It is funny starting a business with someone. You have to trust them yet as the saying goes trust but verify. So I made some suggestions to Sonny and told him things that I was doing to move forward. I looked at Toll Free numbers and Domain Name registration. He responded back that it was good, but lets solve the lead issue. Good point so I created a demo account for the leads management software and played around with it. I will have to test a couple of others and verify how leads will get to where they need to go. I emailed Sonny what I had done and suggested that now was the time to get the business details in writing. I told him that I was assuming that he and I were going in 50/50 and to let me know if he thought otherwise. He has a delicate line to walk because he has another job and he doesn’t want to jeopardize that. One of the aspects of this venture that I look forward to is the freedom to not have to look over my shoulder when writing on a blog. Is that a false freedom? I don’t know.

So here are some details that I outlined for Sonny.
3 MLO’s
~3 inbound leads per day (@$40 per)
~10 internet leads per day (@$8 per)

Total leads 100 inbound and (3 x 3 x 20) 600 internet (3 x 10 x 20)
Total cost ~$8000
Applications / Conversion 20 / 3% (inbound 10% Internet 1.5%)

We have to fund 50% of the apps and make $1000 on each fund after paying MLOs to break even. It all seems very doable. I have to still test lead delivery and make sure I am talking to all the lead people I want to.

I met with Sonny last night. I am really wanting to start this new company with him. We talked for about two and half hours. Sonny and I are on the same page with what we have envisioned for this company. We don’t agree 100% on on the details or on what we even think ourselves about the details. I am comfortable working with him and I believe that we are headed in the same direction. He wants to wait until June to pull the trigger. I think he wants to be in a little bit of a better financial position to quit. He had wanted to ask a third person to join us, but that person has too much monthly obligation to take the risk and not get paid for 6 months. One thing I think we got nailed down is our name. I told him it didn’t matter (because I don’t believe it does) so pick a name. He said WynnStar Financial. Good enough. He has WynnStar Housing for his apartments that he owns. I looked online and there is wynnstar.com. I will have to ask him if that is his site. It seems to be. I went ahead and registered the name wynnstarfinancial.com. I am now looking for a vanity 800 number.

These are little things that I can do, but what am I supposed to do to fill my time from now until June. I got the official rejection from Microsoft. I was told to expect a call from the hiring manager at US bancorp. That job is in San Francisco. If WynnStar Financial is what I want to do how willing am I to commit or go all in?

I haven’t posted in awhile and I want to make sure I keep up to date. So this is probably going to be mostly about if I find a job. Yesterday I got a call from US Bank. It was an interview with HR. It is my third interview and I think I am getting a little better. The job is in San Francisco. So I have three open possibilities now. There is the contracting position at Microsoft. I called the recruiter yesterday and I still have not heard back. It has been a week and i am starting to think that the job is lost. I have the new US Bank job in San Francisco. The recruiter said that she would contact me if the hiring manager wanted to move forward with a in person interview. I did agree that I would self relocate, but I will insist that they pay for a trip to San Francisco. Then I have the business that I may be starting. I am having my third meeting with my partner tonight. At that meeting I should find out whether we will be bringing in a third partner of not. I believe we also should start taking concrete steps such as registering the name and getting a business license. This third option is my favorite, but it is the most risky. My goal is to send out three resumes today. I was surprised by the US Bank call. It is actually motivating that sending in a resume can work. Honestly I thought it would take a year to find another job. We have enough cash to last us a little more than a year. Yet I have been getting interviews.

This is my first post since returning from France. This is my second attempt. The first attempt I started explaining more about what had happened at Bank of America and I went down a negative path that I regretted. So I started over. Let me just say that the “official” reason I was let go is that I posted information on my Blog (Sept. 8th) that was considered company confidential. I would love to have that in writing so that I could post it here. That was surprising and that is as far as I need to go down that path. On to job searching.

I have sent a few resumes and I have called a few people. I have been a little disorganized so I took some time to organize myself. One of the tools that I am finding extremely useful is Google Docs. (this site is banned by Bank of America) I first created a spreadsheet listing the target companies. I then created a separate sheet that would list the companies I have sent resumes to. I haven’t learned all the intricacies of sharing, but this is a a shared version.

A second part of Google Docs is where I keep copies of my resume. Here is my general one. Tomorrow I plan on creating at least three different versions. The nice part of Google Docs is I can download the document in PDF or other formats and then attach it in an email. Overall I am very pleased with Google Docs.

My key tool is the list. I haven’t found anything electronic that really delivers as well as a piece of paper and a pencil. I read once where someone said that if electronic was invented first paper and pencil would have been seen as great new technology. I agree. So everyday I create a list of task items and then check them off. I try to make the first 10 relevant to finding a job because that is my most important job right now. After that I will have anything from doing laundry to clearing out my inbox. At the end of the day I can look at the list as I create the next day’s list. Very handy. I can put things (like writing my blog) after the first 10 to provide a reward or incentive. Today’s list has 29 items. It is 2:30PM and I have 11 things checked off. I like the lists.

Just beginning the job search I had one of my tasks to research the church (LDS.org) to see what was there. Wow. They really have spent a lot of time on their website. This is where my attention took a side trip. I found their study notebook fascinating. Here is a snapshot. (Since I don’t have a lot of pictures here)

Here you can see the notebook with entries that I can click on to read what I wrote or allow me to jump right back to the scripture

Here is the scripture reading where I can add a personal footnote or journal entry.

I haven’t figure out all the ins and outs and how I am going to use this. I kind of wish that there was a way to integrate it into my blog. Again I am just starting to use this so I am still learning. I don’t know if it is only accessible by members or not. I did have to give them my username and password.

OK so I got a little distracted. I went to the church employment website. The first thing they asked was for a username a login.

This is the same username and login that I created years ago and that required my membership record. It is nice how it is all linked together. I was wondering how a non-member would use the site or if they could. I clicked on create an account and I got

What you can’t see is the third option which says “Friends” you can kind of see it here:

I am going to wrap up this blog and maybe continue tomorrow. (If I make it that far down the list) I will say that one of the items on the LDS Jobs website was a little article on what to happens when you find yourself suddenly without a job. The picture was of a good looking business man who looked like he was sitting in his car about ready to cry. It was a Getty image which is a little disappointing, but the article was good. It even said that I should pray to find forgiveness. I agree with that.

Now that I am free from Bank of America I think I am going to remove my password protection. I have never liked that. I think there is great value in oversharing. I am not in a position to make bold statements like, “I hope to never work for a company where I have to worry about what I share” but I do feel that way. Of course I would probably cave in a second if it meant getting or keeping a job.