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I built my own site and another. With the help of Swoly and advice from Jeff. I use both Register.com and GoDaddy. Its not that pretty but its nice.
I would guess that all you need initially is a static website, one with info about your business and phone numbers to call to schedule a cab. You should be able to get a 3-4 page static website built for under $300. Hosting would be around $10 per month, if you start getting tons of traffic down the road then this will increase, you have to pay for bandwidth. If your business is successfull then I would upgrade the website and allow people to book cab reservations online, and make i more interactive. I would not waste money on that until you know whether or not the idea is going to work.
Yeah. I agree. I don't see the need to overbuild a website initially. Just something that people can locate and find info. as well as book a ride. Speaking of, does anyone know different advertising costs for the internet?
Hey AWESOME Fatty. I just finished my biz plan and we are in the funding stage of my new venture. We have a committment but nothing signed yet....we are hoping to start March 1st. The reason I bring it up is I will be happy to send you a copy of the biz plan so you can use it as a template if you promise to keep it secret. And our plan is VERY website centric.... DD
That would be fantastic! I'm pretty sure you can email me through the board, but I'll put up my email for the time being. texanfanrocket@yahoo.com How's that for my 10,000th post? Fairly generic, I'm sure.
do you think i can get a copy of that too? primer_13 at yahoo.com btw fatty, serious question. what's different about your service from all the cabbies around town?
I think it caters exclusively to drunks. Probably a service similar to many carpool services you see at places like Northgate or 6th street in college towns. I'm only guessing...but Houston doesn't really have something like that, so that's my guess.
ok, but i still fail to see how that's different from any cabbie in houston. if you're drunk, you call a cab. what does a cab that "caters to drunks" do besides taking them home?
I don't want to get into all the details, but it will be a unique service. I've already spoken to a few bar owners, and they have allowed me to advertise at their places when it gets up and running.
same here DD, would you mind sending me a template or general idea of what you did. I also have a site with 2 partners that we're trying to get going but the funding is a hgue issue right now for what we want. You can check it out if you'd like to see www.mybluechippers.com my personal email is goodstuff923@gmail.com Fatty, I know a guy you could call if you want a pretty simple layout for your siite. He's not in Texas but he'll work with you and won't charge you in the 10k range.
i wonder if its where a dude comes to the bar with like a mini scooter or bike, takes ur keys and drives u and ur car home. then he rides back home using his mini scooter or bike thingie that fits conveniently in the trunk of the drunk person.
Thanks, bro! Very well detailed. It should be a huge help, although I'm needing quite a bit less to get mine up and running.
Fatty, I'm sure you've done your research and I don't want you to reveal much of your plan, just want to point out some potential issues. A while back an old friend had created a plan to have a website that would allow people to plan bar-hopping trips, request & split rides, etc. It was really a home-to bar-to bar-to home- social transport service, etc. Essentially though it catered to pure drunks. He ran into three issues that made him decide to give up on it: 1.) Government-fees. I believe that any cab-type service has to be commissioned through the city/licensed/pay fees to it, etc? Not cheap 2.) Liability insurance. This was not cheap either. Even if you have some sort of informal volunteer service for ferrying drunks around, the potentially liability is great. 3.) His plan was to have the service run in & out of/between three bar areas: Downtown, Midtown, along Richmond/Galleria (the Belvedere-strip club row-Sam's Boat) route. He found that only the people who lived in or around those three areas and drank heavily & routinely would either use the system ad hoc or subscribe to a monthly fee for the service, so not enought o make it profitable. For people outside of those areas the service simply didn't make sense for them or for his theoretical business financially. Too expensive and too inflexible. Anyway, like I said I'm sure you're looking at all the angles, just want you to be aware of some of the potential issues with a venture based on transporting people - especially drunk ones - around.
I have been looking for information on what fees the city may charge. I haven't seen anything yet, so if you have info. on it, I'd love to know about it. As for the insurance, I've looked into that, as well, and it's honestly not as bad as I was originally anticipating.
