Times are changing

3 years since I started my last company and this time everything is so different. OK my product is totally different but the marketing of it is totally different. Linkedin, facebook, blogs . . . Not just simple websites and direct e-mail blasts any longer.

Team, Potential and Stress

I think I have the core of a great team. There is so much to do that they cannot be enough. They have to be. God Speed

Financial Models

Did the first proper Model of my new business yesterday. pretty pleased with it. I took a new approach and had lots of small models which linked together. I also used the excel cell styles to identify all the different types of data - especially the variables.

Pretty good as a first run through. :)

Momentary Confusion

The startup is going well. The business plan has lots of pages and thought and people are interested. Lots of meetings are being arranged and can see some potential business ahead. I'm feeling a bit lost though and need to get some structure into what needs to be done.

Just had a call - actually voicemail - from my Uncle David ho I'm going to see in a few weeks in Singapore. Great chap and totally unstinting in his liking and support for people. I can carry on with a big smile now.

Freedom

First full day of undisturbed work for weeks. Absolute bliss. Maya is being looked after. Senay doesn't need me and I am working so hard that my fingertips are blistering :)

HSBC Startup Stars Finalisy

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

This makes it all worth while. Oakley Steel is a finalist in HSBC Start Up Stars http://www.startupstars.hsbc.co.uk/

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friction

It gets worse. The office manager in another business quit today, leaving us short staffed. More to the point it blows most of my plans and timing out of the water as I have to find another 20+ a week to do his job and replace him. So business planning and launch is further slowed. Aaargh!

CIM makes some sens

I was sitting looking at a CIM textbook on marketing today because it was the first thing that came to hand when I needed to refresh myself on the 4 P's. Elsewhere it mentioned considering where in the product lifecycle your service is? Not something I'd ever though of before as I've generally tended to work with mature products. I found the idea fascinating though especially considering how marketing of a service or product needs to change through the lifecycle. It also gave me some great new ideas on how to get customers for my new startup as depending on where you are in the product lifecycle buying and other needs will be quite different

Planning

I think I've lost focus a little bit over the lats couple of weeks and some of the conversations that I've had, books I 've read mean that I need to sit down and reork the business plan and put some more depth into it. Specifically I need to work on the marketing a bit more. Finding more hours would also help :)

Frustrations

I got back to Asia after a few weeks in Europe raring to go. I'm working on a new startup, have been for a couple of months and the intention was to get back to this warm wet land and kick off. Things didn't quite work out that way - another example of of life grit. So what went wrong and why can't I as a super duper entrepreneur fix it in a flash?

• Lots of accounting issues at another firm that I own have sucked up time
• Getting my head screwed back on and tying up all the loose ends of three weeks on the road
• No afternoon childcare and as the non-income earner my time is more disposable
• Nightmare toddler who goes to sleep at 2000 and wakes up at 2130. Then has hysterics constantly, for ever, and ever. [I really do love her, but at the moment I am a little negative about aspects of her behaviour]
• getting a management teams isn't quite as easy as I'd hoped.
• MBA exams around the corner and the pressure of writing assignments, revising and doing exams for those.
• Feuding with my parents - most recently I'm slightly stunned at the lack of response when I told them that we were going to adopt a second child, compared too my wife's news of pregnancy with out first.
• Worries about the business idea - am I good enough, will it work etc
• Frustrations about not being able to find the time to start getting it together.

Put like this in a list the issues don't seem huge. In reality they are all manageable. The hardest is the sleep deprivation on top of the jet lag, and I'm probably about 15 hours in deficit over the week so far :( Fix that and everything starts to come together. Especially when I haven't really had that much time to myself over the last few days.

Why Shattered Chains

Well on a hot dark wet night I was feeling pretty miserable. Lots of plans were delayed, I was wanting to do so much. And nothing was happening.

I'd had massive hopes a week or so before and hitting a brick wall was dis-spiriting after that anticipation. So when asked to name the blog I started thinking of chains and constraints. Then Prometheus Unbound jumped into my mind.

As an entrepreneur I see myself as in some ways like Prometheus and some of the reasons why I am one revolve around thoughts of freedom and control. So Shattered Chains seemed to be an optimistic title that reflects the journey as it is now and what I expect to happen. The only slight problem is that Prometheus did not free him self; Herakles did