The Free Year Project

After 18 months of being in business with my best friend we have recently had our eyes opened into a world of wonderful opportunities and have spent many hours going over the things in the business that we have wasted time on, and things that we should have possibly spent more time on.

It has been a very hard 18 months, and there have been many times where we have both thought, stuff it, go back to a full time job on a salary and leave the stress behind.

Great business owners have told us many times that the first two years are the hardest, i’d definately agree there.

Time has flown by, we are both turning 25 this year, it doesn’t seem five minutes since we were celebrating our 21st birthdays and working full time earning £16-£20k a year. They were the good old days but at the same time, there was no real satisfaction when you went home at night.

We now have about four online advertising sites under the Maxxd & dijitul umbrella, the main one being the MaxxDirectory, which has taken a good two years to develop and even now is not totally where it should be, we have signed up companies from all over the UK, all who sell parts or services to modified and performance car owners.

The latest site we have is Gourmet Ingredient, this promotes restaurants and receives traffic from people actively looking for local restaurants in the UK. We have been developing this site for over 6 months and it is now ready to be promoted to the restaurants and advertising sold. We have been working on the marketing side of it since day one, again, this is something that has only just been perfected, although we know alot about the internet and how it works, how its used adapting to a different industry and been a challenge. Alot of research has been carried out and we have found out some fantastic facts that will hopefully give us a very competitive edge and push us above ALL the competition.

We have one problem and that is time, we cannot dedicate every single minute of our day on this one website, its not possible as there are other things that are keeping us afloat and paying the bills. So, after a few meetings and the loss of alot of hair we have come up with one solution, a silly one at that but we both think its possible.

We basically need to live free (or pretty much next to nothing) for a whole year, this would allow us to concentrate on one thing and one thing only, the business, knowing that for one year, everything was covered and there was no outside pressure, bills were being paid, everything was being taken care of etc and any money made could be invested into the company to ensure a stable future and that we have a healthy marketing and advertising budget.

After much thought we have decided that we need one year and one year only, maybe even less than a year. Throughout this one year period we would need the following:

Free Food
Free Petrol - £20 a week each
Free Clothes & Shoes when required
Free Toiletries
Free Living, or a way of paying the rent and the bills

The first thing that springs to mind is Tesco, they have their name everywhere, and i’m sure would love the chance to help out two young men and getting their name mentioned on all the things that we do. Its one of those gimmicky things that companies would love to be a part of we think. All we need to do is spread the word and contact the right people.

I am going to think more about this over night and keep adding to the blog entry or maybe start a new one.

Until then, leave me to think !!