Busy Day

It is going to one of those days. I am doing two demos of software today. I want to see if I can buy something off the shelf to help with the company. Some I'm pretty sure won't help me at all, but some might. If it can save me weeks of work, I'm all for it.

I also have a meeting with the nice people at SBDC (small business development center). They are going to look at my business plan and hopefully give me sage advice.

Gotta go, my first demo is starting.

The Business Plan... Part I

I have a software tool called Business Plan Pro. Great peice of software if you are writing a business plan. It really makes you think about what you are doing. Of course, writing the plan itself is sheer hell. I went into technology because I didn't have to write stuff. Yet, here I am, writing a business plan I will share with other people... professional people on top of it.

I have ideas for this business everyday. But when I try to commit the ideas to paper, I have trouble. It is both empowering (you can start seeing the big picture) and at the same time a little demotivating (I have a LOT of work to do... and it isn't going to be cheap.) While I realize how important a business plan is, and I know I need to do it, I can find every excuse in the book NOT to work on it. I can tweek the web site, I can write on the blog (ummm...) or check out facebook. I figure I can do 45 minutes of real work every hour.... so I'm going to go back to it. Have a great day!

Selecting the business name

It has been a little while since I posted anything, so I figured it was time. I have 22 topics I want to share so far. When I first started the blog, I had a very specific order of posts I wanted to create. I have already blown through that idea and have posted off-topic as I see fit. I guess that is what I can do since I am the boss.  =)

Anyway, some people have asked about the name "KBC Staffing". What does it mean? Why did you pick that name? etc. etc.

Well, I have seen people spend a lot of time on picking out the name and logo of their new company. I mean, a lot of time... time better spent just getting the business going. The name is just that... a name. I hate to see people procrastinate over the name. I believe some people think the name of the business might be more important than the business itself. To me, it is all a waste of time.

General Motors (GM), General Electric (GE), International Business Machines (IBM)

I don't think these companies spent a lot of time thinking up a name for the business. They were direct and to the point. Their names mean business. They are not witty or catchy, but simple and direct. KBC Staffing tells it like it is. I find people work and I find employees for your business.

I like it.

(Some of you may be wondering what does the K, B and C stand for. I'll let the people who know me figure it out on their own...)

Purchasing business cards

I have a friend from High School days who is a graphic designer. He also lives in Frankenmuth, Michigan, my home town. With the modern miracle of technology and Facebook, I found out his company was offering a great sale on business cards.

I sent him a couple of ideas, we worked through the designs via email, and I placed an order. Amazing what we can do considering we are 1500 miles apart! The lesson from this experience is simple... today's social media is an important tool for businesses. If it isn't yet, it will be.

This is the new business card design!

As my friend was building the business cards, I was building the web site. To me, this is important as anything when starting a business. I attended a couple of networking meetings and business cards were manditory. A web site was a close second. Without at the very least a web site and business cards, you cannot make a lasting impression. 

So, speaking of web sites.... my new website is: http://kbcstaffing.com/. Google has already swiped it once and am I at least showing up in search. This site is only the beginning, and doesn't contain any of the functionality yet. This will take some time, but I will keep everyone up to date as I make progress.

The web site

I have been working on building the web site for the new company. So far so good, but I find I have more trouble with the content compared to the actual functionality. I wish I was more creative and had the skills and experience of a graphic artist combined with the skills of a wordsmith or author. I know what I want to say, but have trouble saying it.

I will be posting the URL in the next couple of days. So far, I established the Domain Name, set up email, installed the servers, worked through network issues at Qwest, installed the various third-party software packages and assorted stuff for web site development. So far, so good. After I post the URL, I want feedback. I want people to give me good feedback about the site and ways I can enhance it. It is something I cannot do on my own because I'm just not wired that way.

On this blog, Keri finds and corrects my spelling, grammar, content, etc. When I post the blog content, I think it is good to go, but she always finds things I miss. I pretend it makes me mad, but I really just appreciate she has the eye for those details. The same will apply to the web site. I need as many eyes on it before I go live to make sure the site works for people, makes sense, doesn’t have glaring errors, etc.

On another note, the site is actually up and running (but I'm not telling you the URL)... Goggle has even found it and made a quick pass at an index. I'm sure after tonight the Google index will be out-of-date, but it is starting me to think a bit about SEO and how businesses need to keep on top of search engines and the way to best present information. I will reserve this as a new post in the future, but I like the idea at least one of the engines has found the site already!

Back to work....

Bernie

Sales, Sales, Sales...

I have been busy working on my company. I have been trying to dedicate at least 2 hours every night to work on my own business. It is amazing what can be accomplished in two hours!


For those who are just joining, I'm in the process of starting a staffing company for I.T. professionals. I am currently envisioning a company that does two things:

1) Provide a self-serve job posting site for professionals and companies. The model is very similar to Monster.com, but at a much better price point to attract smaller businesses who do not have the resources to use a costly site like Monster.

2) A full-service staffing recruiting company that will search, screen, and on-board candidates for companies. This model is more similar to a standard I.T. consulting/staffing company.

As the title of this post says: Sales, Sales, Sales. For me, this is one of the most difficult parts of the business. Once I can get in front of people, I'm ok... but doing the cold calls and lead generation is difficult for me. Knowing sales is the difficult part for me is forcing me to think about it more. As a start-up business, people have no idea who you are and no idea what you do. I need to introduce people to my company.

In some ways, it is a lot like meeting new people around the neighborhood. Chances are you will chat up the outgoing people who make an effort to say 'Hi' as they walk down the street. If you find common interests, then you may have a chance of creating friends instead of just acquaintances. In any case, you want to put your best foot forward.

For me, sales have been on my mind, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to meet new people. I'm still working on the name of the company, the company logo, the web site, etc., etc. Once I have these things in place, I think I will feel a little more comfortable with meeting new people.

Doing the mundane...

I have been busy at my day job, so I have not had much time to work on the new business. To catch everyone up, I am in the process of starting a staffing company. It really has two components, one self-serve and one full-service. The self-serve portion of the business will be an on-line job posting and resume search web site. The full-service portion will extend the self-service business by offering additional resources to help find qualified candidates and perform pre-employment screening.

I have been working with Qwest to set up my internet properly. Normally, I have had great success with Qwest in the past, but this time they dropped the ball. The issues are all resolved now, but jeesh, if that is your primary business (and in this case, it probably is) you should do it really, really well.

I spent last weekend doing two things. First, I had to get the books for the business in order. They have been neglected too long and it took me awhile to resolve the accounting and bookkeeping mistakes. Second, I had to set up the servers I am going to use in this business. It ends up being a lot of work with almost nothing to show for it.

My next task, and a fairly daunting one at that, is to build the web site for the business. Since I am going to be starting an on-line company, I need to at least get something up and running to let people know what I am doing. This first pass at the web site will not contain the job posting application. I'm just shooting for a simple site to let people know who I am and what I am doing. I'll work on the main application soon enough.

With this initial site, I will start establishing a brand. Building a site is easy work for me. What I find difficult is creating a brand. I need logos, letterhead, themes, a story about the company, business cards, etc. etc. All this stuff I currently take for granted because it is usually provided to me in a nice format. This time I need to make it all up from scratch. If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to share.

Back to work!