I had no funding, no brand, no product—just a vision and a passion.  I barely had friends in the San Francisco Bay Area (where I lived), let alone a community of connections to tap into.  Where would I find like-minded individuals who would be willing to contribute their talents to get my dream off the ground, for no pay?

Craigslist!

If you are not familiar with Craigslist.com (or .org), I highly suggest checking it out.   It is a great resource for just about anything you need…including human beings.   There is a lot of bartering and such that goes on in the Craigslist community.   I have found everything from jobs to housing to the man in my life (at that time), on this website.  Why not? So I posted the ad below [abridged] in the “creative” section:

“attribute magazine is a concept under development. It will be an Internet based publication, which will be staffed by intelligent, ethical people. We are seeking creative and quality individuals to assist with the start-up and expedition…The basic mission of the publication will be to showcase the “attributes” of our generation to the betterment of society and the world…This is a start up. We have the domain rights, passion, editing, writing skills and freedom…We are seeking others who can help get her up in the following fields: IT, design, marketing/advertising, contributing writers/editors, photographers, etc…We are currently based in Oakland, CA but are open to interested parties located anywhere…that is what is glorious about the Internet! We can all work together and not be in one place…Please send replies, which include a brief statement about yourself, talents/skills, contact information to this posting. No samples unless in the form of a hyperlink. We will provide an email address after reviewing your info.”

I initially began the publication with a focus on featuring solely Generation X related topics/subjects mainly because that is my generation and what I can relate to most. Also because despite our success, we are nearly forgotten in society.  (More on how/why the focus changed, down the road.)

I was surprised at the number of responses I received.  Of course, not all of them panned out but within two months I had met with and gathered a group of about 8 people who seemed seriously interested in taking on this challenge, and who showed up to a meeting to discuss all things attribute.

Out of that small group, only the writers and an editor, ended up sticking around for more than a couple of months.   The writers were fabulous and contributed heartfelt and interesting pieces.  I will forever be grateful to them…

I had hoped I would find someone who would be interested in doing some networking, marketing and business development but that didn’t transpire until I got further down the road.  I worked diligently to pull this all together.

Note: Solopreneurism is a huge learning experience!

Slowly and surely, I had developed a concrete plan for what I wanted this thing to look, smell and sound like.  It was coming together…but my personal life wasn’t. My time in CA was about to come to an abrupt halt. I had a tough decision to make as my unemployment was running out and I still hadn’t found a full time job.   It looked like this: Be homeless in California or move back (kicking and screaming) to Florida and stay with my mom until things turned around.

I CHOSE not to be homeless.

I packed up, put what wouldn’t fit in the back of my small SUV in storage…with boyfriend in tow to help drive…left for Florida in mid May.   By the time I arrived in Florida (my car broke down outside of Los Angeles as what I call a “parting gift” from the state of California), I was actually so grateful for some peace, quiet and less hustle and bustle…I was feeling better about my decision soon afterward.  I actually found a job within a few weeks; a 3/4 time but better than zero time, job. I then settled in and buckled down to get this magazine going…

I needed a website designer and I needed one for cheap. The search began, as did the headache…You see, initially, the boyfriend  (who works in IT) had said ‘yes’ to doing this for me.  But, what he wasn’t telling me was he couldn’t figure out the code needed to build the site on the Joomla CMS platform (PHP & CSS). He only knew html.  So after a month he still had nothing.

Unfortunately, we missed our projected June 1st launch date and I “relieved” him of his responsibility as our web designer. Not too long after this, our relationship ended.  I mention this only because I went through a lot of emotional distress after the break-up and I believe that having the magazine to focus on, was sort of my saving grace.  If I hadn’t have had something this enormous to distract myself with, and God’s grace,  I may not have gotten through it as well.  I thought I was going to marry this man, despite our issues and our long distance relationship, so the loss was quite substantial for me.

So…back to the drawing board I went and I turned, once again, to Craigslist for help.  I found a guy in Alabama who was willing to build the site for what I could afford and who knew Joomla.  Great, right?  Not so fast!  This is actually where the real headache ensued because this person didn’t communicate, did what he wanted despite my giving him distinct instructions (I knew enough about web design to know what I wanted).  He was given a design he said he couldn’t code into a working site so we came up with a new template.  There was a lot of work involved. a lot of time involved. Yet, he would get something nearly completed, just as I wanted it, and then change it for no reason.  I was at wit’s end.

Finally! I got a finished product and the web guy at least helped get the first issue up, which happened in mid-July of 2008—but he left me with no instructions on how to actually use the CMS (content management system)…and left some important things turned off in the back-end admin site (in the CMS).

We had a site. A product. Something to show for all our efforts, all my stressing out and loss of hair from pulling it out…just kidding, I didn’t literally pull it out, but it felt like it at times. The new dilemma: Figuring out how to use the site/admin site and would I get it done in two weeks, in time for the next issue.

All I can say is how thankful I am that I am intelligent enough to figure out most anything put before me. Now I had to learn something completely foreign to me and fast…

Next time: Through trial, error and lot’s of late night’s…I get an education in CMS, searching for more writers and happily getting traffic to the site.