Anyone looking to start an enterprise ?? i have worked in startups before and would like to transform some ideas ...
Also are there any Business Plan competitions held in the university ?

1/20/2012 10:12:30 PM

this will end well

1/20/2012 10:24:02 PM

http://triangle.startupweekend.org/

1/20/2012 10:27:14 PM

NCSU has the eGames competition. Just look up the Entrepreneurship Initiative program.

1/20/2012 10:28:37 PM

I assure you, the following point is an attempt to be constructive: in the English language, punctuation directly follows words. There is no space between words and punctuation. Simply put, "Anyone looking to start an enterprise ??" is incorrect. It's incorrect on many levels, but the most apparent problem is the space between "enterprise" and the punctuation.

1/20/2012 10:41:56 PM

^Really? THAT'S what you chose to give constructive criticism on?

1/20/2012 10:48:02 PM

business plans are generally most effective when using correct punctuation

1/21/2012 12:17:09 AM

give me your ideas and money. I make stuff happen.

1/21/2012 2:01:57 AM

^^^ Sometimes it's best to start small.

1/21/2012 4:54:12 PM

Here's a great idea...

First, go back to your home country and lease a shit-ton of servers.
Then buy a local domain name, like from .in if you're in India. Make sure not to buy a US-based domain like .com or .org or .net or .info or .us.

Now, create a Web interface to allow people to upload files, and another one to allow other people to download them.
Charge people for faster access, and set up a program to reward people for files that get lots of downloads; be sure to plaster the home and download pages with ads so you get plenty of money from that too.
Don't allow anyone to search the site for uploaded files, but do be sure to post a list of the most-downloaded files, making sure they're all legal.

To make it easier on yourself, calculate the hash of every file that gets uploaded, and if someone else uploads the same file, just give them a new link; if some pesky DMCA complaint comes in, just remove that link, but make sure people can always still download those files somehow.

*STAY OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES*
This is important, so you won't suffer the same fate as the last guys who tried this and will still get to keep your millions; be sure that your servers, domain name, and payment processors are all outside the US (try Moneybookers or Bitcoin), and if you're extra-paranoid, don't even let people from the US access your site.

1/21/2012 8:27:38 PM

@lewisje: please dont mistake me .... American economy is built mostly by immigrants .... and America needs immigrants to grow. I wrote this post just to find if there are anyone who would like to start up in NC State.

1/22/2012 9:12:49 PM

LISA NEEDS BRACES

1/22/2012 10:20:49 PM

Build a cool product/service that fills a niche and worry about the business plan later. Business plan talk reminds me of worthless MBAs.

1/22/2012 11:08:57 PM

DENTAL PLAN

1/23/2012 12:08:43 AM

Please PM me.....I have ideas relating to the medium-to-large scale distribution of carbonated orange beverages and fresh, long-shelf life submarine sandwiches

ideally we would market said sandwiches and sodas to those in their twenties...hopefully with tie-ins to video games for those in their twenties that regularly game/have matches online in the evenings.

[Edited on January 23, 2012 at 12:26 AM. Reason : please note an NDA would be required to discuss further]

1/23/2012 12:24:41 AM

^Subway? lol

Quote :

"@lewisje: please dont mistake me .... American economy is built mostly by immigrants .... and America needs immigrants to grow. I wrote this post just to find if there are anyone who would like to start up in NC State."

I was just trying to make a joke about MegaUpload

CaelNCSU has the best advice ITT

1/23/2012 3:09:23 AM

Quote :

"American economy is built mostly by immigrants .... and America needs immigrants to grow"

hmmm...this may be the first time i've heard an immigrant actually know this. +1 credibility

1/23/2012 9:33:43 AM

I realize this thread is about entrepreneurship....which I totally support. Hear me out, maybe I can offer some insight.

I am in outside sales, which is currently salary+commission, but will move into straight commission starting at the beginning of July 2012. I have been in this position since July 2009. I have competition from several direct manufacturing sales reps, large distributors, and local distributors. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Direct Advantages: Immediate knowledge of new technology, no middle man mark up, one shipping bill (paid by manufacturer or buyer of goods), access to larger range of non-commodity items, control inventory, have access to many distributors that can effectively sell their goods which increases market share, and set prices of commodity they manufacture.

Direct disadvantages: Typically have 1-3 sales reps per region (i.e. southeast, mid-atlantic, northeast, etc.) limiting the number of accounts they can successfully manage/cold-call, lack physical customer service or physical technical service available to or affordable for smaller users or altogether, are sometimes not trustworthy because they will go in behind their distributors that sell their commodity to one account in large quantities (i.e. they missed a big account, and have found out about it through a distributor selling their particular product) which leads to the distributor not selling their product anymore, have too many distributors selling the product ultimately driving the set price down through deviations, possibly rely on distributors to actually sell the product, and competition from other direct sources.

Large distributor advantages: have access to other commodities that go hand in hand with other manufacturers (poor example- grocery stores sell milk as well as cereal), get direct pricing, many locations regionally or nationally easing the shipping burden of buyers with multiple locations, personal service either customer or technical, many sales reps that are able to cover a broader territory, access to multiple manufacturers of the same commodity allowing to keep prices in check, service programs that smaller companies can't offer and direct providers can't match in price or value, and experts of many many commodities as opposed to one or a few.

Large distributor disadvantages: smaller local distributors creating price wars (think Michael Scott Paper Co vs Dunder-Mifflin), direct mfg's going in behind and stealing business, limited access to all of the mfg's (you won't find Harris Teeter name brands in Food Lion and visa versa), can't truly set prices because it's based on both supply and demand, territory management, and tough growth prospects in slower economies (this is true for direct as well really)

Local distributor advantages: Typically a good ol' boy setting where the seller and the buyer know each other for years (this does happen at all levels, but mostly at the local level), local folks are right down the street and can be used in emergencies, if the local guy buys at high enough volumes then there is no shipping charge to the end user, and access to both direct mfg's and large distributors.

Local distributor disadvantages: easily beaten in price, array of commodities, array of technology, lack of trained staff, low cash flow, etc etc etc.

This is what I have noticed in my six months, I am sure there are plenty more that need mentioning. The way I am setting myself apart as a sales person is this: I go after the big accounts right now while I am new. The big accounts, if I land them, will take care of me while I am new and building a customer base. The money made off of those allows me to focus free time on smaller accounts that get me higher margins. I build up big accounts, I would like to have 5-10 of these, then get 20-30 medium accounts. If I lose 1 or 2 big accounts, the 20-30 medium accounts keep me afloat while I go after new big accounts. I don't really waste time on small accounts simply because they basically pay for breakfast or something really small.

I will say this, if you can't get a big account in the first 6-8 months (assuming you have cash flow that you can ride this long) you could be in a world of trouble. If you can get one, it will really make going after the others a lot more enjoyable and less stressful. It's simply just very exhausting wasting any time on anything other than big accounts in the very beginning. You work just as hard on the medium sized accounts and see 1/3 to 1/36 of the money in my situation.

If you have any other questions, you can PM me. I hope this helps in the slightest!

1/23/2012 9:45:37 AM

^YES! do you realize how long I've been trying to find that repost?!?! damn, thank you sir.

1/23/2012 11:01:42 AM

Repost? I was just trying to offer the poster gunda some advice!

1/23/2012 12:52:01 PM

like years... now I have to go bump up some year old threads in response to this information.

1/23/2012 1:50:38 PM

this reminds me of that 30 Rock episode where Tracy’s son Donald comes up with business plans:

A restaurant that serves the basics that everyone needs? Staples A U.S. phone service you can call to find out about air quality? American Airlines. A micro-brewery that also serves frozen yogurt? Microsoft

1/23/2012 2:14:15 PM

^I thought that was when his "son" asked for money to start a karate dojo for kids and people called him out, but turned out to be black belt and actually spent the money for a karate dojo studio teaching kids.

1/23/2012 2:42:56 PM

A multi-flavor ice cream shop that caters to geologists: 30 Rock

1/23/2012 3:01:58 PM

^^

After that failed he came up with all the other crap. Staples was where the nontrademarked-Godzilla monsters fought while people ate dinner

1/23/2012 4:14:47 PM