New Project Update – Incorporated, Costs, & Social Media

In February, I decided to start my largest website project yet. So far I have

• Written a business plan for it
• Hired 3 independent contractors
• Had the website designed

I’ve written three updates so far

1. This Will Change Everything
2. Finding The Right Team
3. Design Completed

Following are the latest updates:

Team Members (Updated)

Team members are the same for the most except that I’ve now brought on board a new member working on market research and data entry. This week I will find someone to write about 10 to 20 pages of content in our niche, and a person in charge of international marketing campaigns.

I have also created an organization chart outlining the main positions within the company including C level officer positions as well as part time positions. Even though this will certainly change within a few months, it helps with better assigning tasks and responsibilities to all the team members.

Web Design / Programming (Updated)

Website’s graphic design is completed. Now Rob, our genius programmer, is working on implementing the new theme and all the features on the website. The amount of software customization for this project is absolutely insane which will hopefully make it unique from all its competitors.

The  current goal for launching the full features website is May 16th which is about two weeks behind our original deadline.

Business Incorporated

Today (May 1st, 2011) I’ve filed the paperwork to incorporate the business in the state of Texas. It is being incorporated as a Limited Liability Company. Here is a good guide on how to start a business in Texas.

As soon as I have the approval paperwork for the business I will open a bank account (most likely with Chase), get a merchant account with them (to process credit cards), and print the business cards.

Costs (So Far)

Following is a list of our main costs so far. This of course doesn’t include the countless number of hours spend by the partners on the project.

• Website Graphic Design: $1000
• Programming (Estimated): $1500 – $2500
• Business Incorporation: $300
• Domain Registration: Over $1000 for registering  (a wide range of) new domain names and buying already registered domain names for protecting and building our brand.
• Hosting (Semi Dedicated): $80 / month
• Aweber (Email Marketing Tool): $30 /month
• Other Expenses: $500 which includes job opening listing costs (Craigslist), business travel costs, and initial marketing efforts.

This puts the total cost so far at about $5000 which is not too bad. However I do need to keep costs down as the main cost of this business will be its marketing which is yet to really start.

Social Media Pages

So far, I’ve also created LinkedIn page and group, Facebook page, and Twitter account for the new business. We’ve actually created quality graphics for each of them according to the image size and resolutions they accept.

Next Step

Next step is to complete the website programming and launch the marketing campaign. However while the website is being programmed we will be working tirelessly on adding quality content to the site and make our database larger.

I will also release more details about the new project including its name, nature of service(s), and more as soon as the website is completed.

• New Project Update – Design Completed
• New Project Update – Finding The Right Team