Website coming soon...I hope.

[Billy C]

  Got a customer who has gotten Dana hooked up and helping put a website together. We lost biz when V4Mkt died and I am sick of eBay. We bought 4 or 5 domains. V4Market.net is one of them.    Billy's Out Back which is our DBA name. A few others. Trying to figure it all out but I see it happening in weeks/months.

[Stretch]

Unless you're planning on offering all sorts of other V4 stuff I'd probably stay away from the V4Market one for now. You'll get covered up with questions about mc rebuild kits, pumpkins, hoses, thermostats.....

I'd probably go with the Billy's Out Back. I think that one would bring you the most carb business since you're using that name already. Andy looks like he's got most of the business on the other board but your name still comes up with good references. If you're thinking of this one I might be interested in going into the mc rebuild kit business.

[PLCGuy]

I would disagree.
I think there is a place for v4 parts and think that could enhance bills business.
Yes you would need to stock parts, but I'd go that route
I'd do MCS and calipers

My $.02 of course

[Billy C]

  I am slowly learning to keep up with the cell phone generation. Seems only us old guys rely on a PC or read ads. Seems less is more. Facebook is big. Dana has started us a page there and I try and poke my nose in occasionally. FB eats a lot of time though. Competition is fierce. I have somewhere around 3 copycats now. They come, they go but maybe 1 or 2 are gaining some traction. Maybe I have to expand my carb model offerings?  That is coming but an uphill battle competing with the current gurus.
  Re: v4mkt.net. It will link to the master domain Billy's Out Back and can be delinked if it becomes a negative. V4mkt was around long enough it gained name recognition so our thinking is a google search will show BOB near the top.
  I mentioned we may get others wanting to list their wares. I am open to that once we get up and running. Looks like it will be easy enough to add miscellaneous small parts as well. Stuff like synch springs, cleaned bare carb bodies, vacuum slides, maybe some KL stuff. We have some spare cash that needs to be invested, grow, in a low risk fashion. Resell is minimal effort, lick a stamp kind of labor. My heart is in rebuilds. Hoping Dana catches the resell fever. A new adventue and we will see where it leads.

[Billy C]

  Forgot to mention, I have grown to hate ebay. No personal contact allowed before the sale. That is fine for widgets resellers but not a good model for carburetors that need some discussion. I find 10 minutes spent with a guy on the phone to be very gratyfying for the both of us. Non hardcore v4 newbs are thrilled to talk to someone who has btdt. I am thrilled to help a brother out. It also leads to business and referrals.

[Spotty3]

You could be more active on the other board and I would think that would bring in considerable more business. Your name comes up a lot over there so I wouldn't overlook that venue. You have a good reputation so build on that. Websites are nice but they attract a lot of time wasters also.

[Billy C]

  You are right of course. I should poke my nose in there more often.
  Dana has been banging away for several days and is making real progress. Requires some Linux coding skills and most of it seems to be done via Excel. I look at it, nod and say good job honey. Then I run for the shop. My brain can't hold anymore new stuff.

[Malm]

Facebook will be important, I see your name mentioned anytime someone asks about carbs... I think re-use of the V4 market would be good, if you decide to do more than carbs...

[Billy C]

  This website is good timing. I have been at war with ebay over communication with rebuild customers for 6 months. They have warned me a couple times about contact info before the sale. So, I answer questions with too bad we can't do a phone call so I can sort out questions and options but ebay don't want it. Today I got am ebay message saying Your eBay account has been restricted  . Looks like biz as usual but higher fees, Top Seller status removed. 7 day dealio. No problems with kit sales, they buy, I ship. Carb service requires the ability to talk and exchange pics. Fark ebay, I will slowly phase out. Their loss, they make $2k - $4k a year in fees off us. eBay profits must be down and they are adopting the Illinois model of budget balancing. Raise the tax, yep that'll fix it. Their problem is too much competition and making things harder for long time sellers is not the way to fix their falling margins. Then again I am sort of an odd niche market as service type products are not big on ebay. <Rant off>

[luv2fly]

Hate ebay as well.  Just sold a complete Hondaline fairing for $400.  Ready to bolt on and go.  $400 - $40 ebay fee - $75 shipping.

Should've kept the damn thing.  Buyer was great, but after I sold it got local activity wanting to buy it, which would have been fee free.

BUT listing fees were free, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

[Billy C]

so I got that going for me, which is nice.

  Who is that character? I wanna say Joe Dirt but that ain't right. SNL?

[Billy C]

teaser pic

[John Hilmer]

Billy,

Congratulations to you and Dana. This is going to be very good, I can tell just from he teaser.

John

[luv2fly]

so I got that going for me, which is nice.

  Who is that character? I wanna say Joe Dirt but that ain't right. SNL?

Close! Bill Murray, Caddyshack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X48G7Y0VWW4

[Billy C]

  That did come to me later. Still have a few functional brain cells left.
  Supposed to be doing a pic upload marathon this weekend in preparation for some live testing of the website. Luckily my website guy is a Magna addicted collector. I have some freebie rebuilds in my future. Barter is good.

[NormanB]

Sure looking forward to the rollout Billy!

Keep us posted.

[Miecul]

   

[Billy C]

I promise, this ain't a DRP website story. Soon-ish. Dana is working hard at it.

[NormanB]

 

It's all good Billy!

[Billy C]

  It is forcing us to look much harder at documentation. We are building complex spreadsheets, cleaning up pics, looking at pricing vs costs. Been winging it on the profit margin and frankly have little idea what the bottom line is. The general feel is margins have gotten smaller. Ultimately I want this thing set up where anyone in the family can look at a few docs and run this biz.

[Miecul]

  It is forcing us to look much harder at documentation. We are building complex spreadsheets, cleaning up pics, looking at pricing vs costs. Been winging it on the profit margin and frankly have little idea what the bottom line is. The general feel is margins have gotten smaller. Ultimately I want this thing set up where anyone in the family can look at a few docs and run this biz.

It's getting harder for small businesses to succeed. When you are the bookkeeper, worker, stockkeeper and do-all person. It hard to keep your eye on the ball when there are so many. Once it's set-up properly it should make your life a little easier. Not saying the work is any easier but having a system watching your stock levels and pricing, you're not as apt to lose money without knowing.

Give Dana our best. 

[Billy C]

  Discovered eBay screwed with a lot of my ads. Some just disappeared, others got description partial deletes. (active content?) I dunno what an active content even is. eBay, squeezing the golden goose for that last egg.

[wtroll]

  Forgot to mention, I have grown to hate ebay. No personal contact allowed before the sale. That is fine for widgets resellers but not a good model for carburetors that need some discussion. I find 10 minutes spent with a guy on the phone to be very gratyfying for the both of us. Non hardcore v4 newbs are thrilled to talk to someone who has btdt. I am thrilled to help a brother out. It also leads to business and referrals.

You just gave me a compliment though I arranged to ship the carbs to you with a hidden money order from the board. lmao
I managed to get them out, back in, and then out and back in again due to a torn O-ring.  Been five years since the rebuild and she's still purring.
I feel honored not to be a V-4 newb after riding this thing 20 years and doing most of the work. Its been fun.

[Billy W., '82 Magna]

You could be more active on the other board and I would think that would bring in considerable more business. Your name comes up a lot over there so I wouldn't overlook that venue. You have a good reputation so build on that. Websites are nice but they attract a lot of time wasters also.

The fact that Andy lives in Canada (where shipping rates are INSANELY HIGH) would give you a real edge with US based v4 aficionados, even ones here on the East Coast. Also, as everyone has said,  your name is mentioned with regularity on that site, and you would have plenty of backing if you wanted to move in and compete for the American riders business. I'll bet your business will increase double digits in a month if you establish a presence there bro!!

[Billy C]

  I should get more active there. Those dang Andys keep popping up in my life and causing me trouble.    Justins too, but that is an old non V4 story.

  Any day now on the website. Still arguing a few points with our webmaster.

[Billy C]

   http://www.billysoutback.com/

  By tomorrow we should be live! Much thanks to Dana (the wife) and Bob B. (our webmaster and fellow V4 rider) for building this site. Dana is smarter than she thinks. 
  We have been testing and reworking and think we have the bugs out of it but feel free to comment. The plan at this point for forum member discounts is keep doing biz via email. The website is geared towards non members. Maybe that will change in the future but for now we are ready to rest.

[Stretch]

I've got my account set up.

Looks good Billy/Dana! I've used up all my spare parts so I'll be seeing if the checkout works pretty soon.

[Billy C]

  One thing we can do is a newsletter. Only goes out to those who opt in for it. I was thinking it might be a good idea to use it for referrals of trusted vendors. Probable restart the old V4Mkt model with some drop shippers. Brian had a killer site going. Alex, our eldest was stunned that we had a website. He disigned the flaming wrench back when he was 16 iirc. So, he gets to be a part of it.

[Miecul]

How's the website, Billy? 

[leebee]

Just signed up.  For when I get some money...

Lee B