Startup @day 17

Man do I hate talking on the phone. However, building a virtual business forces me to deal with this strange personality quirk.

The majority of todays calls were on the problem of identifying: markets, services (products), channels, and pricing. A long term virtual friend (we met for the first time last month after 5 years of online business) and I pooled our resources to frame the brand promise and products and services for delivery.

He reviewed my powerpoint presentation on market research and agreed on a brand statement:

"provide eMarketing & eSales services to small consulting and training companies"

Not catchy, but concise and accurate for now. What to do with my portfolio of products and services was postponed to a later conversation on immediate cash flow. We have 17 days before something has to be sold.

The under 20 person firm represents about 60% of the market. Their business is one huge sine wave - very busy delivering with no sales activities then no work with very reactive selling to pay the bills. The end result is a crisis of working capital and the spoilage of resources. Spoilage because selling calendars (time) is like selling milk - it spoils and is no longer available. You can't sell yesterday!

I finished up the day contracting former business partners (outsourcing companies) on building a working eMarketing & eSales model for our industry. I'll report on that design tomorrow. Ciao for now.