Is this Business Idea Worth Starting Up? (Car Dealer Site)

The floor is opened. Hmmm.

 The Idea is great but your concept is crowded with too many solutions. I really don't know how you plan to go about getting involved in all the areas you have mentioned, but who knows you might be able to push around it.

Do you have the time and the funds to do that?

My suggestion is narrow down everything into a very simple precise solution. Concentrate more on the frontend transactions rather than the physical backend transactions.

Let your website be more of the search and be informed, rather than search, choose and I would give you a tour, because I am the agent. You can get the datas rather from your clients and then forward the information to your merchant with your charges. So I would encourage you to get your clients  from the website and forward them to the seller to follow up. Saves you time, resources and money don't you think

Your website can have all the information required in a catalog form with features such as the ability to book for test drives, enquirers, picture display of the product etc.

Now 10% on every car, I wouldn't agree to that if I am a car dealer Honestly, I am very generous when it comes to giving out portions but this just wouldn't work, The question is why should I use your solution? How am I ensured that every second spent with you giving you all the information on the car is worth it? As in respect to just ignoring you and sticking to my other already used working conventional way of marketing that product. You do have to consider all this.

Anything .com especially when it comes to the Nigerian market, requires that you really convince the merchant that would be involved, that it is really worth it. But the moment you start mentioning figures when solutions haven't even been implemented, It would scare them away.

Go for something like a test marketing concept, give it for free, establish a reputation and later charge for it. Which means you need capital, of course you do, its a business . An example might be First 2 car sales in one month is free, who knows you might be able to sell first 2 cars in 3 days

And to end it, I would say , you should get more accurate informations from the dealer, in regards to what you plan to do. A survey on what they wouldn't mind getting involved in would be great. All the best.

Nice post kazey

sorry but at the moment nigerians don't buy by proxy. but don't stop because of me, refine it and find the unique twist thatt would make it a sucess in such and environment.

In essence what you need to do is set up a site where car dealers pay to ADVERTISE their cars. You don't make any money from the actual sales but the more they sell the more they will advertise with you.

It's always a difficult business to get started as when you have a dealer willing to advertise he wants to see results but it takes a decent amount of content to get people to come and look at your site. I imagine you would have to start with a few companies by giving them FREE ADVERTISING. This means that you have some conent and you can then find ways to get traffic to come and view it.

Once the traffic increases you can market for more dealers and start with say 1 months free adverts and then start charging by the advert that they place.

I used to work for a online JOB site and we charged by the advert per week. This was in the UK and when i joined the owner was driving a Nissan Micra and living in a 3 bed terraced house. About ten years later when he had sold out he was driving Ferrari's and Aston Martins and buying Ranch in South Africa. He was very lucky but there's money to be made if you have patience and dedication.

Check out www.autotrader.co.uk   this started as a magazine but now people mainly search online. Individuals and dealers advertise their cars and the guy who set this one up is the multi-millionaire owner of newly promoted Reading football club!

There are people doing these type of sites but the main problem is lack of relevant and updated content. I look at them once and see Jobs or Houses for sale from 2 years ago and give up! Maybe now that more people are getting online in this country it's a good idea to get started.

wake up . such can work out in nigeria . i am not discouraging u but is the truth . u can use this your idea and refine it into something better don't discard the idea

I know this is been a while but you this is useful to know

@topic:
Yes it is a valuable biz if done properly.Guess the best way to run this biz is to use the site for catalog purposes.

How do you get your money?
Dealers will pay you.

Task involved:

You need to do your biz paln and look at the figures and how you can make profit.^{(this is key to any biz no matter how small)}
Research added value to site visitors and incentive to make them buy- that is the only way dealers will feel comfortable to pay you.

Yes, you would have to start free  and incur some advert cost( offline advert).

You have to contantly update each dealers page.- whcih include visiting their place, taking pictures and get constant info to stay up to date.

You need to do your booking and tracking of activites of your site on a daily basis
Ideas:
Need to get adsense and like on the site.(but don't clustter the site with them)

Design a friendly simple to navigate site and have search and site map links on all pages.

propose exchange links with other related site

Here is another site for you http://www.automerchanting.com/