Creative Funding and Family

"Ok Joe, it's been a couple of weeks now and we still don't know what your idea is."

Well, I can't let the cat out of the bag just yet. Though my plan is to spend little to no money in the early stages of development, I still need to spend it. In addition to company structuring, idea protection in the form of a provisional patent are some costs that I must incur. Right now, I just don't have the money for this, but I want to continue to move forward. So what's next?

As I began to think through the overall idea as well as ways to make a few short term bucks, one of the biggest obstacles that came to mind was "how can I get support at home - i.e. get the wife to buy in?" Many guys are probably saying, "just do it and ask for forgiveness later." You see, the last time around and in my own way, I tried that. I thought I had her full support after sharing my plan. I even talked her into letting me use money we had earmarked for home improvements. Great, I had money and support - this will most definitely work. Right?

I can tell you, it didn't take very long for things to change. As time went on and as the funds dwindled, the support I thought I had turned ugly. Every decision I made and dollar I spent was questioned. "What the hell does she know? I know what's best." As well, basic family logistical support (i.e. cooking, kid pickup, errands, etc.) became a struggle every step of the way. "She needs to understand that I need to be available to see clients in the afternoon/evening." I became very resentful and bitter. Soon I took on the f*** it attitude and just started to do my own thing. That was a big help! What started out being a wonderful new experience full of exploration turned into a real emotional grind which actually took away from the real focus that was needed to succeed.

What did I learn? "Stop being an asshole!" I'm thinking that my passion, excitement, and determination was quite overbearing and that our discussions along the way were not discussions at all, but actually one way diatribes hell bent for getting the answer that I wanted to hear...a quiet "ok." As I look back, what I thought was tacit support was actually a huge amount of fear and frustration. Patty, if you're reading this - I'm truly sorry for putting you through that!

"Get back to the funding part, Joe!"

As our finances have been stressed, keeping the safety net of my day job is paramount. I need something on the side that I can do at home, I need to start small and I need to involve Patty. My first thought, "sell some kind of wood projects that I can make, online." Nope, I just don't have the time or the space to make stuff and sell it. I could sell crap around the house online, but even that with the searching, taking pictures, meeting someone that doesn't want to pay shipping...oh, I can't be bothered!

A reseller - some type of online store that can process orders while I sleep. Perfect! So after a bit of research I determined that wholesalers can be used to drop ship product to customers. Some even offer their own online store services. Well, which wholesaler do I choose? I've read there are a lot of for pay companies out there supposedly providing access to many wholesalers. I've also read there are a lot of scammers out there. Then I ran across Sunrise Wholesale Merchandise that are currently offering free membership. They also have a very reasonably priced loaded website program. To top it all off they have an A+ rating with the BBB.

Now I've just signed up with them and have yet to sell anything so I can't really tell you how they work, but here's my plan. I've already begun to talk to my wife about what type of products make sense to start with. We're going to pick just a select few items. My hope is to sell them on Craigslist and/or Ebay to first learn how the process works and to prove to both of us that it can be done. Then when the proceeds of those sales are high enough to cover the cost of the online store I'll pull the trigger. I'll then work towards driving traffic to the site. I actually have some ideas about this as well - stay tuned.

As time goes on the orders will continue and the coffers will begin to fill. When the proceeds from these sales are high enough to cover the costs of the original idea's company structure, provisional patent and business plan research etc., I'll move forward with them. Hopefully by keeping Patty in the loop and aware of my plan to only spend what we can cover, we can experience the exploration together.

So for now, this blog will be documenting an idea within an idea - let's see what happens!