Entrepreneurship

Lessons Learned From My First Entrepreneurship Encounter

I’ve been attempting to write a post about the things I learned during my recent experience with starting a business, but found I could only get about halfway through a post. So, I decided to take a different angle on it. Below are some lists of things I’ve realized in the last month or so, reflecting on my experience and the things that went right or wrong.

Things to Do Better Next Time
1.   Think bigger
2.   More realistic worst case scenario
3.   Put eggs in different baskets

Things I Learned About Myself
1.   I need forced structure in life
2.   I enjoy being around people
3.   I place more value in financial stability than I realized

Things I’m Good At
1.   Developing and analyzing strategies
2.   Thinking of creative ideas and solutions
3.   Juggling a lot of tasks at the same time

Things I Presently Struggle With
1.   Holding myself accountable
2.   Social anxiety
3.   Focusing on a single task for a long period of time

What does all this add up to? Well, it is certainly good to have some things written out that I need to work on. I can also use it as a guide to help plan out my next big adventure (whenever that may be).

The ultimate lesson learned is that I’m happier when I’m employed. The 8 to 5 job certainly has its negatives (like cubicles….eww), but for me personally, I think a good job would be a better situation. It provides built in structure and accountability while also adding financial stability to your life (usually).

I’m still glad that I gave this a shot early on in my career because these were immense lessons to learn. Hopefully I can find a job in the near future that allows me to put the strengths of my mind to work, but I’ll definitely keep working on business ideas on the side no matter where my career takes me.

What is Failure Anyway?

Unfortunately, I realized last week that I made it to my financial deadline for making something happen with my business. According to my plan, I must now find another source of income, which primarily means that I have to get a job. When I realized what this really meant, I had a few rough days last week while I was still with my family for the holidays. I hurried out of town and headed back to Blacksburg to clear my head and start developing a plan of action.

Does this mean that I failed at my business? Well, that all depends on your definition of failure. In a financial sense, this was a near complete failure as the business fell on its face as quickly as it possibly could have. My opinion is slightly different, but it took me about a week to wrap my head around the entire experience.

I said before I started doing this full time that there was no such thing as failure. I still believe that to be true, but it was tough to comprehend when things went worse than my calculated worst case scenario. There are positives in any situation and I can certainly name a few that I have created…changed my career path to where I really wanted it, realized I have the balls to do whatever I need to in life, learned a ton about my personal productivity, and learned how much work and dedication it takes to really start a business. I could go on and on about all of these things, and maybe I will eventually…

For now, I’m going to step back from what I was doing as I search for a grocery money job. I have a hypothesis that when a business starts failing, owners work harder and harder trying to force the issue. Working harder may achieve more, but what is ultimately wrong is some of the underlying strategy. I’m going to allow my brain to reflect on my strategies to decide what needs correcting before I put much more effort into the business.

The time for reflection is desperately needed as the previous three months have flown by. My current thoughts remove all blame from myself and the methods I was using, which is probably incorrect. I would currently tell you that this ‘failure’ was simply a case of bad timing with the Google penalty. If the penalty hadn’t hit, I’d probably be approaching four digits in income in January. If I had waited to quit my job until the end of October, I would have seen the penalty hit and stuck with my employer for a bit longer. I’m sure these thoughts make me sound loony to anyone not living inside my head. Although they hold some truth, the underlying problem most likely lies with something I’ve been doing incorrectly.

It is difficult to guess at the cause of a rankings penalty (or anything the big G does), but usually these things lift in time. My hope is that I eventually land a wicked internet marketing job somewhere and then the penalty is lifted so I’ll be making a nice side income as well. I was bitter about the situation, but I’ve quickly recovered my attitude to make it forward looking and as positive as I can muster.

Entrepreneurship / Lifestyle Design / productivity — No Comments
15
Oct 10

Be the Wolf, Not the Rabbit

The rabbit gets eaten; the wolf rules his world.

Entrepreneurship / productivity — 2 Comments
6
Oct 10

Productivity Problems Working from Home

It is already Wednesday and I haven’t accomplished nearly as much as I wanted to. I have been very easily distracted and clearly have quite a bit to learn about productivity when working from home. It is difficult to balance the freedom that being self employed allows with actually getting work done. Although part of the problem is that I was just burnt out from working and running my business the last couple weeks, I also didn’t really have any structure in place to decide what tasks need to be done and when.

Building Structure
Everyone who has things to accomplish needs a bit of structure. It has become obvious to me that if I don’t have any structure, I will actually do very little work. Going into Monday morning, I didn’t really have a plan as to how I was going to attack the work that needed to get done. I didn’t have specific tasks written down or goals to accomplish for the day. I suppose this is a common noob entrepreneur mistake.

When I only had an hour or two to do work each night after work, I would just pick something to do (more or less out of a randomizer in my brain) and work on it until I couldn’t anymore. I would pick whatever seemed most important, relevant, or exciting at that exact moment. This worked well when it was a just a side project and my sense of satisfaction for the day didn’t really depend on it. The fact that I did something extra at all was usually enough to make me feel overjoyed at my productivity.

However, when you’re trying to work on something full-time, that supports your livelihood, there needs to be a little more thought put into which task you work on next. I needed a system and I failed to recognize that until today. I’m not upset with myself or anything; a learning curve like this was bound to exist and I really had no way to know until I gave it a go.

The Productivity Plan
Since late this afternoon, I’ve been drawing up a plan to put structure in place. The most important aspect I realized is that I need a daily goal that is production focused, not time focused. I mentioned in my last post that I was going to try a 9-5ish schedule. That will probably still work, but I can’t judge my productivity based on that.

Since this article marketing/niche website building idea’s main requisite is writing, I based my daily goal on an average number of words that I want to publish per weekday. Publishing is one thing, but actually writing is something completely different. The publishing goal is simply a measuring stick to figure out how much I need to write each day. Once I had that, I could plan what my particular goal is for which day of the week.

Now I have a schedule drawn up so that I know exactly what I need to accomplish each day of the week to be successful. I’m not saying I won’t slip up one day or need to rearrange it occasionally, but simply waking up and knowing what needs to be done should give me a huge boost in output and efficiency.

Entrepreneurship — No Comments
3
Oct 10

Let the Adventure Begin

Friday was my last day at work. I’m officially an entrepreneur! I had some weird feelings about it during my last day. I was trying to tie up all the loose ends at work, so it wasn’t until Friday night that I was able to analyze the emotion that I was experiencing.

I’ve decided that it was, and still is, basically a survival feeling. It’s not that I’m scared, but it has a fear-like sense to it. The only thing I could imagine is that this is how I would feel if someone dropped me off in the jungle. I think it is a light fear-like feeling that is attempting to motivate me. Now that I’m truly independent, my brain knows I have to make things happen or they won’t happen.

To make sure that I am productive, I have a couple ideas to keep me on track. The first is using this blog as a tool for reflection and accountability. I’m going to post at least once a week. Although I’m sure my posts won’t always be about my recent accomplishments or struggles, it will still force me to reflect on my progress for the previous week.

In addition, I’m going to stick to a 9-5ish schedule to start with (probably with a lot of extra hours thrown in outside of that range) until I get some productivity habits worked out and see what I can allow myself to do. Then I’ll probably move toward whatever type of productivity model seems to suit me best.

I have hated every job I’ve ever had in a walled cubicle and I think that was more of a problem for me than the work schedule. I think that just having the ability to go take a 15 minute bike ride in the middle of the day to clear my mind will make huge strides for my productivity, happiness, and job satisfaction.

My other concern when I was debating quitting my job is what I will do with my ‘free’ time. Just for my own sanity, I will have to do something other than work on my business for a couple hours each day. I’ve always had a side project. For quite awhile that main non-work focus has been working on building a business. Now that my business is my main job, I need to replace my side project.

To start with, I’m going to work on completing the P90x workout program. If you haven’t heard of it, it is basically a really intense 90 day, full body workout. It will be really challenging to go all the way through the program. I experimented with it the last couple weeks, but couldn’t maintain the intensity that it requires while I was working on my job and my business. Now that I’ve removed that thorn of a time-suck, P90x should be quite an interesting challenge.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Entrepreneurship — 4 Comments
21
Sep 10

I Made the Leap!

It is official; I put in my two week notice at work on Monday morning. I’m officially a full time entrepreneur!

And…panic!

Actually, I’ve been panicking for the better part of a week, pretty much since I decided this was actually going to happen. I had gone back and forth on the idea for the last couple of months, but kept deciding to stick it out a little bit longer for various reasons and reassurances. I wanted something concrete to grab onto when I made the leap. I’m not sure if the handhold finally manufactured itself with my best ever earnings this month or if something just clicked and I gained the confidence that I needed.

I’m confident in myself beyond all comprehension, but that hasn’t stopped the constant coming and going of butterflies I’ve had for the past week. It is a little better now that I’ve turned in my letter and can’t turn back. But over the past week I tried everything I could to reassure myself that I was making the right decision. I read every piece of risk taking literature I could. I used mind mapping techniques and decision matrices. Nothing really helped to calm me down, I just had to muster through it, knowing that I was making the right decision for myself.

Ultimately, this is just a trading of lifestyle priorities. I knew this would happen eventually (or, at least, hoped with all my might), but the scale finally tipped too far to the other direction to stay where I was at.

So where do I go from here? I have a lump of savings to help with my expenses for the next several months while I get some extra income rolling. I also plan to supplement with freelance jobs (primarily SEO content writing). I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I tell you that I’m the most resourceful person I’ve ever met—if I’m not, then it’s a close race.

In September, my online income passed $100 for the first time. I know it isn’t a lot of money, but I think it’s pretty cool that I created a recurring source of income out of nothing. Since I did this with an inconsistent, burnt out effort during nights and weekends, I know that I can quickly scale to produce a much more sizable number each month with a steady and more forceful effort (and especially because I now have a base to build off of).

I’ve heard a lot of criticisms about my decision, both requested and freely offered. I suppose if you’re not me then my decision may sound reckless, crazy, and rash. However, I don’t think that there is such a thing as failure in my position when you consider the variables.

I have to make it work. There is no plan B.
I was already losing; I was locked into the wrong career path. Changing that can’t make the situation worse.
While I’m temporarily worse off financially, I’ve gained in numerous other areas of life.
My plan is flexible. I can now change directions in an instant if I see a better opportunity.

I’m so excited to finally get a chance to do something that I’m really excited about with as much effort as I can give. I’ve never pushed myself to my limits doing something that I wanted to do before (except, perhaps, cross country in high school), although I’ve flirted with my limits several times doing things I didn’t want to do (college). I can’t wait to find out what I’m actually capable of.

Entrepreneurship / Internet Marketing — No Comments
30
Jul 10

My Side Business and Massive Action August

Until now, I’ve been pretty quiet about what type of business I’m actually working on. Partly because it’s a tiered model of attack (and therefore can sound quite lame if I explain it wrong), but also because I’ve been too busy to really draw it out.

I mentioned back in April, that I made just over $14 that month. Well, I’m really excited because this month I will end up right near $50. I always said that if I could make $1 online, then I could make $10. And if I could make $10, then I could make $100. What’s really cool is that it is proving to be true.

So what am I actually doing? Building websites and ranking them using search engine optimization. I signed up for The Keyword Academy in the middle of March and have been steadily plugging away ever since. TKA is basically a membership site that breaks down all of the internet marketing clutter online and delivers to the point guidance and advice on how to rank a website.

They’re not made for Adsense sites though, as the goal is to add quality to the search results through information. Although it is recommended to monetize with Adsense, there are a bunch of ways to make money without it once you get traffic to your site.

Unfortunately, it is a front end loaded model. You have to put in a bunch of work at the beginning to get a site ranked. Once it is ranked, however, it is much easier to keep it there. This makes the beginning stages a bit of a struggle and causes a lot of people to quit. The people who succeed are those who revel in the little victories and push through until they’re past the initial undertaking. I fully intend to be one of the successful folks.

Although I have been seeing good results from what I’ve been doing, I need to step it up a notch. I know I will be even more motivated when I start to see bigger numbers, so I’m going to force the issue. The founders of TKA always say that the best way to move forward is with massive, reckless action. I’ve read a lot of threads on their forums from advanced members taking massive, reckless action and seeing amazing results.

August is my reckless and massive action month. In addition to my current link building campaigns for my current sites, I’m going to setup 30 new niche sites. I picked out my niches with a detailed selection process and purchased my new domains accordingly. I’m amped up and ready to go.

This will be quite a task, but I’m not giving myself the option to fail. After all, you’ll never steal second with your foot on first.

Entrepreneurship — No Comments
28
May 10

Be a Shoe Salesman in a Centipede Farm

Obviously that’s a foolish idea since centipedes don’t wear shoes. Similar to selling freezers to Eskimos, you better be one hell of a salesman to attempt it. What I am suggesting is really contrary to the title in actual analysis.

Don’t try to sell something that there isn’t a market for. Yes, if you try hard enough you can create a market. But you can’t do it on a shoestring budget that most entrepreneurs are working with and it’s much easier to sell something that people already need.

Reinforcing Example: Google
No one from Google pitched you the idea that you should use their site instead of Yahoo. The need to search precisely and accurately for information on the internet already existed and directories were no longer cutting it. Websites were being created too quickly for true directory based engines to maintain their hold over the internet.

If you’re like the rest of us, someone mentioned Google to you and how much better they thought it was than the ‘search engines’ you had been using. The next time you went online, you gave it a try and were hooked because of its usefulness.

Possibly Contrary Example: Cocaine
You’ll have to excuse me on this one. I don’t know a thing about cocaine, but I just finished watching the movie Blow. At least according to the movie, there was an existing market for marijuana, but not for cocaine at the time. People knew about marijuana and already wanted to buy it. It sounded like people really didn’t know about cocaine until dealers started selling it. Perhaps there was a need for an easily obtainable, more extreme drug–I don’t know. However, the movie makes it sound like they created the cocaine market by targeting celebrities and allowing the country to follow suit.

Find a market, then a business idea
This is something that is fairly redundant when reading books, articles, and interviews from successful entrepreneurs. If you start with a product, however functional or trendy it may be, your business may not be successful because your market may not exist. You could make the most amazing gadget that cooks toast on my car engine and spits out toast when I’m driving my car in the morning. It’s a sweet idea, but I can already cook my toast in my house and it really isn’t that much of a hassle.

However, if you first asked me what I want my car to hand me on my way to work, then you can design a product based on what I recommend. You will have a built in customer base.

I would personally much rather my morning car ride would audibly go though my task list for the day with some wake up music playing in the background. I can cook my own food and bring it with me, but it’s hard to read during a dark, blurry eyed commute and survive to get where you’re going.

Allmendinger EnterprisesChoose Your Own Adventure