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Undertoad · 01-24-2002, 08:35 AM

Well it embarrasses me to say. But the thing is, the whole model of how I thought it would work was based on what we sold for the first few months. The first two weeks we sold $100k of work and had another $100k in the pipeline, and I thought damn, the right thing to do is to expand fast; but after the bursting of the bubble, we probably didn't sell $100k worth from April through December. The whole world just flipped.

In the middle of the worst of it, I bought a slick brochure and a marketing list, and I did a mailing to 700 companies that were right in our target, and you know, I got not one single response. I mean, you expect 1% return from direct mail. But not ZERO.

I paid my folks based on what the cost would be to not pay. The theory was we'd grow on revenue but we had to get the senior people in first, both to build the portfolio and to have the complete package of the sort of work people were looking for in late 1999, in a small firm.

But I feel a lot better about it now. And I still have the incorporation, and I still work under it, it's just me now. In theory it could come back... you never know. If someone needs a web development project done in short order for big bucks, y'know, I have a bunch of folks who would be practically ready to drop everything and restart the biz.

01-24-2002, 08:35 AM	#8
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	Well it embarrasses me to say. But the thing is, the whole model of how I thought it would work was based on what we sold for the first few months. The first two weeks we sold $100k of work and had another $100k in the pipeline, and I thought damn, the right thing to do is to expand fast; but after the bursting of the bubble, we probably didn't sell $100k worth from April through December. The whole world just flipped. In the middle of the worst of it, I bought a slick brochure and a marketing list, and I did a mailing to 700 companies that were right in our target, and you know, I got not one single response. I mean, you expect 1% return from direct mail. But not ZERO. I paid my folks based on what the cost would be to not pay. The theory was we'd grow on revenue but we had to get the senior people in first, both to build the portfolio and to have the complete package of the sort of work people were looking for in late 1999, in a small firm. But I feel a lot better about it now. And I still have the incorporation, and I still work under it, it's just me now. In theory it could come back... you never know. If someone needs a web development project done in short order for big bucks, y'know, I have a bunch of folks who would be practically ready to drop everything and restart the biz.