Julie and Julia

Today I am very sick, and can't apply my brain to very little, so I haven't done any research or read today.  I have, however, watched a delightful little movie called Julie and Julia.  It was just like our blogrimages!  It's the story of Julia Child and also the story of a young woman named Julie who takes one year to make all of the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she blogs about it everyday.  It was inspiring, but also made me disappointed in my lack of dedication to this project.  Well, after this 30 days, I'm definitely not going to stop blogging, and I'm definitely not going to stop making the business plan for my business.

Many times in my life, when I set out to do something, if I can't accomplish it exactly the way I plan to, I simply give up.  I'm seeing now that is just an excuse to not finish, and in the end hurts me more than just finishing what I set out to do, even if I don't accomplish it the way I thought I would.  Can anyone else relate with this?

Peace of Schmidt:  Go see Julie and Julia.

Quick Update

Considering the name Wiki CD.  The domain is taken (www.wikicd.com), so I contacted the owner.  Says he will sell it to me for $900.  Considering this for the future, but will likely consider a different name.  Any ideas?

Day 21?

Just got back from Michigan for my dads birthday and incidentally Easter as well.  It was a quick visit, but SO good.  I wish I was there still.  Ok I'm going to go all the way and just say I wish I lived there.  Katelyn and I both know that were supposed to be in CO Springs, and I know the economy is aweful in MI, but its so good to be around family and friends.  Anyway, I'll be updating the blog later today, but I wanted to post something since its been so long.

Peace of Schmidt:
I knew I was back in Colorado when the people driving in the fast lane were going 5 under the speed limit.  There's no joke here, Colorado drivers are just very frustrating.

Day 15: Product Chosen.

 Hey guys, sorry I haven't updated in a while.  Life has been SO busy!  This post is going to be short. 

I talked to my friend John Hutton about the website idea, and he really liked it.  John works for a website design company, and knows what would go into a website like that.  It encouraged me to see him get excited about the different features I was proposing.  He said that it would cost some money, but that they are really good with working on whatever budget I have.  He also said some companies they do websites for will add more features as the money becomes available.  So I could start out basic, then get more complex as I go on.  So, since the purpose of this blogrimage is to lay out the plan of a business I would create, and not to actually create it yet (since I don't have the funds) I'm going with this CD duplication/design website as my business.  Exciting!

Stay tuned for more exciting developments!

Peace of Schmidt:
"You have only to believe if you wish to achieve.  That rhymed, unintentional." - Hot Rod

Day 10: First Attempt at Finding the Niche

Today I found a website called www.shopster.com.  Check out this video to see what they are all about.  Basically it's a network for suppliers to meet sellers.  You can use it to set up an online store, and pick the items you want to sell from searching through the suppliers.  Very cool site, I may use it.

I thought of a product today.  It's a site that makes CD creation and duplication easy for artists.  The idea is that an artist or band would get on the site, they would then be able to choose the type of package they want their CD to be in, they could upload their cover art, and any booklet they want to create, and then they would be able to upload their tracks and have it all created and sent to them.  If the band doesn't have any album art works, or doesn't know what they want, there would be templates they could work with and an easy to use customization feature so they can get the look they want.  There are sites that do similar things to this, such as www.discmakers.com and www.nationwidedisc.com, but after navigating their site I noticed that they were both frustrating to use, and didn't offer a creation feature on the website.  If you wanted to create designs from scratch you had to call them, or work on it offline, and then upload it again.  There would be some other niche things I could put into the site to make it more user friendly and convenient.  As we talked about yesterday, alleviate the pain of CD duplication.

This brings me to a point that I've been considering since my call to my sister Heidi.  After telling me the downfalls of the organic baby clothing market, she did offer some wisdom on differentiation.  She said that I could do the organic clothing, so long as I differentiated myself enough.  She said that JC Penny was late on the scene when he first started, but he differentiated his stores and in essence "found his niche".  Now I'm not returning to the organic baby clothing idea, but she does make a valid point that I need to consider.  Even if other people are doing things similar, what can I do to differentiate myself and better serve my niche?  This also runs me into a blurry line, because in order for me to "set it and forget it" my market can't be too saturated, or I'll be spending all my time on better marketing, and constantly having to "maintain" the business.  Well, its food for thought anyway.

Some problems I foresee with this website is that it could have large upfront costs to create the website, and that I'll have to find a drop ship manufacturer that does CD duplication, prints booklets and covers, and produces sleeves and jewell cases.  I'm sure such a place exists, I'm just throwing out potential pitfalls.  Websites can cost a surprising amount, especially if they are information based (which this one is not)  Here is an example of a website you've probably never heard of, but cost $1.9 million to make, and was much less research intensive than a website like imdb.  Something like my idea won't cost but a couple thousand I imagine, but still thats a lot.

Peace of Schmidt:
What did one snowman say to the other snowman?...Smells like carrots.

Day 9: Take Away Pain, or Fulfill a Dream

Today I spoke with my sister Heidi about the organic baby clothing market.  Heidi and her husband Rob own a business that sells baby and toddler clothes from designers to retailers.  Heidi told me that they carry one organic line and it doesn't sell well.  She also explained to me that right now the organic children's clothing market is really saturated (there are a lot of people doing it) and there are few making any many.  Manufacturers and designers are closing down all over the country.  She echoed what mothers I've spoke to have said; in this economy they're unwilling to pay extra for organic.  So with this information I'm going to let that product go.  Also, as far as the imdb for music goes, I don't think that business idea will work for what I'm going for.  It's a great idea, but websites like that get all of their income from advertising, which requires much more time that I'm wanting to give, and isn't a product.  I could maybe charge for use of the site, but I don't know how useful that would be.  Plus there would be huge upstart costs, way more than I have or am willing to pay.  It could be good for a second business or one down the road.

I needed inspiration today, so I galloped into a wooded glen, then after dropping off Katelyn at 24 Hour Fitness, and punching a wicked snow storm in the face, I decided to go to Borders bookstore.  While there I was looking around for some product ideas when I came across a book called Instant Income.  While reading this book I realized that I had missed a critical teaching from Tim Ferris (author of 4-Hour Workweek) that I had brushed by.  Tim and the author of Instant Income said not to create a product then try and sell it to a market, but first to find a market then find a product that market needs.  This book Instant Income said that everyone is looking for 1 of 2 things from products and services:

1.  Something to take away people's problem
2.  Something to help people fulfill their dreams

In other words, find a niche, then find a way to either alleviate pain, or fulfill ambition.  With this knowledge, I venture forward.

On the other end of this, I read a book called 101 Ideas for At Home Business or something like that.  In it, I found an idea for a business that could so easily be automated.  A wake up and reminder calling service would be SO easy to set up and automate.  All I would have to do is set up the website, market, get customers, then find a VA company that works in teams so that I can have someone working around the clock to give calls and reminders.  I wouldn't even hire a VA until I had a client, so I would have almost no start up costs.  Clients would likely pay a monthly fee, discounted if they signed up for a yearly fee.  Anyway, that would be really easy to do so I may think of doing that in addition to the product business.

Here's where I need your help.  There are already wake up calling services that are probably completely automated, how can I differentiate mine?  Expanding to be not only a wake up service, but also a reminder service will branch it out.  There are some reminder services that also give reminders of birthdays, anniversaries, meetings, etc to clients.  They probably do this too, but we could also offer to email, fax, call, or even call a neighbor with reminders.  Call centers are easy to automate, and are a primary function that businesses use VA's for.  Any ideas on how I could differentiate a business like this?  Or do you know a need in a niche I may or may not be a part of that needs filling?  If you give me a suggestion for your niche, I can apply it to mine.

Peace of Schmidt:
First of all, check out the new OneRepublic CD, its incredible!  Secondly, you can use www.shopify.com for an all in one online store.  Shopify integrates with other services so you can use it to take orders and money, plus it has a simple to use website design function like wix or wordpress.  I'll probably use it and integrate it with paypal.

Day 7 and 8: The Quest for the Product

I've been having a hard time coming up with a product, and its been making me a little frustrated.  When I see that its Day 8 and I don't even have a product chosen, I feel like I'm behind.  Plus, without a product chosen, I really can't move forward.  However, I know that choosing a product and then testing it is the hardest part of the process, so I need to be patient.  Everything else will fall into place.

So here is the product that I've been thinking about, but that I don't fit the market for.  Katelyn's mom had this great business that she tried starting, but in the end didn't have the desire or time to continue.  She designed, produced, and sold organic clothing, and the name of her business was Can You Dig It.  Yes, she is definitely a hippy.  She sold clothing for all ages, but I would scrap all of the clothing other than baby clothing, as I see this as the best market.  I would also only sell it, but would outsource the producing and shipping.  

Many modern parents are very concerned with making sure that their babies eat and wear organic, even if they themselves don't.  Especially when you remind them that their skin is the largest organ on their body.  Note this Simpsons episode for further explanation of this market. (for those outside the US that can't use Hulu, its Season 21 Episode 6)

I know that there are places that already sell organic baby clothes, but I would be selling clothes with Stephanie's (Katelyn's mommy) designs, which were really cute.  You can't resist a little onesie that says "seedling", "sweet pea" or "pea in a pod" with a cute design on it.  Impossible.  Even so, I may get someone else to make more designs. My sister and her husband own a business that sells baby clothing from designers to retailers, so I'm going to talk to them about this and get their input.

Other products I'm considering:  Once Katelyn is finished with her blogrimage we are thinking of somehow making a how to product of her experience and selling that.  Also, Amy Ellison gave a great idea of making an imdb for musicians.  I'll have to look into that one more.  

On the productive side, I registered for www.elance.com today and made a job description for my first Virtual Assistant (VA)!   We want to hire a VA to do bookkeeping for Wisdom's House.  I researched different accounting VA firms, and found one that I liked and trusted, with great reviews.  Then I made an elance account and submitted them the job description.  Now I wait to hear back from them.  The prospect of it is very exciting, as I plan on using VA's regularly for this business and others that I start.

I've decided that even if there is no progress on my blogrimage, that I will at least post one helpful resource, or cool tidbit every blog and call it Peace of Schmidt (puns intentional).  Let me know your thoughts on the organic baby clothing!!

Peace of Schmidt:

You can use www.legalzoom.com to do all sorts of simple legal work online.  Register a business with the state, and even file a patent, its easy and cheap.  Check it out!  Donesky. 

Day 5 and 6: Copeland and Sleepovers

Hello everyone, yesterday I went to Denver with Jesse to visit our friend Austin and to see the band Copeland on their farewell tour.  I've been listening to Copeland since high school, so it was an awesome experience to see them for the last time.  My favorite CD was always their first, and since it was their final tour, they played 6 songs from the first CD!  My heart grew 3 sizes.

There was a crazy snow storm that attempted to foil our plans of going to Denver, but Jesse and I conquered it.  There were sections of the road that could only be described as apocalyptic.  This is also the reason that we spent the night with Austin.  Three men sleeping in one queen bed brings only one word to mind: heterosexual.  Once I got home, I had only a couple of hours and then had to take off to church to play in the band, which brings us to now.  The reason I'm blogging about this experience is to explain why I didn't blog yesterday, and have only now gotten a chance to.

I did make a little progress in my search for a product.  Jesse just pointed out that I love to know the background of the bands that I listen to, and I have a story for almost every band.  How this is marketable, I don't know, but thats all I've thought about it in the past 40 hours.  My mind is scattered and I want to spend time with my beautiful wife, so I'm going to say goodbye and promise that I will blog great things tomorrow.

Oh, and check out www.doodle.com.  It will change your meeting-making life.  Use it to give 5 times that you are available, then email it to the people that you need to meet with, and they vote for the best time that works for them.  You get emailed the results, and there you have it, a meeting set up without any headache.  You're welcome.

Day 4: The Journey Begins...Again!!

It is my goal to use this blog to teach as I learn, so that as I said before, I can better understand the business principles and methods that I'm going to be using.  My goal is to put these ideas into simple terms, and give actual resources so that after reading this blog, you could start a business yourself.  Plus I just love teaching! :)

I'm so excited about gathering all the information that I've been reading about, and what I've learned from my Business degree, and putting it to use.  When I read a book like the 4 Hour Workweek, I typically just read it for information, but rarely apply it to my life.   Having this blogrimage will help me to critically think about what I've read and apply it.  Starting a business will be a new thing for me, and I'm not sure how much roll over knowledge there will be from the non profit world.  I know how to start and maintain a non profit. I've helped start and I'm on the board of directors for Wisdom's House, and I'm the Business Administrator for Freedom Kingdom Enterprises, so although I wouldn't call myself an expert, I have experience in the nonprofit world.

There are four main steps in starting a non profit:
1. Have a vision
2. Assemble a board of directors.
3. Know what forms to fill out and when (know when to hire an attorney and when to do it yourself.  Ex: For articles of incorporation and bylaws, just use someone else's that has used an attorney.  For 501c3 status, get an attorney.)
4. Set up an accounting process.

That said, starting a for profit has very different steps that I'm definitely not used to.  The first step will be to determine a product that I want to sell.  I would prefer to sell a product rather than a service for a couple reasons.  First because I want the experience of creating a business to sell a product, and second because its easier to automate than a service business would be (more on automation in future blogs).  There are 3 options for products that I could sell:

1.  Resell an existing product - easiest to do, but lowest amount of profit and shortest lifespan
2.  License a product - one person invents it and gets profit when the other person sells it.  You could either be the inventor or the seller and make a lot, but its very complicated and sort of scares me.
3.  Create a product - Either make your own product to sell, or buy a generic product and market it as your own.  This is exactly what Costco does.  They buy a generic product, lets say asprin, from a manufacturer, then slap a Kirkland label on it and sell it for slightly less than a name brand like Advil.

This is a little secret of product sales.  Both the name brand and Costco buy from the same manufacturer, they just sell the product under different names.  It's literally the exact same product, just with different labels.  Crazy, huh?  But thats business, and we'll buy it.

If the product you want to sell is an invention, you can go to www.elance.com and hire mechanical engineers and industrial designers to develop a prototype for you based on what you tell them you want it to do and look like.  Pretty sweet, right?

The easiest and most profitable things to sell are information products, such as how to videos.  They are easy to produce, cheap to make, and difficult to duplicate.  Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Workweek, says that the best product to sell is something that appeals to a demographic or niche that you are a part of.  Selling outside of your niche isn't advised, although not impossible.  I really love music, so I could sell something to music lovers.  But more specifically than that, I love to play music, and more specific than that I love to play experimental progressive rock.  The more specific a niche is, the easier your product is to sell, and the more effective it will be.  Selling a product to people that love to play experimental progressive music is easier than selling to all people who listen to music, because its too broad.  Does that make sense?  That is a shame, because I have a clothing product I really want to sell for newborns, but I'm not a parent.  I'll explain what that product is and get your feedback on it in a later post.

There was a man who made a home video on how to install a security system in your storage facility for $200, he then produced the DVD's for $2 each and sold them for $95 each, making him hundreds of thousands of dollars with no employees.  Doesn't get much more specific than that.

For those of you that know me, what is a niche that I could sell to?  What specific groups am I involved in and what products could I sell to those groups?  Your answers will really help me!  (P.S. I'm so glad I changed blogrimages :)

Day 3: The Shape of Blogs to Come

Today was a Game Changing day in the realm of the Blogrimage. First of all, it was St. Patrick's Day so Katelyn, Amy, Jesse, and I went to Dublin House to celebrate the Saint that evangelized the Celts in the traditional manner. While there I was telling Jesse of my frustrations with my blogrimage, my lack of passion for it, and how I wished I would have done something different. Jesse gave me some excellent advice, but first gave me some excellent answers to the question "What would you do if you couldn't fail".

Jesse said that if he couldn't fail, he would do a 30 Day Blogrimage about him pulling off the perfect art heist, which upon completion of the blogrimage would then be executed. He would blog about him finding a getaway car, a tech man, and other members of the team, then would blog about the planning of the heist. Secondly, if Jesse couldn't fail he would become the bass player for Miley Cyrus. I'm not going to elaborate on that one, but apparently being a part of her band is a pretty sweet gig.

After these excellent answers Jesse gave me some advice that will carry on for the rest of my blogrimage and, dare I say, the rest of my life. He said, "Joe, there is a blogrimage that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." Then he followed up with, "Don't let your pride keep you from choosing life. I place before you this day a blogrimage of death and one of life, now choose life so that you and your readers may live." Thank you Richard Jesse Mutzebaugh IV, your words have freed me.

My new blogrimage will be something that I'm very passionate for, and that passion has only grown recently. As I've said before, I've been reading a book called The 4 Hour Workweek, which I highly recommend. The book is about freeing your life to do the things you want, eliminating useless work, automating essential tasks, and creating income autopilots. I have wanted to start my own business for a long time, and this book is showing me how to create a self sustaining, nearly fully automated business.

So the goal of my blogrimage will be that at the end of 30 days I have a step by step business plan written up for a business I can start and begin income autopilot. I may not be able to implement it in 30 days, depending on how much money I need to start it, but I want to have everything ready so that once I do have the capital, I'll be able to just say "Go" and start it. That means I want to know how much things cost, what manufacturers to use, where I will advertise, what product to sell, and all other details necessary to starting a business.

I've read that you retain 30% of what you see, 50% of what you hear and see, 70% of what you say (teach), and 90% of what you teach and do. Hopefully writing/teaching these concepts will help me retain and understand them better, and you might learn something too!

Day 2: Faults Begin to Emerge

Today I began to realize some faults that my blogrimage has. First of all, I've realized that its easier to talk to strangers that are serving you, because they are being paid to be nice to you. Asking a Starbucks barista my blogrimage question is easier than asking a reading Starbucks customer, but the barista will give you a short answer and there isn't much opportunity for follow up. I think I need to make a rule to not ask anyone who is currently working. Also, I'm beginning to see that this question will get old really quick unless I can give the time necessary to really listen to people. The situation I'm faced with is that I want to get better answers, but I don't want to invest the time, when the only way I will get better answers is to invest the time to listen. So thats where were at.

Today I asked the Event Coordinator of Colorado Springs Christian School (CSCS) what she would do if she knew she couldn't fail. She said that she would do something she currently knows she would fail at. When I asked her my carefully crafted follow up question, "Like what?" she responded, "Like flying a spaceship, or climbing Mount Everest or something like that." Wow, well um...thats uh...interesting. If I'm getting bored of writing about this on the 2nd day, I certainly don't blame you for being bored reading it.

This blogrimage needs a dose of cayenne and quickly! Here are some things I'm considering:

-Have a list of certain types of people that I need to ask within the 30 days. For instance within the 30 days I have to ask a homeless person, a police officer, a single mother, an atheist, a high level public official, someone drunk, and an orthodox priest. I will finalize the list tomorrow.

-Along those lines, I will be asking the hardest to reach person that I can possibly contact within 30 days. They could be a CEO, Senator, President, Dutch Sheets...who knows!

Please comment any suggestions you have for how I can spice up my blogrimage! Stay tuned...

IT BEGINS!

Being a man from the Great North, I've conditioned myself to ignore strangers and avoid eye contact with people I don't know. To sum it up in a phrase: "stranger danger". I've been so successful with this that today I forgot to talk to strangers for most of the day. In fact I had many pleasant encounters with strangers today, but completely forgot to ask them this pivotal question. The question that I have chosen for this 30 day Blogrimage is "What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?"

So, since every time I saw a stranger my present mind was taken over with saturday morning cartoon commercial programming I had to run out to Home Depot at 8pm. I met a fellow named Brad who worked at the Home Depot, and he said that if he knew he couldn't fail, that he would run for Senate. When I asked if he was into politics or political science, he said, "No, but I would still run for Senate." Very interesting Brad. I expect during this pilgrimage that people will answer with things that they have always wanted to do, but never have. But Brad made an interesting point with his response, that he's not interested in politics, but that the first thing he would do would be to become a Senator. Interesting he didn't say the President, or a powerful business executive. Maybe he wants the power to change peoples lives, but doesn't want to lose too much touch with the needs. I'd love to hear any thoughts on Brad's response.

Preamble to the 30 Day Blogrimage

My good friend Pradeepan (www.pradeepan.com) and I were talking over Skype when Pradeepan challenged/commanded me to join him on a pilgrimage. He said "Hey, I'm going to jump rope and blog about it for 30 days. You come up with something to do for 30 days and blog about it with me!" Thus the challenge of the blog pilgrimage, or blogrimage, was issued.

Blogging used to be something that I did quite regularly at ORU and really enjoyed. There was a strong blogging culture there, and so it was easy to keep up. When I blogged it would not only sharpen my writing skills, but it also helped me to process something in my life, and also offered a community forum for my friends and I. I even had some of my blogs published by Relevant Magazine (thanks Rachel!) As Pradeepan and I were talking about the 80/20 principle, where 80% of inputs cause 20% of outputs, and 20% of other inputs cause 80% of outputs, I realized that blogging was something that took very little of my time and energy and was very rewarding for me. So here I am, back in the blogging community.

Here are my ideas for the blogrimage (I don't know why spell check keeps indicating "blogrimage" is a spelling error. Must be broken.) I'm going to ask someone that I don't know 1 question everyday. I will be asking all of these people that same question and blogging about their responses, so it has to be good. My criteria for the question are: it has to be a question that each person can give a different answer to, it has to be something that can be understood easily and doesn't need much follow up explanation, and it has to be something interesting and that I can learn from. Here are a few of the top questions I'm considering (many of these come from the book The 4 Hour Workweek):

-What would you do if you couldn't fail?
-What would you do if money wasn't an issue? (also considering a more specific amount, like if you had $1 billion.)
-What is the best idea you've ever had?
-If you could learn anything instantly, what is the first thing you would learn?
-If you could be the best in the world at anything, what would it be?

If you have any other suggestions for questions, or ways I could more efficiently phrase these questions please let me know! The journey begins Monday, March 15th.