(23) The family business

As the final tweaks to the CAD design drag on (stuff isn't prioritized necessarily the way you like it, when working with a P/T designer!), I made the mistake of thinking big. Sure there's a lot to do with launching a business and a new product, but what about launching a whole corporation? Where there's different lines of business (i.e. family businesses), all tied together under a common network of shared responsibilities, advertising, services, philanthropy, legal, facilities, marketing etc. It turns out our family actually has a lot of assets to be harvested and nurtured, somewhat related, that are in some manner already online (and offline) community businesses. This invention (and accessories), whizkids computer training (and internet safety spin-offs), real estate, security products, eBooks, paintings, single mom advice (and frugal!), website design, etc. Tie it all together with cross-linked advertisements, related blogs, group discussions, affiliate programs, and shared overhead/expenses, and you've got a (mostly online) family conglomerate. So I've started this (in addition to my day and night jobs), and it will deserve a blog in its own right. It'll be called KME (initials), a "Community Business Network".

I'll bet most families have a hoard of untapped skills, assets and initiative - as well as a hearty supply of employees, partners and volunteers! This effort can provide a working model.

Regarding the invention, I'm well into the website from which it'll sell - have signed up for Paypal and will sign up for a Visa Merchant account, to accept payments. The website template was just copied from another one of our websites....soon they'll all kind-of look the same, but it's easier to manage. I don't want to spend all day being a webmaster! Too many passwords.

I am also working on a "taxonomy", that is, a categorization of terms related to the product, the market, content types and the methods of using the invention; these categorized terms will make their way strategically onto the website, related blogs, and linked sites. It helps keep things organized. This should also help search engines understand the site(s) with a higher degree of certainty and relevance, and help also identify similar, related or strategic sites to/from which my site should link (either directly or as an affiliate). A network of sites and affiliates (i.e. advertising agreements with other niche merchants, or outfits like Ebay and Amazon) is thus created, around a common theme and terms, elevating (hopefully) the visibility of the network (and therefore funneling people who want to buy my stuff) to the target audience. This kind of taxonomy work is also helpful in creating the marketing messages and packaging for the new invention, and describing it to retailers (matching it to their products), manufacturers and press agents. A taxonomy can also help define the 'lifestyle' the product promotes.

How do you keep track of all these sites, you say? Use http://del.icio.us.

Who knew a single idea could blossom into not one business, but an entire network of businesses - all in the name of paying for the kids' college. Well, the living expenses, anyway, as we've already funded through pre-paid state programs the tuition. That's another whole story, as are the ridiculous and nonsensical ranges of construction mortgage quotes we got today for an ongoing construction project.