New Potential Business Idea, FEEDBACK/.COMMENTS?

[Flyhigh]

Hi all. I have a business idea that I want to share with the people on RFD to get a sense of how successful it might be. I have been a member of RFD long enough to see a lot of intelligent and smart people with entrepreneurship skills. Here goes.

I want to start a website that is dedicated to Luxury Car keys. Basically, I want to have a central place where potential luxury car buyers can come and find information on the key fobs and design of the cars on their shopping list. Now car manufactures know that the key design shows a symbol of status, and is unique among others. I will have these things available:

1) Pictures of luxury car models and their respective keyfob pictures.
2) Videos of luxury car models when their respective key fobs are unlocking and locking the vehicle, and most importantly the sounds/beeps that they make

I plan to provide free examples, and if they want more information on other cars, they have to become paying members, fees yet to be set.

I understand this is still a very early concept, however I would like any feedback or comments anyone has, be harsh! Thanks for your time!

[FearSonic]

Hi all. I have a business idea that I want to share with the people on RFD to get a sense of how successful it might be. I have been a member of RFD long enough to see a lot of intelligent and smart people with entrepreneurship skills. Here goes.

I want to start a website that is dedicated to Luxury Car keys. Basically, I want to have a central place where potential luxury car buyers can come and find information on the key fobs and design of the cars on their shopping list. Now car manufactures know that the key design shows a symbol of status, and is unique among others. I will have these things available:

1) Pictures of luxury car models and their respective keyfob pictures.
2) Videos of luxury car models when their respective key fobs are unlocking and locking the vehicle, and most importantly the sounds/beeps that they make

I plan to provide free examples, and if they want more information on other cars, they have to become paying members, fees yet to be set.

I understand this is still a very early concept, however I would like any feedback or comments anyone has, be harsh! Thanks for your time!

Hi there!

Not entirely sure on the business idea - are you selling customized KEYS? If so, what kind of market are you looking at?

[Flyhigh]

Hi! Sorry I didn't clarify enough. All the key fobs/designs I will be providing are STOCK KEYS. I am not selling anything, I'll provide an example.

Bob wants to buy a 2008 BMW X5. He wants to know what does the key fob looks like before he purchase, and the locking/unlocking sounds that the car makes. (for whatever reason, pride, ego..etc), so he can find pictures of the key fobs, and videos of the BMW X5 with locking/unlocking sounds.

Market will of course be the middle-upper class, therefore I focused on only luxury cars. Most luxury car owners want to know if there are ways of differentiating their cars from others. Cool key fobs/ locking/unlocking sounds are some of the ways in my opinion. Of course this can all be obtained at the dealership. However, my counter to this is that

1) I save their time/GAS of traveling to the BMW dealership (most luxury car dealerships are limited locations)
2) I save their energy and effort, because they can look up multiple luxury cars at the same time, as opposed to visiting a BMW and Lexus dealership
3) I save their pain from car salesman. Most of us who has dealt with car salespeople will know that it is a pain and that they bug the hell out of you. I save a potential headache they might have.

Comments?

Hi there!

Not entirely sure on the business idea - are you selling customized KEYS? If so, what kind of market are you looking at?

[Vladcanada]

people are buying cars not key fobs? I dont think its a good idea, although it might be a unique one.

[vantimendan]

I think it's a decent idea for a blog.

Put the info up for free, and if it's something people are interested in you can make money from advertising.

I don't think it would work as a subscription service.

[cdnNick]

I can't see someone paying for that. If I'm buying a BMW I am going to the car lot to look at the car and play around with it I wouldn't go to a website to listen to a beep of a car door opening.

Like it was said before might be good for a free info site but I doubt anyone would pay for it when they can go test drive a car which would be more fun anyways.

[mart242]

:confused: That's even stupider than the website the idiots were designing in superbad

Seriously, who would pay for that?

[gruegoo]

It's a small niche, that's for sure. That being said, a small niche isn't a bad thing if you're the only one in it. There's potential to make money, but as others have said, the subscription service might not be the best way. Unless a person is a key enthusiast (I have no idea how many there are out there), there's no reason for them to return to the site after they've purchased a car.

There are alternative revenue streams though. Ad revenue is one (already mentioned). Also you might be able to get the car companies themselves to sponsor you once the site is up and running. You could charge them for special positions on the site that highlight their keys over other companies'.

If this topic is something that interests you, you could complement the material on the site with articles that you write.

One other thing to consider: right now your target audience seems to be people who are buying cars. So you need to really ask the question of how many people care enough about keys to look it up. After all you'll need to advertise this site for anyone to know about it, and that costs money.

Instead, how about just people who collect keys from luxury cars? I'm SURE there are people out there who do that. That way you can do keys from various eras of luxury car history. By making it into a collector's website, you broaden your audience and open yourself up to more content (vintage cars and keys, etc). Also it's easier to advertise because you can just post on car collector forums, rather than targeting the general consumer.

Do the research though, there might already be sites like that out there, and I'm not sure how much competition this niche can handle.

:confused: That's even stupider than the website the idiots were designing in superbad

Seriously, who would pay for that?

You'd be surprised how much money is being made out there from ideas that are quickly branded "stupid". That's not to say this idea is a surefire hit, but if there's enough room in the niche and there's even a small demand, it could make money. How much? No idea without research.

[trixR4kids]

:confused: That's even stupider than the website the idiots were designing in superbad

Seriously, who would pay for that?

you mean the porn website they were making in knocked up?


As for op, i dunt think ppl with a lot of money would waste their time checking sounds on a website when they can physically go into any dealership they want and test drive anything knowing they have the money in the first place. Unless some ppl really dunt want to look balling and test drive cars

[slavka012]

I think it is a ******** idea. Who in the world selects car based on key's looks?

People buy car, and if they want the keys to impress they'll order a custom one. Now that could be a business opportunity.

[mart242]

you mean the porn website they were making in knocked up?

Ah yes! That's the one. I confused the movies :lol:

[aww1970]

:confused: That's even stupider than the website the idiots were designing in superbad

Seriously, who would pay for that?

Mr. Skin is a REAL website and the producers paid to use the website on the movie. The guy has made millions from his website....

Ideas are a dime a dozen, it is about the person behind the idea. If you truly believe and are 100% dedicated anything can work. Bottled water and oxygen bars come to mind.

[Bincent]

I agree that a subscription idea is not the way to go.

Although the idea is unique and there may be some interest out there, there is nothing that drives a user to return after their purchase. I'm not sure about you, but I'm fairly certain that rich people don't buy automobiles that frequently. And if they did, I'd have to question how rich they are since your car is one of the worst depreciating asset that most people own.

Subscriptions are a good way to generate income if you have highly demanded information that users would come back to time and time again (ie. Consumer Reports). I highly doubt that anyone would be willing to pay for something that they would use once or twice over a 3 year period (assuming most leases are up in 3 yrs).

[aww1970]

If you had naked girls demonstrating the key fobs I am sure it will work.

[Drew_W]

You realize people test drive cars before they buy them right? And before they do they get to touch the key fob, unlock the car, and listen to the sound for free? If they want they can even capture the moment on their cell phone for later viewing.

And do you really think your upscale clientelle are going to subscribe to an amateur website dealing with key fobs? I'd think these rich folk have little time for such frivolities.

[systemerror007]

dunno about this key fob thing. I've gone thru a lot of cars and my recent find when it first came out was one of the first lux cars with push button start...it might be a wow factor for some, but I could have cared less at that time...not spending that much $$ for a beep of the horn. I dont really know who buys a car for what you are stating as I have a small group of friends that have cars in excess of 100K each and yes they bought them for pride and looks, but the car beep was not the selling point...

good luck. its your idea and you should run with it and see how far it goes without sinking you...I'm sure if you dont, somebody else will take your idea and see what the pay off is. but really, good luck.

[Flyhigh]

thx everyone for all the amazing inputs! I will most likely start a blog about it, and see where it goes from there!

[jp06]

your business sounds more like an informative type rather than having potential for making profits. People buy cars because of the car itself regardless of how ugly, nice, or useless the keyfob can be. I suggest maybe making luxury key chains and sell them through dealerships.

[ZoomZoom2006]

My question is how could you make the business sustainable? Therer are pretty limite models in luxury car business and you can upload the pictures&videos in one day if you have access to them.

And are you sure this is not violating the copyright if the car makers do not give you the authorization since you are making commercial profit.

[Nyte]

Great idea and sounds useful, but not enough that people would pay for it. You'll have to rethink your business model.

[spf1971]

I think you'll make more money telling jokes. Like the one about a guy making a website showing key fobs.

[slavka012]

I think you'll make more money telling jokes. Like the one about a guy making a website showing key fobs.

Lol, best comment so far!

[Mcgarnickle]

Definitely a unique idea. Maybe there's a lot of people out there with an obsession for car keys. If so, you've got a gem of an idea on your hands.

[vantimendan]

thx everyone for all the amazing inputs! I will most likely start a blog about it, and see where it goes from there!

I'm actually really looking forward to it. If you do it properly, and have professional looking pictures of the keyfobs from different angles, the dimensions, and have a review system where you rate them in different categories (like cnet reviews or a bunch of other review sites for different products). Sure some see it as a joke but that's a good thing - stuffwhitepeoplelike was a joke too but it made the guy a lot of money, and he had fun doing it.

There are enough car nuts out there who read anything they can find about cars, and it's an interesting enough idea that people will want to check it out if they hear about it, even for a laugh. Gotta keep getting new content though, a new keyfob review a week or so I'd say. Just walk into a dealership with a camera, dealers will be happy to have anyone around these days.

Google ads are good, maybe someone like edmunds or a car company would want to put up banners, or you could even get bought for 15 million like bankaholic :cheesygri

have fun with it and keep us up to date