PROGRESS THREAD (James F)

[James Fake]

After a few hours of thinking, I have decided. I have NO FEAR. I am posting, step for step, my venture path from beginning to end; details many entrepreneurs would pee their pants thinking someone will steal their idea/plan. Purpose?

1) Teach others by showing them how I apply my skills and strengths
2) Motivate others
3) Entertain people who love to watch businesses grow
4) Receive great feedback and advice
5) Maybe even get clients from some of you or someone you can refer
6) Give back to the forum for the things I have learned and motivation and hope I obtained
7) So 2 years from now INC magazine can write an article on me and this thread


DISCLAIMER: For those that try to "steal" the plan (ex. competitive advantage strategy, marketing, execution, idea, etc.) and run with it. Good luck. My particular strengths, computer talent, business savvy, people skills, etc. is what gives me huge confidence that I will make this successful. Besides; it's not a very innovative idea, it's the execution, planning, and WORK.


Some background on me: In a nutshell, I was laid off back in February 2008 from being a commercial recruiter (I staffed manufacturing factories). This was my first "career" job after graduating college, I am 24. Using some saved money to support my bills, I had about 6 months to create income to pay my bills or get a job. Thank God for my web design talent, I created 2 ecommerce sites, 1 high traffic Twitter app site, and do web design on the side. I made all these in 6 months from scratch for less than $250 including business license, hosting, domain registration, etc. Also, being a fairly seasoned internet marketer helped out a ton, so I quickly brought traffic to these sites. Now I have some passive income that pays the bills, and that's about it. No fun money. But money can't buy the free time I have now. If you want more background info or questions, just send me a PM or ask on this thread. I'll be glad to answer any questions pertaining to how I obtained my skills. I also have a blog that's currently 37 chapters about the '6 months' I can post if enough people request it.


So without further ado - I start my first entry in the next post. :coffee:

 

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[JayKim]

I also have a blog that's currently 37 chapters about the '6 months' I can post if enough people request it.

Could you post it?

 

[mkzhang]

Looks like we are in the same field haha. Good luck

 

[James Fake]

CHAPTER 1: SO... WHAT IS YOUR PLAN?

Reading, reading, studying, researching, watching YouTube, thefastlanetomillions.com, Inc.com, Startupnation.com, reading every business mag in the bookstores, watching lambos, watching MTV Cribs, BIG IDEA, etc. etc. etc.

I have been basically obsessed with fueling my brain with as much info as possible. I love reading stories of paths and real world experience. All of this combined with hours and hours of finding what is the "diamond" idea for me?

You see, everyone can't do the same thing; there's something out there for everybody. Something that is for you, something that interests you, something you have the confidence you can make successful. It's stumbling upon that idea or realizing which is the hard part.

For me, obviously, it's internet based business. But the world of internet business is just as unlimited as brick and motar. So what about internet? Well, I am extremely creative, can draw and design my a$$ off, good with html, css, php, great at marketing and naturally understand business. Well, that's a great position for me, and narrows down the talent pool, but what else sets me apart? I am good with people and have a fairly large network, what a lot of talented computer "geeks" don't have. I am not sheltered and know what people want, and need. I am with current web trends and where the mass of people are on the technology curve. This narrows the talent pool even more...

BING! I am going to create internet based software, and my competitive advantage is the ability to make software from a user's point of view versus a programmer's point of view. Other advantages, I can design very well, so the user interface would be great and simple, and marketing would be strong.

The best business model? Subscription based and b2b of course. The easiest to sell, scale, and change along with growth.

I will post what the web based application does in the next upcoming chapters... but now onto domain name and business name.

 

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[James Fake]

CHAPTER 2: COMING UP WITH A NAME AND DOMAIN

If you want to build a house, you build it on a good foundation. You can always go back and change the name, but why not do it right from the start?

Now, I have spent the last 4 days brainstorming.. storming.. and more storming.

First order of business; is it going to be a brandable, catchy name? or is it going to be keyword based? and most important; is it available?

See, the available part is the hard part. I have owned around 40 domain names so I know all about this game. You have to play around with godaddy.com's available search for hours. My suggestion? Write a set of characteristics your business offers and put the words together and play around with it. Write out a list of prefixes, suffixes, and anything else. And punch away at GoDaddy.com until you find available ones. Gather the list of availables and see what you got? Anything that strikes out?

The trick here is: TO FALL IN LOVE WITH THE NAME. YOU WILL KNOW IT WHEN YOU SEE IT. Don't settle.. if the one you absolutely love is taken, whois.net, and ask the owner if they will sell it. If it's a parked page, alot of times, these squatter will let them go for $50-100.


The one I picked? Well, it's still under research. I can tell you now; it has nothing to do with anything my site offers. It's a complete unique, brandable, catchy 6 letter domain. Once you pick your name, ask friends and family what they think? What do they think of when they hear it? First impressions without telling them what the biz does.

Anyways, still asking around for their feedback. But I am pretty much locked in what I am going to get. So I expect to register it here within the week. I'll let you guys know what it is after I register it and maybe even post links if MJ allows me?

Anyways, after that... onto the logo designing..

 

[James Fake]

@JayKim check your PM, I am sending you a reply now..
@mkzhang thanks! I hope you find the things I post helpful in finding your direction!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Thanks James, I am avidly reading and following.

 

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[andviv]

wow... pls keep it coming... very interesting info.

 

[sprite]

Following this thread as well.

 

[Inphinity]

Great thread, eagerly awaiting the rest

 

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[TC2]

Man! You win my heart!

The true entrepreneur don't just know how to get there. They also knows how to help others to get there!

I am following this thread too! Keep it coming! I love stuff like this!

On the other side, I would love to know more about what you end up doing, so I can give you help if there is anything.

One thing I learned is to get paid by business (B2B), but create the demand for consumer (B2C).

A++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[James Fake]

CHAPTER 3: The Name, The Logo, The Site

The Name:
As promised, here's an update with the business and name.. drumroll please...

Fendza.com :banana:

What is Fendza.com? Fendza is going to be a web based employee scheduling application. It's going to have a clean, simple interface; extremely easy to learn and use; and powerful. Kind of like Facebook. Managers can log in on the website and edit/add/change schedules, track time off/vacations/etc., notifications for upcoming missed days, birthdays, review performance data, etc. Employees can log in from home or where ever and request off days, vacations, track how much they used, co-employee contact info, swap shifts, etc. More details as the story unfolds...


The Logo and Site:
You can check out the site. It's a placeholder with a sign up to get notified when launched. This is a must for anyone doing internet business; you always want to do this during development on the backend. As you start building up your web presence, people will stumble across your placeholder, and you need to capture them. If you lose them; it's wasted traffic. Plus it builds anticipation..

The logo was designed in 15 minutes. I am a pretty good at web 2.0 design; and the trick to 2.0 simplicity is "less is more". Such as Twitter's design, Digg, etc. So what you want to do is; say your name, write down a list of the first things that come to mind when you say it out loud. Use those elements and incorporate them into your logo.

When I said "Fendza"; I thought za pronounced an exclamation. So grabbed some easy, conservative colors.. added an aggressive colored exclamation mark to end the design and gave it a web 2.0 fade. That's it. The more time you spend; the more junk you will end up with.

Also, a few notable absolute musts when first structuring your site.

1) 301 re-direct. All traffic typed as http://fendza.com will redirect to http://www.fendza.com. This is for SEO purposes and consistentcy.

2) Simple favicon. The logo in your browser window.

3) Make 404 pages to re-direct back to your homepage. Prevents loss of traffic and mis-direction. Try typing http://www.fendza.com/test.html and see where it directs you.

4) Use addme.com, submit and verify your site with Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

5) Add in your Google Analytics code and start keeping track of your traffic

All four are a MUST in SEO.

That's it for now.. I'll update you guys on the financing and prototype development next.

 

[James Fake]

I know I need to find a few customers first before I spend money on contracting help on developing.

Do you guys have any suggestions? Target: Businesses with 4+ employees.

I was thinking of just swinging by like 20 places I drive past and talking with the manager. Should I offer a free trial to them? Would that defeat the whole purpose of finding "customers" because I'm not finding ones that actually pay, I'm just finding free users? I was also thinking finish the non-working prototype, title it as 'beta', and run some PPC to see how many sign ups I can get?

I'd love to see everyone's take on how I should tackle the object of "gaining the first base of customers".

 

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[Inphinity]

Can you clarify what Employee Scheduling you're helping with / how it works? As an employer looking at your landing page atm, I .. have no idea really who your site is going to help me.

Offering free trials / signups is a GREAT start imo, give them 30 days free or whatever, even 60 days or so for the first ones, get them hooked, then get the subscriptions to kick in. If it really is good & helpful, by that stage they will probably be used to using it & liking it enough they'll happily subscribe.

 

[TC2]

JamesF:

You seem to have a great plan. I actually put my email in.

I am also interested in what problem you are trying to solve for your customer.

Now the cloud computing is a hot topic, but it is not relate to employee scheduling, is it? So I was confused by what offer you are giving. Most small business owner don't care what technology you use do solve problem. They want to see the result. So your tag line should be more clearly about the result you deliver.

I personally offer first 50+ customers free one year services, so I have data to play with and to proof the concept. I use those results to promote my businesses as case studies. Now I start getting paid customers. It's a hard working process to get some eggs and start hatching the chickens.

Those 50+ free customers are still getting one year free, but I am trying to convert them into paid customers. Most of them simply don't want to convert before the trial is end. As far as economy goes, lots small business owners don't want to pay a dine. So you have to show them the value and why they need to pay you.

One customer seeing the value is sending new customers my way. So I don't have to go out to find new customers in that case. It takes time to build the customer base.

If you can prove that you have solved their problems, they will come and pay.

Next chapter?

 

[neverfastenough]

I know I need to find a few customers first before I spend money on contracting help on developing.

Do you guys have any suggestions? Target: Businesses with 4+ employees.

I was thinking of just swinging by like 20 places I drive past and talking with the manager. Should I offer a free trial to them? Would that defeat the whole purpose of finding "customers" because I'm not finding ones that actually pay, I'm just finding free users? I was also thinking finish the non-working prototype, title it as 'beta', and run some PPC to see how many sign ups I can get?

I'd love to see everyone's take on how I should tackle the object of "gaining the first base of customers".

Detailed Case Study - Lean Startup Circle | Google Groups

You should also check out Steve Blank and Eric Ries' blogs. Read every single word.

 

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[James Fake]

@Inphinity @terencechang thanks for your input! the placeholder page doesn't hold much info about what it does; I was saving all of that for the main homepage being banged out now. The wording, tagline, and message will definitely change by then.

As far as more details in the venture; it's going to be a central hub for managers and employees. Managers can log in by website to change, add, edit, scheduling, days off, vacations, upcoming employees off days, some performance data, upcoming birthdays, etc. Employees can log in from home or anywhere and request days off, vacation days, track their missed days, etc.

Alot of the bigger corporations use something similiar built or ran by the IT department or HR department. Alot of small biz don't have the resource to pay huge money for software like this, but will def make operations more efficient. And/or the software they use now is extremely complex.

@neverfastenough thanks! will check it out!

 

[TC2]

JamesF:

If you can make it secured and easy to use, I may be able bring you more business. There are huge demand on web based employee scheduling app in legal industry.

Think about all those copy centers and fulfillment facility management companies out there in the corp or law firm. They need a great system to mange all their staff on site and off site.

My ex company developed a time tracking system to simplify the process. It was a big seller in law firms.

Would love to hand you some clients, if it really solve the problem.

 

[BurnBright]

This is not my area of expertise but I saw this on the weekend and it may be of help for building web apps. These guys have done a few successfull ones without outside funding and seem to follow a simple model .
I can not post links yet but it is a book posted on 37singles site called "Getting Real" which they have available free to read online.

 

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[neverfastenough]

This is not my area of expertise but I saw this on the weekend and it may be of help for building web apps. These guys have done a few successfull ones without outside funding and seem to follow a simple model .
I can not post links yet but it is a book posted on 37singles site called "Getting Real" which they have available free to read online.

Along the same lines, look up the video of Jason Fried's talk at Startup School from this past weekend. I was literally blown away.

 

[James Fake]

@terencechang Thank you! I do agree with you and your advice to make sure it's secured and simple. The hard part now is to make it specific enough in functions but to keep it general enough for virtually any business industry to use.

@burnbright @neverfastenough 37signals is definitely a company I look up to. They are genius and put out alot of help about how to get there like them. Checking out their Start Up School videos now..

 

[throttleforward]

If business are unwilling to pay for the subscription, perhaps you could start a pleantyoffish.com model and give the service away for free, but sell ad space? I would imagine that businesses would pay more to advertise their unique webbased producted through your scheduling portal and therefore directly to target businesses than businesses trying to advertise B2C.

 

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[James Fake]

@throttle Thanks for your input!

I will be hitting up a few businesses tomorrow with a brochure I made. Will see how it goes and I will post a new chapter.

 

[neverfastenough]

and....?

 

[James Fake]

CHAPTER 4: GETTING A CUSTOMER BEFORE EVER DEVELOPING

Well, I've read a couple articles on this method, and it surely makes sense. Especially if testing or offering a service that is innovative, new, etc.

So I decided, before I ever spend $$$$ on development, let me see if I can get a couple people to say they will try it out and maybe pay for it if it's good. I made a quick 3 page presentation printed from Kinkos on glossy brochure fold out. A cover page with logo, a quick outline of features, and a couple screenshots of the development. You can see the presentation here: http://www.fendza.com/presentation.doc My plan was to walk-in a few businesses and talk to a manager/owner to see if I can pitch it to them.

I swung by a local business plaza mixed with some chains and local biz. I only went to three before I realized I need to change and strategize better. Nearly all the stores had a no soliciting sign; so I picked the 3 that didn't or couldn't see one.

1) Petstore I thought was local; was a corporate chain and all software was provided by corporate
2) Dentist office; was actually a branch and only had two people working. The main hq was in Memphis :chatter:
3) Liquor store; asked for a manager and was told there was a no soliciting sign and they usually get ticked :nono:

So I came home and google'ed and researched the best strategies to target small businesses around my area. I think I will print out a few full-color flyers and just go in and drop them off by sliding them by the door or taping them when they close so in the mornings when they open, the manager will get it, or just go in a drop them off without trying to make them buy anything which wouldn't be "soliciting" in my book. It's a low conversion rate, but numbers is the sales game. And I may grab the yellow pages and just start cold calling and see what I get.

So with all that; here are a few questions I have to the community here:

1) Have you or do you have ideas that work best to target local businesses?
It's not like I'm selling cookies or religion; I really have something that could help them out.. :fryingpan:

2) Should I even worry about putting alot of emphasize on getting customers first?
I purposely picked an industry that was already established and a few stand out companies providing employee software service already. There's at least 40-50 companies that provide employee software service, and the market is huge. But a good business venture doesn't always have to be innovative, but do something better or spin what's already there. I only need a small piece of that pie to be successful.

That and the fact, I am 100% confident I can find a few clients with internet marketing. :coolgleamA:

p.s. I forgot to mention; I do have a fraternity brother that agreed to use the software once it's launched. He has a food restaurant with about 10 employees, but we didn't discuss if he would consider buying if he liked it. So that makes 1 possible customer?

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Moving to Progress Threads ...

 

[TC2]

JamesF:

I PM you the problem in legal industry. If you can solve it, you can become the hero of top 100 law firm in the world. It's $b industry.

 

[James Fake]

Hey guys,
Just wanted to give you all a quick update. I am currently still working on banging out the prototype. I have to do a GREAT job at this. I need to make this software as fluid, smooth, easy to use, and helpful as possible. It is the absolute core of the business to have a good product.

Other than that, I have met and made a couple of mentors. One guy is a 25 year experienced web designer and marketer, and the other guy is a 25 year IBM retiree who works for SCORE.

I am also making a blog about internet marketing and entrepreneur life called 'smarter monkey'; it will be officially launched here within the month. I hope this will be a great resource to help people as well as bring good PR to Fendza.

 

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[James Fake]

Hey guys, I've completed the 'about me' section on the blog, so if you want to get to know some more about me (my path, background, etc.) check it out: www.fendza.com/blog/about

Please comment to let me know you stopped by!

 

[camski]

James a couple of questions here. First have you any idea what pricepoint you are targeting. I think you have a great idea the question is how much is someone willing to pay for it? Or were you planning on monetizing it in some other fashion? The other question is how do you plan to market this? Are you planning on net marketing only or utilizing a sales force?

Now having said that I might be able to help you take this nationwide with a built in salesforce (that you can get for free)and a targeted market segment. Either PM me or email me and I can fill you in.