Abdul Wahid Tanner's Blog (9)

I could spend many more months adding content, uploading more pictures, integrating new features but at some point, we just need to launch. And that is what I did a couple days ago. I have over 400 electronic components listed for sale and it is now possible to browse for parts, add them to your cart, checkout, and notify me that I need to ship something. In other words, Electronic Thinking is now operational. Time to ship! Open the doors. Sort… Continue

I have recently been contemplating how I want to structure my company and as part of that process, decided it was time to create an organization chart. I know it is not a good idea to design positions around a person but instead on the role and what results I want from a particular position. But then I got to thinking if there could be a better way. Something radically different but still focused on results. Something that would scale and still function when people were away on vacation. And… Continue

I'm going to work this into my business planning somehow. This struck me recently at a doctor's office but I can think of other examples too. I have visited this particular doctor several times already over the last few years but on my last visit was asked to fill out all new paperwork (you know the kind, several pages, front and back, where you have to write your name and address on almost every page). This seemed strange to me because they already had all of my information but I was told that… Continue

Ok, so I have not focused much lately on the actual business plan but I have solidified my thinking quite a bit. That has to count for something. The first thing I did was setup my accounting software. I am using Peachtree and the first real task is planning and creating the chart of accounts. I spent several weeks on this and think I have settled on a plan. It is amazing how much this got me to think about what the business will be doing and how much detail I wanted to be capturing in the… Continue

Yesterday, I talked with my manager at work about my plans to start a company. Probably the most surprising part of this discussion was that I was giving about 10 months notice. Who gives 10 months notice? In this case, I thought it best to be as open about my plans as possible. Other companies might have just terminated things right there but I have been with Microsoft long enough to know that the managers have a sincere interest in the careers of the people reporting to them. It probably also… Continue

As many of you noticed, I recently sent an invitation to become friends. For most of you, we have never met, never emailed, and never spoken. Yet we are all initial members of the new IASE community site and I hope that is enough for us to become "friends" on this site. I have known people before though who feel that their friends should only be close acquaintances and if you feel this way, then I hope you are not upset by my invitation; please just ignore it.



I would like to share a… Continue

In my introduction, I mentioned finding the IASE site and how this fit in with my company's direction. The first thing that I noticed about the original IASE site though was that the website was full of outdated information and it was clear that it was not being maintained. I did not know at the time that there was an effort to transition the group to an online community but was about to find out. I contacted Guillermo and after a few more emails I convinced him that I really wanted to help. So… Continue

I just started writing my business plan and thought this would be a good topic to blog about. This post is called (part 1) because I expect there to be many more related posts as I work through the details. The business plan is a document that I downloaded from the SBA site and has 31 pages of thought provoking questions to be filled in. I have also arranged for a counselor from the local SCORE organization to help me with the plan but I will not meet with him for several weeks yet to give…

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I've started a company before and did not take advantage of the programs at the Small Business Administration. This time, I decided to give it a try and I signed up for seminars organized by the Seattle SCORE office. All I can say is WOW! what a value and treasure of advice! I went to two seminars so far and have another later this week. My expectations were hopeful but I was really not expecting much. Now that I have seen firsthand the wealth of expertise available just for the asking, I will… Continue