lets start at the begining

This document is a basic out line of the OM4CP online marketing tactic with links to blog posts and web pages where the conversation is expanded.  these issues are in  no particular order and  a new document will be created some time in October 2015 which will have a defined workflow and logical progression of how things should be done in order to get the best results.

this project (OM4CP) came about because I need to get my act together and develop a product that I can sell and earn a constant income. I was busy with my book on FUFISM, and thought I would have it complete by end June 2015, how ever it is now (early August 2015) still not complete, and I have zero financial income, so I am fishing and selling fish to cover up some expenses.

I am still writing the book on FUFISM, but not spending as much time there as I would like.   Selling the FUFISM marketing philosophy to small businesses is not as easy as I thought it would be, and I have had very limited success.  

I have put a blog om4cp.blogspot.com in place without any documentation, just like my other blog 4ubrand.blogspot.com also has no documentation. I am a very bad business man….

I tell all my clients, and also write in my blogs and social media posts that one must document everything you do, but it appears that I do not practice what I preach….  hence this document, which is the beginning of me documenting everything I do.  I know that this is going to be a pain in the buttt,  but I need to start somewhere, and today right now is the first steps…

this document will be published to the web as  Google docs page, (only edit... this is now a blog) and I will place the occasional link within the social media space to this document.  If you want to chat or get in touch with me please do so by using the social media.  My preferd platform is Google plus, where you can find me at   https://plus.google.com/u/0/+FrankGainsford

I have a profile over at https://about.me/info4u where all my social media links can be found in one place.  I will be updating this and using this service a bit more over the next few weeks.  I already have more than 75 000 (seventy five thousand) followers on G+, and most of these followers came about due to the circle sharing tactic, so my view count is not as high as it should be for that number of followers.  view count on Tuesday 4 August 2015 = 2,648,731 and counting.

I am a bad example, as I do not practice what I preach, or as one Mark Traphagen says… EAT YOUR OWN DOG FOOD. Well from today, right now I aim to change that, and will be writing here as I do things, and placing links in this document to what I have done, where I have posted on social media, discussing why, along with some aims, objectives, intent or purpose

In Business documentation is the thing that causes me to have fright attacks, as I have been avoiding documentation like one would avoid a plague.  That has to change.

I am already thinking about quitting… as keeping records makes me feel guilty, of what I do not know… so If you are following me and reading this and it is out of date,   you know what to do…   GIVE ME A CALL ON MY G+ PROFILE AND ASK WHATS UP>>>>>>.

I am too easily distracted, and often fall deep into rabbit holes  and can't find my way out.  When I do step out, I am not in the frame of mind to finish what I started, and then just end up reading more G+ posts that are in my stream.  I started following a few shared circles way back when, and have added a considerable number of people to my follow list since.  I currently have 3974 folks / pages in my  circles.

I need to do an audit of all my online work, and this is going to be a scary thing, as I have done so much work that is undocumented, and left bits and pieces of things all over the place.  this comes from the days when I started a company called info4u with my younger sister way back in 2000 to do online marketing in a small town called Mtubatuba in North east Zululand, just 25 KM west of the village of St. Lucia.

Things were going quite well and I also had a small business on the side making and selling a chilli paste.  I had three ladies who used to cook for me and they worked monday to Friday with me doing all the batch mixing and the SECRET herbs and spices part.  I used to drive a RENAULT 5 (a red one) until I got horribly DRUNK one thursday night at the weekly party held at the Umfolozi Country club where I used to play lawn bowls.

In those days getting totaly out of it, and driving to St. Lucia to have an after party at 3 bells in the morning was the standard fair for thursday night parties.  The country club would be deserted on Friday nights, as everybody would be in St. lucia, drinking and having a good time.

Back in those years St. Lucia was a thriving holiday destination, and there would be more than 100 boats on the lake, and if one went down to the beach to do some rock and surf fishing there would be more than 200 bakies parked on the short stretch of beach (about 7Km) between the swimming beach and First rocks.  During August there would be more than one thousand bakies on the beach at sunrise, and every body would be catching their share of nice sized shad.

St Lucia was a really great spot to be, and I would sell quite a bit of chilli paste every week end, enough to party till the cows came home, and then some extra.  Money was flowing like water, and life was really good.  We had a few online marketing customers, and these paid all the bills then a few pennies extra were left over to keep my sister happy.

Then there was the fishing…..  from June through to December the shad were quite hectic, and we often sold many more fish than we were legally allowed to catch, and these just supplemented the drinking and party money.  life was truly awesome back in the very early 2000’s until end 2002 early 2003 when the impact of the government legislation to close the beaches of the Elephant Coast to reasonable motor vehicle access.  we called this the 4xr4 ban, and that was a real problem.  This legislation destroyed the tourism industry along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa and tourism within North East Zululand has till today not recovered.   I spent an awful lot of time and money fighting this 4x4 ban,  but got no where.  Those who supported me in my efforts to fight the 4x4 ban had many political problems with tax inspectors, labour inspectors, health inspectors and many other  issues with certification and accreditation of their business, as this was a government organised  tactic to destroy the tourism industry of the Elephant coast, and as I am sure you know corruption and skiniving is a big issue here in South Africa.

I know this sounds a bit crazy, but when one looks at the issues that went down, and how many tourism businesses closed down within the area then it is very disturbing.  In  2004 KZN tourism did a study of this issue, and their findings showed that more than 20 000 (twenty thousand)  folks lost their jobs due to this legislation which prevented 4x4 vehicle access to the Elephant Coast beaches. read here   This paper (occasional paper 20 by KZN Tourism) was ignored by the government who was at that time in the process of tightening up the legislation associated with the 4x4 ban, as the residents of the village of St. Lucia were in the process of taking legal action against the government.

Unfortunately the residents of St. Lucia left it too long, and the damage was done. St lucia turned into a ghost town, and the South African Government was happy.  They could now market the area as an international tourism destination where the locals would be excluded, as the local tourism industry had relied on the beach access  and boat fishing opportunities on lake St. Lucia which were now non existent.

My chilli paste business failed, my tourism marketing business failed, fishing became very difficult due to the beach access issues, and thousands were left destitute.  Fortunately I had family that helped me out, but many others were not so lucky.  In the early days I tried to form an organization called ARBU or the Association of Recreational Beach Users, which failed miserably I have since tried to revive this organization, but  not been very successful.  thinking about this, this failure is connected to me having an allergy to documentation…

any business or organization that has poor or no documentation is doomed to failure.

Rabbit holes are dangerous things, and I need to keep out of them some how…  you see The 4x4 ban and its issues distracted me from today's issues, which is the beginning of an audit of all my work.   

Decision to turn this into a personal blog that supports all the work I do, and link this to my G+ profile….  also no editing and back tracking, so things may not read logically...
 

The 4x4 ban and its related issues is still a problem, and I still get phone calls from guys all over the country asking me to take up the issue once again. I have a petition at avvaz and if that petition gets enough signatures, then I will take up the issue of the 4x4e ban and lost tourism once again.

In the mean time I need to get the OM4CP project functional and generating an income for me.  I have put a blog (om4cp.blogspot.com ) in place and started posting there.  I will add each project as a page in this blog, so as to keep it ever green.  this will fall under the projects page here