Friday, July 30, 2004
Intercommedia Agreement Draft
I met with Jerry Holdereade and he is drawing up the draft of our agreement with Intercommedia to assign Jamin's contract to Servant Group LLC in exchange for the right to record their shows and use those recordings to promote upcoming shows. The contract draft should be ready for review by next Wednesday.
Friday, July 23, 2004
How To Write A Successful Business Plan Key Learnings:
There were 14.9 million small businesses in 1983. Only 1,400 received funding from venture capitalist. Unless you exist in an industry that is currently experiencing a bubble like tech companies in the late nineties, small businesses historically have about a 0.01% chance of receiving funding from venture capitalists.
Many venture capital firms receive so many proposals that even sound plans are not given a thorough review.
Many good ideas require years of industry experience to identify as good, just as many opportunities require in-field experience to be recognized. Many venture capital companies hire MBAs straight out of college (with no experience in your industry or any other for that matter) who will have no ability to judge your idea or company based on anything except what is delivered in your business plan.
A sense of status and power rubs off on the people who administer the investment funding process, and this can cause them to overestimate their ability to judge the potential success of your proposal.
When a business plan or business plan author does not clearly and concisely communicate the idea for the product or service being proposed, the audience begins to wonder if there really is an idea.
Each venture needs an idea champion, a true believer, whose belief in the product or service is so deeply unshakeable it becomes infectious to co-workers, investors, and customers.
“If, in order to succeed in an enterprise, I were obliged to choose between fifty deer commanded by a lion and fifty lions commanded by a deer, I should consider myself more certain of success with the first group than the second.”
Saint Vincent De Paul
“A banker is someone who won’t lend you money until you can prove, without any doubt whatsoever, that you don’t need it.”
Unknown
30 venture capital firms will receive 14,604 firms a year collectively with an average of 486.8 per firm.
Those same 30 firms funded a total of 275 ventures that year. Only 5.5 of those 275 funded venture proposals were received unsolicited. Hence…
If you send your business plan to a venture capital firm unsolicited, your chances of receiving funding are roughly 1 in 2,500.
If your business proposal arrives at a professional investment firm through a trusted referral source, the odds of the proposal receiving funding increase to about 1 in 50.
Many venture capital firms receive so many proposals that even sound plans are not given a thorough review.
Many good ideas require years of industry experience to identify as good, just as many opportunities require in-field experience to be recognized. Many venture capital companies hire MBAs straight out of college (with no experience in your industry or any other for that matter) who will have no ability to judge your idea or company based on anything except what is delivered in your business plan.
A sense of status and power rubs off on the people who administer the investment funding process, and this can cause them to overestimate their ability to judge the potential success of your proposal.
When a business plan or business plan author does not clearly and concisely communicate the idea for the product or service being proposed, the audience begins to wonder if there really is an idea.
Each venture needs an idea champion, a true believer, whose belief in the product or service is so deeply unshakeable it becomes infectious to co-workers, investors, and customers.
“If, in order to succeed in an enterprise, I were obliged to choose between fifty deer commanded by a lion and fifty lions commanded by a deer, I should consider myself more certain of success with the first group than the second.”
Saint Vincent De Paul
“A banker is someone who won’t lend you money until you can prove, without any doubt whatsoever, that you don’t need it.”
Unknown
30 venture capital firms will receive 14,604 firms a year collectively with an average of 486.8 per firm.
Those same 30 firms funded a total of 275 ventures that year. Only 5.5 of those 275 funded venture proposals were received unsolicited. Hence…
If you send your business plan to a venture capital firm unsolicited, your chances of receiving funding are roughly 1 in 2,500.
If your business proposal arrives at a professional investment firm through a trusted referral source, the odds of the proposal receiving funding increase to about 1 in 50.
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Far From Home Promotion
I have been hired by Taylor to run their homecoming concert with Far From Home. In addition to organizing the details of the concert and providing a concierge service for FFH while they're here, I've also been asked to make sure the show sells out.
This means that after September 1st, Including Judas LLC will have a chance to reach out to the Upland community and promote FFH!
I will be talking with FFH's road manager and arranging some details, and will get the contact information to receive permission from the band's management to use promote them on IncludingJudas.com.
This means that after September 1st, Including Judas LLC will have a chance to reach out to the Upland community and promote FFH!
I will be talking with FFH's road manager and arranging some details, and will get the contact information to receive permission from the band's management to use promote them on IncludingJudas.com.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Doug Haines Meeting + Intercommedia Promotion Agreement
This morning I met with Doug Haines and it was agreed that he would take Jamin Dunn's contract and fufill the terms.
In addition, it was agreed that Including Judas would operate to promote Intercommedia concerts and build a digital, coalition enhancing, community.
Including Judas will record Intercommedia shows at a fee equal to 10% of the profit Intercommedia receives for that show. Including Judas will also sell mechandise and tickets for a cut of the products moved through the site.
In addition, it was agreed that Including Judas would operate to promote Intercommedia concerts and build a digital, coalition enhancing, community.
Including Judas will record Intercommedia shows at a fee equal to 10% of the profit Intercommedia receives for that show. Including Judas will also sell mechandise and tickets for a cut of the products moved through the site.
Monday, July 19, 2004
Business Plan + Website Planning + Contract + Laser Printer + Fax
The business plan now has the help of Mick Bates. I asked him to review it upon completion to get his feedback (as well as Jennifer Vanderberg at SBDC's).
I sent Clint an E-mail today after a conversation with him begining to outline the upcoming website's features. The features discussed are as such:
Accounts - Listeners will need to have accounts with us that should allow us to track their media related choices (whether we charge or not). Tracking their choices is the premium thing we're interested in, above and beyond collecting payment. We'll need to collect enough information about them to know how to get them to do more stuff. For example, if we see they're from Minnesota, our site should offer them links to concerts in Minnesota and artists based in Minnesota. If they're 25 and Christian, we won't offer high-school punk rock. If they're a middle aged carpet salesman who was raised in Cuba, we need to somehow cater to that. Basically, I want the site to be able to pull an "Amazon.com" trick, and start offering special creations based on user choices and the info about themselves they provide. And if they refuse to offer any info, then we still need to track their choices and make recommendations based on that.
Chat / Boards - We will want forums where geeks and nerds of all genre can collectively debate the merits of their friends garage bands. The more opportunities we give our consumers to interact, the better. I want the chat (or boards if chat is too complicated to host) and review / rating system to be integrated so that the same people who look at the ratings will see an opportunity to post their thoughts. Each artist should have their own area where they are discussed by users.
Review / Ratings - I want the reviews left up to IJ insiders, so that we can have an official stance on our artists, and the boards will be the user's reviews. I want artist's ratings tied to number of downloads for that artist. I want our users able to see what artist get downloaded the most, second most, and so on. Something about knowing lots of other people are doing something online makes it seem like a better idea. I want the presentation of our site to shift automatically if an artist shifts from second to first most downloaded, or a nobody starts moving up through the ranks. Big movers should get top representation. Rottentomatoes.com asks for a sample review and then if it shows some level of comprehension the reviewer is accepted. I would like to do something like that where users submit reviews to an e-mail address and then an IJ staff person reads them and allows or denies access to post reviews on the artist's page
Concert Finder - The concert finder will have to integrate all the concerts planned for all the artists and offer maps to get their and an opportunity to buy tickets (if that venue has a site to sell tickets over the web). If not, contact info for the venue. You should be able to jump from an artist, to their concerts, to another artist concerts, to that second artist's page.
Concert download - I want people to be able to search for a download either by searching for the artist, finding the artist page, and seeing the link for that artist's content there, or by look at all the content newest to oldest, selecting something and being offered a link to that artist's page. Our homepage will host a "best of" iRadio station mix from our best live recordings.
Merchandise - We will have to have a way to accept payment if artists have produced merchandise. I will offer to warehouse it in Upland after the artist ships it to us, then IJ will take a cut of the revenue if it is sold through our site. I want users bombarded with offers to buy the merchandise of the artist they are looking at.
___________________________________________________________________
I contacted Jerry Holderead today and he said our contract and bill should be dropped in the mail sometime around Wedenesday.
I set up a laser printer that was donated to us to save ink on black and white documents and equipted the computer to send faxes to simplify sending digital documents and save paper.
I sent Clint an E-mail today after a conversation with him begining to outline the upcoming website's features. The features discussed are as such:
Accounts - Listeners will need to have accounts with us that should allow us to track their media related choices (whether we charge or not). Tracking their choices is the premium thing we're interested in, above and beyond collecting payment. We'll need to collect enough information about them to know how to get them to do more stuff. For example, if we see they're from Minnesota, our site should offer them links to concerts in Minnesota and artists based in Minnesota. If they're 25 and Christian, we won't offer high-school punk rock. If they're a middle aged carpet salesman who was raised in Cuba, we need to somehow cater to that. Basically, I want the site to be able to pull an "Amazon.com" trick, and start offering special creations based on user choices and the info about themselves they provide. And if they refuse to offer any info, then we still need to track their choices and make recommendations based on that.
Chat / Boards - We will want forums where geeks and nerds of all genre can collectively debate the merits of their friends garage bands. The more opportunities we give our consumers to interact, the better. I want the chat (or boards if chat is too complicated to host) and review / rating system to be integrated so that the same people who look at the ratings will see an opportunity to post their thoughts. Each artist should have their own area where they are discussed by users.
Review / Ratings - I want the reviews left up to IJ insiders, so that we can have an official stance on our artists, and the boards will be the user's reviews. I want artist's ratings tied to number of downloads for that artist. I want our users able to see what artist get downloaded the most, second most, and so on. Something about knowing lots of other people are doing something online makes it seem like a better idea. I want the presentation of our site to shift automatically if an artist shifts from second to first most downloaded, or a nobody starts moving up through the ranks. Big movers should get top representation. Rottentomatoes.com asks for a sample review and then if it shows some level of comprehension the reviewer is accepted. I would like to do something like that where users submit reviews to an e-mail address and then an IJ staff person reads them and allows or denies access to post reviews on the artist's page
Concert Finder - The concert finder will have to integrate all the concerts planned for all the artists and offer maps to get their and an opportunity to buy tickets (if that venue has a site to sell tickets over the web). If not, contact info for the venue. You should be able to jump from an artist, to their concerts, to another artist concerts, to that second artist's page.
Concert download - I want people to be able to search for a download either by searching for the artist, finding the artist page, and seeing the link for that artist's content there, or by look at all the content newest to oldest, selecting something and being offered a link to that artist's page. Our homepage will host a "best of" iRadio station mix from our best live recordings.
Merchandise - We will have to have a way to accept payment if artists have produced merchandise. I will offer to warehouse it in Upland after the artist ships it to us, then IJ will take a cut of the revenue if it is sold through our site. I want users bombarded with offers to buy the merchandise of the artist they are looking at.
___________________________________________________________________
I contacted Jerry Holderead today and he said our contract and bill should be dropped in the mail sometime around Wedenesday.
I set up a laser printer that was donated to us to save ink on black and white documents and equipted the computer to send faxes to simplify sending digital documents and save paper.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Business Plan + Archive.com
After scanning the SBDC Business Plan outline to an editable text document, I collected various previous writings of mine that fill in different sections of the outline and pasted them in. Like most things in life, the task of putting together a comprehensive business plan is more arduous that I originally anticipated. I checked out several marketing plan creation books from the library and will incorporate those learnings into our marketing plan. It is now scheduled to be delivered to Jennifer Vanderburg by 8AM Monday morning, and we may still receive feedback in time to utilize her review in our meeting with Doug.
I contracted San-Francisco based non-profit www.archive.com, and they are willing to host Including Judas' public domain content for free once we begin collecting digital concert recordings. This would be an opportunity to help build their digital library and distribute our content to the public on disc space and band width free for Inlcuding Judas. It could also provide a means of data transfer that could be lower the cost of receiving material recorded while an artist is on tour for long durations of time. I am waiting to hear back from their collections director.
I contracted San-Francisco based non-profit www.archive.com, and they are willing to host Including Judas' public domain content for free once we begin collecting digital concert recordings. This would be an opportunity to help build their digital library and distribute our content to the public on disc space and band width free for Inlcuding Judas. It could also provide a means of data transfer that could be lower the cost of receiving material recorded while an artist is on tour for long durations of time. I am waiting to hear back from their collections director.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Practicum Review + Digital Presentation
A meeting with Professor Baker went very well yesterday, as the final goals for completing a successful practicum became clear. Her time is very limited, but she still was able to view the blog prior to ariving, and helped me focus my idea of our core assets and value proposition in a way that will signifigantly affect the outcome of some near and long term goals.
The diagrams for digital archiving created by Travis, Clint and I have been transferred to a PowerPoint presentation and are available upon request. They demonstrate the recording system Including Judas plans to use for on-site recordings at remote locations. Yet to be completly answered are transfer questions. Is there a way the files can be sent back via FTP service? Is it worth it to mail DATs as the tour progresses? Should all DATs be delivered upon completion of the tour. The answers to these questions greatly depend on the needs of Intercommedia and their perception of what would be best for their artists.
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
SBDC Meeting + Intercommedia Response + Market Segmentation
Having met with SBDC councilor Jenneifer Vanderwal, I am confident we will both need and be able to secure an SBA-7 loan to pay for our recording equiptment. She gave me all the necessary materials to but together a business plan demonstrating repayment capabilities.
Doug, CEO of Intercommedia, had some very legitimate questions about the benefits of our service for them. By completing the business plan section that segments our markets and defines our relationships with our customers, we should be able to answer Doug's questions at our meeting next Tuesday.
We have Wells Fargo online access established, and could begin using our desktop accounting software to incorporate its balance and transactions to create more accurate reports and projections very quickly, but there is a problem with our Peachtree software registration that Clint is resolving.
Doug, CEO of Intercommedia, had some very legitimate questions about the benefits of our service for them. By completing the business plan section that segments our markets and defines our relationships with our customers, we should be able to answer Doug's questions at our meeting next Tuesday.
We have Wells Fargo online access established, and could begin using our desktop accounting software to incorporate its balance and transactions to create more accurate reports and projections very quickly, but there is a problem with our Peachtree software registration that Clint is resolving.
Friday, July 09, 2004
Wells Fargo Banking + Accounting Systems + Financial Backing
We have all the necessary papers to set up online access for our Wells Fargo accounts. Hopefully by Monday our Peachtree system will be set up to incorporate our newly created cashflow projections. At that point, we will be able to competently approach financial backers with in-depth financial analysis and projections. I will begin researching the best way to fund the $20,000 we will need to carry us through the next two years (whether it is a low-doc SBA 7a loan, bonds, or shares). After contacting the SBA office in Inianapolis, I was redirected to Jennifer Vanderburg (the closest Small Business Development Company officer) and and arranged a meeting for next Wedenesday. She delivered contact information for the Personal Credit Reporting Agency, and I will be able to bring my credit report and documents analyzing our company's financial situation to our meeting. She will assist Including Judas in formulating a plan to secure the financing under the most favorable terms.
I contacted Jerry Holderead's office today and am expecting a callback sometime monday to finalize delivery and payment plans for Jamin Dunn's contract (as well as independent contractor authorization forms).
I contacted Jerry Holderead's office today and am expecting a callback sometime monday to finalize delivery and payment plans for Jamin Dunn's contract (as well as independent contractor authorization forms).
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Week in Review
I have been visiting family in Florida and working from remote computers and my cell phone so I have not update the blog in the last week. Many exiting developments have taken place, so here is the past week in review...
Monday - June 28th - beginning a 36 hour marathon, Clint and I worked round the clock to develop and deliver a strategic alliance proposal to Intercommedia by our deadline of June 29th.
Tuesday - June 29th - 36 hours into the project, the proposal has been completed. Clint and I have put together the cashflow projection spreadsheets and entered our predictions and assumptions. We have also formulated a detailed plan to provide digital archiving services. The proposal is formatted into a powerpoint presentation with embedded files and "in presentation" links for easy navigation and delivered to Doug.
Wednesday - June 30th (my Birthday) - I speak to Jamin Dunn and explain the current proposal delivered to Intercommedia and how it affects him. I reformat the presentation and send Jamin the pertinent parts of the proposal. I receive a wonderful note of encouragement from Jamin, and learn that the presentation did not transmit properly through e-mail to Doug. I have Clint correct the transmission error and re-send.
Thursday - July 1st - I call Doug and apologize for the error. Doug receives the presentation and we agree to contact each other next week to begin negotiations.
July 2nd - July 8th - Vacation
Feeling refreshed and invigorated, I am ready to steer Including Judas LLC towards its goal of booking Jamin. I truly believe we will have every show booked by the end of the summer. The digital archiving service will also be created and allow www.includingjudas.com to complete its mission to be an open media portal that supports the creative needs of artists, producers, and consumers.
Monday - June 28th - beginning a 36 hour marathon, Clint and I worked round the clock to develop and deliver a strategic alliance proposal to Intercommedia by our deadline of June 29th.
Tuesday - June 29th - 36 hours into the project, the proposal has been completed. Clint and I have put together the cashflow projection spreadsheets and entered our predictions and assumptions. We have also formulated a detailed plan to provide digital archiving services. The proposal is formatted into a powerpoint presentation with embedded files and "in presentation" links for easy navigation and delivered to Doug.
Wednesday - June 30th (my Birthday) - I speak to Jamin Dunn and explain the current proposal delivered to Intercommedia and how it affects him. I reformat the presentation and send Jamin the pertinent parts of the proposal. I receive a wonderful note of encouragement from Jamin, and learn that the presentation did not transmit properly through e-mail to Doug. I have Clint correct the transmission error and re-send.
Thursday - July 1st - I call Doug and apologize for the error. Doug receives the presentation and we agree to contact each other next week to begin negotiations.
July 2nd - July 8th - Vacation
Feeling refreshed and invigorated, I am ready to steer Including Judas LLC towards its goal of booking Jamin. I truly believe we will have every show booked by the end of the summer. The digital archiving service will also be created and allow www.includingjudas.com to complete its mission to be an open media portal that supports the creative needs of artists, producers, and consumers.
