The story of ResIM dates back much farther than five years, but it was on June 5th 2005 that Brendan and I decided it was time to take this thing seriously and put a concerted effort toward making a go of it.
We're still working on that.
Here's part 1 of 2, starting in 2001:
2001 - 2004: Visuasite, 30K, and Edward Fuels
The idea for what is now ResIM started in an office building attached to Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton, Ontario. By coincidence, Brendan and I both landed summer internship positions working on an Intranet project through CCAC Huron for what was then the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. Brendan was 18 and in Grade 12 and at 20 I had just finished my
first year of college.
Brendan was working on building Flash navigation pieces and I was creating landing page graphics when the idea occurred to me that we could likely take the skills we were honing at the CCAC and start a little web business on the side. I approached Brendan with my pitch ('hey, wanna start a business') and the first incarnation of ResIM, called 'Visuasite' made its debut.
Above is an informal business agreement signed by Brendan and I when Visuasite was formed. The date on the document is August 7th 2001. Our first business card is pictured too.
I remember spending much of my time at the CCAC listening to music on Winamp and working on my first-ever business plan. In it, I estimated our annual sales in the first year to be $30K. Funny to think that in 2010 $30K seems to be the average size of a ResIM project.
To meet my sales target I started looking around at local businesses and contacting the ones who had less-than-perfect public web sites (an easy thing to do in 2001). One of the first emails I sent was to Edward Fuels, a former employer of mine in high school. I was a little shocked when I actually received a positive reply and they agreed to undertake a redesign for the princely sum of $2,000.00.
After graduation I worked as a brand and web marketer while Brendan finished college in Oshawa. We continued to land projects with increasing budgets and eventually reached a point where it was time to consider serious next steps.
We've kept an archive of every ResIM blog post since 2004. Check it out.
2005: Lawyers, Accountants, and an Intranet Project
In 2005 Edward Fuels hired us to develop and deploy an intranet solution -- our biggest project to date and a key source of the funds needed to cover salaries and legal costs. With a revamped business plan in hand I met with an accountant who approved my figures and wished us luck. Helpful, sort of.
A brief Google search pointed me in the direction of one 'David Fysh' for incorporation services in London (good thing we didn't judge him by his web site) To top it off, Mr. Fysh had a sign on his office door that read 'There are plenty of lawyers in the sea, but only one Fysh.' (I couldn't make this up).
On June 5th 2005 Resolution Interactive Media Inc. was born.
In the fall of 2005 I took the bold step and gave notice to my manager that I'd be leaving to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams. 24 years old and walking away from a $65,000/year salary with stability and full benefits. I was ready to get started.
The second part of our story includes a break-in, our first employee, and the project that really got things rolling. Stay tuned.