Post: #1

While Kickstarter doesn't exactly have a good reputation with the Manosphere Red Pill crowd, it still represents a good opportunity for launching a business with small investments.

I'm looking to recharge my business of offering live and fun classes for post-divorce men and women to help them realize their relationship goals by teaching them the truth about attraction and dating. I've already done one class with great success. I'd like to do a whole bunch more here in the south Florida market. This requires serious marketing and that doesn't come cheap. I am NOT a marketing person, I'm the guy in front of the audience making people laugh and helping them learn the truth about attraction and dating. I'm extremely good in front of an audience. There are also some other expenses but compared to marketing (that includes advertising), those are minor.

This is NOT a one-on-one coaching business but individual clients can be accepted. The problem with one-on-one coaching is that there are finite number of hours in a day and that limits business growth. Classes can be scaled up from small groups to large halls, increasing the profit potential enormously. Classes can be held in other cities, as well. The target market is both men and women, post-divorce.

The business website has been up and running for awhile - http://www.redpilldating.com. However, I will be re-branding the business to Dating 2.0 (The URL will be Dating 2-0.com). I got sidetracked for several months but it looks like I'll live so it's time to move ahead with previous plans. The return for the small investments will be free copies of the first book (in progress) and two free seats to any class or free access to any premium videos I might produce.

I do understand that most of the RVF crowd is younger. But I appreciate your ideas so feedback is welcome. If an individual investor wants to step up, PM me.

Post: #2

You should be able to bootstrap this. Kickstarter works well for cases where there's some huge up-front cost before you can have a product, like you need to pay the manufacturer in advance to make 1,000 widgets, because only at that volume can you sell said widgets for a decent price.

In your case, it seems like you want the $$ just for marketing. If your service is so great (I'm not doubting it is), then you should be able to grow it by reinvesting your profits, along with word of mouth.

Investors are unlikely to take this on since there's no clear exit for them.

Post: #3

(01-07-2014 11:05 PM)paninaro Wrote:  Investors are unlikely to take this on since there's no clear exit for them.

This is an epiphany for me. Thank you. It will completely change how I approach potential investors. As I said, I'm the guy in front of the audience, not the person behind the scenes with money or the person doing the marketing.

Post: #4

You're definitely going to need to bootstrap / kickstart this. Investors mostly won't be interested because the company can't be scaled like a web platform (for example) can. There's only you and the number of classes you're able to teach in the time you have available.

When you say in exchange for "investments," you're really talking about pre-sales which is what a for-profit company would use kickstarter for. Say you have a product in mind, you've developed a prototype, but you don't have any investment or capital to create the product. An engineer would make a little video to advertise the product and demonstrate it, start a kickstarter campaign, and all the pre-sales that come in would be used to then actually create the product and ship it out. In your case, you go on kickstarter and market your product by saying "X seats available at my first coaching seminar on XX/XX/2014. Buy a seat now!" or "X copies of my book available for sale with free t-shirt to fund X seminar..." or something to that effect. So you may need to pay out of pocket to get this service/product in front of some recent divorcees. Maybe partner with a divorce lawyer where he would get a commission of any referrals he sends your way that buy a seat/book/something from you?

Post: #5

(01-08-2014 01:13 AM)magellan Wrote:  You're definitely going to need to bootstrap / kickstart this. Investors mostly won't be interested because the company can't be scaled like a web platform (for example) can. There's only you and the number of classes you're able to teach in the time you have available.

...Maybe partner with a divorce lawyer where he would get a commission of any referrals he sends your way that buy a seat/book/something from you?

You're right, it's not as scalable as a web platform. However, it can be scaled up by doing classes in larger and larger venues and more frequently. Also, it can be scaled up by hiring additional instructors for other markets because the curriculum is consistent. I do know something about this because I'm actually a licensed with quite a few years in adult education and training.

As this is a younger crowd here, the focus is primarily on the Internet to get information and that's perfectly understandable. But consider the generation of your mothers and fathers and the help that those singles need. This explains the popularity of singles Meetup.com groups. I've been to a bunch here in South Florida and the average age is 40 and up. Yes, I will be partnering with several local meetup groups to provide events.

Excellent idea about working with divorce lawyers! I knew I'd get some good feedback if I posted my idea. Thanks.

Post: #6

I wouldn't even bother with divorce attorneys. Most, if not all, divorce records are public. That means you could rent out mailing lists and hit them that way. I would imagine some lists may even have email addresses as part of those lists.

After that, it is just building your sales funnel bringing those leads in and sending them through your product line. I would also include live webinars as part of your product strategy. You can sell your live training at the end of the webinars for those that want even more info.

You're talking a lot bigger numbers by doing the webinars and mailing lists. That type of business model would be scalable.

Post: #7

(01-08-2014 08:25 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  I wouldn't even bother with divorce attorneys. Most, if not all, divorce records are public. That means you could rent out mailing lists and hit them that way. I would imagine some lists may even have email addresses as part of those lists.

Not sure how you'd approach this. My intuition says that getting through spam filters is going to be tough and even if you did, just another email solicitation to delete / mark as spam. I imagine divorce attorneys get quite a bit of face time with their clients, especially men, throughout the process and word of mouth is as powerful as it gets. My $.02. I think this is a cool business idea either way.

Post: #8

(01-08-2014 12:03 PM)magellan Wrote:  Not sure how you'd approach this. My intuition says that getting through spam filters is going to be tough and even if you did, just another email solicitation to delete / mark as spam. I imagine divorce attorneys get quite a bit of face time with their clients, especially men, throughout the process and word of mouth is as powerful as it gets. My $.02. I think this is a cool business idea either way.

You really think you are going to get divorce attorneys to work with you?

Doubtful.

I am proposing sending real mail. You know letter, postcards, packages...

If the lists have email addresses you could do that as well but mail would be much better.

It sounds like you don't have much experience with email marketing. That is ok but if you don't have experience you shouldn't be commenting on it.

I guess I don't understand how you plan on doing any volume by contacting attorneys and trying to sell them on this idea one at a time. That is if you can even get an appointment to even talk to them.

Post: #9

(01-08-2014 12:11 PM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(01-08-2014 12:03 PM)magellan Wrote:  Not sure how you'd approach this. My intuition says that getting through spam filters is going to be tough and even if you did, just another email solicitation to delete / mark as spam. I imagine divorce attorneys get quite a bit of face time with their clients, especially men, throughout the process and word of mouth is as powerful as it gets. My $.02. I think this is a cool business idea either way.

You really think you are going to get divorce attorneys to work with you?

Doubtful.

I am proposing sending real mail. You know letter, postcards, packages...

If the lists have email addresses you could do that as well but mail would be much better.

It sounds like you don't have much experience with email marketing. That is ok but if you don't have experience you shouldn't be commenting on it.

I guess I don't understand how you plan on doing any volume by contacting attorneys and trying to sell them on this idea one at a time. That is if you can even get an appointment to even talk to them.

Not trying to start a pissing match so I'll leave it at this post... I don't have "email marketing" experience and am not even entirely sure what that would entail, but I have extensive experience with server side web dev and email server communications. Not even sure how this is relevant if you're proposing physical mail.

It's not specifically about volume at this point. He said he wants to "recharge" his biz, his words. What was he going to do... kickstart ten different sessions at once? He posted an open-ended question looking for suggestions and ideas and I offered one to simply get the ball rolling.

As for not even attempting to reach out to a divorce lawyer because of a baseless self-limiting belief like "no way a divorce lawyer would ever work with me..." That's just something I can't get behind. Different strokes for different folks though.

Post: #10

(01-08-2014 01:08 PM)magellan Wrote:  Not trying to start a pissing match so I'll leave it at this post...

Disagreeing with each other isn't a pissing match.

Quote:I don't have "email marketing" experience and am not even entirely sure what that would entail, but I have extensive experience with server side web dev and email server communications. Not even sure how this is relevant if you're proposing physical mail.

Then you should realize not all emails go into spam filters especially if you test out different emails. A lot of physical mail never gets opened either but that doesn't mean it isn't a legitimate means of marketing to people.

Quote:It's not specifically about volume at this point. He said he wants to "recharge" his biz, his words. What was he going to do... kickstart ten different sessions at once? He posted an open-ended question looking for suggestions and ideas and I offered one to simply get the ball rolling.

As for not even attempting to reach out to a divorce lawyer because of a baseless self-limiting belief like "no way a divorce lawyer would ever work with me..." That's just something I can't get behind. Different strokes for different folks though.

Have you done any type of sales? It doesn't sound like it.

I don't even know what you are talking about when saying ten different sessions at once. Kickstarter is a funding website where you can post ideas and people will fund it.

Let's not even discuss the additional problems attorneys may have for recommending a product like this. The last thing a lawyer will want is people crying scam for a program they recommended.

The limiting beliefs is funny coming from someone that doesn't appear to have any type of experience in what he is talking about. I, on the other hand, have tried something similar and my time was better spent on doing what I suggested to the OP.

Post: #11

Jesus Christ. Listen to WWT.

I have already had disagreements with him but if you can't tell he knows what he is talking about you simply don't actually work in the space.

Post: #12

There are some good ideas here. But again, I'm not a marketing person nor do I wish to become one. I want to play to my strengths and that means being in front of the participants giving excellent and entertaining presentations. This also means hiring a local freelance marketing person.

Post: #13

(01-08-2014 02:21 PM)WestCoast Wrote:  Jesus Christ. Listen to WWT.

I have already had disagreements with him but if you can't tell he knows what he is talking about you simply don't actually work in the space.

ha! Yeah, we had a few but I tend to respect people who challenge me. Debates between men help us see any holes in our ideas/beliefs and that is a good thing.

Post: #14

(01-08-2014 02:28 PM)Private Man Wrote:  There are some good ideas here. But again, I'm not a marketing person nor do I wish to become one. I want to play to my strengths and that means being in front of the participants giving excellent and entertaining presentations. This also means hiring a local freelance marketing person.

Marketing is a necessity. I understand why you don't want to get into it, but it will make or break your idea.

I would partner up with someone who could set up the marketing, the funnels and help with the tech side and let you do the content, the online and in person seminars.

You really are talking about a multi-million dollar business here if done right.

It is a cool demographic you want to hit. I was thinking about doing something similar but with a traveling show with content geared towards that same demographic.

I would get away from any pua lingo including red pill. Try and take the content and position it differently (strip out all of terminology). I think you will get a better reception that way. Some of these guys need to be eased in. haha You want to help these guys and some of the pua lingo sounds a tad hateful even if it is true.

Sell them what they want, sneak in what they need.

Post: #15

(01-08-2014 11:40 PM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  I would get away from any pua lingo including red pill. Try and take the content and position it differently (strip out all of terminology). I think you will get a better reception that way. Some of these guys need to be eased in. haha You want to help these guys and some of the pua lingo sounds a tad hateful even if it is true.

Sell them what they want, sneak in what they need.

I'm already on that. It won't be called Red Pill Dating, that's the first change. The current curricula (already completed) has stripped out all the PUA terms and is mostly politically correct, even for women. If you look at the materials of successful dating coaches, it's exactly this: "Sell them what they want, sneak in what they need." Again, I don't want to be a dating coach, I want to be a presenter. But the approach is the same

I'm looking around for marketing folks here in south Florida. I'm also looking around for investors. Yes, this could be a multi-million dollar business.

Post: #16

Do a seminar, tape it, slice into commercials, use one of the ad networks online.

it's how the offline gurus do it.

WIA

Post: #17

(01-09-2014 09:21 AM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:  Do a seminar, tape it, slice into commercials, use one of the ad networks online.

it's how the offline gurus do it.

WIA

I will be doing that.