I thought it would be interesting to write a blog every quarter about the business. I wanted to write one when I started it, but I was too busy, and didn’t want to.

My old boss Arun had a good way he did his quarterly updates, so I am going to steal his format and tweak it a little (what is the point of starting a business if you don’t think you can do it better?). So the format here is going to be:

• My Ask
• Something I Have Found Helpful
• What Have I Been Working On and Thinking About
• What I Am Working on Next

The idea is that this will be a bit of a business update, and a bit of a diary. Here we go.

My Ask

Do you know any small tax accounting firms or people who work with small businesses? Ideally a single person, or a very small organization. Could you introduce me?

I am struggling with the accounting and tax side of things. I don’t understand it. With customers and revenue low I figure lets build this base now – it feels like it is at the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy of business. I believe is outsourcing things I don’t have interest in and that would take a lot of time to understand. This sit squarely in that part of the Venn Diagram.

I also don’t want to go to prison for accidental tax evasion.

Something I Have Found Helpful

About 18 years ago my boss Ad dePijper introduced me to the Getting Things Done organizational system, and it has been one of the most impactful things I have used in my career, never more so than starting my own business. I do stray from the system though, and have added in two columns to my task management: Important and Urgent. This is so that I always make sure I am focused on things that are

1. Important AND Urgent
2. Important and NOT Urgent
3. NOT important but Urgent (newsflash: I never get to the last one).

I use Notion to keep track of everything, which has been great (once I figured it out). Here is what it looks like:

What Have I Been Working On and Thinking About

The basics – Website, Charts, Data. I have also been working with a few people around here to get a Keeper Camp set up. I like the idea of doing things early that don’t scale but will help your business. A first-class camp specifically for keepers is something that I wanted for my son and had a hard time finding. I also believe in delivering products I would use and want. The camp should help get the word out about PhoenixGK organically and also provide a bunch of my target audience with access to the platform.

That leads me to something else I have been thinking a lot about – Marketing. It had felt tempting to jump right in to social media ads, but the more I have read about them and the future of marketing, the more convinced I become that an organic approach is the way to go. So one of my key focuses in Q2 will be making organic videos for the company. One a week. The goal will be to deliver real value to goalkeepers with every video. Of course I will also be explaining the product, but it should be in a way that also helps the person watching. The videos won’t be fancy, more like Mark Zuckerberg just did comparing the Quest to the Apple Vision Pro, although less advertising-y. I am also going to send handwritten notes and physical pamphlets to people through the mail. I will let you know how it goes.

I am focused the idea that I don’t know what my customers really want right now, and spending more time on getting to know customers, leaning into organic growth, deep relationships and delivering what they want quickly is the way to grow that makes sense for me.

I had my first real customer meeting yesterday with a new prospect (to this point it has been me badgering parents I know about my company – I’m a lot of fun at practice when they are trying to watch their kid). It provided a lot of insight into the product.

A few learnings:

• People see value in the product
• I need to be very curious about what customers want and responsive to their asks – every person and club will have different things they want to see, and I don’t know what they are
• I should get in person with people when I can – especially the coaches and parents of clubs

I have my Minimum Viable Product built, its time to get out there an test.

What Am I working on Next?

The goals from March – May will be:

1. Testing hypothesis with customers
2. Ramping up marketing
3. Getting kids signed up for the camp

I spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out a witty wrap up here that left you wanting more, but it is not important or urgent so this is what you get

Rick