Making business contacts

monkey24

Hey,

Just looking for a quick bit advise or perhaps someone can point me in the right direction. Where is the best place to make business contacts. For specifics, I am quite interested in developing an idea I have for a business. This would be based online initially. Although i plan on doing an Msc starting next year geared towards Business Informatics and entrepreneurship, I am not that experienced on Software Development.

If I have a proven idea and actual figures to show where profits would come from would Enterprise Ireland fund the development of this or do i need to just get cracking on reading php/dreamweaver books.

Also does anyone know a good site I could chat with people who are interested on combining skills in the hope of creating something that may turn into a business one day

Any advise would be appreciated ( i think what I am asking is, is there a site that exists where people can combine skills and discuss business possibilities without ideas being stolen )

Cheers,
m

p.s I am starting a course with dceb for those wishing to start up a business so hope to make contacts at that.

information

next course is starting april, they will give you funding 38k, office, training and put you in contact with the right people in EI/investors

http://www.pdc.ie/development/startup/outline.asp

egan007

Meet contacts here
http://www.bni.eu/ireland/
Get advice here
http://www.betterbusiness.ie/

My two cents:
If you have never developed any software and are planning on developing ground breaking software as your first project I would be forgiven for being skeptical.

Afaik, enterprise Ireland only give grants for products or businesses with more than 1 person, Meaning they are not venture capitalists- I could be wrong but I think I read something to that efect on their site.

If anyone invests In your project it will be because 1. You have a realistic foolproof plan that shows profit. 2. You have the brass to carry it off.

If you have these then you should be talking to venture capitalists.

AARRRGH

Enterprise Ireland are only interested in businesses which will be exporting a lot of goods within a few years. I did the DCEB course. I found the course to be interesting but the people there didn't really know much about business or what they wanted to do.

I'm involved in a couple of online ventures - I'm also a fairly ethical person - so if you want to PM me to discuss your idea I'd be happy to pass on whatever advice I can.

Sposs

You could always recruit someone on www.scriptlance.com or www.rentacoder.com to develop the idea. Most VC investors like visual aids more than just someone telling them an idea.

monkey24

Hey guys,

Cheers for the replies. Some useful information there. Just to give some feedback on a couple of pointers.

egan007 - You are right on the development front. The problem I have is, I have a couple of ideas and they usually involve ecommerce. But I am not big into developing so I was really checking if you could gain funding for a business idea without having the tools to do the development yourself. Also can someone forge a career in ecommerce but more on the business process/marketing etc stage without going into the nitty gritty of developing.
Also how you doing egan, i am hoping you remember me after all our time working together

dublindude - funny thing is, from my times on boards i actually had you in mind regarding a contact. I have seen you post before and know you have a few online ventures. At present my idea is just that and I am not at the stage where i think its full proof. But I will def be on to you at a future date.

Maybe my original question was a bit hazy because I wasn't sure what i was asking. But I suppose I am asking is there a future for someone who is passionate about ecommerce, wants to create their own business online at a future date but doesn't, at present, possess real development skills ( although I know my stuff regarding ecommerce, i just have done much of the development )

cheers

Zascar

www.linkedin.com

egan007

monkey24 wrote: »

Also how you doing egan, i am hoping you remember me after all our time working together

cheers

Hmmmm...I only know one Monkey Aka Princess