Ultramod Group Blog
Partly through serendipity and partly because we feel we have a chance to really make a mark on our industry, city and community, we have entered into the Barclays Bank One Small Step Competition. Our vision is to unlock the power of the web in terms of it’s commercial application for individuals who would never have had the opportunity to take part in this social and economic revolution.
One Small Step From Barclays
For those who perhaps don’t know what the Barclays One Small Step competition is, we will explain a little bit about it as well as go into a little detail about our proposal. You can see the competition itself by clicking here and you can see our entry (and please also back us) on our Welcome to the Revolution entry page.
In a nutshell, Barclays are giving away a £50,000 investment for a business idea which they, along with a panel of judges, think has both commercial and social viability. We hope that our vision fits in well with their criteria and at least hope to have a shot at the investment which would transform both our business, but also provide opportunity for many others we hope to work with.
Our One Small Step Entry
As a web based company, we are at the leading edge of where commercial inertia has and will continue to head. More businesses are getting on-line every day as they appreciate how essential it is to have an on-line presence. The web is the single most important invention – ever. It is so many things to so many people and our pitch to Barclay’s is simple – we will give people the knowledge, training and support to others in a commercially viable sense so that they are able to run their own successful businesses as part of the Ultramod Group.
We are already passionate about the potential of the web, of our business and the positive changes it brings to everything. We are not alone in that passion at all – and we want to help others take a their own piece of that enormous pie!
Where Do You Want To Go Today
Apologies for the rip off of Microsoft’s tag line for their windows ’98 launch but it really has become true. We meet people every day who are starting out, or thinking of starting out in business using the internet as their platform. Almost without exception though, we find people don’t really know where to get started. Paradoxically, the range and breadth of choice the web brings means pinning down that first step is incredibly difficult to do. What we will do, is take individuals, who are out of work, looking for new challenges or simply want to run their own business, and take them step by step through the process of building a successful on-line business providing good quality content and most importantly, promoting their sites using the multitude of techniques that are out there.
How Will The Business Work?
We will continually take on new people to be part of the Ultramod Group. We will be able to hold their hands and provide the sort of support that, as a e-commerce business ourselves know, is essential for a successful on-line business. We are not looking to employ these people, simply offer our support in developing their own individual businesses. We will take these embryonic ideas, utilise our members time and effort and in turn will generate wealth, jobs and vibrancy to the the local economy.
There are zero start up costs for the people joining us, we will provide the sites, the software and the support all for free. This is not a training company, this is a group of autonomous businesses working together, making use of the synergies of co-operation and shared resources.
How Will It Be Profitable.
Each new member joining the Ultramod Group will be either self employed or a business in their own right. This give autonomy to them as well as minimizes our own overheads. The first £1,600 a month of profit for their enterprise is theirs to keep. (So that’s £20,000 per annum ish) After that, any additional profits each month are paid to the Group up to £1,000. That means, someone making a profit of £2,000 a month will keep their £1,600 and give Ultramod £400. Someone making £3000 will pay the group the maximum £1,000 and keep the remaining £2,000. There is no cap on the amount that each person can earn, as long as they continue to provide their bit to the group.
If we can attract 10 people in the first year, and succeed in them achieving very realisable targets, we will have Group Turnover of over £120,000 per annum on top of our own existing profitable Ultramod Group business. We will be able expand our group then accordingly – imagine a shopping centre which provides shops for free and has no limits to the number of stores it can hold. Each store is an autonomous enterprise and the £1,000 “rent” is only paid after the business itself becomes profitable. This is why we love the web!
How to Keep Control
Ultramod will legally own all the sites within the group. Whilst we will provide total autonomy to each member, if they renege on either their part of the bargain, operate in an unethical manner or treat their customers in a manner which is not in line with our own expectations, our support will be withdrawn, their sites will be withdrawn (and given to another or new member) and they are of course free to go and start their own site using the skills that we have taught them.
Why Stay Within The Group
By being part of the Ultramod Group, each member will have access to specialists in each of the fields which separates average websites out from great ones. So we will provide support from graphics experts, link building experts, social media experts, admin support, warehousing, distribution etc. We know from our own growth journey how important these things are – a maximum £1,000 a month fee for all this, office space, knowledge etc is a great opportunity – if they don’t agree, memebers are free to walk away at any time.
Why Back This One Small Step Entry
By doing all of the above, we will be doing all of the below
Business and Job Creation
- Each new member is starting a new business – the £50,000 prize therefore will not only be helping our business, but countless more besides
- We will need to employ admin staff, cleaners, warehouse operatives, delivery drivers etc to meet the needs of an eclectic group of websites.
Wealth Creation
- Based in Derby, but with websites of which some will be selling overseas, we will be drawing in international money from all over the globe.
- Each website will add to the cities web and IT based business sector – an important area which all cites (particularly small ones such as Derby) need to add to a healthy and balanced economy
- Wealth and income for the group members through successful business ownership
Environmental and Social
- It isn’t always essential to “go” to work. Many days can be spent working from home reducing the need for commuting – or at least avoiding rush hour!
- Need a job where you want flexibility of working hours (pick up the kids, do the gardening, visit relatives etc), then this business model promotes that work/life balance
- Small businesses are agile, adaptive and honest – big business is rarely any one of these things.
- Love your work – basing your business on a passion is surely everyone’s dream. The nature of the web is that it is possible to make a living from just about anything.
But Will It Work?
Yes – The Ultramod Group is a model which has gone from strength to strength, founded without investment and built with the countless free or low cost tools available on the web. We know that this way of doing business works – we know it’s viable and we know it can promote a better standard of living in terms of freedom, work life balance and, as is key to any commercial enterprise, profits!
There are hundreds of ways to make a living on-line. Affiliate Marketing, Drop Shipping, On-line Services, Web Development agencies, wholes/retail, PPC, Banner Advertising – the list goes on. As long as you know how to make a site, get traffic and convert traffic, you will be successful. We have already taught people how to do this on an ad hoc basis – we want to be able to formalise this and offer it to as many people as possible.
What Will The £50,000 Do
It will allow us to instantly realise the dream of all of this by funding the renting of premises. Desk Space, Computers etc which are essential and simply not affordable for our business as it stands. It will provide working capital, help raise our profile and generally make the dreams of not only Ultramod, but for all those people who want to take their first steps in making their living on the web.
Help us make this a reality – just by backing us here you will help us get a step closer.
WELCOME TO THE REVOLUTION
Postal Services
It’s pretty easy to have a rant about the postal service. Whichever country you are in, they seem to lose parcels, take ages to deliver and generally seem incompetent. It’s not always their fault though I suspect.
I watched this weeks Panorama on the BBC about the plight of the Royal Mail and there incessant in fighting. I shan’t begin to take sides on that debate and I feel for all those concerned who have the job of sorting out that particular mess of a company. What did stir the imagination though was the way in which all the packets and parcels that are sent still have to be sorted by hand. I didn’t realise it was still the 1920′s!
It’s been a while coming but it’s finally here. The groups websites is finally here after months of ideas, promises and talk! For those of you close to us or involved in the process, the most important piece of the “master plan” is taking it’s first steps.
The Ultramod Blog
We’ve never ran a blog before – perhaps that is daft seeing as their rise on popularity over the last few years has been phenomenal. For those of you who aren’t aware of what a blog is, it is a weblog of thoughts, feelings, events and pretty much anything an author cares to write about. Attaching an active blog to a business website can firstly give the authors free reign to talk about something other than bloody keywords for a changes (if I have to talk about skin needling or stretch mark removal much more my head will explode). It also gives a superb opportunity to gain visitors which otherwise would have had no interest in the product or services which are on offer.