Light, Motion and Magic

Since making the decision to start our coffee service business, I’ve been doing some research (of course!) on coffee consumption. One very interesting site is The National Coffee Association of USA, Inc.

Here are some of the more interesting highlights from their National Coffee Drinking Trends 2008 study:

• 17% of the adult population consumed a gourmet coffee beverage on a daily basis in 2008
compared  with 14% in 2007.

• In 2007, past-day consumption of coffee surpassed that of soft drinks for the first time. While the gap narrowed in 2008, daily consumption of coffee is still directionally higher.

• 18 to 24 year olds are becoming serious coffee drinkers. In 2005, only 26 percent of young adults in that age bracket considered themselves coffee drinkers. By 2007, that figure was up to 37%, making the 18-24 year old coffee market the fastest growing segment of the market. Older adults, in the 40 to 59 year old bracket, are also big coffee drinkers. This age group increased from 59 percent to 61 percent over the previous year, and those age 60 and over report the most coffee consumers - 74 percent of adults in that age bracket reported that they drink coffee every day.

• Consumption of cups per day by consumers age 18-24 continued to trend higher in 2008. Young adults who drank coffee consumed an average of 3.2 cups per day as compared with 3.1 in 2007, a significant increase over 2005’s level of 2.5 cups per day.

So, coffee consumption is going up, but what about the economy? Coffee houses aren’t doing so well these days, are they? The International Coffee Organization released a report in February on the “World Economic Crisis and the Coffee Sector”:

Early reports show that food sales are holding up better than those of non-food
products.  It seems that big chains are competing by cutting prices rather than losing market
share or seeing the volume of sales decrease, even at the expense of profits.  In the developed
country markets of North America, Europe and Japan, which account for approximately
58% of world consumption, coffee is a staple good that represents only a small fraction of
consumer spending.  The information available suggests that coffee consumption in these
markets is holding up well.  Instead of limiting overall intake, consumers are more likely to
shift from out-of-home to in-home consumption and from higher cost products to cheaper
brands.  This trend to less expensive products is corroborated by the strong results reported
by discount food retailers and by reduced earnings in the speciality coffee sector in the last
quarter of 2008.

Increasing coffee consumption, especially among young adults, bodes well for the future of the coffee industry, despite the downturn in the economy. These coffee-drinkers know a good cappuccino when they taste it, and our Miri Market coffee service will allow businesses to offer barista-style coffee drinks to their employees and clients for a fraction of the coffee house price - a great thing in this economy.

Tags:Add new tag, coffee consumption, economy, Miri Market, National Coffee Association of USA, National Coffee Drinking Trends

Having gone to all three sessions of 2008 Summer Venture Camp put on by The Collaborative, I want to summarize the most important lessons that I took away from among all the information, expertise and advice given.

My business niche as a woman entrepreneur with Miri Market was not the primary target of most of the panel discussions, which seemed focused on med/tech start-up companies needing millions in venture capital. The Minneapolis/St. Paul area is especially strong in this industry, being home to Medtronic, St. Jude and Guidant, plus we have a world-class University that makes strong contributions in med/tech research. But the same things that make a strong candidate for getting venture capital makes a strong start-up company of any size, in any industry.

In the last venture camp session it was mentioned that you have to give people a message 9 times for it to stick. Much of what I focus on here are universal elements that were mentioned again and again - maybe not 9 times, but said by enough different people, enough times over the three sessions, that they “stuck” with me. The rest seems like just helpful good sense, to keep in mind as I build my company. So here they are:

1. Successful entrepreneurs need to be really FLEXIBLE. They also need to be completely dedicated; open to input; enthusiastic, but willing to learn; open to criticism; easy to work with; prepared.

2. Be sure to communicate to everyone - your employees, your board, your investors - IT’S ALL GOING TO CHANGE. You need to continually re-evaluate ideas, employee performance, compensation, priorities for spending - with the constant goal of making money and liquidity. Continually set up the expectation that things will be changing.

3. The saying, “Find a need, and fill it” is true. If you start with one idea in mind, and find that your customers are taking it in another direction or asking for some changes, go with it! Due diligence, market research, patent searches and understanding the competitive landscape can also help point you to the void that needs filling.

4. The main things to have down, which you must be able to communicate in a few, concise sentences, are:
-What’s your unique thing, your proprietary property/technology?
-How big is your market opportunity, your universe of buyers?
-What is the benefit customers receive from using your product? Will people pay for it?
-Management team. Management team. Management team.

5. When writing your business plan, make sure you have your above “story” together. Often a power point with supporting schedules will suffice, along with an excellent executive summary.

6. Hire people that are smarter than you. If you don’t have the knowledge and experience to get your company where it needs to be, find someone who does.

7. If you want to attract talent and have them work above and beyond for your success, give ownership as incentive - the earlier, the better. It’s difficult to lose key employees when you’re growing.

8. Don’t give up too much, too soon to your management team. Make sure they earn it, that no one is “dead weight,” then reward generously.

9. Be clear about the different components of your benefits package, and what long-term components reward as opposed to base pay.

10. If incentives are dependent on profit, put out the numbers so the employees know how they’re doing.

11. Consider that benefits have different value to different employees. Also think about the intangibles of your company that might help keep your employees. Create the right benefits and atmosphere for the employees you want to hire and keep.

12. Communicate, communicate, communicate - to employees, investors, public.

13. The right management team means having the right people at each stage. For example, having a bookkeeper –> having a comptroller –> having a CFO. Each time you add the right person, you’re adding value, even though the cash hit can be difficult at the time.

14. Constantly stay on top of cash flow. Check every day so you don’t have surprises.

15. Qualify your new customers. Set payment terms and credit limits. Follow up on slow payers. Offer discounts to get customers to pay more quickly. Offer credit card payment. Impose finance charges for late payments (and also use as leverage.) You can sometimes renegotiate terms with your manufacturers, suppliers. Convert sales as quickly as possible into cash in the bank.

16. Take the time to organize your board. Over time try to increase its sophistication to one that’s informed, and will take action when necessary.

Tags:2008 Summer Venture Camp, Business lessons, start-up, The Collaborative, Woman entrepreneur

The third and final Summer Venture Camp took place on Thursday morning at the University of Minnesota. You can read my blog posts about Session 1 and Session 2.

Put on by The Collaborative, the intent of the Summer Venture Camp panel discussions was to, “… help fuel and inform the ‘next generation’ of innovators while also following The Collaborative trademark of providing information and networking to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.”

Here is a list of the final four topics and the main points emphasized:

Equity Structure, Termsheets, NDA’s, Capitalization Tables, Employee Agreements and more

• When seeking financing, you have to have a plan on how much you need, how you’re going to spend it and when you think you’ll need to go back for another round. But flexibility is key: your investors will be dictating the terms.
• Once you get to the point of getting a term sheet, it’s a signal that your investors are very serious and there’s a doable deal. The term sheet will be a road map.
• Using equity to incentivize key employees is perhaps THE most important issue in high-growth companies. It’s really difficult to lose a key employee when you’re growing.
• Cash is scarce for these companies, but if you want to attract talent and have them work above and beyond for your success, you usually give ownership as incentive - the earlier the better.
• Keep incentive plans simple. Investor doesn’t want it too complicated but does want to see something in place. Requires regular review to make sure they’re effective as things change.
• Don’t give up too much, too soon to your management team. Make sure they earn it, that you don’t have “dead weight”, and then reward generously.
• Stock options, restricted stock or stock appreciation rates are most common; a pool of 7% - 15% of equity for employees.
• Worst thing is to get your valuation wrong - overstating or overvaluing. You will pay a real price later on if you don’t get it right.

The Role of Intellectual Property Issues in Financing

• Having a strong Intellectual Property (IP) strategy is critical for getting funding.
• Your first questions should be: Can I patent my idea? What is your strategy compared to the landscape of your industry? Then you should ask: How can I stay on top of it? What is my competition doing? What steps can I take to handle the changing environment?
• Pay attention to what Universities have published in your area. Do your own due diligence, because professors often forget what they’ve done! And don’t forget to take a look at basic public patents.
• Your CEO should be actively engaged in seeing what the competitive patent landscape is so he/she understands the context of what you’re doing. Will build a better business model because of it.
• You want to spend your scarce funds in an area where you have the most leeway and freedom. Patent research can help you find that niche.
• Make your patent application RIGHT AWAY. Make your patent AS BROAD AS YOU CAN. KEEP UPDATING your patent.
• The patent office is getting further and futher behind; patents are taking longer and longer to get.
• Engineering log books are critical. A good, old-fashioned paper trail is vital: a bound log book, dated and numbered and counter-signed by a non-scientist/inventor.

Trends in Talent, Compensation and Benefit

• Some basic security around health is vital. Pre-tax plans can be foundation for small business. As you grow larger you may have to compete with plans of larger companies.
• Benefits often begin with long-term planning, like 401K. There’s a trade-off between cash bonuses and long-term leverage. Maybe you can take the short term bonus and use it in a plan that will provide longer-term benefit.
• Be clear about the different components of your benefits package, and what outcomes are connected to them. You don’t want your employees to be confused about what the long-term components reward as opposed to their base pay. Communicate that BENEFITS ARE PAY.
• Some private companies don’t want to dilute ownership/equity, so are turning to 401K-like plans that are performance based.
• If an incentive is dependent on profit, put out the numbers so the employees know how they’re doing.
• Be sure your communication works with your employees. Studies show you have to give people a message 9 times for it to stick: give it 9 different ways.
• Companies are moving to defined CONTRIBUTION plans, rather than defined COMPENSATION plans - keeps the company from becoming buried by obligations.
• New study showing that younger employees now give companies about 6 months to prove they are what they say, and that there’s opportunity for them. If not, they move on.
• Benefits have different value to different generations: flexibility, telecommuting, compressed work week might be more attractive to younger workers.
• Think about what intangibles of your company keep your employees. Think about non-equity compensation.

Entrepreneur and Investor Panel

• The more “disruptive” the idea for a company, the more likely it is to be a startup.
• Especially in tech/medical industry, a successful start-up needs 1) world-class technology 2) very experienced management 3) capital.
• Investors are looking to see that there’s a large and growing market, that there’s a very experienced management team (cross-function ability, execution focused, committed to change), that there’s patent protection, and a culture that embraces success - can meet milestones and communicate it.
• A new company should always focus on basics. Make your business profitable: don’t just wait for financing, move the ball forward!
• What comes with financing? Often expertise, strategic strengths, core expertise.
• Replacing management teams is #1 issue - it’s all about management. Experienced management knows how to get to making money and liquidity. The “idea” can’t be the goal; the idea doesn’t matter. Goals will change but experienced management will focus on making money, will meet milestones, put money in proper priorities.
• Get valuation right at the beginning. If you get it wrong, as painful as it is, make the correction.
• Venture capitalists are driven by greed. If there are problems in a promising venture, they’ll look to see if it can be cleaned up, but will probably give youa take-it-or-leave-it proposition.
• The right management team means having the right people at each stage. Ex: having a bookkeeper –> having a comptroller –> having a CFO. Each time you add the right person you’re adding value, even tho the cash hit can be difficult at the time.
• Bad boards can cost a company money, are too often less informed than they should be, are unwilling to take the action that they’re supposed to take: replacing the CEO.
• At what point is a company ready for financing? When you can see that with even just the 1st round of financing, it will make money.

The quality of the panels in this last session was more consistent than in the other sessions, and very good. Obviously there was an enormous amount of information, expertise and advice given during Summer Venture Camp, and in my next post I will summarize what I learned from attending.

Tags:Summer Venture Camp, The Collaborative

Today I want to urge you to explore Alltop.

In it’s own words, “You can think of an Alltop site as a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet.” To understand more about the site, you can visit their about page.

As one example, check out Entrepreneurship. There are plenty of sites to keep you busy and informed on the topic of your choice.

Q. How do the Alltop sites work?

A. We import the stories of the top news websites and blogs for any given topic and display the headlines of the five most recent stories (except Moms.alltop which has fewer headlines because there are so many feeds). When you place the cursor over a headline, we display part of the story so that you can decide if you’d like to read it. To read the story, click on its title. To go to the home page of the site, click on its domain name.

Yesterday a new blog was launched, Alltop Watch - The world’s 1st unofficial blog designed solely to watch alltop.com grow. So THAT’S how much some people love this site.

Alltop will give you plenty to explore over the weekend!

Tags:Alltop, Business resources, entrepreneurship

I am still in prototype development, and am currently designing a survey to research reactions to initial designs for my product.

The first step, before even getting to the survey questions, is to determine what I want to find out from the survey-takers. I want to know:

1. What are your reactions to the various designs?
2. If you do NOT like a design, why? Would any specific changes make you like it better?
3. If you DO like a design, why? Could it be changed so you’d like it even more? If yes, what would you change?
4. Which of these designs do you prefer? Can you see yourself buying this product?
5. If you bought it, where would you put it in your home?
6. How would you describe your home decorating style?
7. What price would you expect to pay for this product?
8. Would you buy this product as a gift? If yes, for whom? What occasion?
9. Where else, other than your home, might you expect to see this product?
10. What is your age, gender and income level?

I need to be careful to ask the right questions for 2 and 3, to get usable feedback regarding like or dislike for a design. SurveyMonkey offers an excellent pdf on smart survey design at their Help Center, accessed on the upper right of the black toolbar on their website. Titled “Best Practices for Survey Design,” it contains a great description of a Likert scale:

Rating scales are popular ways of collecting subjective data where you want to measure a respondent’s ideas (e.g. opinions, knowledge, or feelings).

Likert Scales:

A likert scale is considered an “agree – disagree” scale. This setup gives respondents a series of attitude dimensions. For each dimension, the respondent is asked whether, and how strongly, they agree or disagree to each dimension using a point rating scale. Likert scales are given scores or assigned a weight to each scale, usually from 1 to 5. The purpose of the likert scale is to sum the scores for each respondent (the response average), and the intent of the likert is in that the statement will represent different aspects of the same attitude (Brace 2004, 86).

Now I know what answers I need, and how to get like/dislike feedback on the designs. SurveyMonkey has many other tips for putting together the right questions to get at the data I need. I also found out that I can use my design images in the survey. Now I will sign up for the $19.95/month membership and get to work on putting it all together!

Tags:Customers, likert scale, survey, SurveyMonkey.com

Metropolitan State University in St. Paul was the site of the second of three Summer Venture Camps on Thursday morning. You can read about the first one Jawed Karim And Paul Knapp Are Highlights Of Summer Venture Camp Session 1.

Put on by The Collaborative, the intent of these panel discussions is to, “… help fuel and inform the ‘next generation’ of innovators while also following The Collaborative trademark of providing information and networking to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.”

Here is a list of the morning’s four topics and the main points emphasized:

Cash is King: Managing cash flow in emerging growth companies

• Profitability is great, but it doesn’t solve your cash flow problems.
• Best way to manage is to constantly stay on top of cash flow; check every day so you don’t have surprises. Larger companies have more complex cash flows, but the same principle applies.
• Qualify your new customers. Set payment terms and credit limits. Follow up on slow payers. Offer discounts to get customers to pay more quickly. Offer credit card payment. Impose finance charges for late payments (and also use as leverage.) Make every effort to convert a sale quickly into cash in the bank.
• If you need a business partner, find one to whom you are just as important as they are to you.
• Remember: your bank isn’t an investor or partner; their business is to minimize risk. Show them credibility and that you understand the whole financial picture.

Due Diligence

• When writing your business plan, make sure you have your “story” together. Often a power point with supporting schedules will suffice, along with an excellent executive summary.
• Main 3 things to have down: 1. What’s your unique thing, and will people pay for it? 2. How big is your market opportunity; who is your universe of buyers? 3. MANAGEMENT. Experience is often critical to getting financial backing.
• Regarding intellectual property, don’t put all your resources into first patent right away, because the design might change and you might need more money to pursue a different patent

Valuation and Negotiation

• The earlier the stage of a company, the more subjective the valuation process.
• Same main points are looked at as above: 1. MANAGEMENT TEAM. Make sure they have the experience needed to lead the company. 2. Your proprietary property/technology. 3. Value proposition: what is the benefit customers receive from using your product? You must be able to say this in one or two sentences. 4. Prove you have a large, and growing, market.
• Sit down and figure out where you want your company to be in the long term. Start with the end point in mind, and then work back from there. Know what you need to do, and when, to achieve your big goal. It will help you stay focused and on the right track.
• Whether raising capital or closing the sale, it is very helpful to really understand comparable companies. Help educate those in the process. Though difficult with emerging industries, it sometimes helps to find older companies and work back to when they were young to compare with where you’re at. Usually there’s some company that is in a comparable field.
• You can use terms to make venture capitalists more comfortable. Most like participating preferred stock plus share in proceeds.
• Make sure the differences in terms between rounds of financing don’t cause conflict.
• If you can get financing from yourself, friends and family, DO!

Economic Development and Venture Creation in the Twin Cities and Outstate

• This was not an interesting discussion. I didn’t get anything from it, and many people left.

For me, a woman entrepreneur, the Summer Venture Camp has been worthwhile. Not all the topics have been pertinent to me, but

1. It has been very good to see and hear the participating panel members, many of whom are leaders in the business community.
2. It is good to hear basic advice given, with slight variations, on how to present oneself capably to bankers and investors, and how to set up your company for success.
3. It is worthwhile to become familiar with the entrepreneur community and its support organizations in the Twin Cities.

The third and final session will be August 7 at the Humphrey Center at the University of Minnesota.

Tags:Summer Venture Camp, The Collaborative

The Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy released a new report, High-Impact Firms: Gazelles Revisited.

This study examines firms with significant revenue growth and expanding employment. These are termed “high-impact firms” to distinguish them from gazelles [firms with rapid revenue growth.] The research offers summary statistics helping to define the scope and characteristics of high-impact firms. The report sheds light on several previously unanswered questions, including: What are high-impact firms before they become high-impact firms? What happens after their high-impact phase?

Among the overall findings of the report:

High-impact firms are relatively old, rare and contribute to the majority of overall economic growth. On average, they are 25 years old, they represent between 2 and 3 percent of all firms, and they account for almost all of the private sector employment and revenue growth in the economy.

Here are some highlights:
• From 2002 to 2006 there were 376,605 high-impact firms in the United States.
• For the three firm-size categories analyzed, the average size of high-impact firms in the 1-19 size
category was 3 employees at the beginning of the period of analysis, increasing almost out of the size
category to 16; for the 20-499 firm-size class it was 65 increasing to 209; and for the over-500 size class,
it was 3,648 increasing to 8,041.
• High-impact firms exist in all industries. While some industries have a higher percentage of these firms, they are not limited to high-technology industries.
• High-impact firms exist in almost all regions, states, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and counties.
• In the four years after a high-impact firm undergoes its high-growth phase, only about 3 percent die.
Most remain in business and exhibit at least some growth.
• The data suggest that local economic development officials would benefit from recognizing the value of cultivating high-growth firms versus trying to increase entrepreneurship overall or trying to attract relocating companies when utilizing their resources.

A previous SBA report titled “Are Male and Female Entrepreneurs Really That Different?” was the subject of my September 25, 2007 blog post I can do anything you can do better - or at least just as well! One of the highlights of that report was that “…when controlling for factors typically influencing entrepreneurial performance, gender does not affect new venture performance. However, several factors - differing expectations, reasons for starting a business, motivations, opportunities sought and types of businesses - vary between the genders, and these result in differing outcomes. In essence, men are not inherently better owners, they have different business goals.”

Male or female, when starting a new business the entrepreneur has to have realistic expectations in line with the business they are in. But why not keep our aims high - to be a high-impact business. A successful business requires planning, dedication and hard work. Knowing that achieving growth is a huge factor in our long-term success may be the extra incentive we need to work even harder at the day-to-day business, and planning for that growth may make a difference.
A copy of the report is located at: http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs328tot.pdf and the research summarycan be found at: http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs328.pdf.

Tags:High-Impact Firms: Gazelles Revisited, Office of Advocacy, Small Business Administration

Four topics were covered this morning at Session 1 of The Collaborative 2008 Summer Venture Camp.

• The Business Plan
• Getting Set up - For Today and the Future: Technology, Real Estate and Human Resources
• Capital Structure and Financing Your Business with Equity and Debt
• Entrepreneur and Investor Panel

Each segment was kept to a crisp 45 minutes and was presented by a panel, either in discussion format or alternate short presentations. The final panel on Entrepreneurs and Investors, moderated by Dan Carr of The Collaborative, was the definite highlight, with

• Jawed Karim, Founder, Youniversity Ventures; Co-Founder, YouTube
• Archie Black, CEO, SPS Commerce
• Paul Knapp, Managing Partner, Space Center Ventures

All three panelists were excellent, with Jawed Karim and Paul Knapp handing out the most practical and useful observations for entrepreneurs. Some of the main points Paul stressed for making your company investment-worthy were:

• Take the time and care to organize your board; over time increase the sophistication of your board.
• Hire people that are smarter than you! If you don’t have the knowledge and experience needed to get your company where it needs to be, find someone who does.
• Talk the talent into coming to work for you. A lot of talented, experienced, smart people are surprisingly willing to give up their salary and corporate life for a new challenge. It’s your job to get them excited to come work for you.
• There’s an investor for every deal. Start by going to people who understand what you’re doing, and talk to them about it. Don’t ask for money, but run your ideas by them; ask them questions: Does this make sense? If they get excited about what you’re doing, maybe they know someone for you to talk to. Or maybe they might become an investor.
• Be sure to communicate to everyone - your board, employees, investors - “it’s all going to change.” You need to continually be re-evaluating, remaking your company. Continually set up the expectation that things will be changing.
• The best way to approach him is by a referral from SOMEONE HE RESPECTS. Learn who are the black hats and white hats in town, and stick to the good ones. LEARN WHAT THE INVESTORS ARE INTERESTED IN, what they know about. If it is in your niche, send them an email with a 1-pg summary.

Jawed Karim described his new company, Youniversity Ventures, as wanting to be the kind of mentors he wishes he had had when starting out. Jawed stressed:

• Entrepreneurs need to be really flexible
• The saying, “Find a need and fill it” is true. When starting YouTube, they realized there was a need to share videos. At the same time, broadband was entering homes and becoming cheaper for hosting centers. They tried to copy the “Hot or not” site using videos, but the key was realizing what the public wanted to do with the videos. The same was true with PayPal. It was originally for mobile users, but it wasn’t taking off. So they tried it on the web, and on Ebay. Ebay took off. That was the need.
• Youniversity Ventures is focused on first-time entrepreneurs and student teams; people who have cool projects but don’t know what next step to take. They can focus on smaller amount needs, and almost become like co-founders. Youniversity helps work on everything from product design to investor presentation pitches, and can help them get to the bigger investors.
• In being approached, a prototype or demo is often helpful. Be clear: What is your idea? Who is on your team? Why is it a useful product?
• Investors often decide very, very quickly if they’re interested. They’re also looking for a certain personality: completely dedicated, openness to input; enthusiastic, but willing to learn, open to criticism, flexible, easy to work with.
• When asked about the difference between working with entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, Illinois and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Jawed said that there’s a lot of “noise” and “fluff” in Silicon Valley - so much activity, but not that much innovation. Places a little farther removed from the hype might have less activity, but the activity that is there is stronger. He said it was refreshing to get away from the noise and see the innovation.
• In response to one questioner about protecting intellectual property when talking to investors, Jawed said that is a sign of being inexperienced and turns investors off. Investors don’t sign non-disclosure agreements; they’re in the business to HELP entrepreneurs. An example he used was asking what if all the ideas behind Google were laid out to a potential investor. Even if they’d tried to copy those ideas, they could never have done Google like Larry Page and Sergey Brin!

Archie Black also had some great comments to add to the discussion and Dan Carr kept the conversation going with input from each panelist. It was clear from the audience interest that the Q and A could have gone on longer. Not all of the panels were as relevant as this one, but altogether it was a good session for entrepreneurs. I’ll cover relevant information from Session 2 on July 17 and Session 3 on August 7.

Thank you for a VERY valuable blog post, Hill Library Blog! Titled How research can get retail through a recession, this post is filled with a wealth of information ammunition to get through these tough economic times. Among other information, it lists sites for:

• retail industry statistics
• economic trends
• consumer trends
• retail industry benchmarks

These are valuable sources for research and information. Being in the product development phase of my company, this was especially informative. I need all the research ammunition I can get for when my product goes on the retail market. Be sure to tell anyone you might know who is in retail to go to the Hill Library Blog for this research. If they’re smart, they’ll take advantage of it, for knowledge itself is power (Francis Bacon.)

Tags:Hill Library Blog, How research can get retail through a recession, retail information

I want to catch you up on how my business is going, and what I’ve been doing lately.

My item is being worked on by my product designer. He stays in close touch with me, and has asked me to research a few things for him along the way. It takes time.

I’m very close to having a splash page up for my company website. I’m really looking forward to announcing my company name and having a nascent presence for my product on the web. I thought I’d be doing this in February, but looks like it’ll be May. It’s taken a long time.

I continue to do research on all sorts of things related to marketing, PR, best online business practice, insurance, accounting, etc. It all takes a lot of time to research.

Although I’ve been putting less into it lately than I should, I continue to try to build the readership of my blog. I am trying to build my social networks. Every person that becomes interested in my story and the process of bringing my item to market will be a person that will at least know about my product when I launch it. You guessed it…IT TAKES TIME.

My mom has some axioms she’s developed over the years, one of which is simply this:
“Everything takes longer than you think.”

Boy, was she ever right.

Tags:company website, product designer, research, splash page, Time