Quests on hold

Quest 2 will be on hold until I finish with Quest 1 which has a target now of end of October this year. This stems from my realisation that to achieve mastery one needs to concentrate and focus energy.

The other reason for putting this on hold is that I have not done any research prior which increases the risk of exposure should noone be interested for a lengthy period of time. I can get back to it when I devise a low cost way of testing the validity of the concept before investing.


Quest 2: Create a partially automated income stream based on my own product

Mission 1: Find a manufacturer - complete

+1 Networking (for using an existing contact to find another manufacturer)

+1 Delegating (for using an assistant to help with mass emails and communicating with potential leads) 

Bonus Mission 1: Register the business as Sole Trader (simplest form for now). Do it by Sunday 29th August - done, +1 Urgency for doing it within the given time frame

Mission 2: Find a fulfilment center - current

Mission 3: Find a distributor - current
+1 Courage (for phoning a very large distributor)
+1 Networking (for going to a distributor that supplies a customer who wants my product)
Update 8th September: Things are happening. I have contacted 5 distributors; phoned and emailed. Follow up with a phone call.

NOTE: speak to the manufacturer to get introduced to his customers


Mission 4: Outsource sales, preferably on commission only basis. Course Plotting: Decided to start with sales to concentrate on distribution partners, hold off marketing investment until cash flow is established. Have the sales start by the 10th of September

Epic Win: The sales of the product bring £1100 per month minimum, the business is over 90% automated with all running tasks automated or delegated so that my work will be down to brainstorming new markets and smoothing out the automation processes. I have no employees on payroll, all work is outsourced and on per unit costs with any and all overheads minimised. Risk is down to a minimum, same for stock with just in time production schedule. The markets are diversified both geographically and by main activities. I can relax on day jobs and concentrate on my family, flying and coming up with new ventures.
Update 04 Sep 2010
I need to be able to support myself and my family, so money in our lives is playing an important role, but it's not all that matters in life and time is heavily limited by income generating activities. I believe that I can build this venture into an entity that can be managed with little time involvement in the long run.
The product is new and untested, I am basing my actions on my own hunch and opinions of friends. As I feel this is not enough, the manufacturing has not begun yet; same with fulfilment. I don't feel comfortable posing as something I am not to potential distributors but I also wouldn't want to lose credibility through looking unprepared. Worrying and postponing action won't bring me anywhere. I need to know if there's anynone interested in buying this idea. I will not know if anyone wants to buy it until I speak to them. The metric for this will be: How many phone calls per week can I make given the time limitations. Another one: Can I do it?



Improvement metrics:

Quest 2:

How many phone calls to distributors can I make in the limited time during the working week:

Week commencing 6th Sept 2010: Made 5 calls initially, sent 5 emails, made 5 folow up calls; result: got all contact details, one of five not interested, three unreachable, one hasn't had a chance to look at it yet; asked to phone next Thursday

5 as of 09 sept

Yes, I CAN cold call potential distributors to help with bringing a new product to the market.