We want to start a business...

Hello. I'm David, and my wife, Robyn, and I want to start a business. We need a lot of help to do so, and we hope a lot of you will follow us through this process, and contribute.

Like many of you, we've never done this before, so hopefully we can learn from each other. Our plan is to document all of the steps we take to (try to) get this business open and running. The business plays on our love of physical exercise, the outdoors, and our desire to participate in challenges such as those found on the TV shows "Survivor," "The Amazing Race," and "Wipeout."

First, a little about me and my wife. In the profile is a photo of Robyn and me at one of our favorite places in the world (Disney World). We are 40-something and the parents of five precious children I grew up in Little Rock and reached my sports apex on the Junior Deputy Sheriff's YMCA football team (with Houston Nutt's little brother Dennis) in third grade. We won the city championship! I was a photographer for the Razorbacks my sophomore year in college and later transferred and graduated with a business degree from Baylor. (What a great year for both of my teams!) I went into communications, serving as a TV news reporter and then going into corporate communications. My varied career includes jobs at CNN, TCBY frozen yogurt, HealthSouth and 11 years with the Southern Baptist Convention. Most recently I worked at a new university in Texas for three years before being laid off in August.

Robyn grew up near San Francisco playing sports. She was a swimmer and played varsity volleyball, badminton and soccer. She went to Colorado College on a soccer scholarship and was an All-American goalie. After college she became a physical therapist and enjoyed doing athletic training. Her greatest reward, though, comes from staying home and raising our children.
Which brings us to the present. We would love to run our own business, and back in August when I was preparing to leave my job, we wrote a business plan and sent it to the CEO of Stephens Inc. Warren Stephens graciously wrote back saying they don't fund start-ups, but he gave us the name of a local venture capital group to contact. We did, but for whatever reason, they have not written back or returned our phone calls and e-mails. So, we decided to step into these uncharted digital waters to see if people would be interested and willing to help us.

I'm going to save the business specifics for tomorrow. Today, we are taking our first baby steps. Establishing this blog was the first step today. Whew, we're nervous. The second step: we're going to establish a website. We've done a little research and it looks like the GoDaddy.com people are as good as any, and cheaper.

We welcome and invite your feedback. Please leave comments and advice. Tomorrow we will let you know how the GoDaddy registration went.