A Day In The Life Of A Recent Company Formation

I have been so busy over the past few days; we have held our two focus groups, hired two regional managers and begun to look for office space – who ever knew forming your own company could be so hectic!
Focus Groups
As I mentioned in my last post, the website is still far from being ‘launch ready’. I had a number of new ideas I wanted to incorporate and so did a number of the people I asked. Therefore, I thought that before I briefed the designer for the final time, I should get the opinions of some prospective customers.
I held two focus groups – one for industry professionals and one for consumers. The results were astonishing! What really surprised me was the fact that, despite all the usability studies and experience, most people who work in the industry still have no idea what drives a consumer to purchase online. While we didn’t completely re-design the site after the meetings, we did make a number of key amends!
Staffing
When I originally started the company formation process, I really thought that I we would be able to operate with a skeleton staff. However, as interest has grown unbelievably in the brand – we have been approached by several large offline retailers who want to stock the product and advertise on the site – I have realised that, not only that we need to appoint a PR agency full time, but also that I could do with some regional sales managers.
So, I have taken on ‘Woods PR’ full time and appointed two regional sales managers – one for the north and one for the south. From previous experience, I know that one of the main things that causes inefficiency in a team is lack of communication. Therefore, starting as I mean to go on, I have committed myself to having a mangers meeting every month. At this meeting we will discuss what has been going on in each area of the business and focus our objectives for the next meeting. Hopefully this will make sure everyone is aware of what they have to do and when they have to do it by!
Office Space
Again, initially I thought that the company could more or less be run out of my home office; however, the past month has taught me that this is just not feasible. So I have started looking for a small office where would could hold meetings and operate out of.
Can’t wait to get things moving and will report back on the progress!
Have a great weekend,