Singapore Entrepreneurs Network & Startup Organization

Hi everyone!

I'm Phillip. I found iMedia Solutions like about a month ago. Before that, I've been involved in numerous freelancing projects for almost 6 months. Basically, all I had was an idea to provide specialized and professional services to doing multimedia applications and animations, multimedia advertising design and production, as well as web design & content management solutions.

It all started with just 1 customer I found on VR-ZONE. Then eventually, after that it became 3....then 5...then it grew. Most of the time, I'm busy sending out quotations and finishing existing projects, so I never had much time to "get" sales. Most of the customers I had and are having are people that are recommended by ex-customers.

Recently, about 6 weeks ago, I was let go by my ex-employer. Maybe as a blessing in disguise. Back in my ex-company, I used to hold 1/3 of the customer's accounts as a Senior Web Developer (Asst. Project Manager). Which about about 99 clients in total.

When I left the company, 1/3 of the customers I used to serve left along with me. Maybe because of the trust and relationship that was built over the past year. Out of the 1/3 = 30 customers, 15 are maintaining good working relationship with me.

Eventhough by company policy I can't entertain their requests for at least 6 months, many of them have wrote in to sign their loyalty to engage my services.

With such positive expectancies, I decided that I need to establish my own business.

Over the past 2 weeks, I've been working around the clock to gather resources and information I've learnt and experienced in the past 7 years in the web industry. Managed to complete a Business Plan in 2 weeks.

So far, managed to get 2 investors that are interested to fund my business plan, but 1 was a fake, after I spoke with him, the other, was a typical investor afraid of risks in making an investment. In the end, he chose to back out. We almost signed the deal yesterday evening actually.

Well, though he offered $12K, to be frank, it's no where near what is truly required. But then again, maybe it's also a blessing in disguise that the deal did not come to pass, now I can keep an open door to look for other venture capitalists as well as investors.

My closest friends whom I trust the most (leaders in some of the biggest industries), who have read the business plan, have confirmed that this business plan has so much potential, plus with existing customers and upcoming requests from new prospected customers, its very attractive. The only question is will I be able to find the right investors and venture capitalists.

Anyway, iMedia Solutions is different from most business, the fact that we are looking for investments only after we have a stable base of customers. Some businesses tend to start off with 0 customers and even a "not so sure" target market.

This is where we have stood out.

Our secret? Haha...that's not for you to know. 

Thank you for the referral. Hopefully it turns out well.

Desperate might not sound like a decent business terms. But rather, I feel a great sense of urgency to put together a team over the next 3 to 6 months, so that I can retain the customers.

Currently, there's so many project requests, I'm having the challenge of turning away some of them. And sometimes, it's hard because its difficult to judge which one will one day become my pot of gold.

A small project now, may someday become a huge client. And a huge project may be something that's only a temporary solution for an organization. Its sometimes difficult to tell which one to turn down.

Oh well, have to go with experience and gut feelings sometimes. Haha...

How did you know Nicholas?