It would seem I spent not so much time ‘working’ this week. Two full days I had to spend on personal issues and put a lot of energy into getting that chapter closed. But yet, despite that, I feel like in this week we have made more progress than in 2 months before! Right – basically – with things are really clicking – clicking fast – and thing are moving.
My accounting holes are plugged, and daily responsibilities transferred over. Financial data is coming back, its meaningful and decision enabling. For example, today I had to make a decision if we should hire more IT developers, and I need to see cash flow and projections. Data came in – and in a second I could make a decision if to hire or not. And this was decision that I could make with eyes wide open, and understanding of the future risks (actually almost no risk).
Last few days Gerry and I have been somewhat informally working towards the 2010/2011 strategy, growth, expansion. We actually didn’t set out to do it, but rather over a series of what I would call ‘bullsh*t” sessions – we actually hammered out a very creative and cool plan. I think we spent altogether 8 to 10 hours over coffee next our office – drawing, discussing and planning the plan. Both Gerry and I are very ‘tech’ in nature – so it feels good to go to the ‘roots’ – and build the strategy around technology.
So, last night while watch a movie, I doodle on my iPad general concepts of the plan 2010/2011. Today we went over this and modified it to the picture below. Through this plan we basically focused RedStores effort for next 2 years to a few lines.
The bottom line is that we have two streams of growth. We must enhance our internal tools to support 
growth, and then roll out that tool for internal and external use. I wont’ get into the details of the strategy here outside of what is outlined below – but basically, it means we have a lot of technology dependencies. but it is also through technology that we will be able to grow faster. So, this is when having a clean picture of financials came in handy – knowing our workload in IT – the choice is to go slower or faster. I had the option for speed –so went for speed.
So, the details of the overall vision are filling in – which is as it should be. Vision, thinking, concepts, details, execution.
In addition, also yesterday, while watching yet another movie late into the night, I doodled out the 
value proposition, implementation details, value proposition in MindMap tool. Again, a rather strange creative process, where it wasn’t ‘work’ in a pure sense, but rather a ‘creative’ zone.
Needless to say, the map on the right, will form the basis of the value proposition for RedStoresGroup.com – the rough partnering software process, the print and collateral material for RedStores. Basically, the two pictures capture the essence of the growth strategy.
So, why is this good? Well, for raising funds I needed a clear vision and a 5 pager summary of what we will do. As Casper had pointed out, I needed to have 5 tight slides. I guess it makes sense. One slide (the one above) speaks more than 10 pages of verbiage.
So, not only good week because of forward movement, but also because it supports my goal of investment onboard.
So, did I mention that June was our month June in all of our companies operation. Yep, go figure, best month out of the 5 years! And we are still working on improving things.
So, although I only felt like I spent 3 days ‘working’ – I feel that this has been one of my most productive and rewarding weeks this year.