Day 1 and Day 2 - First Two Days Of The Project

I missed posting on July 1, not intentionally because I had every intention of posting but the day's distractions caught up with me. These distractions made me reflect on just how hard it is to focus a singular concentration on a goal when you have family matters tugging at you like shopping for food, kids begging for your attention, (I took my son to the park today and played a little softball - lots of fun with him learning to swing a bat for the first time!), your wife staring at you and demanding her time as well.

But one reason I'm doing this is for them and I don't think that the everyday minutiate of family life should or will prevent me from accomplishing my goal or chronicling the journey in these posts.

I did do some things today. I found my starting $100.00 and also discovered that I have Quicken and Microsoft Money on the new computer a friend donated to use on a community project (yes, there are people out there who still do those things, and I thank God for VP, you know who you are). I accidentally deleted the software and had to reinstall it, and the reinstall took about 30 minutes. But I'm finalizing the setup now. I first used the DOS version of Quicken a decade ago to create a balance sheet for a non-profit agency I'd started. For my money, it still beats the hell out of Microsoft's offering, so I'm using Quicken for tracking all the income and expenditures.

I'll open a bank account for the cash I'm accumulating as soon as I collect enough revenues from my initial promotional efforts. Since nearly all the banks offer online account management that links transaction data to Quicken, I can handle the cash management chores much more easily than would have been possible even two years ago.

My stategy for leveraging this initial cash bank of $100.00 is this - use the cash to create a wide-ranging promotional strategy that allows me to promote myself and the services I will be offering in as many ways as the $100.00 will allow. Ultimately, a successful business depends on attracting and converting paying customers; sounds simple and obvious, but it's amazing how few business people really zero in on this truism. How many new entrepreneurs have you watched spend thousands of dollars on computers, furniture, office space, even staff, before they've earned the first dollar in revenue from a paying customer?

The mistake I think many new business people make is confusing the steps of physically setting up a new business with the fact of being in business. You are in business when you are generating a positive cash flow (profits) from customers paying you for the products and services you offer. The less you invest in non-revenue-producing startup expenses the more of your startup cash you can invest in the #1 task of operating and managing a new enterprise - customer acquisition.

That's why I'm investing my $100.00 like this:
Design and printing of 1000 promotional flyers - $50.00 ($25.00 for the design time and $25.00 for making copies at Office Depot/Staples)
100 stamps #@ .39 each - $39.00

I need a business phone number for calls, a mailing address, and a fax number. I already have several e-mail addresses, an Internet connection, and two computers - a laptop computer and desktop computer.

My wife is calling me. I'll be back in a few.