Opinions Wanted about New Business Idea...

**dpmille3** · 05-04-2009 12:35 PM

Hello Everyone,
I have been looking for a website like this. I am very grateful I ended up here at ye.com. Anyways I have a new business idea and really needed some constructive feedback from intelligent and intellectual people like myself. It sounds like a good idea to me, but I mention it to my friends and my parents are they are like, "Whoa, I do not know what to think. I have never thought about that before".

Anyways I tried to conceive an idea from something I despised. I hate when I purchase a T-Shirt, Jeans, Pair of Sunglasses, etc., etc,. and within in a month there is an imperfection. I cannot return them because stores now for the most part will not accept torn or ripped clothing, EVEN THOUGH the rip or tear might have been there at the time of purchase and was simply exposed by the washer and dryer. So I concluded that it might be a good idea to see about starting an insurance company that would cover small items like these.

A person could cover an item for 4% of its value for 3 months from the purchase or 7.5% for 6 months. If something is wrong with the product (not from their own doing) then they would call this insurance company and request a package. The package would be sent to the customer, they would insert the damaged article and it would be sent to us. They pay no postage fees, the fees are covered. Then we purchase a new article from the manufacturer and ship it back to the customer.

Everything is VERY VERY VERY broad at this point and nothing is set in stone. It is just a rough idea. I would appreciate any positive or negative criticism. Sorry for the long post and thank you for your time.

**myfayt** · 05-04-2009 07:20 PM

Sorry but I am going to have to say this is a bad idea, simply because people can cheat. It's easy to rip up some threads or put a cut in clothing and then collect the insurance on it. It's not the same as totaling your car.

Don't get me wrong, you are on the right track. However I believe I know a better business for you called "Household Inventory". When a house is insured they want proof of things you owned before they will write you a check. So you get a clipboard and a camera and make lists of items the people owned, and also take pictures of them. So if they have to collect their insurance, you provide a copy of the lists and photos. You can get $500 - $1,000 per house and takes you a couple hours.

**lucas5** · 05-04-2009 07:36 PM

Although I think it is a pretty solid idea, I don't know that it would work. How would the company determine if the damaged item was inflicted by the owner? Insurance on smaller items sounds like a good idea, I just don't know that clothes is the way to go. But if you could refine the idea, it may come together more, and you could make it work.

**Neustance** · 05-04-2009 08:54 PM

Hi,
I think the idea does not have lots of potential if focusing on clothing, but reading this I got an idea. Just brainstorming here don't be so harsh.

Engaging rings, in specific. I believe there could be a market from this. This items are pretty darn valuable to people and even though the resemble a priceless figure, I'm sure a dude that just spends his last 3 moths of income in a ring will be glad to pay 7%-15% to get an insurance for it. After all, woman just keep it in their fingers 90% of the time. The don't get worn out, they either loose it, get stolen or throw it out at the garbage for a divorce.(in which case you can void fraud by only sending the insurance paycheck directly to the jewelry store.)

You can then market it for really expensive rings, and high income individuals. An audience that is far less likely to commit fraud just to get money. Unlike clothing you have an item that will have much less chance of being used for fraud. Something that actually has deep monetary value, the type of item that the customer actually cares to file a stolen/lost claim at the police department and offer you proof that it indeed was lost/stolen.

Good luck!

**Maverick23** · 05-05-2009 02:31 AM

Originally Posted by Neustance

Hi,
I think the idea does not have lots of potential if focusing on clothing, but reading this I got an idea. Just brainstorming here dont be so harsh.

Engaging rings, in specific. I believe there could be a market from this. This items are pretty darn valuable to people and even though the resemble a priceless figure, Im sure a dude that just spends his last 3 moths of income in a ring will be glad to pay 7%-15% to get an insurance for it. After all, woman just keep it in their fingers 90% of the time. The dont get worn out, they either loose it, get stolen or throw it out at the garbage for a divorce.(in which case you can void fraud by only sending the insurance paycheck directly to the jewelry store.)

You can then market it for really expensive rings, and high income individuals. An audience that is far less likely to commit fraud just to get money. Unlike clothing you have an item that will have much less chance of being used for fraud. Something that actually has deep monetary value, the type of item that the customer actually cares to file a stolen/lost claim at the police department and offer you proof that it indeed was lost/stolen.

Good luck!

Most jewelry stores already offer insurance on those rings brother.

**Proph** · 05-05-2009 08:42 AM

first of all i like you train of thinking. find a problem in daily life and build a business to solve that problem. However as everyone has mentioned this one may not be a sustainable business. For example what if the damage to clothing is cause by the cleaning process (washer)? who is at fault then? the other problem i see is that we are talking about an item that is supposed to fail after a short period of time.

If you are interested in a low overhead 3rd party type insurance thing i would suggest a problem i ran into at Christmas. My wife wanted a damn expensive purse (prada). when you go online there are many places claiming to sell lower priced authentic purses, shoes etc.. however some of these are fakes which people only find out after they received the item. The way i found out which stores had real one and which ones were selling the fakes was by reading message board and looking for people complaining of particular stores. So you could fix this problem a couple of ways, first is by having an approved list of online stores (ones that you know historically sell the real thing) and offer a small fee to "insure" it is real, if it isn't the person ships the item to you and you deal with the company. the second would be to act as a "relay". the item is shipped to you which in turn is "inspected" and then sent onto the customer or returned. allowing you to "insure" or guarantee the authenticity. there is big money in this, even online stores known to sell fakes make a ton of money because women will gamble that it is the real thing or they don't know any better until it is too late. even after these online stores are known fakes they simply shut down and open up under another name and domain registry and run the scam again for another year.

just a suggestion.

**dpmille3** · 05-05-2009 09:29 AM

Thank you for your times everyone, I very much appreciate it.

Ok, one of the ways I was thinking of distinguishing between whether a person inflicted damage unto the article on purpose or whether it was an accident was if there were two imperfections, the article would not be accepted. For example, I could see a person staining an article of clothing, and then being like, "Oh, Shit" and ripping a hole in it to recieve the refund. That is one idea I had. There would obviously be a set of standard rules that would disqualify persons from returning the article of clothing.

As for people returning it when they have damaged it, I am not 100% sure if the audience I am going after is that ethically off. Maybe I am wrong, but I would think people who dish out a lot of money for a shirt or a pair of shoes and then insure them, would not rip or tear the shirt on purpose. I could be wrong, but paying an extra 5%-10% on an article of clothing might not warrant the extra time it takes to return this article of clothing.

Everyone has had such excellent ideas, I really appreciate your time.

**ADNdesigner** · 05-05-2009 11:26 AM

I think you are starting good, but still your idea needs more, new ideas are important but if it isn't functional, (for must of parts involved) that is actually not innovation at all.

Work on your idea, search more about the topic, ask people involve in situations like that, they will give you lot of ideas to fix a strong idea for your business.

**myfayt** · 05-05-2009 01:04 PM

People can damage clothing really well that it looks like a machine did it. But seriously if I bought $15 and something was wrong, ill go buy more. Why pay a couple bucks on insurance over it?

If someone bought a brand name item for $100.00 and was like whoops this is faulty, they can return it to the store no questions asked.

Like I said, it's a start but I would venture into a different kind of insurance.