InfoHole A blog by Gordon Page

Business Move Update

Back in November I flew from the UK to Austin, met up with Brian for a week, and signed a lease on an office then and there.

Since then, there has been a million hoops to jump through to satisfy the requirements of my E2 visa application. The E2 application calls for placing significant funds at risk, which basically means spending $xxx,xxx on goods and services to set up the business (lease, computers, insurance, promotion, etc). Finally all of this has been completed and my lawyers have submitted my 160 page E2 application this week!

The lease on our, freshly repainted, office started today and Brian, who recently moved to Austin, has taken the keys and started putting together the furniture that was delivered a month or so ago. An internet connection is being setup sometime next week.

As soon as I get out there we just need to grab our brand new computers and office equipment from storage, and we will then have a wonderful office set up in the heart of Austin!

We Need A Retainer

Over the past six years or so I have readily helped clients and friends with small projects free of charge. Now that I'm providing web consulting services full time this is no longer possible.

If we're in a pub having a beer then I would happily chat with you about web technology. I really enjoy it.

However, if you want me to assist you with your projects then I need to get paid. Here are some of the requests I've received from people, who don't host nor have other services with me, over the past 10 days or so:

• quickly install gd
• I can't access my server, whats wrong?
• I need rsync. Can you install it on my server?
• the videos need to convert at higher quality, can you fix that?
• do I need a separate database server?

In order to provide exceptional service to clients I can no longer afford to spend time helping people free of charge. Please respect that information is a valuable part of my service offerings.

Below is the email that I shall be sending in response to all support/consulting requests from people who continually expect services free of charge.

Hello and thanks for your email,

I would very much like to assist you with your ongoing or one off technical support and consulting needs. For me to assist you we need a retainer in place, or if you prefer we can agree an amount of time at our hourly rate to work on the assignment. Retainers are the best way for us to provide you with cost effective and prompt assistance.

You can view our current retainer and hourly rates here: http://www.incero.com/current-rates.

Feel free to call me on the number below if you have any queries regarding our retainer, hourly, or project pricing options. I will be happy to assist you.

--
Kind Regards,
Gordon Page

http://www.Incero.com

USA: (512) 394 8803
UK: 0208 123 5338

$52k Later

A week in Austin, $52k burnt, and we're nearly ready to rock and roll.

We sorted out a company car, office space, furniture, computers, promotional goodies, and various other things including bank accounts etc. Pics and videos below.

Brian with a third of the Dell order:

Downtown office space, which will be repainted white:

200 mini tins of jelly beans, a few beans having been eaten in the photo:

Company car:

90 polo shirts:

$200k Investment, The New Business

I've been faffing about for far too long now. I sold PF back in Feb 2007, and then tried to make things work with the management team there for as long as possible but ended up canceling my consulting agreement with them in late 2007. I learnt a lot from that experience, they are a nice bunch of people, we just didn't align.

Since then I've been scouring the Internet for new ideas to either develop or invest in, but everything I've come across I have found to be flawed.

With most of the startups/ideas that people have pitched to me I've found myself thinking "Fail Whale." The number of people who are still, to this day, starting up new video and image hosting sites amazes me. News alert! That sector is done, youtube/flickr are king! No more million dollar cheques for a general traffic site purchases. When I started PF in 2003 online video was a revolutionary idea.

If you want to make millions then you need to develop something with a very niche/targeted audience like CafeMom.com, so that you actually have a chance of selling advertising at decent rates.

It has taken me a while to realize this but I'm well suited to being a WebDev consultant. Over the past 5 - 6 years I have been completing WebDev jobs for extra cash.  I enjoy working with web technology, I enjoy learning new skills, and I really enjoy the satisfaction of a doing a great job. Now it is time to do this full time, and build a solid business out of it.

A month or so ago, I spammed my email list of wealthy people that I've bumped into and cheekily asked them to invest in my new technology consulting business. Sine then I've secured a $200k investment, I've retained lawyers for an E2 business visa, formed the LLC, and have found my first employee/business partner. I'm heading off to the States this week to arrange a lease on some office space right in the heart of Austin, Texas.

Oh don't worry, you'll be receiving an email detailing our services as soon as we're up and running! ;-0 If you would like to be added to that list then please leave a comment below.

LegalZoom LLC Turnaround Time

I recently formed a Texas based LLC, even though I'm living in the UK, via LegalZoom.com.

I went with the Express Gold package hoping that they would move quickly. The service details a 7-10 business day turnaround time and they did meet that, but I feel they could of done better. Here is why:

I submitted my order at 9am on Monday the 17th, I left details in the "notes" section clarifying my business address was to be in the UK and listed my phone number asking them to call me 24/7 if there were any problems.

The State approved the filing on Tuesday the 18th, and on the 19th the status updated to "Preparing your final documents for ******* LLC".

On the morning of the 21st I called to check the progress as all they needed to do was print out my documents and send them to me. I asked if the package would ship out today and they said either today or tomorrow (Friday).

On the 24th, Monday, the order said it was on HOLD so I called and they wanted to confirm the business address for the documents even though I had confirmed this in the notes section of my order. They had also apparently ignored my request to call me if there were any problems.

On the 25th the order still said it was on hold so I called again and the lady said the package "might" ship out tomorrow.

On the 26th the package shipped, I had upgraded to next day delivery so the package arrived on the 27th.

That is exactly 9 business days from order to arrival at my door, which is within the timeline they laid out. I just felt that they weren't really on the ball and the lady when I called on the 25th was not really interested.

I won't be using LegalZoom again because they didn't call me when there was a problem with my order, and they didn't seem too interested in speeding things up.

Below is a pic of the order status (the dates represent the last day that that specific stage is being worked on, not when they started on that stage).