Thursday, July 9, 2009

... moving on to .... ?

Ever since I started this blog, I looked forward to one day typing on here, "I'm moving my family to [some non-Utahn city here], and I'm going to work for [some very professional company here].

Well, I received 1 offer from an advertising agency that was going to let me go to Hawaii after about a year. But as I researched and even did a week of on the job training, I realized they were trying to go national with a business model that was never going to be sustainable for more than about 2 salesmen in the state of Utah....... I turned it down.

I've been consulting for another organization, but they are looking to hire hardware expertise and I have software..... maybe I just haven't sold myself by not stressing that I understand the market just fine.

And as I've thought about this "expertise," both what I have and what I want to do points me in 1 direction ---->> Terence, start your own company

This is the whole reason I came back to business school. Knowing how to start, manage, and grow my own company is the whole reason I got an MBA from BYU. I took every single class I could about starting a company.

The problem is, my plans all require some experimentation. I'm planning on relying on Page Rank for a lot of my advertising ..... a great strategy to build something on the side for a year or two until it reaches critical mass. Starting and depending on something immediately has not been in my plans (and I question if it is in the economy's).

And yet... I'm setup great to do it. Expenses are very low right now. I still have some consulting on the side so can cover those expenses. I don't have a work commute. To summarize: I have a lot of time to build a company.

I have to re-strategize, and figure out a different business model (still need cheap though). I have put together a lot a web-advertising software to use that should be useful. And I have to have a product delivered very quickly.

I am starting one
I will be starting my own company. I do still have a few interviews, and I'm going to dedicate an hour or two each day to the job search, but I'm going to start a company! :)

Right now, I'm focusing on web-news critical to certain industries like Tom's Hardware or Engadget. I am passionate about Scuba Diving and would love to be the Scuba leader on the web, but I haven't researched to see if that is a good starting point right now. I do have a few other industries that I have had some automated researches on though and will venture into there.

And I am reading over my Entrepreneurial Marketing & Strategy notes (my 2 favorite classes at BYU). Maybe there are some other ideas I haven't hit yet.

I wanted to start a blog dedicated to Social Entrepreneurship happenings around the world, but that will have to be delayed as well.

As my sites gain in popularity, I have some other ideas about selling communities to those who want to start one but not manage it...... and then of course my thousands of ideas. As time goes on, I'll come up with more and more.

These first steps will not build my big, international organization like I want, but they are stepping stones to get there.


Well, here it goes. Just got to give myself one more reminder:
Use your gut, but not too much emotion! Pay attention to why ideas make you nervous, and solve problems... do not just ignore them.

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