blonde Update - The Business

OK, the business.

blonde is actually the trading name of "Blondepoker web ltd".

As I previously reported, we carry no overdraft, bank loans, nor will we ever do so. We do hold a small cash balance, sufficient for our short term needs.

We only have one debt, & we are almost in a position to clear that off, certainly it will be fully paid within 4 weeks, & I plan to pay off 50% immediately. This excludes monies owed to shareholders, which consists of unpaid salary to Dave & myself, & unpaid expenses to myself. So, financially, whilst not rolling in cash, we are sound. BPL Cardroom Deposits are, of course, held by Bowmans, not us.

There has been an astonishing amount interest from would-be investors in blonde. We now have 9 expressions of interest, amazing, given that we never sought any! All 9 are credible investors. They range from blondes who'd just like to invest, to major poker industry companies (2), a poker-related business (1), a publishing company, and two companies who believe they can "bolt-on" added-value to blonde. I am, slowly, working my way through meeting all these people, & I have met & had preliminary discussions with four so far, & am meeting two more this week. Two "senior" blondes have also offered to assist, one by investing & helping run the business, & the other has offered his time for free on a trial basis, pursuant to coming on board properly further down the line. I have also been contacted this morning by an Online Cardroom whose client base is predominatly American.

Do we need to sell a piece of blonde? Well, NOT to raise cash, we don't - our finances will be robust quite soon, & are not bad right now. But if they can bring the Management Expertise we need, or an "angle" we don't possess, a way of accelerating member sign-up, then obviously it would make sense.

We did agree, some time ago, to sell 5% to an investor - one of Europe's best performing poker players - &, subject to contract, this deal will go through this week. I think it's important to have some heavyweight "names" from the industry on board. We already have, as you know, Harry Demetriou, and of course, Dave remains a shareholder.

I need to appoint someone from within to sell advertising space on the Main Site, I just don't have the time or skillset.

Overall, I think the Company has a lot of work to do before we can say it's where we want it to be, but the signs are all pointing the right way, & I'm very confident that if the Team - the Staff - continue to perform as they have, we will be just fine.

Priorities are.....

Resolve the Web Guys situation. (Plan agreed, but not implemented). This will enable us to get SEO sorted. Traffic wil then rise, BPL revenues will increase, & we can then charge more for advertising.

We shall be changing the name & url of BPL (the Cardroom) to "blondepoker" quite soon.

Once the Finances are in better shape, I'd like to find a way to pay, even if only a nominal amount, the Mods for their work.

Long-Term, like any business, it HAS to pay for itself, no question about it - that's a legal obligation we have to all Shareholders. I am wholly confident we can. blonde is the new kid on the block really - not 2 years old yet, but it's come a long way already. It can go much further, too, but key to that is retaining the "community feel" on the Forum, & we will not do anything which threatens that. The Forum is KEY to everything we do, which is why we are so determined to keep it "just so".

I think it's fair to say, it's been emotional.......