Originally Posted by
Voidmaster
You want to set up a hardware website aimed just at mmo-gamers?
Let's assume for your benefit that you are in a big country like the USA with lots of people using PC's.
Now let's estimate the amount of MMO-gamers in the USA, 5 million would be a high guess but hey let's take that as an example.
Take in the fact that when people order a new pc, they aren't gonna order it from 1000km away, they want something close, but again, for your convenience, say you can reach 5-6 states, or about 10% of the USA, that cuts your market down to 500k people.
You are a starting business so you probably won't have a lot of money for marketing, but let's say you can reach 5% of your target audience (again a high estimate in your benefit). Your market is now down to 25k people.
The average person will buy a new PC once every 5 years, so you are left with a marketed audience of 5k people a year.
Obviously, some people will just buy a pc somewhere else, at a big company or a store they already know. Since you are new on the market and there isn't a lot of or any positive response yet. Let's say you have a success rate of 10% (which again is a high estimate in your benefit), so 500 people a year will buy a computer at your website.
Let's say after your labor cost and technical cost you earn 50 euros on a pc (getting repetitive, but this is again a high estimate on your benefit). That is 25k a year gross profit. You'll have to pay off a bank for your start investment (gotta buy that hardware with something right?), let's say 200 euros a month, that is 2.4k a year. You have your electrical bill to pay, let's say 20 euros a month, that's another 240 euros. You have to insure yourself (by law if you run your own business) during business hours, another 2.4k a year. You'll also have some unforeseen expenses, you might break something for example, a normal budget for a company your size for this would be 5k a year. All in all you got 10k a year in running costs.
You now have an income of 15k euros a year, before taxes. and this is with calculating everything highly in your benefit, and not calculating any of your income as a new investment.
Not a single bank will grant you anything to start with off the above business case.
I am not telling you to give up, i am just strongly advising you to rethink your market. You made a good start with wanting to start your own business, now you just need to think it all through more thoroughly and come up with a better Business Case. The PC hardware market in particular is a very saturated and hard-to-get-into market, you'll really have to think it through a few times!
Good luck anyway.