ramblings of an entrepreneurial madman

I used to have a habit of writing a blog post every Saturday before I went to the gym and I stopped because there was a time period where I just didn’t have anything to report.  Things have been happening lately so hopefully I can get back to that old routine of updating more regularly.  I enjoy writing and even if no one reads my posts, it’s a way for me to get my thoughts out in the open.  A lot of times when I type a post and read it several days later, I see things from a completely different angle, which I like.

I had a meeting with my business partner this morning at 8a.m.  We basically discussed what we are going to do Monday if we don’t get the information we are waiting on from the investor.  What it comes down to is we are going to call him late Monday morning and put some pressure on him to get moving.  Normally, if someone is taking a long time to get back to you its cause for concern however I do not think that is the case with this investor.

We really don’t know what the specific hold up is, but he does have a lot of money and he may be involved in other larger business deals so this one simply isn’t on the top of his list; which is fine.  However we aren’t going to sit around waiting for his ass to get it done, we want to move forward and get the ball rolling.  We also think it may be him testing us to see just how aggressive we are because how we appear to be now, will show how hard we will work later.  In his mind he might be thinking along the lines of; “if you want it, come get it.”

So the goals for next week are as follows.  Get him to send that info by no later than midweek so our business associate has a couple of days to formulate a plan.  Then have a conference call with our business associate in regards to what she is going to do, and lastly, have her pitch it to the investor.  If the pitch doesn’t happen until the week after that’s fine, however we want to be on the phone with her discussing the final proposal by the end of the week the absolute latest.

I really don’t think it’s going to be much of a “pitch” or sale anyways.  This investor pretty much stated on numerous occasions that if we can give him what he wants, he’ll do a deal.  So it basically comes down to calling the investor and telling him that we can make this work.  After that, the joint venture gets signed and the funds transferred and we are kicking ass.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he already has a standard joint venture agreement he uses.  So if I’m right, we won’t even have to waste a lot of time drafting up paperwork with lawyers and all of that crap.

It’s getting close and we just have to stay on top of it.  It would be nice if by the end of the month, documentation has been signed by both parties and funds have been transferred.  I think it’s a reasonable timeline to set, but when you have multiple people involved you can never be too sure.

Again, I’m not concerned about this guy being full of shit or a tire kicker.  There is not even the slightest doubt in my mind, unlike with the other investor we were working with.  If he never called us back last Wednesday then I might be a little bit concerned but he did, and we spoke for a good 20 minutes.  The guy wants to do a deal, I just think he’s busy; I mean when we spoke to him on Wednesday he was in his car driving to an appointment so it’s not like he’s just sitting home waiting for our call.

The new ad we ran started yesterday and so far we got 1 call.  Not a lot but the ads tend to generate calls over the course of several days and they seem to trickle in.  I also think the weather has played a big factor because the entire Midwest and Northeast have been slammed with snow.  I’m sure people are more concerned with shoveling right now verses reading their copy of the paper.  Hopefully we get more calls, and most importantly, they are good prospects that end up buying.

This Sunday is the Superbowl, and like I’ve said before I could care less about the game and either team that’s playing.  I’ll probably end up watching the game at my place and just relaxing.  For me, the real Superbowl will be on Monday when we call this investor and from the looks of it that’s what we are going to have to do.

I’m reminded of a great line from one of my favorite movies; Wall Street.  “Life only comes down to a few moments, this is one of them.”

Monday will be one of those moments…