Advice For The Working Entrepreneur
Running a business on the side while working at a day job is a great way to build some true job security and helps you exercise your creativity and passion to the fullest. It’s not easy to pull this off and to do so you have to have high doses of one ingredient, integrity. You may be saying to yourself that integrity is the easy part. Most of us think that we possess a high amount of integrity and in many cases, we do. When it comes to running a business, there is a small margin for error when you are dealing with clients that have paid for your
When Should You Keep Your Day Job?
It feels a little weird for me to be writing about keeping your day job on a blog about small business and entrepreneurship. But I do think there are some scenarios where you can build a business that you own without putting all your chips in the middle so to speak. I care about business owners structuring their business in a way that works for them and the question of when should you keep your day job is important. Everyone has heard or seen the romanticized version of the entrepreneur, the rugged individualist who overcomes all of the odds to build a successful business and becomes a millionaire. He/she
Book Review: Ignore Everbody and 39 Other Keys To Creativity
I ran across Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys To Creativity by Hugh MacLeod as I was perusing Amazon’s best of the year for 2009. The book had a different feel to it than other books I have read recently so I picked it up. This book did not disappoint. Most of the ideas are not necessarily groundbreaking which I think the author readily admits. (Hugh’s final chapter is titled “None of This Is Rocket Science”.) What struck me while I was reading this book was just how straightforward and honest the book was as well as how much it reeked of common sense. I use the words “common sense”
Social Media is Dumb and A Waste Of Time— Pt. 2
In case you missed yesterday’s post, I talked about getting your small business involved in social media through blogging. If you are going to do one thing with regards to social media, that is where I feel you will get your most bang for your buck. Once you start blogging and assert that social media is not dumb and a waste of time, you may want to get more involved with social media. This is the point where business owners get curious about sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. What are the best social media outlets for your business. That’s really up to you and your clients to decide. You
Social Media is Dumb and A Waste Of Time— Pt. 1
It’s a little ironic to write the above headline for a blog post but it reiterates the conversations that I have with many entrepreneurs today. For entrepreneurs, their main concern is getting the word out about their product/service. In the majority of cases they don’t feel that social media can actually help them with marketing. Small business owners think that social media is trivial at best and a complete waste of time at worst. This may come as a surprise to some. I know it surprises me at times. It feels like Facebook and Twitter are littered with entrepreneurs, MLM participants and work from home experts. While there may be
3 Simple Social Media Guidelines For Small Business Owners
Seeing as to how it appears that social media is here to stay (I know, I am a genius), there are some guidelines that small business owners can follow to ensure that they use social media effectively. Here are 3 simple guidelines for using social media. Guideline #1: Be Consistent Let me say first that I love entrepreneurs and their spirit for jumping into things and running with them. Let me also say that entrepreneurs have a hard time following through sometimes and it kills their credibility. Social media is one of those areas where I see small business owners half ass it all the time. When I work with
Top 5 Personnel Mistakes by Small Businesses
For all my talk previously about systems and processes, they are worthless if you don’t have the right people to run them. Personnel is a tough area for small business owners due to a lack of experience in the personnel development process. There are 5 mistakes that small business owners make with regards to personnel. Mistake #1: Not defining roles for the partners in the business. This applies even to the individual business owner. It’s important to decide what roles that you will play in your organization both short term and long term. It’s especially important with regards to partnerships. I have personally seen the damage that is done in
Does Your Small Business Need Systems?
Systems and Processes is one area that lags behind the other important issues for your small business. In many cases there are just things the small business owners lacks such as knowledge, time and help when it comes down to putting these in place. There is another reason why small business owners don’t have systems and processes put in place for their business. The ultimate reason is that business owners don’t think they need to do it. I am going to touch on some of the key reasons that your small business needs systems and processes. I hate to use the analogy of a house because it is overused but
Book Review: The 5 Laws The Determine All of Life’s Outcomes
I have had the opportunity to spend time with the author of the 5 Laws, Brett Harward, on a few different occasions. What struck me as odd is that I had heard from other people how good his book was but hadn’t taken the time to read it. I decided to change that about a month ago and I am glad that I did. In terms of a “self help” type of book, Brett gives a lot of practical advice that I think readers will find refreshing. The premise of the book is that there are five areas that contribute to your success. Those areas are: Vision, Frequency, Perception, Accountability
Do You Own a Business or A Job?
When I finally read the book E-Myth by Michael Gerber it reinforced for me the importance of building systems and processes for your business so that you own a business and not a job. Michael gives some specific advice for ensuring that your business operates smoothly without killing you, the business owner. How often do we hear the story of the rugged individualist business owner who defies all odds and works 20 hour days just to realize his/her dream of small business success. We have heard these stories a lot and the one thing we don’t hear about is how these same business owners are still putting in 20 hour
