MeDirected » Baton Rouge http://www.medirected.com My Life Redirected Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:45:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Economic Downturn and the Lowly Startup http://www.medirected.com/2008/09/economic-downturn-and-the-lowly-startup/ http://www.medirected.com/2008/09/economic-downturn-and-the-lowly-startup/#comments Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:23:47 +0000 mike http://www.medirected.com/?p=157
FinancialMeltdown

Image by robertodevido via Flickr

I know I’m not alone when I say that the recent economic crisis has hurt my pocketbook. My business ventures are actually proving to be immune to the downturn but my stock investments have taken a big hit. These are what I’m counting on to open my facility in 2-3 months so this has left a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth. No, it’s not going to prevent me from doing anything but it means I have to be that much smarter about how I use my startup funds. These funds WERE one of my major assets as I had invested all of my money from the sale of my home in Baton Rouge in to the stock market and I had actually done VERY well. Despite the big crash, I’m still up quite a bit but I took a big hit….one that I wasn’t really expecting to have to deal with. I’ll watch with interest tonight’s first Presidential debate but as a small business owner, it would seem the winner is pretty clear on who has the best economic plan.

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]]> http://www.medirected.com/2008/09/economic-downturn-and-the-lowly-startup/feed/ 0 Where Are You Located? http://www.medirected.com/2008/08/where-are-you-located/ http://www.medirected.com/2008/08/where-are-you-located/#comments Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:16:53 +0000 mike http://www.medirected.com/?p=73 One of the most frequently asked questions when I go and do consulting work or talk at clinics is “where are you located?” The answer isn’t real quick and easy. When people ask who don’t know us, they’re expecting us to have a shiny, new facility complete with tons of weight, rows of weight lifting platforms as far as the eye can see, and motion analysis equipment to track everything under the sun. The truth is we don’t really have a central location. In fact, we don’t even really have a facility. Up until recently, I’ve had 2 business partners (now just 1) who were in Southern California. Meanwhile, I’ve been in Baton Rouge, LA; West Point, NY; and now Southeastern Ohio. As I mentioned we don’t have a facility…at least not yet (more on this in a future blog). For the past 5 years, we’ve just been hustling and doing things either via correspondence, taking on-site visits for clinics and consultations, or training athletes at public facilities. My partners and I have a running joke that we have an East Coast Division and a West Coast Division of HPC since they’re on the left side and I’m on the right. Despite these shortcomings, things have gone about as well as could be expected. We’ve doubled our profit every year for the past 5 years (not too hard when you start out making nothing)…and hey, we’re still around….something that can’t be said for most small businesses after the second year of business. And amazingly, 70% of the work gets done at a home office. Since I’ve moved to Ohio for a temporary stint I’ve essentially relocated the “East Coach Branch of HPC” and opened a new “facility.”

So back to the original question- “Where are you located?” Well, I’m temporarily located in a small, country city town village in Southeastern Ohio and the extent of my world class facility / office / training center can be seen in the picture at the top.

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