I’m in the process of investigating how I could process payments through the website.  I want to make it a quick process for a new restaurant to sign up and be operational on the site.  Of course, I also want to make the participation with my site a low risk.  How payments are processed is a major component to the risk that a company is going to see with signing up.

I figure there are two main methods to payment processing that I can go with.  First is to open a merchant account and receive all payments in my own account.  Then I could turn around and settle the accounts with the restaurants on a 2 or 4 week schedule.  Second is to offer an eBay type of environment where the restaurant can sign up with their own payment processor and I’ll simply host their payment method on my site. 

Either way requires restaurants to even want to sign up.  Hmm.  I need to get it done so that I finish this big experiment.  Let’s say this, if this ends up flopping, I’ll make the mapping feature more visible so that you can see the boundary lines for any restaurant.  That was the original idea anyway.

I’m trying to figure out the best way to create a menu from my database that will be useable with or without Javascript.  After spending some time with the language, massaging it, rubbing its feet, I’m getting a better idea of how I want to use it.  In fact, I’m really glad that I didn’t spend any time on Javascript for quite a while.  I kind of stumbled onto the concept of unobtrusive Javascript.  Basically, I’m trying to figure out how to make the web form for the menu look and function properly before I even think about pull in Javascript to make it snazzier.  Then, once the menu works, I can come back in and make it better for those of us who enjoy the nice things in life.

Working in my spare time was no problem 6 months ago.  I had plenty of it.  I’m glad that I made good use of it too, because now that Owen is here, my spare time is not as available.  Now, for instance, I’m typing this blog post with him strapped to my chest.  He doesn’t care, his head is cocked over to the side with little snores coming out periodically.  He’s adorable, I just find my time more constrained than before.

It turns out that Owen really likes computers.  If you set him in front of the laptop, he’ll reach out for it and play with the mousepad or bang on the keys.  We’ve also got a spare mouse lying around that he gets to chew on.  Often times, I can come into our office and turn on youtube and keep him entertained for a while.  He loves watching Sesame Street on youtube.  His favorite tv show so far is Curious George.  He’ll just sit bolt upright and talk back at the tv.  It’s humorous.

Some days, I can sit him in his Winnie the Pooh chair that he loves, give him a toy to play with and program right there on the floor next to him.  I can get  in a good 20 minutes with him where I only have to pause every 45 seconds or so.  Yep, 45 seconds is a long time to work on something when a baby is around.

Otherwise, I’ll get a good amount of work done after everyone’s gone to sleep.  I can usually get about 45 minutes of useful work in before I start nodding off in front of the computer.  Given that he likes to get up at 3:30, I try not to stay up too late.  Otherwise, the lack of sleep will kick my butt.

I’ve been developing some sort of software for the past 6 years as a part of my job.  Most of the code I’ve written has been non-production utilities and has followed a very unstructured process.  I see something that has to be done and try to find the fastest way to automate that task.  This definitely doesn’t always result in the most structured or commented code.  That’s gotten me into trouble when others attempt to troubleshoot the code. Heck, it can be difficult to troubleshoot my own code a while after it’s been written!

With Python, I’ve actually found most of the code to be easier to troubleshoot.  It’s really similar to MATLAB, which makes me happy.  Something about the rapid prototyping and easily understood syntax just makes it a breeze to program with.

Over time, I’ve found that much of the difficulty I have in writing readable code comes from parsing data and dealing with complex code structures.  Once a code structure gets beyond about 3 levels, I tend to start throwing temporary or intermediate variables around too much without enough explanation.  Then I end up with a variable name like this: input_signalname_simple_muxed[j]

When a latent error pops up with a variable name like that, it always takes a while to figure out what the heck it even means.  Maybe I could make the variable name more descriptive, but that doesn’t seem to be the right direction (shorter is probably better).  I haven’t really found a good way around my signal naming.  I usually don’t realize how big a problem I am creating for myself until I’m about a quarter of the way through a particular program.

Some refactoring does help the code, but sometimes the problems are too ingrained into the code to make a refactoring very easy.  That’s not a good way to create maintainable code.  To anyone who has (or has ever had) to troubleshoot my code… I’m sorry.  To be fair, I usually hate troubleshooting other peoples code.

Interesting Blogs:

Chris Dixon’s Blog

Seeing Both Sides

Seth’s Blog

I’d like to see my website succeed and be useful and used by lots of people.  I often wonder what the best route is for that to happen.  Obviously if I quit my job and started working on this project full time, I’d get a lot more done a lot faster.  However that is no guarantee that I’d get it far enough fast enough to get enough income to pay my bills before the savings went away.

I’ve also read a lot of advice about how to succeed with an online startup.  The advice I’m most inclined to take is to drive as fast as possible (in my spare time) to achieve ramen profitability.  Get my bills paid with this website so that anything else is just gravy.  As far as I can see it, that’d put me in a strong position to get good terms on any sort of funding.

The problem I have is that I don’t know if I even want financing.  Sure, it would make things happen faster, but that might just add unnecessary stress.  I’m more inclined to strive for some steady growth while still a side-project.  Who knows if my project will succeed.  I sure hope it will and I believe it can.  Otherwise I wouldn’t bother working on it.

When I take on a project, I tend to just keep plugging away at the whole thing one chunk at a time.  If I come across a chunk that I don’t know how to do, the internet is my friend and I figure it out.  Of course, this can lead to me taking a couple weeks to a month or more to get something done.  So if you take a look at my site, don’t be surprised if it hasn’t changed in a while.  Changes are also delayed because I attempt to have some sort of life and time to spend with my son.

Right now I’m working on building a home-grown menu function.  The concept is easy, and there are only so many things to keep track of, but I’ve only hacked other peoples javascript or written small simple functions.  I’d like to write this one for myself so that I understand the underpinnings to the system.  Only by understanding it fully can I begin to improve it.  It’s taking time.  This dude over at ihumanable has a nice post to this effect.

For a bootstrapped business, I think this is an appropriate way to go.  It takes minimum investment and the end result is that I know what is going on.  Unfortunately, it can tend to drag things out.  Maybe my problem is that I am not that good at searching the web, but I can only spend so much time searching for something that does what I need without getting the feeling that I’m wasting time.  Thus I churn away at a problem until it’s done to my satisfaction.  It may be a little buggy, but it works for most cases.  At some point I’ll get back to the functions that are buggy.

With that said, if you happen to come across a bug, please drop me a note.  I have a long list of bugs and improvements that I attempt to work my way through as fast as possible.  Unfortunately, I tend to add improvements faster than I really ought to.  Right now, though, I’m trying to work through the critical path from 0 website income to lots.  So some of the smaller bugs are going to go on the back burner.

Some interesting sites

Alltop

allensblog

47 Hats

The web is a drug.  This is nothing new to most people, but it can be a problem when trying to get something done that doesn’t actually need to get done.  I mean, I don’t have to work on my website.  I’m not going to lose income by not working on it…there isn’t anything to lose yet.

One of my biggest problems is that there are a ridiculous number of websites out there dedicated to starting businesses.  And I’m not just talking about the V1@GRa reselling business.  Twitter, newspaper sites, university sites, the large number of web savvy business founders who also blog all lead to wasted time.

It is similar to what  can happen if you watch food network.  You get the feeling of accomplishment by watching without the actual accomplishment.  I like to read these sites because I want to know everything that I don’t know that I don’t know.  Lots of these sites are just about giving you a boost of confidence, some are about tools, some legal issues, some case studies, some business strategy… I’m getting better at discerning the type and quality of a post by the title.  Who am I kidding, though, I usually read it regardless the type.  I love reading the stories of hardship turned into success, but those are also usually the longest ones.

My method of dealing with this startup crack is to reboot the computer into Linux and do my coding without email or twitter open.  I have purposely decided not to use dedicated email or twitter clients on the Linux partition and it has helped keep me on task.  So when I come to a period of time where I expect to have uninterrupted time, I make a decision to either reboot and work, or stay in windows and browse my addiction.

Some crack for your perusal:

Y Combinator library

Inc.com

Entrepreneur.com

Does anyone have some startup or other web crack that they cannot get away from?

The week before Christmas, I spent a few hours going to various restaurants and trying to talk to owners or managers.  It actually went about as I expected.  Before I went out, I did a little bit of online research.

1st – google search for delivery restaurants and pick out a few that are not major brands and that look like they probably deliver or offer takeout

2nd – figure out which restaurants have websites, online menus, online ordering, etc

3rd – call each of the restaurants the night before to verify that they deliver or do takeout.  Find out if the owner or manager might be available the next day.

That evening, I found out what was likely to be my best bet.  It was a restaurant that has a website with one of those scrolling banners saying ‘Under Construction’.  Perfect.  Couple that with a name and description on the website that was ambiguous, and I had a juicy target.  They need a better online presence.

The next day, I went to them first.  I picked up a menu and had a conversation with the owner who expressed some interest.  Of course, he needs better sales, so come back when I’ve got more to show.  After the new year, I call back to touch base with him and he’s still interested.  He read my simple business description sheet and wants to see the menu when it’s ready to go.

That is about as much as I could hope for right now.  However, I didn’t have as much luck at the other locations.  I wasn’t able to get into contact with any of the owners of the other restaurants, but I did leave some info with the manager on duty.  My favorite managerial response was, “I’ll give this to my dad.”  The close second was, “You’ll never talk to the franchise owner, but I know a guy who knows a guy who can get this to him.  I will pass it on.”

Now as far as marketing in the long term is concerned, I plan to perform an informational campaign where I show how much service has picked up for existing customers.  How, on the other hand, can I pull in companies when I’ve got nothing to back it up?  What is a good way that I can get through to the owners of these restaurants?

Here’s a couple other sites that I frequent:

http://blog.entrepreneur.com/

http://www.davidblerner.com/david_b_lerner/

http://www.bootstrapme.com/

Since I started working on mydeliverylist, I’ve had doubts about starting a business; I’ve been excited, obsessed, driven, sleep deprived and probably lots of other interesting adjectives. I mean, I am sitting here on my own for the past 6 months and writing code, testing web pages, learning new languages and developing a business plan. Who the heck am I to think I can even do that! Am I just going to pull the wool over some peoples eyes to get them to pay me for anything? I don’t know. I keep talking to people about this website, and the usual reaction is, “yeah, that’d be cool”.  Instead of that, I need someone to say, “I want in!”

I’m doing my best to read every possible thing out there on entrepreneurship, startup companies, venture captial, angel capital, successful companies, companies that will be my competition, anything even remotely related, etc.  Can I even call myself an entrepreneur?  I am the company…without me there is nothing…but is that worth anything?  I’ve been constructing this project as a side project for the past 6 months.  In order to make this whole thing work the way I want, I need companies to sign up, I need to finish development enough that companies signing up even means something, I need to get a freakin business license!  I’ve got a list of about 12 things that I need to complete prior to being ready to support restaurants.  And most of those things have about 50 other subtasks.

What I need is a good month that I can lock myself in the office or beat the streets looking for clients.  I’ve had a few sessions of calling restaurants and trying to find any information.  The phone calls have yielded very little help other than screening a few that don’t do takeout or delivery.  The one time I actually got out there for a few hours, I did get one awesome lead and a couple maybe-not-horrible leads.  In order to really sell this, though, I need a prototype to show off. But I also don’t want to end up with everything done, and then start looking for clients.

Of the advice I have found online, the one bit I’ve tried to take to heart the most is to just do it (JFDI*).  I’m trying to keep my head out of the sand and keep making progress.  I’m not sure which blog said it, but trying to found a company is like trying to eat a 500 pound marshmallow.  You just have to take it one bite at a time.

* this acronym taken from Mark Suster

My current objective is to follow up on those 12 steps, keep in periodic contact with my awesome lead, find more potential clients, find a good business partner or two, and to keep eating the marshmallow as often as I can find the time.

Some entrepreneur/startup related sites that I frequent:

http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/

http://venturehacks.com/

http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/ – Pamela Slim also wrote a great book…which I actually like more than I do her website

Hey everyone, I haven’t been blogging much for a few reasons.  First, we had a baby.  That takes time.  Second, I try to have a life of some sort.  Third, I’ve been working on a new website in all of my spare time. MyDeliveryList (it’s a working name presently)

I’ve been building it since late June when I conceived the idea in WA.  Take a look sometime and enter some deliveries.  It’s going to take a lot of work to get the site fully functional and as slick as it needs to be. I’d love to get as many constructive comments as possible, on looks, functionality, etc.

It’s been a heck of a lot of work that has evolved a bit along the way. It started with a desire in WA to get some food delivered. I didn’t know who delivered to my hotel, though. I looked around and didn’t see any website that shows where restaurants deliver. So I figured that a simple Google map mashup would be easy for someone to put together. After talking it over with a coworker, we figured that this was a concept that has potential. I did a bit of research and found out that the mashup thing was deprecated in favor of Google App Engine. I looked at that and found it fairly easy to use, but I didn’t see all of the features that I really wanted, but the HTML templates used something similar to Django. I made a switch to Django which seemed to give me a lower level access to the functionality I wanted.

Django has support for Java or Python. I’ve learned Java in the past…and didn’t like it at all. I knew nothing of Python, but I heard that it was popular for programmers who work on side projects. I decided to go with Python…and I’m glad I did. It’s a fun language and very easy to pick up. I learned the ropes by writing my basic map program which is the guts of the system.

Of course, in order to use Django properly, you really need to have a good database and some SQL understanding. I had no knowledge or experience in that. After some research, I picked up Postgresql, learned SQL and figured out how it interacts with Django. I’ve had to do some custom SQL code in order to expand beyond the built-in limits of Django.

At some point, I ran into problems with running the Apache web server on the windows platform, and I knew I needed to run it on something other than my laptop anyway, so I pulled an old computer out of my shop, installed linux and ported the required components over to it.

I’m in the process of figuring out how to set up SSL encryption for the registered portions of the website, then I plan to work some more on polishing the website and adding order form capability. There is a lot of room for improvement, but I’d like to end up with people all over the world entering delivery information in the website. I’ll be adding more features to draw people back, it’s just a matter of time and elbow grease.

So check out MyDeliveryList sometime and let me know what you think.