[geeklog-devel] Geeklog Service offering

[Tom Willett]

The first thing you need to do is get commitments from people for 
participation and agreement on a plan of action.  This would include what 
initial services to offer and how the jobs will be parceled out.  It is not 
fair to have someone say -- I will be a part, contact me when we start 
making money.  

Next, in this group I imagine it will be easier to get someone to volunteer 
to do programing or installations, but someone also needs to take charge of 
the business aspects and be responsible for that.  (I am not volunteering, 
my plate is full right now).  There needs to be a central point of 
coordination and seeing that things get done.  If someone sends a support 
request to the list, someone needs to make sure it gets answered.  In other 
words, someone needs to step up and take charge.  I am assuming Tony that 
will be you.  And you will find much to your chagrin that you spend more 
time on business than programming.  The ideal business leader will know 
programming (so he can put up with and lead when the programmers get in 
premadonna mode) but enjoy the business aspects.  Wait I just described Bill 
Gates.

My 2 cents.  

On Fri, 10 Jan 2003 12:42:51 -0600 (CST), Tony Bibbs wrote
> Right, so in the interest of what you said, what is the smallest piece of 
> work we can do quickly that will start us down this road?
> 
> --Tony
> 
> On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, Tom Willett wrote:
> 
> > I sometimes wonder why it seems that only Blaine and I respond to things 
> > like this.  At first I thought oh well we are just a couple of vain old 
men 
> > who like to impose our beliefs on others.  ;)  But then I realized, 
hell, I 
> > have always been this way!  So here goes again and after this I will 
shut up.
> > 
> > > Tony Bibbs wrote
> > > Here are some initial thoughts I had on how to start his up.  First, 
there 
> > > is no really need to go all gung-ho until we prove there is a market 
for 
> > > this sort of stuff.  So our first goal should be to establish the fact 
> > > tehre is need for services around GL.
> > >
> > 
> > Agreed -- For my last startup I contacted a local State College Business 
> > School and let one of the business classes take my initial thoughts and 
us 
> > it as a class project developing a business plan and doing a marketing 
> > survey.  I only came away from that experience with one good idea, but 
that 
> > one idea saved me about $20,000 and untold headaches.  I imagine that 
any 
> > business school would jump on the chance to do the same for a high-tech 
> > service oriented business like this.
> > 
> > > 
> > > To do that I propose we do something simple like set-up one bank 
account 
> > > in which all $$ will initially go into.  Then we need to figure out 
how 
> > > much revenue a month we think we need before we are convinced there is 
a 
> > > need for this and that we need to go to the next level.  Let's call 
that 
> > > magic number $X/month.
> > > 
> > > Until we reach our goal of $X/month, all money stays in the account.  
When 
> > > we hit that goal we can then take what is in the account to pay for 
things 
> > > we may need (drafts of contracts, lawyer time to set up a corporation, 
> > > etc).  I say we prime the pump and just dump it all back into what we 
are 
> > > trying to do. From that point on we can start dividing up revenue in a 
way 
> > > that rewards people based on time spent and goals accomplished (i.e. 
more 
> > > like a 'real' business).
> > > 
> > 
> > Once again Agreed.  It is painful to not reap the fruit of you labor at 
> > first but essential.  You either have to do something like this to fund 
a 
> > startup or borrow money or put in some of your own (yuk).  And you need 
to 
> > be realistic, do not expect it to happen in two or three months.
> > 
> > And another painful thought, especially in this dot-com boom and bust 
world, 
> > you better plan on not getting any money out of the company for at least 
a 
> > year, probably more.  So don't quit your day job.  The only way people 
got 
> > rich in the past dot-com bubble was by taking other peoples money.
> > 
> > --
> > Tom Willett
> > tomw at pigstye.net
> > _______________________________________________
> > geeklog-devel mailing list
> > geeklog-devel at lists.geeklog.net
> > http://lists.geeklog.net/listinfo/geeklog-devel
> > 
> 
> -- 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------|
> Tony Bibbs         | "I guess you have to remember that those who don't 
|   
> tony at tonybibbs.com | hunt or fish often see those of us who do as       |
>                    | harmlessly strange and sort of amusing. When you   | 
>                    | think about it, that might be a fair assessment."  | 
>                    | --Unknown                                          |
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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--
Tom Willett
tomw at pigstye.net