The blue market is that which we're addressing. People in this segment generally haven't got websites because:
- they know they really should but they're busy and don't seem to be able to find the time
- they have a perception that getting a web designer will be expensive when all they really need is a basic web presence that gets their message across
- they think that to add content they need special skills or will have to pay someone to do that
- they try a DIY website using a template-based system and get frustrated or stuck
We solve all these problems by having an initial phone chat with interested businesses whereby we assure them we're doing our best to get them started on the web for close to £100, and all they need to do is get info to us like photo's, content etc and we'll do the rest.
We're having success in this market because the software we've produced reduces the time to build a website by up to 90% (that saving is passed directly onto the customer) - and we give them tools to modify the website themselves in the future simply by logging in and drag'n'dropping.
Research shows this market to be large. For example, in the local Bexley newspaper in South London there is a trade directory at the back. In that we counted 84 businesses with display advertisements (not just text), and of these 73 had no link to a website.
How We Reach The Market
We use two methods to reach prospective customers. The first is investing a percentage of any franchise fees received in a Google Adwords campaign within the Franchisee's territory.
The second method is helping Franchisees appoint Agents within their territory. Examples of these are students with plenty of call time on their mobile contracts who ring up businesses without websites (usually found by looking at newspaper advertisements, or by walking local High Streets and talking to small business owners), or retailers like Digital Print Shops who deal with small business owners on a day to day basis. Both of these groups of people are happy with £15 commission for each converted sales lead they give to the Franchisee.
To see how the workflow looks, please click here (opens in a new window).
How The Income Works
The average sale for us to date is £135. This is made up for £60 annual subscription for a domain name, website hosting and provision of our drag'n'drop software, and £75 website design time (3 hours at £25 per hour).
£30 of the subscription goes to the Franchisee, plus a further £15 if they bring in the customer themselves, rather than via an Agent. To see how this income is distributed, please click here (opens in a new window).
In the UK to generate an income of say £40,000 year 1, £75,000 year 2 and so on, the following is how we would go about it:
- Generate 1-2 sales per day via Google Adwords
- Generate 4-5 sales per day via Agents and the Franchisee (this also includes Customer word-of-mouth)
6 sales per day = £180 to the Franchisee (not including any £15 commissions)
20 sales days per month = £3,600 monthly income = £43,200 per year
Assuming most Customers renew their subscription for year 2 (but some drop off naturally), the income for the Franchisee would be more like £75,000.
We work with the Franchisee to establish a territory with sufficient business population to achieve these targets, and set about making it a reality by working closely together.
We also don't mind if the Franchisee wants to change the income targets (up or down) - this simply changes the price of the franchise and how much territory we assign to it.
Why We Are Offering This
We've spent three years building the software. We originally thought we had a product that would cater to the orange market in the top graphic. That segment is now crowded with competitors, a lot of them offering free product and supporting that with ads on customers' sites.
So we need to get some investment in to grow the human resource to support our software, and we also intend to invest heavily in product innovation so we can offer more products and services over time to the growing small business community.
Interested In Owning Rights for a County, State, Province or Country? Just send an email to Paul (Fletch) Christian at pc@mydnd.com or call him on +44 7518 345679 and he'll explain this in more detail.
To see some population statistics we gathering please click here (opens in a new window). There's also a summary of Google searches and we're experimenting with Adwords to ensure the cost/benefit of attracting new customers works.
FRANCHISES
Franchise Owners are people who own our software rights for any given territory. These are limited initially to the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the USA, and are defined by county, state or province. The main role of the Franchisee is to take website design briefs from Customers and hand these to the MyDND Design Team (click here to see about design briefs - opens in a new window).
The Market
Overall the market is small business owners without a website. As an example, New Zealand estimates looks like this (this can probably be applied by population to the UK, Canada, Australia and USA and will be reasonably close to the truth):
Population: 4,000,000
Businesses 1-10 People: 121,000
Those Without Websites: 90,000 (estimated from research mentioned below)
Annual Sales Target: 400
Market Capture: 0.44%