Wimbledon 2006

In the shadow of this year’s World Cup, Wimbledon fortnight has quietly started. As I write this, Henman has been knocked out by Federer and Andy Murray is battling through as the crowd on ‘Murrayfield’ watch the big screen in unusually fine English weather.

Henman is heading towards the end of his career. Murray has inherited the weight of British expectation on his shoulders. His play has been looking inconsistent and currently he doesn’t have a manager. This made me think of something David J Scarlett said at his ‘Soul Millionaire’ seminar:

“You need three to be free.”

David went on to explain that to have a fully functional, independent and successful business you need three roles fulfilled. The visionary, the manager and the technician.

The visionary – The Directors or owner, working on strategy at a high level.
The manager – Day to day decisions, running the business.
The technician – In the back room, keeping the systems and processes in place.

At present Andy Murray is trying to manage his performance on the court and deal with the technical aspects and psychology of his game. No wonder he’s distracted! Scarlett’s point – Without these aspects covered in any enterprise, you’re stretched too thin.

Fortunately for Murray, John McEnroe has noticed his plight. He offered his coaching services to Andy on a part-time basis yesterday. I hope his agent can fill the visionary role.

Inspirational

The last few days have been quite tricky. Putting the final touches to the website and thinking about the initial PR work. It gets difficult to see the light at the end of tunnel when people coming up with more things to slow you down.

Today I took a look through some of the Start-Up Profiles and Success Stories on startups.co.uk.

If you’re feeling like everyone is picking fault and the red tape begins to swamp you, click over to those stories and you’ll soon be back on track!

In the beginning…

October 2005 – While on a regular meandering internet session, I happened across a website offering a ‘wish list’ service. I liked the idea of offering people the chance to receive what they wanted from potential benefactors who could peruse the register. After a further trawl for similar sites (using Alexa.com) I came to the conclusion that although available, these services were under-used and under-valued. Perhaps I could develop a service, with a revenue stream that also ticked my boxes for the perfect business idea?

1, Open 24/7 (ie. online)
2, Scaleable
3, No stock or premises
4, Not content dependent
5, No/Low maintenance

Roughly speaking, the existing ‘gift list’ sites divide into three categories: Single vendor, where you create a list from one store. Multiple vendor, where you create a list from multiple stores. These sometimes use a ‘grabber’ gadget that isolates the items details and adds it your gift list. There are also sites that offer a free choice, you can add anything to your list. For these to work, your benefactor simply reserves an item and arranges the purchase or payment independently. There are no services that offer complete freedom of choice, a payment system and a choice of event attached to the list (e.g. Christmas, Birthday, Graduation).

How does this stack up against my key criteria:

1, Open 24/7 (ie. Online)
Yes. Customers could create a list at anytime. They just need a computer, modem and phoneline.

2, Scaleable
Yes. If the service is database driven, very little extra work should be necessary.

3, No stock or premises
Yes. Credit card payment and cash transfers only. There’s no stock, premises or logistics. Only server space is equired.

4, Not content dependent
Yes. Content is effectively created by the customer.

5, No/Low maintenance
Yes. The systems could be 99% automated.

Time for the work to begin.

Property Ladder

British TV station Channel 4 is currently airing the most recent series of ‘Property Ladder’. The basic premise is: Buy an undervalued/dilapidated house, spruce it up then re-sell it. Simple? Apparently not.
This show has been running for a number of years but the latest format helps to accentuate the utter stupidity of some participants. This week’s programme featured two partnerships, each having purchased apartments in Islington, North London.
Team 1 developed a two-storey maisonette on Arundel Park that was purchased at auction. They almost came unstuck. There were early suspicions that the back of the house was subsiding. Fortunately this proved not to be the case, but it was a lesson in not spending £250k based only on an auction description. They followed 90% of Sarah Beeny’s advice and were handsomely rewarded with a larger than expected profit.
Team 2 appeared to be doomed from the start. They overpaid for a large flat in a troublesome location, overspent on the development and were then forced to overestimate its resale value. Needless to say, they had totally disregarded the expert guidance provided by the host. If you don’t intend to live in the property, then surely your motivation for taking on the project is profit? The distressing part is when people ignore advice to optimise the re-sale value. Why do that? The work should hold no emotional attachment.

There were three lessons I hope to take from this:
1, Question your motives – Set your objectives accordingly.
2, Follow expert advice – Especially from those with a proven track record.
3, Profit driven transactions must follow the rule – Buy low, add value, sell high.

Just because these people have benefited from an unusual (and according to the experts, unsustainable) period of growth in property prices it does not mean they have the speculative powers of George Soros or can execute a design worthy of the Richard Rogers Partnership.

Know your limits.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

From what I’ve seen in the news lately, there seems to be a push towards developing innovative thinking. Globalisation has opened up the world labour market and UK industries – with many companies in manufacturing switching to lower cost operations in Eastern Europe, India and China. This means the UK can’t rely on these previously guaranteed employers anymore. The job for life no longer exists.

According to Sir Digby Jones, the individual must prepare him/herself by acquiring a saleable skillset that can be transferred in the ‘flexible’ job market. Perhaps this where our future lies from a blue collar perspective, but what about people with a desire to work for themselves? Their future wealth lies elsewhere. In the creation of innovative ideas, creating premium products and adding value.

The majority of TV may be slurry but the latest crop of ’self-help’ reality shows have certainly spurred me on. Dragon’s Den and Make Me a Million all trade on people’s desire to improve their lot in life and be be their own boss.

Dot Com History

Back in the days of the first dot com boom, many people dreamt of the perfect online business model. You know the one… ‘Palm trees and palm top’. Someone else stuck in the drizzle while you rally the troops from the comfort of your hammock. Many CEO’s ended the 20th century worrying about burn rate rather than sunburn.

In hindsight experts say many of the celebrated dot com failures were flawed, throwing caution (and dollars) to the wind fuelled by massive IPO’s and VC investment. Lessons can be learnt from the bad old days…

and I’m ready and willing to give it a try!

Can we build it? Yes we can!

Welcome to my Secret Diary of an Internet Start-up.

Towards the end of 2005 (as my 30th birthday loomed) I decided it was time to look for a business project that I could run alongside my day job. Like many people, I had dreams of my minions turning ‘turning the handle’ while I kicked back and enjoyed the profits. Let’s see what happens…