In the last episode of Startup Daddy, Scott Stratten got me thinking about why someone should consider not starting a business. He said that nobody really talks about it and he’s right.  So I’m saying it now. You may not be cut out to be an entrepreneur.  If you’re not, you should not start your own business.  If you hate your job, get another job.  Here are some things you need to consider before you take even one sip of the entrepreneurial Kool-aid.

• Starting a business is risky.

Starting and owning your own business can be very risky.  Of course the case can be made that in today’s corporate environment, it’s even riskier to have a job controlled by others, but that’s not important right now.  It’s one thing to have a business that provides supplemental income, but it’s another universe when your family’s present and future is depending on you and you alone.  If you are living paycheck to paycheck, you should not quit to start a business!

One of my best friends is way smarter than I am, but when he was faced with a career crossroads recently he decided not to hang his shingle.  He was not comfortable with putting his family’s financial future at risk.  He made the absolutely right decision for him and found another job.  He hates the BS that accompanies all corporate jobs, but he was self aware enough to realize that going off on his own was a wrong move for him.

• Starting a business is scary.

This goes with the whole risky thing, but it’s very scary to break out on your own and start your own business.  You often need to rely on others, be they employees, suppliers, or of course, customers.  What if you get sick or hurt?  What if your market suddenly changes? (Think twitter and 3rd party developers right now).  What if you have to learn to do things you’ve never done before?  There is an endless list of things an entrepreneur lives with that will keep you up at night if you are not cut out for it.  Now I’ve been known to jump out of a plane or pick our two year old up over my head while she’s not wearing a diaper, so I’m cool with scary.  You need to be really honest with yourself though.  If you are uncomfortable with the unknown and the scary, you should not start a business.

• Starting a business is hard!

Forming a company is easy, but starting a business and keeping it going, is hard.  This stuff takes a lot of work.  There’s no time clock in this world and even if you have an office to leave, you never really leave your work behind.  To maintain your sanity, you find a way to put it out of your mind or at least turn down the volume from time to time, so you can be present with your family and friends when you spend time with them.  For the most part though, your entire day is spent on or thinking about your business.  This is especially true in the beginning, but for me, it never goes away.  If you like to watch TV, read for pleasure, have hobbies, take quiet walks on the beach, you should not start a business.

• Nothing can FULLY prepare you to start a business.

I don’t care of you go to business school, read books, attend seminars, or listen to podcasts about starting a business, nothing will fully prepare you for it.  You don’t have to be an expert at everything, but you do need to know about all of the aspects of running your business.  You need to know at least a bit about sales, marketing, advertising, accounting, human resources, local regulations and tax considerations, public relations, IT, the list goes on.

You don’t need to know everything before you start, but you’d better be able to learn fast.  Even if you outsource these things or hire people to do them, if you don’t familiarize yourself with all of the aspects of running your business you are asking for trouble.  If you can’t handle going in blind sometimes, and be confident you can learn as you go, starting a business isn’t for you.

• There’s nobody there to tell you what to do.

Whether you look at this as good or bad, is a great entrepreneurial litmus test (if you’re honest with yourself).  Sure, you can and should have trusted advisers to guide you when you need it, but when you start your own business you need to blaze your own path.  You need to make your own decisions.  Some people work better with a narrow scope of responsibility.  Some people like being able to check action items off a to-do list, and bolt out of the office at 5:00 on the dot.  There is nothing wrong with that, and if you are one of these people, you should not start a business.

Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur

So there you have it.  Not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur.  If someone is selling a course, or a seminar, or a book, and saying they can teach anyone how to start a business, without any prior experience or skills, I say, “Run, Forrest!”  No, you don’t need experience, but you most certainly need skills.  Your toolbox had better have at least some combination of common sense, life experience, industry knowledge, and let’s face it, cojones.

What do you think?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

If you’re like a lot of small businesses and freelancers, you get paid for what you know.  You may be a consultant, or a designer, or an accountant (or you may want to be), but in the end, people pay you because you know more about X than they do.  Now if you’re smart, and you’ve been listening to me, you have put yourself out there as an expert in your field.  Whether you have a blog, podcast, or Facebook page, or even just a twitter account, you write or talk about what you know.  You share the good stuff others have written about your field.  You probably do many of these things.  So here’s the problem.  You do these things for free, but you also do these things for a living.

A friend wrote a post on her blog, that got me thinking about this.  Where do you draw the line between free and paid?  When do you stop and say, “I’d love to continue helping you, and take you on as a client.”

Anyone who has ever traded what they know for money, has encountered this.  Those if us who put some of what we know out there on Blogs, Podcasts, Youtube, etc., will encounter it more than others.  We put stuff out there for free, because we love teaching.  Of course we enjoy web traffic, and the clients it brings, but for most of us the reason we do it is rooted in a love for teaching.  If you are writing only to attract new clients, you will quickly find out there are better ways to leverage your time to increase business.

So where do you draw the line between doing things for free and charging for your knowledge and expertise?  That’s different for everyone, and really, I don’t think it matters.  What really matters is that you draw the line.  Some people draw the line at the “how”.  Here’s what to do, if you want my help doing it, you’ll have to pay me.  Some draw it at how much time the request may take.  It doesn’t matter.  People read your blog, or listen to your podcast etc., because they are getting value from it.  They ask for a favor, or advice, or your opinion, because they view you as a knowledgeable person.

Never apologize for charging for your expertise. Ever!  I hate it when I hear something like, “I’m sorry, but if we are going to continue this, I’m going to have to charge you.”   I want to reach out and shake the person screaming, “What happened to you?!”  What I really want to say is, “Grow a pair!  Why do you have such a low sense of self worth?!”   My doctor has never said, “I’m sorry, I know you got a lot out of that article I wrote, but it we are going to talk about how to get YOU healthy, then I’m going to have to charge you.”   If what you know is worthy of being paid for, never, ever, feel bad about asking to be paid for what you know.

Me?  I draw the line when it feels like work.  I love helping my friends build their websites and start businesses and move their businesses forward.  Once it starts to feel like work though, I’ll say “I’d love to continue helping you, and take you on as a client.”  No apology, no regret.  Sometimes it moves forward, sometimes it doesn’t.  Never be afraid of offending someone by moving things to a business relationship.  If this is greeted with surprise, or the person is put off by it, you should be the one who is offended.

Have you ever run into this?  How do you handle it?  Where do you draw the line?

Photo credit: Dave Keeshan

I’m taking a mulligan for 2009.  In golf, a mulligan is when you hit the ball poorly, into the woods or a lake, or five feet in front of you, and you want a do over. I know a lot about mulligans.  I was inspired by CC Chapman, who had a bad week, and called a mulligan. If you haven’t heard CC Chapman’s podcast Managing the Gray, you should really check it out.  Anyway, I thought this was a fantastic idea.  I want to take it a few steps farther though, and call a mulligan for all of 2009.

Like a lot of people, 2009 was a particularly hard year for me.  Now A LOT of people had it far worse than I did, and don’t worry, I’m not going to go off on a poor me, this is why my year sucked rant.  Let’s just say it was hard, I didn’t enjoy it, and move on.  It’s that last part I want to emphasize.  The “move on” part.

What makes a do over even better than another turn, is that the do over gives you a chance to erase the bad stuff.  I’m lucky in that I’m usually not one to wallow.  When I see or feel something I don’t like, I have this pathological need to change it.  So for the most part, 2009 sucked.  I’m taking a mulligan.  You won’t hear me talking about how awesome 2010 is going to be, or how I’m going to make this the best year ever!

A mulligan doesn’t make your next shot great, it just gives you a chance to.  No promises of future success, or delusions of finally reaching the top of the hill and it’s all down hill from here.  Let’s be real.  Let’s just say that I’m going to leave yesterday where it belongs and focus on today and tomorrow.  I’m making a plan, and taking specific steps to change things for the better. If you’ve had a hard time lately, why not join me?  It’s easy.  Just tee it up again and let ‘er rip.

As this is the beginning of a new year, and I am starting a new venture, I find myself going through a list of inspiring reads and videos I have bookmarked.  For my first post of 2010, I want to share a video of Steve Jobs giving the commencement speech at Stanford in 2005.  It’s only 14 minutes so if you are not one of the 3 million that have seen it, I suggest you do.

He talks about getting fired from Apple at 30, being told cancer was going to kill him within 6 months and how seemingly random things in his life had an impact on future wins when at the time, he of course had no idea of their significance.  I find this speech inspiring.

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech from 2005

In this episode of Startup Daddy I have a conversation with Marc Warnke,  author of ONO: Options Not Obligations.   A few months ago Marc popped up on my radar as he was promoting his book.  What made me stop and take notice was his concept of the Family First Entrepreneur.  This has been the way I approach my business since my daughters were born, I just didn’t have a name for it.

We talk about the entrepreneurial mindset, the importance of teaching your children about basic business concepts, and what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and keep your family your number one priority.

Marc was kind enough to offer a 30% discount when you order his book using promo code RADIO at ONOBook.com

Here are some links to find out more about Marc.

MarcWarnke.com
FamilyFirstEntrepreneur.com

Download the Mp3 for this episode

This past Saturday, I went to see Bill Clinton speak at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), or as the locals call it, the EX.  Whatever you think of Bill Clinton, and whatever your political views are, he said some things during his speech that every entrepreneur should hear.

Though he attended the funeral for Ted Kennedy earlier that day, he still honored his commitment and flew up to Toronto.  The speech was entitled, Embracing Our Common Humanity, and in it he talked about his Foundation and the admirable things they are doing around the world; dispensing AIDS medicine, and addressing climate change.  Of course, he talked about Health-care Reform.   The things that stick in my mind most though, were some things he said at the end.  He sat down and answered a few questions.  I have no idea where they came from, but in answering the last question he addressed the “young people” in the audience.  He spoke about how he arrived at the decision to go into politics in the first place, and about following your passion.  I’m sure he has told this story thousands of times, but it seemed spontaneous and sincere, and for me, inspiring.

“Try to find something you care about. Most of us love doing what we are best at, but better to do something you care about.”

About how lucky most of us are, he candidly said,

“Keep in mind that if you have any options for what you do in your life, ANY options, you are in a group of not more than one or two percent of all the people who have ever walked across planet earth.”

He’s a much better speaker than I am, so I think you should hear the audio from the last five minutes of Bill Clinton’s speech in his own words.  I apologize for the audio quality.  I recorded it on the spur of the moment with my iPhone.  I cleaned up the recording as well as I could, and it’s only 5 minutes, so you can handle it.  I think you’ll be glad you did.

Picture of Bill Clinton at the CNE by Canadian National Press

Download the Mp3 audio file

Link to the survey for the webinar series

So what do you think?  Are you crafting your business to provide the lifestyle you want?

Not my daughter ↑

My baby is a sales rock star.  It’s next to impossible to say no to her.  Now this isn’t a talent exclusive to my baby, but she reminded me of some very important sales principals this morning, and I want to share them with you.

She kept mom and me up most of the night, and was really cranky this morning.  So basically a typical morning so far.  It’s how she closed that impressed me.

After the hustle and screaming and throwing bananas that takes place on a typical morning, the baby stopped time.  I gave her a kiss goodbye and turned to leave, and she came running back at me saying, “Kissie.”  I know.  She does this a lot.  She’s very cute.  We went back and forth like this a few times, and I ended up leaving in a FAR better mood.  It reminded me that it is the last impression, the last interaction that is the most important.

So what makes my daughter such a sales rock star?

• She gives you her undivided attention every time she speaks to you, and expects the same of you.  She’s never distracted by a Blackberry, or cell phone, or twitter.
• When she wants something, she asks for it directly (Okay, demands it).  No beating around the bush, or subtle hints.
• She is genuinely interested in your happiness.   Seeing you happy makes her happy.
• She is persistent.  Do you think SHE gives up if she doesn’t get a yes right away?
• She knows how to close!  She establishes rapport, asks for the sale, lets you know why it’s in your best interest to give her what she wants, and stops selling when she gets a yes.

There are teachers everywhere if you look for them, and my daughters teach me every day.  I am truly blessed and thankful for such wonderful teachers.

Shakespeare wrote that a rose by any other name would surely smell as sweet.  Is the same thing true of domain names?  What I share with you and teach here, is what I know and what I do.  I have recently had a shift in my thinking that will impact my process, and I want to share it with you.

I came to this whole world of blogging and social media, from an internet marketing point of view.  When I sold my business a few years ago, I started researching internet marketing.  I suspect many of you have done, or are doing the same right now.  I read blogs, listen to podcasts, read books and e-books, and take courses.

One of things I was taught, and I did, was to use a keyword-rich domain name (URL) for your website’s address. Since I did this myself, I advised others to do it.   Another thing I was taught was to use social media to drive traffic to my website.  Blogs, podcasts and sites like Facebook and Twitter, have made a lot of people rich because they have found ways to leverage them into generating leads for their businesses.  I started to explore social media.

A funny thing happened to me when I started using these sites though.  I started following and learning from some of the rock stars of social media, like Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, and Gary Vaynerchuk.  They are all very interesting people and great writers.  They have HUGE followings and very successful websites.  They all just use their names as their URL.

I started to take notice of the domain names of some of the other blogs I read; Duct Tape Marketing, Escape Fom Cubicle Nation, Zen Habits, Mashable.  Not a keyword-rich URL in the bunch.  Just really great content that I and many other people are drawn to.  The more I reflected on this, the more I realized that I had it wrong.  I was taking all of this internet marketing knowledge I had, and plugging in business ideas to utilize it.  While this works, it goes against my core business values, my definite major purpose.  This site, StartupDaddy.com, was redirected to home-based-business-startups.com.  This started to eat at me for some reason.  It started to feel disingenuous somehow.

What I really want to do, and now advise and do myself, is to start from the really great business idea, and use the social media and internet marketing strategies to market your great ideas, your interesting content.  Yes, you need to employ good SEO techniques on your website.  You need good keywords in your title, your description, your content.  But get creative with the domain name.  Make it something people want to remember, something that says something about you.  Maybe your own name.

If you notice now, when you look at your browser bar this site says it’s name- StarupDaddy.com, not the keyword-rich domain name.  Because of some very technical things (like losing every listener I have), it took some doing to fix it, but I feel better about it.  It reflects my new focus on just doing what I do, and not worrying so much about Google, or page rank, or SEO.  Again, these things are important, and need attention, but they are not the most important.

From what I have learned, a keyword rich domain name has little impact on your Google position.  I am sure it is a factor, and helps, but not nearly as much as incoming links from other sites that are linking to you because you offer value.  Spend more time and energy on being interesting.  As Seth Godin would say, be remarkable.

Business is an ever changing environment.  As you learn things you need to be able to accept that you may have been wrong and make a change.  If you acted on my advice to use a keyword-rich domain name, don’t worry.  There is still nothing wrong with it, and it may actually be helping you.  For me though, I felt that when people looked at their web browsers, and they saw home-based-business-startups, it said something to them I did not want to say.  I felt it said I value google rank above my message.  That is why I changed it.  I like the name I chose for this site.  So StartupDaddy.com is now just and only that.  It is not a strategy or revenue stream, it is just me, trying to help dads (and moms too) learn how to start a business while they struggle with the time constraints of starting a family.

One of my favorite things to watch on TV these days is a show called Pinks.  It is a racing show where teams “race for pinks” which means ownership of the car.  For the uninitiated, here is the description from the Speed Channel:
PINKS: LOSE THE RACE, LOSE YOUR RIDE!
Two hot cars. Two proud owners. And it’s winner takes all in PINKS.  Host Rich Christensen travels the country pitting two contestants against one another in this high stakes drag race. The negotiations are heated. The races are real. Emotions run high. And the loser walks home.

Now it’s not just that I love cars.  I do love cars.  I’ve restored a 1967 AMC Rambler Rebel convertible, and most people have never even heard of the car.  It’s not JUST that I love cars.  I also love business.  I love risk, negotiation and come-backs.  One of the things my wife loves is reality TV, and one of the shows she likes to watch is The Apprentice.  The Apprentice is now celebrities, competing for Donald Trump’s approval.  I have to admit that it can be entertaining sometimes, but it is hardly about business.

Seeing famous people argue about the best way to get their friends to donate money to worthy charities is fun, but you’re not going to learn a lot from it.  Seeing two real people, who have built a race car with their own time and money, compete in real time with that very car on the line, can be very educational.  The people on this show are not professional racers.  They are just people who work on cars, and get together at race tracks to race them.  These cars take a lot of time and a lot of money to build, and having that personal stake in the outcome makes the negotiations fun to watch.

The races take part in heats, and each team get a feel for each other and what each car is capable of, with each heat.  The host mediates negotiations between each race, getting a superior car’s team to concede a car length, for example, on the following race, to keep things competitive.  If you are not into cars, and you are still reading this, thanks for bearing with me.   Now to why this show is so awesome, even if you are not into cars.

If you are a student of human nature, and if you are starting a business you had better be, you will love this show.  You get to see how some people never lose faith in their own team, even when they are down,  only to win it all when the other team makes a mistake.   There are always people who believe enough in their own ability and product, that as long as they still have the ability to compete, they know they are still in the game.

You get to see the different way people react to unexpected adversity and challenges.  How some people get creative and solve problems unconventionally while others just can’t get passed the problem occurring. Sometimes this is rewarded with victory, and sometimes it isn’t.

That is another thing I like.  You can just tell that some of the losers are truly defeated, and others know they just had a bad day, and will be back to race another day.  Which would you be?

If you want to compete for the approval of a large successful company, in the hope that they will reward you with a lucrative contract that will change the lifestyle of you and your family, go for it.  There is certainly nothing wrong with that, and many have done this successfully.  Me?  I’ll be here teaching and learning my craft, taking risks and taking my lumps, deserving every win and taking resposibity for every loss.  I like it that way.

In this episode of Start A Business With Startup Daddy, I talk about productivity, and two books that have put me on the path to getting more done each day: Getting Things Done, by David Allen and Zen to Done, by Leo Babauta.

In order to accomplish all I have to in a given day, and still get home to spend time with my girls before bedtime, I need a system that allows me to get a hold of how I spend my time.  I got the help I needed to develop a system that works for me, in these two books.

The Two Books

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen

Zen To Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System, by Leo Babauta [EBook]

Here are some other resources I have used to implement GTD, and stay on my path to being more productive:

Productivity Blogs I read:

43 Folders

Black Belt Productivity

Lifehacker

A list of resources from Zen Habits, far greater than I could make up: Massive GTD Resource List

So I am attending Podcamp Toronto this weekend.  It has been great to finally meet some other people who are interested in podcasting and social media, in person.  The learning sessions have been interesting for the most part, but it has been the interaction with other like-minded people, face to face, that I have enjoyed most.  It’s also great to meet some people I chat with on Twitter in person.  That’s not what this is about though.

During Chris Brogan‘s presentation (which was hilarious by the way) he mentioned a woman named Glenda Watson Hyatt. Glenda has Cerebral Palsy.  She calls herself the left thumbed blogger, because the only thing she can use to type is her left thumb.  I looked her up and started following her on twitter.  She has over 5700 updates (messages she has sent) which makes her an extremely active twitterer.  So this woman with Cerebral Palsy, that keeps her in a wheel chair, and limits her to typing with her left thumb, which is her chosen way of communicating because her speech is so impaired, can manage to actively message people, write a blog with a page rank of 5 (which is awesome by the way) and a BOOK!  Yes, she wrote a book.  With her left thumb.

Chris held up her book and asked if anyone was inspired by this.  Uh, yeah.  I raised my hand (as did most of the people in the room) and he handed me the book. I opened it, and there on the title page, written in pen, was GWH.  It was signed!  Can you imagine?  She can only type with her left thumb, and she signed the copy Chris had.  How many of these books had she placed her initials on? I imagine, hundreds.  It’s called, I’ll Do It Myself and she sells it at her website.  I’m looking forward to reading it.

How many of us complain about the things in our lives that are hard, or annoying?  I sure do.  My wife and I haven’t had a good, uninterrupted night sleep in a year and a half, so I can be kind of cranky sometimes.  I’m a wimp.  I have it easy.  And so do you.  It’s easy to find excuses NOT to do the things we know we need to do to be successful.  I don’t have the time, I’m not a good writer, I don’t know how to build a website, I hate sales, I’m not a good speaker.  Shut up.

I hope you get some inspiration from Glenda’s story.  There are hundreds or thousands of Glenda’s out there though.  People, that despite some thing that would stop most of us in our tracks, achieve great things.  I’m not saying don’t feel sorry for yourself sometimes.  We’re human.  Of course we’re going to do that.  I’m saying treat that like the indulgence that it is.  A sometimes food. Like ice cream.

We all have a thing or a story.  I am going to try to remember that there is always someone with a bigger thing, a worse story.  I am going to try to feel my pain, my self-pity, then get over it.  I am going to try to stop complaining and do something.  People are drawn to positive do-ers.  I’m going to try harder to be one them.  You?

Okay, I gave away the answer in the title, but I just couldn’t wait to tell you.  There is a lot of talk about the recession lately.  The world economy is on magic mushrooms, and stock markets go up and down by 10% in a given day.  All you hear on the news are stories about people loosing their homes, businesses going bankrupt putting thousands out of work, Armageddon.  Are we in a recession or aren’t we?  The media is selling fear, worry and panic, and the general public can’t buy enough.  The candidates for President of the US keep saying that the country is facing the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression.  They wouldn’t be setting themselves up to be a huge hero when things turn around, or have a good excuse if they don’t, would they?

Let’s assume we ARE in a recession, and we are facing this huge economic downturn.  So What?!  That may seem cold, or uncaring to people facing hard times right now.  It’s not.  I’m just saying that worrying about it isn’t the answer.  You may have already been affected by the economy in some way, or maybe you haven’t. If you have, make a plan.  If you haven’t, MAKE A PLAN.  Don’t get sucked into the vacuum of panic and paralysis that is sure to grip so many small business owners.  Change your tactics.  Adapt to the market- like you always should. If you don’t think a business can survive hard times, and the great Depression wiped out everything, think again.

Do a google search on companies that thrived during the Great Depression, and you’ll see I’m right.  You’ll find that the common thread among the companies that demonstrated the highest level of growth and sales was that they advertised heavily.  Want examples?  Proctor & Gamble has a policy of not cutting advertising budgets during times of recession and they have made progress in every one of the major recessions, and the Great Depression.  During the ’20s Fords were outselling Chevy’s by 10 to 1.  In spite of the Depression, Chevrolet continued to expand its advertising budget and by 1931, the “Chevy 6″ took the lead in its field and remained there for the next five years.

Doesn’t this make sense?  People don’t just stop buying things in hard times.  Now if you sell Lear Jets to stockbrokers, I probably can’t help you, but if you have a product or service that gives true value to your market, then you can not just survive bad times, you can thrive in them.  Should you start a new business in a recession?  Absolutely.  All of the same rules apply.  Define your market.  Find what they want, and sell it to them.  Don’t try to sell them what you think they want.

Become an expert marketer.  Learn all you can about promoting your brand, and then DO IT.  Companies will be slashing advertising budgets, so you should increase yours.  When competitors start disappearing from the marketing landscape, it is a precursor to their permanent disappearance.  In hard times, advertising costs drop, as advertisers slash budgets.  This is a huge opportunity.  If you can negotiate, there will be some great bargains out their for advertising.

If you have a good product or service, find an angle why it is important to keep using it in hard times. If you provide business services, stress the importance of your product to your customer, and show them how it will help them survive the hard times.  Entertainment or leisure? Stress the importance of staying sane in hard times by maintaining your personal relaxation routine.

True courage is not the absence of fear, it is the abilty to act in spite of it.  That isn’t a Startup Daddy original, but I was lucky enough to learn that lesson as a young child and it has influenced my attitude about fear, my whole life.  It is okay, normal, to be at least a little fearful about starting a new business in a troubled economy.  Don’t let that fear keep you from acting.  Use is to keep you sharp.  Do your research.  Fortunes are not just lost in hard times, they are made.

This is the premier podcast episode of Startup Daddy.  In this episode I talk about my entrepreneurial path, and how I made the leap from unhappy employee to financially independent home based business owner. In this episode you’ll also find:

• The basics of starting a business
• A checklist to get you started
• The 2 books that influenced me the most in the beginning.

Items Mentioned in this podcast:

Download your Home Based Business Startup Checklist (PDF)

Download your Personal Financial Checkup form (PDF)

United States Patent and Trademark Office Go here to conduct your trademark search

Getting Things Done, by David Allen

The E-Myth, by Michael Gerber

I did have a little fun getting an intro done, but I am not a professional broadcaster, and this is my first attempt at creating and editing an audio file, so I apologize if it doesn’t sound perfect and polished.  I will get better. So what do you think?   Let me know what you thought about my first ever podcast.  I can take it.  Let me know what you liked and didn’t like, or if there is some topic you would like me to cover.

Download this episode

Before you start doing the things, the tasks, required to start a business, I suggest you spend some time doing some serious thinking and planning. Not just setting specific goals, which is important, but higher plain stuff. The things David Allen calls 50,000 feet thoughts- career, purpose, lifestyle.

There is a very famous book by Napoleon Hill, called Think and Grow Rich. It’s one of those books that most successful people I know have read. In his book, Hill presents his concept of the Definite Major Purpose. It was a challenge to his readers, to ask themselves “in what do I truly believe?” You need to define this, and make sure whatever business you decide to start, is aligned with this purpose. If your business is in some way aligned with your core values, or doing something you truly love, you will have passion in your work. Passion always comes through, and greatly increases your chances for success.

For example, I love to teach. I get really jazzed when I can help someone do something they have been having trouble with. Whether it is something big like starting a business, or something small like helping my wife figure out how to sync her outlook with gmail, I really enjoy sharing what I know. I get real, sincere joy and inspiration from watching and helping others succeed.  I believe that is the most important factor in my success as a business start-up coach.

There are a lot of people who start businesses in a niche because they think it will make them a lot of money. They know nothing about the niche, and have no interest in learning anything about it. This can work, but I highly discourage it, especially for your first, or primary business. LOVE WHAT YOU DO!

I often say that most people spend the majority of their time awake, working, so if you hate your work, you hate your life.  Don’t be miserable for the majority of your waking hours. Personally, I would rather live in a box on the street.

Love what you do, and your passion, your enthusiasm, will come through in your work. People respond to that. So if you are trying to figure out what business you want to start, begin by making a list of things you like to do, and things you know about. You will be surprised how many great business ideas appear on that list.

Once you decide what business you are going to start, envision the outcome you want.  Picture the lifestyle it will bring you.  Imagine what you will do with the money you will earn.  Be as specific as possible.  Don’t think this stuff is important?  Ask any pro athlete or any successful person you know.  This is not only important, it works!  When you picture in your mind, the outcome you want to achieve, you make a connection to the outcome.  It becomes something real, and on a subconcious level, it becomes your reality.  You know you can do it, because it is something you have seen.

I know it has been a couple months since I posted anything, but I am back. In the two long months since my last posting, I have learned many new lessons and re-learned a few old ones. In the coming posts, I plan to share a lot of what I have learned. You will also see me launch a new business, from the very beginning. But first, let me tell you why you haven’t heard from me for a while.

Simply put, I got myself into a business deal that ended up going against almost all of the criteria I have for my business ventures. I got into a partnership, where my responsibilities far outweighed my ownership stake in the company. Our roles and responsibilities were too vaguely defined from the beginning, and this led to a quick meltdown of the working relationship between me and the main stakeholder. Most importantly though, I allowed myself to sacrifice the flexibility and lifestyle, I have worked so hard to achieve.

The good news is that I have developed the ability to recognize when things are not working. I have a very good idea about when I can turn things around, and when they will only get worse. I needed to get out of this, but I had to be very careful to do it right. Oh, I didn’t mention that one of the partners was a very close friend, and all of the partners (except for me) were lawyers?

I am not a quitter. If I commit to something, I am all in. I will almost always stay in a bad situation longer than I should. Now that I have kids though, I have had to shift my mindset and my priorities when it comes to my businesses. A long time ago I decided that it was more important to me, to spend time with my family than to make as much money as possible. For me, lifestyle often trumps income. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a nice lifestyle and make a good income. It is just that I could never be one of those dads who has a very high paying job that keeps him at an office from 8 am to 8pm. There is nothing wrong with it, but it is not for me.

I stayed with this project about a month after I recognized that it was not what I wanted to do. I really tried to make it work. I put all of my other projects on hold (including my consulting business and this blog), and put all of my effort into making the business work. Meanwhile, my relationship with the other main partner was quickly deteriorating, and we would often end up arguing. I was sacrificing too much. I was not happy, and I was not hiding it very well.

Coming to the decision to leave the partnership was not easy. As I said, a very good friend was a stakeholder, and his financial investment was not the only issue. My leaving might put him in an uncomfortable position with his partners. I also wanted to make sure I was not opening myself up to litigation. Also, I still thought the business was a good idea, and I was struggling to figure out where it went from something I was excited about, to something I could no longer do. There were a lot of factors, but I think in the end, it came down to personalities.

I spoke to my friend first, and then to the other partners. I really agonized over how to approach them, and what to say. Of course when I finally made the phone calls, it was not as bad as I feared. None of the conversations were confrontational, and we were able to leave things very amicable. They may even enlist my services as a consultant from time to time.

I have always said that action is exponentially better than inaction. I would rather make a bad decision and correct course, than be caught up in the quicksand of indecision. When you take this approach though, you have to be willing and able to see when you have made a mistake, and willing and able to take the actions necessary to correct it.

You are ultimately responsible for your own success and happiness. Before you start a business, or go into any business deal, you have to give a lot of thought about how you define success. What sort of lifestyle do you want? How much money do you need? Will this business or opportunity help you achieve your goals? If yes, do it! If the answer stops being yes, be prepared to stop doing it.

There was a time when I would have thought of this experience as a waste of months of my time and a lot of money. I do not look at it that way. I learned a lot of things that will make me a better adviser to my clients, and gained knowledge and insight that I will be able to apply to future ventures.

I am re-energized and motivated to put my energy into teaching people how to start and grow their businesses. I am lucky to have found something that fulfills me personally and professionally, and I will be very hesitant to stray from this path again. What I like to do is teach. The wonderful thing about teaching is how much you can learn while you do it.

Here are five things you can do get off to a bad start, waste your time and money, and frustrate yourself in your quest for financial and career independence.

1. Forget About Niching Down

Whether you are starting an online venture or a real world, brick-and-mortar business, it is very important to find your niche. All of my successful businesses have been targeted to a very specific sector of a bigger market. I’ll give you an example.

One of my earliest post-college startups, was a swimming pool service and repair business. This also happened to be my first partnership. A friend of mine discovered a device that used copper and silver ions to purify pool water, instead of chlorine. He started a business installing these devices, and offering service contracts to the homes that purchased one. He did not have a strong business background, so he found himself struggling. This was way before the internet got started (yes, I’m old!), so he did not have fantastic resources like StartupDaddy.com that he could easily go to for advice. We started talking about it, and I thought he was really on to a great idea, so I partnered up with him.

I was living in Miami at the time, and this was just as South Beach was starting to be a place beyond a community of retirees living on their social security checks (I told you, OLD!). Since this was a luxury product, I started targeting luxury communities. The expensive Miami Beach mansions in exclusive gated communities would be our target market. I increased what he was charging for the device itself, doubled what he was charging for a monthly service contract, and quadrupled the business in the first year. We were able to differentiate ourselves by targeting a specific niche in the market. This is when I discovered it cost me the same time and money to get a pool clean for a wealthy person who could afford, and wanted, other premium products and services, as it did for a person who could not afford, and did not want, premium products and services. A lesson I keep in mind to this day.

2. Listen To Everyone’s Advice

When you announce to your world that you are starting a business, you will be surprised at the advice you will receive. Some from people who have never run a business themselves! While this advice usually lacks in quality, it will surely not lack in quantity. You will hear, “Wow, pretty risky! Better have a backup plan.” Like working for a company for 20 plus years, and getting laid off at 50, is not risky. You can also get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of GOOD books, courses, and online content, devoted to starting a business. Do yourself a favor. Find a few trusted advisers, read as much as you can, and shut the rest out.

3. Remember, You Already Know Everything You Need To Know About Your Business

While it is very important to filter the information and advice about your business, it is also very important to seek it out. You may have been doing what you do for your business for 25 years, but believe me, there is always something you can learn to make more money doing it. All of the successful entrepreneurs I know continually read journals and books about their business, and business in general. You are going to need to pay for some of this education, too. Go to seminars (on-line AND OFF-LINE). Sure, some are truly a waste of your time and just an excuse for the presenter to sell his wares in the back of the room. Do some research though. Get referrals or read some of the author’s material first, to make sure you like what they have to say, and how they say it. Seminars can be a great way to get information and make contacts, that will make you money.

4. Stay Secluded and Go It Alone

It is easy when you are starting a business, especially a home based business, to get caught up in the day to day activity of getting things done. When you couple that with starting a family, you can quickly and easily find yourself going days or weeks, without seeing another adult human being that you are not related to. Do not fall into this trap. It can get very lonely, and it is not healthy for you, or your relationship with your family. Get into a networking or mastermind group. It will help your business, and your psyche.

5. Get Bogged Down In the Planning and Minutia, and Never Get Started

Let’s face it. Starting a business is scary. It’s exciting, but no matter how many times you do it, there is a little voice reminding you that there is the possibility of failure, and that is scary. Some people say that is a poison thought. You should not allow yourself to even think about failure. Bull!! The possibility of failure is real. To me, shutting out reality is just plain dumb. The key is to be motivated by this possibility. Be careful. When there is a scary, big picture thing out there, we have a tendency to bog ourselves down with minutia. We get caught up performing tasks, instead of accomplishing goals.

Don’t get sidelined by the siren song of inefficiency and delay. This will happen to you. Count on it. Be aware when this is happening though, and you can stop it. Get started today. Go launch your website. Call the printer and get your business cards. Sit down, and niche down your business idea. Whatever the next step is for you, take it. Today. Now. Go.

I just finished being interviewed by Sterling and Jay, from Internet Business Mastery. I learned so much about internet marketing from their podcast, that I decided to take their course a while back. They wanted to interview some former students to see what they were up to, and I was very happy to tell them that I was able to take the techniques they taught, and create some business opportunities.

I have some websites (besides this one) that are starting to generate some passive income, and I have been able to take what I have learned from them and others, to make me a much better consultant. I found it very motivating to speak with them. Besides the fact that they are friendly, and knowledgeable mentors, talking about internet business with them really got me excited about some of the things I am doing.  It is so important to find some people you can talk to about your business- whatever it is.  Not people you are trying to gain as customers, or close friends or relatives, but a group of people you get together with, just to talk business.

Mastermind Groups and Networking Organizations are great places to meet people you can do this with. Find a networking group or on-line community where you can participate in the exchange of ideas. Besides the obvious business benefits, you would be surprised how nice the social nature of these things are. With the new business, and family responsibilities, how often do you get to talk to other adults about adult things? If you are like me, not often! I really look forward to my business lunches these days.

So thanks to Sterling & Jay, for teaching me so much, and giving me the opportunity to talk to their audience. I hope I can motivate some of them to take action. Remember what Bruce Lee taught us, “There is no try, only do or not do.” So DO!

How do you steal a little adult time, and find people you can talk to about your business?

The first thing you need to do before you start any new business, is to decide what you want from the business in the first place. Do you want something that is part-time, to supplement your income? Do need a way to pay your bills if you quit your job, because you have a job or a boss that you just can’t take any more? Do you want a Home Based Business to eliminate your commute? In order to know if something is a success, you need to first figure out what you mean by success. By setting goals from the very beginning, you give yourself a way to measure success. You either meet your goals or you don’t. When you first sit down to define your goals, I suggest you make them as specific as possible, and include a “Reward-Goal”:

• Instead of, “Make more money” something like “Make enough money to go to Hawaii on vacation this year.”
• Instead of, “Spend more time with the family,” something like, “Be home by 5:00 every day, so I can eat dinner with my family,” or “Take Fridays off every week.”

I know a guy that, when he quit his job to start consulting, did just that. He decided he would not work on Fridays. He has had three day weekends, every week, for the last five years! Because he know he wanted this from the beginning, he built it into his process.

One of the biggest problems businesses run into, not just small businesses, or home based businesses, but all businesses, is that they fail to set goals. When you are getting started, think about what you want from your business, and set some goals that will make that happen. You need to write them down too. There is something about writing your goals down on paper, that makes this work. Maybe seeing what you expect of yourself, on paper, in your own handwriting, is what makes it real. Whatever the reason, trust me. Write them down.

You need to set specific goals, and re-visit and revise these goals throughout the year. If you do, you will stay motivated, know when ideas are working and when they are not, and know definitively that you are on the path to success.