1.  By May of 2010 I have several specific personal goals, involving my own development and the development of my venture.  I have several classes taking place in the spring , in which I can work on the business plan for my venture, as well as advance in my studies, leading to my graduation from N.C. State University.  At this point I will be able to begin working on my venture whole heartedly.  I would like to begin looking for personel that could help me with the start-up process as well as help me with making this venture a reality every step of the way.  I would like to find someone to help with me web design and someone that could help me market and finance the venture.

2.  My second milestone would be develop and critique a business plan and presentation.  I would then like to begin working on the financing of the venture by the end of the summer I would like to have presented and met with several venture capitalists interested in investing in my venture.  I am looking for initial investment of $120,000.  I personally can help contribute to this milestone, but I would like to have raised this capital within 15 months of January 2010.

3.  By the time that the capital has been raised I would like to have hired a trusty web page designer and have the website and working. I think it is an important step for me to get the website going so that I can work out any problems with it as soon as possible.  Then it would be important for me to consult an attorney to work out some of the legal issues with the website.  At this point it would be important for met o purchase some tickets on my own and begin posting them on the website, allowing the first time users to try the site.  I want to have developed a plan that guarantees protection for the buyer of the ticket.  I would like to have these steps taken care of by the end of fiscal year 2.  

4.  At this point I will be able to look at my actual progress put together some numbers and further my market research, focusing in on the younger more up to date ticket brokers.  I would like to spend a lot of money initially on marketing the product and I would like to have launched a marketing plan that will really make my websites name public.  I am setting a time limit for this goal at no more then 2.5 years since my initial investment.

5.  By year 3 I would like to have hired at least three to four other employees to help market the website and help operate customer service, which will be one of the main goals of our venture.  I would also like to be closing in on increasing sales,  I expect to have increased sales to a point where I can repay the initial investment to investors by the end of year 4.  This includes interest as well as the $120,000 initial investment.

Me: “Evan, How do you feel about some of the websites for ticket resale this day an age?”

Evan: “I feel they are either a rip-off or are not worth using because of the risk involved with getting a phony or fake ticket.”

Me: ” I know that you have heard a lot about my idea but, what do you think about a website specifically designed for online ticket resale auctions?”

Evan: “I think that is something that if it is designed for the right people, it could really make an impact in the ticket resale market place, especially this day and age, when people are using tickets as a way to make money.  If you really can keep the fees off of both the buyer and seller, I think that it would be an attractive way to get both buyers and sellers to use your website.”

Me:”Would you personally be one of the first to use this service, either as a buyer or a seller?”

Evan: “Definitely, probably as a buyer though, I would like to buy something to try the service out.”

Me: “Do you think that this is something that could eventually compete with some of the big sites, like stubhub and ebay?”

Evan: ” From my experience, I personally am frustrated with using both ebay and stubhub, and I know some of my buddies that are still traveling the country following some bands don’t even use stubhub because of all the fees and so a lot of them either take to the streets or sell and buy on ebay.  I think that a lot of people would be willing to try a new service, especially if it was a service specifically designed for tickets resale. So, yes I think it is something that could compete and take business away from some of the bigger competitiors in the market.”

Me: “What type of marketing would interest you, as a consumer?”

Evan: ” I would be interested in looking into the service if I saw and heard about it at shows and festivals, also I saw you mentioned something about trying to get some bands to mention your site.  If I was at a show and the band mentioned your website, I would want to check it out.”

Me: ” Who do you think would benefit the most from this service?”

Evan: “Ha, besides you…, I would say that many of the people that buy up a lot of tickets in order to re-sell them would benefit the most, but I think that if you were to really cut out the fees and print all the tickets on-site of the show then anyone looking to buy a late ticket at a reasonable price would benefit.”

Me: “Thanks for your time.”

Evan: “Anytime.”

Innovators- are the pioneers of the consumer market place and they always want to be the first on the block to use or buy a new or developing product or service.  Many of these consumers like to be trendy and set new styles by being the first to do so.  This could be the most important group of all for my service, for these would be the people that would spread the news about my service.  Luckily, a lot of the devoted music followers would be innovators, and are normally younger and trendier people.  These people would be the people that make money buying and selling concert tickets, as well as groupies that follow bands around.  My service would be used by more than just music fans, but I truly believe that they would be the first to use this service for concert tickets.  An important part of my marketing plan would be to start by marketing to the devoted music followers, or in this case the innovators.  I would need to advertise on music websites, get bands to mention my website, and most importantly become visible at concerts.  I would need to make sure that my on-site ticket distribution is visible to all people attending the concert, and this would be like free advertising.  The avid music followers would want to try it, because I know that they are all tired of paying so much money for tickets on stubhub and other fee-heavy websites, as well as tired of getting burned on other websites.

Early Adopters- The early adopters are less willing to take risks than the innovators, but they are up-to-date on what is going on in the particular market place.  They also like to do research on the product or service before they buy or use the product or service.  I also believe that this group of people would be music followers; however, I don’t think they would be as big of music followers as the people that would be the first to use my service.  These people would be overlapping with people that enjoy other things too, like sports and other events that require tickets.  It would be important for me to have developed the website enough at this point that I’m not having any difficulties or anything because these people would be researching my website and seeking out the innovators to make sure it is truly a better service than the more traditional ticketing websites.  Marketing to this group would take more time and need to be more concentrated.  I would need to develop a strategy that would not just advertise to them, but would give them information on how it is an improvement to the others in the market.  

Early majority- The early majority is even less likely to take a risk, and like to wit until all the problems are worked out.  This group would be more of the recreational music followers and sports fans.  This group would be very important to my long-term success.  These people may not frequent my service, but it would be very important for me to get them to use my service when they are willing and/or wanting to go see a particular show, concert, or game.

MIE 310

Interview

William McGugin:

REIT Investment Group- CEO/President

Iroquois Capital Group- Managing Director

1. What Type of venture have you created?

A Financial services company that could be considered a broker dealer.  We find investors for companies looking for outside capitol, as well as using our own capitol.

2. Why did you start this particular venture?

My three partners and I saw an opportunity to start a business and make some profit. We performed research on the market and found that the market was big enough for another competitor.

3. What were your initial goals when starting the venture?

            To make a profit, start a business in a market with only one serious competitor, and eventually pay off all debt with the bank.

4. What resources did you need to start?

            Mainly, we needed operating capitol for office space, materials, phones, etc…, but we also needed contacts and an extensive network within the industry.

5. How did you obtain these resources?

            By parting with three other guys and taking out a line of credit with the bank. We had a personal guarantee with the bank, which can only get you so far.

6. What was your financing strategy?

            Our personal financing strategy was to raise hard equity, and take out a personal guarantee with the bank, in hopes of paying off the debt as soon as possible.

7. Experiences trying to raise any outside capital?

            This is pretty much what we do as a company, but we didn’t need to raise too much outside capital to get these ventures started.