Week 7 - Websites, branding, incorporation

It seems that a lot of people around here in China are in some stage of starting a business.  A business could be anything from an idea to an ongoing, revenue-generating company.  It's therefore easy to continue "working on an idea" for a long long time.  Of course easier if you have another source of income :)  I didn't want to be like that and wanted to stay on a project timeline.  Part of that was because of my own anal nature but also because I always kind of blew off people who used a business idea as an excuse to be a bum.  Also, my business partner would only be around for 2 months and I needed to make sure that he was putting in as much as he could, which would only happen if I was driving and working harder.

So, we have had a rough project plan with some milestones, but mainly just continuing to move the ball.  Then about 2 weeks ago, I saw a notice for the annual Shanghai Expatriate (Expat) Fair.  Here's the description:

-------------

The Expat Show Shanghai is the biggest gathering of the foreign community with over 12,000 visitors set to attend. The show was created to serve as a platform for over 200 exhibitors to promote their services and products to make the lives of expatriates living in Shanghai easier, not only that but the show is host to many activities such as 'Live Performances', 'Mom and Babies Fair' and a 'Private Kindergarten' to allow for an enjoyable day for all the family. Already in its 4th edition, the 'The Expat Show Shanghai' is further expanding with the inclusion of the 'Cuisine Festival' which will bring over 60 exhibitors from the culinary world, it will bring prestigious restaurants, chocolate and wine tasting as well as the chance to cook with some of the best chefs in France. This year's edition is not to be missed, so make sure you attend!

-----------

The mark was on the wall.  It seemed a little bit daunting.  We have no partners.  We lack clarity on our offerings.  We haven't tested on customers.  We have a company name but no branding, logo, or website.  We are not incorporated.  Hey, let's do it anyways.

So, now that's the pressure.  Working pretty hard now.  We have one intern, who is a finance PhD student at Jiaotong University and my business partner working part-time.  He has a very similar job to what I used to have -- Director of Strategy and Business Development for a global firm.  He's really good at networking and is an idea guy, but tends to shy away from actual hands on operations -- working with vendors, doing customer interviews, hunting down supplies, creating marketing content.  My dad is in town for a month and also is helping.  With a background in botany and as a former science teacher, he's a natural to help with questions around mold, water quality, etc, so I've given him a list of 4 things to focus on.  He tends to get distracted easily, so hopefully, he can stay on target.

So, am knocking down the different requirements needed before launch one at a time.  Yesterday was website and logo.  I went to meet with a French-Chinese design company here in Shanghai yesterday.  They were quite thorough and professional in walking me through the website creation process.  My contact suggested a few page designs and will provide a full quote to me later today.  Interestingly, he suggested that I move my hosting from GoDaddy.com in the US to a Hong Kong based server to improve search engine optimization.  The thought is that most expats in China use google and google currently redirects through HK and HK-based websites get a higher score than those based in other companies.  

Last night, I also took my brother's (and another friend's) advice to "crowd source".  Instead of trying to design our own logo (impossible since I'm not creative) or go to a design company, you essentially post a reward and a community of designers submits ideas.  For $200 ($270 with fees), you can get  20-50 ideas.  It's a great way to get a wide variety of ideas.  So I went to 99designs.com and posted a description of the company, our target market, and some of my preliminary ideas and the reverse auction will go for a week.  That, in turn, will drive the website.  You can also do this for website, but I think since our website is pretty simple, I may just go with a single local company that I can iterate with.  Interestingly, when I brought up crowd-sourcing to the design firm I met with, I expected them to scoff at it or talk about how bad the quality would be.  The guy did not.  He sort of thought about it, said that he could not go as low as the design price at the bottom tier ($495), but that they wouldn't be that far off.  Music to my ears!

Ok, onto trying to get a vendor slot at the fair now...