blonde, going forward.

[EvilPie]

Tighty / Tikay

I have read several times on this thread that the Blonde business model is failing and that the reason it hasn't been changed is because of a lack of funds.

Tighty says that he has a new business model which includes updates and homepage that would work but would require a cash injection to allow for the changeover.

If this business model exists then I can see no good reason to not go to a bank and ask for a loan/overdraft to implement it. If it truly would work then you would have no problem securing the funds as long as you could show the bank that it would work.

If it works you would then make a decent profit and be able to pay back the bank. If it fails then it's never going to work so you go back to cardroom / forum with none of the added extras but at least you've given it a good go.

I understand that you don't want to owe any money but unfortunately it looks like it has to be done in this instance. No new business can start up without a cash injection and an existing business with a new business model is essentially a new business.

Are you hoping that with the reduced costs over the next few months that you will be able to build a fund with which to implement the new business model? If this is the case and the new business model is expected to make a profit then I honestly can't see a reason other than personal feelings to not get a £xxk loan to make this happen now.

The sooner the change is made the better if it is a genuinely good business plan which will turn Blonde in to a profit making organisation.

[byronkincaid]

Tighty / Tikay

I have read several times on this thread that the Blonde business model is failing and that the reason it hasn't been changed is because of a lack of funds.

Tighty says that he has a new business model which includes updates and homepage that would work but would require a cash injection to allow for the changeover.

If this business model exists then I can see no good reason to not go to a bank and ask for a loan/overdraft to implement it. If it truly would work then you would have no problem securing the funds as long as you could show the bank that it would work.

If it works you would then make a decent profit and be able to pay back the bank. If it fails then it's never going to work so you go back to cardroom / forum with none of the added extras but at least you've given it a good go.

I understand that you don't want to owe any money but unfortunately it looks like it has to be done in this instance. No new business can start up without a cash injection and an existing business with a new business model is essentially a new business.

Are you hoping that with the reduced costs over the next few months that you will be able to build a fund with which to implement the new business model? If this is the case and the new business model is expected to make a profit then I honestly can't see a reason other than personal feelings to not get a £xxk loan to make this happen now.

The sooner the change is made the better if it is a genuinely good business plan which will turn Blonde in to a profit making organisation.

i think what tighty said was that if they could go back 4 years then they would have been RB affiliates instead of site owners which would have made them a fortune if for example pretty much every time a blonde plays on any site blonde get a cut. however the decision was made to run a site and to become non RB affiliates with virgin, will hill poker heaven etc. Now if you were to become a RB affiliate today you have a problem that most blondes are already signed up with most sites so it would take a long time to attract new people to blonde who aren't already signed up everywhere. Hence the partnership with RTR instead of doing it inhouse I guess.

[TightEnd]

Hi Matt,

The answer to this lies in the major shareholder's deep seated aversion to debt. I am not criticising this, its ultra prudent. It does however mean that any growth we do acheive is genuinely organic, as we can't invest to grow, or get any money to invest until we grow!

To give you an idea of how this debt averse attitude impacts, the business or any individuals in it are not allowed to have a company credit card. In practice I wouldn't need one but it would have helped the updaters booking hotels, flights, trains etc to do so through a card rather than funding through their own accounts and invoicing blonde.

Away from the updates, I'm frankly not sure if a "blank sheet of paper" and develop it business model would appeal to the banks at a time when lending volumes are so low. In essence I'd be going to them and asking for money to trade until the new model was up and running, when the success of that new model - -- lets say as a super affiliate of Ladbrokes, with all our players cardroom volume on blonde going to them in exchange for a nice percentage of rake-- would be uncertain at best

In reality, I am not going to be able to borrow from the banks. The central problem here is unsupportive and silent shareholders (with obvious exceptions thank you tikay) who are unprepared to back the business..that rules out a share issue for example to raise money

What would I use investment for? Well possibly

Well for a start greater IT resources would be +EV in many areas
Update enhancements, technology etc
Card-room promotion
Advertising (not necessarily expensive print media) to promote blonde away from our current members

All this would be costed, with benefits quantified and performance measured against these metrics but its a non-starter sadly.

[byronkincaid]

Hi Matt,

The answer to this lies in the major shareholder's deep seated aversion to debt. I am not criticising this, its ultra prudent. It does however mean that any growth we do acheive is genuinely organic, as we can't invest to grow, or get any money to invest until we grow!

To give you an idea of how this debt averse attitude impacts, the business or any individuals in it are not allowed to have a company credit card. In practice I wouldn't need one but it would have helped the updaters booking hotels, flights, trains etc to do so through a card rather than funding through their own accounts and invoicing blonde.

Away from the updates, I'm frankly not sure if a "blank sheet of paper" and develop it business model would appeal to the banks at a time when lending volumes are so low. In essence I'd be going to them and asking for money to trade until the new model was up and running, when the success of that new model - -- lets say as a super affiliate of Ladbrokes, with all our players cardroom volume on blonde going to them in exchange for a nice percentage of rake-- would be uncertain at best

In reality, I am not going to be able to borrow from the banks. The central problem here is unsupportive and silent shareholders (with obvious exceptions thank you tikay) who are unprepared to back the business..that rules out a share issue for example to raise money

What would I use investment for? Well possibly

Well for a start greater IT resources would be +EV in many areas
Update enhancements, technology etc
Card-room promotion
Advertising (not necessarily expensive print media) to promote blonde away from our current members

All this would be costed, with benefits quantified and performance measured against these metrics but its a non-starter sadly.

why not just stop working on blonde, let the shareholders run it if they wish, if not let blonde die and you and tikay set up a new company without them?

[TightEnd]

Hi Matt,

The answer to this lies in the major shareholder's deep seated aversion to debt. I am not criticising this, its ultra prudent. It does however mean that any growth we do acheive is genuinely organic, as we can't invest to grow, or get any money to invest until we grow!

To give you an idea of how this debt averse attitude impacts, the business or any individuals in it are not allowed to have a company credit card. In practice I wouldn't need one but it would have helped the updaters booking hotels, flights, trains etc to do so through a card rather than funding through their own accounts and invoicing blonde.

Away from the updates, I'm frankly not sure if a "blank sheet of paper" and develop it business model would appeal to the banks at a time when lending volumes are so low. In essence I'd be going to them and asking for money to trade until the new model was up and running, when the success of that new model - -- lets say as a super affiliate of Ladbrokes, with all our players cardroom volume on blonde going to them in exchange for a nice percentage of rake-- would be uncertain at best

In reality, I am not going to be able to borrow from the banks. The central problem here is unsupportive and silent shareholders (with obvious exceptions thank you tikay) who are unprepared to back the business..that rules out a share issue for example to raise money

What would I use investment for? Well possibly

Well for a start greater IT resources would be +EV in many areas
Update enhancements, technology etc
Card-room promotion
Advertising (not necessarily expensive print media) to promote blonde away from our current members

All this would be costed, with benefits quantified and performance measured against these metrics but its a non-starter sadly.

why not just stop working on blonde, let the shareholders run it if they wish, if not let blonde die and you and tikay set up a new company without them?

We're getting to the nitty gritty of it now lol

Quite honestly this was suggested and discussed beginning around April last year

What can I say lol? er, ultra prudence and morals got in the way. I can't really say a lot more I am afraid

[EvilPie]

Hi Matt,

The answer to this lies in the major shareholder's deep seated aversion to debt. I am not criticising this, its ultra prudent. It does however mean that any growth we do acheive is genuinely organic, as we can't invest to grow, or get any money to invest until we grow!

To give you an idea of how this debt averse attitude impacts, the business or any individuals in it are not allowed to have a company credit card. In practice I wouldn't need one but it would have helped the updaters booking hotels, flights, trains etc to do so through a card rather than funding through their own accounts and invoicing blonde.

Away from the updates, I'm frankly not sure if a "blank sheet of paper" and develop it business model would appeal to the banks at a time when lending volumes are so low. In essence I'd be going to them and asking for money to trade until the new model was up and running, when the success of that new model - -- lets say as a super affiliate of Ladbrokes, with all our players cardroom volume on blonde going to them in exchange for a nice percentage of rake-- would be uncertain at best

In reality, I am not going to be able to borrow from the banks. The central problem here is unsupportive and silent shareholders (with obvious exceptions thank you tikay) who are unprepared to back the business..that rules out a share issue for example to raise money

What would I use investment for? Well possibly

Well for a start greater IT resources would be +EV in many areas
Update enhancements, technology etc
Card-room promotion
Advertising (not necessarily expensive print media) to promote blonde away from our current members

All this would be costed, with benefits quantified and performance measured against these metrics but its a non-starter sadly.

why not just stop working on blonde, let the shareholders run it if they wish, if not let blonde die and you and tikay set up a new company without them?

LOL. Beat me to it.

[EvilPie]

Tighty / Tikay

I have read several times on this thread that the Blonde business model is failing and that the reason it hasn't been changed is because of a lack of funds.

Tighty says that he has a new business model which includes updates and homepage that would work but would require a cash injection to allow for the changeover.

If this business model exists then I can see no good reason to not go to a bank and ask for a loan/overdraft to implement it. If it truly would work then you would have no problem securing the funds as long as you could show the bank that it would work.

If it works you would then make a decent profit and be able to pay back the bank. If it fails then it's never going to work so you go back to cardroom / forum with none of the added extras but at least you've given it a good go.

I understand that you don't want to owe any money but unfortunately it looks like it has to be done in this instance. No new business can start up without a cash injection and an existing business with a new business model is essentially a new business.

Are you hoping that with the reduced costs over the next few months that you will be able to build a fund with which to implement the new business model? If this is the case and the new business model is expected to make a profit then I honestly can't see a reason other than personal feelings to not get a £xxk loan to make this happen now.

The sooner the change is made the better if it is a genuinely good business plan which will turn Blonde in to a profit making organisation.

i think what tighty said was that if they could go back 4 years then they would have been RB affiliates instead of site owners which would have made them a fortune if for example pretty much every time a blonde plays on any site blonde get a cut. however the decision was made to run a site and to become non RB affiliates with virgin, will hill poker heaven etc. Now if you were to become a RB affiliate today you have a problem that most blondes are already signed up with most sites so it would take a long time to attract new people to blonde who aren't already signed up everywhere. Hence the partnership with RTR instead of doing it inhouse I guess.

This makes perfect sense. Thanks for the info.

[EvilPie]

Hi Matt,

The answer to this lies in the major shareholder's deep seated aversion to debt. I am not criticising this, its ultra prudent. It does however mean that any growth we do acheive is genuinely organic, as we can't invest to grow, or get any money to invest until we grow!

To give you an idea of how this debt averse attitude impacts, the business or any individuals in it are not allowed to have a company credit card. In practice I wouldn't need one but it would have helped the updaters booking hotels, flights, trains etc to do so through a card rather than funding through their own accounts and invoicing blonde.

I'm afraid this is such an old fashioned attitude it's unreal. I, like you am not knocking it btw. In my own business which was started up many moons ago by my father we aren't allowed company credit cards. He is very much a "cash man".

When he retires I can "do whatever I want" but until then credit cards etc. are a no no.

Hi Matt,

Away from the updates, I'm frankly not sure if a "blank sheet of paper" and develop it business model would appeal to the banks at a time when lending volumes are so low.

I realised this as I was typing. It's definitely not a good time to approach banks for anything. Maybe a year ago it was easy but now your business model would have to pretty much water tight.

In reality, I am not going to be able to borrow from the banks. The central problem here is unsupportive and silent shareholders (with obvious exceptions thank you tikay) who are unprepared to back the business..that rules out a share issue for example to raise money

What a nightmare situation. I can't think of a good reason bearing this in mind to continue Blondepoker.com

Ever thought of setting up Blondepoker.co.uk?

Sounds like quite a catchy name to me. I'm sure you'd get lots of new members quite quickly.

[Graham C]

Good posts Evilpie.  I agree that setting up elsewhere would be a better solution than sticking with the existing shareholders that don't care about their business.   I don't think you'll get away with simply using the same name but dot co dot uk though, I'm sure there's laws about that. 

If you wanted a business card, what's stopping you from getting a personal card and using it for business purposes only?  It would save you the added costs involved with business cards.  Can't see that this is a major point though, more of an example of the constraints that you are having to run under?

[AndrewT]

Can someone please PM me the URL of where the new People's Breakaway Republic of Blondepoker will be, and I'll see you there later on.

[TightEnd]

Ever thought of setting up Blondepoker.co.uk?

Actually we don't own blondepoker.co.uk. Back in 2005 when blonde was starting the powers that be didn't secure it and one of the domain sharks stepped in and bought it

Cost of acquiring it now is unhelpful!

[EvilPie]

Can someone please PM me the URL of where the new People's Breakaway Republic of Blondepoker will be, and I'll see you there later on.

Sorry you're in the wrong club.

We're the "Breakaway People's Republic of Blondepoker".

I hope somebody gets that  

[AndrewT]

Can someone please PM me the URL of where the new People's Breakaway Republic of Blondepoker will be, and I'll see you there later on.

Sorry you're in the wrong club.

We're the "Breakaway People's Republic of Blondepoker".

I hope somebody gets that  

That's OK - just as long as there's no members of the Popular People's Republic around.

Splitters!

[EvilPie]

If you wanted a business card, what's stopping you from getting a personal card and using it for business purposes only?  It would save you the added costs involved with business cards.  Can't see that this is a major point though, more of an example of the constraints that you are having to run under?

This is what I have to do which is essentially the same as what Blonde have done.

However the costs associated with a business credit card are nowhere near the costs associated with administrating expenses claims at the end of every month. It just makes sense to have a company credit card.

[EvilPie]

Can someone please PM me the URL of where the new People's Breakaway Republic of Blondepoker will be, and I'll see you there later on.

Sorry you're in the wrong club.

We're the "Breakaway People's Republic of Blondepoker".

I hope somebody gets that  

That's OK - just as long as there's no members of the Popular People's Republic around.

Splitters!

Thanks mate. Made my day.