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.
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteNice start to your blog… I have read it all and caught up!
Couple points I would toss out…
Your first post on why people do not start was very good – lots of accurate insight – and being one of those who have dabbled but not made the leap, I found your descriptions of people like me to be pretty accurate. But, I do think you whistled past the graveyard a little on this…
Small businesses do fail… they fail a lot… smart people and hard workers, even people with the magic entrepreneurial spirit fail… either through internal mistakes (probably 80%) or through external factors (20%) they may find their livelihood take a major step back… Recently a very good friend of mine lost over $100K in cash, plus two years of time in what seemed to be a very well founded and backed business. This was a major hit to his personal finances. I think you touch on this “access to capital” concept a bit in your post, but that sort of setback for an average person/family can be incredibly difficult to handle. In all that two years may have netted out $400-500K less than that person might have earned in staying with a company at his current earning level. So – the fear can be real.
I think the key people need to consider is – develop a business plan. Take the plan to a bank. If the bank will give your new company a loan to start it – then it may be a good plan. Use their money and take the shot… If they won’t give you a loan, then maybe you need to do a bit more work on your plan.
Moving on to the business you are starting – interesting concept in a bit of a crowed space. I like your starting point, but my question is how will you differentiate and become relevant? Is there an underserved niche that might be attacked with this platform. Perhaps something like healthcare workers… big industry, shortage of labor, lots of emerging alternative workplaces (not just hospitals anymore), emerging opportunity to do things like background checks better than other folks… I don’t know, but perhaps a narrower focus on a particular play might get some traction, then broaden to other niche areas… just a thought…
Last comment – some of your earlier posts sort of skipped an important point. You called one post “mundane” to describe some basic things you were doing to launch. They were only mundane to you my friend… If I tried to get a web site written and hosted it would be anything but mundane. Also, the accounting stuff – that does not come naturally to many people. In fact I would say it is the root of many of those failures. So getting it done, and done right, is not necessarily mundane.
I think you could do a blog on playing to your strengths – you have a background in software development so starting a business where you can use that strength is awesome. If I had been a bartender for the last 20 years (missed my calling) I might be considering starting my own restaurant… I suspect having an affinity for what you want to do is an important thing…
OK – enough for now – I have officially caught up! I look forward to learning from your progress on this!