Why I Chose the Business I Did

Decker,

Last year, before you were born, I put up one new business idea every single working day on EstimatedFuture.com.  I was, in some ways, between full-time jobs (or at least between careers, there’s never been a shortage of paying work).  I had intended to put up one idea every business day for the entire year.  That was a remarkable accomplishment, I thought.  These days, remarkable is the only thing that can set you apart.  I imagine the same will be true when you are reading this, and will be true throughout your lifetime.  When you were born, I realized there weren’t enough hours in the day.  I was happy to give up the one business idea every day.  Taking care of you has been the highlight of my life thus far.

Part of the point of putting up one business idea every day was to really think about what business I wanted to be in.  How could I make my mark?  What was important to me?  Where was the intersection of contribution and profit?  What business ideas would be the most profitable?  It’s easy to come up with a business idea.  It’s much more difficult to think it through, figure out what’s wrong with it, and figure out why someone will exchange their money for what you’ve got.  At the end of the day, someone must give you money for your good or service.  Without the money changing hands, you’ve got a hobby, not a business.

I came into this exercise with certain skills.  I knew law firm marketing.  I knew Internet marketing.  I knew what it meant to manage a business, to analyze a P&L, and to make decisions.  My previous experience is evident in the business ideas I put on this blog.  Business ideas for lawyers was certainly a theme, as was content marketing, and Internet marketing.

In addition to the skills that came from my previous experience, I have personality traits.  I don’t like the status quo.  I strongly dislike authority.  I think authority often comes from the wrong place.  The wrong people have the authority because the wrong character traits are required to get and maintain authority.  I also dislike the lack of transparency that exists in the world.  Humans, by nature, are truth seekers.

I had a conversation with AVVO at some point in mid 2012 about your grandfather’s law firm becoming an advertiser with them.  They said they could send visitors to the firm’s website for, in effect, $10/visitor.  It was clearly a lucrative space.  And I know law firm marketing.  We were onto something.  We had also done an experiment with a company that pulled executive compensation data out of SEC filings.

Law firm marketing.  Public data.  Content Marketing.  Business ideas for lawyers.  It all came together.

InjuryLawyerDatabase.com was the idea.  I would put up real statistics about lawyers in my goal to be a truth seeker.  I could get the data from public filings.  I would drive traffic to law firm websites.  I would start with the Comp Pinkbook, a book that published stats from all of the workers’ compensation filings.  I could also assist lawyers with their online marketing efforts.  It was all one thing.  It was 27Legal, LLC.  We named it after your Mom’s birthday because your Mom is awesome.

That’s a little bit about how it happened.  If you want to know more, just ask.  As far as what you should do, who knows?  If you can figure out three things in life, you’re all set.  What to do?  Where to do it?  Who to spend it with?  It’s hard sometimes.  You’ll get there.  If I can help in any way, let me know.

Love,
Dad

Tagged as: Letters to Decker