Thanks for keeping up

For those of you who don’t know about wordpress there are two levels. Both are free, however one you have to have hosted (which usually requires a hosting plan, and some more technical ability) and the other is a 5 minutes to fame deal. I started off with a wordpress.com blog. Which is completely free and can be up and running in less than 5 minutes. This was a great start for me, it got me familiar with what a blog was, how to use it and what it can be used for.

Now I am a little bit addicted and want to move up. I would like to control more of the look and function of my blog so I am moving to wordpress.org. Which is means I will have to have a hosting plan and use a little bit of HTML and CSS. Which I am learning on the fly.

PR Secrets for Startups

Secret #1
Understand You’re Not the Only Story in Town

Bloggers and reporters are some of the busiest people you could possibly hope to meet. They’re actively looking for the most interesting, relevant, and linkable stories out there, preferably before anyone else can run with it. But truthfully, they spend most of their time hacking through the weeds of generic or over-the-top inbound emails, press releases, Facebook messages, Skypes, SMSes, Tweets, and IMs. It’s almost a small miracle that anyone can ever get their story told.

At the end of the day, you’re not the only company with a great story. Just because your story is new doesn’t make it newsworthy.

Bloggers and journalists are interested in good stories and the more time you spend developing that story up front, for each person you’re trying to reach, the more you can help them help you.

Trying to find bright, young entrepreneurs who can relate to each other very well. I want the  conversations to be very vibrant with input coming from great minds. Its a way for us to help out each other and better our business at the same time.

I call it AA for entrepreneurs. We  just don’t have the steps or hand out the chips.

I have sent out the feelers to some people but please let me know if you are interested.

Moving on from self deprecation the sate of the business is development. We are currently gearing up for stage two of development for the website. This means getting some cash. Friends and family will be providing the nominal amount to get us to the next stage. We will be issuing convertible debt, the exact details are still being worked up so we can move forward on the 30th.

Finial thought about the the business right now, I have become very involved with the start up community. I have two mentors in the start up world, I participate in  events, and read all I can about the industry. I have to say that the Atlanta startup community is very open and welcoming. It was great to see some of the Startup business whom I have seen work very hard finally get some traction at the last event.

During the camp when it was my turn to go i was nervous as all get out. For the simple fact I know my pitch is not perfect, nor am I. So I was getting prepared for a slaughter. What ensued was me standing and delivering a decent pitch. Now I got good feedback, but more importantly I took ownership of my pitch. I can now say it with confidence, and energy. Standing in the room with fellow entrepreneurs and VC’s is a great mix.

I will get my next test at Startup Riot, which will be next Monday. Here i am sure the same nerves will arise. However i am going to be pitching for two purposes. First am still seeking a developer/co-founder, and second to get even more comfortable pitching my company. We are not seeking capital right now so this is not a concern of mine.

So I am structuring my pitch to be vibrant, memorable, and exciting. I want the young developers in the room to say “hey working with that guy looks like fun”. I mean I really want to hook a good one, so i really have to put some good bait out there.

So thank you, Scott for putting on PitchCamp, and thank you to all who took part because i know i got a lot out of it.

So What? Well here is the great part. So I have been involved with many startup events recently. I have found at most of them I am a huge minority, because I am not a programmer. However I am learning that this isn’t as large of a handy cap as I once thought. I just have a different skill set which is just as useful in the start up community as being a programmer.

This is exciting to me, I get to specialize in something I am passionate about. I get to mingle, meet, and present (pitch) my company everyday to tons of new people (literally tons of cold calling). I am a salesman and want to be a Rock Star salesman. Corney? Well may be but it is where my place is, and if I don’t try to be the best at selling then my business will fail. I have built a very successful sales career so far selling for other people, I now get to put these skills to use with my brain child. I will never be a rock start developer but maybe I can leverage my skill set to be a rock start salesman/promoter/CEO for my company and have these skills to add to the pot.

There is talk about a new start up group similar to Y-Combinator to be coming to Atlanta. I am excited, this would give the business/marketing people like myself a great place to meet up with start up companies and really create some great companies.

So back to dinner, i prefer to call it supper but Startup Supper, just doesn’t roll off quite as well. So i am looking forward to the next event, and anyone in the Atlanta area who is serious about their Startup Tech company should consider attending these events.

The past two days I have spent calling up Auto Repair Centers to get them to check out Mechanixloop.com. I have found the response rate very high when I call and speak with someone as opposed to the initial email that went out which got almost no action. So is there a lesson here?

I think so. Know your customer very well. Most of my customers are not email junkies, and very skeptical of email offers. So when speak with someone and let them know to be looking for an email and they can connect a face with an email then they open it. I guess I do the same thing, random emails are generally deleted very quickly.

I also had the privileged of talking to a customer while they set up their account. This allowed me the ability to see if there were any problems with the navigation. Amazing the help I am getting from my customers.

To sum it up. Last week my business underwent two changes and they seemed to be very important, and neither one of them were my sole idea. They were suggestions from others. So don’t hide your business under a rock, or think only you can make it better.