Looking to start up a design/technology company. Looking some thoughts on this.

[Karbonize]

Hello,

Been a while since I've visited here but here goes.

I'm looking to start up a local web design and development company that also deals with computer refurbishing and building. I've decided to go ahead with this while I still work out of my home for another job (independent contractor video editer). I'm wondering if I can get a good, solid business plan how realistic do you think it would be to secure start-up capital for a company like this? I plan on operating the web design and development portion online globally and the computer refurbishing portion locally since there's a need for a good computer repair business in my area. I'm looking at some of the start-up costs and the only equipment I would be needing would be for the web design and development portion, which would total to about $20,000 (one-time costs plus backup funds for emergencies). How fiable do you think this would be or should I try and come up with the funds myself?

A little about myself. I'm currently 20 years old and a computer geek. I've been dabbling in web design and development for about 8 years now and know (X)HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL flutently. I have built and repaired dozens of computers for myself and friends over the past 8 or 9 years as well. I've never had any form of credit, so my credit history isn't there (better to have no credit than bad credit, right?). I have a somewhat good history with my bank, etc though.

My question is though, should I try and seek out start-up loans or go apply for a few credit cards to get myself up and running. I never really did like credit, but it seems you need it to do just about anything in today's world. I've got a meeting with a business start-up consultant Monday morning to discuss things about getting a business plan, legally setting up, etc. But I'm asking this community what they think of me trying to seek out funds.

Thanks for taking the time to view my post and I hope I get some detailed advice from you all.

[TheBigIdea]

i'm not really sure if a web development company needs 20k to start.

competition's pretty high, so if you borrow 20k and fail, that's gonna be a huge problem. I assume you can't do two things at a time : web dev AND computer refurbish? why not start by doing ONLY web dev, that should cost you only a website for presence, plus some few hundred bucks for marketing your talent.

when you have enough cash, u can start tapping ur existing contacts to begin refurbishing computers.


better to rework that biz plan, and cut the costs down to 1k usd. No kidding, it's doable.

[andymayhem]

generally... its uber hard to secure funding for a service, where as its easier to secure funding for stock as its secured.

and whats the 20k for? some nice mac pros?

[Karbonize]

The funds were for a copy of adobe design premium, and a imac for the work to be done on. Then advertising/emergency funds. But thanks for the advice, I'll go rework the plan and such.

[hugh009]

I would think real long and hard before setting up another web design company as I have a friend from this forum who owns one in India and they are HURTING for business! They do sites like Facebook and MySpace too. Not small potatoes!

Just my take.

I know your video editing business is tough too since I own a video/TV production company!

Hugh

[Karbonize]

Well, the video editing isn't my business, I was just hired as an independent contractor. The contract we have guarnatees me for at least 4 years, so I'm set for a good while.

[andymayhem]

i am surprised the Indians are hurting at the moment. if i were bigger and employed people i would be making them redundant and out sourcing to a good agency over seas, however they arent as cheap as they used to be but still 1/2 price easy.

karbon, do you need an imac or will the computer you have now do? do you need design premium? i mean dont you just need photoshop or even gimp + notepad++ and filezilla?