What are you doing on Tuesday mornings, between 9am and 12pm? Are you in Richmond around that time? Fancy doing some Co-Preneuring?I’ve recently been working on starting a business, called Indy Socks. You can see some Mission Reports that we’re posted on Ross’s site talking all about the concept. I won’t go into detail here (for the moment). I’m pretty excited about launching this little business and can’t wait to be ‘live.’
Indy Socks Mission Status from Ross Hill on Vimeo.
However, one of the things I have struggled with is how to find the consistent time required to make progress on the business. I’m pretty bad at scheduling in ‘work time’ when it’s my own to schedule and I had small epiphany recently. I realised that, in my calendar, the things which are prioritized most are meetings with people. (duh). But why is this the case? Shouldn’t I be more committed to blocking out time to myself to just get stuff done? Easier said than done!
So, to counter this I’m going to borrow from some of the ideas that circulate in the programming/IT world. Particularly, the concept of pair-programming. I think there are a heap of organisation/productive tools programmers use today which we will see as standards in the business world in a few years time. Agile Development, Test Driven Development, MVCand REST methodologies.
But for the moment, I’m going to see if pairing up with someone, between the hours of 9am and 12pm every Tuesday at Inspire9 will help me get more traction towards getting the business launched. I’m going to call this Co-Preneuring. It’s not about finding a business partner, or sharing equity or any of the other messy things that come with sharing a business with someone. I’m asking that, if you have a few spare hours and would like to sit together and work towards launching a business, then swing by and we can crank it out together. Of course, I’d only be to happy to repay the favor and sit with you whilst you ‘got it done’ in the afternoons or at other times.
You don’t need any special skills, just the ability to ride shotgun and work together getting whatever needs to happen, done.So, if you’re keen to come along and co-preneur with me, then leave a comment below about the date you can come along and i’ll see you there!
The Squiggly Line 
If I could join, I would.
You inspire me dude
Thanks Eddie – the feeling is mutual.
When you’re in Melbourne – we’ll do it!
😉
I would too if I could!
Hi Kate,
I’m pretty flexible. Let me know if you wanna do it some other time. I’ll keep Tuesdays as standard, but won’t be turning down some company if it’s available!
I love this – I’ll be there after CPX next week.
I want to get a project off the ground too but am in a very similar situation to you – making the time to actually ‘do’ it! I was thinking about the term ‘social doing’ a while ago – about using the potential of the crowd to achieve individual goals… a support mechanism if you like.
As I work full time it would have to be out of hours – perhaps we can have a co-preneuring evening?
Also, it appears that the comment clock on your blog doesn’t love daylight savings!
you know i’d love to co-preneur with you; Kinyei would benefit from it for sure! I’ve got standing Skpye calls with a few people at the moment for us to kind of help us keep focussed on the important stuff, perhaps there’s something similar we could do remotely?
Lol – thanks Kate, it appears my blog still loves the past a little too much.
Interesting thoughts around social doing. Sometimes it’s just too hard to make the time for yourself, which has been what is killing me and Indy Socks. So, it’s time to commit to it.
For me, I commit to people more so than myself, so what better way to make sure some progress is made than to meet someone to work on it with!
Looking forward to sharing a screen sometime soon!
Hey Mel!
Yeah – I quite like it. I’m sure we could do something remote…is there a service that lets you see a web-screen? The key is about setting the time “I know I’m working with Mel on Tuesday” so I don’t think the medium matters to much.
It would obviously help to have someone over your shoulder, but not required.
“… What are you doing on Tuesday mornings, between 9am and 12pm? …”
Goin’ to Steves joint to help him launch stuff… though the chances of making 0900 are more like 0930.
Thanks Peter.
Also – a quick note to everyone that I’m actually in Sydney this Tuesday (24/11/2009) so won’t be able to co-preneur.
See you the week after (01/12/2009)
“… Also – a quick note to everyone that I’m actually in Sydney this Tuesday (24/11/2009) so won’t be able to co-preneur. See you the week after (01/12/2009) …”
are you reschedule to another day next week as well?
“… Also – a quick note to everyone that I’m actually in Sydney this Tuesday (24/11/2009) so won’t be able to co-preneur. See you the week after (01/12/2009) …”
are you reschedule to another day to replace Tuesday next week?
You know how to gee’d me up Mr Hopkins. Tuesday, 15th December would be rad otherwise the Tuesday after (24th).W ill be in Melbs around the 8th. See you soon.
Mr McGrane – the feeling is mutual! Can’t wait to have you back on Melbournian soil. The 15th sounds awesome – lock it in!
Hi Peter,
No, at this stage I’m not replacing it next week.
The plan so far is that i’ll be at Inspire9 this Tuesday (1/12) with @rosshill but am not booked up yet for the 8th.
Fancy pairing up on the 8th? 0930 – whenever 🙂
@cameronmcgrane is locked in for the 15th.
dude, this is a great idea. from my experience with the yellow bird stuff, Ive really had to make an effort to fit it all in….you really do have to “schedule” in time to make progress….I can’t make the tuesday sessions but if your ahappy to do another session on a weekend in jan that would be sweet (Im not very productive after work)
Hey @leash, no worries. Let’s lock some time in on another day sometime soon.
Cheers!
Steve
Also, you can now find the Co-preneur Google Calander here – http://bit.ly/7Lsguh
Hey Steve,
Great concept – like your website and thinking 🙂
Cant do Tuesday im sorry but would love to catch up sometime for a chat. ive just moved back to Melbourne after 6 years in Byron!
I work on social initiatives which has taken me to some interesting places and given me some great insights.
Anyway, email me if you feel like catching up for a coffee sometime.
Cheers
Janet
“… but am not booked up yet for the 8th. …”
Okay @steve 8th it is. I’ll see if I can book it in now. Question though, “can you give an idea on what you want to achieve in the timeslot?”
Hi @peter – great!
I’m not sure as yet, it will depend on what I end up achieving tomorrow with @bucks but I assume that we should end up working on building out the website a little more, or perhaps the beginning/launch marketing strategy.
I’ll let you know closer to the date!
🙂
Wow this is a long thread – how has the copreneuring been going?
Does it work?
This sounds like a great idea. Has this been visited again?
Hi Marty,
Thanks for the comment. I haven’t really visited the actual act of coworking on this project since that year, but I still routinely try to pair on the various projects I’m working on. Keeps me focused 🙂