Good morning girls, guys and XARA cracks,
after shaping my idea for weeks or even months, I decided to go 'public' for additional input.
Following are the facts we have to take for granted:
01. most of us are on their own.
02. the Internet boom is over.
03. if a client is looking for a designer in the search engines, chances are high that he will be flooded with at least gazillions of real and so called designers - at least a million (try it yourself and screw the search engines).
04. this translates into the fact that you will appear somewhere at rank 1.512.683 in this designer clutter
05. it's hard to make a living from a designer job these days
06. with the result that almost 99% of the designers try to lure customers with lower prices, chopping off their own arms and legs
That's the bad news you already know about, right?
OK, here we go:
Why not bundle the know how, expertise and experience in one single virtual company?
Advantages:
01. a unique and real professional approach for one or two handful of top notch designers
02. a true multi national, multi lingual design team
03. a common standard or format for the tools: *.xar for smooth file exchange and team work - a new standard :-)
04. a totally different approach to the projects based on our different cultural backgrounds
05. a real benefit for prospective customers
Did you ever
...wish to have the funds to develop and print a glossy brochure which you can hand out or mail to customers?
...dream of having your own full featured high speed server connected to the tier 1 backbones?
...think about combining your efforts with someone else to keep organizational and promotional costs down?
...hope being able to afford a better promotion?
...want your professionalism, experience etc honored on a broader basis and exposed to more people?
If you answered only one of the above questions with 'yes', you might be a candidate for this enterprise.
How will it work?
Simply by putting our assets together into one single, large network of specialists.
No contracts to be signed. What I expect is just some continuous commitment and some basic fees to pay for the costs.
I should point out that this offer is only for real professionals, not for beginners (which doesn't mean that we want to exclude anybody, but if we aren't top notch and cutting edge, it won't work).
What I will do:
Set up a majordomo list server for us. This is a service you can subscribe to for free. It's one of the best communication tools we currently have on the shelf. Example: A sends an e-mail to the majordomo mail address, the majordomo will distribute the e-mail automatically to the members who subscribed to the list. Any recipient can read the mail and send a reply, which in turn will be distributet to the other subscribers. This means that we all keep in touch, and as soon as we turn on our machines in the morning, we will have all threads, comments, inquiries etc in our in-baskets. Of course, you can unsubscribe this service any time - it's just one single e-mail to the majordomo list server, and you are off. BTW, privacy is guaranteed.
Set up a high speed server for the team - either BSD Unix or Red Hat Linux based with an Apache server.
Supply the domain name registration with a unique name, which I will register as well for our purposes.
Set up ftp accounts for the team members, so that everybody can upload files, maintain the server etc.
Set up a secured ftp server for file exchange with customers.
Set up a sample shopping cart system demo we can offer to customers with real time credit card processing (which must be modified to the specs of customers of course - a challenge for good designers!)
Eventually I will set up a chat module on the server, so that we can get in touch in real time with daily meetings.
Initiate and manage the project for a fantastic brochure, which might be printed either decentralized in different locations/countries or in one single location and than distributed to the members.
This means that the virtual company will have
01. one of the fastest servers on this globe (designed by the members!)
02. a great brochure for each member for promotional purposes
03. a great reputation through combined experience and expertise
All of this can come true in less than 4 weeks.
Very important: this is not a variation of the dumb MLM 'be rich in less than 3 days' or 'get rid of your debts in less than a month' offers. I don't promise ANYTHING. I can't, because this is just an idea.
With this virtual company we will be able to serve many customers all over the world in their own language - a feature which only large ad agencies offer until today.
And - most important - we don't have to compete in the every day rat race anymore. You will be part of a large (virtual) company, not a self-made entrepreneur with a 'garage based biz' image. And when I say 'virtual company', I mean it that way. There is no need to share the income, unless it will be a project that will be handled by several members. You will still be able to write your own invoices on the 'company' stationary - you don't have to report anything to the team if you will be the only one who will perform the task (you guessed it: I **hate** paperwork). However, chances are high that this virtual company will be able to acquire larger projects.
Now to the costs:
Several years ago, I made a similar offer to a group of industrial designer for CAD and 3D developments for FREE, with a frustrating result. So I learned my lesson, and I expect at least a monthly fee for the set up costs (to be honest, we feature first class equipment now. In addition, you all know you can't get anything professional for free, correct?)
Assuming there will be 20 members, we should calculate with US$ 20 per month to cover the costs for the servers, including all bandwidth. No, this amount doesn't have to be paid upfront, it will be charged on a monthly basis. However, I expect all members to participate at least for one year to cover the costs (since I will be the contractor for the servers, I will run into deep trouble if we will have drop offs during this initial period). This fee includes a quarterly statement and report about the allocation of the funds.
An 8 page brochure should run around US$ 2.000 (100 issues per member), full color, printed on a Heidelberger DI, any paper, any surface. That means each member will have 100 full color brochures for US$ per issue to start his own promotion in the network.
I think this is not too bad if you compare the costs to set up these brilliant promotion tools on your own.
I will try my very best to attract a good copywriter, html, cgi-perl, javascript, flash and maybe asp or php coders as well to join the team.
Before I forget it: each member can and will have to produce his/her own showcase on the server.
Now some donts:
Please don't ask me about the company name (which is the domain name as well) - I won't disclose it until we actually will say 'Ready to go'.
Please don't submit any company or domain names - this is nothing for the big public. You can do it as soon as I set up the majordomo.
Please don't try to convince me the costs for the servers are too high - I KNOW the costs for a **professional** server including full 24/7 services.
Please don't tell me this idea is a nobrainer - this will disqualify you immediately. Either you believe in this idea and submit constructive comments, or you decide to go on struggling on your very own.
Please don't tell me this wouldn't work because of IRS or and country tax laws - I will ignore it, because I am not a government.
Please don't tell me about possible problems - we will be able to solve them as soon as they really appear right in front of us. Besides this, I am in biz for more than 18 years, and believe me, I know what I am doing and how to manage a biz and division.
Last, but not least, this is a chance, a challange, not a promise.
Now it's your turn. Let me know what you think.
Thanks and have a great weekend.
jens g.r. benthien
P.S.: if you think it's better to send your comments or flames to my private e-mail address: you are welcome!
Send them to jens@highspeedweb.net
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