Northwest Hostel

I am pleased to announce that we now have the cooperation of Northwest Hostel in Portland, OR (check out http://www.nwportlandhostel.com/index.htm) to be our pilot hostel for our business! This is a huge step! We can now start taking some bigger steps into getting this website started up! Super excited! I would say that within the next 1-2 months the site will be launched with at least one if not 3 hostels on it. If we decide to launch with more then one then it will be at least 3. Keeping the numbers odd. I like odd.

So yeah, more to come on this!!

-ag

Video Blog 1

Passion behind the Action

*side note*
Yes I was in my bathroom. lol! Best lighting in the house was in there at the time. lol!!

-ag

A thing or two…

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

-Mr. Steve Jobs-

I read this quote on a friends Facebook status today. Really hit home. Such a great reminder. Although APPLE is one of the biggest, most successful, innovative businesses in the world, it has not only seen the greatest achievements but also the greatest failures. It is responsible for 4 out of 10 of the biggest flops in computer history as well as 6 out of 10 of the biggest successes of all computer history.

This is inspiring.

Although we may try an idea and fail…keep with it…who knows…one day you could have the next iPod idea!! Now wouldnt that be amazing! A friend of mine said he comes up with the best ideas while sitting in his hot tub smoking a cigar and drinking some vodka…whatever gets you there!! Haha…mine comes while I travel, my spirit is the free’est then.

In further notes…I will be doing a video blog soon on here. I may do those every once in awhile jsut to shake things up. Give those random readers a face to these words. I dont know about all you but I am a visual person. I like to see, touch, feel, experience, encounter…so a Vlog is on the way. Closest I can give you all to that. Plus, I think my passion comes out more when I sit down and have a conversation with you…even though its to a computer. I will be expressing the “WHY” of doing this business. Trying to type out my passion for travel is nearly impossible. I mean, even speaking it is only the best because you can see my eyes…they speak a thousand words that dont even exist in this human language.

-ag

PROGRESS!!

So after I blogged yesterday I had an obvious urgency to go DO something that pushed this all along! So…I have officially registered the name of the business with the IRS and with the State of Oregon!! We are official and now own rights to our company name! We are an official LLC and everything!

I cant WAAAAAIT to start this website and be able to tell everyone about what we are doing! As soon as the website is bought you will all be the first to know!

Im getting excited, can you tell?

-ag

Just Jump

The new year has finally hit. The holidays are finally over. Now to get on with this idea…

Recently we attended a party that Laos invited us to. This was key for networking. We got to tell our idea to several people that in turn showed excitement and encouraged us in what we were doing. We got to talk to a lady who has worked in the very avenue we are looking for the most connections in right now.

I will say, I want to just get the website up so bad right now. Its kind of annoying not being able to just tell everyone about it. I proceed in telling people about the details with caution. I dont want anyone to run with it before I do. We really need to register with the IRS and with a domain. There comes a point where you just have to take a step of faith and hope you come out on top. We are at that stage…the “just jump” stage. We have planned, talked with people, gathered mentors, have supporters, we are exploding with ideas and now….we need to “just jump”.

Hmmm….so much easier said then done. One of my biggest concerns now is the fear of being too successful. Is that even allowed? Im just afraid we will get in over our heads and not know what to do with everything or all the demand. I wish we had someone close that has started an online business that leans more towards the “social networking” era. We aren’t selling anything…this is not like most “Starting an online business” books.

Which by the way, “Business Plans for Dummies” is one  of the best business plan building books Ive seen so far. Get it, love it, embrace it. Its a spendy penny but if you go to your local library they should have a copy there.

Another thing that is being hard to balance is social life and business. My partner is going through a bunch of stuff right now. Luckily its NOT romantic. Haha! That would mean he would be useless. But still going through some stuff that changes his attitude. Distraction and what not. This is something that will happen though, I know that. I just want to support him and be strong in pushing forward when he cant be and I know he will do the same thing for me. I wouldnt be able to do this without a strong partner like I have. I wish everyone would be so fortunate as to have one like I do.

Anyway…JUST JUMP. My next blog here will have the results of the jump!

See you on the flip side of faith!

-ag

This is huge.

So I havent updated in awhile. It seems like big changes come in waves when it comes to starting a business. You will get on a big hype and then things will slow down as far as seemingly “making progress”, when in all reality every day is a day closer.

I have realized now that just talking about the business helps. I have the fortune of having a partner with this but some I know are self starters. You must find a peer that just believes in you whole heartedly! There is a difference between having a mentor, which everyone starting a business should have, and a friend who believes in you.

A friend who believes in you will be that person you can go to whether you are feeling confident or low that day and they will tell you that you can do this. That the world is in your hands and what you do with it is up to you. They will let you jsut talk to them about your ideas because like I was saying, just talking about it helps!  But when starting off you cant go talking to everyone about it because you wouldnt want your idea getting scooped up by someone else.

A mentor is someone that you will go to on business decisions. Someone who has been through a business start up or is heavy involved in the business world that you are trying to get involved in.  This person will be willing to meet with you and encourage you as well. Give you constrictive criticism and push you in the right direction if they see you are getting off course. They themselves should have connections and willing to pass them along to you.

Both of these people are essential in the start up process. Someone to vent to…and someone to dream big to.

Tonight though is a very VERY key time in my business start up. We, my business partner Donny and I, have been invited to an event where a mojority of the hostel owners around and people in the Mercy Corp/travel industry will be present. It is a time to meet and greet some very influential people. Most importantly the owner of what we hope is our pilot hostel for the site. Im not exaclty sure how it will go. Whether we will need tos et up a meeting and have him look at a business plan OR if he will just say ok right there. When dealing with HOSTEL owners things are pretty much done by the heart. Haha. The man, Laus, that hooked us up with this said that if the owner, Jim, thought it was a good idea…he would probably jsut say yes right on the spot, no business plan at all. Haha…working in this industry I kind of expect that sort of reaction.

So we shall see. I am STILL waiting to hear back from Laus, he has been in China for a week and was supposed to get back today I think. I don’t want to go without him since we are technically HIS guests. Hmmm…I am sure though that if it doesn’t happen tonight Laus will for sure introduce us before he leaves for Africa.

I will let you know what happens!

-ag

The Puzzle

I dont even know where to start with this one. n the last 48 hours so much progress has been made! I talked with a long time family friend, Flint, about my idea. He works for a bank and deals with start up business’. He encouraged me to call the local chamber of commerce and they can get us connected to people that will help us formulate a business plan for free. So Donny called them and set up and appointment for Jan 6th and also found out about a FREE small business start up class at Clackamas Community College that was last night. So we went.

It was very informative to us and if anything really got us excited about everything. We learned a lot about certain people to talk to and about the jist of a good business plan. That is our one top priority right now. We want an professional and efficient write up. This is something we are going to have to start working on right away.

I also had been trying to get in contact with a man I met this last year who is on the board of directors for Hosteling International. Laus and I had lunch a few months ago and talked about his heart for starting a hostel and mine as well. We finally connected this last week and we (Donny and I) just got out of a lunch meeting with him. Ohhhh man!! Haha! If I thought I was excited before…I am even more excited now!

Through our meeting we learned so much. He approached the pros and cons of our idea. He asked about profit as far as money goes and profit as far as information goes. He encouraged us on how he thinks Hosteling International would be pretty excited about this project if approached right. The bar is set pretty high because a lot of people come to HI with ideas but they cant jump on board all of them. We have to set ourselves apart. He also was excited though to see my passion. He had mentioned this a few months when we had lunch as well. It makes me happy that people see it and are attracted to it.

Some things I picked up from the meeting with Laus:

- We need to have a pilot hostel to go with before presenting it to anyone else. (investors ect.)
- Northwest Hostel in Portland is the best hostel to have as a pilot because of its amazing track record. One of the best in the nation as far as affiliated hostels go.
- Express profit. In all aspects…money/traffic/community/passion/ect.
- Make sure we emphasize the fact that we are here to make hostels look good. We are all about the positive of a hostel. We aren’t looking to be another review site. Just showing information and pulling on the good despite the bad even if it is there. (prophetic haha!)
- Be ready for the resistance of hostels and their lack of technology.
- He thought the idea of reaching to the communities was a great idea.
- He expressed that somehow tying the people into the online community that aren’t currently traveling would be an awesome way to keep the hits on coming. Maybe weekly movies of the week. Or somehow keeping people coming back. Must offer something that encourages return.

Other IDEAS that are on my mind:

- Find out about local volunteer opportunities near the hostels. Contract out to them or work with the hostel that if they come and give so many hours to the community around them they get a certain number of nights free stay.

- Connect with the people that are viewing the site. Have contests where they can make a video and send it in and if they win they get a week free stay at a hostel or 7 days free at any number of hostels (totaling 7 nights).

- Announce what hostel we are going to next on the site so people can come and get in on the action!

Man oh man. I just love talking about it with people. Donny said the same thing today. He said he could be talking to the wall and he would still get all pumped! Its good to know that he is on board with this as I am. His creative mind is in the works too! Its so cool to see him coming alive in this. So fun! Im seriously privileged to have such a good partner with this. Not only is there trust but there is also passion that is shared. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think that sharing the passion is crucial. So many business partners share maybe a few things and maybe a bit of trust but the passion isn’t there.

So the next step…we have got to get at least a condensed business plan to present to Jim, the owner of Northwest Hostel. Laus is being so kind as to hook us up with him and give his thumbs up to us. That is HUGE. Like I said before, Northwest Hostel is a nationally renown hostel. Its standards are high and its low in cost but high in character. We would be HONORED to be able to work with them. On Dec 24th Laus has invited Donny and I to go to a get together with them. Its apparently a German cultured party because Jim’s wife is from Germany. Something about wine and boiling it and something. In any case…Laus will personally introduce us at that point. He is pretty confident that Jim will let us use his hostel as our pilot hostel. This would be AMAZING. Its in Portland, it has a great reputation, and the people are open minded. Here’s hoping.

I am kinda sad because Laus informed me today that on Jan 6th he is moving to Kenya to work with Mercy Corps there. This is an AMAZING opportunity for him. It also gives him a better chance of starting the hostel in Tanzania like he has wanted to. He invited Donny and I to come stay with him! Holy COW…I am going to do that for SURE. Like nooo kidding. Haha! I am still excited though because I can tell that he will stay in contact. He is such a great quality man. I am so lucky to have such a man of influence involved in this journey in some way. Very very grateful for that.

Now to figure out this business plan writing…this is gonna be a doozy.

-ag

the dot-com

Apparently the dot-com business is a whole different experience then the regular business start up. I am realizing how much the dot-com is going to take some serious time and energy. Very excited about it…but not a reality is sinking in.

What I would love is to talk to someone else who has started a dot-com and been successful. There are business plans, business meetings, investors, advertisers, yadda yadda yadda…

BUT…I can do this. Actually, the more I look into it, the more promising it seems. It is such a demand. I was talking with a friend about it today and he was asking about how lucrative do I really think this will be to the world…who will it effect directly…

I was saying that not only will it provide world travelers with a tool that will broaden their horizons in hostel travel but it also PROMOTES world travel in general. Hostels have such a stigma of being sketchy and run down. Yes, there are some that are but there are also the ones that make a trip SO much more enjoyable because of the atmosphere and community it provides. If people that usually stay in hotels and resorts that cost so much more would realize that hostels can add to their enjoyment on their vacation AND save them money…then maybe, just maybe people would hop back on board some planes and find themslves traveling more.

Everyone wants to save a buck, pinch a penny, whilst still having the time of their lives. This company will allow them to do that. I wonder…I really wonder if this could spark more people to get back out their and travel. Im really hoping so.

Just some more thoughts….still pretty excited…

-ag

Birthing of the long term…

I have a vision thats been stirring inside me. Its something I’ve been wanting to do for over a year now. Its a business plan. Something thats going to allow me to travel and get a steady income all at the same time. Because I dont know exactly how people are out there with ideas and what not Im not going to fully disclose what the idea is on here.

BUT…its does have to do with hostels. It has to do with travel. And I will get paid. STOKED.

I have a friend, Donny, that will be helping me with it all. He will be the business drive behind it. I will be the one with the vision for the outcome. Its a good balance to have. After telling him about the idea he assures me it is a money maker. Which is funny, because making money surely wasnt in the original reason I had the idea. But hell, if I can do what I love AND make money doing it…bring it on. No its not some internet scheme, its not a pyramid crazyiness. Its just me, with an idea to travel…and bless hostels…and now get paid for it! I REALLY hope this happens. Only time will tell.

Its good to feel inspired again.

I cant explain how much traveling changes my everything.
As soon as I have a ticket booked…to anywhere…its like I start dancing inside.
I dont even understand it myself. Im hoping that through this blog and these writings, as I begin to express myself through the art of writing again, Im hoping I will begin to even understand myself more. It will happen. It has to.

Alright, I downloaded the iphone app for wordpress…so hopefully even on the go if something comes to me I will be able to jot it down quick.

-ag

Genesis

Alrighty….this blog is gonna be the one that survives.

To many blogs I’ve started have been about personal drama and rigamarole going on in my life at the time. That doesnt pan out to last so long. Probably because the bloggin only lasts as long as the drama does, which usually isnt very long. Haha.

But this one is going to be different.
This one is to express my passions.
This one is to express my dreams.
This one is to express my vision.

This one will last.

I will last.

-ag