It’s February 2012 and We Straight Handling Ours
Let me give you cats an update on what we working on in 2012 and a progress report. Overall, January has been an extremely heavy month but we are putting in overtime to be on schedule to meet our goals. This article will highlight all that we are doing in 2012 and give you an update on our status.
Wikis
When me and the 30 Rotten Dissidents were working and doing testing on the Wiki section, we noticed the blog was running out of allocated memory on the server and displaying an error while cats visited the blog. The last weekend of January, that issue was fixed and I’m ready to turn on the wikis for us to start get going.
I have to turn on each entry at a time. There was a question about how can you guys know when the wikis have been turned on and each wiki has a page or section that allows you to be informed by email when the page is updated so you can subscribe to a business model or location if you want. In addition, there is a discussion section of each of the models so you can ask questions or make a comment that may be expanded upon to improve the wiki section.
Invisible Pop-up Store
In January, we announced we will be launching an invisible pop-up store campaign this fall to showcase businesses in our communities featuring our merchants. We are not going to play around with local politicians, local haters trying to bread block their own people, we going to create a geo-location augmented reality service that let cats shop in hoods around America and will be the biggest campaign of this kind.
I have been working late night and to be honest, I need to start sleeping better. Just recently, I’m working and it’s in the early hours of the night by myself and one of my Facebook friends posted this picture.
So I’m looking at it and jumped all scared when I noticed something about it and I even dreamed about that ish when I went to bed! So that is a sign I need to get some sleep and been resting lately.
I have completed the specifications document in January on the technology, marketing and execution and will be compiling this information in a wiki business model section so you cats can try to use it later down the road for your own purpose.
Events
I have been working and studying how events are hosted and to be honest, my Chicago people are so good at this, it is ridiculous. I hope to have an article about event planning but you will enjoy this article as much as I written it. I also been doing more screencast practice runs so I we can do more call-in shows. January I was busy and working hard but in later February and throughout the spring, you are going to see more events where we are meeting up and discussing issues all of the time.
Skunkworks
There are things I cannot talk about or not even permitted to talk about but we are working on some very low-key projects at this time. I will only discuss a drop a few things. One thing is not a rumor is we are definitely working on retailing for the hood. But there are other rumors out there and I just want to set the record straight.
One rumor is something saying that I will be putting out an e-book later this year but I cannot confirm that. Another rumor is that we are getting ready to host an international trip yall are invited to come along to hook up with our overseas brothas and sistas. But there is this big rumor about something that supercede Fooky, Inc. my old firm and that is one that cats are really asking about. I have no comment on any of these rumors and will leave it at that.
Keep it Moving
I have put in some serious hours and need to relax my mind that is blowing at all the possibilities and work we are putting in. Ain’t no stopping us now and we are on the move on our mission to help brothas and sistas do for self, their people, their community and their future.
Yep that’s what happens when lacking sleep. Normally my dreams are premonitions but I had a few dreams that have been out of wack. The first one was me walking down Madison at the corner of Homan. The day was bright,sunny and warm. These men, who all happened to be white getting out of vehicles with rifles and I look around like what’s going on. I know I didn’t do anything wrong. I am standing in front of the original pharmacy and this guy from behind tells me to hit the ground cause they are about to start shooting. So I get down. Do a military style crawl to the building and go up the stairs. I start checking every door but they are all locked and no one is answering. I kept telling myself the people must be at work because no one would not open the door for somebody in dire need. Meanwhile the men are chasing me. Looking specifically for me and they want to kill me. I keep going and I reach the top floor of the building. No answer. Then out of nowhere was an elevator. Of course I get on cause the guys are only a few floors behind. I get on the elevator and the real top floor is a open apartment. Almost like a penthouse. It wasn’t very clean and a red blonde canaan dog was roaming around. At this point the elevator sounds and the men are coming. I attempt to go out the fire escape but I did not want to see my fate in this dream and forced myself to wake up and stay up for a little bit so not to fall back to sleep where I left off. Two days later and still doesn’t make sense.And no I didn’t sleep with the tv on, when I got home that evening I immediately crashed………… Anyway FYI those seeking to operate travel agencies and prepare taxes should know that Jan-April is peek time for both and takes a lot of committment.
Next time, hold your hand up and stop the bullets like Neo from The Matrix in your dreams. I learn to control my own outcome and twist cats up in my dreams as a child opposed to having nightmares.
Thanks for telling us about the travel agency peak time, this definitly has to go into the wiki section.
Hey, the Diaspora Marketplace are doing another business plan competition:
http://www.diasporamarketplace.org
We are writing to make you aware of a new business plan competition, the African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM), sponsored by Western Union and USAID and powered by SEAF. The initial competition was held in 2009 and seeded several successful ventures including Sproxil http://sproxil.com/ and AACE foods http://www.aacefoods.com/. Based on the success of the initial competition another round of ADM recently opened.
ADM (www.diasporamarketplace.org) is an initiative which encourages sustainable economic growth and employment by supporting African Diaspora entrepreneurs with innovative and high-impact ideas for start-up and established businesses in Africa. The ADM II business plan competition will now be accepting proposals through February 15, 2012. General guidelines of ADM are as follows:
Proposals must be implemented in one of the following African countries: Libya, Tunisia, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Grants will be provided in the form of cash funding and/or technical assistance. The target for the cash portion of the matching grants up to but not exceeding USD 50,000. Additionally, each winner will be eligible for a separate grant for Technical Assistance that will be from USD 10,000 to USD 20,000.
A complete list of ADM II guidelines and eligibility requirements can be found at http://www.diasporamarketplace.org/guidelines.
A major distinguishing factor of the ADM II will be a follow-on financing round for select ADM I and ADM IIwinners. This year’s ADM will feature a follow on impact investor forum hosted by the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) in Lagos, Nigeria. The Forum will serve as a transition point for them to move from soft funding (grantsand savings) to hard funding (equity investment). It will be a true test of the commercial viability of their venture. It will be in many instances be thefirst live pitch to investors. Businesses will be competing for 2nd round investments of potentially USD150,000 to USD300,000.
Please contact us at info@diasporamarketplace.org if you have any further questions. Also, stay connected with the ADM through social media by following us on Twitter @DiasporaMarket or joining our LinkedIn group African Diaspora Marketplace.
Best Regards,
African Diaspora Marketplace Team