Entrepreneur journal: Tina Cannon, Co-Founder and CEO, PetsMD

TORONTO (Reuters) - Rising healthcare costs and 10 percent unemployment have many Americans postponing visits to the doctor, but that thinking does not apply to their beloved pets. That's why Tina Cannon and co-founder Christi Scovel launched PetsMD.com www.petsmd.com, which they believe, is the first online veterinary booking service in the U.S.

The following is a five-day journal written by PetsMD.com co-founder and CEO Tina Cannon exclusively for Reuters.com:

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By Tina Cannon

Day 1: Monday, November 9

Even if you are the "boss" Mondays are not fun. We made a tough choice this past week and let a few staffers go. Nothing they did or didn't do, but there's only so much cash in the bank. We need to make a strong advertising move and to do so requires funds and working capital. Sadly, it comes at the expense of a few staffers. Mondays are rough, but this Monday seems a little tougher than others. My business partners Christi Scovel and Marcos Canchola equally feel the burden of this particular Monday.

Two months ago we wrapped up a new Austin mentor program called the Capital Factory. I have to say that the advice and guidance from the mentor group was remarkable and without it I think we would not have learned to be as agile. The biggest lesson from my experience was to hurry up and fail. Meaning: do, change, move, try, fire, hire, test etc. Do the idea or plan that is in your head and quit over-thinking. It was from that advice that we are learning to do just that.

Met with Guy MacNeill, our VP of Marketing today. We are putting together our marketing and customer-acquisition strategy this week. We need to layout exactly where every dime will go, what value it will bring and make sure it's in line with the budgetary limitations.

I have to get financials and all my assumptions put together for an investor we are meeting with this week. He's a very talented individual and if I can't get him to invest cash, then I will try to get him to invest his time to help mentor us and get us to growth stage faster.

Ran into a guy in the elevator in my office building as I was heading out; he is a courier I see regularly. For the first time he spoke to me today. (I should confess I wear a PetsMD t- shirt nearly everywhere otherwise you might find this scenario odd.) The courier told me, "Hey, I see you a lot, and I went to your site yesterday." Here is where I sometimes get nervous, but he added: "I really dig it! Totally helped me with my dog." You have to know that we are based in Austin, so for a guy here to say he really "digs it" means a bunch!

Even though Mondays can be rough, it's the small moments like that elevator chat that reaffirms to me that we are on the right track. Maybe I should ride up and down on that elevator more when I am having a bad day!

Day 2: Tuesday, November 10

Came in bright and early this morning; seems that if I get started early there are less distractions. Coffee: it may be the best thing ever invented.

Getting things together today to talk to another potential partner. We are approaching them for a potential merger agreement. They like what we offer and we can really benefit from their position. Nice when it's a "win-win," as it's always easier to sell the concept.

We presented to an investor group the other day and had several bites. The plan now is to try to connect with the ones that expressed interest. In this way, investors are a lot like herding cats. One of our mentors at the Capital Factory said it best: "Investors have the attention span of a squirrel; make it short and easy for them to understand - AKA one nut at a time."

Had to call the bank today. Seems they messed up our payroll this past Friday and I am yet to see the correction. Funny, they can overdraw my payroll account and be fine with it going on for a few days but if I am at fault they hit me with a truckload of charges! After hanging up with the "escalation team" they will correct in two days and credit my account for next months' payroll service. Not bad. I can now let that stress go.

We have a call with a "major pet retailer" tomorrow. They responded to me a great deal quicker than I expected. Keep your fingers crossed!

Day 3: Wednesday, November 11

Drive into the parking lot today, seems oddly empty for a Wednesday. Turns out it's Veterans Day. In startup land there are no holidays, there are no days off. There is however, lots of coffee. Thank you to the brave soldiers that made it possible for people like me to dream. Thank you.

One not so fun part of entrepreneurship - no insurance. My co-founder, Christi Scovel is feeling under the weather today and called a doctor to see what the out-of-pocket costs would be. After a 10-minute runaround, they still couldn't give her a quote or range. Funny, you can take your car to the mechanic and get a quote, but yet a skilled, highly-defined industry cannot price out a visit, lab-work, and script! Well, she is off to the doctor - I will tell you the mystery price tomorrow!

Talked to a major industry player, who wants to talk about a business development deal. They want a proposal ASAP. I am not 100 percent on even how to frame it or monetize the deal, but I cannot let this opportunity pass me up. So, I just put out an emergency call to my Business Advisory Board (if you don't have one, get one ASAP! Get straight shooters that call a spade a spade and will be brutally honest with you.) I need to get their advice on how to frame a high-level proposal and what options to present to the potential partner by Monday. Could be a huge deal for us if we can land it.

Day 4: Thursday, November 12

Two words: 1. kidney, 2. stones. That is what the doctor told Christi. Christi's doctor is great and knows that she is a self-payer these days and recently started this small business. The doctor is a small business owner herself, so she gets it and worked with Christi to find the most cost-effective way to treat her. Still, kidney stones, really? Argh... She will be back tomorrow, I hope!

I spent the night revisiting all of my financials and assumptions spreadsheets. I guess college did work out to be useful; I learned how to stay up all night cramming for a meeting the next day. Should be worth it though as we have an investor meeting at 11 a.m.

Just got out of a meeting with our lead investor and a potential new investor; a really good discussion. He looks to be a genuinely nice and interested guy. Hard to find these days in the investment world, as most we talk to are, how should I say, very proud to be themselves.

Headed to lunch - great sushi down the block!

We took a call today with a potential integration partner, solid lead here. Now the technology folks on our team can talk to the techno folks on their team… in a language only they know. We should be able to wrap the deal up sooner than later.

There is a guy singing at the bottom of our building, I can hear him through the walls. He is one of the "street-smart" folks that roam the downtown Austin area. Not a bad voice but it has seemed to make it hard for me to concentrate on my banking entries!

I pitched 2 weeks ago at the Austin Innotech Conference - we were selected as one of Austin's top emerging companies. Anyway, after the pitch I had a Twitter invite from someone in the audience. She is a local businesswoman and wanted to take me to lunch. Sounded like a sales pitch, so I asked her if there was any real meaning behind the offer. Apparently she just wanted to network with other strong female businesswomen in Austin. Still sounds suspect; I will let you know tomorrow if she tried to sell me!

Long day… plan to spend the evening watching Grey's Anatomy!

Day 5: Friday, November 13

It is a foggy Friday in Austin; strange drive into the office. Seemed like I was alone on the roads, couldn't see anything or anyone around me. Metaphoric maybe! Sometimes as a business owner you can get wrapped up in your own world; not seeing the proverbial forest for the trees. The fog this morning was a good reminder of the need for greater clarity. I am off to grab my cup of Joe and re-read my initial business strategy plan. I need to make sure that I have not gotten lost in the fog and am staying true to our original goals with PetsMD.

I will be spending the better part of today and most likely Saturday putting together the business development proposal that I'm sending out to the "major pet retailer" I talked about earlier this week. Need to reach out to some of my Capital Factory mentors who are firecrackers at this for guidance.

Christi is working with a few vendors for potential integration. Albeit from home, as she is still out with kidney stones… poor thing! Her years in the veterinary field are so valuable to this company. People always ask me, "How did the idea for PetsMD come about?" My answer (always the same): Christi's phone would ring all the time with friends and family calling about pet-health related questions, like my dog is doing this, my cat has a bump and she would go to great lengths explaining either what course of action their vet may take or explaining what their vet said to them. I asked her once, "Why don't you tell them to Google it?" Her response surprised me: "There really aren't trustworthy, credible sites with vet- approved content out there. Sure there are blogs and whatnot, but nothing I, as a professional, feel comfortable recommending to my clients to read." As a businesswoman, I put two and two together, and about 3 months later PetsMD was born.

Lunch meeting today with the mystery invite from the Innotech Conference (see yesterday's post). So it turns out it was not a sales pitch by any means. The woman I met with is a seasoned executive - owner of several very successful businesses - and wanted to connect me to "players" in the Austin area that I might benefit from knowing. Nice, eh? As it turns out, I have had a few lunches like this in the past six months. Seems that many female CEO's reach out to us "newbies" to see what support they can lend. So, I guess you could say there is an unofficial "girls-club!"

I will spend the rest of the day today pouring over the proposal for next week making revision after revision. Then I will need to send around to my partners for their input/edits, then redraft again. Should be a fun evening.

Well I just chatted with another Capital Factory CEO from Cubit Planning, She is organizing a girl's night out for all the Capital Factory company's female co-founders and mentors. Seems that the boys organized a poker night last week and so Kristen Carney from Cubit has put together what looks to be a fun way for us ladies to blow off some steam, Texas- style. We're going to the pistol range! Yee-haw! Should be a good time and after months and months of endless days and sleepless nights, this is a much needed event! Bang-bang!