Referrals

I’ve just got off the phone to a friend of mine who was partially inspired by my start up in seven days series to give his idea a shot.  I’ll save the details of his idea once it’s up and running, but regardless, he is in “day two” of the business – the legalities and [...]

Startup in 7 Days – Day seven (Launch!)

One week ago I set myself a challenge to build a business in seven days and for less than $500. Today at 1.17pm, AutoCarLog, the product of that challenge, was launched.

AutoCarLog online

Today marks one week after I set myself the challenge of building a business in seven days and for less than $500.

Startup in 7 Days – Day six (SMS gateway)

AutoCarLog was quickly becoming a fully functional system to manage vehicle mileage logbooks online. Now I needed a way for my customers to update their log books using SMS, and for this I needed an SMS gateway.

Startup in 7 Days – Day five (Draw it)

When designing your website you need to plan ahead. How many pages? What is the aim or call to action for each page? What keywords are you going to target for SEO? Will I use Adobe Flash or HTML?

Startup in 7 Days – Day four (Build it)

Even without knowledge of how a website works, you can manage the construction of one. All you need is three key elements: your mood board, an understanding of the data and a user experience map.

Startup in 7 Days – Day three (Marketing)

I had limited time and very limited funds, so how was I going to market AutoCarLog? This question provoked quite a bit of discussion on the forums I was posting in. The answer? I couldn’t. So how did I do it?

User design interface

For every new project I start I walk through a user experience design process where I use mind maps to flesh out how the user will interact with the site.

Startup in 7 Days – Day two (Registrations)

Start up in 7 days series:

Day one – The Idea
Day two – The Setup

I had six days left, four of which were business days – so it was critical that I set everything up today to allow me to focus on development and marketing.
Structure
The first thing to look at was what business structure I [...]

Startup in 7 Days – Day one (The idea & Research)

Everyone has a one good million dollar idea, but not everyone acts on them. There is always an excuse, always a reason why not. The most common I hear is “I don’t have time” and “I don’t have the money”. Bollocks! I want to show that with just a little capital and a little bit of time anyone can turn an idea into a business – a start up.