A Better Way for Work at Home Entrepreneurs

Want to Succeed in Consulting? 3 Ways to Get Paid for Your Wisdom
www.bnet.com
By Tom Searcy | September 13, 2011

Through writing this blog I recently made a friend all the way over in Jakarta, Indonesia. Ben Whitaker is a U.S. expat and reader who is running a company focused on selling high-end IT services to the mining industry.

Here’s what Ben wrote to me:

    One topic I’m concerned about is my current strategy of doing analysis and recommendations as a proposal, then seeing that 4-page document get sent out the door by the prospective client as more or less an RFP to my competition.

    Have you written a piece about that?  Or transitioning from selling implementations to selling analysis and recommendations only?

OK, how many of us have had to deal with the problem of free consulting that Ben’s describing? Judging from the comments I get from my reader base… it looks like just about everybody.

In the world of selling expertise, you must show your expertise first in order to prove that someone should pay you for it.

Ben is describing a really thorny, but frequent challenge. Here are my basic thoughts:

1) Create a custom, self-branded assessment process. For example, we built one for a client in the advertising industry services business called, “The 6 Facets of Brand Exposure.” Under each of the facets were 3-5 best practice clusters, which covered about 25 categories of evaluation. This process produces a final report that evaluates the company’s brand exposure process, (substitute your area of expertise) by category and ranks the company in top quartile, bottom quartile or the other two quartiles of performance against their competitors. Based upon the wealth of my client’s experience, he set the standards of what the quartiles are, what they mean, what is considered best practice for the industry. It’s somewhat arbitrary, but these rankings typically go unchallenged.

2) The assessment is valuable and therefore carries a fee. We develop the evaluation and offer three types of recommendations:

    Strategies that the company receiving the report can implement themselves without assistance.
    Strategies that will require an outside technology or resource to implement, but not one provided by my client.
    Strategies requiring the hiring of my client to implement.

This creates the strong sense that the recommendations have stand-alone value.

3) The assessment tool usually requires a broad base of interviews, observations, and data transfer. This gives my client access to people, opinions, and relationship-building time, all of which increase the potential of getting hired for implementation later.

I always insist that the assessment come with a fee proposition. As my client explains to his/her clients, “If you don’t pay for the ideas, you won’t value them or implement the ones that you can implement yourselves.”

One of the real tragedies of consulting is that your clients hire you for your wisdom, but they pay you for your transaction. For this reason, even if you are in the wisdom business of providing your assessments and ideas, the real money is in the implementation. That does not mean, however, that you shouldn’t be paid for both.

In my subsequent exchanges with Ben we mapped out some additional guidelines for delivering this. They include:

    Give your prospect a sneak peek of copy of a finished assessment from a non-competitive engagement, but never leave it.

    Give the prospect a sneak peak of the information capture tools, (questionnaires, punch lists, assessment tools), but never leave them.

    Leave a copy of the assessment requirements with them. This includes a list of the people you will need to meet, the materials to which you will require access, the basic schedule for the assessment process.

    Establish the date of delivery of the assessment, (in person, by presentation with supporting documentation).

    Never send completed documents of the assessment without the ability to provide an executive summary face-to-face in a presentation format.

Ben’s going to do very well with this — he’s already gained traction on a few very large accounts to add to his current customer base. The difference now is that if they won’t step up with the fee for the value-providing assessment, he knows that they are not serious in their consideration of what his expertise can bring and they are milking him for free consulting.

MY THOUGHTS

Unfortunately, some companies do make 'milking cows' of work at home entrepreneurs who provide consultancy services.  They request for proposals without the serious intention of getting into a project with the consultant.  They just want a 'free meal', getting ideas as to the recipe and then do the cooking themselves.  Frustrating, to say the least.  If you're a work at home entreprenuer who provides consultancy services, better get cracking with those assessments. 

HOME OFFICE WINS

In the Office Debate, the Home Office Wins
By Jeff Haden | March 14, 2011

If you have the choice, should you work from a home office or an outside office?

The always insightful Michael Hess recently wrote a great article, 6 Ways to Make Your Small Business Look Bigger, but I respectfully disagree with his take on a home office: “Unless your business is designed to be run from home,” he says, “get yourself an office of some kind as soon as you can justify and afford it.”

I think that approach is wrong.  Of course if you meet with a number of clients a home office may not work, for business and family reasons, but in a number of industries technology makes meeting clients in your office less necessary.

Plus, the words “home office” don’t carry the same negative connotation they once did.

Let’s break down the home office debate into personal and business considerations:

The Business Case

    A home office is much cheaper. For start-up or established business, paying rent, utilities, and other costs for an outside office create a significant monthly revenue threshold.  Plus, while tax guidelines are fairly strict, you can deduct some portion of expenses you would have paid personally, prorating utilities, some maintenance, and even depreciating the portion of your home you use for a home office.  (Keep in mind taking depreciation can make accounting and tax considerations a little more complicated when you sell your home, so look before you take the depreciation leap.)

    Increased (and convenient) availability. I have clients around the world, so I often adjust my schedule to their time zones.  With a home office I don’t mind phone calls during non-office hours since walking down two flights of stairs beats driving to an external office every time.
    Show never equals go. A fancy space at a prestigious address may initially impress potential clients, but eventually you are judged on the quality of your products or services.  If you do great work no one cares where your office is located.

    Your home office can be a home-court advantage. An outside office is to a home office what an apartment is to owning a home.  If you rent or lease you’re limited in the changes you can make to the space, and when your lease is up those improvements are often lost.  With a home office you call the shots and the money you save on rent can go to improvements. My home office is about 1,300 square feet, has a great view of the mountains, and the office dog can hang out with me.  I hate to think how much a similar commercial space would cost.

    A home office is like an entrepreneurial litmus test. Many people feel they will lack self discipline and focus if they work from home.  Sure, you may feel you need the motivation (and validation) that comes from having an outside office… but when your paycheck is based solely on your output motivation shouldn’t be a problem.  If it is, owning your own business probably doesn’t make sense.

The Personal Case

    Adds value to your home. Turning your dining room into a home office could negatively impact the value of your home, but if you re-purpose unused space, or better yet add on, you benefit personally.  Plus home offices are very popular with home buyers.  A local real estate agent told me at least 2/3 of her prospective home buyers list a home office as a “must have,” even if only for personal use.

    It’s greener. No commute = fewer emissions.

    A home office creates more family time. One person left this comment on Michael’s article:  “I just didn’t have the heart to turn away my 3-year-old daughter who was excited to have daddy at home all the time.”  I understand the feeling, but think about it:  Home office or external office, you’re not available.  The only difference is you don’t have to face the fact your daughter misses you when you work from an external office; either way, she misses you.  On the other hand, time spent commuting is family time lost.  If your one-way commute is twenty minutes, that’s at least 160 potential family hours gone — forever.

Is a home office appropriate for every business?  Of course not.  But, if you’re creative and disciplined, I think the positives far outweigh the negatives.  What do you think?

Photo courtesy flickr user ReneS, CC 2.0

MY THOUGHTS

Find out how you can work from home by clicking these links:

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10 Things You Don't Know About Working From Home

10 Things You Don't Know About Working From Home

1. You'll suddenly realize that housewives are totally busy people -with hardly any breaks.
2. You'll be challenged not to work because your cute baby is staring at you, saying "play!".
3. You'll be asked constantly, "What do you want to eat today" by your spouse.
4. If you're not careful, that DVD collection will be your #1 distraction from work.
5. You don't remember when was the last time you took a bath/shaved.
6. You're suddenly more interested in nice looking shorts and pajamas in the mall.
7. Your cellphone isn't getting much use unlike before.
8. When you walk to the neighborhood park, pool, all you see are yayas and their wards.
9. When it rains, you're happy you're indoors and won't be going anywhere!
10. In the hot months, you're happy that you can afford an aircon for your room!
-Jomarhilario.com

So there it is --the honest good and bad.  Find out how you can work from your nice bahay --even if you're already abroad: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=4272658

P.S. Don't worry, this is no s-c-*a-m. I know the guy. Read and judge for yourself: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=4272658

WHY SLAVE AWAY IN AN OFFICE WHEH YOU CAN EARN AT HOME

Work/Life Balance: A Career-Killing Phrase?
By Laura Vanderkam | April 19, 2011
http://www.bnet.com/blog/time-management/worklife-balance-a-career-killing-phrase/400?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

Sometimes words have more baggage than they should.

I was reminded of this recently when reading about a new Robert Half Management Resources survey. The company asked 1,400 financial officers from firms with more than 20 employees about the greatest challenge facing them these days. Some 38% — the highest amount — said  “time management given competing work priorities.” This was a more popular answer than “staying current with accounting regulations,” which strikes me as pretty important.

Only 13%, however, chose “achieving work/life balance.”

I find these results fascinating. To me, “time management given competing work priorities” and “achieving work/life balance” mean exactly the same thing. If we’re trying to manage our work priorities, it’s so they don’t consume the entire 168 hours we have each week. In other words, so we can have a life. Perhaps even a balanced one.

Unfortunately, though, to many people, “work/life balance” has come to mean something else. Namely, it’s become a code phrase for women wanting to scale back and work part-time.

Yes, yes, this shouldn’t be the case. Work/life programs are for men too. And no, they don’t have to involve fewer work hours. The best work/life programs aren’t programs at all, but cultures that encourage people to work wherever, whenever, as long as the work gets done well. One recent study from Brigham Young University found that when people could work from home sometimes and set their own hours, people could work 57 hours per week before a quarter experienced work/life stress. Those stuck in offices during set hours could only work 38. In case anyone has trouble with the math, 57 is more than 38. A full 50% more.

But that kind of culture would involve such radical change for many managers that it’s easier to create part-time mommy tracks and assume that you’ve done your duty. Of course, a side effect of this pseudo-solution is that “work/life balance” becomes synonymous with such tracks. Anyone who wants to be seen as a go-getter will avoid using the phrase “work/life balance” at all costs.

And so, we say “yes” to time management and “no” to other words that describe the same thing. I can’t decide if that’s sad or silly, but until more workplaces treat people like grown-ups, it’s probably wise to watch our mouths.

MY THOUGHT

Believe me-you get more work done working from home than working in an office.  Of course, this is probably circumstancial.  But if you've managed your home office well and have oriented family members as to your working hours, working from homesdoes tend to allow you to produce more and better results.  In my case, there's less stress-no traffic, no unscheduled meetings, no office politics.

I suggest you try it ourt part-time and see of it's for you.  Here are some workshops yu can attend to get you started.

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I've attended a couple of these workshops and I'm very happy with the results.

Will your work still SUCK if you WORK AT HOME?

How to fix a workplace that sucks
By Malcolm Smith

How often do you hear it? "Work sucks." This week I‘ve heard it from academic colleagues, my mailman, my wife, my son and a host other of characters in my life.

Needless to say, I was intrigued when a new version of a book hit my desk this week titled "Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It," by Cali Ressler and Jody Thomson. First published in 2008, this wonderful little book has come out in an expanded paperback format. It really gets you thinking.

My intrigue with the book stems from a rising volume of literature that indicates that our families, our health and our productivity are suffering because of the disharmony that exists between our work lives and our personal lives. Americans are spending less time with their families, working longer hours and suffering more medical problems related to stress than ever in our history.

In addition, research shows that we are becoming meaner to one another in work environments.

Workplace bullying is at an all-time high and our workplaces are increasingly unhealthy. There are also indications that our spouses, children and friends are suffering from the effects of our work life.

According to Ressler and Thomson, the basis of this "suckiness" can be found in the very culture we create around work: Endless meetings that aren't productive; rigid schedules that don't mesh with our personal lives and the needs of our families; and a variety of rules and policies that serve only to justify a worker's existence and don't contribute to the bottom line.

Their solution? The Results Only Work Environment, or ROWE. The authors believe that, with the exception of those who must staff a sales floor or operate a machine, most "service" jobs should be performed in an environment where the only question that matters is, "Did this person get results?"

Obvious benefits

In the work world of "no suck," there's no concept of sick or vacation time, no tardiness, no gossiping about who is or isn't at work, and no worrying about when someone takes lunch or runs an errand. You work only when it helps you meet your assigned goals.

The authors say the ROWE model has been used successfully at the corporate end of Best Buy, as well as at a variety of other shops. Although there's a distinction between salaried workers and hourly workers who must perform their service at a particular time and/or place, ROWE certainly could work for many people in service, education, sales, and a lot of other industries.

Imagine a world where you napped if you wanted, as long as you met your goals. Imagine that as long as you produced quality work, no one snuck around your cubicle or your office door to see if you were "busy." Imagine being at home to greet the plumber and feeling no guilt when your child needs you to take her to the doctor.

In the ROWE model your time is your own, to manage as you see fit, from wherever you work best or need to be at the moment. In other words, under a ROWE structure, you would be considered a grown-up, rather than someone who needs to be "managed." If you need the team, you will meet with them. If you don't need them, you will proceed to do what you need to do.

The benefits are obvious. More work from home means less driving and less heating of office spaces. You control the clock, so the conflicts you encounter are your own. You have total autonomy, which has been linked to higher productivity and less stress.

What Ressler and Thompson are suggesting here is a revolution in the workplace, where everyone becomes focused on results, as distinguished from process.

Thus a college professor would worry more about his students and meeting their needs than impressing a review committee. An editor wouldn't feel guilty admitting that she does her best work on a laptop in a busy coffee shop with Wi-Fi.

This book was written by relatively young people - part of the new generation of American workers who will soon step into leadership roles in our companies and our board rooms. We may be just a step away from finding ourselves in a revolution in the corporate environment.

Work is taking a toll on our health, our families and our lives that's not sustainable. It would be nice if all of our work environments sucked a little less.

You can follow Ressler and Thompson's blog and get a copy of the book on their website, gorowe.com.

Dr. Malcolm Smith is family life and family policy specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension and teaches in the University of New Hampshire Family Studies Program. He can be reached at             603-862-7008 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            603-862-7008      end_of_the_skype_highlighting       or malcolm.smith@unh.edu.

MY THOUGHTS

It's working!  If you have been introduced into the world of home-based work, you should look into it.  Seriously.  Remote employers don't care where you graduated, what happened in your previous work nor whatever issues regular employers will look into before hiring you.  Remote employers only care about your skills and eventually the results that you would produce.  Applying for work-at-home jobs also provides less hassle - you're invited (or you apply),they send you on-line tests (monitored via webcam and screenshots), then you get interviewed via Skype. Once you're hired, it's purely results based.  Go check on oDesk.  You'll understand it better. 

PATHS TO ENTREPRENEURIAL BLISS

Three Paths to Entrepreneurial Bliss
By Donna Fenn | May 3, 2010

What makes for a blissfully happy business owner? Soaring revenues, hefty profits, and fabulous cash flow? Guess again. Srikumar Rao, author of Happiness atWork: Be Resilient, Motivated, and Successful - No Matter What (McGraw-Hill, 2010),  has an entirely different perspective on success and happiness. He is probably best know for his course “Creativity and Personal Mastery“, which he has taught at Columbia Business School, and several other prestigious universities. The course is so popular and transformative that it even has its own alumni association. I recently spoke with Rao (who is one part management guru, one part philosopher, and one part swami) and asked him how his ideas might apply to entrepreneurs. Courtesy of Rao, here’s your road map to entrepreneurial bliss:

Invest in the success of your team. “No entrepreneur is ever going to succeed individually,” says Rao. “He or she has to work through a team - the customers, vendors, and other people who support what they’re doing.”  But entrepreneurs have a habit of viewing people as “mechanisms” to help them achieve their goals and, says Rao, “in a subtle way it demeans the relationship.”   Instead, he suggests  “entrepreneurs should think ‘is there anything I can do to help that person do the best he or she is capable of doing as a human being?’  If they can stat thinking along those lines, it makes them tremendously more efficient as managers. If you want success, help everyone reach their highest potential, and your own success will be a by-product and come effortlessly.”

Emphasize process, not outcome. “Entrepreneurs all think in terms of the “if-then” model,” Rao notes. The brass ring might be a revenue goal, landing a big customer, or having enough cash to move into new offices. The trouble with focusing on outcomes, says Rao, is that they are totally beyond your control.  “The point is that even if you do achieve your goals, wonderful things may or may not happen,” he says. And those wonderful things will always be replaced by something else you think you need - like an even bigger office and more customers. “But you’re not  going to enjoy the journey,” cautions Rao, and that’s the one thing you can control. His advice: “Focus on outcomes only to the extent that it gives you direction. Then forget about outcomes and focus on the process.”

Be mission-focused, not me-focused. Entrepreneurs who live in a “me-focused” universe fall into the trap of evaluating everything in terms of its immediate impact on them, says Rao. If a major customer has a problem and cancels an order, or a key employee suddenly quits, it helps enormously to remind yourself of your company’s larger mission. “You need to start thinking in terms of the value that you are delivering to the world, and that has to be more important than what you want from an ego standpoint,” says Rao. “If you define what you do in functional terms, you are either burnt out or you will be burnt out soon,” he warns. And everyone, from garbage collectors to stockbrokers, can articulate a way in which they somehow make the world better. Focus on that larger mission, says Rao, and in tough times “forces that you can’t image come to your rescue. And your employees become much more engaged.”

Do Srikumar Rao’s concepts strike a chord with you? Tell us about your own path to entrepreneurial bliss.

MY THOUGHTS

You don't need to have your own business to be thinking along these lines.  Successful managers/leaders are those who have the entrepreneurial spirit.  These tips will work for you even if you're working for someone else.

BTW, if you're wondering what a SWAMI is, click this link - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/swami

BE PRODUCTIVE AT HOME

Home Office: 9 Smart Ways to Be More Productive

By Amy Levin-Epstein | Mar 21, 2011

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/career-advice/blog/on-job/home-office-9-smart-ways-to-be-more-productive/395/?tag=content;col1

Whether you’re self-employed or telecommuting, an efficient home office is critical. At the very least, designate a room (or at least a specific section of a quiet room) in your home for work. Because if you’re working in your bedroom, you’ll be thinking about the next day’s tasks while you’re trying to sleep — basically, an insomniac’s nightmare. And if you’re working in the kitchen, you’ll be reviewing the contents of the refrigerator rather than what’s on today’s agenda.

For my own home office, I’ve invested in a good laptop (backed up with Backblaze), a solid all-in-one printer and a landline, so I never suffer with static and I can record interviews. Of course, your own priorities might be different.

I asked some self-employed folks for their finest tips, and these were nine of the best. Do you have any to add?

1. Take Advantage of Technology

“I have found that the use of cloud computing resources for my home office and business is helpful. The tools [I use most] are: Evernote for keeping track of information, Manymoon for project management (links with my Google apps), Google apps like Google Documents, Google Calendar, Google Voice, Nudgemail (to keep track of To Do items that need consistent follow up), Free CRM (the most malleable customer relationship management tool on the web) and Mailchimp (for newsletters and email blasts).”

– E. Allen Knight, Ann Arbor, Mich., consultant, small business owner and professor

2. Block Out Distractions

“Buy some heavy blinds or drapes to block out sun, heat, cold and noise. If it’s a nice day outside, you can close the blinds, and you’ll be more likely to stay inside and work! Plus, it’s a great way to block outside noise from neighbors, traffic and gardeners.”

–  Melanie Rembrandt,  owner of Rembrandt Communications in Redondo Beach, Calif.

3. Get Good Furniture

“The biggest mistake home office workers make is buying particle board furniture from the office supply store. Search out office furniture stores instead. Real office furniture is made for work. [That could mean] a keyboard tray that’s wide enough for a keyboard and a mouse or an office chair meant for supporting you for eight or more hours, not the occasional hour or two on the weekend.”

– Kathryn Weber, freelance writer and publisher of the Red Lotus Letter E-Zine,  Austin, Texas

4. Prepare Your Pets

“If you are planning an important phone interview or phone conference and you own a dog like I do, try to make arrangements to have the dog outside or in another room and shut your office door. An unexpected UPS or Fedex delivery can set the dog to barking and interrupt that call.”

– Christel K. Hall of ProWrite Public Relations, Minden, Nev.

5. Protect Your Privacy

“Keeping your business life separate from home life is not just sanity saving (a client won’t walk in on you doing aerobics to Donna Summer), but a safety concern, especially if you work online. Make sure you use a business postal address, and be careful about where you post your personal information.”

– Sarah Clachar, Healthy Marketing Ideas, Rochester, N.H.

6. Invest in a Separate Office Phone

“One of the first thing I realized that I needed to do was get a separate number for my office so that my son, who was then 5 years old, did not pick up the phone when reporters called. I still keep my line in my office as I prefer to receive calls from clients and reporters on my business line rather than my cell phone. That way I can let it go directly to voice mail if it rings after hours or on weekends.”

– Julie Phillippi-Whitney, owner, Phillippi-Whitney Communications, Cincinnati, Ohio

7. Keep Regular Hours

“Set work hours and stick to them.  Do nothing but work during that time, as you would with an office job.  Then when the time is up, stay away from the computer!”

– Margelit Hoffman, social media manager and strategist,  Allentown, Pa.

8. Pack a Snack

“I’ve learned to always keep snacks at my desk, usually healthy ones like nuts, a granola bar, or brown rice cakes (sometimes chocolate sneaks in, too!). It’s easier for me to stay focused on work if I’m not wandering down into the main part of the house when I get hungry.”

–  Susanne M. Alexander, president of Marriage Transformation LLC, Cleveland, Ohio

9. Focus on Feng Shui

“Make sure you can see the door from the place where you sit. If this is not possible, strategically position a mirror so that you can see behind you. Because we, as a species, like to feel “in the know” about our environments, this will make you feel safer and therefore more grounded, focused, and empowered.”

– Tess Whitehurst, feng shui consultant and author of Magical Housekeeping, Los Angeles, California

Got more tips for building a better home office? Please sign in below and share your thoughts. And for more career advice, follow @MWOnTheJob on Twitter.

MY THOUGHTS

It's a home office.  You are literally at work. You merely changed location. The biggest challenge would be separating your business from your personal life.  Especially if you're just starting. Kids (and the rest of the family, for that matter) will naturally assume that you're on vacation since you're at home.

PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS

6 Priceless Business Lessons
By Steve Tobak | August 25, 2010

You learn how to learn in school. You learn how to do a job at work. And if you work hard and groom yourself well, you may eventually learn how a business operates in an industry. But once in a blue moon, through experience, you pick up one of those lessons that nobody can teach you. Those hard to come by lessons are truly priceless.

Last week, in 5 Business Books That Made a Difference, I mentioned Mark McCormack’s What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School. That inspired me to share a few big lessons I’ve learned over the years. Each one figured prominently in my success:

If you want to gain management cred, tell folks what you’re going to do and then do it. Having the guts to stick your neck out and take a big risk, then executing and delivering on the promise, has management written all over it. It works both internally and externally. Broadcasting an aggressive goal and then achieving it is far more effective than just doing it. Just make sure you pull it off. Sure, it’s a risk, but no risk, no reward, right?

If you’re way behind on a hot deadline, take some time to relax and chill out. First, you’ll think more clearly and be more productive going down the stretch. Second, there’s a reason why you’re behind to begin with and that pause may provide just the right inspiration or perspective you needed all along. Third, in case you need anyone to help you, nobody likes working with a stress monster.

If you want something badly, consider what would happen if you don’t get it. The earth will continue to turn and your life won’t end. In fact, nothing will happen, except that you’ll lighten your load, reduce your expectations, and in so doing, actually increase your chances of getting what you want. It’s the whole “if you want something let it go” thing. It really works.

If you want to be calm during an important presentation, stress-out beforehand. When you stress yourself it raises your blood pressure and your arteries widen to account for the change. Afterwards, when your body returns to normal, you feel a physical sense of calm that lasts a pretty long time. It’s the same reason you feel relaxed after getting out of a hot tub or a sauna. I noticed this empirically; a doctor I know added the explanation.

If you want to get support for a groundbreaking product or program, lose the big pitch. Grassroots efforts sell new ideas far more effectively than mass-market approaches. It works internally or externally. Get support from key stakeholders one-on-one rather than attempt to take on the world and sway everyone all at once. Pretty sure that was inspired by Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm.

If you want someone to talk, shut up. Whether it’s a customer, an employee, your boss, whoever, set the stage by stating your purpose and then shut up. In general, people like to talk and that’s exactly what they’ll do, probably telling you far more than if you’d tried to drag it out of them bit by bit. If the person is unusually guarded, then give a little to get a little. Ask leading questions and listen actively, of course.

Okay, I shared a few of my secret lessons, now it’s your turn. Think hard and help teach your fellow The Corner Office readers.

MY THOUGHTS

From these tips, I find that shutting up is the best.  Shutting up means giving others the chance to talk.  And yourself the time to listen.  By listening, you learn more about everything. But don;t jus sit there like dumbly nodding your head.  You're supposed to listen well and ask smart questions.

Starting a Business? FIND AN ANGEL

STARTING A BUSINESS? FIND AN ANGEL

from the article 'Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs'
By Steve Tobak | February 11, 2011

Find an angel.

The whole mentor and coach thing has become so overblown that - I know this is going to piss a lot of people off, but - I wouldn’t go that route. Instead, find an angel investor who’s willing to provide seed funding for minority ownership. Why? Two reasons:

    1) Objective feedback and validation from a professional investor, another pair of eyes, is huge, and

    2) to help you navigate the business stuff that isn’t your forte.

MY THOUGHTS

why would i open a business that is not my forte?  opening a business is hard enough. opening a business you know very little about is suicide. 

Get a Partner Before Staring a Business

Before starting a Business: GET A PARTNER

from the article "Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs"
By Steve Tobak | February 11, 2011

Get a partner

Just about every successful start-up - Silicon Valley or otherwise - has cofounders. Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Google, Hewlett-Packard - it’s a long, long list. Don’t get me wrong; having a partner is often difficult and they don’t always work out. But the benefits of having someone to bounce ideas off and a two-person support system far outweigh the negatives. And partners have a high level of credibility with entrepreneurs.

MY THOUGHTS

starting a new business, especially your first, is not the time to go alone.  there's a lot of conceptualizing, planning, brainstorming involved.  do you really think you can brainstorm with yourself?  as far as i know - all of us - we only have 1 brain!!!

ADVICE FOR BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS

WHAT OWNERS OF BUSINESS START-UPS SHOULD DO

from the article "Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs"
By Steve Tobak | February 11, 2011

If you’ve got your own company or are planning on starting one, there is one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty. There will be times when you think, what the hell have I done? I can’t do this!

Fortunately, in all likelihood, you’ll be wrong. But who in the world is going to tell you that, with authority, when the time comes? More to the point, who will you believe?

The funny thing about entrepreneurs is that they tend to be skeptics who don’t easily trust others. They generally keep their own counsel. So who are they going to believe, their own inner voice, or their friend or spouse who, by the way, sort of has to say, “Don’t worry; you can do it!”

You see, we overachieving, success-minded people are our own worst enemy. We’re notorious victims of self-doubt, anxiety, and self-limiting behavior that, all-too-often, results in shooting ourselves in the foot … or somewhere even worse.

For enterprising people, the whole idea of finding a mentor, a partner, or like-minded people for support and to bounce ideas around is a complex issue that represents a critical factor in their ultimate success or failure. And since I’ve got a few decades of experience with this sort of thing, here’s some …

Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs

    * Get a partner
    * Find an angel
    * Have a sponsor
    * Maintain balance
    * Take baby steps

MY THOUGHTS

from what i've seen, entrepreneurs (the serious ones) spend more time working than those who work in an office.  if you've just started a business or thinking of starting one,i will post the short explanations to to the 5 points in this article.  wait for it.

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR

Why You Shouldn't Become an Entrepreneur
By Steve Tobak | October 27, 2010

http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/why-you-shouldnt-become-an-entrepreneur/5895?tag=content;drawer-container

How many of us dream of being a big-shot CEO with all the pay and perks that go with the corner office? Or better still, starting and running our own company. Wouldn’t that be sweet?

Well, I hate to burst your dream bubble, but being an entrepreneur isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sure, if you’re cut out for it, maybe you’ll survive the pressure and overcome the many challenges. But if you’re not, and most of us aren’t, I wouldn’t quit my day job just yet.

Before we get into all those aforementioned challenges, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least pay homage to the perceived benefits of becoming an entrepreneur:

    * Being your own boss and not having to kowtow to anyone;
    * Doing what you want, when you want;
    * Escape from the stress of corporate life;
    * A shorter and more personal feedback loop; and
    * The unique fulfillment that comes from building something from the ground up, more or less on your own.

So what’s not to like about that, right? Well, I used the term “perceived benefits” for a very good reason. The truth is that entrepreneurial life is nothing like any of that. In fact, all those benefits are, to a great extent, myths. Let’s take them one at a time.

5 Myths About Becoming an Entrepreneur

   1. Being your own boss and not having to kowtow to anyone. There’s no shortage of bosses and people you have to kowtow to when you’re an entrepreneur. Depending on your situation, there are investors, customers, partners, and here’s one that nobody ever anticipates, your spouse. That’s right, once the steady paychecks stop, the spouse becomes all-too-engaged.

   2. Doing what you want, when you want. Sure, you may get to keep your own hours, more or less, but even that changes soon enough. If you’re successful, you’ve got to keep up with business, and if you’re not, you’ve got to work that much harder to change that. And since it’s your gig, there’s no fallback position. If you don’t do it, who will?

   3. Escape from the stress of corporate life. Here’s a little secret: we make our own workplace stress. In other words, we take it with us wherever we go. That’s what surprised me the most about going it alone. Sure, there are always workplace specific stresses and headaches, but you’re just trading the corporate ones for those of an entrepreneur. They’re different, but not necessarily better or worse.

   4. A shorter and more personal feedback loop. Actually, it’s just the opposite. At work you’re presumably getting feedback on a pretty regular basis. There are projects, tasks, and all that good stuff. But the gestation time for a startup business is relatively long. You very quickly come to realize that nothing much matters until the dough starts rolling in, and that could be a very long time. Okay, it is personal, but that’s both good and bad. How well do you handle rejection?

   5. The unique fulfillment that comes from building something from the ground up. Yes, it’s different, but honestly, the sense of accomplishment is really no better or worse than what you get from doing the same thing at someone else’s company, whether it’s building a team, developing a product, or servicing customers.

As a wise VC once said, “there are entrepreneurs and there are Entrepreneurs!” Don’t get me wrong. If there’s something burning inside you; something you feel like you’ve got to do or you’ll burst; and you’re resilient, thick skinned, the sort of person who carves his own path; then go for it. You won’t be disappointed. But you’ll also be better off if you keep your expectations grounded somewhere in the realm of reality.

MY THOUGHTS

what this article is saying is that getting into a business may not be for everybody.  just like any other position, an entrepreneur has its own list of tasks and therefore has its own list of qualifications.  better assess yourself first against those requirements. in other words, if you want to be an entrepreneur, hire yourself first. if you find that you're not qualified, don't give up.  training yourself may do the trick.

Ways to Spot a $100 Million Idea

5 Ways to Spot a $100 Million Idea
By BNET Contributor | January 18, 2011

By Robert Jordan

This post has been adapted from interviews I conducted in the book, “How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America.”

One hundred-million-dollar business ideas are the stuff of legends. Usually we read about them in the context of an entrepreneur who decided to follow his passion, or a founder who just happened to be the rocket scientist of his industry. Most of the time, however, this is not where great ideas or great companies come from. I interviewed 45 company founders, each of whom started, grew, and sold a company for $100 million or more, or took their company public for $300 million or more. Here are some of their secrets.

1. Fill a need, not a passion.

It’s a myth that successful businesspeople got into their field because they cared deeply about it. Success doesn’t follow passion, it follows need. Find something that no one’s doing that somebody should do. That’s what Dick Costolo, founder of Feedburner, did when he saw that publishers had content but no way to distribute it online to subscribers and syndicators. (Google eventually acquired Feedburner for $100 million.)

Don’t get me wrong — passion is critical. But what I’ve come to believe, based on the wisdom from these 45 home-run hitters who created $41 billion from scratch, is that need trumps passion and passion trumps skill. In other words, when you’re fired up with a great mission, you’ll become passionate about it. As for skills? Once you’re jazzed up about the great idea, skills can be acquired or hired.

2. Identify your customer’s big problem.

Where there’s a meaningful problem, there’s a reason to solve it. Cardiologist Donald C. Harrison came up with the idea for his medical device company AtriCure after asking himself how he could make a novel contribution that would help his heart patients in a major way.

One thing I learned after interviewing the founders is that, in most cases, their major innovations were not rocket science. They simply saw something, often very practical, that many other people simply missed. Successful company founders tend to be truly curious, and they don’t accept the status quo as being beyond improvement.

3. Get it from your hands, not your head.

How did a guy with a degree in supercomputing end up in the trucking biz? Internet Explorer billionaire Tim Krauskopf got the idea for a transportation technologies startup, FreightZone, after he learned to drive a semi and began to experience what was involved in the trucking industry.

So often, I discovered that $100 million ideas come from doers, tinkerers, and collaborators. Rock Mackie knew Tomotherapy was a viable concept only after three of his graduate students each made separate and important discoveries. Put together, his team’s ideas resulted in a new and remarkably better CT scanning technology for treating disease.

4. Make it sellable and fixable.

Do you think you have a great idea for a new product? It’s not a great idea until you’ve gotten involved in selling it. Jim Dolan of the Dolan Company, a newspaper and media publisher, advises that selling is the quickest way to find out what’s wrong with your product idea so you can fix it quickly and move on. When Dolan bought a 107-year-old legal newspaper publisher, he quickly figured out how to turn those fine-print bankruptcy notices that other newspapers overlooked into a $100 million product. If you can’t sell it, don’t make it.

Every one of the founders I interviewed had stories about the problems they wouldn’t have discovered had they not listened to customers, colleagues, and investors in the process of pitching their product.

5. Get help developing it.

Serial entrepreneur Mahendra Vora, who’s launched more than a dozen highly successful tech companies, warns would-be entrepreneurs not to be narcissistic about their idea. Instead, develop 60 percent of your vision, put it into the hands of trusted customers, and let them help with the remaining 40 percent of the idea.

Every one of the founders failed at one time or another along their entrepreneurial journey — sometimes spectacularly — before they found that $100 million idea. As a result, they learned humility. Many of them would argue that you can’t really build a successful business without it.

Robert Jordan has been launching and growing companies and helping other entrepreneurs do the same for the past 20 years. He is author of How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America (RedFlash Press,), a collection of interviews from 45 leading founders who created $41 billion from scratch. His newest endeavors are RedFlash project implementation team, and interimCEOinterimCFO, a worldwide network of interim, contract, and project executives.

MY THOUGHTS

what? what is that need that will rake in millions? on the other hand, why would i want millions if i cannot be passionate about the means to get it? unless my passion is the millions itself.  which is not.  isn't it possible to create the need? wouldn't that passion be great enough to come up with an idea that will make people need your passion?

How A Business was Launched in less than a Year

How We Launched a Business in Under a Year
By BNET Contributor | January 5, 2011

By Lee Clifford and Julie Schlosser, founders of Altruette.com

Last winter my co-founder Julie and I left our jobs as editors at Fortune Magazine, knowing little else than that we wanted to do something philanthropic and entrepreneurial together.

Fast forward to this December, and our company Altruette is up and running: We offer a line of jewelry charms, each representing one of 25 different non-profit groups that receive a share of the proceeds. We had terrific online sales this first holiday season, and our line is now available at Fred Segal in Santa Monica. And we’ve spent nearly nothing on marketing and advertising.

While it’s way too early to consider our venture a success, we did succeed already in one regard: We started a business, from idea to execution, in under a year.

And in fact, the question we receive most often is simply, “How?” We’ve culled through our collective experiences and come up with five things that helped us most along the way. Though we were essentially starting from scratch, these lessons would also be useful for entrepreneurs who are adding a new division or going into a new market.

1. Act like you’re in business (even before you are).

When Julie and I left Fortune, I’m not exaggerating when I say we didn’t know for sure what we wanted to do. We had tons of ideas — probably too many — but we had no concrete plan for any of them. Still, we knew how important it was to act like we were already running a business. The Monday after we left our jobs, we started our daily morning conference call, which continued nearly every day for the next year. At the start our husbands must have thought we were crazy, because we’d mostly just brainstorm for hours. But that rigid schedule ensured that no two days slipped by without us at least connecting and fleshing out some of our better ideas (and tabling some of our worst ones).

We also were tough on each other. We had an electronic “To Do” list, which we emailed back and forth and reviewed during our calls. We knew we had to face that list each morning or explain why we hadn’t yet attended to Item X or Y. By the end of month two we had decided on launching a line of charms that would each benefit a different non-profit. By then, our habit of talking each morning, and following through on the previous day’s agenda, was engrained.

2. Think like a reporter.

Our journalistic skills proved extremely useful for helping us solve problems quickly and progress from one business step to the next. Thanks to the Internet, these skills are easy to replicate without spending 10 years working as reporters like we did. Don’t know how to create a package for your product? We simply Googled “packaging expo” and headed to the next one in New York City. After spending an hour at the fair, we had four solid options.

Similarly, when searching for Web designers, placing an ad on Craigslist turned up dozens of great candidates, whom we then interviewed just as we might have interviewed a source back at Fortune. Asking tough questions early on — What penalties will there be if the project isn’t done on time? — helped us weed out unqualified candidates quickly. We ended up going with a boutique company called Mars Design, and they’ve been terrific partners over the past five months.

3. You must give yourself a deadline.

As anyone in journalism knows, without a deadline you’ll never get your story written. Yet so many entrepreneurs seem to take the “we’ll launch when we’re ready” approach. We didn’t know how long it would take us to design and produce charms, but we knew we needed a big, fat, scary deadline staring us in the face. Early on we got wind of an opportunity to give away the charms at a prominent conference in the fall of 2010. We knew there was a chance we wouldn’t be ready, but we signed on anyway. That October date — circled on our calendars — was a driving force for us throughout the summer.

At Fortune we had read that the Marines use a law called the “70% solution.” Meaning you’re never going to be 100% ready, but go forward when you’re 70% ready — that’s enough. Well, that’s about how it turned out for us. Our boxes were still en route from China on a freighter, our custom clasps hadn’t been produced, our website was weeks away from completion, but we improvised and got the charms out to 350 women at the conference. We’re convinced that had we not had that deadline looming over us, there’s no way we would have been up and running for the holidays.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Yes, you can try to do everything on your own if you have all the time in the world, but most entrepreneurs are in a hurry. Your business idea needs to get to market before competitors pop up or before more established companies get wind of what you’re up to. We sped up the process by turning to experts we know (and some we didn’t) for help. We probably do this way too often but we love getting input and assistance from friends and friends of friends.  We’ve sought the advice of PR experts we interacted with at Fortune, parents, friends of our parents, friends of ours, former colleagues, and even emailed a few prominent CEOs we admire. If you don’t know which friend to turn to, post your dilemma or your question on Facebook. Chances are, you’ll get feedback immediately. And don’t feel bad about asking for help.  We’ve found that for the most part people typically like to lend a hand.

5. Jump on good leads fast.

If someone gives you a tip about anything (a potential investor, a great manufacturing source or even a future customer), jump on it immediately. When Julie’s cousin told us about a shop at Fred Segal that helped nonprofits, she drove there the next morning to check it out, even though we didn’t yet have a company name, website, or a product. I know a lot of people might still, months later have, “check out that shop my cousin mentioned” on their eventual to-do list. Instead, Zero Minus Plus at Fred Segal became our first retail partner, and hosted our launch party in October.

Lee and Julie met ten years ago as reporters at Fortune Magazine. They sat across the hall from each other and bonded while working together on one of their first assignments at the magazine called Hot & Not. They became the arbiters of what was cool and what wasn’t in the world of tech, business, and pop culture in this biweekly piece.

MY THOUGHTS

now my friend and i have something to think about.  she had this business idea.  actually, she had registered the business.  we've done some pencil pushing and actually spent hours (until 2am) brainstorming.  we have it all on paper. it's been months and nothing has happened. and i know why.  we do not think we are already in business. therefore, we do not act like we are. we have not set goals.  so, we just talk and do something when we have the time.  now it's time to shape up.