The Daily Commute02:57:54
Jul5
I realize I have not made a substantial post in a while. Nothing substantial has really happened except that I have been working a ton of hours and have been making great progress toward launching my first product. There should be several interesting announcements to make in the next couple of weeks, but tonight I would like to write about a realization I made recently.
I like to drive my car. A lot. In fact, I have wanted to take a “driving vacation” to drive the whole length of the Blue Ridge Parkway and back again over the course of several days. It would be really cool to somehow sync up GPS data of my car and make a Google Maps mashup to track me as I drive. I could add pictures I take of overlooks and other points of interest and upload them to appear on the map in real-time (though cell coverage may be spotty along the parkway). Anyway, the time required and the price of gas have been prohibitive to this little adventure. I would also like to take my car on a racetrack, but that’s another story.
I like to drive my car for two reasons:
- It’s fun to drive a stick (yes, I am an unabashed snob about manual transmissions).
- I am able to clear my mind and let it wander to think about things without the constant distractions encountered elsewhere.
This second point is important. Being isolated in a car (without the interruptions from email, television, breaking news, twitter, other people, and a myriad of other such things that are now constantly demanding our attention) is a great time to just think. An added bonus of driving is that it forces you to focus on doing exactly one thing – driving. For instance, I cannot write any code or compose an email while I am driving. For safety’s sake, I do not text message on the road, and I try not to talk on the phone either, but I will when necessary.
The great outcome of this situation is that I can use this time to think about different ideas, projects, or problems without being able to take any immediate action against them. For example, I may have a problem I need to solve in my code somewhere. If I were sitting in front of my computer, I would think about it until I thought I had a solution and would then proceed to write the code. In the car I can think, “Well, that’s one way to solve it. Are there others? How do they compare?” I can refactor the ideas in my head until I have a much better solution than my initial idea. Then, when I finally arrive at a computer, I can put the idea into action.
The daily commute to and from work each day would provide me the requisite amount of time in my car to untangle the knots in my brain. On the way to work I would concentrate on tasks I was doing at my job. On the way home I would concentrate on my own personal projects. I had a job one summer in Atlanta which was about a 20 mile commute each way in and out of downtown. I did a lot of thinking that summer.
Well, seven weeks ago I ceased to have a daily commute when I resigned from my job and started this whole self-employment adventure. In fact, I hardly drive my car anymore. When I wake up in the morning, I have a 20 foot commute to my home office and the day starts. When I am done with the day, I have a 20 foot commute to bed. In between waking and sleeping I am constantly distracted by a hundred things.
Now, keep in mind that when I started working at home I did not appreciate the significance of having this driving-thinking time on a regular basis. After a few weeks my mind felt like a mess. There were too many things all jumbling around inside and nothing seemed to be getting sorted out the way I liked.
I am in a funk rock band with (now former) co-workers. We rehearse on Wednesday nights at the drummer’s house which is about a 30 mile drive each way for me. One particular Wednesday I was having a rough time figuring out how to implement my product so that it would scale once it begins to grow. I thought about it all morning and all afternoon, coding one solution after another with no real success. Frustrated, I left for band rehearsal. I got into my car and just drove. About half way there my mind started to wander freely and explore new thoughts about my scaling issues. This time I could not just simply throw code at it and see if it stuck. It was at this moment that it dawned on me what was happening. On the drive home that night I spent more time thinking about the problem and arrived at an idea that I thought would actually hold water. The next morning I woke up and put the idea into action. By the end of the day I had a fully scalable solution in place, and since then I haven’t been able to think of a better one. I may still, but for now it works exactly like I need it to work.
I know this sounds crazy, but I miss my daily commute. I could just get in my car and drive in a big loop for an hour each day, but somehow I don’t see that going over well with my budget or the tree-huggers. At this point (seven weeks in) I am using rehearsals as my “weekly commute” to do the really hard thinking. I know I need to find a more regular substitute, something on a daily basis that will isolate me from distractions where I can just think. Perhaps sitting on the couch for 30 minutes in the morning and night with nothing but a pad of paper and a pen will do the trick. When I find a viable solution I will let you know. Maybe I should do some driving to figure it out.
What do you do to just let yourself think?
Popularity: 40% [?]
“Have a Profitable Month” Achievement Unlocked!18:03:20
Jul4
JazzyChad Network, LLC posted a profit for the month of June. A very small profit, but a profit nonetheless. The income exceeded the expenses, and that’s all that matters!
Updated stats have been made to the Achievements Page.
Popularity: 32% [?]
Visa Card – DENIED!15:58:18
Jun1
During my first week, I applied for a Small Business Visa card and then one week later was told it would take 10 to 14 business days until I would get a decision on my application by way of snail mail.
Well, one whole month later I got the decision letter in the mail. Guess what. I was denied. Want to know the reason? The letter said, and I quote:
We have made ever effort to approve your request; however, after careful review, we are unable to approve your request because:
Your business has not been open for a sufficient length of time.
Of all the reasons to deny a credit card application, this one seems like the dumbest. This goes right back to the bootstrapping problem. How am I supposed to get a business started if you don’t give me a credit card to make initial purchases, etc?? My business certainly won’t be around for long that way.
You don’t want to give me a credit card? Fine. I can easily find another bank that will issue me a Visa card, no problem. Guess what, when they issue me one, I will have no need to get one from you anymore. Where is the logic in this decision?
Please note, I’m not upset about being denied. I wasn’t holding my breath on a positive decision after not hearing from them for 2 or 3 weeks. I have good credit and will get a card from somebody. I’m just confused on behalf of the bank about how they get any business this way? I’m a shareholder of this bank… maybe I should reconsider…
The solution to my current plight may be easily remedied since I have a consumer Visa card I have never used that I could just re-appropriate for the purposes of my company. I don’t think the fact that it’s not specifically labeled a “business credit card” will stop anyone from accepting it.
Color me confused.
Popularity: 37% [?]
The Bootstrap15:46:34
Jun0
Yesterday I performed what I consider to be the most significant act in starting a bootstrapped company: The Bootstrap.
This is the act of deciding upon, and then depositing, the amount of money the business will need to start and then turn into a self-funding operation. For me, that initial amount is $3,000. In truth, this number may be higher than necessary if I play my cards right (my current overhead is low), but I want to have a good cushion just in case. My business account had $50 in it from the initial deposit upon creation, so actually I now have $3050 to get my brand new company off the ground.
This is a big step because I had to take my hard-earned savings and devote it to my new venture. This means I now have funds to make business-related purchases and will have to be disciplined about the things I deem necessary to buy. Here’s hoping that a modest sum of $3050 can grow into something much bigger!
For those that already know what “Bootstrapping” means (either in business or computers), you can stop reading here. For those that want to know a bit more about the history of this phrase can continue. I feel some explanation is in order, and it’s always fun to learn something new.
So, what is all this about boots and straps?
You have probably heard the phrase “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” This is an ironic idiom because, literally, it is an impossible task. You can try and try, but no matter how strong you are, you cannot lift yourself up.
In computing there is a similar problem. How do you start a computer running? The computer needs to load the program loader so that it can know how to run the initial program. But, wait! The program loader is a program… what tells the computer how to load that??
In starting a new business there is a similar problem. I can start a business that is able to make more money each month than it costs to run, so I can take the money from the business itself to run it. But, how do I get the initial money to start it?
There is a similar answer to all three of these paradoxes: you “cheat” a little, and all by the same mechanism.
In the basic “bootstrap” problem, you use the ground as leverage to push yourself up.
In the computer problem, there is a bit of hardcoded information that tells the computer how to load the program loader, and from there the computer can learn for itself how to load other programs and run them. Did you know that when you “boot a computer”, it is really just a short-hand way of saying “bootstrapping a computer”? Now you know!
As for the business bootstrap, the initial money comes from personal savings or a small loan – a small source of funding that will be enough to start a business that can then quickly be able to fund itself. The initial funding should be able to be paid back in a short amount of time (or in the case of a personal savings investment, can just be left in the company).
My goal is to take my $3050 and launch a successful, self-funded business from it. It won’t be easy, but now I have a definite financial starting point.
Wish me luck!
Popularity: 35% [?]