Startup Branding Hindsight

Tim Ferris & Kevin Rose(2 people of many I want to interview) recently put out an experimental video discussing how they chose names for their start-up projects and their experience with angel investors. It’s an interesting discussion that may or may not be too important to you. Still, it’s something to watch while you eat lunch.


Tim and Kevin from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.

Seems interesting how the web has become so saturated with ideas since they began with their own start-ups. I suppose ideas have always virally replicated, but I think the impact is much more visible on the web, especially when you look at domain squatters.

What do you think?

Now just to get in touch with these guys and see if I can get some more insight out of them from their own entrepreneurial attempts.

The Value of a Team

I am self-employed, but does that mean I am perfect and complete on my own? Is “me” all I need?

This has come up often lately as I plan on how to achieve my goals. It’s obvious now that I can reach my goals way faster by working with others that have similar goals.

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How It Works: Small Presence

Today, I spoke with Kyle Rehm from Ono Mojo, a Hawaiian web development studio. We had met through a craigslist posting I made requesting a contracted PHP developer to assist with Small Presence. What follows is some insight I gained today on my own goals for Small Presence, as well as future opportunities that can be incorporated into it. I have a clearer view of the internals of Small Presence and I and going to outline it in this post.

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Small Presence Update Feb 25

I’m going to stick with DBA for now. I’d have to redo my bank account if I changed to LLC. I’ll go to the end of the year and see how things turn out. If everything goes as planned, I’ll setup the LLC and and new bank account and new merchant account and then switch over with no down time.

I’m also putting the Small Presence client interface on hold for a week or so so I can focus on my neglected clients. They have work that needs to be done. No point in having a client interface if I have no clients to use it. The interface has been built out pretty far, though. I have a good amount of user needs defined and a nice template to work with. Still thinking through the whole business process to ensure I’m covering all the bases.

I have the VPS setup with virtual email users using postfix and dovecot now, too. I still need to make some adjustments, but I’m that much closer to accepting Small Presence-specific emails. So yay.

Another note, I’m reading some good books on business and usability. I’ll post some reviews and my thoughts on them soon.

I’d like to get some interviews posted soon, too, but I haven’t had a lot of spare time. I’m getting married next Friday! Too much to do, no time to do it.

Small Presence will be going full throttle by this September. My goal is to have 20 clients going by October. I’d like to have at least $40,000 revenue in the first 12 months. We’ll see how that goes as I continue to refine the business and marketing model.

Also, I received the debit card and checks. Checks had ‘Small Prence’ on it though, so I had to reorder them. Not sure how they messed it up that badly, but whatever.

More to come soon.

Recent Activity

Not a lot of progress has been made lately. I filed my DBA for Small Presence. I was going to go in to the bank on Monday and setup a checking account, but I ran out of time. I’m going to do that Monday. Then I’m going to setup the CDG merchant account over the weekend. I have client payments waiting to be billed and I’d like to use the new merchant account.

I have also decided to stay with the VPS server instead of investing money in owned and co-located hardware right now. I will setup asterisk on the VPS and use VoicePulse Connect with a local Las Vegas phone number to conduct my business. I see no need for a toll free number right now. I can’t justify the cost per minute and per month.

I have organized a lot of my data from different sources (like thumb drives, hard drives, and miscellaneous documents) for my projects so I can prioritize my goals.

I have come up with an awesome idea for viral marketing Small Presence once it’s up and running. That will most likely grow into its own project since I feel it has a lot of potential.

Small Presence is going to be my main priority in my list of goals since I have new client work in the queue and I really need to start battle testing my new flow with Small Presence.

On a side note about this blog, I am slowly telling my friends about it. I posted a link on my twitter and will soon post on Digg and see what kind of response I get. I may wait until I get a couple interviews published first though. So keep watching for those. I’m going to be interviewing Tim Ferriss and Andy Rutledge to start.