Ever have that feeling that things are about to change in a big way? Well, I’ve been sitting on that feeling for about a week and today it started to materialize in my brain. First, as the phase “the calm before the launches” and then as a stream of consciousness I share here.
I’ve been restless. The restlessness a football team feels before the first game of the regular season. They have practiced and have the preseason behind them. Time to strut their stuff. The last year of my life has been like that. I basically threw away the play book and started anew. It’s been fun. Learning, practicing and preparing should be but now it’s game time.
Launches
For me it all comes down to the launches. I used to work on one or two projects at a time. The problem with that approach, for me was that I couldn’t fail often enough. Over the last year I took a look at the projects/businesses that have survived to this point in various states of success. I decided all the survivors needed re-launches to one degree or another. So, here’s the launches I’m working on for those who are interested.
JimRaffel.com For all practical purposes this blog re-launched earlier this month. For me it was the addition of “Small Biz CEO” to the tag line and the 101 series posts. My writing has improved and I’ve found focus for the topics I select. JimRaffel.com even generates enough revenue to take my wife out for dinner once a month. Yes, I’m a business person so at the end of the day value exchange will usually be part of my success evaluation process.
ColorMetrix.com Within a couple weeks we’ll unveil a site facelift. No real functional changes, most of that happened last Fall and earlier this year. It’s important to me, however, because a significant percentage of our business now occurs via e-commerce in our on-line shop. The facelift focuses around making the purchasing process easier and casting a wider net on the internet making us easier to find. All while taking less and less of my time.
ColorMetrix VIP Support Community. A private community for our paying customers. We are modeling this after the very successful Third Tribe Marketing (affiliate link) community I am a member of and have written about here before. Every launch listed here has been profoundly impacted by knowledge and sharing that has occurred in the Third Tribe community.
Public Speaking. Yes, I’ve become one of those guys. While I can’t list them all on the public speaking page just yet, I’ll reach my goal of twelve engagements in 2010. That’s from a whopping zero in 2009, so I’ll go ahead and be pleased with that progress. If feels good to have this part of my career reenergized.
Professional Services. ColorMetrix has morphed. Yes, our “shrink wrap” products are top shelf and getting better with each release. There’s a whole part of our business we never talked about much. We are damn fine web developers. Over the last five years custom development of Verified Color solutions has provided a significant percentage of our revenue. We’ve assembled a team of developers and agencies to tackle the largest most challenging project you can throw our way. If that interests you please use the ColorMetrix contact form to let me know.
The other stuff. There are two web-sites I have a limited and mostly silent interest in. Both are on the verge of some explosive growth I have yet find the free brain time to fully consider. Maybe you can help me out with that; check out Qip.com a site with about 20K unique visits a month and MolkkyUSA.com a fun and authentic tossing game we import from Finland. If you have ideas how to partner with us to make these sites successful please contact me.
Seems like a lot when I look at it this way and some days it is. If I ever seem short with you, distracted or take too long getting back to you, something on this list (or my family) probably has my attention. Thanks for understanding.
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo
Love this idea of organizing your thoughts and progress this way, laying it out in a plan, nicely done and thank you for the illustration Jim.
Funny thing is I didn't realize it was a plan until I read your comment and went back and looked at the order. Sure enough there is some priority for launch accomplishment in there. Stream of consciousness is a scary thing sometimes.
Great post Jim. I don't think you have ever written a post that wasn't valuable in some way. It's easy to be overwhelmed with numerous projects gearing up for relaunching regardless of the stage of progress. Which is why it's important to take a step back and look at things from a time perspective. Where was project x 6 months ago, etc.
And I for one am excited to see the relaunch of ColorMetrix.com 🙂
OH, good point “where was project X 6 months ago?” Just did that mentally with the whole list up there. They've all moved a long friggin way. Thanks for providing that perspective. 🙂