As the summer progressed, it became clear that the current operations for Ayrstone weren't going to start making a living for me, and the opportunities we were seeing weren't looking like they'd "blow up" fast enough and large enough to deliver enough money to keep our household afloat.
Furthermore, while I'm still excited about the idea of a farm equipment review site, RateItAll, while intriguing, just doesn't seem to be robust enough to do what I had hoped (I did an experiment to rate precision ag sites). That leaves me with the option of building a ratings engine or using a pre-built one (like RedQueen), which is very time-consuming. Since I didn't have the time to consume, I decided to look for a paying gig.
Happily, about that time I was contacted by a recruiter from Cisco Systems, who was looking for some help in their Networking Academy. The Networking Academy is a fascinating group at Cisco: they create curricula in networking technology to help schools train students to get good jobs in networking, and they give it away, for free, and help the schools adopt it. It's self-serving, of course, but it actually does good for the schools and students - people learn critical skills to get a good job and move up the economic ladder.
This seems like a step sideways, but I don't see it that way. I think one of the most exciting opportunities coming up is networking the farm and getting more farm operations onto the web. This gives me a perfect seat to understand the technology and products available better.
So I'm excited, but I still want to build the review/rating site as I have a chance. Watch for more on that...
Friday, September 7, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Here's a new twist...
As you can see to the right, I have added a new widget from RateItAll.com, which allows you to rate this blog without even going to RateItAll. This widget is currently in beta, so I encourage all the readers out there to go ahead and cast your arrows at me using this tool, and then let me know what you think of the widget itself via email at bmoffitt (at) ayrstone.com.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Beginning the next fun thing...
As noted in the last entry, I am looking at starting a rating service for agricultural products. As a beginning, I have started a list on rateitall.com for Precision Ag web sites. See it here: http://www.rateitall.com/t-23470-precision-ag-web-sites.aspx
I think this is kinda cool - even better is to move this all to a promotable site and populate that site with the flash widgets for each piece of equipment so users need never go to rateitall.
I think this is kinda cool - even better is to move this all to a promotable site and populate that site with the flash widgets for each piece of equipment so users need never go to rateitall.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Progress and setbacks...
Ayrstone is up and, well, limping, if not running. The product is available, the store is online, payment processing is going fine, but the product just isn't selling as quickly as we had hoped.
The "big idea" was to try to reach farmers who aren't yet tied into the web to find information, and who may want independent advice and assessment instead of just swallowing what the GPS vendors say. So we decided to focus on direct mail, using lists from the major farm magazines - a sales rate of 1% would have gotten us to cash-neutral, and 2% would make us profitable.
After two mailings, we have a sales rate of significantly less than 1%. The majority of growers are out in the fields now, so there's no real point in trying to sell them now - they're not going to pay attention to anything.
It's disappointing, of course - the product itself is no great shakes in terms of production values, but it's a valuable resource in terms of information, and the "buyers only" website is excellent. Most of all, it's an attempt to start a business based on honesty and openness - the information, our approach, and the product itself is portrayed honestly, the subject we discuss is approached in the most objective way possible, and we are completely independent of the various GPS vendors we discuss. Given how important it is to most growers to get an independent view and not trust what the salespeople tell them, one would think they'd be crowding in to get what we have. But they're not.
In the meantime, I'm using Google AdWords to bring traffic to Ayrstone.com and looking at other revenue sources. I went to a Meetup last night and met the founder of Rateitall.com. I think they have an interesting site that may be useful for some ideas I have. Check out their widget on this blog.
The "big idea" was to try to reach farmers who aren't yet tied into the web to find information, and who may want independent advice and assessment instead of just swallowing what the GPS vendors say. So we decided to focus on direct mail, using lists from the major farm magazines - a sales rate of 1% would have gotten us to cash-neutral, and 2% would make us profitable.
After two mailings, we have a sales rate of significantly less than 1%. The majority of growers are out in the fields now, so there's no real point in trying to sell them now - they're not going to pay attention to anything.
It's disappointing, of course - the product itself is no great shakes in terms of production values, but it's a valuable resource in terms of information, and the "buyers only" website is excellent. Most of all, it's an attempt to start a business based on honesty and openness - the information, our approach, and the product itself is portrayed honestly, the subject we discuss is approached in the most objective way possible, and we are completely independent of the various GPS vendors we discuss. Given how important it is to most growers to get an independent view and not trust what the salespeople tell them, one would think they'd be crowding in to get what we have. But they're not.
In the meantime, I'm using Google AdWords to bring traffic to Ayrstone.com and looking at other revenue sources. I went to a Meetup last night and met the founder of Rateitall.com. I think they have an interesting site that may be useful for some ideas I have. Check out their widget on this blog.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
How to screw up a good schedule.
Honestly, I have discovered many ways to screw up schedules. It's not hard, really - procrastination is both cheap and effective.
But there's nothing more simple or effective than spending a few days with a three-digit fever. It's not just that you lay in bed during those days, unable to move or think, never mind do productive work, but, after the fever breaks, you feel like your brain has been tossed into the blender with the switch set to "Frappe." Smooth-n-tasty...
The Ayrstone project is still coming along, with the first draft of the finished DVD in circulation to some key individuals. Comments back so far are generally positive, with some suggestions of minor changes that shouldn't entail more than 50-80 hours of work.
I went down to Tulare to the World Ag Expo on Tuesday of last week (just before the flu) and handed out flyers for the DVD. I had hoped to hand out 1000 but got 500 into the hands of passers-by in the Pavilion C tent that houses most of the GPS vendors.
We've seen a little pickup in orders, but not what I had hoped (is it ever what we hope?) The next step is to fire up the direct mail machine.
But there's nothing more simple or effective than spending a few days with a three-digit fever. It's not just that you lay in bed during those days, unable to move or think, never mind do productive work, but, after the fever breaks, you feel like your brain has been tossed into the blender with the switch set to "Frappe." Smooth-n-tasty...
The Ayrstone project is still coming along, with the first draft of the finished DVD in circulation to some key individuals. Comments back so far are generally positive, with some suggestions of minor changes that shouldn't entail more than 50-80 hours of work.
I went down to Tulare to the World Ag Expo on Tuesday of last week (just before the flu) and handed out flyers for the DVD. I had hoped to hand out 1000 but got 500 into the hands of passers-by in the Pavilion C tent that houses most of the GPS vendors.
We've seen a little pickup in orders, but not what I had hoped (is it ever what we hope?) The next step is to fire up the direct mail machine.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Beginning...
OK, it's not "Soul of the New Machine," but the new company is up and moving forward. The grand idea: use the combined energy and knowledge of two people, one a Silicon Valley tech veteran and one a midwestern ag expert, and produce something useful to help farmers get a handle on GPS steering products.
The new company is called Ayrstone Productivity, LLC.
I'm one of the principals - I used to be a marketing exec for a small GPS company called Novariant, and worked on their AutoFarm product line. The grand idea we came up with was to capture all the information I had in my head about all the companies in this space and put it into a DVD to give farmers more of a fair shake with the folks selling this stuff.
The result is Ayrstone's first product, shown here. You can preview the first module on YouTube.
We're also hosting a new forum for GPS users in Ag at forum.ayrstone.com.
The new company is called Ayrstone Productivity, LLC.
I'm one of the principals - I used to be a marketing exec for a small GPS company called Novariant, and worked on their AutoFarm product line. The grand idea we came up with was to capture all the information I had in my head about all the companies in this space and put it into a DVD to give farmers more of a fair shake with the folks selling this stuff.
The result is Ayrstone's first product, shown here. You can preview the first module on YouTube.
We're also hosting a new forum for GPS users in Ag at forum.ayrstone.com.
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