EirePreneur

When the big guns come

This could be bad news for the Irish entrepreneur behind Everything.ie, the Craigslist clone. Karlin Lillington broke the news on yesterday's Irish Times that Craigslist has come to Dublin.

I suppose that if Everything.ie had at least a year to build up a head of steam it may have had a better chance of survival, and while I'm not sounding the death knell yet it does seem ominous that, fresh off the block, Craigslist is catching up fast in terms of postings. Everything.ie actually looks the slicker of the two but there's the rub - the stubbornly bare bones look and simplicity of Craigslist has been a key to its prosperity.

It'll interesting to see if there's room for the two of them.

[via Bernie Goldbach]

A Pay Pal or not?

It seems that the proviso 'your mileage may vary' could hardly be more accurately applied than to Paypal.

Karlin raves (welcome back Karlin!) while Bernie rants. My own experience is somewhere in between but probably nearer to Karlin on the spectrum of satisfaction.

From what I've read on the various Paypalsucks sites it seems that if you're unlucky with them they can indeed be a big pain. I must say though that in our experience of using them as one of two payment option on our e-commerce website for the last two years we've had no real problems. Sometimes their payment notification emails are slow to arrive, which can result in angry emails from new subscribers to our services, but other than that the irritations have been mild.

Having said that it was a relief to eventually be able to move our Paypal funds into our AIB account, last week. I'm not sure why that is really but I think Paypal funds seem just a little too virtual at times. Now that two years worth of revenues have suddenly taken on a physical form (or at least a more trusted virtual one) we may be less anxious about storing funds with Paypal in future. (Yes, I see the irony in applying the word 'trusted' to AIB ;-)

As I say we've also used 2CheckOut.com for a number of years which has been a mostly positive experience. On the other hand we recently applied to WorldPay for a full merchant account and it's been a very bad start to our relationship. Not only did the application take nearly a month to process but we discovered that their account management interface is fairly pathetic compared with 2CheckOut and Paypal. I'll report back here regularly on how our business relationship develops.

Too much broadband?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I read a story like this -

"Broadband is enjoying great success in the Irish SME sector, but would be more successful if Irish small businesses could figure out additional uses for it."

Sheesh, throw some bandwidth down my telco-forsaken corner of the country and I'll show you plenty of uses for it. I can assure you!

MicksGarage.com

MicksGarage.com was setup by two young entrepreneurs in May 2003 with a view to supplying a quality accessories and parts service to the Irish market and providing a one stop shop for all motoring needs.

The first thing I did when leaving my last job - to setup my own business - was sell my car. Now that business is picking up I'm hoping to get a new set of wheels under me again soon, so MicksGarage.com is going right into my bookmarks folder.

A masterly source of information

QUICKLINK: NationMaster.com - Where Stats Come Alive!

"A massive central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations. NationMaster is a vast compilation of data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, World Resources Institute, UNESCO, UNICEF and OECD. Using the form above, you can generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics with ease."

If you're an e-commerce entrepreneur your customers may well be from any and all corners of the world. If so, make sure you use this website to learn a little more about "where they're coming from". WARNING: You may well fritter away hours and hours of your time compulsively comparing Ireland to every other nation in the world!

eCommerce success stories

While applying for a WorldPay Merchant account today (we need an alternative to 2CheckOut and Paypal) I took a while to peruse their success stories. Most of them could be classified as microbusiness ideas and they're well worth the read.

Irish Web Reservations' story gets top billing but SillyJokes.co.uk's is, naturally, the most entertaining -

"Did you hear the one about the internet joke shop that couldn't take online payment?

No, I thought not.

But since becoming one of WorldPay's customers SillyJokes.co.uk has gone from 20 products online to over 200. It has changed from a hobby to a full on business which looks forward to continued expansion. "

Which just goes to prove that microbusiness entrepreneurship needn't be a serious business!

Beating the big guys

The Online Journalism Review has a great article about Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist which still looks the same to me today as when I first saw it a few years ago. In fact I can't think of any other successful portal site which looks so 'hand-coded'.

"Started nearly 10 years ago by soft-spoken software engineer Craig Newmark, Craigslist went from a small e-mail list of local events and parties to become a national and international phenomenon providing local residents with a cheap, simple way to sell junk, find a new job, or find a mate quickly. And as it has grown to encompass 45 cities -- with more to come -- Craigslist has resisted buyout offers and paid advertising while becoming a powerful alternative to daily newspaper and alternative-weekly classifieds -- especially in its hometown."

Craigslist is an incredible example of microbusiness success and there's a lot to learn in this article, in particular about how a niche-focused David can steal business from a sleeping Goliath

Irish dotcom worth €20m?

Today's Sunday Times tells us that --

"The shareholders of MyHome.ie, Ireland’s most popular property portal, are in talks with two separate groups about a possible sale.

Industry sources have put a price tag of €20m on the business but another source close to the company said the final figure is likely to be much higher. "

Their success is an important case study for any Irish e-ntrepreneur. It's interesting to note that despite having a "meagre marketing budget", the company delivered profits from an early stage. Congratulations to Jim Miley and the rest of the team.

Becoming a Company Director - the pitfalls

Boards.ie member Paddyo posts an interesting query on the Business/Economy/Finance forum, regarding an offer made by his boss of a position on the board of directors of the company he works for. A twist in the tale is that his boss will not make full disclosures about company finances. What would you do?

Online Gambling - W.T.O. Ruling

From the New York Times an intriguing article entitled - U.S. Online Gambling Policy Violates Law, W.T.O. Rules:

"The World Trade Organization, in its first decision on an Internet-related dispute, has ignited a political, cultural and legal tinderbox by ruling that the United States policy prohibiting online gambling violates international trade law.

The ruling, issued by a W.T.O. panel on Wednesday, is being hailed by operators of online casinos based overseas as a major victory that could force America to liberalize laws outlawing their business. "

As the co-founder of a niche sports portal I'm particularly interested in seeing how this pans out. It's always been a huge contradiction to me that a nation with a huge porn industry should tar gambling as evil incarnate.