personal development

This is the third update on my personal challenge to launch a new project, product, or service using the methodology in Dan Roam’s book, The Back of the Napkin - Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures.

To see how I got to this point in The Challenge read:

1.    The back of the Napkin Challenge - This is Where It All Starts
2.   The Back of the Napkin Challenge Update One - Working the Methodology
3.   The Back of the Napkin Challenge Update Two - New Twists

Starting a Business

As I mentioned in the previous challenge update, I will be helping a friend launch a new business.

I’ll let him explain how a cricket playing Australian in Mexico, who is on his way to Vietnam, met a softball playing American who will help him develop a new business.

Introducing Dane, a Drummer, Cricket Player, and Fledgling Entrepreneur

Hi, my name’s Dane. I’m an Australian living in Mexico. Over the years I have had various jobs, some interesting, some not, but two things have stayed with me throughout the many changes in my life.

The first of those is drumming. Drumming has been a passion of mine ever since I was lucky enough to get a few informal lessons from a flatmate. Since then, I have played in numerous bands incorporating various styles. I also teach.

The second thing? Writing. I love writing. It has been a skill that has always come easily to me. I consistently received top marks for my essays throughout school, contrasting nicely with the appalling marks I received for most other subjects. After high school, there was little opportunity to utilise my writing skills until a friend, who worked in community radio, was in desperate need for someone to write copy. This was not a paid position but it gave me valuable experience in turning a few lines of raw facts into a presentable 30 second radio script.

I wrote copy for a couple of years and only stopped in order to focus my attention on another goal. I wanted to go to university. As a mature age student, I could have applied under a prior learning scheme but given the fact that the last actual essay I’d written was when Reagan was still in office, I thought I’d try adult education first, just to see if it would work for me.

So I did.

Year 11 was first and, to my surprise, my marks were good and I was enjoying using my brain again. Year 12 followed and despite thinking I’d completely eviscerated my end of year English exam, the marks showed that not only had I passed, I came within the top 1% of students in my state. This was very encouraging because it meant that I could apply for a university course purely on the basis of results and not some mature age scheme. My first choice was an Arts degree at Melbourne University, majoring in Political Science.

They said yes.

Three years of blood, sweat and tears later, I was the proud owner of a Political Science degree. The rigours of university honed my writing skills to a fine point, expanding my ideas and the many ways to apply them. The only problem I had was what to do next? After five years in academia land, I was ready for a break but had no idea as to what to do. Then an opportunity arose. My partner, a high school and elementary music teacher was offered a job.

In Mexico.

We had both always wanted to travel…. but Mexico? This was literally the other side of the world and neither of us had even been out of Australia before. After much deliberation, we decided to go for it. My partner is now the music teacher at the American School of Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco, Mexico.

I teach private drum kit lessons to elementary kids in the after school programme. We have now been in Mexico for nearly two and a half years and have loved every minute of it. Well, mostly. However, it’s now time to move on and see some more of the world.

Next stop? Vietnam.

My partner has accepted a position at the International School of Ho Chi Minh City and so Vietnam will be our home for the next two years.

So what has all this got to do with writing? One of the benefits of travelling is that you get to meet all sorts of people. People with diverse backgrounds and even more diverse ideas and outlooks on life. Thanks to a mutual love of team sport, I met Doug. We play softball together. Doug and I were having a chat and he told me about a new project he was thinking of developing. A project to help people start a business.

Doug wanted this to be an online project and that was going to require a lot of copywriting to express both the vision and the process. I offered to help with that process. Doug had already enlisted the services of a copywriter but was happy to get as many opinions as possible, so over various meetings, Doug’s vision began to take shape.

Curious Business was born.

The website was up and running and now Doug wanted to focus on a practical step-by-step process to help those wanting to start their own business. Dan Roam’s book ‘The Back of the Napkin’ offered a template for which to do that. But Doug needed a test case, someone who wanted to start a business but needed help to do it.

Doug thought of me.

Now, I’ve never considered myself a businessman. That was always something other people did. Throughout my time in Mexico, I have toyed with the idea of starting an online business using my writing skills. I want to keep traveling and an online business seems to be a perfect solution to achieve a regular income no matter where I happen to be at the time.

But where to start? There must be thousands of online copywriters out there. How do I stand out from the pack? What do I call my business? How will I get paid? How much do I charge? How do I deal with difficult clients? How do I produce work that will enable me to get more work?

How do I this? These are the questions that Doug’s Curious Business is hoping to answer. Over the following weeks, at least some of these questions will all be answered and each step of the process will be detailed on Doug’s site.

Over the years, there has never been a shortage of people asking me why I am doing what I am doing. Why are you in a band? There’s no money in that. Why are you going back to school? Why do want to move to Mexico? Why do you want to start a business? My answer to all of these questions is simple:

Why not?

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