How I'm Starting Sweeps

There's an article coming out tomorrow in UNC's Daily Tarheel about students starting businesses, and it got me thinking about what has been most helpful for me in creating Sweeps. If anyone else is curious about starting a business in Chapel Hill or elsewhere, I thought this could be useful.

University & Local Resources: There are tons of programs and resources available to students. Some I have used or plan to include:

• Entreneurship Minor, or Entrepreneurship Concentration in the business school
• Interns: We plan to hire an undergrad entrepreneurial intern in the next few weeks, and hopefully an MBA intern through CEF as well. If you're interested in an internship let me know.
  
• CEF provides funding to allow startups to hire MBA interns.
  
• CEI: keeps track of all the entrepreneurial programs around campus. Sweeps was profiled about a month ago.
• Carolina Challenge business plan competition
• Launching the Venture
  
• MBA SoftLaunch Program
• Consulting to the entrepreneurial firm undergrad class
• Kenan-Flagler Business School STAR Program
• BASE for sustainable entrepreneurs
• SBTDC.org: North Carolina Small Business Technology Development Center, free help for businesses
• Score counselors to small business
  
• Other Students: Even as a startup without any money, we have been lucky enough to recruit help from students with tremendous skills I lack. Students are often interested in experience or for their portfolio, and we offer a cool alternative to other businesses. I had emails sent out over a few listserves (MBA entrepreneurship club, UNC Graphic Design, Entrepreneurship Minor, MAC Program, etc.) that led to adding an MBA, MAC student and graphic designer to our team.
  
• Class Credit: I'm in an internship and an independent study for Sweeps, giving me 6 hours of credit I need to graduate.
• Ted Zoller: Ted supported the idea from the beginning and his contacts provided my internship, office, independent study, press articles, and more.
  

Web Apps: really changing the way business can operate. We use

• Google Everything: Docs, Calendar, Moderator, Analytics, Gmail, Contacts, Moderator, Forms, Surveys, Adsense, etc.
  
• Zoho CRM, free for up to 3 users
  
• mint.com, and quickbooks online
• Skype
• Joomla and a lot of extensions off Joomla for our website
• StumbleUpon & Digg: Stumble entrepreneurship or similar and you'll start getting ideas.
• Business Blogs and Articles
  

Business Advisors: I depend on a board of advisors for recommendations ranging from simple questions (who do you recommend for insurance?) to raising capital. There is a strong network of UNC alumni and local business leaders that actively seek to give back to students and startups, it just takes finding them.

Ask Friends and Family: Don't hide your idea or worry about asking for help. I've bought shots at the bar for some statistics help. Friends and family are probably interested in what you're doing, will appreciate your request for help, and everyone knows something you don't.


Just Do It, and ask: if you've been thinking a lot about, and have passion for an idea go ahead and pursue it. Ask around and you'll find out pretty quick whether you can handle it and if it's an idea worth pursuing.
If you're interested in what we're doing, or have any questions or additions please don't hesitate to call, email, or stop by and visit us on Franklin St.

#2 The Intro

Welcome back.

Or probably for the first time. I just sent an email to a lot of people introducing Sweeps (including my old English teachers, sorry Mrs. Allen), and accidentally pressed send too early. I omitted a major word and probably have some more mistakes, but I think it's pretty good so I'm alright with it and you can find it below.

I also have an exam tomorrow that I haven't studied for, but it's hard to get motivated while Sweeps is making moves. I'm also not worried because we beat Sigma Chi tonight in the all important frat league im basketball playoffs. Thanks to their 2 technicals in the last minute, we won the game, I won a bet and we move on.

I figured out another way to use this blog, and that's to hype other people. Al Mask, one of the most successful kids I know and on our board of advisors just released a fresh album. Find it at http://thinkopation.com/, make a donation or download for free. Al has started a few businesses, released this album, has a big time job lined up, and is generally a g so listen to him.

Also make a profile at Sweeps. Probably nothing will come out of it for a while; but it's quick, easy, and could help you find a job or a student to fulfill a job. Also, it will help build the community which will allow us to grow. Here's the email I sent out today.

Hello,

With the help of a dedicated team of students, professors and advisors, I am proud to send out the first installment of Sweeps' Updates. I have decided to pursue Sweeps full-time, and want to keep you aware of the tremendous strides we are making.

In recent months Sweeps has developed from a small housecleaning operation into a more scalable, significant venture. We aim to connect talented students with clients in diverse services beyond housecleaning, and build a network that benefits all. Whether it's tutoring, fixing computers, cleaning, moving or pet care, we want to provide high-paying jobs to students and valuable services to customers while giving back to our universities and communities.

Some recent achievements

• Office Space on Franklin St. Jim Kitchen of STI Travel has graciously offered us space directly above Julians on Chapel Hill's Franklin St. in what is tentatively called the Franklin Business Center. We should be moved in within a week or two, so come by and see us!
• www.sweepsllc.com. With the help of graphic and web designer Kristen Long, (www.kristenelong.com) we are developing a comprehensive website to match students with prospective clients; check it out and create a profile. Other social media such as our facebook, blog, and twitter pages are also on-line.
• Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative Profile. Sweeps was profiled in CEI's February on-line newsletter, reaching about 1,500 people.
  
• 2010 marks our fifth year of operation as a housecleaning company, having employed over fifty students and cleaned hundreds of homes. Please let us know if we can be of service in the Raleigh area for cleaning.
  
• New Additions: We have added some talent to the Sweeps team.
  
• Our development team includes Masters of Accounting student Brandon Isaacs, MBA student Mike Rompel, designer Kristen Long, and students Kristi Eveland, Al Mask and Berkley Webster.
• Current Sweeps contractors include Sara Hargis, Carole Laughton, Paige Mauney, Kari Meiggs and Sable Watson.
• Local business advisors and professors have also been instrumental in building Sweeps. Some notable advisors include Neil Bagchi, Mary Lou Gelblum (thanks mom), Amol Joshi, Jim Kitchen, Steve Nelson, David Oglesby, Stephanie Slade, Craig Stone, Patrick Vernon and Ted Zoller.
  
• Adoption of a new mascot, Banks, my fifteen week old puppy.

The next few weeks are pivotal in our development, and we're making important operational decisions everyday. If you have suggestions or concerns, please contact us soon.

We are deploying Sweeps in a beta phase in Chapel Hill within the next few weeks, and are excited to finally test our service. We appreciate your support of Sweeps, and encourage you to help spread the word.

Thanks for your time,

Sweeps LLC
919.306.7771
www.sweepsllc.com

#1

I'll start with I never thought I would start a blog; but here we go. I've been told to start one by some friends and advisors, and I think what I'm doing may be interesting to somebody, so Sweeps blog is born. You can also check on my dog Banks here.

I'm starting a business in Chapel Hill, NC right now and have basically dropped out of my senior year of college to do so. I'm spending a lot of time working on it, and have made a lot of progress that I'll explain later, but I just back from Mardi Gras and I'm still tired.

First, check out our new website, www.sweepsllc.com that is the handiwork of our brilliant web and graphic designer Kristen Long (kristenelong.com). If you don't understand anything or have any problems at all, please let me know so we can fix it. Since most of you are probably coming from my website anyway, I guess just check back soon and I'll put some news up.