The other day I was sitting on the fence about whether or not I should hire someone full-time to fulfill a much needed role at my company Onboardly. It became painfully evident that I needed her, and needed her full-time. In the midst of building a house, postponing my wedding, attending two out of country weddings, traveling for work, and getting ready for my baby (Due this summer), there was just no way I could do all this work anymore. I emailed my fiancé to ask him what his thoughts were, and – to no surprise – he said go for it! Take the leap. (Context: The reason for getting his approval was because he was also launching his startup. Between the two of us, there is no ‘steady income’. I figured I should get his input on this.)
entrepreneur
Get Off the Fence and Decide
Posted by renee on March 15th, 2012Posted in Blog, entrepreneur, Inspiration, small business tips | No Comments »
Overcoming a bad experience
Posted by renee on September 30th, 2011
In an instant, you can experience an incredible turn of events. Things can occur that will change a moment, an hour, a week or a life. It’s how you react when you are down and getting kicked that will determine how you will eventually succeed.
It doesn’t take much to shake off a bad situation, like getting fired, dumped or getting a flat tire (to say the least). It really doesn’t. Take a moment to do the following:
1. Analyze the situation
2. Get some answers
3. and figure out your next steps
Your ‘next steps’ is the action item. It is what you do, when you do it that will get you to your feet again. But you must act, and act fast. Make a clear decision and go with it. It will all work itself out, as long as you stick to your plan. If that plan doesn’t work, go back to step one and start over again. Ask yourself:
1. Why didn’t it work the first time?
2. What can I do to make it work?
3. How much time will this take me?
If the effort outweighs the benefit then you need to get more answers to some questions. Don’t sweat over the small stuff. Think big picture. All the little things will fall into place as you work on the big picture items.
What have you done to quickly overcome a nasty situation?
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Discipline
Posted by renee on July 5th, 2011
Remember the days in the school yard when you were tempted to break the rules? Maybe sneak into school during recess to keep warm or push that girl for budding in front of you at the swing line? I do. But I never did. I was disciplined. I followed the rules set out for me to avoid the negative consequences. I did not want to get written up in the black book.
Discipline is a funny thing. It has both positive and negative connotations. Discipline to maintain order, follow a diet, workout, and stay within the speed limit. Negative. Meaning they are things you know you have to do, but don’t want to. But the results are often positive. So why then do we view discipline so negatively?
As I grew up and started taking on the world by myself, I realized that conviction was much more a part of discipline then I thought. Discipline means having conviction. It means setting out a course to achieve a certain result and stopping at nothing to get there. It means saying NO more than YES; Whether it’s a great job offer, an extra slice of pie, giving up more of your startup for more financing, or even not drinking a pint of beer at 5:40pm (Which I am. Clearly not discipline in this area). It means holding true to your beliefs. Discipline is a necessary ingredient in achieving your goals.
More so is the requirement of routine. In order to achieve discipline, you must instil routine. You must create something that is so habitual overtime it takes no thought; Brushing your teeth, calling home, saying thank you. It requires optimistic views of the outcome to come; no cavities, happy family, delighted strangers. Discipline is not negative, rather it’s a formal activity that must take place in order to achieve even the slightest goal. You must adapt your behaviour and habits to adjust accordingly.
So think of discipline as something with a positive outcome, set your goals, and go and take on the world.
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Experiencing the Entrepreneur Pendulum
Posted by renee on May 25th, 2011It is tough being an entrepreneur. Some days are amazing. While others you just want to crawl under a rock and stay there – forever. I, at the moment, am experiencing what Mark Suster calls the terror in starting something new (On the other end of the pendulum is euphoria).
As you may come to understand or have already experienced, there are a billion different emotions that overcome entrepreneurs at the best of times and at the worst of times. Anxiety, stress, euphoria, happiness, accomplishment, … all in a given week. It is not ever constant or consistent. Today for example, I had one client terminate a contract, another client say “I don’t think we can pay your invoice’, and another client wanting more for FREE! Oh, and the cherry on the top, our top designer is too busy doing her own thing to focus on our work at the moment.
Where to find comfort? It’s knowing you’re not alone and talking to other entrepreneurs who have been there too. A good friend of mine today said to me “I know exactly how you are feeling today, as I went through that a few years ago. I forgot how hard it can be. Just know that now is NOT the time to give up. You can’t give up. Your business partner relies on you. People expect great things from you. You will get through this”.
Well, sure. Sounds possible. But where is the light at the end of the tunnel? These damn Ramen noodles are getting gross and I am sick of drinking the cheap beer.
These damn Ramen noodles are getting gross and I am sick of drinking the cheap beer.
Again, I chose this route. I chose this lifestyle. I chose freedom over having a boring job helping someone else get rich.
What I have learned is simple and easy to remember:
1. Your business partner can easily comfort you in chatting about how/why you feel the way you do.
2. Moms DONT always know best. Try to keep family out of the tricky conversations. Chat to them when you think there is something they can help you with. But avoid too many negative conversations [They'll get worried]
3. It will pass, as long as you keep on going. Don’t Stop!
4. Books, podcasts, audio books, webinars, and events can help you through the emotions. Think about how bad some entrepreneurs had it, and they overcame it. [FedEx is a great example. The founder had to gamble everything he had in order to win enough money to pay his employees wages]
5. Start working out more. A little sweat releases those fancy endorphins that make you happy.
6. Find your source of inspiration [Mine happens when I'm in the shower and getting ready in the morning. Hence why I have an excessively long grooming schedule ... half the time I am emailing or jotting down my ideas]
7. It’s life. Suck it up!
8. It was never meant to be easy. If it is easy, you are doing something wrong.
9. Think about everything you have learned and have yet to learn.
10. Smile
11. Have a beer (The good stuff)
As this will pass, so will the good times. Just F****** deal with it and move on.
I did.
Posted in Blog, entrepreneur, small business tips | 9 Comments »
Advice from startups. It helps!
Posted by renee on May 23rd, 2011
Yeah, you’re right. I don’t run a tech startup. But living in San Francisco means I am surrounded by it all day, everyday. At first, I was intimidated, then I got bored of the jibber jabber, then I realized…Wooaa! These startups, this lingo, this MVP – Product/Market fit – metrics – conversions – stuff is really helping me out.
Tech startups CAN set an example for service based businesses, as I wrote in this blog post. Earlier on I also realized that people in my industry and other online marketing people really DO need to know the basics, the basics of UX, UI, metrics, conversions and so on (Check out this post about that very idea).
My point, don’t discard the tech startup mentality if you run a service based business. Consider taking a few pages from their book and appreciate how they work, especially the part on being lean.
Being lean? Here are some resources to help you out:
1. The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development
2. Startup Lessons Learned
3. The Lean Startup
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Lets get Married! …I mean, go into business together
Posted by renee on December 27th, 2010It starts in pretty much the same way every morning. A groggy start to yet another work day. You exchange coffee with your partner and his or her weary eyes show strains of worry about the incoming loads of work. Preparations for the day ahead get under way and then its off to work.
Typical married couple? Nope, that’s your average small business partnership we’re talking about. It’s easy to get confused. Some partners know more about each other than their real spouses and some, even see more of them. You and your partner spend so much time together at the office that you might as well get married! The similarities between a wedded couple and of a partnership are uncanny. Firstly, you have a binding contract to be together also you share your assets with your ‘special someone’, whats more, your partnership agreement is the business worlds equivalent of your marriage agreement. In addition communication is vital, just like it would be in any marital engagement and the company you both run together takes the role of your child. You cherish it, feed it (with capital) and hope that it will grow and one day help you.
Just as with any relationship, disagreements on the company’s future are bound to occur and this, fueled by the fact that more often than not one partner will be more fond of his partner than the other would mean each day would be interesting. 
The sad part about these arguments and is that there will come times where the partners do not get along. This, or course, calls for the corporate worlds divorce. The termination of the partnership contract. A common occurrence in the corporate world just as divorce is common. Let’s face it, not everybody has the knack for getting along. That is, after, all the very reason there are escape clauses in just about every agreement out there. Once the fighting comes to that point where you can’t take it anymore; getting out of the agreement is the workable option. And who knows? If you’re lucky, you might even get something out of the settlement.
Importantly, even as you two continue to blush and have butterflies during the ‘honeymoon’ stage, always sign that prenup. Always. (Shareholders agreement equivalent) You never know who may wander off with that 23 year old secretary or delivery boy.
(Thumbnail image from How to Protect Yourself in a Business Divorce – Good read)
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If a Caveman Ran a Startup
Posted by renee on November 23rd, 2010What would it look like? How would the caveman way of thinking apply to running a new small business? Well, let’s take a look:
- Was there ever a fat, lazy caveman? I’m sure there was, but he probably didn’t stay alive long enough to start a business. By analogy the paleolithic startup model would be lean, mean, and efficient.
- When living in a cave, basic survival necessities make themselves very obvious. Being cold and hungry will not only kill you after a while, they are also excellent motivators. A smart caveman would have learned from this and applied the same lesson to his business. Needs come first. You can work on your fancy rock engravings later.
- If you’re going to make it as a caveman, you need to know how to hunt. This means leaving your comfortable cave and taking on some risk and hard work to bring home the meat. The same goes for money. The funding won’t come to you, so you need to sharpen your spear and get out there.
- While our cave-dwelling hero is out hunting moose, someone else is holding things together back home. Back then, this would be the cave woman. I’m not saying you should get one of those, but it is important to have support and division of labor. Ideally, designers and developers should do their work while somebody else is out hunting for capital.
- If one thing is essential to the caveman, it is fire. To light that fire, you need a spark. A good idea is the basis of that spark for your fire. Once you have it, you need to watch it and feed it so that it keeps burning and keeping you alive.
- If you did not increase the size of your cave family, you would go extinct. This is why they did not bother with birth control. You, too, can not afford to kill off ideas before you check their potential.
- Back in the stone age, you never knew when another tribe would show up with their axes to fight for your best hunting and gathering territory. But, if you had anything worth taking, you could be sure that they would be there eventually. Startups are the same. If you’ve found a promising niche, competitors will get there, and you’d better be ready to defend yourself.
- The common thread here is that there’s nothing like living on the edge of survival to make you focused. Therefore, our caveman entrepreneur would doubtlessly run a very efficient and lean startup. Things would get done on time, and on budget, because there’s no arguing with caveman issues. Once the firewood is gone it is gone, saber-toothed tigers don’t wait, and that’s just the way it is.
Are you running your startup like a caveman?
Tags: lean startup, small business advice, startup
Posted in Blog, entrepreneur, Marketing, small business, social media | 1 Comment »