Build and Destroy

Logo now sorted we got down to designing the site. We where expecting a quick turnaround, however we where soon to find out that website development wasn’t as straight forward as that.

Long days and nights where ahead and both my partner and I where flat out finalising the supporting documents that would outline how the site will work or better known as a Technically specification. I was in charge mainly for the Business planning as the concept was still in my head and Financials; my partner was developing the intricate connections I had explained to him to ensure our members interacted, grew and promoted us.

We kept tabs on the web developers, but with full time jobs it became difficult to constantly chase them on milestones. It was March 2008 and we only had logos to show for our hard earned cash, so we decided something needed to be done. We called up our project manager and the following week we had a conference meeting. I took the day of and drove up to Basingstoke to my business partners’ house. We had already provided the developers with all the drawings we had done so was expecting them to turn that into something for us to see.

We sat in his office, linked up to their conferencing system and began the call. We stared at the laptop as it moved about and began putting together something that resembled our drafts,”it looks the bloody same”! Exclaimed my partner and I thought so too. I don’t know what we expected but exactly the same, surely not, where’s their input? A lame response from our PM and we moved on. After two hours we had some boxes on a page and a sinking feeling. The beginning of our worries and we knew it!

Two weeks later and nothing, we where getting worried as we knew time was of the essence to us but it was out of or hands, we write or first letter to the CEO advising him of our issue with the milestones, timeline and PM. We got back a letter with the usual dribble about standards and will improve.

Around this time our first real competitor in the US was spotted whilst updating the marketing plan. Not good news! They had launched in March with the same concept but lacking a few of our features.

We had to get cracking now and we knew it, so with one eye on our competitors and another on the web company we had a crisis meeting and decided we had to take action as we felt we where not being taken serious. My partner wanted to take them to court but I held out as I knew it was not in our best interest to do so at that time, so to appease him I made him main point of contact, whilst I got our documents in order and strategised. The problems as we knew it has only begun…

Selling up…

With such quick developments I had to get my finances in order, this was going to cost over £15,000 with 50% upfront. Laura and I where saving up to by a place but I used that as my deposit with a shortfall covered by a bank loan. My beloved Audi A3 had to go to cover expenses plus the final 50% and start up capital of £10,000.

 

We had to cut back on everything, weekly dinner and movies out, holidays out, new suits out, basically everything we could save to go towards the business we did. Although Laura wasn’t to keen on me allocating all our money towards the businesses, she knew once I was successful I would take her out and buy everything except the mannequins.

When we got our first draft of logos, the excitement was evident as it was taking shape. We weren’t too pleased with these but gave our feedback and awaited the 2^nd draft.

 

Took a while but we got there and choose these.

So now we had the visual identity for the site and we could concentrate on both the site build.

Reaching out

With my options low and already 10 months into the project, I had to find a way to get the site designed and built. I joined a few business partnering websites and posted a summary of my business and stated that I was looking for an investor or business partner. About a week after joining I received an email from another entrepreneur based in Basildon who was interested in my idea. I immediately phoned him and arranged a meeting within the week. I read over my plans checking for errors, sent him my Non Disclosure Agreement and once signed and received, sent him my plans ahead of our meeting.

I drove to his house and took him to a local pub where we sat and I pitched my idea to him. He was impressed with the concept and business model, however the name justdaendz.com was confusing him, he actually thought it was polish. We talked about a possible partnering and name change of both companies.

 50/50 investment and a new direction, someone who was technically more astute than I, he could design the site and we can take it to a developer to get it build, bringing the cost down below £40,000.

 We moved quickly and got the shareholders agreement signed outlining the responsibilities and terms. We brainstormed about a name for Kimron Media and got some inspiration from my mother in law who suggested Recognise Media as we where promoting talent. It took us over two weeks to decide on Jamron.com for the talent site, it’s made up of both our names but when it came to buying the URL it was taken buy a steel company so we added another o and called it Jamroon.com.

 We filed the name changes to Companies house and Recognise Media and Jamroon ltd where official. Now we could get on with designing the sites. I sent all my drafts to him and within a week we had a few drafts of the home page that reflected how I saw the sites looking.

 We now could approach a developer to build the site. We deliberated on a few we had contacted who where prepared to build it for us. We meet up with them and showed them our designs and left there positive that they where the ones to deliver the product we wanted. 

We signed the contract the next week and began the build that would take 7 months to complete.

How much?

With my business plan and financial plan completed, I know needed to find a company who can build my vision. I’m somewhat creative; above stick men figures I have to add but I’m no Banksy. I knew I had to somehow visualise what I wanted the pages to look like so I did some research and found a few sites I liked.  I grabbed my pencil and after about 4 drafts I mocked up the homepage that I saw in my mind. I did the same for the profile page and some key features.

Draft homepage

Armed with my masterpieces I searched for a developer. Trust me this was not easy three years ago. I eventually found a company based in London who after reading my design brief for the site said they could make it happen. As I’ve previously said I had no idea how much this might cost so imagine my shock when I saw the amount of zero’s after the number 1…£100,000! How much! I was destroyed completely and utterly. All those late nights, hours and hours spent researching, writing and editing. I needed to find another way. I knew this would work so I now needed to persuade a bank or investor of the same. I applied to numerous banks and investment companies without even getting a reply. Dishearten but undeterred I went back to the drawing board. I confided in my very good friend and now spiritual confidant about my lack of progress and his wise words kept me positive. I had no savings, family are poor, no rich friends to ask…How was I going to raise this money? I got other quotes from developers and all where around that region. I was going to have to think outside the box here. I was meant to be a leader I couldn’t give up….

Testing the idea…

So I had my business plan but needed to get some feedback. I asked Laura (girlfriend) to review it and give me some feedback on if it gave her an idea of what it was I wanted to do and how I was going to do it. Think she read the 1^st page and gave up, so decided not to mix business and family. I asked my MD at the media company to review it and his feedback was positive although he said it was a Myspace.

This did set me back as it was nothing like Myspace! So back to the drawing board, back to basics and back to the late nights. I finally had after a week of editing a 2 year business plan I felt could be used to navigate my way through the build, launch and investment rounds.

Now I had the idea written down I needed to test the concept, find out how much people are willing to pay for the service, what main features they would need and how they wanted to be heard. I approached all the talented people and got some great feedback about the concept and the business model I should adopt. I factored this into my Income Statement and Balance Sheet and sorted out my start-up cost minus site development, sales forecast, cash flow, marketing budget. I remember sitting in the office with my plans in front of me, the plans that a few months ago where only in my head. The sense of achievement was overwhelming and I knew I was onto something. Referred to my start-up checklist and the next task were to seek funding.

I knew my business plan was strong and I would be heard more with it, but I still needed to find an avenue to get this to market. Business Angel, Private investors, grants, loans. I had to consider two factors 1) how much of my business was I prepared to give up just so I can get it to market 2) Do I want to be my own boss or work to repay whatever method I choose. Even with this in mind it was difficult to understand the full scale of what I was trying to achieve. I didn’t know how much a site like mine would cost and I had no idea where to start, so how can I ask for money if I don’t know how much I needed?

What do I do next?

So I had this idea for a website for talent, but I’ve never started a business before and have no idea about web developing…What next?

I Googled starting up a business and found Businesslink London, which had some very useful topics on everything business, now I already knew about limited companies, sole traders and partnerships as part of my Accountancy studies but not the complex issues that I would have to factor as a business owner. I printed of their checklist for starting up a company and got cracking!

Where to start? So much information…Business name…That’s always a good start. It was going to be web-based so needed an easy to pronounce name, rolls of the lips and be visually appealing. So  I pondered for days, Talentspotter, Hoopla!, Medarts…Nothing. Everything I thought of sounded ridiculous. So needed to brainstorm with some like-minded people. I went over to a music producer friend of mine and over the backing tracks of R Kelly’s R album we talked…I told him about the concept, who I was targeting and my ambition for it. When we had finished talking he paused, swiveled in his chair and began to produce some artwork on his computer.

Just da endz was born…I liked it at the time as the group I was targeting knew what it meant…Show’s how much I knew about marketing then huh.

I wanted to base my business on the Virgin brand of businesses, have a main company and this concept plus further acquisitions under its umbrella. I called it Kimron Media.

Now I had the names it was a case of registering both companies at companies house to protect my brands. I searched for forming a company and found loads and at different prices. I based both companies at my home address (be careful if you rent your home as most Tenancy Agreements don’t allow this) and assigned my girlfriend as company secretary.

Wow…It was taking shape I now own two business names. Next! Business plan, by far the most important thing I have done to date. I wont stress enough how many opportunities this has lead to. I was working at a Media company in Paddington then so knew I had the right resources in terms of research to hand…and for free! I spent the next two weeks leaving the office at 11 pm most nights, printing, writing and info gathering. It took another two weeks to compile all my research. I remember sitting in the office with my folder, notepad and printouts thinking “bloody hell!”

I had no idea of the format I had to write it in so searched for buiness plan templates. In 2007 no one was doing what I wanted to do…Not even Myspace! So I had no comparisons to base it upon. It took me 4 months to write the full plan that came in just short of 52 pages! I knew I needed to make it more concise but by now you should know I like to go into detail.

Where it all began!

Hello everyone,

Thanks for visiting our blog and taking the time to read my first post. This post will help shed some light on how this whole idea came about.

It all began about three years ago whilst I was working at the BBC in Ealing Broadway as a Trainee Accountant. Michael Wells a very animated but talented friend was telling me about his dream to perform on TV with a new sketch show he had been working on.  What I failed to realise at the time was just how talented this guy was…He could sing, rap, act and dance (found out on his wedding day).

I had previously as a bit of fun recorded a song called “Love you girl” at my friends studio in Wandsworth, played it to Michael the next day and he caught the bug. He was fanatic, writing down lyrics singing it to me at lunch, in his car…everywhere.

I decided that this guy need exposure, he needs to get this talent out there for others to enjoy. We went to production companies, back alley agents the lot! After having the door firmly shut in our faces a number of times we decided that we will do it our way…But how…How where we going to get this guy noticed, how where we to market him, the questions kept coming up without an answer.

I was going through something’s at home with family life, I was also trying to climb the glass ceiling ladder in corporate world. I started to notice a few things, the slight shift in how people communicate… then Bam MYSPACE! No not join… build my own site. A site that displays talent, allows them to sell their merchandise and network with other like minded people.

That was three years ago! So you can imagine right…So where is it? Well I need to update you all first on how I got this stage and the fun things I’ve learned and the money I’ve lost in this quest…Was it worth it?…you’ll find out….But what I can say is I’m still working on it.

For the next few blog posts I’ll take you through the entire story of how the business was formed, the team was recruited and where we are today. For now I need to get back to work. Thanks for reading and welcome to the Kimron local blog!