Progress Thread: Live Free or Die!

[mick8moses]

So here's where my story will begin...
Age: 41
Marrital Status: Married
Children: 1 Age: 6
Employment: Software Company
Title: Manager
Salary: 100+K
Debt: mortgages on two homes.
Savings: 401K, a little savings

Shackled to a "career" I can't leave because I'm the sole breadwinner for my family.
Classic Slowlaner

Entrepreneurial Activities:
Currently own a vacation home that is cash flow even.
Have tried numerous startups, most left unfinished - non successful.

Read MJ's book last week - couldn't put it down - finished in 3 days.
For the past 72 hours I've been brainstorming ideas.
I've been carrying around a little notepad writing down each one.
Everything from physical products to internet concepts.

Last night one hit me like a blunt instrument knocking me to the floor.
On further thought I found it had a ceiling under 1 million.
I didn't love that. I began talking it through with my wife out loud.
That's when a light went off on how I could leverage it.
While the margins would go way down, I couldn't imagine a ceiling.

I will live free whether the root be this idea or another. I will keep my progress posted as a way to keep my focus on the finish line. I look forward to joining all of you on this path to living great!

 

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[mick8moses]

It's been 24 hours and I've begun to throw together a rough business plan as a first step. Not with the intention of financing but rather just to organize and focus on different aspects. I'm time boxing completion of this plan by Monday.

 

[domular]

Look forward to following your journey.

 

[BigEasy25]

Stay focused and just do it! I'm working on living free now and although the Nike motto "Just Do It" is so cliche I just keep telling myself that. There is no better time than the present to take control of your life.

 

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[mick8moses]

Thank y'all for your support (hey I'm Southern - not by birth but an early transplant). I'm on day three and my idea continues to evolve a little bit and I'm letting my imagination run with it. I've swung back to my orginal path and may start a second business plan to keep them both concurrent for a while.

The core to this idea, no matter how exactly I shape the sides, is hosting alot of uploaded images. Really the biggest difference is the configuration and the market. Today I was particularly laden with work duties from the man. Even still, I managed to generate a million test images. I need to get a sense of size and make a sample app to navigate through them.

Plan for tomorrow - more business plan work and some application analysis.

 

[mick8moses]

Update to progress...
Day job has been particularly consumptive of my time lately, but I am keeping focus.
Business Plan not complete - need to do some market research. Asked my wife to do that while I work on System Requirements (Con: can't set deadline for her - so I need to keep a pulse on the progress - may need to take it on myself)
Mind Mapping, User Story, Use Case development started today. Good progress. While they are living models I should be done with Use Cases by end of week.
Open Issues: This will be an internet business heavy graphical interface which is not my strength (but that's a minor issue), a legal issue is a big wall in my mind right now - thinking of creative solutions (will eventually need lawyer).

 

[PrincessK]

Congrats

Congrats on starting your fstlane process !:eusa_clap:

 

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[mick8moses]

Continued updates. My time is still being heavily used for work and family commitments. but I always try to do something to work forward. Past couple days I have gone into activity diagrams, domain model, and high level application architecture. After I'm done with Analysis and Design I'll need to do market research to be comfortable with the desire of this business from my target audience. Progress has been slow which I may not be able to control but I'm trying to at least keep it steady.

 

[mick8moses]

Alright it's been a couple days so I'll update. I'ver turned from Analysis and Design as my main thrust to development. I know this is not good without Market Analysis. My wife is struggling with that and I don't want to butt in yet. (I know as soon as I do - there will be some anger, and I will own it and everything else from that point forward). I haven't done any production development in quite some time so there is some ramp-up but I'm enjoying the challenge. I needed to move from Analysis and Design before I designed myself into a box. I still have some concerns about the business model I'm going to try but I think I'll do my best to follow MJ and let the market pull me. If I can generate interest but the income model I'm proposing isn't correct, I'm sure the public will pull me to the right one.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Love watching the updates! Look forward to reading more.

 

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[mick8moses]

Wow, that is so cool that MJ actually reads these threads.
I'm humbled and inspired! Thank you Sir, you are a good man.

I did not see that coming...

 

[mick8moses]

OK so now we're into Design/Dev and this is going to take some time. I found a sample application and coded that. Now I'm going to need to do a substantial overhaul. Of course as I'm working on this I'm also being courted for another job opportunity. This is going to put a significant burden on whatever little free time I have. I'm going to have to get better at managing my time (yes, even more). It goes without saying all consumerism will be removed (even grocery shopping), no TV (except to fall asleep), and only minor excercise (no self-time, only routines I can do with my family). Time will only be for my job (yes, I have to pay the bills), my child's development (helping with homework and after school activities), and new Dev (I'm debating actually contracting this out - particularly design development as this isn't my strength).

 

[mick8moses]

OK it's been a while so I need to update. Current job and new opportunity taking all of my time... so I decided to contract out work to keep momentum. Starting with storyboarding. I'll pick a contractor by end of week for theme/homepage design (not coded).

 

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[lleone]

Awesome....keep it up. Looking forward to you next post.

 

[mick8moses]

I have selected a contractor to begin the design of my homepage. I think the design will be a huge boost to morale and aid in planning details. The next peice I will contract out will be the control that I think will be most challenging to build. I didn't want to start with that peice because I think the morale will be needed to slog through it. I'm glad I decided to get outside help on this project. Just a note to others: When working on a project you basically have to think of the best balance between efficient and effective. The most efficient model is for me to do everything myself - but that's not the most effective. Adding outside help does reduce efficiency (2 people are not as effecient as 1 due to artifacts like communication). But adding outside help for appropriate tasks improves effectiveness. At best it would take me years to complete this project by myself just due to constraints on my time. But leveraging the time of others I can cut that timeline down considerably.

 

[fellipe]

man, I'm really enjoying your journal, keep it up.

If you didn't read: How to Start a Startup
Wealth of info about starting up.

 

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[mick8moses]

Thanks Fellipe good article. Good inspiration. Not sure I like he's top end age limit of 38 . I think entreprenurial spirit is something you have inside of your regardless of age. The only point I have in contention with Paul is his focus on VC and angel investing. That comes with loss of control. Something you don't want to dole out lightly.

 

[mick8moses]

OK Homepage design finished. I designed the site and hired a contractor through elance to put it into a .psd format for me. (I am not a photoshop guru). Having the design is a huge boost to my morale. As I mentioned, the next peice I will contract out will be the control that I think will be most challenging to build. I need to write some specs and find something close before I contract it out. Meanwhile I'll work on converting the .psd into xhtml and css. It'll be another huge boost to have this coming up in a browser. Then I get out of the desktop world and into internet world. I could contract that out - but it's something I can do and I want to own and be familiar with the codebase so I can make tweeks and changes.

 

[Likwid24]

Good Luck. Looking forward to see you plan progress!

 

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