Is it really a Secret?
When Oprah speaks, America listens. Several weeks ago, Rhonda Byrne, the author of the best seller, The Secret
The Secret is focused on the philosophy of positive thinking: Whatever you put out in the world, positive or negative thoughts, will effect how productive your life will be. Truth be told, the secret is nothing new. The Bible has taught for thousands of years these very principles… however, while I didn’t catch the show, I did hear that there were several "warnings" issued by the great O herself to those who want to jump on the "think and grow rich" bandwagon.
In a nutshell, the Great O basically told her audience that positive thinking won’t get you very far without positive action. Yes your thoughts can direct your actions, but your actions are the key to achieving success. You can stand at the foot of a mountain and you can visualize yourself at the top of that mountain, with your arms outstretched in a victorious stance… but if you don’t move your feet and start climbing that mountain, your vision won’t become reality.
Words with action do nothing…. words backed up by action equals results.
When Oprah speaks, people listen. I just wonder if they’ll remember that part of the show….
The power of the Joint Venture
The biggest problem most solo-entrepreneurs face is trying to do everything solo. There is real power in joining forces and creating something new and spectacular.
Recently, a client of mine and I entered into a Joint Venture. My client, Carol Solomon teaches coaching professionals on how to grow their coaching practice. I’ve done several web sites for Carol, including her home site CarolSolomon.com and All About EFT. Carol is a cutting edge entrepreneur who has built a successful coaching practice and who now is "giving back" to others by teaching them the secrets for her success! We had a few conversations about how we could help those who are less "Tech Savvy" and before you know it, we had created Easy Coaching Websites as a tool for Carol’s clients.
As we created the web site, Carol was able to provide valuable feedback on elements that I assumed were common knowledge. Together, we created a system that web newbies could easily use to create a web site that’s interactive, search engine friendly and professional in appearance.
Now Carol has a "safe place" to send her clients for the web site they need to grow their business. They get a professional, easily updated web presence that is search engine friendly while Carol earns a % of the revenue.
As for me, I get a steady stream of clients eager for my product and services. I don’t have to spend nearly as much time "selling" clients on the idea of blogging, which can sometimes take 5 or more hour long telephone conversations! With Carol’s clients, those five hours aren’t necessary!
That is what we call a WIN - WIN - WIN proposition! Carol wins, I win and most importantly, Carol’s clients are the biggest winners of all.
The biggest reason our joint venture is a success is each of us are focused on providing a winning experience for the other as well as for Carol’s clients.
Our joint venture could be a nightmare if it were Carol’s goal to extract as much from me as possible without providing anything from her end or vice versa. As a matter of fact, it was Carol’s spirit of team work that inspired me to propose this joint venture to her. We met during her recent trip to south Florida and discussed the terrible state of affairs her clients were facing.
In creating a joint venture, I recommend that both partners be "facing in the same direction." In our the case, both Carol and I are positively obsessed with taking great care of our clients. We’re also both very aware that this is a service business and not a "get rich quick" scheme. Neither of us wants to "saddle" the other unfairly with the lion’s share of the work. We were seeking a win/win/win situation, which we have achieved.
A successful joint venture requires three things:
- A thorough understanding of each party’s strengths and weaknesses.
- A thorough understanding of the process
- A fair distribution of the proceeds and profits.
Only through a thorough understanding of #1 and #2, can you reach #3.
Launching a new business is a terrible way to start your retirement…
Don’t get me wrong… launching a new business venture is a GREAT way to spend the second half of your life… which with life expectancies climbing means for most of us, from 35-40 on. However, launching a new business is a HORRIBLE way to "retire".
When you launch your business, be prepared to work. WORK WORK and more WORK! You’ll work harder than you’ve ever worked before. You’ll probably spend the first few years working harder and making less money than you’ve ever made before, and yes, that include your tenure as a burger flipper at your local fast food establishment.
Somehow, somewhere, there are people out there selling the idea that owning your own business is the easy way to wealth and riches. It is. It truly is. However, it’s not they way to achieve INSTANT wealth and it’s not the road to INSTANT riches.
If you’ve already taken the leap and launched your own business, then at this point you’re nodding your head violently.
The number one reason most small businesses go out of business during the first five years is NOT that they aren’t making any money. Rather, the most common reason cited for closing up shop is the owner was tired of the impossibly long hours and the less than lucrative pay.
However, there are reasons OTHER than money to launch your own business. First and foremost, you do have a degree of freedom as a business owner. As a small business owner, you get to choose WHICH 15 hours a day you will work and can laughingly say you work "part time" when your work day drops to 12 hours a day.
Another benefit to owning your own business is that you determine the work environment. If you’ve got a boss from hell, well there’s no one to blame but yourself. As a business woner, you also have incredible job security. After all, you are the boss and if you have to fire yourself, well it won’t exactly be a surprise.
However, the most exciting part of owning your own business is that you truly have the ability to determine your income.
For example, a friend of mine recently experienced a "bump" in the road of life. Her husband lost his $100K a year job without warning, leaving her as the sole bread winner for several months as he searched for another job.
Fortunately, my friend owned her own business. She was able to "pump up" her business and was able to make up a significant portion of her husband’s lost income in relatively short order.
Had my friend been working at a "conventional" job, there’s no way she could have tripled her income in less than 8 weeks. As a 40 hour a week "wage slave" there was no way she could triple her working hours to triple her income. Getting a second job would have meant spending time searching and interviewing for a night position.
Fortunately, she was the boss of her own business. She cranked up the sales machine and found that she and her husband were able to endure the three month "blip" without his income.
It’s truly amazing what you can do when your back is against the wall! However, my friend never would have been able to pull off that feat had she not been treating her business like a job all along. Had she been treating her business as a "retirement" project, it never would have been able to take the strain of ramping up the business to a new level of profitability!
I think of my friend when I’m crushed by the work load of the day… when I’m feeling over worked and underpaid running my own business. The pressures are many, the sacrifices great but in the end, not only do I NOT have to worry about being "fired" unexpectedly, but I also have the ability to chart my own course and control my own destiny and THAT FACT ALONE lowers my blood pressure considerably.
The Office Supply Fairy does not exist…
A while ago, I met a woman at church. We agreed to go out to lunch and I met her at the bank where she works. She graciously offered to take me on a tour. One stop on the tour was to a magical room where there was a never ending supply of pens, paper, paper clips, etc.
She walked into the room, grabbed a few pens from the box and handed them to me. "It’s advertising," she said. Sure enough, the bank’s name was on the pen. (A few months later, when the bank changed it’s name, I realized the reason she and others needed to get rid of the old pens.) She then spent the rest of the tour trying to recruit me into employment at the bank.
I must admit, I was intrigued by the prospect of working somewhere that would allow me to believe that the Office Supply Fairy does indeed exist.
I’ve been self employed for 9 years now. (I’ve been running "free" way too long to go back to serving 8-10 hours caged and confined.) It’s been almost a decade since I experienced visiting the "office supply room" a magical, mystical place located in virtually every office with more than 3 employees. The "office supply room" (or cabinet in the case of one of my employers) was the place where there was always an ample supply of pens, paper, pencils, paper clips, etc. Those were also the days when the copier was jammed or out of toner and it wasn’t my problem. It was someone else’s job to go find an unlucky intern to address the situation. My responsibilities ended when I notified the office manager of the situation. If the magic room or closet was getting low, I could lodge a complaint and get on with doing my job.
Now, I experience the joys of being "self employed." That means when I run out of pens, I make a trip to Staples. When the copier jams, I get to figure out what is wrong. When my email doesn’t work, I get to diagnose why. When my computer acts up, I either fix it or buy a new one. Oh, and I also still have to get "my" job done as well.
Many, many of my clients are recent refugees from the corporate world, and as such they find themselves lost when it comes to such simple issues as setting up their email. Back in "corporate" they could just make a phone call, and someone from the IT department would walk them through the process, or better yet, come up and do it for them. The reality of the fact that there is no such thing as the "Office Supply Fairy" often hits hard and often during their first few years in the world of the self employed.
It’s been a while since I believed in the Office Supply Fairy. Just as my view of Christmas changed when I learned "the truth" about Santa, my view of business has radically changed as a result of being "the employer" instead of "the employee."
Just last night, my son and I were driving through construction. My son commented on the signs along the road denoting "bumps" and wondered why they were there (because they certainly weren’t placed in a manner to warn you about the serious bumps in the road). I replied, "It was an excuse to pay someone $30 an hour to do something." My son exclaimed, "THIRTY DOLLARS AN HOUR! Is that what they make?"
"No son," I explained, "that is not what the employee sees in his/her paycheck. He/she sees $15 an hour. As an employer, I SEE $30 an hour because I see the unemployment insurance premium, the FICA match, the health insurance premium, the worker’s comp premium and the cost of hiring someone to administrate all of that, all wrapped up in what that worker costs me per hour."
If you’re just getting started in running your business, and you’ve come from working for someone else, there will be lots of reminders that the Office Supply Fairy doesn’t exist. However, given enough time, you’ll find yourself with a whole new mindset, one where you recognize that YOU are the catalyst that makes things happen and THAT is a good thing
Creating Business Success
I found Willie Crawford via an article he submitted to Idea Marketers. His article included links to his site in the body of the article, so I followed a link to his blog. There, Willie freely shares his business plans for 2007. You too can benefit from his plans by making them your own.
Mr. Crawford begins his list with this piece of priceless advice: OUTSOURCE EVERYTHING!
– If I can get someone to do it cheaper than I can do it myself, (based upon the value that I have personally put on each of my working hours), then I should not (and will not) be doing it.
– My focus will be on promoting and growing my business.
With advice like this, I have no doubt that Mr. Crawford makes the kind of money he proclaims to make.
The biggest mistake most fledgling business owners make is to try to do everything themselves. They create their own web site, they create their own brochure, they create their own letterhead and then wonder why business isn’t booming for them. Or, if they don’t have the skill to perform these feats, they then resolve to micromanage their outsource suppliers. As a result, they usually end up with a finished product which is FAR inferior to what they could have had, had they allowed their outsource provider to do his/her job.
I’ve spent almost a decade working with business owners on their web sites and I can personally tell you that my clients fall into two categories:
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The client who has to micro manage every detail of the project.
This client acts like a typo in the copy is the end of the world. They will drive me crazy with their obsessive attention to detail. One such clients paid for three hours of my time as she walked me through creating a table border pica by pica. Of course, this type of client begins screaming over a typo and makes changes on the fly. While changing a headline is a part of good marketing, this style client wants to change copy without testing it first.Oh, yeah. This type of client typically wants to build a web site then not spend a penny promoting the web site, nor spend any time doing what needs to be done to promote it. (Did I mention that I found Mr. Crawford’s article because he paid to have it positioned optimally on the web site?)
This type of client almost always squacks when the invoice arrives and frequently is fired by their web designer, copywriter or graphic artist. Not only have I fired this type of client, but I’ve also been unfortunate enough to be a second or third stop on that train to nowhere. Fortunately, I’ve worked with enough clients like this that my radar is now good and I dont’ accept them as clients anymore.
The clients I’ve worked with who fit this profile have never achieved any significant success. It’s almost as if they spend all their energy micro managing the details so the important stuff never gets done.
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The client who says to me, "You know the web, do your magic for me" and then lets me do my job.
This type of client is a joy with which to work. This type of client doesn’t sweat the small stuff. He/she knows that most readers of the web skim the page and even if there is a typo in the copy he/she sends me, it’s not the end of the world.The client’s I’ve worked with who fit this profile have gone on to achieve significant success, and these clients frequently hire me to create several different web sites for them.
A new year is quickly approaching and with the change of the year, many of us determine to break bad habits and replace them with new habits. If you’ve been guilty of either refusing to outsource or micromanaging your outsource providers, then it’s time to make this a New Year’s Resolution! (If you’re reading this AFTER January 1, it’s still not too late to make a positive change for your business.)
Building Businesses: Diversity as the key to success for the solo entrepreneur
Over the past decade, I’ve worked with hundreds of solo entrepreneurs, helping them to develop web sites and other marketing systems to assist them in building their businesses.
BUILDING THEIR BUSINESSES is not a typo.
See, as I look back over my client list, I’ve realized that the clients who are still working with me six, seven years later and beyond are those who have built SEVERAL businesses, or at least built several business web sites.
Many people who are getting ready to start a business usually don’t recognize that the key to a successful business is multiple streams of income. While each stream may, in and of itself, not be able to sustain you in the lifestyle to which you’d like to become accustomed, (especially in the beginning) together several small streams of income can add up to a nice balance in your checking account.
For example, one of my most successful clients is currently operating no less than 10 separate “businesses.” She’s spent the past three years building each of these separate businesses. Some are more successful than others, but that doesn’t mean she’s dropped the businesses which are struggling. While a couple of her businesses aren’t doing as well as the others, they still provide enough monthly income to keep her daughter in ipods and PSPs. In addition, the customers from these less profitable businesses frequently become customers of her more profitable businesses.
As a matter of fact, that’s how she’s built her highly successful businesses. She cross sells her customers into other businesses she runs.
So, if you current business isn’t performing up to your expectations, maybe it’s time to start a second complementary business.
5 Keys to Your Business Running Smoothly
Starting a new business is daunting, but the prospect of keeping a business running is an even greater challenge. Here are five keys essential for solo entrepreneurs to keep business running smoothly.
Good record keeping is the foundation of keeping your business running smoothly. While it’s tempting to outsource record keeping, keeping track of your own financial records not only reduces expenses, but also helps to keeps you focused on the bottom line.
STEP ONE of keep your business running smoothly is to set up a filing system.
A well organized filing system is essential to keeping your business running smoothly. Set up a system where you can file paid bills, store invoices and other documents in an orderly fashion. Also set up separate folders for different expense categories. It’s much easier to keep things running smoothly in your business if you file expenses into the proper folder as they are incurred.
STEP TWO of keep your business running smoothly is to set up a separate checking account for your business.
Pay all business expenses from this account. It makes it easy to keep business expenses (which are tax exempt) separate from personal expenses. If you need money from the business, then write yourself a check and deposit it into your personal account.
STEP THREE of keep your business running smoothly is deposit all incoming funds into your business checking account.
The same idea as above. Cash comes in and is easily tracked as well as cash flowing out of the business.
STEP FOUR of keep your business running smoothly is to set up a disbursements journal.
This is used to record your cash expenditures for your business.
STEP FIVE of keep your business running smoothly is to set up an asset acquisition file.
In this file, you keep your records of assets purchased for your business. Since many large acquisitions have to be depreciated over time, having a file folder dedicated to these expenses will save you the hassle of digging through old receipts later.
Follow these five steps and soon you’ll be needing to start on STEP SIX of keeping your business running smoothly, which is creating an employee compensation file.
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