The internet has created a new business model for entrepeneurs where the process for starting a business is turned on its head. The business model is to first launch a website pretending that you are an established business to see if you can establish a customer base before you even think of spending a penny on actually starting a business. This model means that your risk is greatly reduced to just the cost of a website and your time developing it. You can broker the first wave of customers out to other providers for a fee and if there is a sustainable business actually start delivering the service or product yourself. Your bank manager couldn't argue with an established customer base. Or why not start a new 'virtual' business and once you have a customer base, sell the domain name and customers on?
CNN has recently run a story on this very subject. A man called David Carter launched a website called asbestossurveys.com in the UK without having any knowledge of asbestos at all. He gathered information from goverment websites promising companies that he could resolve their asbestos problems within goverment guidelines. When the calls starting coming in he sent the business to a friend who had an asbestos business. Then when the calls kept coming and his friend could no longer handle the business he took the plunge and enrolled himself on an asbestos course.
Read the full story at: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/10/01/8387088/index.htm?postversion=2006101610
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