entrepreneur

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, 2011

It 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, 2010

It 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, 2010

What 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?

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Your brand: Does it speak for itself?

Posted by renee on May 5th, 2010

A successful brand is something that can stand the test of time.  It is an icon, an image, colors and lines, that speaks for itself.  It does not need an elevator pitch or a two minute shpeel to explain who it is, what it does, and why it dose it.  It is an image, an experience and a culture that is recognized even by those it’s not targeting.  It is constantly being challenged by competitors and imitators, but never duplicated. It represents something powerful, something that is or once was, and something that will last for many years. A successful brand is loved by many, hated my some but always recognizable.

Can your brand stand the test of time?

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The ACT Methodology

Posted by renee on May 3rd, 2010

Successful online marketing, as coined and defined by Shama Hyder Kabani, in her book The Zen of Social Media Marketing, should follow the ACT methodology.   The ACT methodology is a simple framework for marketing your business or product online.  As we understand it today, social media is not a stand alone silo in marketing/promotions, rather it is a complimentary item to the bigger marketing picture.

Act Methodology defined:

A – Attract:  Get attention.  Get people to flock to your website as this is the primary landing site (and selling function) for any or all of your online initiatives.
C – Convert: Turning a stranger into a consumer or customer.
T – Transform: Combining both attract and convert into a magnetic force.

ATTRACT
A key ingredient to social media. Here you are attracting people to your website.  If you can’t get their attention and get them to go to your site, you will not be successful.  You need three things to attract people to your site:
- Brand: What is your brand?
- Outcome: What you do in one line. Sum it up.
- Differentiator:  How are you really different from your competitors?

“The #1 reason people fail at social media marketing is that they don’t have a solid foundation” – Shama Hyder Kabani

CONVERT
Changing a consumer into a customer. There is a difference between the two. A consumer may take interest in your product or service by following you on Twitter, Facebook, and your blog, but may not necessarily buy from you. Whereas a customer is the ultimate converted consumer, they buy from you. The conversion formula: Consumption of valuable content + Time = Client
But remember, social media takes TIME!   Clients often do not come right away, but they can. The thing is to not make this your goal.
The best conversion tool is your own website!  Social media profiles help drive traffic to your site, but won’t make the sale for you.

TRANSFORM
After mastering both attract and convert, you now have to master transformation.    “Social media is built on social proof”. There are two parts to this:
1. You always have to do a good job
2. You have to use your previous success to attract even more success.
Prove time and time again how good you are and more customers will transform.  This is a good time and place to share stories, testimonials, case studies, video interviews, audio, and pictures.

Shama does a great job at explaining these principles in her book, but most of it speaks for itself.  Get people to your site, convert them to customers, and keep them coming back by proving time and time again how great your company is.

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Posted in Blog, entrepreneur, Social media for small business | 1 Comment »

Increase your site traffic (8 steps)

Posted by renee on April 9th, 2010

KISS – Keep it Simple Stupid.
Don’t frustrate visitors with a shmorgus board of unnecessary content.  keep things clean and simple, but most importantly keep things easy to find.

1. Be memorable/make an impact
Provide deep, rich, exciting content that will continuously intrigue visitors. Ask influencer’s to be a guest blogger or even write a guest post. Interview people, write from the heart, the soul, and show your expertise.

2.  Be up to date
There is nothing worse than coming across some ‘awesome’ blog to find out it hasn’t been updated for months.  Keeping an active blog is necessary in order to keep search engines coming back to index your site.

3. Categorize your Site
Just like adding tags, categorizing your site helps to better define what your site is about, ultimately improving the quality of your site traffic.

4. Provide Contact Information
Make it simple for visitors to find ways they can reach out to you. Provide an email address, a form for their questions or a place they can simply write in, such as guestbook. Remember not to give out too much personal information.

5. Submit to Directories
Adding your site to Google and other search engines helps index it faster. Submitting this information will allow your site to be considered for future searches.

6. Describe that File
Use keywords when naming your image files that are being used by your site. Doing so will help you gain visitors when people search using Google Images. {Note: Photos are often an overlooked SEO opportunity.  Remember to tag ALL photos with appropriate words, thus leading people who are image browsing back to your site]

7. Create Links
Linking to your site from other websites will help generate more traffic and improve your placement in search engines.

8. Tag your Site
Adding site tags can increase the number of times your site shows up in search results. To pick the right keywords, try putting yourself in the shoes of your visitors.

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My comments regarding Neil Patel's post Harsh Realities of Starting a Business:

Posted by renee on December 2nd, 2009

Neil Patel suggests these top 7 harsh realities in starting a business.  I agree with some, but there are more important harsh realities that, although small, can eat you up inside and make you fear that the there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
Keep Reading »

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Posted in entrepreneur, small business, small business tips, Social media for small business | 4 Comments »