Day Zero

A few years ago, I started a consulting company to provide project management services to a number of firms that had IT projects going, but no internal experience in taking a large project from A to B. At the same time as I built the business, I created an e-zine to communicate the trials and successes of starting a small business. I promised to keep a journal that revealed the good parts and the warts of my progress.

During the free-wheeling days of the Internet Bubble, these were fun days. I spent a lot of time documenting the joys of wheeling and dealing, the pains of transcontinental commuting, and the secrets of getting people who don’t work for me to get a project done on time and under budget. It turns out that I also was able to document how to bury a business after the Bubble burst. Like I said, warts and all.

Now, after a few years of licking my wounds and of putting my financial house back into less chaos, I’m going to jump back in the pool. This time, though, I’m not sending out an e-mail magazine. I’ll be blogging the progress – or failure. Believe me, I buried more than my share of small businesses, so I approach this with a touch of reality. However, the same rules apply. You get to see it all – warts and all.

It may be more fun to read someone who just naturally has the world and money fall right in their lap. Reading some of these entries may be a bit painful for you. I’ll try to forewarn you if that is the condition. However, I generally have a very positive outlook on situations, and will persevere through most problems. And, I’ve found in the past that if I share my problems, the readers share their solutions. We all end up learning from it.

So, wish us luck. Today is Day Zero. The counting may start from here.