More Progress

Things have been really busy lately, where to start... My Virtual Assistant from the Philippines who does DSP has been working out great, better than expected. Between the two of us we've really nailed the engineering side of the project, and streamlined it. I've been hiring him on a per project basis, but now I'll be hiring him part time for $1.85/hr.

I hired a guy from Pakistan to do some market research. I spent about an hour working on a spreadsheet and explaining acoustics to him in a document. He did well his first 14 hours... then he kindly asked if I'd give him a raise. Curious (and a bit dumbfounded) I asked what he would suggest. He suggested I increase his pay 4 fold. I declined, and promptly went out and started looking for another VA as backup.

One thing I'm finding is if I take the time to detail the processes and instructions, it helps me think through the process, as well as makes it easy to shift the work to someone else if needed.

I decided I should have a professional looking logo, so I went to the website 99designs.com where a bunch of designers compete for your business. You spec out what you're looking for, and a bunch of people submit designs. You set how much you're willing to pay for the logo, and the winner wins your cash. Had some really good ideas come through the process, and as I've given feedback to various submissions the designers have been tweaking and improving them.

I hope to have my website up in two weeks. I was shooting for this weekend, but the person working on the website theme is taking longer than expected, but should be done this weekend.

I'm also looking for some flash programmers and a layout artist to help me create some new software templates that are more professional looking and have more features. The first company that bid on my job gave a really good rate, and then when I spoke with them they did the ol' bait and switch and promptly increased their fee 4X.

So in about two weeks I hope to have a much more professional business in place. A good looking website and logo, expanded software capabilities with a more polished look, and hopefully a marketing plan in place to attack the 200+ companies I'm finding.

In the back of my mind, it still feels like something's going to crash and burn here. Like I'm forgetting something obvious that's going to totally crush the whole idea. Maybe it's just that I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that maybe this could actually work out. Maybe it's just the fear of the unknown, I'm not sure.

Guess that's it for now.