What Makes You Happy?

by Trish on December 12, 2011

 

What makes you happy?

I think entrepreneurship is all about finding that happy and building a business around it. I recently watched on Discovery Channel FLYING WILD ALASKA about the regional airline, Era, and they flew some extreme rock climbers up to climb rock walls that have never been conquered before.

Those guys were giddy to be there. They were thrilled to have to ski 14 miles in just to get to the rock wall they were going to climb.

It made me interested in their pursuit. It drew me in.

As they were flown into this off-landing strip spot one climber at a time by the pilot from Era, I was reminded of the survival instinct. So often, you hear about stories where the people have lost their will to survive. We marvel at people who survive the worst of scenarios because they do NOT GIVE UP that will to survive. These climbers seemed to me the type of guys who would survive NO MATTER WHAT. I like that.

It’s very similar to running a business. There is no way that entrepreneurship is a fluke. It is that same desire to survive. I am drawn to entrepreneurs who find what makes them happy, even giddy, and they give everything they’ve got to keep that dream alive.

Hello, that’s a brilliant entrepreneur!

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You Better Be You

by Trish on December 2, 2011

 

Being authentic is a catch-phrase around online businesses these days. But it really does apply to offline businesses to. Heck, any kind of business.

Wouldn’t you prefer to do business with someone who has a viewpoint rather than someone who is bland and could be the “everyman”? I sure would.

I like people who are themselves. Of course, I strive daily to be myself. I often don’t quite make it. Our society has made it all about consumerism, keeping up with the Joneses, striving to win.

At what cost?

Sometimes, to win the game YOU are playing (not the game everyone else is playing) it requires a huge dose of authentic YOU. To grab that new client and up your hours each week; to quit accepting work that you hate and go after the work you love.

I love Chellie Campbell’s book WEALTHY SPIRIT. She writes this:

We are all graduates of MSU—Make Stuff Up. Whatever you have done in your life so far, you made it all up. You chose where you live, what you wear, what friends you have, what profession you’re in, how much money you make. And you choose again each day to maintain and build upon those things or to let go of them and pick up new things, new roads, new directions.

Even if you feel as I have that you’ve been sorta toiling along, fitting in where you can, wallflowering it a bit too much, today can be your new beginning.

Chellie Campbell again:

On this day of your new beginning, all paths are open, all doors unlocked, all possibilities unlimited. What will you choose to be, do, and have now and going forward?

Great question. Well, Brilliant Entrepreneur, go for it!

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What’s Your Numero Uno Goal?

by Trish on November 1, 2011

(via Flickr)

What’s your big goal?

I don’t mean what are your biggest goals (plural). I mean the one goal, the one thing, the one addiction you have that you will not stop until it’s satisfied?

Hard to pin down, isn’t it?

I have the same problem. I don’t think having more than one goal is bad though. I think it means we’re alive and pulled in many different directions. I think it’s also healthy.

However, when executing plans based on all your goals, sometimes life gets a bit crazy. (Look at me, case in point.)

I’m having to stick to the numero uno goal for November. (I’m not going to share it here, because it’s very personal.) But I have to put other goals aside for this month at least. They’re not going far. Just over to another todo list is all.

But for this month, my ONE GOAL is front and center. I’m going after it.

And it’s only because I worked so hard drilling down to that ONE GOAL that I am able to expend the time and energy required to stick to the plan.

1. List all your goals.

And if you need a few days to do this, you’ve got it. If you need to fill a couple notebooks, go for it.

2. Get them down to five.

Just five goals. That’s what should be left after you scream and curse (at me, probably) and stomp around and through a fit. Just five. List ‘em. Laminate ‘em. That’s it. No more. You’re done.

3. What one thing must be done to get the majority of all those five things to come true?

And you know what it is. Time, money, or courage. One of those things is a big piece of your numero uno goal. You have to face this reality. That’s why facing this truth, drilling farther down to just one goal (that requires you to tackle your major issue of time, money, or courage) is essential. And then for one month (or however long you decide) you will go after that numero uno goal with everything you’ve got. You’ll conquer your time, money, and courage issues. You’ll be undivided in attention, focused like a laser, unbeatable.

Who’s with me?

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What’s Stopping You?

by Trish on October 24, 2011

Source: None via Trish on Pinterest

Is it time? Money? Courage?

1. Time. It may look impossible to go after your dream because of time constraints. And I’m not talking about skipping American Idol or the news. I’m talking serious time constraints. You go from one thing to the next without any time. What is it that is taking up that time? Work? Family? Driving? Cleaning?

You’ll have to get creative then. Can you take a notebook and a pen and jot ideas down while you’re carpooling to work or hauling kids to soccer practice or dusting? Can you say no the next time someone asks you to pitch in for the PTA or to volunteer at the library book sale? Do you have to vacuum every day? Just change something once. It’s not a habit; it’s taking time for you. And if you do have time to watch television: Can you give up an hour of television each night to just sit and think about what you might do first?

2. Money. We always think it takes more money than we have to start something. You’d be surprised how little you need to start. I borrowed my first computer in 1995, got a free email account, and I was in business with two clients. A year later, I got the Internet on a dial-up modem, bought a second-hand computer, and had four clients. You don’t start with everything at once. I boot-strapped it at the beginning. Then I got conned into thinking I had to expand faster than I really did and had to pay all that off. Bootstrapping it is the way to go, trust me. Don’t let anyone tell you anything different.

3. Courage. I had no courage when I started. What made me do it? I had no other options. It was I try this or I had to go get a job as a waitress. And I was a really terrible waitress. I got really good at pitching via email and back then, fax letters. I could write a cover letter pitch that got me into some amazing places and got me responses! And work! And more work! And steady clients! You just gotta swallow your fear and go. Leap and the net will appear.

Anyone have any stories to share? Questions?

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The Best of You

by Trish on October 16, 2011

Source: facebook.com via Trish on Pinterest

A business is about having a soul.

At least I think. I believe we entrepreneurs start businesses not so much to make money, but to help people live better lives. I’m sure there are other sorts of entrepreneurs out there who don’t think this way, but rest assured, this is the point of this blog and the point of me being in business.

I want to have a soul.

So, how? How does a business begin or grow and keep the soul that is so vital to growing a business well?

1. Passion. I talked about this a bit last week and I want to come at it from another direction. You can’t show a life changed without a life changed. How many of you are coming out of terrible corporate jobs or even worse discouraging entrepreneurial ventures that never really made it anywhere? This is where passion has to come in, but more than passion, the ability to share with the world how that passion has changed your life. Once people see that, they can imagine it for their own.

2. Drive. Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. The television and movies talk about how people who run their own businesses often don’t work that hard or have money to burn. HA! Even in the darkest of moments—usually when cash flow is barely a trickle or you’re so tired because you’ve worked all night—entrepreneurs who want to succeed keep right on going.

3. Compassion. Your customer is looking for something. Can you provide it? Or do you care enough? Usually, I see a lot of failing entrepreneurs making those pivotal mistakes—growing too fast, not paying attention to the little things, or not marketing enough—and I wonder if they care only about the profits. It’s not polite to say (and I’m being brutally honest when I say it, because it has been true for me), but you’ve got to get over the get-rich-quick attitude and begin to care about what you are doing. You’ve got to consider that you may be that lifeline to a customer out there who is withering in their life. If you’re not able to give them what they are really looking for, I don’t question your entrepreneurial expertise, I question your empathy.

Go! Be liberated!

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Finding Your Passion(s)

by Trish on September 30, 2011

 

As entrepreneurs, we’ve got passions. We are interested in a variety of subjects and we like to think we have more than 24 hours in a day to accomplish all of them. Smart people tell us to “focus on one thing at a time.”

But we don’t. And we feel guilty. We worry that we’re going to fail at everything, even though we are making progress. And we’re having fun, dabbling here and there in multiple projects. Perhaps we should not try and do so much. However, the age-old paradigm that we should only be pursuing one passion at a time has never worked for me.

1. What is your passion(s)?

First of all, figure out what you love. It could be one thing; it could be several things. I don’t think having more than one passion is so much of a problem. I have lists and lists of ideas that I’d like to try someday. I usually attempt to stay focused on one thing a time, just to keep up appearances. Wanna join my secret society of brilliant entrepreneurs who work on more than one idea at a time? Yippee!

2. Figure out your energy levels.

Does working on your entrepreneurial ideas at different times each day make more sense or taking one day a week for each passion work better? I blog on a different blog one day per week and use that day to plan a separate blog, just to mix it up and keep things interesting. See? Told ya I like doing a lot at once!

3. Let go of something if you lose interest.

It’s okay! My business coach told me the other day that she put together an entire project and then dropped it for a few months because her interest waned. But just recently her interest pricked up and she was able to pick up where she left off.

Many very successful entrepreneurs work on multiple projects at once. Richard Branson, James Cameron, for starters. I’m always inspired by those type of stories. Maybe you should be too!

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Required Reading for Startups

by Trish on September 2, 2011

If you have NOT read Steven Gary Blank’s THE FOUR STEPS TO THE EPIPHANY, you MUST.

I bought this a few years ago after joining the Lean Startup Circle group on Yahoo. (In that group, Steve Blank is a god.)

But I did not actually dig into the book until this year (yes, that’s where I’ve been lately—building my business). Bad decision on my part. This book is gold.

I’m used to typical entrepreneurial books telling me that if I have a solution to a problem, I must communicate that solution to my audience, and voila! the audience will then rush to buy my solution.

Not so. How many times have I presented an amazing solution to an audience and their response is . . . eh. Too many.

This book tells me why.

Most of my business ventures are services or products that are resegmenting the marketplace. In other words, there is not a direct line from my solution to sales. I have to find (read: search) for the people who are ready for my solution and who have been thinking about my solution and who are actively searching for a solution just like mine (with a budget, hopefully).

That’s the gold part of this book. You create a vision of what your solution is, and then you go start talking to people in your niche and finding those buyers who are starving for your solution/product. Those folks are who help you develop the final product.

It’s all in the book. Get it, read it, study it.

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Focus on Solutions

by Trish on January 5, 2011

Instead of consuming, our society needs to learn to produce. How is this done?

I think through entrepreneurism. I think through story. What is the story of your business? How have you helped people? How have you thought up a product or service to sell and how did you find out if it was needed?

There’s long been an urban legend that advertising creates markets and thinks up worthless products to sell to those markets. That advertising agencies sit and work to create a new niche just so that their latest big thing looks like it’s new, best price, best value, or high in quality.

Unfortunately, this is the viewpoint of a person who doesn’t quite understand business. What else does a business do besides sell to new markets? What else does a business do but test through countless avenues what is the one selling point that best advertises their product? Without knowing if a product is needed or sought, business is essentially dead in the water. Without knowing what an audience considers the positioning of a particular product, no business can hope to stay in the black for long.

Businesses aren’t encouraging everyone to buy their product (which is often the acccusation when people say advertising creates markets), they are seeking out the BEST customer for their product. They know they can’t sell to everyone, so they fine-tune their advertising and focus to a particular group. The market was always there, advertising just created the boundaries of the market.

It’s the same thing with consuming versus producing. We can whine about how our consumer-driven economy leaves no room for producing anymore. Far from it! We need to be better than the current producers! If we can’t beat them on price, we beat them on quality, and vice versa.

I think the mainstream media has it all wrong. Business is not the root of the problem here. Business is what will get us out of the problem. Business (and entrepreneurship and whatever) is the vehicle to a producing future, which is what this country needs to be doing. From services to products, we must create something that our competitors can’t create and do it in a way that makes people buy from us!

It’s so easy to sit on the couch after we clock out at our day job and not do anything about producing something. That’s because we’re starting too big. Start small. Focus on one solution. What would be one thing that would make the world a better place?

I thought of one at the gym the other night while watching Extreme Couponing. Wouldn’t it be great if extreme couponers taught a few people their tricks and those people took those extreme couponing tricks and used them to fill up local food banks and homeless shelter pantries? What kind of awesome entrepreneurial venture would that be? I have no idea how to make money, but perhaps it could be a not-for-profit kind of gig or perhaps it could be a side gig that is supported by a natural food company? Buy one of our cake mixes, we donate one to a food bank? Toms Shoes is doing this with shoes successfully all around the world.

So, think of a solution. While it may not be a full-fledged business, it’s a way to produce, rather than to consume.

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Produce, Not Consume

by Trish on December 13, 2010

One of the reason I love being an entrepreneur is that I’m not just consuming. We’ve all seen the ill effects of consumerism on our society and while I’m a firm believer in freedom to sell whatever a person wishes, I want our younger generation to continue to ignore the siren call of “consuming” and “buying” and to begin to heed the call to “produce” and to “create.”

How is this done?

How can we as entrepeneurs change the world from consuming to producing?

By our example.

Everyone has the ability to create a business. From services to digital products to even physical products, there is virtually no limit to what can be turned into a small business.

Puritan upbringing aside, the earliest settlers in America all ran small businesses (farms, trade services) and sought to produce more than they consumed. This hardworking ethic (again, putting Puritanism to the side) has served our country well. We can create opportunity for ourselves no matter what our background, ethnicity, or religion.

But entrepreneurship needs to be reignited in this economic recovery a little differently. We need to harken back to the days when we produced more than we consumed. I am not advocating that we return to the days of Puritanism or the Salem Witch Trials. (It proves not everyone is perfect nor do we all get everything right all the time.)

I really believe in the power of producing versus consuming. In days to come, I will be talking more about this and how it affects entrepreneurism and our small businesses.

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The State of Business (and how social media can help)

by Trish on December 8, 2010

Chatted with my sister today while she was driving to a meeting about the state of HR and hiring of employees. We chatted a bit about what I’m seeing on the freelance side and what’s she’s hearing from the HR side. We exchanged a few golden nuggets of information and hung up.

I have not stopped thinking about it since.

How is the state of business in the United States?

Well, it’s tough out there. There’s so much entrepreneurship going on in this country that employers are losing their best and brightest talent. And word on the street is that employers are frustrated that they can’t hire quality employees to help run their businesses.

But wait, isn’t it a time of huge unemployment? Shouldn’t it be easy to find good people to fill the jobs? Aren’t there tons of people out there just waiting to be hired?

Of course. But a great number of “job hunters” (the term I use to describe persons currently not employed) are striking it out on their own. Everyone I know has a side gig or is building a side gig. It makes sense. Building something on the Internet is easy, cheap, and requires little overhead. This is prime business startup material. I’m not alone in thinking this. Other people are doing more amazing things than I am on this front.

This is why employers are struggling to find quality employees, at least I think so. Because employers have forgotten a major vein of gold in the American workforce: innovation and creativity. Without the ability to innovate and create while employed, employees will leave to find their own ways to innovate and create. I did!

My employment ended because I was frustrated with my job. No one was listening to me, no one seemed to care what I thought about anything. I wanted the freedom to innovate, to make something better for myself.

If you’re an employee, consider small favors for your employees during this time of economic uncertainty. From once a week boxed lunches to electric pencil sharpeners on each desk, to allowing Facebook while at work, allowing some sort of independence will foster a feeling of innovation and creativity. This goes MUCH FARTHER than giant bonuses and expensive company holiday parties, trust me.

In 2004, Microsoft experienced an employee revolt when they pulled laundry service for the towels they provided to employees who walked or biked to work in the rain. This small perk meant the world to Microsoft employees and as a result of their uproar, Microsoft upper management had to act fast. Just towels, you might ask?

Just towels. That’s what put Microsoft employees over the edge.

Think about that. Does letting your employees access Facebook and Twitter or blogs while at work seem insignificant now?

You could turn your employee morale around by 180 degrees.

Thoughts?

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