Personal Strategy Paper - June 3, 2008

This is an unedited strategy paper I wrote back in 2008 for a business class @ UB.  Not much has changed, but some has, due to certain things becoming possible that were not possible in the past.  Please feel free to leave some comments, suggestions or maybe share some strategies of your own.

I filed a DBA as Timeless Domain over 1 year ago.  My company is a sole proprietorship, so I personally am a business.  I started to design physical product inventions 3+ years ago, and upon doing research on these ideas, I discovered the emerging domaining industry.  I currently own 300+ domain names and am currently in the process of R&D a business plan that can help me be part of reaching the true potentials of the internet.

Mission Statement:  To create a world (or community) of highly informed self-educators, by developing a business model to centralize whole industries online (with the help of open source information systems) and then logically redistributing perpetually compiled information and multimedia to their most sought after destinations.

Values

1. Incubator Work-In Life Focus (Combine Personal & Business Life)
2. Life-Dedicated Self Educator
3. Positive Global Network creator
4. Freedom for all
5. Transparency as an Ever-Growing Focus

SWOT

Strengths

• Self- Driven: Focused upon self-management, self-education and ultimately self-sufficiency
• Transparent: Ready to be fully-integrated with an open society which will keep my brand-image very good.
• Lifelong Focus: Lifelong learning will personally be practiced to provide the most opportunities available.
• Technological Integration: Highly educated in technology and the internet.

Weaknesses

• Broad Focus: The objective focus of Timeless Domain makes it harder to choose the best path based upon opportunity cost.  This leads to more distractions and loads of lost time.
• Employee-Organization Alignment: Operating with a minimal level of partnerships, and among these there is a lack of people working for a uniform goal.
• Lack of Financing: Only allowed to work part-time on the mission stated above, because there are not enough internal sources of revenue.

Opportunities

• Open Source Movement (Technology): Open Source content management systems (a.k.a. websites) provide a stable basis for nearly all future updates of websites.
• Global Economy: The global internet economy creates an exponential number of opportunities
• Customization & Localization (Markets): The # of customers will only increase as people demand a more personalized experience in all aspects of their lives.
• Minimal Competition: Very few domainers currently (about 30,000 worldwide) and even less also in the business of R&D online business models.

Threats

• Decreasing Supply: Within the next 4 years nearly all .com (gLTD) domain names will be registered, so time is of the essence.
• Increasing Competition Due to Shift in Labor markets: As the U.S. economy dwindles, more people will seek other sources of revenue, and the internet will be the main place of collusion.
• Net Neutrality (The regulatory environment): In 2012 the ownership of the internet by ICANN expires, at which point the future of it will be determined by those in power.

Goals

1. Establishing a public self-sufficiency & self-education program
2. Improving the mental and physical health of those around me, as well as the public
3. Identifying circumstances, notifying parties, and helping change the problems associated with corporate corruption and government corruption
4. Improving the environment through pollution and global warming wiki
5. Creating a worldwide network of self-driven highly educated people
6. Starting and establishing multiple product producing businesses based upon already developed inventions 
7. Identifying & developing a universal symbolic language based upon natural shapes & colors
8. Further enhancing physical and digital communication techniques

Environment

Micro-Environment

I am the primary stakeholder of myself and Timeless Domain.  Friends and family have shown interest as the project has evolved, but none have become official partners for the long haul.

Macro-Environment

• Social Environment
  • Culture: Working culture of the North US is definitely present in Western NY.  Although most people are bred to work here, the majority don’t even attempt to work for themselves (to reach personal goals).  Friends and family tend to be interested in the cultures surrounding music (Audio/Video), extreme sports (board-sports) and social collaboration online. 
  • People: Relatives, locally-based friends, international students. 
  • Education Institutions: Public School system (k-12), University at Buffalo School of Management, and Wikipedia
• Technological Environment
  • Open Source software: The availability of open source CMS allows me to maintain a competitive advantage by staying up-to-date with the latest applications of using the internet.
  • Availability of public services: Need electric power and internet service providers.
• Economic Environment
  • Global Domaining Economy: Increasing demand, decreasing supply, increasing price, increasing competition, and increasing profitability
  • Minimal investments need to finance my business. 
• Political Environment
  • Net neutrality: a change in legislation determining the usage of the internet directly affects the whole internet and may become a regulatory burden.
  • Levels of political corruption: Political lobbying being done by Multi-National Corporations is increasing the chance of political corruption when the internet ownership changes in 2012. 
  • Property rights: The civil liberties of all US citizens has been put a risk since the indoctrination of the Patriot Act.  The government may take physical property through eminent domain and punish people for their mental property (ideas).  The Homegrown Radicalization act will make certain ideas published online punishable.
  • Public works services: Internet providers and electricity are needed to operate my business, so net neutrality and increasing energy costs create a potentially unstable political environment.

Competition

Current Competitors

• My business is focused upon domain names, and there are currently no available classes to take in order to gain the required education.  Therefore people using self-education are my only current competitors, and since I don’t know who of these people are interested in domaining, so I can only guess that people of similar demographic and background demographics are my biggest competition.
  
  • From Northern USA, access to technology, highly educated, computer generation, abundant free-time
• Older people are too busy working to support themselves, not being able to allot themselves the free-time needed to build/ establish such a business.
• Most people around my age have the free-time, but don’t have the work ethic needed

Future Competitors

• All people (due to customization & localization of all industries) will be my competitor in the future.  As more people gain internet access, and the website design methods become simple (due to open source evolution) nearly all people will want their own place on the internet. 
• Businesses worldwide have just started to establish domain name portfolios in order to guarantee protection of current and future products and marketing campaigns. 

Definition of Success

Short-Tern Success

• Self-Financed: Find more sources of revenue & invest all $ intelligently
• Partner with Like-Minded Individuals: Have people of a similar mindset form sole-proprietorships and parent with Timeless Domain.

Long-Term Success

• Self-sufficiency: Able to operate independently of all publicly established resources/ services, while maintaining access to all vital information.
• Global Business Network: Have local business contacts in every country worldwide

Next Steps

1. Compile a Timeline: Outline all future events to the best of my knowledge
2. Finalize Business Plan: Create a business plan worthy of a VC’s eyes and interest
3. Create a Local Marketing Plan: Conduct a Heavy Marketing and Local Advertising Campaign based upon determined methods.
4. Seek Investors: Show Business Plan to family/ relatives, then friends, and finally to venture capitalist
5. Network with Fellow College Students (Preferably international)
6. Establish a Self-Sufficiency Project:  Create list of self-sufficient topics and open up a research project (using a wiki) to outline all relevant content (information & multimedia) in-depth.

Strategic Decisions

• Be Self-Employed by working for my personal goals while self-managing and self-educating.
• Utilize the wiki to perpetually and exponentially compile my knowledge and research. 
• Focus on Lifelong Learning of Open Source Computer Software and Programs.
• Design Timeless Domain completely around transparency, open source and the potentials of information.
• Determine the opportunity cost for domainining (buy and sell domain names related to) each prospective online industry.
• Provide a high-priced, high quality (from the monopolization of unique domain names referring to a particular concept) product to establish Timeless Domain as a respected industry-insider through offering such domains to niche markets.