Opportunity Knocks - Call the MD

It's Mine Technology only exists because I was lucky. I knew people that could help me and had the gift of the gab to get them to listen and buy in to my ideas. Together we had the mix of skills to make it happen. There was also the rather important fact that I had (nearly) enough funding.

Lots of good ideas never see the light of day because other people do not have similar luck. However we think that we may be in a position to help others along the way. We do not follow a classic company model, there is no, and never will be, HR function for example. There will be no pointless team building exercises or a fantasy 'mission' statement that no one really believes. Only a very few creatives, techies and a fiscally ferocious financial controller will ever be directly employed by the company. Our main sales route will be via partners, either large or small depending on the marketplace.

This approach came about because of the chip. Nearly every time any of us showed the tiny chip to anyone there was a moment like a light bulb going off in the head of the person looking at it. The most popular response was, 'Have you thought of doing this with it'. The same with the trackers and some other products that we have yet to launch.

We now have a partner who is going to be doing caravans, one who is looking to build a business around classic cars, another with saddles and horse tack, another with trees. The list could go on. The idea is that each partner has their own line of business, probably in a particular business sector of which they have extensive knowledge and experience. They understand their own line of business better than we do. We simply, to paraphrase Churchill, provide them with the tools and let them get on with the job.

Now we want to open the door to others. If you have an idea about how to do something with the combination of technologies we have then give me a call. The general principles that apply are these:

• We will not ask you at any point to pay us money until you have customers and they have paid you.
• You will receive a significant discount which will depend on the size of your potential business. The bigger the potential the bigger the discount.
• We will provide sales collateral centrally designed by us in line with our brand standards.
• No business is too big or too small to work with us. We are already talking to global companies with thousands of employees as well as one man bands.
• It could even be that you want to sell our stuff in another country. We already have France, Belgium, Holland, India, Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia covered to a degree.
• If the idea or the market that you come up with is already being addressed by someone else we will tell you upfront. In a large market, say for example chipping musical instruments there will be a requirement for a large number of properly qualified 'chippers'. The same is true of the country markets. I know, for example, that many of our partners are looking for other people to work with.

Before you pick up the phone do some research to make sure that your idea is not only innovative but potentially profitable. I was heavily involved in the dot com boom and was nearly Power Pointed to death by hopefuls with a couple of million from Venture Capital companies. More often than not their business case could have been written by Hans Christian Andersen.

There is no guarantee of success, most small companies crash and burn and statistically we are almost certain to do so. However we happen to think that we have got more than a fighting chance. The only promise that I can make to you is that it will not be boring.

Call me on +44 (0) 1892 890609.