Gogme: Co-Create Small Businesses

A few months back, we wrote about Gogme.biz – a business- oriented social network where site members can implement business ideas together through online collaboration. The website has gathered around 100 business ideas and 900 site members so far. According to the co-founder, Lance Lim, around 80% of the site members had pledged to become co-owners of the first Globally Owned Globally Managed Enterprise, Gogme Learning.
Gogme Learning has a primary objective to facilitate aspiring entrepreneurs to learn the inner working of the business world through the co-creation and co-management of small businesses. The best way to learn about the challenges of entrepreneurship is to go out there and start a business. Some things in life you can only learn by experience and entrepreneurship is a constant state of discovery. If you’re not ready to take the entrepreneurial leap, why not learn the ropes of starting and managing small businesses with an online community?
Entrepreneurial learning is achieved through the online participation of business discussions, brainstorming sessions and polls. Business decisions on staff selection, sales approaches, product designs, business framework and other business activities are made collectively by entrepreneurs. Most entrepreneurs are adults and late teens. Adults learn best when they feel in control and have choices in direction of the learning process. Through blogs and twitters, the operational staff updates daily business activities and challenges. Progressively, entrepreneurs will know how their collective decisions shaped the businesses. Entrepreneurs are given the space to come to their own conclusions based on evidence offered to them, in a non-pressured way which encourages learning.
As for rewards, 100% of the profits are distributed among co-owners. Once these small businesses reached sustainability and profitability, co-owners can use Gogme points to bid for franchises or takeovers of the successful small businesses. Gogme points are earned through online participation in business planning, decision-making and other business activities.
Gogme Learning generates its revenues in two ways. The main revenue comes from the small business ventures created based on the selected business ideas. The secondary revenue derives from market test platforms that provide paid services and consultancy for other companies to market test their products or services.
As a business idea is selected for implementation by the social network, a market test platform is established concurrently. The market test platforms lay the grounds for implementing new business ideas of similar industry or targeted markets in the future. It comprises of primary market research, secondary market research, sharing of business resources and testing of marketing messages.
Wiki-biz-plan is another interesting feature of the website. The wiki-biz-plan is a collection of ideas, suggestions, industry data and other related information that are useful for the implementation of business ideas. All site members can freely contribute and modify the contents.
If you are tinkering with the idea of starting a business in the near future, you may want to check this website out.