Action vs Skilling up first?

regandy

I have noticed a gap in the market or what can be better described as a service gap in a specific industry which I used to work in and think a well made website would work really well to solve the problem.

I have found a Dublin based eCommerce & Design company who will work in consultation with me, develop logo and designs, spec out the front end of the site and project manage the technical back end with a company in India sourced through elance.com (looks like an impressive site) as they outsource work offhore regularly. The price tag will add up to about €20K as its a complex brief.

I have also been accepted into DCU's eCommerce Masters which I believe to be a good course that will hopefully equip me with a lot of new knowlege and skills that I might need for starting an internet based business.

My dilemma is either to go ahead and commission the website build with the Dublin based company or to wait 12 months after doing the masters.

If I do the masters I fear I may loose a first mover advantage and spend a lot of money over the year that could have been used for the build. Also while having the Masters will make me more investable and will give me many new ideas and contact I think I may be using it as a comfort blanket to avoid committing loaned money to the project.

I know its a good idea and have been giving support by my local Enterprise Board. If I just commission the build and forget about the masters, there's a good chance I will be successful but there is still alot of risk involved.

Another factor for my desire to just build the site is that I am anxious to start making money from it, to move out of home. This may be affecting my decsion too much. However I believe being an entrepreneur means taking action.

My feeling is that risk can be minimised by doing the masters, education is never wasted and that a year is not a long time. However if the idea is good enough am I wasting my time and money with more education.

If you have any advice after reading this long post I'd really apprciate it.

boomshackala

Best option

was in your position some moths back. My thinking is 1 year is a lot of time to spend learning, but you can be preparing in the meantime. I started from a low base and am still learning the ropes 6 months later. Was totally unprepared for the amount of learning needed. Having said that there are paid communities who will help you with everything you need and the DCU course will probably have alot you dont need.

Do you think you won't be able to get your required info education elsewhere?

Atlas_IRL

V Good

I am in the exact same position as you lol. Getting a site built through scriptlance and have also been accepted into the same masters course. At the moment i am currently thinking of not doing the masters and working on the site full time. The development is taking longer than i thought and is gettinfg close to crunch time so i have to make a decision soon.

I've had mixed opinions from people, i have done 5 years in college and signed up for the masters as there was no jobs going when i came back from holidays(full blown resession at that stage) In the mean time i have been working full time in the family business but have been working on this idea. Now that it is soon to come into action i have to make a decision. The masters is 2 grand with a 500 deposit. So if i dont do it i only lose 500 euro.

My plan is that i am probably going to defer the masters for a year and concentrate on business. Im 25 so still young enough to give it a shot.

About the offshore development being a good idea. It is and it isnt. If you get good people you will save a bomb.

But if you get a bad crowd it can be a headache. We've had to get a lot of errors and redesigns on our site and they are overtime now. Its the only way to go though if you dont have a big budget.

regandy

Thanks for your msg's. This is a good site, within 12 hours Ive received coments from 2 people in the exact same situation.

I could prob get the information I need elsewhere and in a more cost and time effective mannor. While an eCommerce Masters would give me more confidence in starting this business and would make me more investable I think I will spend hours upon hours learning stuff non specific to my needs.


Check out MIT OpenCourseWare for high quality material from a wide variety of 3rd level course's: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

If it's that good an opportunity, why do a masters ? Doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't worry too much about a masters, it doesn't necessarily increase your employment opportunities unless it's a very specialised area and most masters/third level courses are just theory theory and more theory. If the business doesn't work out, you can always work your way up in a company and then do an MBA in England at weekends in a highly rated university. If you want something bad enough, you can make it happen.