Focus On Your Small Business

Contrary to very popular opinion and belief (and the words of countless so-called business coaches) your business can be tiny and still be perfect.

Sorry for the delay. No excuse. Just going to share some personal life as a dog mom.

This weeks topics: Did I make the right decision? Yes.. yes,I did. New clients. Rattlesnake bites.

A lot of hard decisions this week. Actually, just one decision based on a great deal of difficult thinking.

Lots of moving parts when starting a business.

Have you ever asked a question several times in several different ways and still ... the answer is really a non-answer?  Welcome to US Bank.

I've decided I have too many domains to be able to focus on and enjoy any of them as a project. So, I'm selling all but 6.

So, a couple moths ago, the owner/founder and I discussed being able to sell directly to customers. And he connected with a guy who builds sites professionally… for a living and he gave us an initial quote and timeframe. That quote was several thousand dollars… which I expected… but the timeframe was just too far out.

So with that in mind, I sent him a message that said we would be need to be ok with conflict. That we would need to accept that either one of us could go off and that didn’t mean someone was fired or quit.

I’m sharing this with you as maybe some motivation, but really it is a reminder for me that I’m on my right path and to keep going.

Honestly, I think I wasted a month or more trying to help people who refuse to acknowledge they are driving slowly… or sometimes quickly, off a cliff. They are too busy chatting with the others in the car and convincing themselves that that cliff is not really there. That the rest of us are lying to them. A month.

Lots of people were employed by other people and when they had to either shut their doors completely or figure out how to stay in business without al their employees coming in, some of them had to cut a bunch of employees permanently.

The goal is to be happy... and a stay at home dog mom. That's doesn't necessarily mean you have to start your own business.

You've been invited to a webinar. Sounded incredible! Just what you need! And now they are selling you a course for just $2000. Don't do it!

Take a moment to figure out what your goal is. What is your why? And from there you can determine the best path.

After months of trying to convince myself I didn't need a job... I realized I did and took one. Here is some advice for you, if you find yourself in similar circumstances.

There are benefits to deleting Facebook friends, if you have a bunch. But you also need to be careful that Facebook doesn't get mad.

While I don’t want to discredit affiliates… it is an easy system to game. And this particular group of people, shall we say, is now on my radar. I’m naturally, immediately, suspicious of the … veracity… of these individuals.

Ep 4. You VERY likely do not need, nor will you benefit from ANY course when you first get started.

Ep 3. We are all constantly being bombarded with content and advertisements in our social media feeds to prod us to action that may not be in our best interest, although it is certainly purported to be. Let's take an honest look at just a couple.

Ep 2 of the relaunch! During a meeting with my mastermind, all tiny business owners who have very personal online businesses and sites, I had a little breakthrough in my thinking. As you might remember if you were one of the 8 people who has been listening to this podcast regularly, I’ve kind of fought against some of the advice to niche down. 

I think it’s time for a recap of events. We are now in the second year of this podcast and I’m ready to relaunch my podcast. New name and new focus.

So, last week I mentioned that I’m pretty good at brainstorming and I recently had a conversation with someone concerning his ideas and my suggestions. I’m hoping that this back and forth will help you figure out some of your own current or potential obstacles.

Right now, in the US, most of the country has been asked or told to stay home. And most of us can’t. We are living paycheck to paycheck and not having any income for a couple weeks is just not an option. It’s very stressful and many people are wondering how to make their bills and mortgage.

I wanted to tell you of a couple apps I’m not happy with anymore.

The topic of happiness is definitely worthy of an episode of its own, because ultimately it is the goal, the priority… the reward we are all looking for. Everything we do, is ultimately to reach a level of happiness. The goal of happiness is why I have my 24 month plan to be a full time stay at home dog mom.

When we started to leave our personal projects and start working on someone elses personal projects, we started to be less than we can be.

If you happen to be taking notes on life experiences that can save you a great deal of pain and suffering in your future, please take note of this.. be careful who you share your ideas with. And be more careful from whom you take advice. If they are not in the arena, spilling their blood along with you, their advice is likely not useful.

Should you be on youtube? Sure… but not JUST there. Should you be on Facebook? Of course (if you like it) but not to build a business.

It’s well worth it for me to work this plan for 24 months. That’s not to say that I don’t need to work anymore after 24 months. The plan is that I have replaced my necessary income by then and can work from home. With the dogs. That’s the plan.

I started blogging in 2003, if I remember. I was learning about and getting into social media back in 2009.. maybe 2008… and was helping clients navigate the online world in 2009. As I learned about it, I was teaching a client or handling the task myself on their behalf.

Self-actualization is at the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. And I think the reach for that goal is present in every level under it.

I’m of the opinion or belief, back up, I feel, by evidence, that as a creative and expressive species, we have an inherent need to… create… and express. And when we do not, we are depressed and unhappy. And we often blame something outside ourselves for that unhappiness. Often it is our job.

I think we, human beings, are incredibly creative and expressive. And I think so much of the unhappiness we see in our fellow man can be ascribed to living a much smaller life than they can or deserve.

While I’m not much on New Years resolutions for myself, it is a great time of year to think back over the year that ended and take stock of what you’ve accomplished. What goals were achieved? What goals are now on the New Years list?

There is plenty for all. Life is a never-ending buffet. So what if one person takes 6 plates of the Mac and cheese in one trip. There is still plenty of Mac and cheese for you. Relax. Eat your salad and breadstick.

Have you thought about any projects that you have put on the back burner for a long time… or it’s on the front burner and you keep stirring the pot and wondering if you should add any ingredients?

We are mid-December in 2019. This is about where I was last year when I decided I had wasted enough time thinking about and analyzing my podcast goal. 4 years and I still hadn’t produced anything.

When thinking about the podcasts I listen to, I’ve often gone back and listened to the earlier episodes. And the most useful ones were where the content was not something timely.

If a person does not control their own pyramid, their own hierarchy, they cannot move on. What could be worse is that I think a person cannot even recognize there is something beyond the level they are at.

I often see people compare careers by some sort of value system. They’ll say something like “people who are protecting this country should be paid more than a guy catching a football.”

As I said last week, I’m changing the name of this podcast and expanding its focus to include everybody who is struggling to achieve their own self-actualization.

The next schedule came out and I was scheduled to work a 10 hour shift in the day and then come back in 7 hours and work 8 hours overnight that same night. Now, for whatever reason, that I like will never understand, 3rd shift of one day is actually as the next day. So, it shows up as my working the next day and I thought perhaps my boss didn’t realize he already had me working that day.

So, I was not really looking forward to taking a job because I really want to be involved in what I do. Live at 100%. Work at 100%. And most of the jobs available really don’t want people that involved. If they did, they would work harder to get and keep them.

I wanted to restate something I’ve touched on in the past, but bears repetition. You may be like me in a couple ways. One way is that you have SO many ideas… that you don’t know where to start.

Often times these people would be trying to self-educate, which is a wonderful thing, and they would watch videos from other systems. Ask advice from other leaders. And my sister would carefully explain that mixing systems is not a good idea. Pick a system… follow it.

Let’s say you have a great idea for something. A service, message or product. And you believe that this idea has monetary value. That people would pay for it. AND… that you could spend your life doing it… whatever it s.. and make a living with it.

Start with one thing. If you’re like me you’ve got dozens and dozens of awesome cool ideas. But you can’t run with all of them at the same time. Pick one, go for it and then when it’s solid, go grab another one.

I want to tell you a story about a failure of mine with a client. It was sort of a mutual failure… of each other. I was hired as mostly virtual assistant to help a realtor with their social media …. or more precisely, to help them build their online platform.

Maybe you want to put your poetry on shareable images. Whether you want or need a website, or a social media platform or learn how to put text on your own images or royalty free images and share them with the world, I support you. And I can help you.

Today’s thought is there’s never an awesome time to start a business. There’s never going to be a time when you look around and say, ‘yeah now is the time to start a business.’ It’s always going to be hard. So you may as well start right now.