Often it will simply be the case that you cannot see your way from the start to the finish of the project. In that case it's best to to get started anyway. The route will work itself out.

I am entering this process with a pencil and an A3 sheet of paper. I keep a small stack of A3 sheets under my keyboard for exactly this purpose. All I have to do is move my keyboard to one side and voila – instant flow chart.

I have no idea how many steps this is going to take so I label the beginning and the end as Alpha and Omega. Alpha goes in the top left hand corner and is just a wish list of things I want.

I then put exactly the same list at the bottom in the mega section. The idea being that by the time I have finished the project the wish list will have become reality.

The wishlist

1. Brand
2. Website
3. E-commerce platform
4. Inventory management
5. Multisite sales
6. Multisite inventory management
7. integrated Mailing list

Reading through this list, the project now appears straightforward.

i want to create a brand which I can apply to various products and then sell those products through as many channels as possible. I want to make sure that I never oversell, irrespective of how many channels that I am using. Finally I want all of the channels to feed into a customer mailing list that I can then use that list to push repeat sales.

Once the list is finished I pencil out a sequence. I am almost painfully linear in my thinking, so for me to get anything done it has to be one thing at a time. Luckily this is exactly the kind of project that divides itself up into clearly delineated stages.

The one thing that will require parallel development is the mailing list. I think that I will have to either continually update that functionality throughout each stage of the project, or simply wait until the end and add the mailing list when everything else is in place.

Another decision that I need to make is whether I want to start flying the plane before it is completely built. In other words I could start selling once the initial website and e-commerce system has been put in place. Alternatively I could work with virtual sales until I had worked out and created the entire multi-channel system.

That's not a decision I have to make just yet so I am going to make a note of that and move on. I write any notes in top right hand corner of the sheet.

Of course there is another parallel project that I will need to do. I will need to source products that are desirable and which conform to UK product standards. I will also need to create process for refunds and returns.

You can't sell what you don't have

The biggest technical challenge will be to prevent overselling. Say I have 100 T-shirts and I sell them all on Ebay and Amazon at the same time. Every day, on average, I sell 8 T-shirts on Ebay and 4 on Amazon. Every day my local inventory reduces by 12. After 8 days I have sold 96 T-Shirts. Now I have 4 shirts left and all 4 are still listed on both Ebay and Amazon. On day 9 I sell out all 4 on both sites.

I have just sold 8 T-shirts when I only have 4 to deliver. That's a good way to get a bad reputation.

You could always just keep a close eye on your stock levels and change the stock manually. However, it would be better if the system would recognise a critical limit (lets say 80% of sales) and reduce your sales to just one single channel after that limit has been reached.

This would mean that you would never oversell because of multiple-channels.

Paper is only the beginning

Having sketched out the plan I have taken some pictures of it and will re-create it digitally before proceeding.

I know plenty of people who would use one of many flow chart tools to create this in the first place. However, I prefer to do with pencil and paper for the first draft. I just find it quicker and easier.

So having laid out a rough roadmap I will move on to the next stage: creating a brand.