dkt91: Young, ambitious, on the move!

[dkt91]

Hey guys,


My name is Florian (aka dkt91) and I warmly welcome you to my Progress Thread. It is my goal to give you updates multiple times a week so you can stay on top of my progress and I can motivate myself more easily.

As for today I will give you a quick summary of my...


...Current situation:

• I own a webdesign and online marketing company which I founded in 2009.
• The company's history can be compared to a rollercoaster ride. I went from very high to very low but I am still alive so things are not that bad. If you have a lot of time you may want to check out this thread.
• I've got great contacts now: from designers to coders and online marketing specialists and many more
• I've got about 4.000 - 5.000€ free to use

Where I am going:


Re-launching my webdesign company. Bring more value to my clients, become more reliable, and expand in a more healthy way than the last time. Supposed not to consume much time. Majority of the work will be done by employees. The company serves to provide me with a steady stream of money I can use to invest.

Furthermore there are three new ventures I can get into:

1.) I got offered a share of some emerging wellness & spa company who are also client at my webdesign company. They want me to take care of their online marketing efforts and to manage some of their international contacts since I speak many languages and already got some experience in that area.

Our first personal meeting is scheduled for this December or January. I am going to calculate how much the share is going to be worth and how much revenue there will be at the end of the day. The online marketing part will be handled by one of my employees so I don't have to invest much time into it.

When I'm doing the maths and figure out that this won't work I will not take the share. If it does work out this venture will create some nice almost passive income

2.) The same company has offered me to start another venture with them. Offering custom-made shampoo and beauty products over a website. Clients can configure their articles online and then get them sent home. With them already being active in that sector we have the manufacturing facilities and a trusted partner for the logistics ready to go. My share will be about 50% and it will be my job to design and develop the website and take care of the online marketing part again.

3.) I am thinking of launching a lead-generation website. Still doing research about what kind of leads that will be exactly and if it will be worth it and if there is a market.

I will send you updates multiple times a week. It's time to rock !

[dkt91]

December 9, 2010

Apart from doing the day-to-day business in my webdesign company (I am not going to mention that explicitely anymore in my next updates) I:

• ordered my webdesign company's new logo. I am going to talk to the designer tomorrow and he will start working on it the same day.
• contacted a few company owners from the line of business I am planning to launch my lead-generation website in via Xing. So far I've got one guy who might be willing to answer some of my questions which I would consider as a little success already.

Watch out for updates tomorrow!

[bateati]

Well done, keep at it!

[dkt91]

December 10, 2010

Today I:

• Talked to the logo designer just as planned but I am not 100% sure if he is the right guy for this task. I have contacted another logo designer who I feel more comfortable with. I will prepare all the information and materials he needs over the weekend so he can get started right on Monday.
• Found another person who might be willing to answer some questions and get into discussion about my lead generation business
• Contacted a group of designers and developers who seem very competent and more reliable than some of my last partners. I will use the next week to assess their skills and then decide whether I want to work with them or not.

Something that is really getting on my nerves right now and is really time consuming is school. I already gave up on homework and studying about a year ago (does not matter because I am not going to go to university anyway and I am still part of the top 1% of my school). However, sitting at school from 8am to 4pm every day is quite time consuming. Furthermore I need to write a 20-pages research paper now and there is no way I can get around it. I wanna have this finished in a week so it is no longer a burden...

[darkjediii]

Great story! Can you PM me your website/portfolio?

[dkt91]

December 11, 2010

• Started preparing the materials for my logo designer
• Wrote a few pages for my research paper - I see the chance to finish it until Sunday evening while my buddies are getting smashed in some bar or disco
• I received a seemingly random call from a person who I talked to only a few months ago. He seems to have a lot of expertise in sales (one of my weaknesses), a can-do-mentality and we got along very well immediately. He is from another city about 450km from my place but he seemed very interested in the business concept of my webdesign company and we agreed on meeting in person this December.

Rock on

[dkt91]

December 12, 2010

It was hard but I finished the complete research paper (more than 20 pages) within two days. Now I only need to check it for spelling and grammar errors and change some minor stuff and I am done. Should not take me much longer than an hour or so. The important thing is that now I can shift back my mind two more important things - like building an awesome business!

[darkjediii]

Great job in getting things in motion. Keep the wheels turning, good luck!

[dkt91]

December 14, 2010

Since I turned 19 yesterday and had some guests at my house I did only the truely urgent work on the 13th.

Therefore today I was pretty occupied with the day-to-day business. Yet I still got a step further in building up my workforce. Right now I am finding out more about the skills of some potential staff as well as their rates, availability, etc. From my last business I learned that this point is very crucial and needs some special attention or things can go badly wrong in the future of your business.

The basic information about my company as well as my imaginations about the logo and CI have been sent to my designer in Milano today and he will start working on it now.

Furthermore the guy who called me on the 11th and I are pretty much thinking about running the company together. As I already said, he seems very good at sales & marketing and motivated to the bone just like me. Today he sent me a document containing a sales concept he worked out - I am going through the document right now and will discuss it with him this week, most likely tomorrow.

[dkt91]

December 17, 2010

Right now I am uncertain about venture #1 and #2 (besides the website company) since the company who I work(ed) with seems a bit in trouble right now which means it looks like they were about to file bankruptcy. Even worse - they still owe me a few thousand Euro but I'll make it somehow and furthermore they are not even bankrupt yet.

At least now I will be able to concentrate fully on rebuilding my webdesign company which will most likely provide me with a good stream of capital which I can use to do some further investments.


Still on the move

[TaxGuy]

Sehr gut! Du scheinst sehr beschäftigt.

I especially like the following:

[U][B][*]I received a seemingly random call from a person who I talked to only a few months ago. He seems to have a lot of expertise in sales (one of my weaknesses), a can-do-mentality and we got along very well immediately. He is from another city about 450km from my place but he seemed very interested in the business concept of my webdesign company and we agreed on meeting in person this December.

Furthermore the guy who called me on the 11th and I are pretty much thinking about running the company together. As I already said, he seems very good at sales & marketing and motivated to the bone just like me. Today he sent me a document containing a sales concept he worked out - I am going through the document right now and will discuss it with him this week, most likely tomorrow.

Just remember that if he wants to be involved with any of the businesses that you have already started that he needs to work his way up to the equity share that you have, however, if he is as motivated as you say and possesses sales/marketing skills that you lack, having a graduated compensation/equity system will be the best way to get him on board. I had someone email me about a job opportunity, he wanted to get paid by the hour and I countered by telling him that we would start on a straight commission basis, he could move up to a small salary + commission basis based on performance and ultimately have a shot at an equity stake, he still seemed interested until I sent him the terms, then he never responded

No skin of my back though, if someone wants to join our team they're gonna have to prove themselves and more importantly, gonna have to work off the same non-guaranteed pay structure that we do as the owners!

[dkt91]

December 25, 2010

Sorry for the late update, guys. Been pretty busy with my day-to-day business and the damned school but things are going pretty well all in all.

For the next days I am planning to work on the progress of re-launching my internet company. Among the things I am going to do is for example creating some first products and website texts and taking care of some legal stuff.

Some good news: Firstly, I have already found three clients (contracts already signed) who are going to work with me as soon as it starts again. And secondly, there is a high chance I can sell what is remaining of my old business to a former business partner. I won't make a fortune by selling it but it will finance my new company to 100%. Furthermore I can keep all of my old clients and add them to my new company's portofolio.

Just remember that if he wants to be involved with any of the businesses that you have already started that he needs to work his way up to the equity share that you have, however, if he is as motivated as you say and possesses sales/marketing skills that you lack, having a graduated compensation/equity system will be the best way to get him on board. I had someone email me about a job opportunity, he wanted to get paid by the hour and I countered by telling him that we would start on a straight commission basis, he could move up to a small salary + commission basis based on performance and ultimately have a shot at an equity stake, he still seemed interested until I sent him the terms, then he never responded

Thanks, Clint - you made me reconsider some things. I am really convinced he could be the right partner and we get along personally very well. However, I tend to make this mistake often that I trust in skills people say they have or seem to have without actually having a proof. I think I will have him sell some stuff for me before I actually offer him a share or anything: A little challenge that he has to take and if he passes he can join me. If not, working with him might be nothing more than a waste of time...

[dkt91]

December 26, 2010

My gut has been giving me a weird feeling for the last few days. It is like it is telling me that what I am currently doing will not let me head into the right direction. I need to make a change if I want to be successful. I need to build a true Fastlane business.

[jazzfreak11]

December 26, 2010

My gut has been giving me a weird feeling for the last few days. It is like it is telling me that what I am currently doing will not let me head into the right direction. I need to make a change if I want to be successful. I need to build a true Fastlane business.

Hmm.. I know the feeling. Maybe you can change your current business to become fastlane? Or maybe you do need to start fresh: sell the business and do something new.

BUT: Be careful before you make any sort of big decision like that. Sleep on it for a few days, and see if it really is a gut feeling, or if it's just laziness or lack of persistence playing tricks on you.

Best of luck in whatever you choose!

[dkt91]

January 5, 2011

Sorry for the late update, guys!

The person I had intended to work with is turning out to be not very pleasant in his character traits as I am just figuring out. I don't think I would like to work with this person.

Also I have thought very thoroughly about how I will go on in the future. While I cannot afford it yet to completely stop doing websites for other businesses I am not going to focus on this anymore. I will only invest the time into it that is needed to cover my expenses.

The rest of my time I will use to get better at coding (I know only HTML and CSS and PHP basics so far). This knowledge will help me build up an online business.

[dkt91]

January 16, 2011

I am back with a new update!

Having read "Rework" by the founders of 37signals yesterday I have gotten even more assured about the fact that not working with that sales guy was the right decision. I have to admit - when I told him there was not going to be a collaboration the decision was driven by my gut to a large degree but looking back now he was the kind of guy who needs thousands of useless things first (project folders, letterheads, a business plan, a multiple-pages customer-acquisition-plan) before he can get started with actually produdctive work.
Things got even more funny/ridiculous when he sent me an email shortly after which contained sentences like "this company has no future without me", "the fact that you are not working with me is not acceptable for me after I put two days of work into doing some research" or "you will never be successful with anything if you don't work with people like me". Furthermore he found it totally "unacceptable" that he could not reach me on my cellphone on Christmas Eve because he had something very important to talk about (so important that he did not remember anymore the next day).
Thank god I avoided him - I don't want to imagine what it would have been like to work with this person over a longer period of time!

As I already said - I am going to keep my webdesign business up because it pays my bills and it keeps me alive financially. Furthermore it can serve as a justification in front of my parents for not going to college. I have already designed and coded the new website this week but I cannot send it online until February due to an agreement I have with the new owner of my former company.

Lastly, I have finally initiated my internet business www.wizwave.com which I want to make one of the most awesome places to learn all kinds of awesome skills in a really awesome community. I'll post more information once I feel like it but I won't be making any big decisions about the structure or business model of this website until it is necessary. I know the rough direction but I won't worry about details before I have to.

Cheers guys, have a good week!

[dkt91]

January 20, 2011

I am currently developing the concept for www.wizwave.com including some early thoughts on monetization. At the same time the logo is being designed by a really creative guy that I have worked with before a few times and who I absolutely trust in to show up with something awesome pretty soon.

One final decision I have already made is that the platform will focus on English language content for the beginning, since in doing so I can reach much more people than if I just focused on the German market. This is necessary because the businesse's monetization strategy will rely heavily on scale, not on magnitude.

Furthermore I had some pretty interesting conversations with friends and/or business partners. Surprisingly the vast majority of the people I talked to encouraged me to make this project reality. One guy even said he prays for this to get big because he thinks it is about time that a website like this appears on the internet.

I have also made some progress in regards to the technology that will be used for this project. I figured that things might actually be much easier than I first expected them to be. I think I will be able to get this project up and running relatively quickly.

The past 1.5 years have been quite a challenge for me but I have learned so much and I feel more confident than ever that I will make this work. This venture gives me so much passion and excitement, I can hardly sleep at night

Cheers guys - expect updates soon!