Let me know your answers! I might pick yours for development, and you will get a prize!

EB

Right now I’m downloading the iPhone SDK so I can develop two apps that I have wanted to do for a while. Once those are complete, I will hopefully have time to get the time to create two web sites I have had on the back burner for over a year.

All in all, my hope is that in doing these things I will be able to create enough revenue to devote my time and energy into church plants so they’re able to do more with less.  Who knows, maybe those will sustain me enough that I won’t have to charge??? We’ll see.  All I know if for now, I am going to make an attempt to do more to open up my time to help churches expand their reach.

For now,

EB

• $25 for a standard deduction
• $40 for itemized deductions

Let me know if you need me!

I have to say - it was pretty amazing. However, because of it, I now have to buy his book. There were a couple of great points in it that I want to throw out there to see if I can get some feedback.

In the presentation there is a point that states, “A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.” What does your production, service, or organization make someone’s gut feel? If it’s software, does it illicit an emotion? What do your services make someone feel? Has your organization created an emotional response for some reason?

Notice, he didn’t say that a brand is a person’s thought about a product, service, or organization - he said “A brand is a person’s gut feeling…”

I know at Freedom Church, it is a goal that you never leave without us making you feel something. There are definitely a few emotions we would prefer you feel, but I know that we would much rather you feel something than to not feel anything.

There are something like 3,684,000 churches in the world. What are you doing that would make people choose yours? Beyond that, What are you doing to keep people there?

I’d love to see some feedback so let’s hear it!

EB

Oh well, hopefully when I get back into the trend of writing some everyday, it will get easier.

On a related note, if any of you have ideas for an article or where I might want to publish it, please feel free to let me know. OR, if you want to write it and have me help you gain some exposure for it, just let me know.

Back to writing…..

As part of getting the website up, I’ve started an internet marketing campaign.  It’s kind of annoying when you type “Starvos Technologies” into Google and up pops two other websites before yours. I mean, seriously, I picked this name so that no one would have it - I didn’t think I would have to compete with my listings in online directories for the top spot on Google.

Anyways, after $20 with Google Adwords, I have had only 50 hits in 2 days. For those of you who aren’t really into the SEO & Online Marketing thing - that’s not a lot. Therefore I’ve just spent the last two hours combing through my keywords and meta tags to get to that number one spot with more hits. We shall see how this goes.

In other news, I’m looking for two sales people.  One for the Structured Wiring side of my business, and one for the video surveillance side - let me know if you know somebody that would be interested.

Alright, seeing as it is 2 AM (Almost) I am going to head to bed.  See you all in the morning!

- EB

Now don’t think I’m getting discouraged, because I’m not.  It’s just that I am now beginning to realize how much simpler it was to start a company at 16 with no family and no responsibilities.

That’s all I really have time for right now, but if there are any church planters out there who need any production or information technology equipment, just let me know - I work deals.

Here’s what I’ve done so far this week:

1. Designed Business Cards & sent them to the printer (They look pretty good in my opinion)
2. Written 7 of 9 sections out of my business plan including all the spreadsheets that go along with them.
3. Completed half of the market research needed. (Those numbers will make your head hurt)
4. Designed a Brochure & sent to the printer. (The design gets a B+/A-, but I need something to give people.)
5. Met with my corporate attorney to get his advice.
6. Had an AWESOME meeting with a local pastor of a church that’s in its seventh month.
7. Decided that i love Iced Cafe Mocha’s from Starbucks a little too much.

So here’s my check-list of things for the rest of the week.  Keep in mind there’s ONLY one day left in this week.

1. Finish the second half of my market research
2. Write the remainder of the business plan
3. Find at least 50 retail locations for me to visit next week
4. Make contact with at least 10 pastors so I can attempt to get some meetings
5. Find 5 investors to pitch to within the next two weeks

So as we can all see - too much for me to do and not enough time for me to do it while still trying to spend some time with my wife and son.  That’s it for today’s update…on to some more research.

• production (audio/video/lighting),
• information technology (servers, networks, support, etc),
• web development/hosting,
• video surveillance and
• some training classes.

I had pretty much already decided this, but someone decided that they wanted to invest in it and gave me the money that I would need to get it off the ground so I took that as God giving me the extra little push that I was needing to dive head first into this.

My main focus will be trying to help church plants, established churches, and non-profits. However, I know I will need to have a few small business customers in order to keep the revenue coming in at first so if you, your friend, your brother, your friend’s brother, or anybody else you know can use any of my services, please feel free to give them my contact information or let me know and I’ll get in touch with them to help them out as much as possible.

There are going to be long days, nights, weekends and countless meetings but in the end I will be doing something I enjoy that God has called me to do.  Hopefully He will bless that and I will be able to provide for the awesome family that God has given me.

By the way, the compay name I’m kind of excited about; it will be called Starvos Technologies.  In Greek, starvos translates into cross so it appeals to my academic side.

That’s it for now….see ya!