Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is a wonderful web application because of your ability to reach potentially millions of individuals easily, but it has become somewhat of a mess lately. A new site that is currently in “Beta” is almost identical to the structure and flow of facebook (you will see what I mean when you start using it), I feel like this new site will became more effective than facebook for socially responsible enterprises to network online. The site is called UnltdWorld. It is essentially a niche version of facebook geared entirely to individuals and organizations that are interested in socially responsible organizations. Hopefully they have learned from the mess that is now my Facebook inbox which I constantly have to hit “Ignore” buttons for application requests about who should sleep with who, and movie quizes, and will really tighten up on what all makes this site effective.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Facebook for its original intent, staying up to date with friends, however I am glad to see smaller niched social networking sites that are learning from the pros and cons of Facebook. Check the site out and be sure to become “friends” with me (http://unltdworld.com/profile/chrisauer/).

When reading a post from Mark Cuban (Warren Buffett, Taxes and the Presidency), I began to fall in love with what he was calling for in tax reform.  Obviously the most important points that he brings up in his post (well, for me at least) was about small businesses being taxed.  Cuban says that we should just completely do away with taxes for any small business with less than 25 people.  The idea being that it would cause small businesses to start poping up, creating new job opportunities for our country.  The government could still receive income tax from the businesses employees, but the business itself would not have to worry about taxes until it reached 26 employees.  Check out his blog post linked above, well worth the read I think!

As if Sir. Richard Branson hasn’t shaken up enough industries already. It seems as though the Virgin empire is going to change the way small businesses are financed by making it easier for an entrepreneur to raise their start up money among family and friends. Virgin is already helping individuals organize loans for small businesses, mortgages, and personal loans, and is planning to expand into other loan areas as well, such as student loans. The interesting part about Virgin Money is that instead of the bank telling you what interest rate and loan terms you will have, the group gets to pick the loan terms and interest rate.

Like all Virgin companies, Virgin Money believes in getting customers a better deal. With money from family and friends, you can pick your own interest rate and loan terms to fit your situation. Rather than giving interest to a bank, you can keep it in the family – often adding up to thousands of dollars of savings.

Old man story time, so sit down and get a load of this; I remember when the internet was born. Yeap, I guess I am that old. Ever since the day the first few packets flowed across the “world wide web”, we have been completely focused on giving individuals access to information from anywere on the planet. I am not going to lie, this has certainly done wonders for business and globalization has never been so readily available.

I challenge you though to thank about the money making aspect of the internet from the opposite perspective of globalization and reaching the farthest corners of the planet. Think about how you can use the internet to bring smaller geographical regions in closer to one another. There are so many opportunities yet to be filled by thinking this way simply because everyone is focused on the bigger side of things.

Think about what interests individuals when you talk about a confined geographical location. Now also think about what information users want to come to them instead of spending time seeking the information out. A few things come to my mind:

1. Safety first and foremost. How useful would it be to have instant access to police reports and user generated safety warnings. I want to know if there have been any more car fires in my neighborhood, or what that gang sign spray painted on a wall relates too.
2. Where am I going to get the best service. When was the last time you surveyed 700 of your closest neighbors to find out the best service station to take your car. Admit it, you haven’t, but that would be darn nice to have.
3. Why can’t I be notified of deals once I walk over to the town center. I am married, and therefore, I am cheap. My wife and my purchasing decision is 100% always affected by the existance of a discount coupon.

Change your thoughts from thinking of the internet as the perfect place to reach billions world wide, and start thinking of it as the perfect place to reach thousands locally. Interesting business models might start to show that could be valued pretty high.

As I begin to get deeper into the culture of the DC technology startup crazy, I constantly begin to hear more and more about Viget Labs (http://www.viget.com), a small business here in the DC area that provide startup companies with technology services. I was first introduced to Viget when they hosted the Washington DC startup weekend event in late October (http://dc.startupweekend.com/). Spending time with employees there, and a few networking events later, I have become completely intrigued by the culture this company is growing.

They seem to be having the same trouble the small business I am currently working for is having; which is keeping up recruiting new talent to become a part of the team. Emily Bloom writes on the companies blog about the interesting ways they are approaching the issue of finding the right recruits for the unfilled positions (http://blog.viget.com/creative-recruiting-approach-yields-passionate-results/). Reading this post made me realize that if a company is interested in building a workforce unlike any other, they better look to unconventional ways of recruiting individuals.

I continue to keep an eye on the guys and gals at Viget Labs, they truly are creating a business model worth studying.

Well, okay, “give-up” does not really fit into my vocabulary. I mostly hear myself refered to as “stubborn” but in reality its “determination” that I have lived my life based on. But come midnight tonight I had a moment of were I decided that it is somewhat imposible to start a business on our own (me and my business partner) no matter how much determination I poses towards the business. On top of that, I really am thinking that it really is not the job of entrepreneurs to implement every single aspect of the business all by themselves. A very huge role of the entrepreneurs are to excite other individuals enough about your businesses motivation for starting that they are willing to help you out in the process.

I am going to be doing my own market research for our proposed document/content management wing of Helm Technology Solutions, LLC.  Traditionally (especially a few years back) I would never actually be able to have access to the expensive market reports.  Now, using even just a few online tools, I can essentially perform my own market research without putting too much effort into the whole deal.  Here are a few sites that you can use to perform your practically free market research.

1.   http://www.wufoo.com: Obviously, you need some site to create a form for you to fill out.  Wufoo practices the “do one thing, but do it really well” business model and is the best way to create a survey online that I have seen yet.  They allow you to create a few limited forms, I went ahead and paid the 9 bucks a month to upgrade my account though.  Totally worth it to make sure this little business is around for a little bit.
2. http://www.linkedin.com: We are currently living in the age of social networking online, so obviously number 2 should just be any social networking site that you actively use most.  I choose linkedin here simply because I have done some preliminary searching for my “target market” and know there are quite a few individuals to pull from on this site.
3. http://www.giveanything.com: If you need a little incentive (I am planning on doing this for my market research) to make sure that people feel its worth their time to fill your survey out, you can reward them with a gift certificate from giveanything.com.  They allow you to email gift certificates for hundereds of stores.

So many people spend their entire life thinking that they know whats right, and that others should change their ways.  I was reading this interesting article from the Wall Street Journal today that was talking about an airline pilot who instead of trying to change the way the company he worked for operated, he just changed the way he operated.  Low-and-behold, the company noticed and now backs his crazy antics…  Read about it here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118826634834410559.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone

I am really excited about this, I have found a project that well… seems a lot like my business in 81 days idea that I am planning on helping out with. Only if this project is successful, it will make 81 days feel like a life time in comparison. The project is called startup weekend and the basic concept is to get a huge group of absolutely crazy individuals together to try and have a business running by Monday morning. 1 weekend to start a business, is it possible? I certainly think we can do it, and I hope to find out in October when one will be held here in the grand ole’ District of Columbia. For more information visit: http://dc.startupweekend.com/

In order to claim victory, I hope to have at least formed an agreement with one customer by the 81 day mark. In order to do that, I have set the following milestones for myself to try and adhere by. I really have no basis for this schedule other than my gutt feeling about how long it will take.

DAY 7: All major sections of the business plan, exclude financials will be bulleted with the major key points that I want to get across. Meet with at least 2 people to discuss my idea
DAY 14: First draft of a full business plan excluding financial sections. Meet with an additional 2 individuals about my business concept.
DAY 18: Have 1 individual provide editorial feedback on the way that the business plan is written. Have research financial sections of the business plan farther, so I will be able to better attack those sections.
DAY 28: Fully edited business plan. Continue networking with at least 2 individuals a week to discuss partnerships, opportunities, and potential customers.
DAY 35: Make a decision about how the venture will be financed (Blood and sweat, Angel Investment, or VC)

The rest of the schedule will be dependent on the decision made on day 35. In interest of not getting too far ahead of myself before some important decisions are made, I will spend the next few days (whatever time I have outside of being a devoted worker and loving husband) in business plan world so that I can convince myself and others that this is a venture worth pursuing.

Please comment on my proposed schedule if you have any suggestions. I am definitely looking for opinions throughout this whole process.