Jason::Adams

So today I got a call from M_how, trying to update me on the situation.  It now appears like we might be getting screwed after all. Well really M_how seems to be in danger of getting screwed.  Let me try and describe M_how’s situation first.

 

When we originally started the company he was funding everything himself, from what appears to be some savings from money hes making on an electronic voting patent, his consultant work (tech stuff), and a sale of some real estate, or maybe a 2nd mortgage takin out?  The first thing I noticed wrong was that the expenditures were getting out of hand, you have to limit the miscelaneous expenditures.  Even if at the time it seems like you may have no cashflow problems in the future, you have to minimize all expenditures to ensure success given problems in the future.  Bad spending = no cash.  Every purchase needs to be accounted for and planned.  Maybe each expenditure should be compared to the company vision? Is this on target with our vision? Is this on target for our plan for success? Is this going to give us momentum for success in the future?  Products should be worked on that only provide immediate momentum to the company.  With a small company, it seems like your first goal would be to make it a “WORKING” company, something that can support its own generation of revenue and cashflow.  What we should have done, is planned out a first product, something that applies to a general market, something we can use to start generating cashflow for further projects.  Do not rely on personal equity forever, because remember that equity will eventually run out.  M_how real estate deals ,etc.

 

Overall why is it failing? -not having a direct goal and plan for cashflow? Funding?

Woke up this “morning” (1pm) to about 50 new emails in my box.  Looks like my bosses had come back to their emails and dilgently responded to each one I sent out.  I also had a bunch of support emails to handle as this aspect of the business has been moved over to me as Rob wasnt getting paid to do it.  I want to get more involved in the job, and learn all about the business and how its running.  I should also dedicate some time every night to writing about what I learned at work, and what I think is making things better, or worse.  This will provide a resource for myself in the future when making decisions, running my own company, etc.  I think Rob’s logistical planning skills are excellent, and he has great creative ideas for solving solutions with tech/forums, etc.  His idea of a global forum of artists that is all accessed together, is great for compounding email lists etc.  The stuff we write as sales copy is probably not very effective as no one in the company really knows what were doing in that regard.  Hopefully we can get enough products out there to sustain the company, where we can work on getting our bootcamps going. This should generate alot more loyal costumers as we can make concrete memories in their head and drastic improvements.

Today was also a mastermind meeting where Amit brought in Rob.  I didn’t expect him to be just brought in like he was, but I guess he was an original invite that didn’t show up… but so was Bj.  Overall I liked the guy and didnt want to cause conflict already so I didnt say anything.  I still think it was probably not a good idea to bring someone in, without asking anyone, voting etc.  I really hope this mastermind group works out and people put the effort and motivation necessary into getting the things done.  I’ve really noticed how little people take action int heir lives and this can be a serious advantage I have is the ability to take action on my ideas, and my responsibilty for my own actions.  The mastermind meeting was really short due to Nick being late and the original environment being too loud, we ended up relocating to Mikes and starting.  I wasn’t too worried about NIck being late as Im sure he had a good reason, I just hope people learn to put alot more value into the meetings.  If they knew Angelina Jolie was going to be there, would they miss the meeting? So really its a matter of how much value you assign to it. How much do you believe it will add to your life?

 

After teh mastermind I went over to Amit’s place to “discuss” some ideas, talk about things further.  He mentioned that he wanted to explore the book idea with me some more, see if we could actually get something into action.  He’s currently writing a book of his own on humor so I think it would be best to let him get through that.  Neither of us are extremely competent writers so It’s probably best we just used this time to improve our writing skills.  As anyone reading this - (I don’t send this blog to anyone!) can tell I have horrible writing skills!  Thats what I get for cheating my way through english the entire school system…. now if I want to learn how to write I have to pay for it!  Nice one jason! Anyways I spent some time motivating Amit into thinking about some ideas for the business ideas I had.  I had an idea for a model of a way to make money, but what we are really missing is very essential.  A identifiable and reachable market, and a product that can be offered through the dvd/video medium.  The best type of product, the one im familiar with, would be an information or instructional related Dvd.  I mentioned how after creating the product, if we found a way of generating email leads, we could teach a outsourced indian laborer to do it for us cheap, and create a relatively self sustaining method of income.  It’s definately a goal of mine to increase the amount of passive income in my life, as passive income will lead to flexibility.  I am thinking of implementing a habit in my life where I write down everytime someone says “I wish they had” or “I wish there was…”  I need to record every want that people have, and learn to identify business opportunities in groups of people.  It would also be beneficial to try and list every hobby I can think of, every stereotype of people, just list all types of demographics, markets, types of people, nerds, computer programmers, active lifestyle people, etc.

Then I could go through and write about each stereotype, demographic, and try and figure out the needs or wants of each of the demographics.  After we generated some ideas of some things they want, we could use basic statistical polling to see if our assumptions were correct.  After this its all about identifying if there is a way to present this through the medium we can provide.

It would probably benefit me to write about all of the areas im proficient in, things im interested in, so I can have a list of subjects to work off of, where I will be a little more knowledgeable.  It would also be beneficial for me to learn about generating email lists.  What free content, or how could I persuade people to go to a site, what value can I offer in exchange for an email?  How do pros generate email list?  How much and how effective are the purchaseable lists?  Is it necessary to have opt in lists, only for legal reasons?  It would be nice to be able to teach a method for email list generation, and get enough email leads to warrant paying someone else to do it (outsource).

 What skillsets would benefit my goals of having passive income? Sales copy writing? Internet marketing? Product development? Product launch? Marketing Skills? Video skills? Improving my ability to film, produce, edit? Create motion graphics?  It would be nice to develop a list of skills that would overlap in its benefits to my different goals in life.  This would have to come after generating my vision of my life.  Im really excited about the camping trip we’ll take where we dedicate our time to imagining, and planning out our life.

It kinda sucks that I often am changing who I am, or things about me or my personality to fit with other people.  In a way my personality is a very fluid concept, I add and subtract things as I use fit, often not finding harm in using deception to imply something.  I’ve slowly mastered the art of making people arrive to a conclusion without me actually saying it.  This is definately a fine art, and something I’d like to work at more in the future.  In some ways I wonder if its Debilitating to me… conforming to others views, to other peoples realities.  It can’t be all that amazing for my ego/self confidence.  It could also be harmful in the things I pretend to be.  When I pretend to do drugs, to help network with people who do drugs?  Pretend to drink, when everyones drinking?  Who cares? Why don’t I just carry a water? Why a dietcoke in a small glass?

Just wanted to remind myself to type about the good ole days in maryland playing in the creek with friends, chris, justin, taking walks to the karate centre or more importantly the chinese food place or video store, gas station up the corner.  There was also a walmart real close.  Remember playing little league and being the catcher and getting hit in the shins.  Remember New jersey and being so scared to ride on a sled, remember falling on skis in new jersey and being to scared to get up.  Alot of not having faith inmyself or my abilities.  I believe im smart and motivated now, I can do what I want.  Bo invited me to hike up a mountain iwth jason nguyen him and others.  Get name of mountain from brian to look up difficulty.  Remember playign in the snow, and the husky.  Remember playing fight and hitting somoen with my bo staff.  Remember poking keith in the eye with the bostaff with a glove on the end.  Remember shocking keith with the electric razor I took apart.  Remember everyone coming home late and I used to sell snacks to neighborhood kids.  Remember getting the playboy with the pictures cut out.  Remember being mesmerized by naked girls in the playboy etc, getting caught by the principal…  Stealing stuff from stores, stealing pages out of magazines, shoving stuff down my pants

Remember doing magic shows, practicing magic all the time, remember doing a show at the magic store and crying in front of one of the magicians.  Remember working at the magic store teaching people tricks, or showing effects.  Remember being told i was too good for the learning session, and being taught the rubberband handcuffs trick.  Remember seeing david copperfield with mom, where she squealed and he looked at her, when he turned a rose into a flower.  Remember Kenny and his family.  Remember staying at their house for a bit? Remember having stinkbombs, remember adrian and riding gokarts, remember listenting to green day in the hotel as i was leaving for cali, remember listenting to bush because of the kid in class, who told you he worried about his posture because his dad was in the military. Remember having a crush on Molly, Remember being in love with Anna Funk, Remember when the girl on Dmitri’s cheerleading squad, who found out you liked her, and came to talk to you ….. but you were too nervous too broke down to even talk to her.  Remember her saying your cute.  Remember playing magic the gathering.  Remember playing in the library, and with chris (when you first bought the set).  Remember playing the video games on the disk computer, remember sneaking into dads computer room. Remember using prodigy to get online.  Remember having the window right near the ground so i could sneak out and not really using it.  Remember steven and playing nintendo at his house, and going to the hockey games with his family.  remember justin?? down the street… remember the rain in maryland and wearing starters jackets.  Remember How excited i would get by simple things, how I could keep myself entertained in my room for hours.  Remember being so fascinated with magic.  Remember playin basketball and sucking.  Remember playing baseball and being decent.  Remember learning to play catch with dad in the backyard.  Remember the pool in the backyard, remember Chris Freeze chasing you around with a deer leg.  Remember his deaf family, and sisters.  Remember his dad saying “GAK”.  Remember my birthday party where I think almost everyone bailed? Ask mom about this.  Remember the birthday party in the pool and trying to get all the coins in teh water.  Remember crying or feeling sad for yourself for some reason on your birthday.  Remember Chris coming late because of football. 

 People that taught or are teaching classes/seminars at SDSU.

Instructor: John Spiers has been involved in every phase of import/export buying and selling since 1974. He has been self-employed since 1984, trading goods and services worldwide, and enjoys sharing his experience and tips with people interested in developing their own world trade business.  Class on importing business.

Instructor: William Flood is a small business consultant, speaker, and the owner of a small business training firm. He has conducted training seminars for over 15 years, reaching over 35,000 students. He has extensive experience working with home-based businesses in such diverse areas as mail order, consulting, import/export, e-commerce, and real estate investing. A dedicated entrepreneur, he regularly works as a volunteer counselor for the Maryland Small Business Development Center, and was nominated in 1991 for the Small Business Administration’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Delaware.  Class on starting a consulting practice.

Instructor: Ken Clark, small business programs coordinator for the Small Business International Trade Center and the 2003 U.S. Small Business Administration Financial Advocate of the Year.  Class on starting a small business.

Instructor: Janet Underwood holds a bachelor’s degree and has more than ten years of experience as a senior technical writer for major corporations such as Sprint, Fortis Benefits, and DST. She has also developed courseware for NASA, Squibb Diagnostics, AT&T, and the U.S. Army.  Technical Writing class.