I’m guessing the negative feedback is from the color choices. I’d recommend adding some contrasting colors so it doesn’t blend in so much.

You will also have a better flow adding in stock images (I’m sure you can create with AI) to show something being built.

Maybe a video/tutorial or GIF that shows how quick it can be built?

Good luck and great idea!

Your customers’ social media brings in more customers, not usually yours. Encouraging people to post about your business will bring in new eyes because of their friend’s stamp of approval.

Can you explain more why your YouTube videos would cost $100 each to make? Is there no way you could make these for free maybe doing commentary or video essays on other people creating things?

I’d pick one at a time to jumpstart and give it a month then try the next. Doing 10% of each idea is only going to take more time and burn you out more if each starts demanding more of your time.

Okay bot.

It comes down to what your passion is. If you aren’t 100% in this startup I’d give them a 1-3 month notice for the main guy to source funding or clients or you will step away. For the time being look for small bounty jobs online that you could complete in your down time to keep yourself afloat (Do NOT wait until your bank hits $0 to start worrying about this).

Many startup accelerators offer founder matching programs. Try looking around at places like YCombinator and see if they have any virtual networking events. Also check out some of their founder youtube videos as a few of them talk about choosing a cofounder and managing that relationship.

Good luck!

ChatGPT & AI can help you out. Play around with prompts such as “what problems do [industry] workers face in their day to day work?” and go from there.

Look for things trending online, replicate, expand if it does well shut down if not, repeat.

Tech Twitter, Y Combinator networking & hiring events, and IRL events.

Definitely, google kickstarter success stories and you’ll find many examples + strategies.

Pros: Less personal capital required initially. Cons: Hard to continue growth past initial hype cycle, try to stay ahead of this by growing socials & emails lists while crowdfunding.

First time I heard that one 😆

Few things:

Is the $145k entirely from the car dealership? If so, why pay yourself that much vs. invest back into the business? To me that is AT LEAST two salaries that could go towards paying another employee, no?

Also you say $90k passive income that your wife makes as an RN, which is not passive… is that not just income? How is that passive?

This whole post is very confusingly put together in terms of numbers from someone who has a finance degree imo, no offense.

As for what route you should take, expect to get better deals from local credit unions as they invest more into local communities and usually prefer small businesses.

$100k collateral for $60k line of credit is definitely not crazy, again this take is confusing from a finance major as you have to take into account interest on anything loaned out to you.

Also why do you need a loan for inventory? Shouldn’t your profits alone be covering growing your inventory? If not you should focus on lowering your bottom line, not expanding.

Use a mixture of FOMO & scarcity marketing when promoting a pre-sale and make it clear on your website.

Only xxx available for presale + 20% off for the next hour only. Create an email list & whatsapp business group to send out notifications. Collab with a well known creator in your area to help with a launch & pay them a % of the presale when it sells out.

Just be upfront with your customers that you are only 18 running this business and presales are how you afford to build the brand.

Your profits should be what increases your growth. If this is not covering your growth you need to increase your prices.

Loans should only be taken out when you have a consistent revenue coming in that can be multiplied with something bought with said loan like equipment, a new building, etc, never the basics like inventory.

Try doing pre sales instead. This way you get the money upfront to produce the product without it breaking your bank.