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One Doctor's Journey

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

throttleforward

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Little update:

* Down working for The Man. Been sick as a dog during this time (vomiting, etc) but still plugging along. Pattern: See pt, vomit, gobble Zofran, see another patient, water, phenergan, put in a central line and resuscitate the dying dude, go vomit, rinse and repeat. Thankfully things are finally improving. Just creeping along during today's shift. :)

* Developer gave us his first update & we'll be able to look at some screen shots on Saturday. :)
* Found two website dev's using @healthstatus' recommendations. Will make a final decision today. Just want to be done with it already.
* Have decided that I'm going to visit 10 dentist practices next week in order to see if I can presell this product. I have been watching a lot of Shark Tank lately, and I realized that they guys I like the most get out there and hustle. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

That's all for now.....
One of the many ironies of working in the medical field - you take care of sick people all day, yet you are absolutely never allowed to call out sick yourself.

Have you presold at all yet? I know you mentioned validation in a previous post - aside from your personal belief and the belief of your mentors, how much validation have you gotten from people you've never met?

Also, suggested you read @MTF 's thread, where he details how he went from nothing to a SaaS business in a few months (why that thread is not Gold I don't understand).
 
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Iwokeup

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One of the many ironies of working in the medical field - you take care of sick people all day, yet you are absolutely never allowed to call out sick yourself.

Have you presold at all yet? I know you mentioned validation in a previous post - aside from your personal belief and the belief of your mentors, how much validation have you gotten from people you've never met?

Also, suggested you read @MTF 's thread, where he details how he went from nothing to a SaaS business in a few months (why that thread is not Gold I don't understand).
You're absolutely correct about the healthcare irony. So funny. I've seen patients with an IV in my arm and dragging around fluids on an IV pole.

Presells: NO. I think that this is my biggest failure to date. I've been afraid to ask, especially since we didn't have a product yet. Big FAIL on my part. Which is why I'm determined to try it out with a couple of dentist (and possibly medical) practices next week. I'm going to ASK for the pre-sell and see what happens. If I can't do it and I'm doing a decent pitch, that ought to tell me something, eh?

Great suggestion. Will do so. Thank you.
 

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You're absolutely correct about the healthcare irony. So funny. I've seen patients with an IV in my arm and dragging around fluids on an IV pole.

Presells: NO. I think that this is my biggest failure to date. I've been afraid to ask, especially since we didn't have a product yet. Big FAIL on my part. Which is why I'm determined to try it out with a couple of dentist (and possibly medical) practices next week. I'm going to ASK for the pre-sell and see what happens. If I can't do it and I'm doing a decent pitch, that ought to tell me something, eh?

Great suggestion. Will do so. Thank you.

The only thing I would caution is that the point of presells for you (since presumably you have the resources to build the product and are only doing this for validation) is to guage interest and not nessesarily make hard sales. The population of people who will buy based on trust and a clickable prototype is a subset of the overall population of people who will want your product.

In other words, if you call 100 dentists, physically see 15, 7 say they want to be notified about your launch, and 1 or 2 actually forks over money, I'd call that a success. Most people just arn't going to buy stuff before it's built (some will, most won't).

edit: I'd also start with crazy low discounts for preselling - 50% off the first year, 25% off forever, and money held in escrow so that you can give them 100% refund if the product fails to meet launch benchmarks.
 

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The only thing I would caution is that the point of presells for you (since presumably you have the resources to build the product and are only doing this for validation) is to guage interest and not nessesarily make hard sales. The population of people who will buy based on trust and a clickable prototype is a subset of the overall population of people who will want your product.

In other words, if you call 100 dentists, physically see 15, 7 say they want to be notified about your launch, and 1 or 2 actually forks over money, I'd call that a success. Most people just arn't going to buy stuff before it's built (some will, most won't).

edit: I'd also start with crazy low discounts for preselling - 50% off the first year, 25% off forever, and money held in escrow so that you can give them 100% refund if the product fails to meet launch benchmarks.
Thanks, TF! That's a reasonable strategy all around. Rep sent!
 

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The only thing I would caution is that the point of presells for you (since presumably you have the resources to build the product and are only doing this for validation) is to guage interest and not nessesarily make hard sales. The population of people who will buy based on trust and a clickable prototype is a subset of the overall population of people who will want your product.
Yes, but the thing that I worry about is that if I get no one to pre-sell, then am I running after something that no one wants?
 

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Yes, but the thing that I worry about is that if I get no one to pre-sell, then am I running after something that no one wants?
Watch this. This video is a portion of a larger video which I highly recommend you watch, but the key piece is is the lead in to 11:30 of this video. They literally talk about knocking on 100 doors and what NOT to say.


edit: Your "lizard brain" is telling you "what if no one likes it - what if no one buys?"
Instead, pose this question to yourself:
"What if this is exactly what my customers are looking for? What if they love it? What then?"
 
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Iwokeup

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Watch this. This video is a portion of a larger video which I highly recommend you watch, but the key piece is is the lead in to 11:30 of this video. They literally talk about knocking on 100 doors and what NOT to say.


edit: Your "lizard brain" is telling you "what if no one likes it - what if no one buys?"
Instead, pose this question to yourself:
"What if this is exactly what my customers are looking for? What if they love it? What then?"
Awesome post. Seriously, thank you.

I watched the video and as part of my daily Miracle Morning have quoted a version of that positive affirmation. It's working. :)

Couple of other updates:

o So our Alpha product is coming along nicely. The Partner is checking in every couple of days and the dev seems to be really putting good thought into the design and UX (for mockups) and it looks great. We're on track for alpha completion in Mid-Nov.

o As a consequence of this, we've started working on our customer focus groups (we're having two to start) in December. The venue should be locked down this week and we're planning the event & catering.

o I've gotten off my a$$ and picked up the phone this week. Cold calling dental practices in the area with the pitch that we're inviting folks to our CFG in December to help us out. Getting emails has been much easier this way versus a pre-sell versus a idea extraction call (I've been split testing). Getting some very positive "I'm interested" feed back which is kind of surprising:

- 50% of calls are giving emails out
- 40% are "leave a message"
---> 25% call backs + interested (giving email out)
- 10% are "really not interested."

So, slowly building our list (which is fine at this early early stage) and getting out there. Who knew that cold calling could be fun? :) Hopefully going this route (providing value ahead of time) will be a successful "pre-sell," especially as @throttleforward stated, the medical/dental space is really reluctant to part with their $$ for an unproven product. Of course, the only way to know is to continue split testing so that I get enough calls to make the numbers mean something.

o I've also found another competitor who is dipping their toes into this space; they don't appear to do quite what we do but it's good to be aware of them.

o Found and hired our web developer. He's going to also be running our FB page and teaching us how to pre-populate our blog posts.

o Signed and executed the operating agreement after going back and forth about some provisions. Finally feel that the partner and I are on solid, solid ground with each other. It's a good feeling.

o I've realized that what we're proposing to do is so unique that we're going to have to really invest in customer education upfront. Most people are used to dumb versions of what we're doing and so we have to change their perceptions. I hope that this doesn't drive our CAC too high...
 
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Bigguns50

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@Iwokeup ... great thread and progress !

I was in sales for several years so I hope what I give here isn't a rehash of advice from someone else and you find value in it.

Realize that sales isn't really sales. What I mean is you have someone in front of you who has been doing something the same way forever and now you have something better to offer them. They certainly want a better way of doing this and you want to provide a better way for them. This is a win-win ! You both want the same thing ! You don't have to 'push' anything like so many people think.

I understand completely about educating your customer. This is a challenge for sure but they will thank you for doing so. Many people are reluctant to change even if it will benefit them. It's just 'easier' to keep doing something the same way.... so make it very simple for them to comprehend how you will help them. (not how you "can"...how you "will")

I see in your words you are excited about your product so when you are face to face, or on the phone...your excitement will be contagious. When your potential client sees and feels your positive attitude, your excitement, and your BELIEF in your product they will listen.

Also, you may get some great feedback from potential clients. Keep an open mind when they say things like "Can you...?", or "I don't need ....", or "This is great but...". Feedback makes you better.

ok...enough rambling. Go get 'em !!
 

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It's just 'easier' to keep doing something the same way.... so make it very simple for them to comprehend how you will help them. (not how you "can"...how you "will")
To build on this, in speechwriting/communications we talk about going to "your audience's truth." When you speak to people, affirm/reassure them that you know what their truth is. Saying things like "now I know many of you here today are reluctant to try a new way to xxx, and as a physician I can certainly relate - it takes a lot of evidence for folks like us to change how we do xxx, even when it seems like changing would benefit us or our patients. Given that, and knowing we are a new entrant, what would it take to get you to consider joining use in a beta test/clinical trial/etc...." could go a long way toward establishing credibility and get people to open up, as opposed to "here is my new doodad, it's better than what you use now, are you interested?"
 
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I was in sales for several years so I hope what I give here isn't a rehash of advice from someone else and you find value in it.
Not at all man. I've never been a salesman and there is only so much that you can learn from books/podcasts. All advice welcome!
Realize that sales isn't really sales. What I mean is you have someone in front of you who has been doing something the same way forever and now you have something better to offer them. They certainly want a better way of doing this and you want to provide a better way for them. This is a win-win ! You both want the same thing ! You don't have to 'push' anything like so many people think.

I understand completely about educating your customer. This is a challenge for sure but they will thank you for doing so. Many people are reluctant to change even if it will benefit them. It's just 'easier' to keep doing something the same way.... so make it very simple for them to comprehend how you will help them. (not how you "can"...how you "will")

I see in your words you are excited about your product so when you are face to face, or on the phone...your excitement will be contagious. When your potential client sees and feels your positive attitude, your excitement, and your BELIEF in your product they will listen.

Also, you may get some great feedback from potential clients. Keep an open mind when they say things like "Can you...?", or "I don't need ....", or "This is great but...". Feedback makes you better.
Right, right. Awesome. Thanks man. :) I'm definitely taking notes.
 

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To build on this, in speechwriting/communications we talk about going to "your audience's truth." When you speak to people, affirm/reassure them that you know what their truth is. Saying things like "now I know many of you here today are reluctant to try a new way to xxx, and as a physician I can certainly relate - it takes a lot of evidence for folks like us to change how we do xxx, even when it seems like changing would benefit us or our patients. Given that, and knowing we are a new entrant, what would it take to get you to consider joining use in a beta test/clinical trial/etc...." could go a long way toward establishing credibility and get people to open up, as opposed to "here is my new doodad, it's better than what you use now, are you interested?"
GREAT angle. Thank you!
 

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Okay! First email campaign has been composed and mailed!

What a LOT of work. Jeebus, I think that I spend nearly the ENTIRE day learning MailCheat(Chimp) and figuring this out.

EDIT:

throttleforward said:
To build on this, in speechwriting/communications we talk about going to "your audience's truth." When you speak to people, affirm/reassure them that you know what their truth is. Saying things like "now I know many of you here today are reluctant to try a new way to xxx, and as a physician I can certainly relate - it takes a lot of evidence for folks like us to change how we do xxx, even when it seems like changing would benefit us or our patients. Given that, and knowing we are a new entrant, what would it take to get you to consider joining use in a beta test/clinical trial/etc...." could go a long way toward establishing credibility and get people to open up, as opposed to "here is my new doodad, it's better than what you use now, are you interested?"

Just wanted to say that I used a variant of this in the email campaign. Thanks man!
 
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THIS thread.

THIS guy.

This is how you do a progress thread.

He doesn't sit and tell us what he had for breakfast. Nobody cares. He doesn't care.

He :

  • is taking action
  • is listening to people here
  • is acting on what they say
  • is providing insight to those who come behind him
  • is grinding
This may or may not be the one simple idea that is going to take him over the top. However, this grind can be washed, rinsed, and repeated.

I hope you guys that are following this thread saw the same thing that I did. I see someone who is doing what it takes to push through the obstacles, one at a time.

Speed+ and thank you for sharing your journey thus far. Keep kicking a$$, and keep saving lives.
 

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Thanks man. Now I have to live up to this...
 
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I have kind of forgotten exactly what you product does and how it will save money, could you give me your startup pitch to refresh my memory?
 

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So I'm back in the salt mines. Did Halloween then drove out to the job site (4 hours away), four hours of sleep, and now back at it.

Spending my spare moments laying out the requirements to the web developer. Going to have this done today if it kills me.
 

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Rough week. I don't care what anyone says, working 12 hours on, 12 hours off in the ER for 7 days in a row is just grueling. It's tough (obviously) to go from the usual ER stuff to working on the company when I'm mentally beat down. I totally get why the Sharks give a hard time to entrepreneurs who try to juggle the business and their day jobs. I wish that I could devote 24/7 attention to this right now. Also when I'm this tired I start to wonder if this idea is even valid or if we need to pivot.

I've often wondered if I could start some sort of small ecommerce thing to help "buy down" my clinical shift time. Ugh. Two more nights to go.

Business stuff:

o Email campaign didn't work out so well:

- Changed the subject line and resent it to each person on the list manually with a personalized header to each recipient (maybe that was where I went wrong at this stage?)
- Result: No real change in the opening and click through rates.

Kinda bummed me out. OTOH it was all focused to dentists, so maybe what @throttleforward said about low response rates is actually true.

o Talked with the partner who did his own calls in this space with not as good email results but overall low response rate. What this tells me is that, for now, cold calls are probably a low yield traction avenue for us.

o However, I do wonder if we're just doing something wrong...are we providing VALUE (maybe not enough)? Are we really hitting our prospective customer's NEEDS in our initial pitches? (Maybe not, looking critically at what we've done so far)

o While on this grind I spent about three hours of my precious sleep time laying out our site's web design and copy for our developer. I think that the copy looks decent and I should have a look at the draft site early this week. It's one thing to see good copy and say, "I could do that," and quite another to actually do it. LOL. So I'm going back to reading Gary Halbert, Ca$hvertising, Scientific Advertising, and listening again to Zig Ziglar's Art of Closing the Sale.

o Alpha software version is slightly delayed, hopefully will be completed this weekend.

o Potentially good news: we may have an in with the CTO of one of the large health care networks here in Texas. Should know something in the next week or two.
.
.
.
On another note, been trying to stay away from this site as I couldn't look myself in the mirror until I'd gotten some accomplishments done. I don't know if I would call this week's work "accomplishments" but at least its some progress. I just keep telling myself that I didn't get into medical school instantly, didn't finish my Master's instantly, and didn't get through residency instantly. All of those accomplishments took grinding. :D
 
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In some businesses, emails and especially sales emails just get deleted by the gatekeeper. Cold calling and then a personal email directly to the right person would work better maybe.
 

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In some businesses, emails and especially sales emails just get deleted by the gatekeeper. Cold calling and then a personal email directly to the right person would work better maybe.
I have been doing that. I wonder if it's just getting deleted as a "don't bother me" move.
 

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Ok so all you need is one big client, then all the rest will follow

I would do anything it takes to get that one big client, free is usually a good way. Look at it as a marketing move.

Then you leverage their name and brand to sell your product to everyone else.
 
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Ok so all you need is one big client, then all the rest will follow

I would do anything it takes to get that one big client, free is usually a good way. Look at it as a marketing move.

Then you leverage their name and brand to sell your product to everyone else.
Hmmm. Really great idea. Thanks Tafy.
 

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So I'm back at work for the weekend and then off for two weeks after that, which is a relief. I'm really feeling the "Trade Time for Money" equation these days and it sucks. BUT, I gotta fund the start-up, you know?

Things have really slowed down over the past two weeks (website design, my work sked, waiting for the alpha) so I've spent the time reading, thinking, and considering our direction.

We’re getting almost no success from cold calling.

It just doesn't appear that practices in our space are receptive to cold calling. The people that we're trying to meet are usually working, and the people that you get a hold of aren't as actually receptive/responsive as you would wish. I'm not sure whether that is because:

A) The product isn't as useful to practices as we would like to think that it would be [though to be fair, when we've shown it to CEOs, they LOVE the product]

B) There's a learning curve to customer education in this space and so customers cannot (yet) understand the benefits,

C) The people we have communicated with actually do see the benefit but understand that it could have a negative effect on the number of employees in the business.

Potential solutions include:

- finding away around the current middle managers we've encountered and going to the real decision makers by getting personal introductions, etc. My partner has contacts with a very large in-state health system so we're pursuing that. And I'm visiting with my mentor this week and he has mentioned that he has contacts with the VA, so I'm going to ask him for the introduction. Fingers crossed.

- doing a better job of educating customers. I don't think that I've adequately made the value proposition so overwhelming yet, and that's probably due to a combination of my inexperience and not understanding the psychology of large sales (a la SPIN selling).

- Changing our approach. This could take the form of long form sales letters (direct mail?), long form web copy, in office demos c the alpha version, ad words campaign?

- Leveraging my own network: my mentor has made millions in this space before, and a long time friend of mine has 15+ years of experience in large sales. I'm going to try to meet with him this week or weekend and, since I'm the CEO, I'm going to f-in try him out with our group. Don't care right now whether my partner likes him (cf. previous post); if he can deliver sales then who gives a rat's posterior?

- Improved website and overall improved professionalism: the site's nearly done and I really like what our web developer has done so far. He's working on our FB page today and we're hoping to have re-launch this weekend.

Reading:
- SPIN selling
- Ca$hvertising (again, and reabsorbing lessons)
- Traction (finishing once I get home) <-- Partner and I will go through this week.
- Resources from the Gary Halbert Copy-writing thread (for website copy)
- @Gale4rc's thread, and plowing through the links such as inbound.org. (Gotta admit, it's overwhelming sometimes...where to start?)

Weekly goals:

1. Alpha version delivered COB Friday
2. Web redesign (including FB) delivered COB Friday
3. Use the Traction book to generate ideas for marketing approach for each of the 19 methods. Partner and I to divide and conquer.
4. Partner/staff meetings every other day, 15 min, to make sure that we're pushing forward.
5. Meet with Mentor
6. Meet with Friend with Sales experience
7. Be an awesome Dad and Husband
8. Possibly buy a newer used car as the Honda is about done (229,000 miles!). Going super cheap..may hold off a wee bit longer.


Bottom line:

- Not giving up!
- Going to pivot in terms of marketing and sales approach
- Meet with and get ALL of the team members pointed in the right direction and keep on pushing
- Go ALL IN on the ONE BIG CUSTOMER approach that @mikekob, @tafy, and @throttleforward have all variously suggested.
 
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Love seeing this grind, this is a real progress thread :)

Keep it up!

PM'd you - Maybe I can help w/ some marketing.


PS - about inbound.org being over whelming - Just read what you can and what interests you... Overtime 99% of it is all the same after you know it and you just read it in hopes for something new / to stay current with trends :)
 
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Update:

Weekly goals:

1. Alpha version delivered COB Friday
Delivery now scheduled for COB next Friday. Dev seems to be on task and doing well.

2. Web redesign (including FB) delivered COB Friday
Done. I have some revisions for the web dev, but it will be done this weekend.

3. Use the Traction book to generate ideas for marketing approach for each of the 19 methods. Partner and I to divide and conquer.
Did not happen. Going to try again on Monday.

4. Partner/staff meetings every other day, 15 min, to make sure that we're pushing forward.
Done. Productive. Keep each other accountable. Will continue.

5. Meet with Mentor
He's been feeling ill. Trying to juggle schedules for next week.

6. Meet with Friend with Sales experience
Had a long phone conversation instead. We're going to be meeting next week for lunch, and he's already got some good ideas to get our sales effort jump started. :)

7. Be an awesome Dad and Husband
Not bad. Never as good as I could have been

8. Possibly buy a newer used car as the Honda is about done (229,000 miles!). Going super cheap..may hold off a wee bit longer
Held off. Not ready to spend money just yet.

** In addition, I had a very productive conversation with my little brother, who just happens to be the practice manager for one of the largest orthopedic practices in California. He gave excellent feedback and is going to alpha test for us. He's probably going to have the best feedback out of everyone.

Also:

* contacted the CEO that we first met with. He's on board for alpha testing with his CIO and asked us for our dates.
* contacted the two other practice managers and got them on board as well. So that's four testers so far.
* had to encourage the partner to actually call his contacts to get alpha commitment. Email just isn't good enough. We'll see how he does.
* Really worked on my ad copy for the site. It's not an easy process and it takes a lot of work; but it's actually rewarding and I do love crafting words.

Going out of town for the weekend (Thanksgiving with the family) but will be listening to SPIN selling in my earbuds to and from the relative's house.
 

GrensonMan

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Keep up the awesome work! Every week you make more and more progress man. Things are really starting to get exciting.
 

Iwokeup

Aut viam invenium aut faciam
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Quick update: the new, improved home page (along with a revamped FB page) are up. Some minor changes need doing, and I'm going to add copy to the product page, but I'm happy. Feels more real.

Even had one of my ED doctor friends call and say, "Hey! Since when did you get a software company?!"

@mikekob : I spoke with the COO at a large hospital system who is very interested in the system. We'll talk more when I head there next week. Heading into your baliwick, brother....
 
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mikekob

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Oh man it's a long haul. But when you finally get there it's a good position to be in. Or so I've heard....
 

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