The American Idol Business Method

Think about it for a second in business terms rather than music. What if you had the ability to take a list of product ideas and concepts, present them to the world and let the world tell you which ones they like best and would/will buy when they are produced.
Think about what this concept cuts out for a business. 1) research on what the customer will buy. 2) product pre-production costs based on estimates rather than exact interest figures. 3) the risk of developing a product that would not sell.
The most popular TV show in the world is nothing more than a product advertisement and they are getting paid by the viewer to tell them which products they will pay more money for. The business model for American Idol is genius. You get paid to figure out what product to produce then you get paid on the finished product.
How can we apply those same terms to business and effectively deliver a list of products, ideas, or concepts to the market at large and make the potential customer care enough to provide feed back and at the same time get excited enough about the finished product to turn around and buy it when available?

At Test - The true value of an idea - Can we make Greenville Wireless?

Submitted by: Joe Milam on Jun 21, 2008 at 8:57 pm Tagged with: idea creation, Wireless Source: BigLeapGPS

When I had coffee with John Warner in the Fall of last year to talk about my BigLeapGPS idea; we had met at Port City Java on a busy morning. I asked John to sit outside because I was, at that time, like most other idea guys... I was very careful about who I talked to and who was listening. John made a point to me about my concerns. He said if I stood in the middle of Port City Java and announced to the customers what I was doing with BigLeapGPS and how I was going to do it, no one would do anything about it. No one would steal this idea I hold so close to my heart and I guess number one point is no one will implement what it would take to start a busienss around it. I believe those comments now more than ever being reminded of the trials it takes to get a start up started.
So with all that being said, I have an idea and I want to share it with the SwampFox community and I want to see if anyone will actually construct a business case around this idea and do something with it. Here it is:

Many of you may remember that back in 2003 I installed one of the first business sponsored Wi-Fi networks in the country right here in downtown Greenville. Well after the keys to the wireless network were given to another company to run it has not run very well, if at all. I have an idea on how to get a working wireless network back up in downtown Greenville as well as provide a marketing medium for the participates in the network.

In summary, get a lot of restaurants, bars and other businesses in the downtown areas all up and down Main Street to allow you to install a small piece of software on their existing wireless access point or sell an access point for $95.00. Set all the network names to the same SSID or network identifer, something like freeGVwireless.com whatever the website address is. And have all the access points redirect anyone who logs onto them to this www.freeGVwireless.com website where all the participating businesses are highlighted.

Forget having cities spend hundreds and millions on Metro-Wi-Fi projects, build the networks organically from the centers of commerce.

The key here is to have the participating business pay very little if anything for the exposure on the website because they are helpig fuel traffic to the site. This is where you need to be creative on how to generate revenue from this model. There is your challenge SwampFox... let's see if we can figure this out. If this is NOT a good idea, please let me know that as well and let me know why.

As always, I am an e-mail away with any questions. jmilam@bigleapgps.com

Here is the link to the software:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/

Thank you and good luck!

Cranking up the wheel

It is truly hard to believe my last post was in December! I guess that is what happens when you are really trying to launch a business. So with that being said, if you see someone trying to launch a business and they have blog entries every day or so... are they really building a business?? Anyway, BigLeapGPS is still moving forward. We have two investors behind us to help get things rolling and I have found some invaluable advisers who are giving their blood and sweat into this project right there with me.

It is amazing to look back over the short time, also a year now, that I have been developing this business to see the things that have changed and the things that have remained the same. In many areas of life change is not looked at as always good. In a start up it is absolutely essential to success. Without almost constant change and business plan tests you will not get very far. You have always got to listen to the ones around you who are more experienced. These people come into your path at different times. Stay true to your goals but remember there are many ways of getting there and it is best to follow the paths well traveled.

With all that being said I feel it is important to publish the BigLeapGPS story and goals as they are today. I do hope these goals are reached in one way, shape or form down the road. The actual way we get there is yet to be determined all I know is I believe in it and the people around me. When you have that, what can stop you?

The birth of BigLeapGPS

By the way, I have not shared with anyone outside of FastTrac or my close friends and associates what business I am developing and going to be launching. It is called BigLeapGPS. It will be the world's smallest personal GPS tracking device focused initially on child tracking. From there the uses are limitless. Keep an eye open for the site to go live as we have a few more developments happen. www.bigleapgps.com Nothing is there now but I promise it will be.

This idea came about at the end of August 2007 when my wife Chris and I were talking in the kitchen. Let me tell you first off that like must of you I am full of ideas and have been spouting them off to Chris since we met. This idea was the first one where she stopped what she was doing and told me this was my best idea yet. The idea was to incorporate a small GPS tracking device into a piece of jewelry for a child to wear so it would not be detected by a kidnapper.

Well here we are 3 months later, I have a business plan, an investor pitch, an amazing engineering company behind me and an entire entrepreneurial community beside me. Things are looking very promising and if I have my way about it, we will be manufacturing and selling this product before the end of 2008.

Please let me know your thoughts on this concept and if you are a manufacturer of a product or set of products focused on the child market for ages 3 through 8 please get in touch with me as I would like to validate my idea of incorporating my technology with your product.

Please write and let me know your thoughts... I am also interested in the political viewpoints many of you have. I know the reasons for me bringing this product to market is to return lost and kidnapped children safely and quickly. However, I am sure a completely different position can be taken and I want to hear about it.

Soccer vs. Swimming - A Classic Dilemma

I remember vividly when I was 9 years old and my mother had, at this point, been taking me from soccer practice to swim meets to soccer games to out of State meets for swimming... it all came to a head one day after soccer practice when she asked me, "Joe, I really need for you to choose one sport over the other because I can not continue to keep this up for you." My mom posed the first major decision I had to make in my life. Do I continue playing soccer or do I literally dive full time into swimming. Well, the way my mind worked then is a little different than now... I decided to swim because I was starting to get really good and because girls swam more then they played soccer. So there you have it. I chose swimming and ended up swimming my way to 6 State records, national rankings in several events and most importantly a swimming scholarship to Clemson. I would say the life changing decision I made at 9 years old worked out pretty well.

I bring all this up because all entrepreneurs must make a similar decision at some point. They have been doing one thing for a while, maybe their entire professional career, and here is something to take them away from the norm and into something completely different. Again the move, change, or whatever you want to call it was brought on by something inside you going, you have got to make a choice. Well, now it is something inside and no longer my mother. To choose doing what you have been doing or to do something you have never done before and hopefully something that has never been done by anyone else either.

I never looked back to soccer after I made my decision to swim. Sure, I would play it in the backyard or with friends but I never wanted to go back to what I was doing prior to my decision to swim. I made the decision to swim and that is what I did. An entrepreneur must have the same drive and determination to make the decision and not look back. Every bit of focus and energy must be dedicated to making your goal a reality.

What was the first major decision you ever had to make and how did it affect your life?

I am back... Finally!!

Hello everyone! I am very sorry for the small disappearance. One of the things I quickly learned as I started to build a business is the lack of time for everything. Being the father of three young children, the husband of a very busy and driven wife one barely has time to eat.

Since my last post in Sept. there have been a lot of things that have happened. I will start by saying the FastTrac TechVenture class was by far the best thing a tech-driven entrepreneur could do for their efforts. I started by new business venture planning at the same time the class started. By the time the class was done in 11 weeks, I had a solid foundation on which to build.

I hope to be able to fill in more details shortly and try to get this blog caught up again. Not to say I have any extra time but I feel this medium is extremely important and I want to do whatever I can to help guide and maybe inspire like minded individuals to dive in and take a swim in the entrepreneur waters...