Crowd Spring

Using Crowdspring, a "crowd casting" site.  I threw down a $220 award for the best logo design for my new company, Tree Ring Films.  The competition runs till Friday but I already have  30 designs entered from finland UK, US, Indoneasia and India.  Nice bunch of creative.  Check the site out.
Catch up on how this old world is changing.

CCD vs CMOS

Picking a camera.  Physics is tough.  Looks like CCD technology wins over CMOS for what I will be doing.  Cost is a killer.  Look for a used camera.

CPA

Capital and structure is complete.  Using the worst scenario as my business plan for 2012.  Better to be radically conservative.

Thinking BIG

Blue Ocean is a great book about the concept of making your offering different than the rest of your peers.  After way too much coffee it came to me that one way to change the product up would be to view the shoot and edit sessions as only two parts of a total experience.  How about the pre shoot organization event where everyone brings and contributes photo and film.  Then the actual shoot day then the client engagement in the editing suite.  Finished up with the Premier Night and after party complete with schwag bags.  The capturing of memories becomes a memory in itself.

Number Crunching

3 scenarios for cash flow.  Plan C is if Greece than Italy then France then Germany banks all fail.  Prospects might be a little freaked.  Note to self...save a little for guns, gold and freeze dried grub.  Oh and some water purification things.

Web development

GotoMeeting conference on the website.  They are pushing me.  My WSI account mgr sounds like Ann Heche.  She is a buzz saw driving the Indian web designers.

Board and Trustee

The boys will get some experience as members of my board.  Two of them I dragged to Albany for the editing sessions with the first film I did in 1986.  The youngest led the shooting and editing of the film of their Grandpa Clark.  Priceless.  Mary will stand guard as a trustee over profit sharing plan and Charities.  May God bless our endeavor.

Logo

Go with the tree.  I like the concept of the rings of a tree too.

Names

putting in the selections for checking.

Revise

Stop Candice from filing for corporate names.

Third Eye

In business the one major lesson is to always hire people who cover your blind spots.  Mine is the little details about accounting and taxes.  Met with Apex CEO this morning.  Expensive but will let me focus on the core things to get this thing going.  In addition we talked about doing sales and marketing training for his clients.  He suggested I make the corporation name broader.  Louis & Clark, Claim your potential.

BeneTrend

Went with Benetrend.  Reviewing investment plan options for the business.  I never knew that in a profit sharing program you could put away (if your that profitable) $250,000 into your personal investment plan while deducting the $250,000 from the profitability of the business and reduce taxes.  No one teaches this stuff!!!

Blood

Life blood of business is money.  Had Guidant and BeneTrend fight for the right to convert a portion of my IRA into penalty free cash for my business setting up a "c" corporation around it.  This has been legal since 1974 but nobody knows.  Google them up.  Avoid the banks.  Fund yourself.

Crushed

Called a small local agency and tried to shoot past them in getting help with some marketing communication things.  They said their minimum was $25,000 in billings a year.  They are sending some reccomendations of places I could go to get help.

PPC vs SEO

Send the SEM company back to figure out a PPC vs SEO strategy that gets me more market testing during the first 6 months.  I realize that SEO is the real investment in the url.  Which I haven't both yet.

Start the game.

Web site development down payment made.