Challenges of a small business

Registering a trademark seems important. Not that anyone would bother in the beginning, but the trouble is if the idea takes off and someone else snatches your trademark. At least, that\'s what I thought, so I went to Swedish patent organization - PRV, in order to solve the matter.

I chose the electronic application as it seemed like the easy way to go ahead. First steps were simple. I added company name and all details. Then I came to the part where I need to choose which class I want the trademark to be registered in. How the hell do I know? Well I used the search field and searched \'internet\'. I get one single result. Bingo, that must be it. I choose class 42 and move on. When the application is confirmed and I paid 90 Euros, I get an email and I see that the description of the class seems a bit odd for my business. So I call PRV.

When I reach customer service I am informed that 42 is not at all what I should have selected. I should have chosen 35. Of really? Well then change it from 42 to 35, please. No can do. What?

\'If I change to 35 the application date would be incorrect and you would come ahead in line for that class.\'

I highly doubt someone else has applied for trademark \'chiquis\' the last 24 hours, but sure, change the date, and put me back in line for the application. No can do. What?

\' That would be breaking the law. Applications must come in EXACTLY like they were sent\'

Really? Breaking the law? It\'s not like I robbed a bank. I chose the wrong damn class because of a stupid, useless search engine. Heard of Google? They tend to give you more results then you need.

Ok so I make yet another application. Any possibility I can add the class and just pay the money. Nope, no can do? You gotta do it all over again. Really? Yup. Ok then.

I make an entirely new application. This time I don\'t want to make any mistakes. So I call customer service again. Me again. So class 35 is for me. But there are like 100 different options in 35. Which one is right for me? \'You know your business, so you have to find them.\' Well, as I made a mistake last time and you are in customer service; how about you help me. No can do. Really?.

I have now spent several hours on something a customer service should be able to answer in a minute. Is this reasonable? Apparently so. A completely normal business day in Sweden\'s bureaucracy. Stockholm -March 23, 2010 - by Peder Dinkelspiel

I just made a donation to Red Cross. Money that shall go to the people of Haiti. It feels like the right thing to do. But on the other hand I am not completely satisfied giving away money to an organization where I don't see where my money is used. I would like to know if my money was used to get people drinking water, avoid diseases or perhaps it was to buy food? Actually I would even want to be able to decide how the money was used.

I would like to come to a site where I can select region or aid (or a selection of both) and see what my options are. In today's example I would like to choose 'Haiti' and 'Water' if there was any such organization. And for me the smaller organization - the better.

The future will hold a bunch of amazing individuals that by themselves make a huge difference. I'd love to donate money to their account, knowing they would make the most out of the donations. There's the part about trust that needs to be solved, but that should be able to solve with the right rating system. Ratings placed only by trusted individuals and organizations.

Isn't more tempting knowing that your money was used to set up a school in Vietnam, or to finance a business in Bangladesh? It is for me.

This will be a project of mine in the future, unless someone else creates what I am looking for. I just registered visiblecharity.com. Stockholm -January 19, 2010 - by Peder Dinkelspiel

Pendosoft is mainly a web consultant, creating web sites for clients. But we can't keep our hands off projects of our own as well. As soon as we feel that something is missing, or we can't find something good enough on the web today, we create it and launch it. We might not get all that many users, but at least we can use it for our own needs.

There are mainly three problems with this approach:
* You usually need a project manager also after launch to make the site become successful. Sites don't just take off.
* Any site that costs money for the users needs significant marketing.
* These sites usually only reach v1.0, and we all know immediate success is very rare.

So the approach of running multiple small web projects is extremely difficult. Where do we spend the next dollar? On the latest project?

We have now decided to choose a different approach. Instead of trying to make each of these projects succesful on their own, we will make them all free as part of the marketing of our main business - Pendosoft.

We will start with three web utilities. Two were launched years ago. One is brand new. We are now finalizing the last parts of the "to do list" which will be launced in February. This will be exciting new approach. Please let us know if you wish to take part in a beta test, or if you have ideas or improvements later. Stockholm -January 17, 2010 - by Peder Dinkelspiel

All too often you meet clients that, although they have a brilliant idea, they aren't confident enough to launch a simple site with that simple little tool, idea, functionality or whatever it was they came up with. Instead they want to include a lot of other stuff that will 'keep users on the site'. Unfortunately the result only scares them away.

Trust your idea instead. Let users try it out and come up with ideas and improvements for that specific idea.

Adding a web search just because so many use Google, or add news just becasue so many visit news sites is not going to get you a single new member, and just draws attention from your main idea.Stockholm -January 13, 2010 - by Peder Dinkelspiel

Focus, focus, focus is what they tell you to do, if you want to have a chance of making your way in business. I am sure it is the right thing to do. But on what?

Suddenly you come up with this amzing new idea. You know it will work. It's a no-brainer. Well, nothing really is, which is what you quite soon will find out, but the excitement in the making is worth every minute spent, and hopefully every penny as well. You also learn so much when you dig into new territory.

It's been difficult to compromise these two - focus and entrepreneurship. Now I have decided to focus on client projects and my main startup FoodFriends. Entrepreneurial efforts (like Stope.com - How Media Will Charge Readers) must either take off by themselves upon launch, or need external financing and hired staff if I want to take them further. Haven't been able to live up to this 100% yet, but working hard on getting there.

So what about that amazing flash-based web 2.0 "to-do-list" I have in mind? Hmm. Dang, I think it will have to wait. You like the idea? I'll tell you more. You want to finance it? Let's get started!

Stockholm -January 7, 2010 - by Peder Dinkelspiel

Now also the tweets appear on this page. That makes it a lot easier to update the page. I gotta admit. It's taken some time to get a grip on Twitter. A bit allerigic to the tweets about what someone had for breakfast. Better be careful with critisism until I found my own way around...

Well here we go. Now the big question. Will there be only these two posts when we come back in a month. I certainly hope not, but time will tell. Stockholm - January 5th, 2009 - by Peder Dinkelspiel