Solar water heater project - seeking investor

[asmina22]

hello
i am a young doctor living in ALGERIA, mother of a 1 month old baby girl.
i have a nice project in mind and i am seeking an investor.
its about selling solar water heaters, since its hot here and it would be a great market for that product.
actually i am living in the biggest city in the west of ALGERIA, called ORAN.
you can come and meet me to set up the business together
even if you have something else in mind, another project i mean, we can do it.
best regards and hope to have replies
thanks

[akula]

hiii, have you tried kiva.org?

[asmina22]

no
whats this site intended to do?
and how can it be useful for me ?
am in algeria, not usa , is it ok?

[akula]

have a look on the site
kiva is a non for profit specifically designed for people in your situation
i.e. entrepreneurs in developing countries
for example, here's a current listing of african entrepreneurs who are raising money through kiva
call them up and make enquiries

[asmina22]

thanks friend

[akula]

no worries
yeah look...entrepreneurship is one of those things
keep it simple
you don't need to put your faith in some stranger from across the world to come travel to algeria and help you sell water heaters
go survey potential customers, sign some contracts for delivery, get trade credit on the strengths of those contracts, make delivery, pay off trade credit, reinvest profit and you're done - you have your self a business
like i said, keep it simple
how much money do you think you need for start up?

[asmina22]

i think to start it will take about 1000$ to buy about 3 solar water heaters (including shipping), then i will reinvest the profit.
a 20' container would cost about 11000$ and would contain about 60 heaters (without shipping cost), this is too much for me i cant afford it right now.

[akula]

i think to start it will take about 1000$ to buy about 3 solar water heaters (including shipping), then i will reinvest the profit.
a 20' container would cost about 11000$ and would contain about 60 heaters (without shipping cost), this is too much for me i cant afford it right now.

good, nice to see you have some sort of estimate.
as far as money goes, don't worry, no sucessful entrepreneur has ever been able to afford anything.
any fool with cash can make a venture work; skilled founders on another, are effective at "non use of cash"
instead, they ask for prepayments for customers and negotiate better payment terms with suppliers.

successful entrepreneurs don't start businesses by buying $11,000 of inventory, putting it in storage and then starting the business of selling it.
they do the opposite of selling it first and then working on delivery.

take the advice: lose this mind set of taking out expensive loans, selling equity or signing up partnerships. keep things simple, survey your customers, take prepayments and negotiate with suppliers to get your business off to a good start.

[asmina22]

my other problem is that i cant get paypal payments, i am in a send only country.
second is how can i trust chinese suppliers and send them money, people say they have been scammed many times.

[akula]

i see...in business operational problems come up all the time
figure it out

[shenbiao]

i dont think most chinese businessmen will defraud you.
before you say how can i trust chinese you should think about how many transactions are happenning between china and other countries include your country in one second. on the other side chinese suppliers also doubt lots of African buyers cheat in business. So my point is armed with common sense and basic export and import knowledge when you choose your supplier from any other countries. also calculate your cost for transportation, tariff and other fees and find whether you can earn money from $1000 equipments. Also as i know it's almost impossible to do the letter of credit with any suppliers as a new buyer you better do 100% T/T for your first purchase.

[kannan]

Be care full, while transaction between Chinese. Because many are cheated by them.