business plans, organization & other scary shit
 

was just wondering who all here has a written business plan, or some kind of formal organization to what they do?

the last year or so ive just kinda been taking it one day at a time, doing galleries, working on tgps, etc. with no real direction. ive always had somewhat of a goal in mind, but nothing solid. after looking thru my domains tonite i realized my to-do list is longer than i thought, and its overwhelming to think of what all i want to get done... so i thought about writing up a business plan or some type of schedule for what i want to get built and/or accomplished... but im not sure where to start. everything with sites is so uncertain... how long itll take to get built, get traffic, turn a profit, etc...

anyone got any good ideas or suggestions or anything for getting organized & accomplishing a large & overwhelming list of things to do?

woof.

format c:

actually i tried that yesterday. didnt help much.

btw, i never did see a gfy trading card with my pic on it ;)

did you email your stuff to me?

I lost the bookmark to the GFY Trading cards page....eek
guess I'll have to hunt the thread down....hehehe

nah i posted a pic in the monster thread. doesnt matter, just wasnt sure if i had missed it.

anyway... back to my plan.. or lack of...

I read somewhere about how TGPing and the like are not, and I forget the term used, a self perpetuating revenue source. Obviously as your submissions slow down so does you income. I think its important when considering any business plan to come up with a self perpetuating revenue stream. A foundation if you will. I think having a web or matrix of free sites, avs sites, a tgp or some other traffic dump are more important than having a ton of traffic. TGPing doesn't allow you to retain traffic unless you have a place for it to go. I'd say start on a foundation and divide your efforts up evenly. Set a long term goal and then chip away at it, aim high and settle for what your comfortable with. I think blindly running around trying to make a quick buck is a fatal mistake for many newbies. You're gonna burn yourself out and never attain a foundation that will work for you even when you aren't working. A solid foundation is where I'd recommend you focus your efforts. TGPing will delegate you to perpetual newbie status too.

And y'know. Formatting c: might not be such a bad idea.

Feel the need to get back on track? Tired of mediocrity? Forget the business plan for a minute. Go back to basics. Great success in business doesn't come from performing at the status quo - - it's a by product of solving a customer problem.

Here's the process of finding a great idea...as I understand it...

spend two days working...like normal... and write down any problems you encounter during the day on a piece of paper.

then spend another two days talking to as many people as you can - - and try to find out what the biggest problems in their lives is...

and then spend the fifth day compiling the list ...and boil it down to a couple problems you would like to try to solve.

the next steps are easy.

What do you think the best solution is?

How (if any) do people currently solve the problem?

Contact a few of the companies that provide a solution (or similiar solution) and learn about the customers you would be helping.

Decide if you have the right know how to provide this service.

If you think you have enough positive feedback ... Go To Work.

~Brett
@ dormangels.com
9123759

I have written, I shit you not, over 10 business plans for all the dot bombs I've worked for. I even did consulting for a VC 2 years ago. I'm your typical dot com refugee turned porn webmaster.

No offense, but doesn't sound like you wrote a good business plan! hehe

Hehehe Jamie. Good point. Seriously, I wrote the biz plans along with financial projections, executive summaries based on what the operators of the company wanted. These guys haven't heard of the term "Revenue Model" ...so they folded.

Seems like you're asking for organization tips instead of a business plan to present to investors. Before I signed up to GFY I was lurking this BBS and came upon a great post by Amputate Your Head titled "Do you have what it takes" Check the search function to look for this article. Great tips, motivational stuff.