Still... In the Valley of Death

Upon entering the valley of death and remaining here for 6 grueling weeks, here are some reasons to quit that I've come up with:

Cut my financial losses: Google adwords is eating up my money every day, I should just quit and say I gave it a shot and failed. Better than spending more money and failing in a few months, right?

My Ego: You see if I quit now for some personal reason (i.e. I'm pregnant and I can't handle the stress) than I didn't really fail because I quit. So, I save some face with you, my 4 followers, my friends and my family. But, mostly, I save face with myself. I've done a lot of things in my life, and I've pretty much been successful, why stick a big failure in there.

Avoid the Big Risk: If I quit now, I never have to take the leap into asking my customers for money. That's the leap that's dangerous because I'm bound to be told "no." And, I'm no sales lady, so really the easiest thing is to avoid asking the question. This also gets me out of deciding when I should start monetizing, which, at this point, seems like the impossible question.

A good friend of mine reminded me, although it may sound cliche, failure would have been to never begin the adventure. I'm taking a risk, I'm living and I'm going to succeed at life.

And, Seth Godin reminded me in this way:
"Living with doubt

... is almost always more profitable than living with certainty.

People don't like doubt, so they pay money and give up opportunities to avoid it. Entrepreneurship is largely about living with doubt, as is creating just about any sort of art.

If you need reassurance, you're giving up quite a bit to get it.

On the other hand, if you can get in the habit of seeking out uncertainty, you'll have developed a great instinct."

So, I press on. But, trust me, I can't wait to be out of this valley, one way or another.

Widget

I'm so excited about this new later dog widget that I had to test it out here.  So, here it is!

I know, I'll write a proper post soon, I promise!  I'm in the valley of death, what do you expect?

Yes, you are transforming the world.

One way to know that you're changing your corner of the world is that people do a double take.  Do you remember the first time you heard about email?  I was a freshman in high school, when a long distance friend explained it to me over the phone.  Then, he explained it again.  And, again.  Why would I want to send you a message on hotmail when I could call you on the phone.  Now, I process dozens of emails a day (would it sound better if I said hundreds?), and I couldn't live without it.

Later Dog is transforming the connect for the pet sitting business (and perhaps pet businesses overall).  Pet sitters are accustomed to putting their contact info. on another website in order to "advertise".  Then, a pet owner has to do all the research herself (I still think we should have a unisex reflexive pronouns).  Later Dog is a one stop shop: search for pet sitters, see how much they cost, read their reviews, and request a booking.

So, when pet sitters don't quite catch my drift the first time around, I take it as a compliment.  If Later Dog was just like the competition, there would be no explanation required.  It's sort of like bike riding, it might take you longer to get started, but once you learn to ride it, you can haul a lot more crap, faster.

Now, go find a way to haul crap better!

ME!

I wanna talk about me.  Okay, not really, but Seth Godin told me to do this, so here we go.  Let's start with some easy to read stats:

Jessica Chapman

Entrepreneur & Owner of LaterDog.com

27 Years Old

I have a man and 2 toddlers

Driven and honest to a fault

I oughtn't forget to tout my biggest worldly accomplishment:

Degree in Environmental Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, Valedictorian.

And now for the details:

I was born and raised outside of LA, and moved to San Diego for college.  I met a rugged and manly marine while I was there, whom subsequently convinced me to marry him.  He let us stay in San Diego for a few years, but in the end all Texans return to their roots.  And, my husband was raised outside of Houston, thus he dragged me back to Texas.  At least I was smart enough to request Austin instead of Houston.  

Actually, Austin is a great place to raise a family, so we started one.  Raising children gives me joy beyond measure, but it also makes me restless.  The 1st thing I did to satisfy my craving for intellectual adventure was to convince my hubby that we should build a modern home.  Too bad that process lasted less than a year.  Then, I started thinking up all sorts of invention and business ideas.  Later Dog was the first to make it through the gauntlet.  So, here I am nearly 6 months later, not nearly as far along as I thought, waiting for the birth of my 4th child.

Wait, what happened to that Environmental Engineering degree?  

I'm using it for all it's worth, but not in a traditional way (because I can't stand the brainless work of the engineering cube).  When I was still in college, I got this hair brained idea to build a water treatment plant in Haiti (you might say God told me to do it).  So, I did.  It was destroyed by flooding before it was every complete, but the passion in my soul will never die.  Water is Life; My life's goal is to provide clean water to the 3rd world by building water treatment plants.  I won't get into the details of why I believe water treatment plants are the way to go... 

Later Dog shall be my means to an end of having enough money to funnel significant amounts into Clean Water.  I don't want to sell it to them, but maybe after Seth Godin gets ahold of me at the workshop, I'll change my mind.  (wink, wink)


PS: If you noticed an inconsistency in my post, it's not me, it's you.

From the Valley of Death

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear...



I couldn't wait to get to the "Valley of Death" and I finally made it!  (Valley of Death, otherwise known as: the point in your business where you make it or break it.)  Wait, making it to the valley of death isn't making it, is it?  Dirt, let me re-formulate...

Seth Godin puts it this way:
The problem with putting it all on the line...
is that it might now work out.
The problem with not putting it all on the line is that it will never (ever) change things for the better.
Not much of a choice, I think.  No risk, no art.  No art, no reward.

When you're in the valley of death, things will move more slowly that you imagined they should.  You'll always have fewer subscribers than you had hoped to have, your email list will be shorter than you think it ought to be, and you'll wonder "does this idea suck?" or worse "should I just quit?"  No, don't quit.  You haven't even given your idea a chance to thrive yet.  Do you think google was built in a day?

I have a good friend who keeps failing...  He is super smart, he's a genius developer (so he can build any website he thinks up), he's devoted (he'll work a 14 hour day at IBM then hit the side-business), and he has a true entrepreneurial spirit (full of great ideas).  But he hasn't hit it big, yet.  What's the problem?  From my assessment, he comes up with great ideas, builds the sites overnight, then feels for any bites.  Three hours later he figures no one is interested and moves on to the next thing.  He changes business ideas faster than Seth Godin updates his blog.  [Don't worry, I plan on utilizing this to my advantage... I am convinced 1 or 2 of his ideas are trees waiting to grow money, so hopefully he'll be my next founding partner.]

His whole premise is based on this idea: Fail Fast.  This is the idea of some entrepreneurs who have way more experience and knowledge than I do.  To me it stinks!  I think it's throwing a bunch of good ideas out the window and seeing which one flies back into the car.  Now, don't get me wrong, I believe in market research (where you figure out if people will actually pay for your service/goods), but I'm more about Jason Cohen's method: Get 10 Customers, Quick.  I figure if you can sell it to 10 people, you can sell it to 10,000.

So, I've theoretically "sold" Later Dog to about 50 dog sitters... we're getting there, but we're not there yet. The biggest problem is that they haven't actually parted with any moola yet... I'll have to earn that!  And, that's just what I plan to do.

Why don't you plan on being encouraged instead of discouraged while your'e in the valley of death.  You're already invested, so celebrate each new subscriber.  I think of each of my dog sitters as bars of gold, I want each one and I will do nearly whatever she wants.  Seriously, I don't think I've told one of them "no" yet.  (Okay, maybe I gave a few of them maybe's when they were asking for new features, but then again, maybe I didn't ;)

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and they staff they comfort me.  Psalm 23

Later, Dog

Don't Make Bad Decisions

No, Really?  I shouldn't have to say it, but I keep doing it, so I'm going to write about it.  Two weeks ago, I made a bad decision and it cost me over a week's delay in LaterDog.com's launch (more on that in a bit).

What is a poor decision when it comes to start-ups?  Doing something when you know better. There are some errors we make simply out of ignorance, those aren't the ones I'm talking about.  I'm talking about texting while you're driving, even though...



My bad decisions, to date, have mostly been about people.  That's because I don't know yet which decisions are bad business decisions.  And, maybe because I'm gullible, but I'm learning to be wise.

Don't Take Advice from People who are Taking your Money

I've already covered the 1st bad decision that I made, i.e. I bought a domain for a sub-par name (Spot's Couch if I must admit it).  Why did I do that?  Well, I'm impatient and I had been searching for several days, and some people, told me it was a good name.  Most of those people just didn't want to hurt my feelings.  The one who really pushed me to do it, really wanted a job (he was my 2nd bad decision).  But, I knew it was weird, it wasn't quite right.  It just didn't seem like coming up with a name should take weeks or months. Luckily, this bad decision only cost me $10.  And, my old faithful, Mr. Mark made me aware, repeatedly, that it sucked.

Don't Hire Someone unless You're Sure

Hiring someone is kind of like getting married, you should be sure.  You can convince yourself that they're right for you because they're cheap, because they say the right things, because they make promises you hope they can keep, because they're convincing, because they're fun... or because you're excited and you don't want to take the time to keep looking.

Very early on, I nearly hired a rotten developer.  His website looked cool, but the websites in his portfolio were lame and didn't show any of the characteristics that I needed in a website.  Well, he told me about this "secret" website he built that he couldn't officially list on his portfolio because they had an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).  Well, that site was a perfect match with what I wanted to build.   Awesome!

I really wanted to believe him, he was cheap, he promised to pump out the design and development of the site in 6 weeks.  And, I was anxious.  Once again, Mark had to talk me out of it.  He actually set-up a phone conversation with his, very expensive, back-end guy that was quite informative and useful.  So, I moved on.  Just to confirm my move, he sent me a nasty e-mail about how I was making a mistake.  Woo, I escaped that one.

Another good lesson learned:  In this industry, you don't want the Jack of All Trades.  He's not going to be awesome at everything.

No, really, don't hire someone unless you're sure!

I needed a front-end developer, bad.  I sent out a request for referrals, and I only got one.  So, I used her to do the homepage.  She did a good job in the end, but it required hours of my time to review the files and point out her mistakes.  Fortunately, she was cheap, and really, I had nowhere else to turn.

So, I made some excuses for her and sent her the rest of the pages as soon as I got them.  What was I thinking?  (I was thinking about a little white tanktop...)  Guess what I got?  A duplicate performance.  And, it set me back nearly an entire week of aggravation.  Grrr!  I think you can agree that that was my own dumb fault.

A Story about not hiring people unless you're sure:

I found myself feeling pretty desperate for someone to handle PR for me.  I had talked to several PR freelancers, none of which I could afford.  I had posted a job on campus2careers and I was hoping, wishing, praying that would bear some fruit.  Lo and behold, one of the three best matches contacted me and was interested in the position.  Her resume was so promising, summa cum laude here we come.  Well, we arranged a call, and she wasn't available during the time she picked to talk.  But, I gave her another chance and we made it happen.  During the whole conversation I knew she wasn't right.  I wanted someone to run the PR campaign, she couldn't distinguish PR from Marketing.  She also wanted to be spoon fed assignments, she wanted me to write up a document stating exactly what I expected, e.g. an article in the statesman.  With much disappointment, I had to say "no thank you."

Now what?  I'm stuck, right?  Well, it just so happened that the next day GenJuice was holding their unconference in Austin.  I think God must have wanted me to go, because everything worked out perfectly for me to show-up, even though I hadn't been planning on it.  I arrived, and guess who the 1st person I talked to was?  A graduate marketing student who's internship was about to end.  Well, la-DI-da.  She's awesome!  I just had to wait a bit to find her.  Keep on looking, you'll find who you need.  She's looking for you too.  (Now we're back to the marriage talk aren't we?)

Go Do Something!  It's good for you, it's good for your city, it's good for your country, and it's good for me.  

Keep It on the Cheap: Episode 2

In my last post, I covered human resources, this post will cover
Other Resources
This is the stuff that will force you to spend some money, but not as much as you think.  The first purchase I made for my site was the domain name.  (Let's just ignore the 1st domain name I purchased: Spot's Couch.  Really?  Talk about a B domain name.  Who would be naive enough to purchase it?)  After bouncing hundreds of domains off of godaddy.com to find out if they were available, I took the dozens of winners and e-mailed them to Mark.  He rejected months work of work.  Then finally he said that Later Dog was cool but it might have a bit of a negative connotation.  I took that as a go!  Then, he said that he'd buy the name if I didn't; so I got on it.  That domain ran me a whopping $7.95 after a coupon through instant domain search.

So there was my first business purchase.  And this purchase lasted me through the first couple months of developing Later Dog.

As I was trying to get a feel for how dog owners would navigate through my website, I was frustrated by the pen and ink solution of wireframing (a skeleton version of a website that depicts navigational concepts and page content).



Just Ask for that Discount
A now friend of mine, and then contact of mine, Subbu, suggested that I use Balsamiq Mockups for wireframing my site.  While balsamiq mockups are largely appreciated for their black and white, simple wireframing tools, I wanted something that would be a little easier on the eyes.  And, I discovered FlairBuilder, a tool where the widgets actually work and you can add color.  That was more my style.  So, I mocked up my pages during the 2 week trial.  Then, I started a new free trial on my laptop to continue mocking up the pages (totally immoral, I know).  At which point, I decided that I couldn't live without the full version.  Plus, their customer service is so fantabulous that I wanted to support them.  Imagine that: cheepo Jessica wanting to pay for something.  But, I didn't want to pay full price, so I e-mailed the owner, explained to him my situation and mindset at the time, and asked for a discount.  I got a great discount.  And, I had made my second purchase.

This is essentially the point I'm at now: having spent less than a hundred dollars on my start-up.  But as I'm nearing my launch date, I see two big money-grabbers in my immediate future:
Public Relations: Getting "free" publicity.  (Not really free because you have to pay someone to do it for you.)
Advertising: Paying for ads.

some Things Require Money
I spearheaded public relations and found out that $5K wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket for a major PR firm (i.e. they won't talk to me).  Then, I talked to Nathan at campus2careers (remember them?) who gave me the valuable advice of paying a student to do the PR.  I'm about to embark on this journey and I'll tell you all about it as it unfolds.  Apparently if I pay then less than $600, I don't have to fill out a W-2 here in the great state of Texas.  This sounds simple and promising.

I've been deliberating how to attack advertising before I even knew what my company's name was or exactly what we would do.  No matter which way I slice it, it seems that i have to pay something to have flyers, magnets, sitckers, and moo cards printed.  I've been avoiding it, but now that I've decided on a launch date of Aug. 15th I can avoid it no more, and I must order them in the coming weeks.

The 2 ways that I am going to save on advertising are 1) My sister, a fine artist and budding graphic artist, will do the designs and Mark will check them.  That way, I'm not paying to have the advertising designed, and it will still be rad.  2) Delivery of the goods by the sweaty hands of myself, my sister, and my mom.  We're going to target dog friendly businesses (that are not direct competition) and dog parks.  That way, we'll be printing minimal materials by distributing largely only to dog owners.  I also intend to find some partners (people in a similar fields, but not in direct competition, that have a mutually beneficial relationship) that I can leverage for advertising.

#1 One Reason to Spend Money
This is the number one reason to spend money before you are acquiring customers: to make your people happy.  The lesson of the last post was that you can probably find people to do what you need done for free or cheap.  Once you have those people, you need to keep in mind that they are doing you a huge service, and you will repay them someday with something.  Right now, you can't.

But, you can keep them very happy.  Give them what they want even if they don't ask for it.  For instance, my developer volunteered to do the "front-end development" (making sure the web page looks just like the pic the designer showed you).  This was ideal for me because that meant I didn't have to pay for a separate front-end developer.  As we conversed I could tell that he was struggling through it and certainly was not enjoying the task.  I'm about to spend $250 bucks to make his Later Dog work a bit less frustrating.  He's doing a $10,000 dollar job, so what's $250 bucks for the happy train?  Invaluable.

Keep It on the Cheap: Episode 1

If your trunk is loaded with money that you need to get rid of, then you can skip this post.  If not, let's talk dough.  I'm building a web business, so the controlling start-up costs I expected to encounter were the following:
Designer
Developer
Advertising/Marketing
PR (Public Relations)

How much can you expect to pay for these services?  Obviously, the costs vary widely, but I'm just going to throw these ballpark numbers out to give you an idea of what it might cost.  $5-$10K for a designer.  $10K min for a developer.  $5-$20K for advertising/marketing.  More than $5K per market (or metro area) for PR.  So, that's somewhere between $25K and $100K depending. But, I did say that you could do it for little money.  25,000 bucks in not a small amount of money (for me at least).  Let me tell you how I've dramatically reduced my budget so far.

First, you need to know people that will do work for you, free or cheap.
The Obvious Human Resources
I feel absolutely certain that you know people who do some of the things that you need done.  Call them, talk to them, see what they can do for you.   Some people will help you for free, others will believe in your idea and ask for a piece of your business, and still others will charge you a severely reduced rate just because they know and like you.  Oftentimes, these relationships evolve.  When you first start talking to Joe, your advertising buddy, neither one of you may know how it's going to work.  And, that's okay.  But, when you need Joe to do some serious work for you, don't be afraid to call him up and have the conversation (that I know you don't want to have).  Really, you'll both be happier if you agree on the terms of your business relationship.  Don't let lack of communication hurt your friendship and your business.  (The lawyer in me thinks I should tell you to write out a short contract for emphasis.  It is the smart thing to do, but I haven't done it, not yet, at least).

The Buried Human Resources
Network: A system of intersected lines or channels, like string art.

If you think of yourself as one of those little nails, then your goal is to have more strings going from you to other little nails.  Right?  The more people you know, the better.  I've already mentioned some of the communities that I've been using to network, but let's go over them again:
Tech Ranch Austin: A business situated around planting and growing start-ups
Bootstrap Austin: A network of bootstrapping entrepreneurs.
Austin on Rails: A professional community of ruby on rails developers.

There are at least half of a dozen meetings that happen in Austin every month that would be useful for me to go to and network.  Go.  You will meet useful contacts at every meeting you go to if you make an effort.  Show up a bit early and introduce yourself to everyone in the room.  Then, go to the bar with them afterward (don't drink) and get to know them a bit.  After my first networking session, I was in a bar with Jason at A Smart Bear furiously writing down all of the golden information he was spewing out of his mouth. Intimidating, yes, infinitely useful, yes.  That conversation changed the direction of my business, for the more profitable.

As you're doing your networking, they'll ask you about your business.  Make sure you tell them about it concisely, then tell them that you're looking for a web developer (or whomever it is you need).

Oh, and print out cards before you go.  It doesn't matter if they are cheap and ugly (although, you can make reasonably priced, professional looking cards at Tiny Prints.)  You want these people to remember you and be able to contact you if they like.  Tip: You can set-up a google voice number for a separate and free business number (it will forward calls to the number(s) of your choice).

Remember that you have something to offer as well.  Since my background is environmental engineering, I assumed that I had nothing to offer to a bunch of developers at the Austin on Rails meeting.  I introduced myself at the beginning, and sure enough someone came up to me who wanted to talk to me about env. eng., because that was relevant to his business.

The Closer
Now what?  You've met a bunch of people that you've followed up with by sending each of them an e-mail a few days after you met them.  You have, haven't you?  But, you still have a bunch of work that needs to be done on the cheap.  Keep following through with the conversation, ask them if they can help you.  Ask them if they know anyone who can help you.  Make sure you're giving them feedback on their projects.  You must be bold, interested, and kind in one; you're molding invaluable friendships here, not just using people.

And, if you just can't locate someone to do your PR on the cheap, then use a resource like campus2careers to find a student to do the work for you.  They're cheap, you can mold them, and 1099 them.  But, you will have to actively manage them.

More ways to "keep it on the cheap" up next.  Thanks for reading.

What are you doing here?

Why would you want to read business advice from someone who hasn't even launched her 1st business yet?

I am one step ahead of you in the process: I'm working on the launch of my first business: Later Dog.  Since I'm still in the ideation stage, I can talk to you about all the little details.  And, in the beginning it's those little hurdles that stop you from following through with the process of making millions from your awesome business idea.  

Fair warning: This isn't the standard and proper start-up blog: I'll probably say things that have my friends at tech ranch in Austin, lean startup, and bootstrap austin throw up their arms in despair.  It's just the dogs life.

Do Something!

The 1st question that we all ask is "should I follow through with this business idea?"  The answer is YES!  No matter how great or junky your business idea, start doing it.  Because you can do it for very little money (more on this later), you'll learn heaps, and chances are your business idea will evolve to something worthwhile.  

Find Someone!

Yes, the cliche "networking," do it.  You need people to help you, to guide you down this path because you don't know what you're doing.  There is someone out there (probably someone you already know) that knows something about what you want to do and will invest time and energy into helping.

Two months ago, when I had the idea for a dog-sitting exchange website, I figured the first thing I needed to do was to write down all of my ideas and talk to a web developer.  (A web developer makes the website work, a web designer draws up exactly how the website is going to look.)  So, I found a web developer on e-lance, downloaded an unilateral non-disclosure agreement from legalzoom and headed off to our meeting.  (Should you run over to legal zoom and download a NDA? Probably not right now.  For the most part, entrepreneurs are blooming with their own ideas and don't want to steal yours.  Really, get over it.) 

Luckily, I had already talked to several friends about my idea.  One of them (Mark: Who owns a really awesome design and advertising firm in Cali: http://www.mclaughlindesign.com/) showed some interest in my idea and willingness to talk me through it.  When I told Mark about this guy I found on e-lance and showed off his website, Mark knew I was headed down the wrong path.  He advised me to steer clear, and then he set-up a meeting with his web developer (who I couldn't afford) so he could straighten me out.  Now, Mark is my guidance man.  He's in the field, he has great gut reactions, and he's available; I can call him to get unadulterated wisdom.  He's been instrumental in my journey so far.  

So, you need to find your Mark.  How should you do it?  Dig into the deep recesses of your brain and think about business minded people you can trust.  Call them, tell them all about your fabulous idea.  See what they think.  Some will tell you your idea stinks (probably in nicer terms than that, but maybe not).  Ignore them for now.  But some will want to jump right on the bandwagon with you.  Use them.  The more you talk about your idea, the more you'll see the emergence of your Mark.

Later Dog.