We would love to display more fun videos and pictures of you...

We retired the box we send our flip cam to customers in a few months ago, and we're really missing seeing that camera show up with fun new vids of customers saying why they love Schedulefly. Here's an example of one of those awesome clips...



Now that it's so easy to make these vids with mobile phones, we hope you'll send a few more our way. If you would like to be featured on our blog and on our Vimeo page saying why you love Schedulefly, we'd be stoked! Watch this quick vid with a couple of suggestions on making this really easy for you...



Also, if you're not fond of being on film but would like us to include a pic of you enjoying life on this page on our site, please send your high rez pic to me at wbrawley [at] schedulefly [dot] com.

Whether you send a vid or a pic or nothing at all, you are all awesome and we're so thankful to have the chance to serve you and make life a little bit easier.

Happy New Year!

Wil, Wes & Tyler

2011 was a terrific year at Schedulefly

2011 has been a really cool year for Schedulefly and we hit a number of milestones. One that really gets me skipping to work these days is that we have now have more than 100,000 end users in our family of customers! What’s so cool about this is that since we don’t inflict any annoying sales pressure on prospects and even encourage them to get feedback from their staff before deciding to join our family, the bulk of these 100,000 people have become sales people for us.

They like what we do, it makes their lives a tad bit easier so they tell others in the industry about us. They have friends that work at the restaurant around the corner and they tell them about us. Managers who use us switch jobs and set us up there at their new gig on day one. Restaurant staff who use us take on a second job and tell their new manager about it. They attend conferences and meetings for their franchise and talk about us there...some have even given presentations about us. They hear about our book, Restaurant Owners Uncorked, from a friend, read it, and learn about us that way and give us a try. Owners that were featured in our book have book signings and proudly display the book at their establishment (see pic above at Arch Rock Fish). They proudly display Schedulefly badges on their own websites. There are countless ways that restaurants are finding out about us because of our growing number of users...

We are blessed and thankful for such a great 2011 and really look forward to the new year.

Happy New Year!
Wes

Why one restaurant gives away 6,000 free meals...

During his interview for Restaurant Owners Uncorked, Tad Peelen of Joe's Real BBQ and Joe's Farm Grill talked about the dilemma of debt, the value of technology, and how to retain great people. But what he had to say about a highly unconventional yet successful way of creating word-of-mouth buzz really caught my attention...

Wil: "What kinds of marketing do you do, outside of social media?"

Tad: "Not much. We only half-jokingly tell the army of sales people who call on us that our annual advertising and marketing budget is zero.

We really run very few ads, and we really do rely heavily on word of mouth to grow our businesses. The handful of advertisements we do run are usually as a courtesy to an organization or business we really care for. That said, we spend a bunch of money on marketing. We just don’t do it in conventional ways.

We have an annual Customer Appreciation Day, when we open our doors and serve as many people as we can for free. We streamline the menu, offer canned sodas instead of fountain drinks to keep things moving along, and have served more than 6,000 free meals during the day of the promotion. Free Days around here usually mean someone is getting a free meal every six seconds we are open. It’s a pretty cool thing to watch.

We do this to thank our loyal customers for their patronage, and at the same time attract new customers. The buzz created by this annual event is pretty overwhelming. We’ve had years when every TV news channel in town picked up the story, as well as radio stations, blogs, and the social media crowd. Obviously feeding 6,000+ people isn’t cheap, but we think the investment pays off pretty quickly. It doesn’t take many converted first-timers for this approach to pay off."

Want to learn more about the other cool, unconventional things Tad and his partners have done to make their restaurants institutions in Gilbert, AZ? Grab a copy of our book on Amazon - paperback ($14.99) or Kindle version $9.99).

Take care...

Wil

Failure is not an option...

Matt Frey left a career in corporate sales to open Bub's Burgers & Ice Cream with his wife, Rachel. Both had worked in restaurants, but had never owned one or even managed one. Seven years later, Bub’s was featured on the hit Food Channel show, “Man v. Food.”

During his interview for Restaurant Owners Uncorked, Matt had many inspiring and educational things to say about everything from keeping a concept simple, to having a catch to draw people in, to hiring sales people for every position at Bub’s. But as a fellow entrepreneur, my favorite exchange we had was...

Wil: "How did you finance your first location?"

Matt: "The first bank I went to said no about three times, and I wouldn’t take that. The guy eventually said yes, and then I had a five-year loan, which I paid back in two years. That about knocked them out of their boots because it’s just one of those things – you have to have that attitude of saying that failure is not even close to being an option. It’s amazing how your body and your mind will respond if you think that way."

I couldn't agree more Matt. Thinking that way doesn't guarantee success. But thinking any other way dramatically increases your chances for failure.

Call it karma. The power of positive thinking. "The Secret." There's lots of names for this philosophy.

At the end of the day, it's simple, excellent advice that I'd give to any aspiring business owner in any industry.

Wil

Schedulefly addicts...

We often get asked why we don't have sales people. I had written a math formula on my white board showing why the numbers don't make sense. Why the math doesn't add up.

And then we got this email from a guy who was ready to convert from his free trial. The truth is, his email is exactly why we really don't have sales people. Ultimately it's not about numbers. It's about this...



Wil

Focus on what's happening inside your four walls...

Keith Paul and his wife, Heather, opened their first restaurant in 2000. Now they own A Good Egg Dining Group, which has six extremely successful and popular restaurants and a catering business. When I interviewed Keith for Restaurant Owners Uncorked, he said something early on that caught my attention for the brilliance of it's simplicity. Here's the exchange...

Wil: "What were you focused on when you first got started?"

Keith: "We concentrated on what was happening inside the four walls of the restaurant, and on making sure every customer had a good time. And we were putting out a great product. We never skimped on quality. We never skimped on employee satisfaction – which I think is probably our main strength.

As we grew, we said 'Let’s make sure that everybody that works for us is completely happy. We’ll do what we can for them. We’re going to take a vested interest in their personal lives, and we’re not going to spend a bunch of money on traditional advertising. We’re not going to buy newspaper and radio and TV ads. We’re gonna just concentrate on what’s going on inside the four walls.'

We kept attracting great people, and our culture has always been to keep our employees happy. And never, ever – even if times are slow – we never even think about skimping on quality of food, of silverware, of glassware, or anything. We’ve always stuck to those values and principles, and that has seemed to pay off."

I blogged recently about how we simplified our formula for success, and Wes and I have both posted numerous times about having a clear focus and a simple strategy, executed very well every day. We love simplicity and focus around here. And that's why I love how Keith answered that question.

He and Heather focused on what was happening inside their four walls. That's stuff they can control. That's stuff they can get better at every day. And eventually be the best at. It seems simple, but you know what, so many businesses look past the simple stuff happening inside their walls, and become too outwardly focused. They don't get the basics right. They look outside their windows, not inside their walls.

Keith and his team have stuck to their simple formula for eleven years now, and it's proven to work. Very well.

Want to learn more from Keith (and nineteen other successful restaurant owners)? Grab a copy of our book on Amazon - paperback ($14.99) or Kindle version $9.99).

Take care...

Wil

$80,000,000...

Tell somebody what Schedulefly does and they'll tell you we should go after all sorts of other industries than just restaurants. I guarantee it.

It's not surprising though. Most businesses don't relentlessly focus on dominating a niche. But we do. We love focusing. We love getting deeper and deeper into our niche. We love putting on blinders and not paying attention to all of the other noise out there and channeling every bit of energy we have into growing our business within the restaurant segment.

But why? Why not "diversify your revenue stream" (that's a common question we get). Why not dominate lots of segments? Why leave money on the table? Why.....Why....Why???

Well, here are a few thoughts on this (and on why this blog title is "$80,000,000"):



Wil

P.s. 166,000 restaurants * $40/month * 12 months = $79,680,000 per year so I rounded up to $80,000,000 for dramatic effect :-)

Funny story about The Wall Street Journal and our book...

On March 22, 2011 we posted this announcement to our blog about Restaurant Owners Uncorked being mentioned in a blog post by Colleen DeBaise, the former Small Business Editor of The Wall Street Journal.

Here's a copy of the emails that Colleen and I exchanged after I had sent her a copy of the book and asked her to review it.

What Colleen wrote to me...
"Hi Will - I took a look at the book. Lots of nice interviews in there. In fact, the one strike against the book (in my opinion) is the inclusion of Schedulefly into so many of the profiles. I understand you are using the book to market your service, but the promotional element takes away from the credibility of the interviews.Other than that, it's a useful book with good information."

(What I was thinking...Oh no! She thinks it's an "advertorial"! Dern it! I cut tons of references to Schedulefly to make sure it didn't seem that way...but I think the few references are mostly in the first half of the book. Did she only read a few chapters and give up on it because of that? She must have because the majority of chapters don't mention Schedulefly. Man, this is not good!!!)

What I wrote to her...
"Thanks Colleen. I really appreciate you taking the time to check it out and send me feedback. I had cut most owners' references to Schedulefly for fear of it turning into an advertorial (I think only 8 or 9 of 20 chapters mention us). Unfortunately, I think the references are front-end loaded in the first half of the book. Thanks again, Wil"

(What I was thinking...Oh well, we've lost her. Not the end of the world - it doesn't matter if the WSJ never mentions our book - what we really need is for all of the restaurant publications to mention it. But, still, that sucks on a personal level because I really like the WSJ and was stoked that I got Colleen's attention to read ROU. Really wish she liked it. Damn!")

What she wrote back to me...
"Hi Will - Glad you understand my concerns. I did think there were a lot of nice stories in your book, and I mentioned it in a blog post: http://blogs.wsj.com/in-charge/2011/03/21/how-to-open-a-restaurant/. Best of luck!"

(What I was thinking: YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

What I wrote back to her...
"Thanks Colleen! I really appreciate that and I believe wholeheartedly the book will help people who want to start restaurants and don't think they already know everything and would normally be smart enough to try to go find lots of restaurateurs to speak to as part their planning process. We've also already received comments from existing owners who've said they have learned a thing or two."

So there you have it. That's how we got mentioned in The Wall Street Journal.

(And for what it's worth, nobody else that reviewed the book felt there were too many Schedulefly references. I was very careful to only include ones that were part of a bigger point the owner was making or when the owner was discussing various technologies their restaurant uses to run their business more effectively. Just sayin...)

Wil

Why you should compete for staff (not customers)...

Of all of the "Aha!" moments I had when conducting the interviews for Restaurant Owners Uncorked, the largest lightening bolt struck when Jon Myerow of Tria Cafe in Philadelphia and I had this exchange...

Wil: "Is it challenging to find people for your team that share the passion that you have?"

Jon: "Yeah, it is. There are a lot of people with the passion for the product. Luckily, we sell something that a lot of people love (Jon's restaurants have a niche focus on beer, wine and cheese). But the secret is to find somebody who has the passion for it, and also has the ability to be a good restaurant employee.

We’ve hired some people with the passion, but they just weren’t very good on the floor. Some people just can’t be good servers. I’m one of them, so I feel their pain. But I think we’ve done a good job with that. We’re very selective. If we put an ad on Craigslist, we’ll get 100 or 200 responses, and there might be three or four people that we consider seriously. I like to say, “It’s harder to get into Tria than it is to get into Harvard!” [Laughs] Our acceptance rate is lower. And our employees know that.

I think the people that work here know that they put up with a lot, but they get a lot back. We try to give much better tangible benefits to our staff than other restaurants because we expect a lot. We have quizzes every single week, and training every single week for every single front-of-house staff member. If you don’t want to learn a lot in your free time about wine, beer and cheese, you’re going to get fired. It’s that simple.

To me the biggest competition is not for customers. It’s for staff. If you compete in the labor market and get the best staff, the customers will follow."

I'll repeat that: If you compete in the labor market and get the best staff, the customers will follow. I love that philosophy. Absolutely love it! It's unconventional and smart and shows Jon has a long term, big picture focus for his business.

Think that strategy sounds risky? You can read Jon's entire interview (and nineteen other owner interviews) to learn more about why he's been so successful by doing things his way and not always following conventional wisdom when you grab a copy of our book on Amazon - paperback ($14.99) or Kindle version $9.99).

Take care...

Wil

Why we stopped Tweeting (and our formula for a successful business)

We used to believe a traditional, conventional formula for success would apply to Schedulefly:

Simple app + Great support + Sales + Marketing + Twitter + Facebook + Blog + Partnerships = Success!!!!

But that formula was too long for us. Too many factors involved. We couldn't get all of them right all of them time. Couldn't do them all extremely well. And we don't like to do things around here unless we do them very well.

So we set out to cut the formula in half. And while it will always start with "Simple app + Great support," we've narrowed the additional factors from six to three:

Simple app + Great support + Articles + Book + Blog = Success!!!!

Here's a vid of me breaking this down a little further, and explaining why this formula works (for us).



Let me know if you have any questions. I'm at wbrawley [at] schedulefly [dot] com.

Wil

Why you better be darned careful picking your restaurant's investors...

Dave Query has built an amazing restaurant group at Big Red F. His restaurants are extremely popular and very successful, and if you’re in Denver or Boulder, you’d be missing out if you didn’t visit them. Dave is genuine, honest, colorful and smart as heck.

During his interview for Restaurant Owners Uncorked, he talked about why university towns are great places for restaurants, why it’s critical to be cautious about who you choose as investors, how important his staff is to his group’s success and much more. Here's some great insight from Dave about what to look for when considering potential investors for your restaurant...

Wil: "If you are looking for investors, what do you look for and what do you avoid?"

Dave: "Well, it’s like going out on a first date. If you’re in your mid-twenties, or thirties, and you’re dating with something bigger in mind, that’s the same as finding an investor. So when you get those weird hits, and those weird personality charges, and those weird ego comments, run fast and run far, because that stuff will only get worse.

There’s an interesting dynamic in any industry when it comes to raising money. There’s this whole song and dance thing that happens between investee and investor, where when you’re hungry for money, you’d wash the guy’s car, mow his lawn or do whatever you can do get his or her cash.

And then as soon as they write that check to you, the dynamic changes, to where they’re genuinely concerned about your health. They’re interested if you’re finding enough time to take off. They’re worried about your marriage and your health. They want you to spend time with your kids.

It’s a funny switch that happens with intelligent, integrity-ridden investors who are in it for the bigger picture. You’re always going to have these people that are just totally cash-driven, and they really couldn’t give a shit what your personal life is like. But I’ve been fortunate enough not to have any of those kinds of people involved in my businesses.

So you’ve really got to think about your long-term success when you’re interviewing these investors, because much different than a tech firm or something that you might be investing in, this is a very interactive investment for these people. They’re in your place, representing your brand, walking around the community, telling people that they are your partner and an owner.

Man, if they’re not walking the high line that you expect them to, then you could be in a really bad situation. Let’s say three years into it one of them gets a nasty coke habit and is out nightly hitting on all of your hostesses, you’re just like, 'Whoa dude, this is all wrong.' And they’re an investor. They’re an owner! You’re so screwed at that point."

If you'd like to learn more tips and practical advice more from Dave and nineteen other owners who've proven they have what it takes, grab a copy of our book on Amazon - paperback ($14.99) or Kindle version $9.99).

Take care...

Wil

Hire integrity over experience...

Jim Parker co-owns Red Hat on the River with his wife, Mary Beth Dooley. He left a very successful, 25-year career in the movie and film production business in 2003 on a whim to start a small bistro in Irvington, NY. Eight years later, Jim and Mary Beth are at their restaurant seven days per week, and they make the hard work and passion they pour into it look easy to the many guests they serve every day. Red Hat has established itself as an institution, so much so that people have been known to take the 30-minute train ride from Manhattan to dine there. The Clintons have even visited – twice.

During his interview for our book, Restaurant Owners Uncorked, Jim told me that when he started, he knew nothing about restaurants, and he learned as he went. Here's what he said he has learned about how to hire the right people for his team:

"When people walk in here looking to work with us, I worry more about their personality, and their integrity, and their charm. And I don’t really care if they can do the job or not. At least not initially.

I have to make sure that whoever every single customer deals with – whether it be a busboy, a floor runner, the food runner, a host, etc. – has to be engaging, and has to care about that person being in our space. Life is too short. The person’s dining experience is too important. I can’t afford to have people who have another agenda.

I also want everybody to have another life, so they become an interesting person to be around. We have a lot of interesting, curious people that work here. If I had to put it in to a couple of words, I like having curious people around me."

Jim has low turnover, happy customers, and a successful restaurant, so it seems to me like he's onto something with his hiring philosophies. If you'd like to learn more tips and practical advice more from him and nineteen other owners who've proven they have what it takes, grab a copy of our book on Amazon - paperback ($14.99) or Kindle version $9.99).

Enjoy...

Wil

Why CPAs are as important as food...

Richard Taubin and I spoke the other day. He's one of the owners featured in Restaurant Owners Uncorked, and he also is owns one of the awesome restaurants that displays a Schedulefly badge on their web site.

Rich reminded me of when he and I discussed the importance of having a good CPA during his interview. Here's what he said:

"I highly, highly recommend hiring a CPA, especially one who is close to the restaurant industry. They understand what percentages should be, as an average. Without breaching confidentiality, they can talk to you about what other restaurants do to combat certain cost structures that you have. Our CPA, Patrick Gros, has been very instrumental in helping us cut costs, and in telling us what percentages should be. He recommends the financial applications that we should use, and helps us with reading P&L’s [profit and loss reports], and how to make adjustments. And that’s really helped us out quite a bit.

When you can work with CPAs on a daily basis, and have them help assure that budgets are aligned and cost controls are adhered to, it’s just as important to me as the food you put on the plate. Without controlling those costs, you don’t make money.

If you’re in it just to make a paycheck, just do it on your own. Otherwise, I highly recommend you hire a CPA and make that a big part of your restaurant. Just as much as you would design a recipe for your food, you need to design a recipe for how you’re going to track and adjust for financial costs and profits."

This kind of quote is exactly the reason we did the book, because I remember immediately thinking to myself, "Now that's very interesting - I never would have thought of that" the second he said that. I had the same thought multiple times while interviewing Rich, as well as during each interview. An owner would say something and my radar would shoot straight up. He/she had just said something I knew I'd want to know before ever starting my own restaurant.

If you own or want to own a restaurant, the book is an absolute gem. There's a reason it has lots of 5-star ratings on Amazon. It's got nothing to do with us here at Schedulefly - and everything to do with the fact that the twenty owners we interviewed opened their curtains, and gladly revealed what has helped them succeed in such a tough biz.

If you haven't read it, I can't recommend getting one enough. Or heck, if you don't want to spend the dough, at least check out this series of posts with content from the book on our blog - tons of great advice for free!

Enjoy...

Wil

The pendulum...

A quick video with my comments on how we've grown our software from it's first, basic version to the robust but simple and intuitive state it's in now, and how we try to avoid letting momentum carry us into the world of complicated and frustrating software that requires user manuals and training.

Hit me with questions at wbrawley [at] schedulefly [dot] com.

Wil

Schedulefly customer featured in Restaurant Hospitality...

Scott Maitland owns Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery in Chapel Hill, and he was one of the owners we profiled in our book, Restaurant Owners Uncorked. He's an incredibly sharp entrepreneur who has learned quite a few of the ingredients for restaurant success since he opened "Topo" in 1997.

Check out this cool article that we wrote for Restaurant Hospitality. We love being the conduit between our customers' incredible stories and the many people who will learn from their wisdom! In fact, you can find quite a few other similar articles on the home page of our web site. Enjoy...

Wil

Breaking down our marketplace...

"How do you compare to your competition?"

We get that question a lot. From restaurant people checking out Schedulefly. From friends. Family. Media. Etc. It's a natural question and a good question, and I thought it would be interesting to break down our market here on the blog.

That's my white board in the pic. I closed my blinds but I have a small window above the main window and there's no way to block the glare during the day. Anyway, the diagram tells most of the story, but here's the breakdown of the market we serve (restaurants) and the web-based staff scheduling options available to members of that market.

Inexpensive
For some people, the #1 concern when looking for a solution to their problem is cost. They look for the least expensive option. Period. For folks that are not as concerned about ease-of-use, excellent customer support, a solution built just for restaurants, etc., and want the cheapest solution, there are options. This is a small segment of the restaurant population, but it will always exist and it's cool to see that a few companies cater to these price buyers.

Complex systems
Large organizations tend to be complex, and they tend to need complex systems to run their businesses efficiently. There are solutions in our market that were designed for chains, and those solutions are complex systems. They have lots of settings, rules, regulations, tabs, buttons, etc. They are big and robust and, well, complex. And they are perfect for chains. Again, chains are a small segment of the total market, so it's good that they have tailor made solutions ready to choose from.

Simple
The largest segment of the restaurant market consists of indies and franchisees, and they overwhelmingly are looking for a simple solution. They want something they can start using right away. No training required. No installs. Just point and click. And that's where we come in! We are focused on serving the largest segment of the restaurant market place, and we offer this segment an easy solution with incredible customer support. We don't want to be the low cost provider to try to serve price buyers. And we don't want to build a complex system to try to serve chains. Rather, we want to provide an intuitive, simple web-based solution that independent restaurants and franchisees can start using without batting an eye, and have incredible customer support when they need it.

And here's what the numbers in the diagram mean...

99% monthly renewal rate
We renew 99% of our customers every month, which means our customers are incredibly happy. I believe that's because we have a laser focus on serving a specific niche, and we are very good at serving that niche. If we tried to serve a larger audience (perhaps indies/franchisees + chains), I think our renewal rates would suffer. If anything, our focus will narrow more and more, not expand, as we grow.

1% monthly non-renewal rate
We lose 1% of our customers every month. About 75% of those have unfortunately closed their doors. That's always sad to see and we always hope those folks go on to find good jobs elsewhere. About 20% of the 1% want to save money, so they leave us for a less expensive alternative. And maybe 5% of the 1% outgrow us and move to a complex system.

So there you have it. That's a quick summary of our market and where Schedulefly fits in. And we couldn't be more stoked about the segment we serve!

Wil

We don't sell that fire engine, but our competition does

A new tradition for my young family is to go get our Christmas tree and, while decorating, order pizza and drink wine and watch a couple of classic Christmas movies. One of our all time favorites is Miracle on 34th Street. This film has so many great lessons in it for our kids - and adults too. My favorite lesson Kris Kringle teaches us is when he is working the Santa line at the Macy’s department store and a kid asks for a fire engine that he knows Macy’s does not sell so he tells the mom to go across the street to Gimbels - the competition. The mom is truly shocked and seeks out the manager from the toy department to applaud him for making their happiness more important than taking their money. She also tells him that she had not done much shopping at Macy's in the past, but is now going to be a loyal customer.

Well, you’ve probably seen it, the top brass at the company finds out about the buzz and loyalty that this crazy unexpected technique has created and demands everyone in the company get behind it. It's genius. They insist all employees send the customer to Gimbels if Macy’s does not have exactly what they are looking for. In fact, after all of the good publicity and customer goodwill Macy's receives for doing this, Gimbels decides to do the same and send people back to Macy's. Both companies, anxious to avoid looking greedy, decide that the money is not as important as making sure that the customer finds what they are looking for and both end up creating happier, more loyal, customers and in turn - more profit.

What a great lesson. Take a stand. Be honest with your customer or prospect and if what your selling is not just right for them – help them find it. Rather than sell them something of yours that is sort of what they need, why not help them find just the right thing? Even though you did not make a sale, you know they will tell a great story about you. It’s so hard to get people to tell good stories about your business and I know for sure that people are not going to talk about your business if you’ve sold them something that works, but is not just what they need. So rather than taking the money - be different and create a surprising, unexpected experience for them and I bet something good will come out of it. And because of this, over time, you’ll likely end up with less customer service requests (and headaches) and more loyal customers who talk about you often and keep coming back.

What a great time of year! Happy Holidays!

Wes

Why I am going to lose thousands of dollars (and how you can avoid doing the same)...

My grandfather used to say, "The best wit bought wit." Well, I just paid a lot of money for some wit.

About 3-4 years years ago I invested into a business that an acquaintance had started. There was lots of enthusiasm from him and his partner. I was shown spreadsheets with bold predictions. Pro-formas. Powerpoints. Everything looked great. Get in while you can. The sky is the limit!!!

I remember my gut telling me not to do it as I stroked the check, but I also remember telling myself (or lying to myself) that this was different. Surely these guys knew what they were doing. They had put so much energy into the business already, had made a compelling case, had ... well, basically, they had done everything differently than how I would have done it, and I guess I was hedging against my own better judgement. "Maybe they know something I don't," I told myself.

Well, they didn't. And now I'm learning my lesson. Or being reminded of a lesson I already knew but temporarily decided to ignore. You see, these guys didn't talk about building their business one customer at a time. Or about creating a profitable, enduring business. Or about having a narrow focus and dominating their niche. Rather, they shot out Facebookian projections and used words like "viral."

Look, I don't know everything about business. Far from it. I learn something new every day. But in my years I have learned that while the media glorifies companies like Google and Twitter and Facebook and Groupon, those companies are tiny exceptions. They are outliers. Blips on a radar.

Yes, the people that started those companies had great ideas, and, yes, their solutions "went viral," (I can't stand that word now). But they got lucky and they are not the examples you should focus on when building your company or when investing into a company or when deciding to take a job at a company. It's like playing the lottery. Sure, one in a million people will win big, but the other 999,999 people will lose their money.

We've built Schedulefly the least risky, most rewarding way. We've rolled up our sleeves and chipped away. One. Customer. At. A. Time. We have never expected it to blow up overnight while we kicked back and slapped fives and watched the customers flooding in so fast that our servers crashed. By the way, that's another media-glorified badge of honor: "They grew so fast so quickly that their servers crashed!!! Wow!!!" I think it would suck if that happened because it would mean the people that pay us their hard-earned money wouldn't be able to use our site until we got our servers running again. But I digress.

Most successful companies didn't shoot out like a rocket and soar to space. Most successful companies started like a steam engine leaving the station. They took time to get going. Can't you just see it:

Click...............
click.............
click............
click...........
click........
click.......
click......
click.....
click....
click...
click..
click.

Those first few "clicks" happened over a few years. Not a few months. Or weeks. Or days. And surely not overnight.

So if you ever have a chance to be a part of "the next great thing," (as a partner, an investor, or an employee), be careful. Very careful. Because you may very well end up investing your money, or time, or both into somebody else's attempt to win the lottery. Could you win? Yes. Is it likely you will? I bet not...

Wil

P.S. I don't mean for this to be a pity party and I hope it doesn't come across as pessimistic or negative. I'm o.k. with the loss. C'est la vie! Just wanted to put this out there so that perhaps at least one person will read it and benefit from it.