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Where the 50+ year old Entrepreneur learns the keys to create the business they love and the life of their dreams.

Baby Boomer Cash Now

Why your Business needs a Compelling Story and How to Create it

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You and I are emotional creatures. We like to think we make rational decisions based on logic and reason, but that is not the case.  That is why a compelling business story is so important.

Michael Harris, who writes for the Harvard Business Review, says “The decision to buy is made subconsciously . . . Our subconscious/intuitive decision to buy is then communicated to the conscious mind via an emotion. The conscious mind then searches for rational reasons, and that’s how we complete the circle: We justify our emotional signals to buy with logical reasons.”

We buy on emotion and justify with logic

People buy because their gut tells them that your product or service can help them achieve their goal.  Your story of why you’re in business resounds with them.  They believe in you and your product.  So, in creating the details of your story, you want to connect with your audience in an authentic, personal way that they can relate to.

For example, below is the story of GrubHub, which is an online and mobile food ordering company.

It was just another hungry late night at work, but Matt Maloney sensed an opportunity.  The eureka moment for GrubHub came when Mike and I were working as developers for Apartments.com. We were frustrated by the lack of dinner options as well as the pain in the ass of calling restaurants and reading our credit cards. At the time, we were working on geographic lookup searches for rental real estate. That’s when I heard the screeching wheels in my head: Why wasn’t there something like this for food delivery?

 

The GrubHub story

Can you relate to working late, being tired, hungry and hating the hassle of trying to get food?  I know I can. And many other people can too.

 

So how do you make a compelling story?  Read on.

How to Construct Your Story

First: Define the Objective of the Story

What do you want your customer to feel and what action do you want them to take based on the story?

Stories can be how your customers overcame hurdles with your help or how they took advantage of an opportunity you provided.

In some cases, the story is self-explanatory as to next steps and in other cases, you will recommend a course of action.  Often, if there are more than one person in the room, they will talk amongst themselves and determine the next course of action.

  • Know your stories well enough that you can select the appropriate one to use in a given situation.

People won’t’ remember the five points of your PowerPoint presentation.    But they will remember a good, applicable story.  Invest time in creating powerful stories.

Second: The Story must have a Challenge (The Villain) 

Just like any action/adventure film or any western, there is always a hero and a villain.  Is this case, the villain is the challenge or obstacle that needs to be overcome.  Without a villain, the story would be pretty boring, wouldn’t it? There needs to be tension in the story (will the hero save the day?)

Earlier we described the challenge faced by Matt and Mike of GrubHub which lead to the creation of the business.  But you want to go beyond just YOUR story and gather stories of how you helped your customers achieve their goals.

For example, let’s say you are in the software consulting business.  It is at the end of the year and a potential customer is stressed because their current e-commerce software is very slow and customers are leaving their online shopping carts without making a purchase.  You work with this customer to optimize the software and it enables the customer to garner an additional $500K in sales because of your work by year-end.

In this case the slow software is the Villain or Challenge.

The Villain could also be a difficult customer and you were able to resolve the issues turning them into a very satisfied customer.

Third: Use Vivid language

In constructing a story, it is important to engage as many of the five senses (sight, touch, hear, taste, smell) as possible into the story.

 

If you were telling the story of how your business got started you would describe the time of year it took place, the sights and sounds as the inspiration of the business came to you.

What time of year did the story, take place?  Was it Fall, with the leaving turning red and yellow?  Or was it Spring, with tulips opening up to the sunshine?  What were the smells?  Were you on a walk in the summer and could smell the fresh cut grass?  Did you on a whim take off your shoes, curled your toes in the soft carpet of grass, closed your eyes and then suddenly a flash of insight hit you like a ton of bricks?

What did you say to yourself when the business idea flooded your mind?  What did you say to others when you told them your WHY, your Vision?

When you enable your potential customer to see, hear, smell, touch and taste your story it comes alive for them, putting them right in the middle of it.

Paint a vivid picture of WHY you wanted to start the business using powerful, descriptive language.  Use language that creates a picture in the mind of your customer as you tell of your vision of how you want to make the world a better place through your business.

In the story above concerning the slow software, where I simply told the facts about the challenge and results, you would describe in detail how the customer felt and use dialogue to tell the story.  You would describe the customer as “his shoulders were slumped, and he had a pained expression on his face as he described the software problems saying they were ‘like a noose around his neck’.”

To summarize, you want your potential customer to understand the story and act based on your objective.

 

How to get Good Stories?

Take a good customer out to lunch and write down in detail what his/her challenges were, when it took place, who was involved and the result from overcoming the challenge. Be as specific as possible.

As you become more successful you often won’t know of a situation where a customer successfully used your product, unless you talk to them.

Find out what action they took and how your product/service or you, played a role in overcoming the challenge.  Find out what the result was and how the customer feels in achieving that result.

 

Provide Exceptional Service – Testimonials

When selling consulting services for my then current employer I used a success story of how my team consulted with a large wireless telecommunications customer and we enabled them to increase productivity 300% in their network operations.  The vice-president of operations said, “You have enabled us to take a quantum leap in how we operate.”  I captured his story in print and on video.  I used that testimonial in marketing materials and in sales presentations for the services and increased sales by using them.

 

You don’t need to be Garrison Keillor (Prairie Home Companion) to tell a story

Final note, as time goes on you will have an entire repertoire of stories. You’ll get better at determining which one to use in a given situation and as you tell them, you will get better in your delivery.  But don’t worry about being a master story teller.  Your potential customer understands that you’re not a celebrity speaker.  They just need to understand how you can help them and stories are the best way to tell them.

 

Actions:

  1. Use descriptive language to describe in detail the sights and sounds when you came upon your business idea.
  2. Paint a picture of your Vision in your customer’s mind using the descriptive language.
  3. Think of 3 stories where your customer had success by using your product or service. Have them in different industries and different genders and races.

 

 

Selling is not a Dirty Word

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Introduction

You’ve come up with a great idea for a business.  You’ve identified your target market.  You’ve put together a great product or service and you are all set up and fired up to get going on your business.  You wait for your phone to ring . . . and you wait . . .. and you wait.  And it doesn’t happen.  Why?

Could it be that you had focused during much of this early phase in everything but marketing your product or service?  Many entrepreneurs miss that Marketing is a vital component of a new business setup. Others know they have to do it, but often shy away and/or delay from engaging in this area.  This is especially true for those who are introverts; this group would rather spend their time working on their product or service and not out trying to sell it.  Per Beth Buelow in The Introverted Entrepreneur, 90% of your time will need to be spent on sales and sales-related activities in the first year of business.  90%!!

If you are not spending 90% of your time on these activities, it means two things, 1) you are not going to succeed at the level you desire and 2) you are looking at selling and marketing completely wrong, says Dean Graziosi in Millionaire Success Habits.

 

People Buy You before they Buy Your Product/Service

As an entrepreneur, and likely a solo-preneur (single person in a business), you are the face of your business.  Your clientele isn’t buying from a faceless entity like a Proctor and Gamble.  They are buying because they like your story, believe in you and trust that your product or service can help them achieve their goals.

The story of WHY you started your business, what you want to achieve through the business, is important to customers and potential customers.

Justin Rosenstein was a product manager at Google in 2005 and was spending 90% of this time in meetings and on emails.  Dustin Moskovitz, who was head of engineering at Facebook was in a similar situation.  Both were very frustrated.  They started asking, “Isn’t there a better way to work with people?”.  Justin developed an internal system for collaboration and he found that everyone in the company used and loved it.  They went out and launched their new business, telling their story of frustration as the reason for the birth of this new business. Many of their customers could relate to their frustration and ‘bought in’ in what they are selling!

In 2008, Asana was born, The Asana story.  Today Asana’s customers include GE, Allstate, Deloitte, Uber and Airbnb, just to name a few.

 

Your Story

So, what is your story?  Why are you starting this business?  Or if it is established, what is the reason you started it?  The answer isn’t money.  While it is necessary to make money to stay in business, that reason won’t resound with your customers.  You need a higher goal; a vision of why the business was started in the first place.   What do you want to accomplish through this business?  What is your driving motivation?  What is your WHY?

Let me give you an example. For babyboomercashnow.com, our Vision, our Purpose is to help entrepreneurs around the world.  This is accomplished two ways.  First, it is through providing education, resources and tools to white-collar professionals in their 50s that are in a business or starting a business.  Second, it is by helping entrepreneurs that don’t have the opportunities we have in the US.  Let me explain.

Even during the Great Recession, when many white-collar professionals lost their jobs and homes, and industries such as financial (mortgage and investment) were especially hit hard, however, they still could feed their families.  The number of people on food stamps skyrocketed.  It was a very difficult time, but we survived.  We had safety nets provided by the government.

In other parts of the world, those safety nets don’t exist.  It is up to the individual to figure out how to feed his/her family and obtaining money for daily necessities is a constant struggle.

 

Our Vision

This is why our Vision at babyboomercashnow.com is not only to provide education and resources through the blog and other methods, but to also contribute to the operations of Kiva International, a non-profit that provides microfinance to budding entrepreneurs around the world.  I really like Kiva’s mantra, “Dreams are universal, opportunity is not”.

 

Kiva – Hope for Entrepreneurs

There was a recent story on Kiva’s website about the Nogaye group, which is a group of 23 women in Senegal that focuses on retail.  Mrs. Ndeye Fatou, is the leader of the group.  “She is forty-five years old, married and the mother of three children including one boy. She has a small business selling fabrics. She has been doing this business for more than six years. With this new loan, she is planning to buy ten pieces of wax [pagne cloth] and to pay the transportation with the remaining amount.
With the earnings, she will help to cover the daily expenses, provide for her children and strengthen her savings.”

She needed $4600 and was able to raise it. One hundred and thirty-six (136) people have contributed to her business loan.  Obtaining this loan will make a dramatic difference in the lives of those 26 people.

Or the story of Flor Del Carmen who lives in the village of San Antonio de la Balsa, a coffee-growing community a half hour from San Ignacio, Peru. Flor Del Carmen, 33 years old, lives with her daughter who is a minor, 7 years old. She maintains her own 2.50 hectare plot of coffee of excellent quality (organic) which she sells in a local cooperative.  She needs $925 to purchase soil amendments to improve her production in the next coffee season.

Flor Del Carmen story

Kiva has thousands of stories just like these.

I want to help Kiva give hope to individuals, to families, that they can have a better life by creating a small business.  These loans will change their lives.  I want to be a part of that.

I believe there are many potential entrepreneurs that are white-collar professionals, in their 50s, that are taking a hard look at themselves and the remaining years of their lives.  They want to leave a legacy of having helped others and would like to do so through their new business.  I believe the vision of babyboomercashnow.com will strike a chord in the hearts of Baby Boomers and they will join me on this journey.

Why does your business exist?  What is your story?

 

Who is your product/service for?

Having a compelling story is a great start for your business.  But of course, people buy from you when your product/service helps them obtain their goals and satisfy their needs.  However, a great story is not enough.

The better defined, the more precise a business is in determining their core market, the more successful the company will be.

Some companies have tried to satisfy a very large market and had initial success, but ultimately lost market share as competitors sliced and diced the market.

Henry Ford sold 15 million Model T’s from 1909 to 1927.  By the late 20s’ GM had surpassed Ford in sales and Ford never regained its sales lead.  Why?  Henry Ford had only one model of car for years and famously said, “People can have the car in any color they like, as long as it’s black.”

Model T story

By the mid-1920s, cars were more affordable, and the economy was doing well, hence the term “roaring 20s”.  Consumers wanted a choice in cars.

Today, there are car manufacturers that specialize in sports cars only (Ferrari), or SUVs (Land Rover).  I can have the most wonderful sports car in the world but someone looking for an SUV wouldn’t be interested in my car.  This is a basic illustration, but I think you get my point.

 

You’re not Selling, You’re Educating

In any business, you need to sell to stay in business.  Many people feel that reaching out to sell to someone is bothering them.  These entrepreneurs may have experienced pushy salesmen, can’t stand them and don’t want to become one of them! We all loathe being thought of as pushy and most feel they don’t want to bother anyone with their product or service.  So, we wait for the business to come to us, and we wait and wait and wait. Business will not come on its own; one way to bring in business is to tell our story.

 

Your target audience does have use for your product or service. Some do want what you have to offer and are willing to listen.  The key is to reframe in your mind and belief about “selling”.  You’re not “selling” your target market something they don’t want.  You are “educating” them, as Beth Buelow says, “We enjoy being able to educate others, sharing our knowledge.  If they decide not to buy, it’s because they are the wrong audience, or we did a poor job of educating them.”

If we find that our message is not resonating with our “target market” then one of two things is happening.  We are either not talking to our target market, or we are talking to our target market, but the benefit we are providing is not compelling enough for them to buy.

If either is occurring, we need to reexamine our product/service and ask ourselves the following questions:

  1. Is it possible that my identified market is too broad? Can I more precisely define my target market?  Is there a subset market that would find greater benefit from what I’m providing?  Is there a unique market niche that would fit best with my product/service?
  2. What are the characteristics of that market and how does what I’m providing match up to the wants and needs of that market?
  3. How can I sharpen my message so that when I educate a potential client I create a compelling desire for client to buy?
  4. How can I make the benefits even more clear than they are today?
  5. Are there benefits that I had not thought of that are a better fit for this niche?

 

Take the answers to these questions and honed your message so that it is to the right audience and make sure the message is crystal clear as to the benefit that is provided by you product/service.

Once that is done, all of us just need to educate as many of the right people as possible.  As Zig Ziglar said, “You can get anything you want, if you just help enough people get what they want.”

 

Actions:

  1. Identify the compelling reason you are starting this business.
    1. Will others want to be a part of that vision?
  2. Describe in detail your target market.
    1. Psychographics (opinions, activities, interests)
    2. Demographics (age, education, occupation, etc.)
  3. Identify the benefit(s) of your product/service for this market.

Let me know your WHY. I’d love to hear from you.  Send me a note at alan@babyboomercashnow.com

Interview with leadership expert Rick Lochner – Vision and Mission for your Business

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Rick Lochner is the President and CEO of RPC Leadership Associates, Inc. He is an accomplished Coach, Facilitator, College Professor, Keynote and Workshop Speaker, Author and foremost, a Leader.

Alan: I think a lot of people confuse Vision and Mission as being the same thing. How are they different?

Rick: A Vision is aspirational. With a vision you want an emotional attachment to it. A Mission is more tangible in how the business goes about its business. Many times, entrepreneurs will go right to the mission because it is easier to explain. People can more easily understand the Mission because it is something that is much more tangible.

Alan: What do you mean when you say Vision is aspirational?

Rick: It defines the organization’s purpose. It is the company’s North Star. The Vision is something the leader wants the organization to become. It is aspirational. When you think of Vision, think of what John F. Kennedy said in 1961 about the US going to the moon.

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.” jfk-moon-speech

Rick: We didn’t know how we were going to get to the moon, we certainly didn’t have the technology, but this was something that inspired all of the American people and that vison is still remembered today.

Since that time, it has become even more important for a company to have a Vision; to have a purpose. Since the turn of the 21st century, people care even more about the purpose of a company and they are looking for it to be more than just purchasing a product or service.

Today, consumers and in business to business relationships, people want to know what the company is doing to help make a better world. A measure that is used today to gauge how environmentally responsible a company has been over a period of time, in financial, social and environmental areas is called the Triple Bottom Line. Examples are Green and Sustainability initiatives by companies.

Note: for more on topic see triple bottom line

Alan: What is a Mission?

Rick: A Mission is more concrete where you ask questions like:

• What do you do?
• How do you do it?
• For whom do you do it?

Alan: How does Purpose fit into Vision and Mission?

Rick: Purpose is a multi-use umbrella statement that is made up of Vision and Values. Purpose should reflect a passion.

Initiatives such as reducing carbon emissions at a company’s operations shows the Value of a having a clean environment.

Alan: Does Vision come before Mission or Mission before Vision?

Rick: Vision comes first. Vision is the foundation for a business. Vision provides long range direction of a 5 to 15 year horizon.

Mission is normally a 2-3 year horizon. The Mission can change over time.

Once you have established the Vision and Mission of a company, the Strategy which is the third part of the triad, can be developed.

The strategy is how you are going to compete. How is the company going to go after its market? What is the company’s Competitive Advantage? Is the company aiming for Cost Leadership like a Wal-Mart in retail or a Southwest Airlines in transportation? Or will the company go after Market Segmentation by focusing on a particular niche?

The Strategy builds on the Vision and Mission of a company and it completes the strategic thinking process.

Alan: Does a business have to have Vision and Mission?

Rick: If you only pick one, the company must have a Vision, because it gets people emotionally attached. A company needs a Vision so employees get engaged in what the company is trying to achieve. Companies that have a higher level of employee engagement perform better.

I worked with a non-profit that had a Mission but no Vision and no strategic plan. Once they created a Vision, the close rate on grants went up because people understood why the non-profit was in existence. It’s important to communicate why you are doing what you are doing.

Once you develop a Vision, the Mission will follow.

Alan: Rick, thanks for these insights. I see the importance of each and why they need to be defined for a company at the start.

For a more in-depth look into the strategic thinking and tactical execution of a business, get Rick’s book, The Missing Piece for Entrepreneurs.

Interview with National speaker and writer Russ Riendeau

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I’ve had the privilege and honor to interview Dr. Russ Riendeau about the benefits of Writing.  Dr Riendeau explains how one can get started quickly and how, through his writing, doors were opened to him that helped him in his other businesses.  It is my hope that the tips you learned from Dr. Reindeau will encourage you to start on your journey to writing.

Dr. Russ Riendeau is a successful entrepreneur, national speaker and award-winning executive search professional. He has turned his ideas, passions and talents into million-dollar business with ideas that have enriched the lives of thousands, as well as a rewarding personal and professional life. Russ is also the creator of the Rusty & Pogo comic series. His ideas, writings and art work have appeared in thousands of media outlets including, TEDx Talks, The Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal Radio, ABC News, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, Boston Globe, Artprize 2014, Sales & Marketing Magazine, Training Magazine and CIO Magazine.

Alan:  How did you get started in writing?

Russ:   I started writing at a very early age.  Jim Bouton, a Yankees pitcher in the 1960s, decided to keep a diary of a Yankee’s season that detailed the player’s shenanigans and then published the diary as a book. The book was a big hit and a big influence on me.  As a 13 year old, I decided to keep a diary of that summer’s activities.   My friend John, after reading excerpts of the diary, said I should write a book.  While I didn’t write one right away, the idea of writing a book stayed with me.

Alan:  Being an author is not your only business.  Has writing helped your other businesses?

Russ:  I found that writing was a great format to establish my competence and expertise in business.  Writing enables me to demonstrate how I could help others.  I was in the homebuilding business, early in my career and I started to write how-to articles and I would get them published in industry newsletters.  This was well before the Internet.  After that, I started to write articles on sales training and those were published as well.  At that time I wasn’t paid for articles, but it enabled my business to grow.  Writing was a very worthwhile investment.

Alan:  What was your first book?

Russ:  My first book was Thinking on your Seat, and the target audience was those that worked in the executive search industry.  The book was also field guide.  It was published in 1996 and sold for many years.  It was priced at $39 and I sold the first 100 copies in 30 days.  The initial printing run was 450 books and it sold out in a couple of months. I made back my investment pretty quickly.

While I had been writing articles for years and felt very comfortable writing them, I knew writing a book was at whole different level.   I wrote the book to see if I could get through the writing process.  Did I have the discipline and drive to consistently write?  I wanted to prove that to myself.

Not only did publishing that book give me a sense of accomplishment, it also opened other avenues for me as well.  I landed speaking engagements and started a series of training seminars which have continued till today.

As my circle of influence grew, I was able to reach out to well-established authors to have them write forewords and to-date seven of the forewords have been written by best-selling authors. As of today I have written 11 books and even though the money from book sales is good, I focus on writing what I enjoy.  A few years back I created a comic called Rusty, Pogo and Soup and have loved every minute of writing it.

 

Alan:  What did you learn from writing the first book?

Russ:  First, there is such joy in writing.  We put ourselves into the writing and it is very fulfilling to write.    The fun is in the creating.  The feedback you receive on your book is not so much fun, it actually creates tension.  You’ve put yourself out there, revealing what you think and this creates tension in yourself.  You ask yourself, “Will they like what I write?  What if they don’t like it?”  It can be difficult to handle the feedback.  But, people will read what you write.  There will be some that don’t like it and others who love it.  Getting the first book under your belt opens up a whole new world for you.

 

Alan:  What advice would you give to someone that wants to write?  Someone that wants to have a second career as a writer?

Russ:  There are a few things you must do.

First, write.  Get your idea on paper quickly.  Write down everything you think that is related to the topic.

Second, can you write from different perspectives?  Can you see both sides of an argument and write about each of them?  That is, can I write from an unbiased approach?  Try to write from both sides of an argument and see if you are able to do so. You will get better at being able write from more than one perspective as you work at it.

Third, you have to be willing to accept there may be people that don’t like what you write.  That’s okay. Writing is quite personal and you must be willing to put yourself out there and accept feedback on what you write.  Doesn’t mean you agree with their opinion. Don’t take the criticisms personally.

Fourth, don’t plan to write the great American novel the first time you write.  Build up to it.  Write articles, 1500 to 2000 words each.  Give the article to people; get their feedback on it.  Write 20 articles.  You might be able to turn those articles into a compilation which turns into a book.

Years ago people wrote pamphlets to get across a point, such as in the time of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin.  These pamphlets were expanded into books in many cases.

Fifth, be willing to pay for editing.  I’m good at turning a phrase and developing great content, but having an editor has been a boon to my writing and my business.

A good book to read is Stephen King’s On Writing.  He talks about how he goes about writing.  Anyone serious about writing should read it.

Alan:  What’s next for you?

Russ:  A third volume of my single-panel comic, Rusty, Pogo and Soup will be coming out.  In addition, I focus on my executive search business, Jobplex.  As you know, I’ve created several original music compositions and continue to compose today.

Alan:  Where can we reach you?

Russ:  I can be reached at russriendeau@gmail.com

Alan:  Thanks for sharing this advice with us.

Get Russ’s latest book, The Big Swing:  What the Chicago Cubs are teaching Business Leaders about Capitalism, Commitment and Culture.

The Power of Focus

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Finding Your Mind Wandering?

 

Ever find yourself reading through a single-page article and at the end of the page you wonder what you’ve just read?  You read it again and it’s as though you are reading it for the first time.  Our minds are easily distracted; with our myriad of “things to get done”, it is no wonder we are sometimes unable to stay focused on even a simple task. Instead of focusing on the printed page, our minds stray to our To Do lists, yesterday’s ball game, the latest issues at work or any number of things.

 

Why are we so easily distracted?  A couple of reasons . . .

First, the material we are reading may be boring and we really don’t want to read it.  Second, is that “Focusing” on a task is hard work.  If we haven’t trained our minds to really focus on the task at hand, our minds are not disciplined and we will think about anything except the topic in front of us.  So how do we discipline our minds to stay focused? Try asking yourselves the following questions:

 

  1. Why is what I’m learning/doing important?
  2. How will learning this material or completing the task help my business succeed?
  3. What am I really trying to achieve here?
  4. What is the best and most enjoyable way to do this task?

 

Sum it up by telling yourself, “this task may be difficult, but it is helping me achieve my goals and that is exciting!  I going to do the best I can on this.  I like doing this because it moves my business forward!” Get your emotions involved.  When you get excited about what you are doing, you will naturally focus on it.

 

Why you Need to be Focused

 

Getting yourself excited about the task is a good method to get yourself to Focus.  The more excited and energized you are about accomplishing the task, the faster you will do it and the better you will be at the task.

 

The ability to focus and complete what you need to do for your business is important when you have limited time.  This especially true when you are working full-time and trying to build your business on the side. You need to make the most of what little precious time you have outside of your full time job.   Distractions that come in the way of your ability to focus can be detrimental to the business you are trying to build up.  You need that “Focus” to accomplish what needs to be done to move your business forward. Focus also enables us to learn faster because when we are focused, we absorb the matter better. It enhances our learning.  You have limited time and limited energy, so you need to use both wisely.

 

But getting yourself to “Focus” is not as easy as turning a switch on and now you’re able to focus.

 

Starting a difficult task when you are tired, like trying to work on something complicated in your part-time business after a long day at your full-time job will be an exercise in frustration.  How to overcome this?

 

Will power

 

The best thing to do is to tackle a complex problem, something that will require a lot of thought or something that will take some time to master, is to do it when you are at your highest energy level and most motivated to work on the task.  In other words, when your Will Power is strongest. Will Power is highest earlier in the day and decreases as you do through your day.  Ever eat healthy during the day and snack late at night?  I have.  It’s because our Will Power is low.

 

How to use Will Power effectively?  First, understand when your Will Power is the strongest and use that time to tackle the task.   For many people their Will Power is strongest early in the morning.

 

For example, when I needed to create the babyboomercashnow.com website, I had the tools I needed (a web hosting site) and knew the end goal (create a website) but didn’t know how to create the website.

 

I needed to get up the courage to tackle something that was foreign to me.  I rose early on a Saturday morning, determined that I would Focus and use the time when my Will Power is the strongest to get the website done that day.   Armed with my pot of coffee, I listened to tutorials on steps I needed to take to create the website and worked on creating it.  By the end of the morning, I had a working website.

 

The key was that I was well rested and had the resources at hand to set up the environment I needed to be productive.  Below are 8 tips for when you are at home and need to Focus on a task.  These tips will help you to prepare, set up your environment and get your task done.

 

Stop Reading email at Midnight

 

The ability to focus during the day starts with the night before.  To be able to Focus you need to be relaxed and fresh.  To do so you need a good night’s sleep.  To get a good night’s sleep your mind needs to be free of clutter.  Alexandra Cavoulacos and Kathryn Minshew, authors of The New Rules of Work, say to use a “Tech Curfew”.  Decide by when you will stop reading email, and stick to it.  And that email deadline should be well before bedtime so your mind has time to relax.

 

Determine What you will Focus on

 

Before going to bed make sure you prepare for your Focus time.  This will include determining what you will work on and what materials you need to do the tasks.  The last thing you want to do during your Focus time is to look for research material or have to do anything that will take away time and energy.  Make sure you are prepared for the next day.

 

Silence your Media Prompts

I turn off the ringer to my phone (it will still vibrate and wake me up if I have an urgent call) and turn off media prompts.  I don’t need to be notified of an email at 3 am or a What’s App text message.  In today’s world where people have family and friends around the globe, it is common to receive notifications day and night.  You need your sleep. The message can wait for a response in the morning.

 

 

The Next Morning

 

Put on some Relaxing Music

It is usually pretty quiet when I write on the weekends and there is no need to put on headphones.  But I do anyway.  I put on some “study music” via YouTube; something that lasts for a couple of hours with just a few breaks.  I find that better enables me to focus on the writing.  I’m listening to music as I write this.

 

Turn off Media Prompts during your Focus Time

I make sure media prompts are turned off during my Focus time so I don’t get distracted.  You can also disable Facebook so it doesn’t notify you when a there is a Facebook posting.  Personally, I don’t have automatic prompts for Facebook and Twitter set up.  I choose when I go to those applications.

 

Keep a Note Pad close by

As you are working on the task, inevitably your mind will wonder and come up with 100 different tasks you need to do besides the one you are focusing on.  There is no way to avoid this.  Just make a quick note of that task and go back to work.  Once you have written it down, your brain won’t keep prompting you to remember it.

 

Set a Timer on your Phone

Determine how long you will work on a given task and set a timer.  So if you are devoting the next ½ hour to work on the task, you can set an alarm/timer for 30 minutes from now.  If you pick up your phone after a few minutes, tempted to check Facebook just for a second, you’ll see your timer as a reminder to get back to work.

 

Take Short Breaks

I’m a coffee drinker and a cup of coffee takes 30-45 minutes to finish.  At the end of the cup of coffee, I stretch and go to the kitchen and get another one, giving myself a break for a few minutes. Another tip to get the blood circulating is to take a quick walk for 5 minutes.  Even if you are at home, walk the steps a few times.  Get yourself moving.

 

Reward Yourself for the Accomplishment

I found writing for 30 minutes very hard when I first started. After 5 minutes, I wanted to stop.  I’d look at my timer and see that only a few minutes had passed.  To get myself to write for that entire 30 minutes was to reward myself.  I love to read, so if I wrote for 30 minutes on the weekend, I’d rewarded myself with 15 minutes of reading a favorite novel.

 

Summary Paragraph

These tips will help you accomplish more in a shorter amount of time and you will move your business forward.  Let me know if you have any tips for focusing at alan@babyboomercashnow.com

 

Action:

  1. Determine your area of Focus.
  2. Determine how long you will Focus
  3. Get your area free of distractions.
  4. Get excited about the Focus area.
  5. Do it!
  6. When you finish your Focus time, reward yourself in some small way.

 

 

 

How to Start A Business Part-Time

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You have been noodling on going into your own business for a while and now you think you’ve figured out an idea on what you want to do.  You’ve worked on your finances and you’re ready to make the plunge.  However, there remains one nagging question in your mind . . . should I start slow with part time, take the time to grow my business or this is my insecurity speaking?  I would say, in my opinion, you are just being cautious.  There are many baby boomers out there who got started part-time and then went on to develop successful full-time businesses. Babyboomercashnow is a part-time business.

The good news is that everything I detail below can be done on a part-time basis.  Let me say it a different way.  You must verify your product/service on a part-time business to make sure your business is viable – will you actually make money from it?

Better to find out early on in your way to becoming an independent entrepreneur that the product/service doesn’t sell, while you still have your full-time job.  And of course, you can tweak your product/service on a part-time basis until you get it right.  It is a whole less stressful to make changes to your product or service without having to worry about having the money to pay your mortgage or your kids’ tuition!

Below I talk about how to get started on a part-time basis.

 

Patience

While you are really pumped to work as many hours as possible on your new endeavor, patience is the key.

First and foremost, keep in mind your current full time position is paying the bills.  Working 40 hours a week on your new business is a recipe for disaster. You’ll be tired at your full-time job, your boss and colleagues will notice and your performance will suffer.  You want to make the leap from a part-time business into a full-time business at your own time and choosing, not because you are forced into it by being let go from your full time job!

 

Determine How Much Time to Spend on the Business

Ten to fifteen hours a week will be plenty to start out for your new part-time business.  This amount of time will enable you to concretely move forward in the business without losing sleep and still have time for balance between your full time work life and business life

Determine when you will work, which days and what time of day.   I write my blog in the mornings on the train ride to work and research during the train ride home.  This gives me 50 minutes each way to work on my business.  One hundred minutes a day translates into 500 for the week or a little more than 8 hours.  In addition I spend a couple hours on Saturday mornings.  Over the last 19 months, I have averaged right at 10 hours a week on my part time business.

Others devote a large part of their weekends to their business because of work obligations during the week.  Keep your part-time business work schedule flexible but dedicate time to it and track that time.  No skipping work on your business for a week with a promise to yourself to work twice as many hours the following week.  That just doesn’t work.

 

What do people Really Want?

Part of the early research is determining your target audience and what that target audience really wants.

It is often hard to tell what benefit people want.  You can ask, but the answer you receive and the actions they take towards the goal, may not match.

There was a recent study that showed more than 50% of individuals who make New Year’s resolutions fail in keeping their New Year’s Resolutions in January.

Why do I bring this up?  If you asked the individuals what they planned to do for New Year’s resolutions they would produce a smile and say, for example, “lose weight”.  In fact, 41% would say that was their goal according to the study.  But if half of the 41% will give up by January 31st, it really wasn’t a goal, it was a wish.

People often associate losing weight with pain, after all they are missing out on the comfort, the short-term good feelings that high carbohydrate foods provide.  There is a reason why the first letters of diet spell “die”.

We often tell people idealistic goals so we feel better about ourselves.  However, they really aren’t goals because there is no plan and only token action toward the goal.  According to the same study, “many people start out with the best intentions to get into better shape by joining a gym, 67 percent of people with gym memberships never actually use them.” We all have good intentions, but we don’t always follow through on them.

A similar situation happens when we approach our friend about buying a product or service from us in the future.  When asked, friends often “agree” or “promise” to buy your product or service – how often do we “sure, I’m happy to help when you are ready, just let me know”.  We might even had said it ourselves to others.  However, when it comes time to actually buying it, these same friends may be reluctant to come up with the money and that is when you start hearing the myriad reasons “why not”.

They tell us yes because they don’t want to hurt our feelings.  At the time they say yes they may even believe they will buy the product/service.

Make sure what you are providing is something they truly want.  As Chris Guillebeau says in his book The $100 Startup, “Focus on the core benefit of your product and make sure it is something that a potential customer truly desires”.

 

Don’t know what Benefit to provide?  Ask

How do you know what your target audience really want?  To determine what it often will takes some digging. This isn’t Internet research that you can do in an afternoon.  This is feet pounding the pavement type of research.

Reach out to people in your target market such as friends.  If this doesn’t provide a sufficient pool, look to Facebook and LinkedIn for additional target audience.  Tell them you are looking to start a business and describe the type of business.  Tell them you have nothing to sell, but you are looking to understand pain points in their business. Offer to take them to lunch, frankly insist upon it.  Send potential questions ahead of time, but tell them the questions are only food for thought, no need for them to fill out a questionnaire.

Over lunch ask the questions and write down the answers.  If you don’t understand something, ask them to clarify.  People like when you are taking the time to accurately capture what they are saying and you want to make sure you captured the details.

Find 10 different people with whom to have lunch or coffee.  Consolidate the answers to your questions and find the common issues in their responses.  If it is not clear the most important and frequent issues, then interview 10 more people.  Consolidate those answers and find the common issues.  Keep doing this until you can determine the desired benefit.  There is no shortcuts.  Take the time to do this right.

Finding the core benefit will be at the root of what you provide to customers.

 

Ask for the Money

At this point you have determined the benefit your business will provide and you have a good idea of what the product or service would entail.

Your next step is to presell the idea.  Above I mentioned that a friend may tell you they would buy, but the reality may be different case.  Now is the time to find out.  Before you commit to making the product.

For example, if you have helped plan weddings over the last several years and people look to you as the expert in planning weddings, this is may be a business for you.

Put together a detailed outline of what wedding planning guide would contain and go talk to a friend that will be planning a wedding soon.

 

 

Go through the outline in detail, and tell them the guide is $10 and that you are taking orders for the guide.

It is important to get the money upfront because you want to verify your audience sees the value in what you will provide and that they are willing to pay for it.  Let’s be frank, if you’re not being paid, it is a hobby, not a business.

 

There will be people that will readily give you the $10 and others (friends) that may recoil when you ask them for the money and can’t believe you asked it.

They may say, “Its only $10, why don’t I just pay you when you put it together?”  That makes sense from their perspective, because it is only $10, what’s the big deal?

But you are planning to spend many hours putting together a guide and this guide is the culmination of what you have learned over many years.  Your time and experience is worth something.

After you have spent many hours putting it together and you hand them a copy, they may take a quick look at it, mutter that they already found the material they needed and hand it back to you, or they will say thanks for the guide, mentioning they don’t have $10 dollars with them and promise to pay you the next time they see you.

They never intended to pay you.  They thought because of the friendship the product should be for free.

It was only $10, you may think there is no need to ask for it upfront.  Why take the chance of ruining a relationship for that amount of money?

But, what if instead of creating a wedding planning guide, your business was restoring old cars.  A friend of yours sees the cars you have restored for yourself and really likes the work you do.  They have a car that was given to them when their father passed away. The car has been sitting in the driveway for several years and they would like you to restore it

Would you take on the job without any upfront money?

No, at the very least you need money for parts that could run hundreds of dollars or more, not to mention there should be upfront money for your time.

There is really no difference between the $10 dollar wedding planning guide and a car restoration business.  In either case you ask for the monetary commitment up front so you know if they are serious in buying.

As a side note, the closer the friend, the more difficult it may be to get the cash up front.  Don’t make exceptions.  If they don’t want to pay, just move on.  You are in a business.

 

How to find your Paying Customers

Start with who you know.

Make a list of 100 people and divide them into categories.

  • Neighbors
  • Parents of your children’s friends
  • Business people you interact with (e.g. vendors)
  • College friends
  • Former colleagues
  • People in your Facebook
  • People in your LinkedIn

It is at this point that many entrepreneurs get cold feet.  Many budding entrepreneurs just can’t get themselves to ask friends for money and will pass at putting together this list and actually contact those on the list.  Daymond John, star of shark-tank says in his book The Power of Broke, “97% of the entrepreneurs who give up, become employed by the 3% who never quit.” 

Most entrepreneurs would rather make a cold call; talk to a complete stranger, not knowing if the person has any need or desire for the product, rather than approach someone they know.  They are afraid of the rejection, afraid they will lose a friendship if they ask.  Two points on that:

  1. A true friend is willing to listen to what you have to offer because they are willing to help you. They are willing to say yes or no at the end of the presentation.
  2. If the person stops talking to you after the presentation; one where you made it clear that if the product is not for them, it is okay to say no, then they really weren’t a friend to begin with. It is not ending a friendship when you are not really friends to begin with.

You have to be willing to get out of your comfort zone and ask.

 

Treat the Friend the same as a Valued Customer

If you have a money back guarantee and the product doesn’t meet a friend’s needs, by all means refund the money.  Do so with a smile and do not let the refund impact your relationship in any way.  Friends may be reluctant to ask for a refund, but if you detect a change in the relationship; if their body language says there is a problem, bring it up to them.  Find out the issue and refund the money, let them keep the product.  It is much better to keep a good reputation among your friends and regain a few dollars.

 

Ask for Referrals

Anyone that has bought from you is a possible referral.  Ask for two referrals from them.  When you reach out to the two referrals let them know who referred you.  If someone buys, get two referrals from them.  Keep doing this, over and over again.

Your business is now off and running.

Action: 

  1. Get clear on what your target market desires.
  2. Make sure the core benefit of your product/service is providing that desired benefit. If not, determine the benefit you currently provide and what it will take to provide the desired benefit.  Make the necessary changes.  Don’t go further with your business until you do this.
  3. Put together your list of 100 potential buyers.
  4. Put together an action plan to contact the 100 potential buyers.

Contact me at alan@babyboomercashnow.com and let me know the key benefit of your product/service.  I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

Networking is Easier than you Think

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What Networking isn’t

To a lot of people networking is a dirty word.  I know, I used to be one of those people.  Too many people think networking means going to an event where they don’t know anyone; collect a bunch of business cards while handing out theirs in return and make small talk while the card is exchanged.  At the end of the night, you have 25 business cards without remembrance of a single conversation.  Nor can you picture a face for any of the 25 cards.   I did exactly that when I first started out many years ago. What did I accomplish during those nights of networking? Absolutely nothing.

This misguided method of ‘networking’ is used by millions of people and it is ineffective and, to put it bluntly, hated.

 

What Networking Is

Networking is forgetting about yourself and seeing how you can help others. Networking is not a task on your To-Do list or some 5-step program you follow to get to a certain result. The help you provide others could be using your own expertise or reaching out to one of your contacts and requesting their help for the person. This new definition of networking will require a paradigm shift on your part.  It means looking first to help others without any expectations of personal gains.

From experience, I can almost guarantee that you will find this way of networking a much more pleasant and rewarding experience.

 

Adam Grant, Wharton’s highest-rated professor and a writer whom Malcolm Gladwell describes as “one of my academic heroes,” describes in his book Give and Take, about three types of individuals.  While this is applicable to the work environment it is applicable to networking as well.

 

Matchers operate on the principle of fairness: when they help

others, they protect themselves by seeking reciprocity. If you’re a matcher, you believe in tit for tat, and your relationships are governed by even exchanges of favors.  Matchers at a networking event or industry forum/dinner will look to exchange information and are willing to help the other person as long as they can get help now.  In other words, I’ll help you if you help me.  If that is not readily apparent at the start of the conversation, the Matcher will move on.

 

Takers have a distinctive signature: they like to get more than they give.  They tilt reciprocity in their own favor, putting their own interests ahead of others’ needs. Takers believe that the world is a competitive, dog-eat-dog place.  So at a networking function, they are all about how to make contacts with those who can help them and help them now.  They will survey the landscape at the meeting and head to the most prominent people and talk with them all night.

 

Givers are a relatively rare breed. They tilt reciprocity in the other direction, preferring to give more than they get.  My opinion is you should strive to be a Giver.  Help those that need help without thought of your own needs.  I have found this to yield the best results. When you help others without expectations of getting anything in return, you build a reputation of being a selfless giver.  In return, when you need help, most of your networking contacts with whom you had helped, will not hesitate to help you in return.

 

Be a Giver.

 

Who Do You Want to Meet?

Keep in mind the purpose for you in networking is to expand your circle of contacts for your business.  Although you are not looking to see who can help you or to be “Taker”, the types of contacts you make should not be random at these events.  An important question to ask before each event is “Who do I need to meet and why?”.

The event you attend could have anywhere between 25 to 250 people, depending on the event. That is a lot of people to talk to and there is no way you can talk to them all in one night, nor should you try.

As you’re developing your business there will be a lot of people that have expertise and contacts that would be very useful to you.  This can be someone in a particular industry or particular expertise.  If possible, find a members list of who regularly attends.  Again your goal should not be how you can be helped but rather how you can help them.

Your business and personal goals will help determine who you should meet.  For example, if you are looking to publish a book, talk to a writer and publisher at the event.  If you are looking to sell products on Amazon, meet up with Amazon sellers, and so on.

By first determining who you want to meet and why, you will be able to tell at the end of the night if your objective was achieved. But how to you start talking to someone at an event?  Entering a room of 200 people can be a daunting.

 

The Approach

Show up early.  I found that by getting to an event early I’m able to start out interacting with a smaller group of people and give myself some time to become comfortable. I use the 3 second rule. I see someone that I want to talk to and I have 3 seconds to go to them and start the interaction.

Here are some tips on conversation.

  1. Smile at the person before you start the conversation.
  2. Take an interest in the conversation with the other person; really listen to them.
  3. Ask them to describe their business. If you don’t understand areas of their business, ask them to clarify.  People don’t mind explaining their business, they actually enjoy telling others about it.  By understanding their business, you better understand how to help them.
  4. Ask about their most recent business success. If they have had a recent business success, they will relish the telling of what happened.  But if they pause, look down at the ground and say, “My business is not doing very well.  I’m here networking, looking to drum up business.”  Then they will look up to you with hopeful eyes, hoping you will buy.  While it is unlikely you need what they have to offer; don’t shy away from helping them.
  5. Ask them what challenges they are facing in their business. Your goal is to get a good understanding what is the main cause of their business not doing well.
  6. Summarize the obstacle(s) they face to make sure you understand the problem. If you know how to help them, say so.  Be specific in what you will do for them.  But don’t feel you have to commit to do something you don’t want to do.  It is far better to be straight with them, even if it means telling them you can’t help.  Just by actively listening to them is more than what 90% of the people at networking events would do.  And even if you can’t help them now, there may be an opportunity later.
  7. You should ask them who or what type of person they are looking to meet at the event. You will be surprised as to the number of people who have not thought out who they need to meet.  They are leaving it up to chance.  Based on what they have told you about their business, you may know someone they should meet.
  8. If that person is at the event, go over to them and introduce them to each other. After a minute or two, extract yourself from the conversation.
  9. Before you go to talk to someone else, write down on the business card key information about the previous person and their business. You have now made a connection and they will remember you and how you helped them.
  10. Go to the next person and repeat the process.

You’ll leave the event with 2-3 business cards and budding relationships.  Follow up on any actions within 48 hours and provide the contact with any information you promised.

 

How to Find Networking Opportunities

Now that you know what Networking is and what to do at events, it is time to get started.  First step is to determine what groups fit with your business and personal interests.

Today with social media it is pretty easy.  Most people are on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn has groups of all types.  These groups not only have forums but often have meetings/get togethers.  These are good opportunities to network.

There are also local industry meetings.  Find the ones that make sense for you to participate.  Before you decide to go to a meeting, evaluate their website.  Is their website up-to-date?  I had searched for a local industry group, only to find that their website hadn’t been updated in 6 months.  That group was crossed off the list.  There should be ongoing meetings and activities outside the meetings.  Remember this is a group that you may invest your time in. Make sure that time is well invested.

Go to a meeting or two to evaluate if they are worth your while, using the strategy outlined above.  If the meetings are worthwhile, then continue to go.  If the group does not seems to be very active, then stop going.

Once you have attended for a while, make a decision as to whether this group is worth investing more time.  Investing more time means volunteering to help in some way.  This could be as simple as doing registration at each meeting.  This is an excellent way to get to know existing members.  Take the time to chat for a moment at registration.  Identify who you would like to talk with further during and after the meeting and do so.  The next meeting do the same with two additional people.

Volunteer to help the membership committee and in time head it up. New members will remember their first contact from the group (which is you).

Make Networking a part of your life.

To conclude, listed below is a quick summary of the Actions you will need to take to get there.

 

Actions:

  1. Determine who you need to know and why you need to know them.
  2. Bonus points – put together a list of 5 people that you really want to meet (executives, political leaders, etc.) and start with LinkedIn and see who they are connected to. They may be closer than you think.
  3. Examine different groups (local industry meeting, social media) and make your list.
  4. Find the next meeting and attend.
  5. Find 2 people to chat with at the meeting, using the above approach.
  6. Make a decision if you will attend again. Write out why.
  7. If attending again determine at what point you will decide to volunteer.
  8. If you decide not to attend again, go to the next group on your list.

 

As you get to know the members of a group, you will find opportunities to work together, find mentors and mastermind group members.  Always be open to opportunities to deepen your relationships.  Relationships are what networking is all about.

How to Fund your Business

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Have lots of great new business ideas but no clue on how to or where to find the funding for them?  You are not alone.  Often people have a great idea for a new business, but no idea how to finance it.  The thought of having to raise money through friends, family or a bank is a daunting task for many and causes them to put their idea on hold.

The reality is the cost of starting a business may take less than many people imagined it to be.  Entrepreneur, in a recent article, listed 101 businesses you can start for under $100.  The types of business range from consulting to being a tutor, to auto detailing, to green cleaning services.  It can be done – I did it! The details of how I funded babyboomercashnow.com is listed below.

If you increase the startup amount to $1000, than there are many more businesses that can be started, as illustrated in 25 business you can start for under $1000.

A key point to remember here is that it is crucial to understand that you first have to get your personal finances in order before launching into your dream business. If your personal finances are not in order, how can you expect your business’ finance will be in order?  It takes the same discipline to manage both successfully.

 

Finance Dos and Don’ts

Additionally, you should not expect to start making money right away in your business. That $100 or $1000 startup cost will quickly balloon into much more.  Before we get to business startup financing, let’s focus on the personal finances’ Do’s and Don’ts.

  1. You need to have a personal budget. While it doesn’t necessary mean an Excel spreadsheet tracking every penny, you do need to have a clear idea of how much is coming in and how much you are spending.  Step 1 – balance your checkbook!  Your income should, at a minimum, meet your expenses.  If you are over spending, then additional steps need to be taken before you start your business.

For many years I didn’t have a budget and spent more than the income I earned.  I learned some hard lessons from financial miscues, including a failed business.  I have to put myself on a strict cash spending basis until I learned the discipline to do planned spending. Cash Spending is having actual cash in an envelope and paying everything with that cash. Once that cash is gone, your “budget” is spent.  No more money to buy or pay for anything. This method is a very effective tool to helping one acquire the discipline of “spending within your means”.

  1. You need to live within that budget. Hard truth:  if you don’t live within a personal budget, you won’t stay within a business budget.
  2. Have credit card debt/balances? Pay them down.  This needs to be done before investing in a business.  If you have more than one credit card, they are likely to have different sized balances and different interest rates.  Common questions on payment of credit card debts/balances are:
  • Which cards should I pay down first?
  • Should I spread my available cash to pay some to each credit card?
  • Should I pay on the card with the biggest balance?
  • Should I pay the one with the highest interest rate first?

My suggestion would be to make it simple for yourself, take the card with the lowest balance and pay it off first.  Do this while paying minimal amounts to the other credit cards. The psychological boost and financial confidence you will receive by paying off a card is immeasurable.  Once that card is paid off, cut it up.

Do this for every card.  Pay it off and then cut it up.  Keep one credit card for emergencies and use it only for emergencies.

  1. Make sure you save $1000 cash in an emergency fund before starting your new business. That money is not to be touched for any reason except to cover business emergencies. Ideally you would have more than $1000 set aside for this emergency fund, but the $1000 is a good start.  It is recommended you work toward having 3-6 months of salary in liquid savings.  Liquid savings means it is not tied up in CDs or stocks, but it is cash sitting in a bank.
  2. Don’t take on any new personal loans. Don’t take on any new debts of any kind.  I repeat, don’t take on any new loans.

Once you have taken these steps you are ready to go to the next step in starting your business.

 

Identify Business Startup Costs

Put together your business plan and estimate costs for the different areas.  I heard an entrepreneur say once concerning business investment, “it will take twice as long and cost twice what you estimated.”  A good note to keep in mind. If possible, you would want to be able to pay cash for your startup costs.

 

How to minimize Start-up costs

If not careful, it is easy to spend a lot of money on startup costs for a new business before you even launch your business.  Here is an approach to help you to stay focused:

  1. Itemize the various costs for your business. Examples are needed permits, legal fees, government fees, startup costs for your business to name a few. These are fixed costs or “Must Haves” you have to pay in order to go into business.  Other expenditures can include business logo, business cards, computers, Internet connectivity, storage and the list goes on and on.
  2. The other types of costs you will have are the “soft costs” or discretionary costs. Before spending any money in this category, ask yourself a few questions
  • How does this purchase move my business forward?
  • Is this purchase a must? What happens if I don’t make this purchase?  How does that impact the business?
  1. Sleep on any of these “would be nice to haves” purchases. A good example here would be, “do I have two colors or 3 colors on my business cards?”.  A “must have” purchase is are items like legal filing of your LLC or Internet for an online business.
  2. Do I have the money in my account to buy the item? If not, delay buying it or don’t buy it at all.

Really think through any monies to be spent.

 

Figure out how to Fund Your Business

When you are starting in a business, not only are you not making money, but it is likely to have a negative cash flow (more goes out than comes in).

You’ll want to figure out ways to divert money to your business from your existing budget, while still enjoying your current lifestyle.  I’m not recommending eating beans every day.

Here is the approach I took in funding BabyBoomerCashNow.com.

 

How I funded the Startup costs of BabyBoomerCashNow

I wanted to “self-fund” the business.  This meant that I would not set up a line item in our personal budget and put $500 dollars in it every month.  I wanted to take money that was already being spent on a regular basis and redirect that money to the business.

 

I identified I have room for creativity in our discretionary money that my wife and I have in our budget. This discretionary amount is money we budgeted for our daily activities, for example:

  • Weekly allowance we give ourselves for buying lunch, coffee, dry cleaning, stamps, purchase of any items that aren’t budgeted.
  • Train parking (I commute to downtown Chicago each day)

I decided to reallocate that cash to the business.  So I did the following.

  1. Instead of spending $3 on a cup of coffee at the local Starbucks for my train ride, I brewed my own coffee at home before leaving for work at a cost of $0.50.
  2. When the weather is nice, I would walk the 1.5 miles to the train station. This walk provided exercise and saved the daily train parking fees to put towards my business.
  3. My office is business casual so in the summer I wear collared polo shirts and in the fall and winter I wear sweaters. My dry cleaning bill was greatly reduced.  Let me show you the savings.
Item Daily cost Annual Counts Total
Coffee (net cost) $2.50 240 $600.00
Parking at Train Station $3.00 120 $360.00
Dry Cleaning $1.80 120 $216.00
Total $1,176.00

 

That is almost $1200 in a year!  I simply made a conscious decision to not spend money on coffee and walk to the train.  All it took was a bit of planning and some discipline.

This may not seem like a lot of money that was saved but it paid for:

  • Illinois LLC – $500
  • 3 Years of Webhosting – $300
  • Logo design – $300

 

Wait a Minute, I don’t have any funds that I can redirect. What can I do?

Take a hard look at your budget.  Are you sure your budget is so tight that you can’t squeeze a few dollars out of it each month?

 

Here’s One Other Way to Save Money

Years ago I had cable with Comcast.  It was an analog set up with 75 channels at $20 a month.  I had an old TV, so analog was fine. One day I received a call from Comcast.

Comcast customer service rep (CSR):  “We have great news, we are moving you to digital.”

Me: I’m okay with my current set up.

CSR: You’ll have a digital picture which is much better.  You’ll have 30 channels for only $55 a month.

Me:  My picture is fine and I have 75 channels now.  I’ll stay with what I have.

CSR: We are moving to digital in your area.

Me:  So you telling me that I will get less than 1/2 the channels I have now for 2 ½ times the price?  That’s not an improvement for me.  I’ll stay with my current setup.

CSR:  Sir, we changing to digital in your area.  You don’t have a choice.

I paused for a moment and said, “Actually I do have a choice.  Cancel my service today.

That was back in 2011 and I haven’t had cable since.  (I moved to Netflix).

We can always find “wastes” if we look hard enough at our budget.

 

Actions:

  1. Set a personal budget, if you don’t already have one.
  2. Pay down debt.
  3. Set up an emergency fund.
  4. Outline the start-up costs of your business, determine what absolutely has to be spent.
  5. Examine your current budget and redirect dollars to a business fund.

 

You can do this when you put your mind to it!

If you come up with other ways to redirect your budget for your business, I would like to hear abou

Entrepreneurial Mindset – Interview with Lorena Prakash, owner of Duzu Dates

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Content below was written by Jillian Clark with editing provided by Lorena Prakash.

Lorena Prakash is the owner of a successful business, Duzu Dates, that provides gourmet dates to consumers, both online and through retail stores in Calgary, Alberta.

Lorena was visiting relatives in Dubai when her entrepreneurial journey started.

Lorena’s Story

“I was really enjoying my vacation, having just met my cousin, his wife, and two kids, for the first time in my life. Perhaps the overall excitement of everything the trip represented, transferred to enhancing the taste of the dates. It was toward the end of the trip that I tried Bateel Dates as they seemed to be an excellent choice to bring home as gifts. I felt like I’d tasted a piece of heaven.

Family and friends who tasted these gourmet dates were also surprised how much they liked dates. We each savored the experience until the last one was gone.

Even though I absolutely loved the dates, I had no intention of starting that as a business, nor any other business.  It was two years later when consolidation / centralization of sales occurred at the media company where I worked and I was laid off that I started to explore my own business.   I didn’t want to take the “rebound” job, so I turned down two offers from competitive media company’s, and decided to really search my heart before deciding what I wanted to do. I never want to look back and ask myself “I wonder what could have been if…”.

I also felt adamant that I didn’t want my life in anyone else’s hands again.

 

As I was pondering options, which included real estate sales; finance and securities management, I kept thinking about the dates. I started to obsess about them and turned my attention to researching dates, where they grow, the various varieties, the nutrition benefits, the market trends, and so forth.

It had been awhile since I had worked, so friends started to ask questions – such as – ‘aren’t you applying for any jobs?’ My answer would be –‘ I kind of have an idea involving dates – the kind you eat’. I would get a puzzled look and then they started sending me job postings of jobs they thought I’d be good for.

I recall one conversation with a very close friend and successful CEO in Calgary where I finally said out loud – “I can’t stop thinking about the dates. I feel like I need to pursue my idea.” I thought he’d be the ‘voice of reason’ and talk me out of it, but instead he just said – “then that’s what you must do. “

 

The Story of Creation

While the Bateel dates that I ate in Dubai were delicious, I felt that I could bring the taste experience to North America or at least Canada.

 

While I had researched about the dates, now that I was starting the business I needed to dig deeper.   I found an organic medjool date supplier, and I tested recipes in my kitchen. I learned to work with different wholesome, yet heavenly, ingredients. I roasted almonds as filling, played with flavors of paprika, chili powder, and cayenne.

Today, I have opted to work with the simply dry roasted organic almonds. Then the dates are dipped in Master Chocolat (Bernard & Sons) luxurious milk and dark chocolate.  Pink himalayan salt sprinkled on top adds another layer of flavor to each bite giving it a sweet and salty caramel taste – but much healthier!

Early on, crystallized cubes of ginger became another favorite filling which offers a different sort of spicy kick. The same coating of milk and dark chocolate combines the richest flavors in each artisanal date. These original roasted almond and crystallized ginger dates remain prime Duzu’s product and consumer favorite.

 

Trials with Chocolate

Product development did not end in my kitchen. The coating of chocolate proved to be the trickiest step to master in my testing phases. I knew I wanted my dates to be enrobed in chocolate; it was the finishing touch they needed to elevate them from simply healthy to simply irresistible. The only problem: fine chocolate requires tempering.

Tempering is a heating, stirring, and cooling technique that gives chocolate a lovely shine and snap with each bite. When poorly executed, the chocolate blooms: the sugar crystals rise to the surface, resulting in a dull gray appearance. The chocolate tastes the same, but lacks the visual appeal of premium brands.

Tempering chocolate is a necessary step when working with real cocoa in order to achieve the desirable smooth look. We only use real chocolate made from real cocoa at Duzu Dates, so I was forced to learn all about tempering techniques.

After a few attempts of my own—resulting in some unattractive, bloomed chocolate—I approached Albert Karylo, the chocolatier and culinary instructor at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary. With his help, I improved my chocolate-dipping and salt-sprinkling techniques, creating the first delightful batch of Duzu Dates. Today, I work with renowned chocolatier, Bernard Callebaut of the Callebaut family. He represents Master Chocolat (Bernard & Sons) in Calgary, and his organic, Fair Trade chocolate hugs each chocolate-dipped date recipe. Through Bernard’s expertise, advice, and support of my business, I have been able to develop far quicker than I would have without

 

Entrepreneurial Advice

I asked Lorena questions that will be helpful to you as you start your business, shown below:

 

What was your biggest challenge getting started?

I think it was fear.  I asked myself, “is this really a good idea? I probably should just get a ‘real job’.”  I didn’t know where to start, I had so many questions, “where to buy dates? How do I package?”  There was a huge learning curve.  There was many more areas that I hadn’t even thought of such as import licenses.

 

What advice would you give yourself if you were just starting out in your own business?  Or said another way, “what do you know now that you wish you knew then?” 

I wish I knew how expensive it would be.  I wish I knew how much capital is needed and the intricate details for food products, (e.g. where to store dates, business licenses, city permits, etc.)  Or the other hand, had I known the complexity, maybe I would have been overwhelmed and not started the business and I’m really glad I started this business.

 

What is the best business advice you have received?

I’ve received a lot of great advice.  I meet with the former CEO of Servpro, a multi-million dollar business that he built from scratch.  I said to him, “I wish I’d started 10 years ago!”  He replied with a smile, “It is good that you are not starting 10 years from now.”

 

How do you get yourself started for the day?

Before I get up, I spend 15 – 20 minutes literally visualizing my day; what I need to bring with me; the most efficient route; meetings and how I hope they will go; what I have set out as the top priorities for the day and step through each of them.

 

What do you believe are the most important things to having an entrepreneurial mindset?

To quickly know what you don’t know; be extremely resourceful; resilient, and undeterred.

 

How have you found entrepreneurship different from corporate life?

When corporate people have ideas, there’s a team and infrastructure in place to make it happen; with a start-up, all of that has to be built from scratch.

 

Is there a group of individuals that you meet with on a regular basis to discuss your business?

There is an informal group of entrepreneurs that sell at the local farmers market and are growing their businesses via retail and wholesale channels. I’m fortunate to have a wide and varied network that covers those who are content with their small family business and those who are growing and expanding nationwide.  It gives me different perspectives as I grow my business.

 

Lorena, thanks for your time and sharing your advice.

 

 

The Best Investment you will EVER make for your Business!

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Personal Development is an area we all know we need to do . . .  some day.  We tell ourselves, “Let me get my business going, then I will have time to develop myself”.   The fact of the matter is, the opposite is true.  If we want to succeed in our business, we need to develop ourselves. The level of success of your business is inextricably tied to how well you have developed yourself.

Personal Development is a life long pursuit. The first step is to decide what you are trying to achieve.  Looking out a year from now, what do you want to achieve through your personal development?

It is important to understand that improving yourself, in whatever area of life, takes intentional focus.  It won’t happen by itself.  John Maxwell says in Attitude 101, “… people naturally tend toward inertia.  That’s why self-improvement is such a struggle.”

While personal development can be areas such as health (losing weight), here we will focus on the types of skills you will need to further develop that can help your new business grow.

 

Set the Right Attitude on Personal Development

As stated above, personal growth takes dedicated time, energy and the right focus.  There are so many things happening in your life that it is easy for most to only work on their personal development when they have time.

In my opinion, people usually falls into these three groups when it comes to personal development:

  • People who don’t know what they would like to do
  • People who know what they would like to do but don’t do it
  • People who know what they would like to do and do it

To get the right attitude, recognize you are a worthwhile person and one worthy to develop.  “Personal Development is the belief that you are worth the effort, time and energy needed to develop yourself”, says Denis Waitley.  John Maxwell, author of The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, agrees and say, “if you don’t realize you have genuine value and that you are not worth investing in, you will never put in the time and effort needed to grow your potential.”

 

It is a Competitive Marketplace

We are rapidly moving towards a winner takes all in the marketplace.  As an entrepreneur, we need to keep up with the industry we do business in.

This is especially true of digital products and ecommerce.  A good example is Google.  Google has far more marketshare and the associated profits  ($6.73B USD) in the 3rd quarter of 2017 along by being the number one search engine with 77.43% as of April 2017 according to smartinsights.com.  They are followed by Baidu, a Chinese company, at 8.13%.  Yahoo has 5.6% of the market.  And remember AOL, the company that made headlines in 2000 with its merger/acquisition of Time Warner for $182 billion.  Today AOL has 0.04% of the global search market.  A few companies make immense profits; the rest fight over the scraps.

Customers demand excellence of their suppliers.  Amazon pioneered the 2-day FREE shipping which, in turned, compelled many other suppliers to also provide free shipping.  This is to meet the Consumers’ expectations because we have gotten used to 2-day free shipping from Amazon, along with the ease of ordering.

We’ve also come to expect our orders to be correct and packed correctly each and every time.  I recently had a restaurant that didn’t prepare my meal properly.  The waitress checked the order before giving it to me, but little did she know that the meat dish had no meat.  This had happened twice in a short period of time; needless to say, I no longer order from that restaurant.  I didn’t complain, I just simply stopped eating there.  The bar has been raised and those companies that don’t provide excellence go out of business.

Your customers expect you to be better tomorrow than today.  They expect high levels of service, better products and services that enable them to be successful.  If you don’t improve yourself and how you do business, your competitor will.

Brian Tracy in Get Smart says, “Today many people have obsolete skills; they are being replaced by people that have better and more appropriate skills that are in higher demand.”

 

Approach to Self-Development

As an entrepreneur, you need to first understand for what your customers are paying you and what value your business provides.  You then need to improve upon those strengths to a level where you do it better than anyone else.

Ask yourself, “What do I need to be really good at to increase my business?”  There are a couple ways of doing this.  1) Ask your customers.  Find out what they like and don’t like about your product and services.  2) Look at the most successful companies in your target area and see what they are doing to be successful.  What are they doing that their customers really like, so much so that they continue to buy from them.   Your goal is to see what they are doing that customers really value.  Between talking to your own customers and gathering information on your competitors, you will be able to develop a good understanding what your customers want.  The key is to not copy what your competitors are doing but rather find a different way to provide it to your customers leveraging your unique skills.

Cal Newport, in his book So Good They Can’t Ignore You, talks about having a “Craftsman Mindset”.  He defines that as taking an approach to our work as a dedication to deliberate practice.  If you don’t take the deliberate practice approach, “… you’ll soon hit a performance plateau beyond which you fail to get any better.”

Business writer Geoff Colvin describes deliberate practice as “… above all an effort of focus and concentration.  That is what makes ‘deliberate’ as distinct from mindless playing of scales or hitting tennis balls that more people engage in.”

For example, if you are a software designer, your skill is in writing code and it is your application your customer buys.  How can you improve yourself as a software designer?

 

Setting your Goal(s) for Self-Development

As Steve Covey says in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, start with the end on mind.  Now that you have researched your competitors and have re-examined your strengths, it is time to set your personal development goal.  As with any goal you want to make it concrete.  For example, if you are a chef today but want to be a well-known chef in your own restaurant in the future, you have your goal.  If you are a writer and want to be on the best-seller list, you have your goal.

 

Gap Analysis – Where are you at Today

To grow you must know your own current competence level.  If you are a writer and your goal is to write a best seller within one year, you must know where you are at in your writing.  You’ll need to be honest with yourself and thoroughly examine where you are at today in your writing career.  Are you already published or are you just starting out? This will help you to identify the gaps between where you are today versus where you want to be (your goal).  Then list all the things/steps that needs to happen to get you to your goal.  Using our writing a best seller goal example, here is a sample list of what needs to be done:

  • Taking writing classes
  • Finding an editor to review your writing. Someone that will provide critical analysis of what works in your writing and what doesn’t
  • Publish articles, get feedback
  • Find out what is involved in a book proposal
  • Write out a book proposal; understand how to go about writing a book
  • Write a draft of your book; have it edited

 

Discuss Your Goal with Your Mastermind Group

While you don’t need to tell the entire world your personal development goal, you do need to discuss it with your Mastermind group (read about Mastermind Group in my blog titled Mastermind Group – The Key to Unlocking your Potential).  You do this for a couple of reasons.

  • Your mastermind group can provide valuable feedback on your idea. They understand you and your strengths.  They can help you determine if this goal will move you forward in your business or is taking unnecessary focus and energy away from your ultimate business goals.
  • By understanding you and your performance to date on your goals they can also help you set a realistic goal, if your timeline is too aggressive. You want to stretch yourself, but not set yourself up for failure by setting an unrealistic goal.
  • Your mastermind group can provide suggestions on steps you can take to meet your goal.
  • They may know people that can provide expertise on how to go about achieving your goals (e.g. talking to a writer that has published books; finding an editor).

Once you have discussed with your Mastermind group and solidified your goal, is it time to determine where you need to gather information to aid in development of your Action plan.

 

Resources

  • In some cases, Youtube can be a valuable starting point, depending on what you need to further develop. I won’t go into detail here on Youtube, but have found it to be a valuable resource for “how-to’s” material.
  • Magazines from the library. As a blogger, I need input of the latest ideas and trends in business.  Many libraries today allow downloads of magazines to electronic devices (I read them during my train commute).  Magazines such as Inc., Entrepreneur and Fast Company are great sources for my writing.  And it is free.
  • Books – you can find millions of books at Amazon but don’t forget your local library. Books 24×7 are online books that many libraries carry.  Whether you want to get a certification as Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) or a Cisco certification, the library has the study materials and of course it is free.
  • In the same vein, the library has online courses for such areas as Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint). While it is unlikely you need to take these courses to enhance your strength(s), depending on your business, they may be worthwhile.
  • Many libraries have Lynda.com, with free online courses. I found a couple from my library, such as how to become a 3D Visual Specialist (53 hours of course material) and how to become an Android Mobile App developer (24 hours of course material).  Again, these are free.
  • Online courses from companies like Fizzle ($35 a month), where you will learn all aspects of online business.
  • Conferences and Seminars can provide the latest information/techniques in your area. It is also an effective way to make connections to other like-minded business owners and meet experts in your field (speakers).  Take the time to plan out what you want to get from the conference including a list of who you want to meet.  We’ll talk in more detail on conference strategies in a future blog.
  • The final area is mentoring and coaching. The best way to excel in your goal area is through hiring a coach or finding a mentor.  The money that will be spent, in the case of a coach, is a direct investment in yourself.  To find the right coach, you’ll need to not only define your goal for the coaching, but also make sure the chemistry of the partnership works.

There are other low-cost ways to develop your skills.  My wife and I subscribe to the Harvard Business Review (HBR) at a cost of $99 a year.  We have found the magazine to be great input for our business careers and along with the magazine there are videos and other materials they provide to subscribers. Split the cost between us and it comes out to be about $1 a month.  Well worth it.

Once your data gathering is complete with details on the different methods, you are ready to create your Personal Development plan.

 

Develop a Plan – Budget

First set your budget for self-development.  If finances are tight, use a no-cost or low-cost method, at least at the start.   I detailed the library information above, but there are other free resources that you may want to check out before taking the monetary route.

Determine how much you are going to invest in yourself this year.  Make a conscious decision to set aside the money.  I recommend putting it into a savings account and only use those dollars for self-development.   This can be conferences you attend, books you buy and/or coaching.

 

Develop a Plan – Write it Out

With Christmas around the corner and the New Year coming, it is an excellent time to detail your personal development goals and plan.

Write out what you want to have achieved by the end of 2018. Commit it to paper and review it each week.  You should have a monthly goal of what you what to achieve that month in personal development so that you achieve your goal for the year.

 

Develop a Plan – Schedule it

  1. If you are going to a conference, put the conference in ink in your schedule and plan your various activities around it so you don’t have to cancel the conference at the last minute. Put together an agenda of what you want to achieve from the conference (new contacts, etc.).
  2. Your yearly goal should be broken into monthly goals (milestones), so you can stay on target. Your monthly goal should be broken into weekly goals and from there you schedule in time each week for your development. For example, if your goal is to read one business book a week, schedule time each day for reading, such that you will finish a book a week.  In the 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, John Maxwell says, “Rework your calendar so that you have an appointment with yourself for personal growth every day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year”.

 

Accountability to your Mastermind group

Utilize your Mastermind group to keep you on track in your personal development. Be consistent in updating your group at each meeting as to what you have accomplished in your personal development.

For example, if you plan to attend a conference, tell them what you plan to learn at the conference and who you plan to meet at the conference (other attendees, speakers).  When you return, provide details of what you have learned and whether you have met the people on your list.

Providing whether key insights to your Mastermind Group you’re your learned from a book or a summary of the latest course you took, can also help them learn from you. They may decide to check out the resource for themselves.

 

Apply what you Learn

Knowledge for knowledge sake isn’t much good.  It is the application of knowledge that moves your business forward.  Talk to your Mastermind group about ways you can apply what you have learned.  The more you apply this new knowledge, the more this knowledge becomes internalized.  You will see yourself grow as you put this knowledge into practice.

 

Actions:

  1. Commit to Personal Growth.
  2. Determine what your growth goal should be for this coming year.
  3. Determine where you are at today in that skill.
  4. Identify the gaps between your current state and your desired goal.
  5. Develop a plan.
  6. Work your plan.
  7. Share with your Mastermind group and keep them apprised of your progress.

 

Question:

  1. Is there anything keeping you from developing yourself?
  2. If so, is the obstacle internal or external?

Drop me a line at alan@babyboomercashnow.com.  I am interested to hear of any challenges/obstacles you may have in your journey to develop yourself.

 

Mastermind Group – The Key to Unlocking your Potential

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Mastermind Group – The Key to Unlocking your Potential

What is a Mastermind Group?
In short, it is a group of individuals that meet on a regular basis to help each other grow their businesses. We’ll describe here how to start one and how to make it effective.

Why is a Mastermind Group So Important?
First, and the most important, is a Mastermind Group will help to keep you on track in moving your business forward. Members of the Group hold each other accountable on actions/plans as well as help brainstorm ideas. It is very easy in the day to day of your business to not set aside time to do the things that will really take your business forward. Sometimes it could be a bit of fear that shows itself as procrastination. Or it could be that you really don’t know how you want to move forward. The Mastermind group can help you think of ways that can be done. The cliché is “two heads are better than one”. How about six? In a Master Mind Group of seven, just think six other Business minds that are working toward your success! Six people who are thinking of ways you can take the next step in your business to benefit you. Would that help you? Of course.
Additionally, with all this support and accountability, no group member would want to go to the meeting without having done what they said they would do. It would be too embarrassing.

How to start a Master Mind Group?
The simplest way to start one is for two individuals, who are looking to start a full or part time business, or in a business, to meet on a regular basis to discuss their business.
But what if one doesn’t know anyone who is trying to start a business? A good way is to attend a Chamber of Commerce meeting in your area. This meeting will have owners of small businesses and ‘solopreneurs’ such as CPAs, lawyers and financial planners. Just talk to various people at the meetings and, over time, you will find there are certain people with whom you have chemistry. Just ask them if they want to meet on a regular basis. Use the Guideline I have listed below to help with putting your agenda together. A definition of a purpose of a Mastermind group is below.

Purpose of Mastermind Group
To help each other grow personally and in their businesses. To challenge and hold each member accountable.

Guidelines for an Effective Mastermind Group
Below are recommended guidelines. The most important guidelines are commitment to attend the meetings and being prepared.
1. Decide when to meet and stick with it. This can be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or whatever the group decides. Decide on a day and time and keep to it. Don’t juggle the day and time.
2. Determine the length of the meeting. I will use the example here of a one hour meeting for 6 people but some may find that too short, too rushed and prefer 90 minutes to 2 hours. The length of the meeting is up to the group.
3. Require a commitment from each person to attend all meetings. While there are extraneous circumstances, this meeting should always be a priority. As you start the group you can ask for a 3 month commitment. At the end of the 3 months, the member can decide if they want to continue. That way you are not asking for a 10 year commitment. Three months is long enough to determine if the group is benefiting from the member.
4. Decide if the meeting is in person, via Skype or conference call (in person works best). The reason for this is the personal contact builds camaraderie that other meeting methods just can’t duplicate.
5. Set an agenda. All good meetings need an agenda and this is no different.
6. Agree as a Group what types of information should be kept within the Group and what is allowed to be shared. For example, one of the member may have a unique idea for his business that he would not want the group to share with others. Maybe one of the rules would be, “when in doubt, ask for permission”. There is no faster way for a Mastermind group to dissolve than when a member feels betrayed by another revealing confidential information.
7. Size of group. Studies have shown that effective meetings, ones where all individuals are interacting is 6-7 people. Any larger of a group and the meeting would typically be dominated by a few people and the rest are not heard. That’s why the group size should be kept to no larger than seven.
8. In the beginning the group is likely to be only a few people. The group needs to discuss the criteria for adding new members.

Agenda:
The meeting should have a set start and stop time. I’ll use one hour as an example and 6 members of a group.
Five of members should take 5-6 minutes each to describe the actions they have completed since the last meeting. They should describe any challenges they are having and what actions they plan to take for the next period. It is key that each member come prepared to provide a concise status and next steps. This will take about 30 minutes for the 5 members to complete their updates.
This saves 30 minutes for the one remaining member. Each week one member of the group gets to be the focus of attention where in-depth discussion on the state of his/her business, challenges and new areas to explore. One might call this being on the “hot seat”.
Let’s call the person on the ‘hot seat’ Tom. If Tom is new to the group, he will first go into background about his business, his target market, product and services. However, if Tom is a regular member and had been through this a couple of times, he will go right into discussing his challenges and the Group will give him advise, etc.
For example, Tom may want to expand in a new area and needs ideas on ways to research the new area. The group will brainstorm these ideas with him and/or provide contacts to aid in that research.
Tom will come out of the discussion with a list of actions. It is at this time that Tom will announce to the group what actions he plans to take, both in the short term (by next meeting) and longer term.
Tom may have a good understanding about what he needs to do, but doesn’t have the courage to go forward. The group can encourage and hold Tom accountable.
There will be a note taker at this meeting who will document Tom’s next steps (along with the other members’ actions). This list of everyone’s actions/next steps will be sent to all the members by the end of the next day.

Additional Benefits
As the group gets to know each other business well, they will start to identify opportunities in their own circle of influence that can benefit other members within their Mastermind Group.
As the Group grows together personally and in their businesses, celebrating successes and encouraging each other to push on through challenging times, friendships will naturally develop and deepen over the years. Wouldn’t that be a good way to enjoy life?!
So start your Mastermind group today!

Actions:
1. Take inventory of your friends. Are there any that are in their own business or thinking of starting one? If so, reach out to them and go through the purpose and agenda to see if they are interested. If they, are great. Determine a time and place to have your first meeting.
2. Use the guidelines to discuss the form and ground rules for your group.
3. Let me know when you have started a group and how I can help.

Focused Thinking – a Must for Every Business

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Focused Thinking – a Must for Every Business

Devoting 15 minutes a day for dedicated thinking on how to expand your business and how to increase value to your customers, will transform your business.

You may be thinking, I’m so busy, I’m not able to devote time to thinking.  There are two main reasons why you want to dedicate the time.

Benefit 1

First, this dedicated thinking is an important way to help you move your business ahead.  Focused thinking on:

  • how to serve your customers better
  • additional products or services that can help solve your customers problems
  • ways to provide for the needs of your customers. Generating ideas to solve these needs and wants that create additional income.

Generating these ideas does not come to you during the hustle and bustle of the day.  Your brain does not have an on/off switch.  It takes time to develop promising ideas and this can be easier when you dedicate focused thinking time.

Benefit 2

Dedicating time to Focused thinking on a consistent basis will lead to more and better ideas.  You mind is like a muscle.  The more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes.  Daniel Goleman, the originator of Emotional Intelligence, in his book,  Focus, says that your mind creates pathways when you think.  The more you focus on a topic and think about it, the stronger the pathways become.

Why Our Mind Wanders

You may find when you first try to do focused thinking, your mind will wander, and you’ll constantly need to bring it back to the subject.  Often your mind will start thinking about what must be done today – the urgent.  Many people after a few minutes of their mind drifting will give up trying to focus their mind and get on with their day.  Don’t let that happen to you.

Why does our mind wander?

According to the National Science Foundation, we have as many as 50,000 thoughts in a day, so it is natural for our minds to wander with so many ideas thrashing about in our heads.  Part of that 50,000 thoughts are the recent development of social media and the distraction it creates.  We are constantly checking our Facebook page or the latest tweets. If our phone chimes with a text, we drop everything and look at the text.   

Have you ever seen your teenagers studying for an exam and the TV is blaring in the background?  Have you ever had a conversation with someone while they are reading texts or scrolling social media?  Cal Newport talks about in Deep Work how we are teaching our minds to be easily distracted; easily bored. We crave outside stimulation for our minds.  We are teaching our mind to be lazy.

Method for Productive Thinking time 

So how do you go about creating productive thinking time?

First, determine how much time you want to set aside for this.  Initially, I would recommend keeping the time fairly short; 15-20 minutes. Set a timer for yourself so you aren’t wondering how long you have been at it.  If you try to do a longer time than that, you will be longing for the timer to go off.  It will be pure torture.  Why?  Because deep thinking is hard work.  Cal Newport, in his book Deep Work, talks about how productive we can be with focused thinking, but after 4 hours of deep thinking we are exhausted and need to regenerate.  And people are only able to do this 4 hours of deep thinking after they have trained themselves to do.  Training your brain to be able to think is no different than training for a marathon.  You don’t attempt 10 miles today having never ran more than 2 blocks in your life.  You start small and build upon it.

Productive Thinking Environment

Find a quiet place to focus on your thinking.  Early in the morning, when the house is quiet, would be a good time to do this. If you are not a morning person, you’ll need to find the right time of day that works for you and set aside that time for your thinking.  (For the rest of the blog post I’ll assume you are doing this first thing in the morning). Find comfortable chair (have a favorite chair to do your thinking).  If you don’t have comfortable chair, get one.  You want to have an inviting environment.

Second, start with your favorite beverage.  Tim Ferriss, an entrepreneur extraordinaire, has a beverage blend of black and green tea, or Pu-erh tea, ember, or Kabuse Sencha).

For me, I love the smell of coffee.  I will often get several types of coffee, just to have a variety of coffee smells, first thing in the morning.

Do not allow any distractions in your Productive Thinking Time.  Don’t start your day with emails, texts, social media or anything else.  Don’t let the phone chimes, or buzzes distract you.  Make sure they are turned off.  Michael Hyatt, another entrepreneur, sets up his computer so he is not able to get on Facebook or Twitter at the start of the morning.  The key is to do whatever it takes to not be distracted.

How to do Focused Thinking?

First, determine what are you trying to solve.  Write down a problem you’re trying to solve.  Not a day to day item (such as how to handle a slow pay client), but rather something like, “how to increase sales 10% in the next 3 months”.  We’ll use this as an example.

Next, Write out the problem.  As you can tell by the way the example is stated, increasing sales by 10% in 3 months is a goal.  It is concrete in what you want to achieve, and it is stated in the positive. We’ll discuss in a moment why the way it is stated is important.

List 10 ideas/ways you could achieve the 10% increase in sales.

What are the new products or services that can increase the dollars spent per existing customer?  What are ten products or services that can be created for a new target market?  I go into details on how to determine a target market and develop products/services for the target market in my article, “7 Keys to starting your Business Right”.   My subscribers get a free copy of the guide. To subscribe, Click on the subscribe button at the bottom of the main web page and get your free copy!

You can do this thinking with pencil and paper or computer.  Use whatever method works best with your thinking.   The 10 ideas will likely take up your 15-20 minutes, but don’t stop your thinking until you come up with 10 ideas.

You are now done for the morning.  But you are not done for the day.

By the way, as you go through the day, ideas may pop in your head; make sure you capture them.  Apps on Smart phones can be used to capture ideas.  I normally record my idea via texts to myself.

Wanna do your Best thinking?  Slept on It

Albert Einstein said, “never go to sleep without a question to your subconscious”.

Before you go to bed, ask yourself a question or two, related to your morning thinking.  Or in the case of Josh Waitzkin, life coach and expert chess player, prefers to ask the questions of his subconscious after dinner.  He finds if he does this right before bed, his conscious mind focuses on the question while he is trying to get to sleep, making sleep difficult.

Take one of the ideas you wrote down during your morning thinking.  Take that idea and ask yourself:

  1. How can I tie this (product or service) to the existing product line?
  2. How can I find time/money for this new product or service?
  3. How can I make this product/service so that customers absolutely love it?

State the questions in the positive and use the present tense.  The reason you state the questions in the positive is your subconscious is not able to deal with negative ideas (e.g. I must not eat fast food).  If I told myself not to eat fast food, my subconscious hears “eat fast food”.  In the middle of the day I would receive a prompting to eat fast food.  Once you have done this, let your subconscious mind go to work.

The Next Morning

Write out a statement as to why each of the 10 ideas will work to increase your sales by 10% in the next 3 months.  Focus on what the problem/issue/product will provide your customer and do so from your customer’s perspective.

As you are writing out the statement, your subconscious may prompt you with thoughts concerning the 10 ideas from yesterday.  Write down those thoughts.  Evaluate your 10 ideas.  If you are not able to write a reason as to why the idea helps the customer, just note that move to the next idea.

Once you are done with your statements on the original ten, write down another 10 ideas on how to increase sales 10% in the next 3 months.  You may need to generate a hundred ideas before you hit upon a good one.

Generating 10 ideas a day will mean 50 ideas per week.  Think about.  Fifty ideas a week to move your business ahead.  Fifty ideas every week for fifty weeks and that is 2500 ideas to move your business ahead.  Focused thinking will indeed change your life.

“Daily 10” lists

Above is one way of thinking to move your business forward.  James Altucher, a best-selling author, uses various “10 lists” to help him think creatively.  Below is a sample from Tim Ferriss’s book Tools of Titans.

  • 10 old ideas I can make new
  • 10 ridiculous things I would invent
  • 10 books I could write
  • 10 people I can send ideas to
  • 10 industries where I can remove the middleman

Action:   

  1. How can you change your schedule to free up 15-20 minutes in the morning for Focused Thinking?
  2. How can you remind yourself to ask a question of your subconscious before going to bed (Hint: Smartphone alarm).
  3. What challenge in your business, if you solved it, would have a significant impact?

5 tips to Increase Your Productivity

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Ever feel like you are stuck and can’t move forward on a goal?

 

 

Check out the tips contained in this blog:

  1. How to set yourself up for success by preparing the day before
  2. How to get organized so you make progress on your goals
  3. Daily actions that will increase your productivity
  4. Implementing a weekly review that will give back 10 hours a week.

 

How Productive are you . . . Really?

Most people are running flat out, whether they are working in corporate or their own business.  They are exhausted, don’t sleep well and dread when the alarm goes off.  There has to be a better way to live . . . there is.

What being Productive Means

Being productive means taking the actions that will move you ahead in the attainment of your goals.

Your productive day tomorrow actually starts the night before.  Preparation for the next morning includes setting out the items for your morning ritual (more on that in an upcoming blog), for example:

  • Morning coffee or tea is set up
  • Your journal is placed near your reading and writing area
  • Exercise clothes are gathered
  • Work clothes are laid out

After you have finished putting together all the items needed to start your day, it is time to review your schedule for the next day.  This would be the time to make sure you include on your schedule for the next day, at least three action items that move you towards your goals. It’s often difficult to schedule in goal items, especially if you have full-time job and a part-time business.   But if you don’t make an intentional effort to add these three priority items into your schedule, it won’t happen.  It’s important to work towards your goals every day.  Gather any materials you need for those three items. For example, I write on my blog in the mornings on the train.  I need to make sure I have the last blog edits on my thumb drive so I don’t have to spend time searching for latest version.

Getting those priority items done each day will give you a real sense of accomplishment and move you closer to the attainment of your goals.  At the end of the week, when you look back to what you had done you will find that you have accomplished a lot.

 

What will Sabotage your Efforts to be Productive?

Having to spend 30-45 minutes of your evening trying to locate everything you will need (notes, phone numbers, etc.) for the next day can be extremely frustrating.  After a long day at work, the last thing you want to do is to hunt for items you will need tomorrow. This only needs to happen a few times and you will give up preparing for the next day.  You are tired, your will power is low, and you just won’t create this habit.  How do you make sure you have what you need when you need it?

Gather all the stuff in one Place and Process it

Your mind is a terrible place to try and keep 30 different ‘To-Do’s’. If you are not already an organized person, you will need to spend a day or two initially setting up the following:

  1. First, get an In-Basket at home and make it habit to always put all items you need for the next day (e.g. notes taken from meetings on paper or electronic format, etc.) in it. Put all future notes in the same “in basket” so you know where it is.
  2. You’ll need to take the time to process each item and determine what action needs to be taken with that item. From there you will have a list of action items/To-do’s. For example, you will have a list of calls and emails you will need to make the name day. Dave Allen, in his wonderful book Getting Things Done,  provides a good methodology for being productive (available as an  Audiobook as well).  I recommend it.
  3. Next, it is important that you have all the information you will need to handle those above-listed actions. For example, if you have to make a phone call the next day, write down the phone number on your call list so when you have 10 minutes before a meeting, you can pull out your list of calls and make them. Productive? Absolutely!  No searching for the phone number required!  All the information you need is right at your fingertips, right when you need it.

The first time you gather everything and process it may take several hours.  It is quite an undertaking, but the benefits are worth it so don’t procrastinate taking this action.  Getting everything together and regularly processing it is the only way to free your mind.  The good news is that after the major organization is done, processing items every couple of days only takes a few minutes.

You should be able to use this methodology for anything you need to do in your personal and professional lives.

This simple step of gathering all items and creating actionable items the night before will free up your mind so you can start out the next day with a clear plan and a clear mind.  Not to mention, a good night’s sleep.

 

The Next Day

The next day you wake up fresh and ready to go.  You know your priorities for the day and you have already reviewed your schedule.  Now it is time to execute.  For example, if you have 10 minutes before a meeting, make a phone call or two, starting with the most important ones.  If a big project lands on your desk, determine the most immediate action to take (e.g. figure out who needs to be part of a planning session on the project and schedule the meeting). Then put the project on your weekly review where you will spend time planning out the project.

 

When you finish a task, mark it off your list.  Work on a priority item until you finish it.  It you can’t finish the item, because additional information is needed, write a quick summary of what was competed.  You’ll be able to restart the work much faster by leaving yourself notes. Studies have shown that it may take several minutes before you’re able to get back to where you left off if you don’t make notes.

 

Weekly Review – where Productivity Happens

Brian Tracy, management consultant, says, “Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution”.  This means taking one hour a week for a review will save you 10 hours a week.  How would you like to have 10 hours back each week?

First, set up a certain day and time to do this weekly review and keep to that time every week.   It will be a time that you will have all of your materials at your finger-tips so you can be effective.  Management guru, Michael Hyatt, uses Sunday night to review his past week and prepare for the next one.

The weekly review is made of two main parts.  The first is review of how you did on your weekly goals and then make adjustments as needed.  The second part is to evaluate new items (projects); determine their priority with your existing goals and to break down those projects into actionable tasks.

The Weekly Review – Part 1: Assess how you are performing against set goals.

  • Review how you did for the week on your major goals.  If a major goal is to lose weight – did you lose the 1 pound this week that you set as a goal?  If you did great; if not, why not?  Did you follow your plan for losing weight such as counting calories, or recording what you eat, or exercising 5 days a week for 30 minutes, whatever the goals you have set for yourself for the week.  Examine the actions you took to achieve your goal.
  • If you didn’t reach your goal, you need to make adjustments in your actions so that you can recover quickly and get back on track the following week. Continuing with our weight loss example, if you had only worked out 3 times last week instead of the 5 times you had set as a weekly goal, determine the cause of why you only worked out 3 times.  Were you too busy to workout on certain days?  Did you have a scheduled day and time for each of the workouts?  If not, schedule in a time.

 

 

The Weekly Review – Part 2: Adding new Projects

Take a look at your current monthly, 3 months and yearly goals along with the new project or the new opportunity.  How does this project fit in with your current goals?  Does this new project or opportunity replace some current goals, meaning you have a new goal?  If it is part of your current goals, how will you fit this additional project into the schedule and yet stay on track?

On the other hand, if this is not part of your current goals, you need to decide quickly if adding new goals is necessary at this time. If not, table the new project.  If yes, what is the priority?  Determining the priority of this project will help you to determine how much time needs to be invested in it and how soon you need to start on this project.

Breaking down big Projects

How do you eat an Elephant?  A bite at a time!  (Note: no animals were harmed or eaten as a result of this blog!)

The same holds true when tackling big projects.  Break them down into manageable chunks (smaller bites). Earlier you took a few immediate actions on the big projects just to gather some initial information.  Now is the time to devote energy to breaking down big projects into smaller chunks.  This will work on projects for your full-time job, your part-time business or hobbies. It will be helpful to treat everything you do as a project, whether the project is planning your vacation or creating a marketing plan.

How do you breakdown a large project?

  1. A large project may have 400 tasks. So the first thing to understand that you are not going to be able to come up with all 400 tasks at one sitting.  Take that pressure off of yourself.  Be confident that each week as you revisit the project you will come up with new tasks that will move you forward.
  2. Start by breaking the project down into major components. As an example, for me, starting this blog had major components such as determining the target audience, setting up web hosting, creating a logo, creating a blog marketing plan, creating blog content, etc.  Within each component there could be many tasks (e.g. determining which web host provider to use).
  3. For each project I determined the next actions that I need to take for major categories, set the priority of the actions and put those on my call, email, or computer work lists. Then every day, I don’t have to spend time thinking which tasks I need to do first, as I had already prioritize them.  All I do each day is execute from my list – no wasted time thinking what I need to do in any given day.

 

Minimize Your Disruptions

Some final words on your daily work . . .

Have you ever been working on something, in the zone/flow, coming up with new ideas and really cranking out the work and your phone buzzes?  You read the text; send back a brief text; go back to your laptop and say, “Now where was I?”.  The text wasn’t urgent and it almost never is but stopping and taking even a minute to answer it will set you back a couple of minutes to regroup and reengage.  A few minutes later, the phone buzzes again.  A couple of minutes here and there can add up quickly to minutes that you do not have to spare.

Another disrupter is you checking your emails several times a day and responding to emails, keeping your inbox pretty empty.  I recently was copied on an email that was sent at 2:36 pm, stating an updated document was needed by 2:45 pm.  In 9 minutes!  No forewarning of the deadline.  No explicit reason for the urgency, but by gosh, they needed the document now!  If you allow emails to dictate your priorities, at the end of the day you will find you didn’t complete YOUR priority items.

 

So, turn off the text chime.  Resolve to look at chats/emails twice a day (maybe this excludes emails from the boss) and check your emails only during your less creative, less energetic time.  I’m a morning person and for me, the first couple of hours of the day are my most productive time. I use this time to write and focus on priority items. Find your most productive time of the day and set aside that time for your deep thinking and work.

We all have 24 hours in the day and when they are gone, they are gone.  Decide today to move your business forward by developing a habit of planning each week and executing on that plan on a daily basis.  If you do that, you’ll be productive and successful.

 

 

 

You Absolutely, Positively Must Do This in Your Business

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Paul Myer said, “No one accomplishes anything of consequence without a goal. . . Goal setting is the strongest human force for self-motivation. Think about it. What is one of the greatest motivators in the world? Success. When you take a large activity (such as your dreams), break it down into smaller, more manageable parts (goals), you set yourself up for success because you make what you want to accomplish obtainable. And each time you accomplish a small goal, you experience success. That’s motivating!” 3 Things Successful People Do

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? And the method to set goals is straight forward. Goals need to be SMART
• S – Specific
• M – Measurable
• A – Attainable
• R – Realistic
• Time-based
Many people have written about the SMART goals and most people in business understand what SMART means.
Just because you understand what to do, doesn’t make setting goals any easier. In reality, it takes work to set your goals. It takes thought. But what is needed most of all is courage and commitment. The courage to step beyond your fears. Once you put a goal on paper, you are committing yourself to make it happen, and that can be scary. This is why we took the approach to determine your WHY for the business before ever attempting to set goals, which is described in the following link, Creating Your WHY
But, now that you have determined your WHY and the type of business, it IS time to establish goals for your business.

First, Determine your 10-year Monetary Goal
If you want to retire in 10 years, determine how much money you need to have accumulated to retire at that time. While there is no guarantee you’ll reach that goal, it is a lot more likely to happen if you put it down on paper and take daily actions to achieve it. How does this monetary goal tie in with your purpose and your customers? As Zig Ziglar used to say, “you can get anything you want if you help enough people get what they want”. Is your 10-year dollar goal realistic, based on where you are financially today? Are you in debt? If your goal is not realistic, force yourself to be completely honest and revise your numbers. Goals! – Brian Tracy

Next, Set the 10-year Goals for your Business
You may ask yourself, “How can I determine where the business will be in 10 years, when I haven’t even started? The business may be in a completely different area in 10 years, because my business interests change, or due to competition or any number of reasons. I have no way of knowing where the business will be in 10 years, not what product and services I will be providing.” But that should not stop you from setting 10-year goals for your business. Goals will evolve and change as your business grows, but setting your 10-year goals at the start of your business will give you something for which to aim. You need a map (goals) to help you get to where you want to be.

Google Transforms Over 10 years
Google started in fall of 1998. It was created to organize information on the Internet. In 2005, they bought a software company called Android, Inc. and in 2007 Android was unveiled for phones. At that time Symbian OS was used by companies such as Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and was the dominant player along with Blackberry. Did the founders of Google plan to get into phone operating systems in 1998? Absolutely not, but today, Android OS has 85% of the operating system market for phones and it is estimated that it is a $30 billion business. Android dominates
Once you have set your 10-year plan it is time to break those goals down into 5-year plans.

Your Five-Year Plan

Your 5-year plan is a subset of your 10-year plan. You’ve determined what you want to achieve in revenue in 10 years and with a 5-year plan you determine what actions you need to take over the next five years so that you can achieve your ten-year goals.
How much revenue do you want to make in the next five years so that you can rea? What would be the makeup of your product and services? Why do you believe this collection of products and/or services would be able to generate this income?
In a previous blog you had evaluated your skills and your uniqueness. Your skills and talents enable you to create products and services that uniquely leverage those skills that no one else can duplicate. If you haven’t already, please take a look at the blog post,
Creating the Right Business for You

You’re the Driver
It is your business and you are the driver of where that business will go. Having your own business is nothing like being in corporate where decisions, especially strategic ones, are made for you. Does it mean products and services, may change? Absolutely. But you must start with the end in mind of what your business looks like in five-years and work backwards to establish the shorter-term goals.
You may ask, “I haven’t created the service yet, how can I know the revenue and the costs.” As we discussed in a previous blog, Creating the Right Business for You, you determined a problem your ideal customer has and how you can solve it. You determined the revenue that could be generated and the associated cost. The key is to make sure the revenue is greater than the cost.

A Baby Boomer Crushes It
Dane Maxwell, the creator of the Foundation software group, says one of his students was a 55-year old chemical engineer, Paul. Paul targeted finding solutions for private investigators. Paul asked several private investigators what it takes the most time in their business. They told him it takes hours to complete the report for the client.
He created a software product that creates the investigation report in 15 minutes rather than 3 hours.
Paul was able to figure out his revenue per client and the associated costs. He had a profitable business as soon he started selling the software. Paul determined the size of the private eye market in his city, then his state, regionally and finally nationally. He forecasted what percent of private eyes that would buy his software and was able to quickly figure out the sales cycle for each client and how many new clients he could acquire in a month.

Break Your Goals Down
As Paul did, determine the size of your market and the percent of people that will buy. Determine your costs for the product or service and the profitability of each unit. I recommend creating a business that will be profitable from the very beginning. You need to provide a cost-effective solution from day one. I would not recommend starting out with no margins in order to “entice customers”, thinking you will catch up when you have the demand. It rarely happens.

Once you have the five-year revenue goals it needs to be broken down into shorter term goals. In addition, it is a good idea to determine the one thing for a given time period that can really move your business forward. Gary Heller from The One Thing describes a straightforward way to do this.
• Five-year goal – Base on my ten-year goal. What is the one thing I can do in the next five years?
• One-year goal – Based on my five-year goal. What’s the one thing I can do in the next 12 months?
• Monthly goal – Based on my one-year goal. What’s the one thing I can do this month?
• Weekly goal – Based on my monthly goal. What’s the one thing I can do this week?
• Daily goal – based on my weekly goal. What’s the one thing I can do today?
• Right now – based on my daily goal. What’s the one thing I can go right now.
The One Thing – Gary Keller

Final thought
According to Greff Harris, a management consultant, two-thirds of people surveyed (67 of 100) set goals for themselves (think New Year’s resolutions). But of those 67, only 10 have realistic plans for reaching their goals. And out of those ten, only two follows through and make it happen.

What has prevented you from writing the goals and a plan for your business?

Links
3 Things Successful People Do
Goals! – Brian Tracy
Android dominates
Creating the Right Business for You
The One Thing – Gary Keller

NOTE: In full disclosure, this article does have links to resources such as books and I receive a commission if you purchase these books from the li

Why You’re Not Starting a Business

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In 2008, Rick Lochner was having brunch with his wife and another couple. They talked about how it would be great to start business and discussed the details of what the business would look like when it started in a few years. At the end of the meal, Rick said, “Why are we waiting; let’s do it!”

Why did Rick decide to go into business for himself?  After all Rick had had a successful career executive for a Fortune 500 company. In another stint he had taken a company from $30 million to $140 million in sales.  What triggered the decision to go into business for himself?  It was his WHY.

 

The Ultimate Key to Success

The ultimate key to your success is having a big enough “WHY”.  If your WHY is strong enough you can overcome any obstacle.  As you go forward with your new business, having a compelling WHY will enable you to succeed.  It is the most important item in your business, because the big WHY drives your attitude toward your business, which drives your actions.

 

What is a WHY?

It is the reason you get up early in the morning and move your business forward each and every day.  It is your purpose for taking the actions you take and doing what you do, whether you feel like doing it or not.  Starting your own business can be a daunting task.  It is a new world for you, just like was for me.  We experience fear when we start something new, the fear of the unknown and that fear, if it becomes too strong, keeps us from taking the actions we need to take.  That is why you need a big WHY.

 

What is your WHY?

 

What is your WHY?  Do you want to have a successful business because you are sick and tired of corporate life?   Tired of someone else being in control of your future? Is your WHY to take care of your family and stop living paycheck to paycheck?   Is your WHY because you have an elderly parent to care for and you want to have the money to provide a good retirement home for them.  Is your WHY the ability to provide a great college education for your children and the ability for them to go to whatever college they choose.  You’ll do whatever it take to provide for those you love.  That is your WHY.

 

WHY comes in Different Flavors

Maybe your WHY is a hobby you love and your excited at the possibility of turning that that into a business.  The new business would give you the  opportunity to spend hours doing what you love.

Maybe your passion is a car restoration business.  Maybe it is buying and selling classic cars.  Maybe it is catering business or home-cooked meal business.  It could be any number of businesses.  I recently interviewed entrepreneurs that have created businesses that range from a communications business to a leadership training business to a franchising business.  Each is in a very different area and they absolutely love their life and their business.  Whatever it is, it needs to be a passion for you and your commitment to make it successful goes hand in hand with that passion.  Your business will need the full commitment of your time, your intellect and your energy.

Maybe your WHY is to make society a better place.  What is the impact you want to have on the world?  How do you want to give back?  How do you want to be remembered?  Below is the story of a person finding their WHY.

 

The WHY for TOMS

Blake Mycoskie is the Founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS, and the person behind the idea of One for One®, a business model that helps a person in need with every product purchased.  He told his story to Entrepreneur Magazine and below is an excerpt.

“Toward the end of my trip, I met an American woman in a café who was volunteering on a shoe drive — a new concept to me. She explained that many kids lacked shoes, even in relatively well-developed countries like Argentina . . . [and it} exposed them to a wide range of diseases. Her organization collected shoes from donors and gave them to kids in need — but ironically the donations that supplied the organization were also its Achilles’ heel. Their complete dependence on donations meant that they had little control over their supply of shoes. And even when donations did come in sufficient quantities, they were often not in the correct sizes, which meant that many of the children were left barefoot even after the shoe drop-offs. It was heartbreaking.

Then I began to look for solutions in the world I already knew: business and entrepreneurship. An idea hit me: Why not create a for-profit business to help provide shoes for these children? Why not come up with a solution that guaranteed a constant flow of shoes, not just whenever kind people were able to make a donation? In other words, maybe the solution was in entrepreneurship, not charity.

It was a simple concept: Sell a pair of shoes today, give a pair of shoes tomorrow. Something about the idea felt so right.”

(For the full story go to story of TOMS).

 

My WHY

For years I dreamed of having my own business.  My wife and I started a restaurant and it failed.  It left us deep in debt.  I remember thinking after it closed that we would never try to have our own business again.  But as I’ve gotten older I know the odds of success in the corporate world are stacked against me and I need to find my WHY and establish our own business.

I found out the other day that a colleague; a contractor, was let go.  The budget for his project ran out and after a few days, he was gone.  No advance notice, no warning, no severance; nothing. He wasn’t ready to retire, but he got retired.  His destiny was in someone else’s hands.

I know so many people my age, (I’m in my 50s), that have been laid off and in some cases several times.  It has happened to me more than once.  If you’re 50+ it is difficult to find a full-time job because you are considered too old.  So all of us have had dip into our savings while we look for a job.  That savings, which are already too small to fund retirement, gets depleted funding the current living expenses. The retirement situation goes from bad to worse.

I’ve volunteered for many years at job services.  I’ve met many people with heart-breaking stories.  One gentleman, about my age, had been in commercial real estate.  With the real estate crash he lost his job and hasn’t worked in years.  I could see the fear in his eyes when I talked to him.  The fear of not knowing if he would ever work again.  The feeling of helplessness.

The pain that people go through during a layoff created a deep ache in me.   I wanted to help those that are sick of corporate life and want to be in charge of their life and their financial freedom.  I wanted to help the would be entrepreneur take that step into the unknown of finding their true passion and starting their own business.  I want to give hope in a hopeless situation.

The purpose of babyboomercashnow.com is to help entrepreneurs who are in their 50s, create and grow their business by providing the knowledge and tools they need, no matter where they live or what their business.

In addition, we want to give back.  There are many people around the world who are trying to do something to make a better life for themselves and their family.  They have found their WHY.  But they don’t have the means.  They are in parts of the world that are very poor and they don’t have access to a way to fund their business.  That is, until now.

Kiva is an international nonprofit, based in San Francisco, with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.

By lending as little as $25 on Kiva, anyone can help a borrower start or grow a business, go to school, access clean energy or realize their potential. For some, it’s a matter of survival, for others it’s the fuel for a life-long ambition.  So babyboomercashnow.com  will be contributing to the operations of Kiva in Kiva to help that non-profit reach out to even more entrepreneurs.

Rick’s WHY

We started the blog post talking about Rick Lochner.  What is his WHY?  His Vision is to help Business Owners, Corporate and Non-Profit Leadership Teams and Individual Professionals Make Leadership a Way of Life.  Rick gives back to the local community as a member of the Board of Directors for Literacy DuPage, as well as the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

Next Steps

  1. Write out your WHY
  2. List compelling reasons why you want to be in your own business.
  3. List out what you want to accomplish in the next 10 years of your life. Provide details of how you want to give back.

 

Send me a note at alan@babyboomercashnow.com, I’d love to hear your WHY.

 

 

 

 

 

Creating the Business that is Right for You

By on

 

Pete Gilfillan is one of the most upbeat people you would ever meet.  But it wasn’t always that way.

“In my last position, I was with Terex. I live in Chicago, but the Terex is headquartered in Connecticut and I was on the road 6 days a week and much of the travel was international. With all the travel, I didn’t eat right, didn’t exercise and frankly I was miserable. I was on another long trip and I woke up in the middle of the night.  As I layed there, I could not remember what country I was in.  I realized then I had had enough.

When I got back to Chicago, I told my wife about my decision to leave the corporate world . At first my wife wasn’t keen on the idea. She saw the practical side of staying in corporate (financial security), but I knew I needed to make a change. I quit my job and I started working with a franchise consultant to find a franchise. After a few months, we found Junk King and saw that it was a good fit. I liked that it was a service based business and could be scaled up; such as adding trucks as the business grew and it had little overhead. Later, I started to work with FranChoice, where today I’m one of the top franchise consultants. I really like the way their business model works. There is no cost to individuals (companies pay FranChoice) and it gives me the opportunity to do what I love most, which is to help people find the business that meets their needs.”

The key to finding or creating the right business is to determine what business leverages your unique skill set and matches your passion.  The way to do so by asking good questions of yourself and verifying those answers with those close to you.  Often a business is started from a promising idea without a great deal of thought of how the business can best utilize the skill set of the founder.  We’ll step through the process to find the right business for you.

 

Categorize achievements

The first step is to categorize your achievements.  If you have had success in an area, there is a good probably of having success in that area again.  What have you achieved?  Make an inventory of what you have achieved in your life. In making that inventory of achievements, capture the details via the following questions provided in U R a Brand – Catherine Caputa

  • What challenge did you face?
  • How did you approach the project in an innovative way?
  • Were there any novel solutions or unexpected problems?
  • What actions did you take?
  • What were the quantitative results? What were the emotional results?
  • What did you learn easily that helped solve the problem?

Tom Rath found in his study, detailed in StrengthFinder 2.0 that people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general.

 

Success Came Naturally

Focus on the achievements that almost seemed effortless.  Putting together and executing the actions seemed quite straight forward and natural.  Time flew by as you worked on the tasks.  You weren’t tired at the end of the day, instead you were ready for more.  This is a good indication that this area of work really utilizes your skill and you enjoy it. In addition, to being good at the task(s) you found that deepening your understanding on the topic and learning related skills was easy and fun.  This is a further confirmation this is a strength.

 

Anybody can Learn

Just because your not good at something today, doesn’t mean you can’t be good at it tomorrow.  Always remember, any subject can be learned.  It is all a matter of interest in a subject and desire to master that subject.

Tony Robbins tells a story in his Personal Power II audio series of a young man, we’ll call him John, who was doing very poorly in school; hated school and no matter how many tutors or counselors the young man saw, he couldn’t/wouldn’t learn his school subjects.  His parents were at their wits end.  The parents brought John to Tony to see what he could do.  John sat in the corner with his head down while Tony sat quietly for a few moments.  Tony then asked John if he had any hobbies.  John replied he loved to surf and as Tony asked more questions about surfing, John began to smile and get more animated as he described how he would see a big wave and maneuver the surfboard to catch the wave.  As John got more and more excited, Tony suddenly asked, “How did you learn to surf” and without missing a beat, John replied, I learned to surf by . . .”

 

Leverage All Your Expertise

It is not just your business expertise than can be exploited for a new business.  One way to tell that you have a desirable expertise is that people come to you for advice on how to solve a “problem”. It may be a work issue such as a negotiation of a contract with a vendor or resolving a conflict between two internal teams but neither are in your area of responsibility, but your colleagues realize your expertise.

Or your colleagues may be coming to you for advice that is totally unrelated to work.  They may be coming to you for advice on how to plan a wedding.  Or maybe you have fishing as a hobby and your friends and colleagues are coming to you for advice on the best fishing rod or the best place to fish.

In the case of Lain Erhmann, of Layout a Day, people came to her about her hobby of scrapbooking.  By trade she was a journalist.  She had been writing for major publications for several years, including the Boston Globe and Runner’s World, but when the print journalism market began to contract, she turned to writing about her passion of scrapbooking.  She started to write for a scrap book magazine, first as a free-lance writer and later that morphed into writing her own blog and hosting scrapbook events. The part-time business of writing about her hobby of scrapbooking turned into a full-time business for Lain.  If you are looked upon as an expert in a field you have a potential business.

 

Who is Your Customer?

Now that you have examined your achievements and your expertise, it is time to determine your customer.

Customers can be defined by a demographics such as

  • income
  • age
  • education
  • martial status

or a host of other attributes.

At babyboomercashnow.com we identified our audience as someone who is:

  • Over the age of 50.
  • Worked in corporate for years as a white-collar professional

In addition, there are other characteristics as well.

  • Sick of the rat race; of being laid-off.
  • Is worried he/she will outlast their retirement money.
  • Want to start their own business, but not sure which business; nor how to get started.
  • Would like to give back to society.

Another example of a target audience or a niche is Mary Beth Storjohann who is a financial planner for Gen Y (also known as Millennials, those born between 1982 – 2004) and Gen X (born 1965 – 1982) demographic.  She helps them save for retirement, but also on how to save for vacations and other financial needs of life.

Target markets can be identified other ways as well.

Maybe your business caters to  busy professionals (e.g. think home-cooked meals).  People that have the income to pay for hot ready to eat meals but want better nutrition than what is provided by a restaurant.  Providing home-cooked meals could be done in a unique way, such as one that caters to people with allergies to certain foods (e.g. peanut allergy) or gluten-free meals.

Is your industry expertise in real estate; law; medical?  If your expertise is in law, in what part of the law (e.g. patents, international) can you specialize? Can your industry be segmented to a small specialized niche?

Write out the characteristics of your customer in great detail.  It should be 300-500 words. Writing out the details of your customer enables you to craft a solution to the wants and needs of your ideal customer.  As you develop your products and services you will refer often to these characteristics to make sure there is a good fit between the solution and your ideal customer.

Go through a list of questions about your customer as you develop your solution.  What is the income of your ideal customer?  What is their education?  Where do they live (rural, urban)?  Do they live in houses or apartments?  Or are they in their 20’s and still live at home?  What do they do for entertainment?  What is their livelihood?  What are they passionate about?

Maybe your customer is an entrepreneur.  What keeps your ideal customer up at night?  Using your expertise to solve a customer’s pain is a great business.

 

 

Resolving Pain creates Opportunities

To what pain, what problem, can you apply your expertise?  During the housing crisis, many realtors were going out of business.  Houses weren’t selling.  I know of several people that were in the real-estate business that were devastated when the real estate market crashed.  They lost their jobs and their first reaction was to try to find the exact same job in a rapidly shrinking market.

But there were others, realtors, who specialized in pre-foreclosures and foreclosures and they were very busy selling homes.  They leveraged their broad expertise in real estate; accepted the reality of the market changes; rapidly learned the steps of pre-foreclosure and the laws concerning foreclosure; becoming an expert in the process.  Those that adopted to the new reality became successful.  In every crisis, there is the seed of opportunity.

Examine your field of work, where you have years of expertise.  What are the pains in your industry, that if you provided a solution, people would readily buy?  This is where you should focus your attention.

How do you go about finding the pains?  For starters, if it is in your field, you probably already have a good idea of what that pain is since you have spent years in the industry.  But you can also talk to your friends and colleagues in your industry to gather information.  Look at the example above.  What if you were an attorney, especially a real estate attorney?  You could have quickly become an expert in foreclosure law.

 

Resolving Pain (e.g. Developing the Solution)

How do you go about solving your ideal customer’s pain?

Ask people in your target market the following questions.

  1. “What task takes you the most time?” Get details on what has to be done, how long it takes and why it must be done.
  2. “How do you feel when you do that task?” If the owner hates doing thus task; it tells you their readiness for someone to take away this problem.
  3. “What does it cost you to do this task?”  When the customer has put a dollar value on the problem, whether it is an out-of-pocket dollar amount or a cost in time, the customer realizes this problem really cost money.   For example, if it is costing 3 hours a week of time and they make $100 an hour; that is $300 dollars a week or $1200 dollars a month.

Gathering this information and create an inventory of the problems that need to be solved.  Categorized them by type of problem; by and their frequency; by importance or magnitude.  You also should rank how close the problem matches your skill set or interest.  What you’re doing is creating a systematic way to rate problems and determine which one(s) you want to pursue first.

Ideally, you want to focus on problems/tasks that are recurring and not just a one-time occurrence.  Getting a monthly reoccurring income should be the goal for your business, if possible.  This will establish more consistent revenue and will change the focus from a transaction focused business where there is a need to get new customers all the time, to a client focused business (e.g. keeping current customers happy).  John Birch, of The Birch Group, says 80% of his business is with current customers.

It doesn’t matter what the industry is, there are always pains that need to be resolved.  Something always costs time and time is money.  If there is a business case to be made for resolving the pain, you have an opportunity.

 

Add Your Uniqueness

Once you have determined solving this pain is a viable business, you need to add your personality, your uniqueness to the business.  What is it about your skills, your personality, that make you uniquely qualified to solve this problem?

What is it about you that make you a standout in this business?  What is your story?  You should be able to fire off half a dozen reasons as to why you uniquely fit this business and the value you bring to your customers.

The story of Ruckpack

When decorated combat veteran Major Rob Dyer was on tour in Afghanistan, his troops often struggled to recover from arduous missions that required them to stay alert for long hours. Creation of Ruckpack

Dyer saw the need for something that could help the troops get back up to speed, without any negative side effects.  He focused on creating an energy drink that was geared for special operations in the field. Dyer cashed out everything he had and put it into his idea.  “I did it because I believed in the company and where it was going.”  When he approached a bottling company for bottling the drink he was shocked to discover the manufacturing company’s minimum orders was 20,000 bottles. “We’re going to have to go big to make this happen.  We ordered 20,000 bottles based on the belief that it’s going to be a great product.”

Major Dyer was able to do the following:

  1. Determined his target market.
  2. Was uniquely qualified to create and sell this product.
  3. Could leverage his unique story for a product in a crowded field.
  4. Validated his product under the extreme conditions of the battlefield.
  5. Believed in himself by cashing in his savings.
  6. Took bold action by ordering 20,000 bottles.

You have unique skills and a unique story.  Put your uniqueness to work as you build your business.

Action Steps:

  1. Write out your ideal customer. Make it as detailed as possible, include age, income, education, location, hobbies, work; anything that will zero in the ideal person.
  2. Write out 5 reasons you are uniquely qualified to serve this customer.

 

What obstacles do you face in starting your own business?  Let me know at alan@babyboomercashnow.comBelow is a summary of the links.  I do receive a commission from links when you make a purchase.  I want to say in advance, thank you for buying the books.  They have each, in their own way, helped moved my business forward.

U R a Brand – Catherine Caputa

StrengthFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

Creation of Ruckpack

 

 

 

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