your competitors, learn how they operate, and build off of that. Someone said something about a nonprofit, which can be ideal to keep the book prices at a very cheap price, and you may even be able to apply for grants to keep your operation going, and even receive some benefits as well.