Michael Plater II

With only a couple more hours of development left before orders could start to be taken I have decided to drop Clarke’s Crates, the parent to student custom gift basket service.  It is mostly because Clarke’s Crates just doesn’t fit.

First it wasn’t my idea, while this doesn’t mean too much I do believe it means I didn’t think about it too much.  I believe I was attracted by the idea that I could just build this thing with the knowledge I had.  I really didn’t pay attention to the fact of whether or not the business could truely work.  Which is upsetting because when trying to live an efficient life, wasted time like that is annoying.  Also Clarke’s Crates just doesn’t fit with where I see the Espada brand going.  

In other news, Espada News, is coming along great.  I have a meeting with the general manager and online editor of a prominent local newspaper tomorrow mostly to look for advice but who knows, maybe more will come from it.   As of now Espada News is the over arching business that we will be building, but while doing that we will try our hand in products using the 4 Hour Work Week manner.  This starts with the MikesMoves DVD which is very near completion.  The hope is that revenue from the first product will be able to pay for the market testing and introduction of the next product and so on.  

And if that wasn’t enough and because I am fascinated with the world of online music, Espada Music, will be being built as well.  Espada Music at first will focus on music distribution.

Good luck to us.

I recently switched from using the capslk key for capitalization when typing to using the shift key.  It truly is more efficient and I wonder why I never thought about it much earlier in my life.  The capslk requires two key strokes while the shift one, albeit you do have to modify your typing a little for the q, a, and z.  

The change was actually required of my from my use of Enso, a sort of alternate, complimentary windows interface.  Enso could be a post all to itself but suffice it to say that it can truly improve your speed at the computer and you get that nice fuzzy geekish feeling when you use it correctly and speedily.   Enso requires the commondeering of the capslk key to function.

While this may be a fine point, it is interesting to find efficiency in the small things.

So I have been working out since about 11th grade and have experimented with different types of workouts and have come to understand that I hate spending time in the gym.  Yet I love the results from my workouts.  So I have been trying to find the perfect exercises that give me what I want.  

At first I tried to be very idealistic in thinking that these magical exercises could be a perfect workout for anyone, however I have come to the understanding that people’s abilities, interests, and tastes vary and thus so do their workouts.  For example my workout does not include an ab exercise.  I could easily add an ab workout at the end as a fifth exercise, but first 5 is too many and I’ve had abs for as long as I can remember so I don’t really need to work them out directly at this point in my life.

My workout is as follows:

Monday

Inclined Dumbell Press - 3 Sets until failure
- Drop Set on the last two sets  
Lat Pull down - 3 Sets until failure
- Drop Set on the last two sets 
Bicep Curl (Machine) - 3 Sets until failure
- Drop Set on the last two sets
Squats (Smith Machine) - 3 Sets until failure

Wednesday

Seated Cable Fly - 3 Sets until failure
- Drop Set on the last two sets  
Seated Cable Row - 3 Sets until failure
- Drop Set on the last two sets 
Bicep Curl (Machine) - 3 Sets until failure
- Drop Set on the last two sets
Squats (Smith Machine) - 3 Sets until failure

Friday

Inclined Dumbell Press - 3 Sets until failure
- Drop Set on the last two sets  
Lat Pull down - 3 Sets until failure
- Drop Set on the last two sets 
Bicep Curl (Machine) - 3 Sets until failure
- Drop Set on the last two sets
Squats (Smith Machine) - 3 Sets until failure 

This workout hits almost every muscle, add the ab exercise and it might hit all muscles.  The 3rd exercise of everyday, the bicep curl, is sort of the variable isolation exercise.  The biceps get worked out in the 2nd exercise but the 3rd exercise is for me to do the muscle I really want to work on more in isolation.  I have before instead done shoulder raises instead of the bicep curl.

The ab exercise I would choose if I did would be the hanging leg raises or the ab wheel since anything else usually takes way too long for me to go until failure.

The Wednesday exercise works the same muscles just with different exercise and maybe in different directions.  This helps keep the body guessing and promotes muscle growth.  The drop sets are a bodybuilding technique used for rapid muscle growth (not neccessarily strength) as well.

Later in life I would want to switch to a non-weight work out that I could do in the morning.  It would look like this:

Monday, Wednedsday, Friday

Pushups - 3 Sets until Failure
- Drop sets by going to knees on every set
Wall Sit - On the rests of the Pushups

Tuesday, Thursday

Ab Wheel - 3 Sets until Failure
Wall Sit - On the rests of the Ab Wheel 

Cool hope somebody finds this useful.

So I believe I have been spreading myself thin lately with trying to work on too many projects (online music, care packages, online newspaper syndication, hip hop dvd, MapJak).  I have been taking a long hard look at what I’ve been doing and decided I need to learn a little more discipline when it comes to my projects.

Focus is something every entrepreneur needs to possess and while I believe I do not lack it, I tend to spread it thin, but then that’s probably what not focusing is to begin with.  So I have reluntantly decided to put a number of projects on the backburner and focus solely on first getting this hip hop dvd out for MikesMoves.  Since the dvd is just a product I won’t have to divert too much attention to it once it is done.

Next I have a choice.  I can either put my energy behind Espada News (a newspaper syndication platform) or the Clarke’s Crates (the care packages service).  Clarke’s Crates is something that I can put together in about two weeks and once up wouldn’t need my constant attention, I would just have to put orders through as with a dropship business.  Normally it would be a no brainer just to go ahead and do this and have it start earning revenue.

However, then comes the allure of Espada News, a company which I believe is my gateway company to bigger things.  Originally the plan was to wait until winning the Carolina Challenge to fund this however,  The Young Man’s Business Model has convinced me I can find a willing future customer to fund the development instead.

So do I hold off on Espada News for another 2-3 weeks to pursue something that while low risk, I don’t believe it will be anything truly significant.  Clarke’s Crates is basically there to hedge any failure that would come from Espada News.  Hmm…  Well the real price of doing Clarke’s Crates is just 2-3 weeks maybe that price is small enough.

I think I will pursue Clarke’s Crates… But call it Espada Shipping.  Brand management you know.

So currently right now a friend of mine, Jake, and I own the Espada Group (formally MapJak).  The Espada Group manages and builds a bunch of sites such as content sites, e-commerce sites, and communities.  It’s doing fine right now, just steadily bringing in money.

However, my goals are to build the Espada Group into a widely successful brand taking advantage of opportunities in a number of industries.  Something akin to the VIrgin Group.  To do this though I need to create my initial big-time business that I can then launch other ventures off of.  More than likely this initial business will be a web app since that is what I am most use to.  I have the ideas both technicially and business developmently.   I just need a larger sum of money to start them than what the Espada Group is currently bringing in.

Enter the Carolina Challenge.  It is the business plan competition here at UNC - Chapel Hill.  With the system I’m coming up with for this challenge (I’ll talk more about that later) we could potentially win up to $50,000.   The competition ends and the money would be awarded in late April, early May.   I fully plan to win this, which may be a little foolhardy but in retrospect it will sound heroic and daring ha.

But don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of time before the end of the challenge and I don’t intend on sitting around til then.  I am starting two new small business, both with a real world aspect to them.  Both are sort of low key and yet have large potential.   Basically that means I don’t intend on putting a lot of work into them and they just keep me busy but they could flesh out to something signficant and I realize that.  One deals with online indie music, the other deals with college students.

As thoughs services come out I will announce them here and let you know more about them.  So that’s my entrepreneurial plan for the next 6 months; it should be fun and with a big payday to boot.

michaelplaterII: testing phone twitter

michaelplaterII: Testing twitter feed

This is my first post.  I plan to use this site to illustrate what I’m thinking along my path as an entrepreneur and as a person.  I’ll talk about things dealing with the Espada Group and other things that just happen to come up along the way.