How many IT staffs should I hire?

Want to open a Ecommerce site

[yangtao72]

More and more Ecompare web sites on Internet this year , many of them are very successful . So if I want to setup a web site like pricegrabber.com , ibuyer.net, pricewatch.com, pricingnetwork.com , Sth like these , how many technical guys should I hire? Is't possible just hire one person that can do everything (sysadmin + DB admin + programmer )?

[ngentot]

i've read somewhere that shopping comparisson sites are not a very profitable business. At one point, I spoke with the CEO of one of the companies you mentioned and he said he spent most of his budget on advertising. I don't know if he was making money or not, though.

Oh, if you decide to proceed, try to come up with a name that doesn't have the word "price" in it. It's a bad branding strategy for having a brand name that's so similar to others. No one will remember it.

[yangtao72]

Thanks for reply . I'll think about your suggetion . Since he spent most on advertising , how many IT emplyees can be in , do you know that? That's my concern? Thanks again!

[Raymond]

For average investor, 0 if you are a programmer. 1 if you are not.

New sites get little to no traffic. You are probably not gonna make 1 penny in the first 5 months and you'll make peanuts for the next 7 months. If you are going to pay for 5+ programmers, you'll lose $200k by the end of the year, plus all other expenses involved.

Unless you have alot of money to invest, it'll be a different story. And you can't compare your brand new sites with pricegrabber, or any other established site. Whether they are making money or not, they have more than enough momentum to keep their businesses afloat. They belong to a different league

[ngentot]

I think if you really believe in it, you should go for it. Most successful new businesses that I know of are laughed at in the beginning. But you must be clever and provide a value that none of your competitors do. Or focus on a niche market and do it very well. You don't need to compare every product under the sun. You could instead focus on, say, computer products only, etc. So whenever people need to do comparison shopping on computer products, they would remember your site first. That's how you win.

I don't know how many IT people you would need for this. For my online business, I'm the programmer, graphic designer, copywriter, secretary, sales rep, marketing strategist, account executive, bookkeeper, janitor and CEO.

[yangtao72]

Thanks again, guys!
So for ngentot, is your online business a host type ( like yahoo store, ebay store or any other kind of host type ) or you own a web site, you own your servers and T1 connetion?

I'm interested if I can build my site in my basement . But afraid of T1 cost? Any suggestion?

[ngentot]

I think in the beginning you want to outsource your hosting to a web hosting company and let them take care of all the maintenance and the T1 and stuff. You dont't want to spend most of your time worrying about your server and spend so much money to keep it running.

Is this your first business attempt? If so, let me share my experience with you. I hope it's helpful.

I've attempted to start my own online business in the past before. One of the biggest mistakes I made was trying to start big. I wanted the best software, the best database, the best server that I owned, the best looking design, the best accountant, the best bank account, the best lawyer, the best of everything without considering my resource. I spent $5000 on a patent attorney from one of the most prominent law firms in New York before I even got my first customer. I never gotten the patent nor a customer because soon after that I closed the business for having no more money! (And I still owed the attorney for another $3000!)

So now I'm starting a new online business and I'm a lot wiser! I spend my money much more efficiently. I don't need to get the best stuff on earth. As long as it runs well, it's okay. I can always upgrade it later when I already make money.

Right now I'm paying $13/mo for my web hosting and using PayPal instead of paying for a merchant account. I used a $40 template for my web design and customized it myself instead of hiring a $50/hour graphic designer to design from scratch. I wrote the copy of my website myself and had friends correct it for me instead of paying a professional copywriter. I programmed the website myself instead of hiring a programmer to do it. I rent a mailbox in a post office in my area for my mailing address for $5/mo instead of renting a mailbox in a high-profile address for $50/mo. Renting an office space is out of the question right now.

So far I've spent less than $1000 with almost $500 being spent on a local lawyer who wrote contracts for me and another $250 for my LLC and $150 for supplies and others. So basically I've spent only $100 on the website itself!

The website is not offcially launched yet so I cannot say if it's working or not. But I'm much more optimistic on this business than the previous one. I feel more in control. So I guess I'm learning from my lesson!

I'm not saying this is the best way to go. The drawback of my approach is time! Since I had to do it all myself, everything took longer and the quality may not be as good as if I had hired a professional. But I'm more willing to take this trade-off than risking running out of money and having to close it down.

Sometimes I wonder if the better approach is actually using OPM (other people's money) technique, or better known as getting an investor to pay for you. Well maybe that's for my next business!

[notionone]

my personal recomendation is to hire no one, and find partners who have the skills you need who are willing to share in the work and the profit.

make sure that you bring some skills to the table as well; ive run into too many people who want to give me 50% ownership of a company where i'm doing all of the technical work and marketing, and they simply came up with an idea but had no business know-how or skills.

many people think that coming up with an idea means something. in reality, its being able to execute that idea (from conception to resource gathering to delivering) which is meaningful. so basically, if you want to partner up, make sure you have skills as well. if you don't then you should just pay someone.

[coolmacguy]

ngentot, I have heard about dozens of experiences just like that. In fact, that was the reason for most of the dot com bankruptcies and the tech market crashing. Everyone was so convinced the web was going to be the next huge thing that everyone wanted to be huge. They failed to keep costs under control and ultimately had to shut down.

[grandpa]

how many technical guys should I hire

How technical are you? Conceivably, one person could probably do all the work for you. At least, that's the way it works over here... and that one person started with some old knowledge of html markup.

I sometimes find myself wanting a second opinion, right now - this very minute. So, two heads could be better than one... or not.

Remember, once a single page has been developed, many of the other pages on that site will probably "use the template" from that first page. In other words, it's not like you have to start from scratch for every new page, thus future development actually becomes easier.