I am currently sitting in a barnes and noble at 7pm on a Saturday. Pardon my poor typing but I am still not used to an iPad keyboard.
The good news is that two photo booths are running tonight, and I am not working them. I am on call for emergencies but there should be none. It feels great to be making a pocket full of money while I am enjoying a hot chocolate and a book.
I am also in the process of starting two more businesses with partners. One is a hunting product which we just recently received a patent on. We are currently in the process of finding a manufacturer. Unfortunately, some people just do not take you serious without a history. One company told us we do not fit their customer profile. I am hoping that some day we can tell them that they do not fit our vendor profile. That would make me chuckle.
The other idea is a baseball product to be sold at youth tournaments. The margins are great, the potential customer base is large, and it is only going to cost about $200 to test the idea. These are my favorite projects. A small financial educated risk and a huge upside.
The reason for pointing this out is for two reasons. The first opportunity came from a person who knew i had my own small business. It is turning out that once you take the step to start a business, even a very small business, opportunities will seek you out. Probably a big reason why the rich keep getting richer.
The second business idea came from asking a simple question. "when you were a baseball coach was there anything that you wished was easier or something that just seemed more difficult than it should?" the response i received was the first step in finding that idea.
If you are interested in starting a business, start asking more questions and start listening.
It can be amazing what you will hear.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Update
It has been an amazing ride. We took Mommy Tummy Time to our first trade show in Indianapolis. It was a long drive from Green Bay. It takes even longer when you have to bring your daughter who is not even a one year old.
My mind is racing as we are on our way there. What happens if we get a demand? I only have two sets of our cushions. What am I going to do if I have 20 orders? These cushions are almost $1,000 a piece. Where am I going to come up with that cash? I'm concerned but actually happy at the thought of running out of inventory. How great would it be to have a product in such demand that I need to borrow money to let it grow.
Well, that dream only lasted about a day. We had some women try out the product and talk about how they would love to lay on their stomach, but they were not willing to actually put their money on the table. When you are testing a product with customes, do not believe their high praises unless they are willing to actually buy the product. No sales means no business.
It's sad in a way. Almost like a funeral. I gave birth to this business only to see it completely flop. Two years later and I still have hundreds of brochures in a box. It serves as a reminder that just because I think it is the greatest idea in the world, it doesn't mean squat.
Looking back on that trip and day, I'm still glad we did it. There are not many couples that get to experience the feelings we felt that weekend. The big dream and then the disappointment, but all the while being happy to be doing it with each other. Wow does that sound sappy, but it is completely true.
My mind is racing as we are on our way there. What happens if we get a demand? I only have two sets of our cushions. What am I going to do if I have 20 orders? These cushions are almost $1,000 a piece. Where am I going to come up with that cash? I'm concerned but actually happy at the thought of running out of inventory. How great would it be to have a product in such demand that I need to borrow money to let it grow.
Well, that dream only lasted about a day. We had some women try out the product and talk about how they would love to lay on their stomach, but they were not willing to actually put their money on the table. When you are testing a product with customes, do not believe their high praises unless they are willing to actually buy the product. No sales means no business.
It's sad in a way. Almost like a funeral. I gave birth to this business only to see it completely flop. Two years later and I still have hundreds of brochures in a box. It serves as a reminder that just because I think it is the greatest idea in the world, it doesn't mean squat.
Looking back on that trip and day, I'm still glad we did it. There are not many couples that get to experience the feelings we felt that weekend. The big dream and then the disappointment, but all the while being happy to be doing it with each other. Wow does that sound sappy, but it is completely true.
I'm Getting There
I can't believe that it has only been two months since I've started my personal six month experiment of starting a business. It is amazing because pretty much everything is set up and ready to go. The credit card processing finally went through with some strings attached. The processing company still doesn't trust my business so they are taking 40% of all transactions for 1 year that is put in a reserve account for me. I'm assuming this is to protect them financially if I attempted to screw over any customers. I'm not a fan of giving up 40% of all my money for one year, but I didn't have another choice. So I'll grab my ankles for the time being.
If you are looking for the cheapest shopping cart option go to www.quickcart.com. They are the cheapest and in some ways I am getting what I paid for. The shopping cart works just fine but the customer service is horrible. The guy that answers the phone for technical support always makes me feel like a complete idiot. The online directions are horrible. For example, I was trying to figure out how to change an order so that it shows that it has been shipped. The directions say select the order and changed the shipped to yes. Seems easy enough. Well, first you don't select the order. You had to click on just the customer name and not on the whole order. Then you need to find a button half way down the screen that says Confirm Shipment. Not a difficult process but it took me an extra 10 minutes to figure it out. It is a cheap service though, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money right away.
For our marketing brochures, I used a company call Vista Print. It is an online template company for brochures. I'm not sure yet if this is the cheapest or best place to go, but I could get a free sample PDF emailed to me that I'm able to forward onto people.
What's the biggest obstacle now? Well, we are attempting to get doctors to hand out our information to patients. First, it is impossible to actually speak to a doctor without being a drug rep sales person with a long standing relationship. We did get the information to the office manager of a hospital. She was forwarding the information onto the doctors to find out the interest. She says there hasn't been any feedback good or bad. Once again I'm relying on someone else who has no incentive to push our product. I won't be dropping this contact. It just might take a longer time to get any results.
Our next step is trying to get our information into the educational packets that newly pregnant females receive. Getting the information directly into the end consumers hand is all that matters.
The good news thus far is that I have not become completely bored with the idea and stopped all progress. I'm still trucking along which had been a big problem in the past. Now the six month experiment has changed to a four month experiment of getting my business to become a success. Here are some of the next steps I'm taking:
1. Posting our information on relevant online forums
2. Contacting additional hospitals in the immediate area
3. Emailing everyone in my contacts about the new business
4. Set Up my accounting software
5. Get Google Ad words set up
6. Find out how and if we can get our product covered by insurance
Alright, wish me luck!
Fear of Failure
This credit card processing approval has been hell. First, I was denied by one processor because rental is apparently high risk. Now I have to submit a personal financial statement and personal bank account information to the other processor. Pain in my rear! Why don't I just use paypal? I don't know if I can. I need a reoccuring billing solution, so I sent an email to sales at PayPal to see if they can handle that.
The problem with the process taking so long is that I've had time to think now. Everything was happening so fast before that I didn't even think about "What if the business fails?" As I get closer to the official open of business, I'm getting more nervous about failure. I've told everyone I know about this business venture. I want to be known as a success and be able to quit my full time job. What if all my daydreams that have made me so optimistic don't come true? I haven't even been thinking of other ideas in case this one doesn't work out. What will I do next if this doesn't work?
Because I've told everyone I know, I also have to go through with the opening. I can't just bow out now because of my fear of failure. I'm just going to keep moving forward and hope for the best. I need to change my mindset from "I don't want to fail" to "I'm going to succeed." I can't imagine my stress level if I had tried to start a business with a large capital investment. The good thing is that my overall investment has been less than $1,000. The reward side of success is so much larger than the risk side of failure. The hard part is that even $1,000 is a lot of money to me right now.
"I'm going to succeed"
"I'm going to succeed"
"I'm going to succeed"
"I'm going to succeed"
"I'm going to succeed"
My Wife Is On Board
I've told you in the past that my wife is always very supportive of my business ideas even though the past has a record of nothing accomplished. She was always willing to help a little and offer some advice, but she was never into it as much as I was. That has changed with a conversation that we had today. I put our success in such simple terms that the dream of starting a successful business feels like it is within our grasp. I thought I would share this simple insight with you. After I explain what she was so excited about, maybe you can use it as a bit of motivation too.
My target market is pregnant women. There are around 4,000,000 birth per year. I'm sure some of those are multiple children in one birth, but the majority is one child to one woman. So my market is a close to 4,000,000 per year. I'm renting equipment to these women on a monthly basis for up to around 9 months as a potential. Let's say the women don't find my product until their fifth month of pregnancy when their backs really start to hurt. I know that it is just an assumption and not based on any facts but stay with me. So, I have four months of a $40 per month rental for each women. Let's dream a little now. What if I can get 50 new customers a month? That doesn't sound like a lot. That means eventually I will have 200 customers renting each month. If you didn't understand that math, 50 customers from month one are still renting in month two, three, and four. 50 customers from month two are still renting in month three and four. 50 new customers in month 3 are still renting in month four, and there are 50 customers in month four. (50 from months one, two, three, and four are renting in month four.) 200 customers multiplied by $40 is $8,000 per month.
If we paid off our student loans (about $24,000) off, sell the truck, and rent or sell the house, we definitely have enough money to travel all we want with no worries about other bills. Heck, we could even afford the monthly payments without paying off the loans or selling the truck, but I'm a very debt adverse person. No mortgage, no utilities, no internet bill, no truck payment, no daycare costs, and etc. This is exciting. Let us say that we don't want to leave Wisconsin
Because I told my wife the scenario of only 50 new customers per month, she can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It feels as if it isn't that hard. The reality is that it is not as easy as sitting on the couch and watching TV, but I'm not asking her to climb Mount Everest either. Now she is excited and putting in time helping to improve the business. My extracurricular activity of starting this business has now turned into bonding time with my wife. This is so great.
If you can break your dream down to simple goals and simple ideas, you will see how much easier it can be. Don't just think of the big end goal. Break it down to manageable daily goals and each day you will see progress towards your dreams.
Back to work on making my dreams a reality.
I couldn't help myself but to write some more. I'm super duper crazy excited. I just received approval today to become a distributor of my product. I was getting worried. I kept saying to myself, "Self, if I don't hear back from them on Monday, I am going to call on Tuesday." Nothing happened Monday. BUMMER! It is now 1:38 pm on Tuesday. I was finally done doing everything I had to do at work. This was unusual because normally I'm done with doing my work requirements by 11:00am. (I'll have to explain that a little more in the next article) I was just about to pick up the phone when I realized that I had not checked my email. (Wow, I hadn't checked my email yet?) LO AND BEHOLD. It was there. My confirmation to become a distributor and all the great pricing discounts had appeared. One small step for man, one gigantic step for me.
I was excited and told three people at work. No one really shared my huge amount of enthusiasm. That's alright. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be sending them updates from my lifestyle blog about how cool my life is.
Back to reality. What needs to be done?
1. I need to get credit card and shopping cart integration on my website.
2. I need to set up a FedEx Ground account for shipping.
3. Set up a business bank account.
4. Get rates for Magazine advertising
5. Online Advertising
6. Find all the online forums that pertain to sleeping on your stomach when pregnant.
BOOM DONE! Well, not everything. I immediately called a credit card processing company (Chase Payment). I just needed information at this point. I signed up for FedEx Ground online in a few minutes. I did apply for an American Express Open credit card because it offered shipping discounts, but I was denied. HOGWASH! I'm already a frickin American Express cardmember. My credit is good, and I've never missed a payment. Stupid American Express.
My wife (who works for an advertising agency) called FitPregnancy for their rate cards. I wasn't expecting that a full page ad was $38,000 and the cheapest black and white ad of a business card size was $3900. I know everything is negotiable, but I don't know about that negotiable. Well, their online advertising was more reasonable. I might try that. I then did google searches for phrases like "sleeping on your stomach when pregnant" and then followed all the related search phrases at the bottom of the page. I found all the forums that women had asked these questions. My plan is to go to every forum and post about Mommy Tummy Time.
I just can't believe that it has been less than two weeks since reading about the sixmonthexperiment site from JL (the creator). So much has progressed and at this rate, I might have a fully functional website, advertising, and orders in a few more weeks. That would be accomplishing a six month goal in less than two months.
I leave you with this a couple of quotes.
"Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun." -Christina Rossetti
SO GET FRICKIN STARTED ALREADY! -ME
Ready, Fire, Aim
It's amazing how much more is getting done with doing less. I'm not spending time on a business plan, nor am I thinking about every SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) possible. I don't remember where I heard the idea of ready, fire, aim, but it seems appropriate for what I'm trying to do. I'm ready to start a business, test the business, and then plan.
Update on the business so far. I've found the niche market I'm going after- Pregnant women. What a great market! Why? First, the marketing can be very targeted. There are specific magazines for this target market. Even magazines for different age groups in this market. There are a lot of websites dedicated to this market. Between the magazines and websites, I can spend marketing dollars and know that every cent will count. Second, I've found the product. Its a product that allows pregnant women help with one of their biggest complaints- always having to lay on their side and not the stomach. Third, women will spend gobs of money on their children even before they are born.
I've built the website using Microsoft Office Live which has everything on the web for free. No required software and no cost. LOVE IT! It is not a solve all your website wants or needs, but it gets it off the ground. I used godaddy.com to register my domain name for $9.99 per year. One of my biggest challenges was deciding on the content of my website. I ended up using information that other websites had about my product. I also used other websites information and just revamped it for my purposes. You could easily get this done in a day. I would bet that after using this technique on a couple of business ideas that this process could be cut down to only a few hours. The one thing I do not have is a logo. I'm not a graphic designer or very good with an design programs, so this will have to wait until my business idea is proven to be a success.
I've also contacted my potential supplier about becoming a distributor for the product. With this idea, I plan on offering the product for rental. I don't need to get a discount on the product if the idea turns out to work, but I want the discount if I can get it. So, I sent an email, made a phone call, filled out the application, sent in the application, sent a follow up email, and made a follow up phone call. I still haven't heard anything back. I hate being dependent on someone else before I can move forward. Here I sit twiddling my thumbs for that answer. FRUSTRATING!
Well, there is no use in doing nothing. What is my next steps? Oh yeah, some of the other things that I did was get my domain pointed to my website, set up email using my domain name, submitted my website and sitemap to google, and found some great stock photos on istock.com. If you do not know how to do these things, do not worry. In office live go to the domain manager and community sections. They explain everything. Then search for google webmaster tools and follow the steps. The google webmaster was not explained in the easiest way, so expect to spend a little time figuring out if this is the first time like it was for me.
Ok, back on track. Next Steps?
1. Set up a google ad words account and start thinking of the keywords you will use. www.mywifequitherjob.com had a great article on the process of testing out ad words to find the best combination.
2. Find all the online forums of people asking questions that would relate to my product so I can answer the questions later.
3. Find out rate cards for the magazines I want to advertise in. By the way, don't pay full price for advertising because everything is negotiable in advertising.
4. Do some research on shopping cart/credit card processing software.
Back to work for me. No rest for the successful.
Paralysis By Analysis
"I have a great business idea." This is the phrase that my wife hears about once per month. I can't tell if she wants to roll her eyes at me or not. I've told her this plenty of times without anything ever actually happening. Sometimes I feel like a failur because I've never actually completed one of these projects. I even question whether or not to tell her because of this lack of past results. However, she is always supportive and gives me some great feedback. I'm not sure if this is actual interested or just an easy way to please me. It's usually not hard to please most males anyway.
But all this has changed now. I've started my first business with a friend of mine. Photo booth rental for weddings. It has been progressing much slower than I anticipated, and I even feel guilty about not getting it jump started faster. But it is progressing slowly at the very least. What was important is not so much the success of this first business, but hte fact tha tI've finally went through with an idea.
Now I'm working on brilliant idea number 569 and determined to start and continue this business with even more determination than my first start up. What has changed since idea 565? What was stopping me from completing my goal of starting a business? (Notice how I didn't even require that the business needs to be successful, and it still took me this long)
Everyone that I've talked to would love to own his or her own business. So, what is stopping you! What was stopping me?! The problem was that I'm too smart for my own good. I knew too much about what it takes to start and run a business. I was getting paralysis from all this gosh darn analysis.
I would look around and see all these people that I considered not the sharpest knives in the drawer starting and running businesses. Because I went to school for entrepreneurship and help run someone else's business as my 9 to 5 (more like 7 to 5 in my case), I knew every aspect of running a brick and mortar business. There is a lot involved with running a business between all the requirements for the state and federal government, accounting, marketing, human resources, management, and on and on. Are you an expert in all these areas? If not, how are you going to compensate for your lack of knowledge. I was using my knowledge of how complicated it can be to start and run a business as an excuse not to start. There are a bunch of idiots out there willing to start a business out of ignorance. Those same idiots are learning as they go and making a living for themselves. Now this just pisses me off. What am I not more successful than an idiot? Or should I say why am I not willing to take that jump than an idiot is willing to take? That makes me an idiot.
Another problem is this stupid business plan everyone is telling me to write. That is what I learned in my entrepreneur classes in college, so it must be the right thing to do. Hogwash! The business plan is full of assumptions that won't happen. It's a great excuse for not actually doing antying to start the business. (But look Mom, my business plan is 76 pages long. Aren't you proud of me?) In my own case, I love coming up with new ideas and get bored with an idea by the time I get the plan done. Once that happens, the business plan sits on a shelf for the rest of eternity. I'm not saying that you do not think ahead and plan for your business. There has to be a balancing act of actually getting something done to start the business and planning for the business.
The idea is that you can take a few key steps to test the feasibility of your business. If you start seeing some sales from these steps then you can adjust, do more planning, and learn as you go. Why waste months of writing a business plan if you can realize in two weeks of whether or not your product will sell. Then you can spend time on the business plan.
Here are the steps:
1. Find the niche market
2 Determin the product for that market
3 Find vendors and get pricing
4 Set up a website to take orders
5 Drive traffic to your website
6 Determine if it was successful
Notice that there are no steps for creating bogus sales forecasts, personal financial statements, organization and management, executive summary, and other reports that don't matter at this point. Nothing matters unless people buy what you are selling.
If you are using a business plan to receive financing from a bank, you will need a complete business plan. However, it doesn't take a business plan to test the idea. By the way, testing up front will give you a better chance at financing anyway. "Hi Mr. Banker, I've already sold this product to 100 customers. I need more cash to expand."
In conclusion, stop getting bogged down with details and just go out and test the idea. The time for doing this is NOW! Now stop reading and get something done in the next half hour that brings your business closer to a reality instead of just the next great idea you bring up to your wife.
But all this has changed now. I've started my first business with a friend of mine. Photo booth rental for weddings. It has been progressing much slower than I anticipated, and I even feel guilty about not getting it jump started faster. But it is progressing slowly at the very least. What was important is not so much the success of this first business, but hte fact tha tI've finally went through with an idea.
Now I'm working on brilliant idea number 569 and determined to start and continue this business with even more determination than my first start up. What has changed since idea 565? What was stopping me from completing my goal of starting a business? (Notice how I didn't even require that the business needs to be successful, and it still took me this long)
Everyone that I've talked to would love to own his or her own business. So, what is stopping you! What was stopping me?! The problem was that I'm too smart for my own good. I knew too much about what it takes to start and run a business. I was getting paralysis from all this gosh darn analysis.
I would look around and see all these people that I considered not the sharpest knives in the drawer starting and running businesses. Because I went to school for entrepreneurship and help run someone else's business as my 9 to 5 (more like 7 to 5 in my case), I knew every aspect of running a brick and mortar business. There is a lot involved with running a business between all the requirements for the state and federal government, accounting, marketing, human resources, management, and on and on. Are you an expert in all these areas? If not, how are you going to compensate for your lack of knowledge. I was using my knowledge of how complicated it can be to start and run a business as an excuse not to start. There are a bunch of idiots out there willing to start a business out of ignorance. Those same idiots are learning as they go and making a living for themselves. Now this just pisses me off. What am I not more successful than an idiot? Or should I say why am I not willing to take that jump than an idiot is willing to take? That makes me an idiot.
Another problem is this stupid business plan everyone is telling me to write. That is what I learned in my entrepreneur classes in college, so it must be the right thing to do. Hogwash! The business plan is full of assumptions that won't happen. It's a great excuse for not actually doing antying to start the business. (But look Mom, my business plan is 76 pages long. Aren't you proud of me?) In my own case, I love coming up with new ideas and get bored with an idea by the time I get the plan done. Once that happens, the business plan sits on a shelf for the rest of eternity. I'm not saying that you do not think ahead and plan for your business. There has to be a balancing act of actually getting something done to start the business and planning for the business.
The idea is that you can take a few key steps to test the feasibility of your business. If you start seeing some sales from these steps then you can adjust, do more planning, and learn as you go. Why waste months of writing a business plan if you can realize in two weeks of whether or not your product will sell. Then you can spend time on the business plan.
Here are the steps:
1. Find the niche market
2 Determin the product for that market
3 Find vendors and get pricing
4 Set up a website to take orders
5 Drive traffic to your website
6 Determine if it was successful
Notice that there are no steps for creating bogus sales forecasts, personal financial statements, organization and management, executive summary, and other reports that don't matter at this point. Nothing matters unless people buy what you are selling.
If you are using a business plan to receive financing from a bank, you will need a complete business plan. However, it doesn't take a business plan to test the idea. By the way, testing up front will give you a better chance at financing anyway. "Hi Mr. Banker, I've already sold this product to 100 customers. I need more cash to expand."
In conclusion, stop getting bogged down with details and just go out and test the idea. The time for doing this is NOW! Now stop reading and get something done in the next half hour that brings your business closer to a reality instead of just the next great idea you bring up to your wife.
Finally Starting the Business
I've always wanted to become that successful business owner. I've just never been able to get past creating the idea and making it a reality. After reading the 4-hour work week by Tim Ferris it became clear to me of what was stopping me.
Paralysis by Analysis- I was getting to caught up in getting every detail of my business plan compelted which took up more time than needed and was great at distracting me from taking any steps towards actually opening the business.
Lack of Productivity- It took 8-10 hours per day to do about 3 hours of work. It was great to haver interoffice conversations, check email, surf the drugereport.com, facebook, daydreaming, and any other time waster. As with most jobs, your productivity and worth is based on how many hours per day you keep your chair warm. It doesn't really matter what you are doing as long as you appear to be working. By the way, this also spilled over to my home life in the form of video games and television.
The Power of Now- It's amazing how tomorrow becomes next week and next week becomes next month. I've once heard that procrastination is like masturbation. It feels real good until you realize you are screwing yourself.
Boredom- I love coming up with new ideas, but it doesn't take long for me to get bored with an idea. It is more fun dreaming of new ideas than trying to overcome the laziness of actually accomplishing an earlier idea.
It will take some time to overcome my unaccomplished business life. I would suggest that you read the 4 hour workweek and follow me on my own journey of zero revenue to "I know there will be enough in the bank account." On a side note, I hope that starting this business will take much less than six months. Well, I know it will take less than six months. Then we can focus our attention on how to run the business effectively and efficiently.
Paralysis by Analysis- I was getting to caught up in getting every detail of my business plan compelted which took up more time than needed and was great at distracting me from taking any steps towards actually opening the business.
Lack of Productivity- It took 8-10 hours per day to do about 3 hours of work. It was great to haver interoffice conversations, check email, surf the drugereport.com, facebook, daydreaming, and any other time waster. As with most jobs, your productivity and worth is based on how many hours per day you keep your chair warm. It doesn't really matter what you are doing as long as you appear to be working. By the way, this also spilled over to my home life in the form of video games and television.
The Power of Now- It's amazing how tomorrow becomes next week and next week becomes next month. I've once heard that procrastination is like masturbation. It feels real good until you realize you are screwing yourself.
Boredom- I love coming up with new ideas, but it doesn't take long for me to get bored with an idea. It is more fun dreaming of new ideas than trying to overcome the laziness of actually accomplishing an earlier idea.
It will take some time to overcome my unaccomplished business life. I would suggest that you read the 4 hour workweek and follow me on my own journey of zero revenue to "I know there will be enough in the bank account." On a side note, I hope that starting this business will take much less than six months. Well, I know it will take less than six months. Then we can focus our attention on how to run the business effectively and efficiently.
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