One aspect of forming a business has been weighing on my mind, and that's what type of business entity to form. I'm rather wary of government and want to make sure everything I do is by the rules so I don't regret it later. But even the most friendly of state governments do not make it easy to find out what you should do.
The first step is to decide what type of business entity you want to form. A few resources I've found are fairly good at spelling out the difference between the various options:
http://www.expertlaw.com/library/business/business_form.html
http://www.medlawplus.com/library/legal/businessentitychoice.htm
and, of course, the IRS...
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98359,00.html
The easiest to get into is the Sole Proprietorship, of course. Very little is needed to start such a business. In my state you file a $25 "Doing Business As" form and you're on your way. My main concern is that the business does not automatically pass to my wife if I die. The other is that if someone sues me successfully they can take everything I own, whether it's related to the business or not. There isn't much protection under the law.
A Limited Liability Company would be the next, most obvious choice. But that gets a bit more expensive and complicated. In my state it's $100 to file, plus I have to draft an Operating Agreement, which could easily mean a trip to the lawyer. On the up side, my family and I would be shielded from liability, it's easier to transfer membership and control, and taxes would still not be too complicated.
But it does sound complicated. I'm sure I could draft a decent Operating Agreement if I had someone else's to use as a model. But by the time I'm done, depending on how much I value my time, I may be better off just using MyNewCompany.com. They do all of that for you, if you're willing to pay. The most basic package is $180, and gets the job done. It may very well be worth it. Does anyone out there have experience with them?
So I guess the bottom line is this: Do I feel lucky? Chances are a sole proprietorship is all I'd really need. After all, you have to make money to pay taxes, right? But I'm big on risk management, and in a recent class I took they pointed out that one risk that should always be addressed is "What happens if I succeed beyond my wildest dreams?" Could I convert a sole proprietorship to an LLC or other business entity?
Perhaps if I'm that successful it wouldn't matter.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Staying Focused on the Goal
One of the reasons I'm starting a business is because my job has been marked for elimination in two months. While I don't think this idea will provide enough income soon enough to help with that immediate crisis, I do think it's worth getting started now.
The problem is staying focused. My wife and I both have engaged in a significant amount of "thrash" this week as we shift from task to task and try to figure out where we can best make a difference in our current situation. It's a bit easier for me, as I still have a 9-to-5 job I need to finish. But my wife is finding it a bit more difficult.
So what do you do when you have more options than you have time? Here's my advice: Crate, Evaluate, Delegate, Regenerate, and Coordinate.
Crate (a verb, meaning "get it all together in one place": Sit down with your business partner. In my case it's my wife. Brainstorm what needs to be done, both in getting the business going and in maintaining all the other essentials of life. Write it down! If it's not written down it will be all to easily pushed out by the next concern that comes along. If a specific task is not clear enough, break it down into smaller tasks until you feel each task is clear and manageable.
Evaluate: Prioritize the list based on how critical each item is to the over-all goal. Some will be obvious, but other will require careful thought to separate the "good" things from the "great" things. It may involve trying to do some cost-benefit analysis.
For example, my wife is a skilled quilter. A local gift shop is interested in selling her quilts, but charge "space rent" and a percentage commission. On the surface it sounds great, but when we ran the numbers we realized that my wife could make more money per hour working at McDonalds, and with less risk.
Less simple to analyze is whether we would be better off devoting more attention to our family garden this year or to helping her build up an inventory of craft goods to sell if more favorable terms can be found. Both are good goals. Both have both short term and long term benefits. Both require some money up front. Choosing which is better is nearly impossible without some sort of psychic ability. We ended up taking our best guess based on what we expect to have happen.
Delegate: Divide up the more important tasks. Clearly decide who is responsible for what. Don't try to tackle the entire list, however. Start with the most important items and pick those you believe you can accomplish within the block of time before your next "business meeting", which shouldn't be more than one week.
Be open and honest with each other about what you can reasonably expect to accomplish during that period. Don't take on too much just to feel like you're doing your fair share. If you've got other concerns to address or just can't work at the same pace as your partner, that's okay. Just so long as you communicate that. Setting realistic expectations will save lots of headache and guilt later on.
You may also discuss the next few items beyond that time frame just in case you end up accomplishing more than you expected, but even if that happens you can always quickly pick up the list, let your partner know you're selecting an additional task, and just go with it. You've got the list, so you know what the next most beneficial task is.
Regenerate: You are not a machine. You have to leave time for yourself. Make sure you have time do something different, something enjoyable, something that rejuvinates you. Take time away from the project so you can get some perspective and attack it fresh later. Far too often I find myself too close to my work to notice that I'm actually heading in the wrong direction--or at least missing out on a better direction.
Coordinate: Meet regularly and go through the process again. Make sure your list of tasks is complete. Add to, change, or remove from your list. Discuss successes and challenges alike. Celebrate progress. Delegate and go at it again.
I can't stress enough the importance of meeting regularly with your partner. Especially if your partner is your wife. There are two blocks of time we have designated as "sacred time" each week. The first is Date Night. We spend time together every week. It may not be much more than watching a video and having snacks, but it's a shared experience nonetheless. It gives us something to discuss, and shared "movie quotes" we can pull out in conversations throughout the week.
It's not always the same night, but I will cancel my own fun with my friends before I'll cancel my date with my wife.
The other is "Family Council". Every Sunday night we get together and plan the week. Then we set aside time to discuss issues that may be on our minds. Sometimes it's straight-forward "what are we going to do about..." type stuff, but sometimes there are deeply personal issues that need to be examined and worked through. Our Sunday night meetings are not always fun, but they've really strengthened our marriage.
I wouldn't go so far as to equate a business partnership as a marriage, but it can be close. And if your partner is your spouse, it's all the more critical. Staying in touch and staying focused will mean all the difference.
The problem is staying focused. My wife and I both have engaged in a significant amount of "thrash" this week as we shift from task to task and try to figure out where we can best make a difference in our current situation. It's a bit easier for me, as I still have a 9-to-5 job I need to finish. But my wife is finding it a bit more difficult.
So what do you do when you have more options than you have time? Here's my advice: Crate, Evaluate, Delegate, Regenerate, and Coordinate.
Crate (a verb, meaning "get it all together in one place": Sit down with your business partner. In my case it's my wife. Brainstorm what needs to be done, both in getting the business going and in maintaining all the other essentials of life. Write it down! If it's not written down it will be all to easily pushed out by the next concern that comes along. If a specific task is not clear enough, break it down into smaller tasks until you feel each task is clear and manageable.
Evaluate: Prioritize the list based on how critical each item is to the over-all goal. Some will be obvious, but other will require careful thought to separate the "good" things from the "great" things. It may involve trying to do some cost-benefit analysis.
For example, my wife is a skilled quilter. A local gift shop is interested in selling her quilts, but charge "space rent" and a percentage commission. On the surface it sounds great, but when we ran the numbers we realized that my wife could make more money per hour working at McDonalds, and with less risk.
Less simple to analyze is whether we would be better off devoting more attention to our family garden this year or to helping her build up an inventory of craft goods to sell if more favorable terms can be found. Both are good goals. Both have both short term and long term benefits. Both require some money up front. Choosing which is better is nearly impossible without some sort of psychic ability. We ended up taking our best guess based on what we expect to have happen.
Delegate: Divide up the more important tasks. Clearly decide who is responsible for what. Don't try to tackle the entire list, however. Start with the most important items and pick those you believe you can accomplish within the block of time before your next "business meeting", which shouldn't be more than one week.
Be open and honest with each other about what you can reasonably expect to accomplish during that period. Don't take on too much just to feel like you're doing your fair share. If you've got other concerns to address or just can't work at the same pace as your partner, that's okay. Just so long as you communicate that. Setting realistic expectations will save lots of headache and guilt later on.
You may also discuss the next few items beyond that time frame just in case you end up accomplishing more than you expected, but even if that happens you can always quickly pick up the list, let your partner know you're selecting an additional task, and just go with it. You've got the list, so you know what the next most beneficial task is.
Regenerate: You are not a machine. You have to leave time for yourself. Make sure you have time do something different, something enjoyable, something that rejuvinates you. Take time away from the project so you can get some perspective and attack it fresh later. Far too often I find myself too close to my work to notice that I'm actually heading in the wrong direction--or at least missing out on a better direction.
Coordinate: Meet regularly and go through the process again. Make sure your list of tasks is complete. Add to, change, or remove from your list. Discuss successes and challenges alike. Celebrate progress. Delegate and go at it again.
I can't stress enough the importance of meeting regularly with your partner. Especially if your partner is your wife. There are two blocks of time we have designated as "sacred time" each week. The first is Date Night. We spend time together every week. It may not be much more than watching a video and having snacks, but it's a shared experience nonetheless. It gives us something to discuss, and shared "movie quotes" we can pull out in conversations throughout the week.
It's not always the same night, but I will cancel my own fun with my friends before I'll cancel my date with my wife.
The other is "Family Council". Every Sunday night we get together and plan the week. Then we set aside time to discuss issues that may be on our minds. Sometimes it's straight-forward "what are we going to do about..." type stuff, but sometimes there are deeply personal issues that need to be examined and worked through. Our Sunday night meetings are not always fun, but they've really strengthened our marriage.
I wouldn't go so far as to equate a business partnership as a marriage, but it can be close. And if your partner is your spouse, it's all the more critical. Staying in touch and staying focused will mean all the difference.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Graphics Software on the Cheap
Since my business idea centers around a website, it's important that I get some decent graphics, including a logo. Since I'm doing this on the cheap, I can't afford to hire a graphics designer to do it. And if I could afford Photoshop, I could probably afford to hire a graphics designer. So what's a guy to do?
I started my IT career as a graphical editor for a software company who did things on the cheap. They bought me a copy of JASC software's Paint Shop Pro to use. Since I'm not a graphic designer I have no idea what bells and whistles it may be missing, but it was more than sufficient for what I was doing.
Later on I took on the company's customer newsletter, which required even more photo editing. With Paint Shop Pro I was able to produce credible graphics, my magnum opus being a picture of our company's new headquarters, complete with our sign, a flag on the flagpole, and the landscape looking nice and tidy. The thing is, at that point the building still had the former occupant's sign, the flagpoles were bare, and there were abundant weeds--we hadn't even moved in yet when I took the picture.
I had a blast removing the old sign, crafting a new sign from our company logo, "pulling" weeds, and adding the national and state flags. And I learned that PSP could do practically anything I could think of.
So when I committed to opening this new business I looked forward to getting some graphic editing software. I looked online, but even used, Photoshop was just too much for my budget. So I looked for PSP instead. The company has since been bought by Corel, but I was able to find a used version of PSP 8.10 online for $30. A bargain.
The software came in the mail yesterday, so last night I sat down to install it. Then, since they've changed the interface, I decided I'd tinker with it a bit to see what's changed. Two hours later I'd put together three separate logo options for my wife to consider. Perhaps half an hour of that was learning the interface changes, and the rest was trying a thousand different options.
It was fun. It was cheap! If you're not a good enough graphic designer to appreciate the difference between Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop, I'd say don't bother paying for the more expensive product. Cheap alternatives are easily found on Amazon or eBay.
I started my IT career as a graphical editor for a software company who did things on the cheap. They bought me a copy of JASC software's Paint Shop Pro to use. Since I'm not a graphic designer I have no idea what bells and whistles it may be missing, but it was more than sufficient for what I was doing.
Later on I took on the company's customer newsletter, which required even more photo editing. With Paint Shop Pro I was able to produce credible graphics, my magnum opus being a picture of our company's new headquarters, complete with our sign, a flag on the flagpole, and the landscape looking nice and tidy. The thing is, at that point the building still had the former occupant's sign, the flagpoles were bare, and there were abundant weeds--we hadn't even moved in yet when I took the picture.
I had a blast removing the old sign, crafting a new sign from our company logo, "pulling" weeds, and adding the national and state flags. And I learned that PSP could do practically anything I could think of.
So when I committed to opening this new business I looked forward to getting some graphic editing software. I looked online, but even used, Photoshop was just too much for my budget. So I looked for PSP instead. The company has since been bought by Corel, but I was able to find a used version of PSP 8.10 online for $30. A bargain.
The software came in the mail yesterday, so last night I sat down to install it. Then, since they've changed the interface, I decided I'd tinker with it a bit to see what's changed. Two hours later I'd put together three separate logo options for my wife to consider. Perhaps half an hour of that was learning the interface changes, and the rest was trying a thousand different options.
It was fun. It was cheap! If you're not a good enough graphic designer to appreciate the difference between Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop, I'd say don't bother paying for the more expensive product. Cheap alternatives are easily found on Amazon or eBay.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
PayPal Donations and Blogger
EDIT: This is embarassing. I just found this article over on Bloggertricks.com on how to do everything I do below as a widget. It works quite easily, and I didn't even have the tag problems I had trying to place the button on the page without widgets. The only value this article adds is the ability to center your Donate button in the center of the sidebar, or if you want to find a different way of doing it.
As I mentioned in a previous post, last night I wrestled with PayPal and Blogger to install a donation button so people can hit my tip jar. (Disclaimer: Hit it if you find some value here. If not, that's cool. I learned a few things from putting it in, and that was the main goal.)
It took me the better part of an hour, I think. There were two main problems. The first was with the code that PayPal provided to paste into my blog. In their defense, there is probably no way they can anticipate every possible circumstance in which their code may be used. I don't know if the problems I encountered were because of bad coding on their part of bad implementation in Blogger.
Anyway, whenever I would paste the code into Blogger and attempt to preview the change it would error out. Fortunately Blogger does provide fairly good error messaging, so I was able to figure it out on my own. The essence of the issue was a failure to close either the [input] or the [img] tags. (Note: so as not to confuse Blogger I replace all <> symbols with [ and ].)
From studying the rest of the code (I'm referring to the "Layout" tab, under the "Edit HTML" option) I found that you can both open and close a tag by placing the closing slash ("/") at the end of the tag, such as [img...... /]. By adding the close slash at the end of each [input..../] and [img..../] tag, I was able to get the code to work properly.
However, I didn't care much for the alignment of the button, and there was no text to explain what it was. For that I had to reach back into my cobwebbed memory of HTML and pull out the good old [p align='center'] tag. I inserted the tag and some text into the code, and it worked. What I ended up with (edited for brevity sake) was something like this:
Next came the problem of where to put it. It took me several tries of hit-n-miss to even find someplace where it would show up, let alone get it right. I found that the best place to put the code is between [div] sections. But depending on your template, that may not put it in a good spot. The template for this blog, for example, left no place for the button until after all the widget and blog ads, so it would have been well off the screen.
So I had to get creative. I looked for the section beginning with:
[div id='sidebar-wrapper']
[b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes']
I then added a tag to end that section after the profile section widget:
[b:widget id='Profile2' locked='false' title='About Me' type='Profile'/]
[/b:section]
[/div] (red text shows added code)
I then inserted my PayPal code at this point. But that left some additional homeless widgets after it. I had to essentially create a second side-bar wrapper as follows:
[div id='sidebar-wrapper']
[b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar2' preferred='yes']
[b:widget id='AdSense2' locked='false' title='' type='AdSense'/]
[/b:section]
[/div]
Note, I had to make the sidebar id='sidebar2' instead of just 'sidebar', or Blogger complains.
Once I figured all that out it wasn't too bad. I'm pretty sure I could have found some online help documentation from Blogger that might have helped. Unfortunately I have a bad habit of getting a by myopic when struggling with a problem, and I forget to look. It might have saved me half an hour had I looked for help.
But now I've got tip jars up on my blogs. And you can to!
Follow-up thought: I suspect the reason why I had tag trouble in the Edit HTML mode but not in creating the widget is that the Edit HTML mode is really XML, whereas the widget deals with straight HTML. HTML follows a more loose standard than XML, I believe.
As I mentioned in a previous post, last night I wrestled with PayPal and Blogger to install a donation button so people can hit my tip jar. (Disclaimer: Hit it if you find some value here. If not, that's cool. I learned a few things from putting it in, and that was the main goal.)
It took me the better part of an hour, I think. There were two main problems. The first was with the code that PayPal provided to paste into my blog. In their defense, there is probably no way they can anticipate every possible circumstance in which their code may be used. I don't know if the problems I encountered were because of bad coding on their part of bad implementation in Blogger.
Anyway, whenever I would paste the code into Blogger and attempt to preview the change it would error out. Fortunately Blogger does provide fairly good error messaging, so I was able to figure it out on my own. The essence of the issue was a failure to close either the [input] or the [img] tags. (Note: so as not to confuse Blogger I replace all <> symbols with [ and ].)
From studying the rest of the code (I'm referring to the "Layout" tab, under the "Edit HTML" option) I found that you can both open and close a tag by placing the closing slash ("/") at the end of the tag, such as [img...... /]. By adding the close slash at the end of each [input..../] and [img..../] tag, I was able to get the code to work properly.
However, I didn't care much for the alignment of the button, and there was no text to explain what it was. For that I had to reach back into my cobwebbed memory of HTML and pull out the good old [p align='center'] tag. I inserted the tag and some text into the code, and it worked. What I ended up with (edited for brevity sake) was something like this:
[!-- PAYPAL INSERT --]
[form action='https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr' method='post']
[p align='center']
[input name='cmd' type='hidden' value='_s-xclick'/]
[input name='encrypted' type='hidden' value='-----BEGIN PKCS7-----MIIH...wnj9w==-----END PKCS7----- '/]
[input alt='' border='0' name='submit' src='https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif' type='image'/]
[img alt='' border='0' height='1' src='https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif' width='1'/]
[br/]Hit the Tip Jar![/p]
[/form]
[!-- END PAYPAL INSERT --]
Next came the problem of where to put it. It took me several tries of hit-n-miss to even find someplace where it would show up, let alone get it right. I found that the best place to put the code is between [div] sections. But depending on your template, that may not put it in a good spot. The template for this blog, for example, left no place for the button until after all the widget and blog ads, so it would have been well off the screen.
So I had to get creative. I looked for the section beginning with:
[div id='sidebar-wrapper']
[b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes']
I then added a tag to end that section after the profile section widget:
[b:widget id='Profile2' locked='false' title='About Me' type='Profile'/]
[/b:section]
[/div] (red text shows added code)
I then inserted my PayPal code at this point. But that left some additional homeless widgets after it. I had to essentially create a second side-bar wrapper as follows:
[div id='sidebar-wrapper']
[b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar2' preferred='yes']
[b:widget id='AdSense2' locked='false' title='' type='AdSense'/]
[/b:section]
[/div]
Note, I had to make the sidebar id='sidebar2' instead of just 'sidebar', or Blogger complains.
Once I figured all that out it wasn't too bad. I'm pretty sure I could have found some online help documentation from Blogger that might have helped. Unfortunately I have a bad habit of getting a by myopic when struggling with a problem, and I forget to look. It might have saved me half an hour had I looked for help.
But now I've got tip jars up on my blogs. And you can to!
Follow-up thought: I suspect the reason why I had tag trouble in the Edit HTML mode but not in creating the widget is that the Edit HTML mode is really XML, whereas the widget deals with straight HTML. HTML follows a more loose standard than XML, I believe.
Clickbank: Web Sales Made Simple
Last night I was exploring options for putting up a "tip jar" on my sites. Just as a disclaimer I'm not expecting everyone to leave tips. If you think I'm providing value for you and want to leave something, cool! But I'm not expecting to get rich from this. It was mainly an experiment to see how you would even do something like that. It was not easy, mind you. But I digress.
Someone at work with whom I've been discussing my ideas mentioned that she uses Clickbank.com for a site she's been putting together. I had no idea what it did, so I thought I'd check it out.
What they have is actually two different solutions. The first--and the one my friend is using--is an affiliate program, where you sell stuff for others on your site. You've probably seen similar things, like when people link to items on Amazon.com and get a small bonus if someone clicks through and buys something (disclaimer: I am not an Amazon.com affiliate. Yet.).
The second is an amazingly simple method for selling digital products and subscriptions online. For your part is requires two web pages. The first is the promotion page where you describe the item for sale. On this page you place a link to Clickbank for the item you wish them to purchase (Clickbank must approve the item first).
The second page is where they can download/read the purchased product, which they call a "thank you page". The purchaser will be linked to this page after they complete the transaction. They're essentially the tollgate between the two pages. Simple, yet elegant.
The first question I had is how you keep people from noticing that all they really need to do is guess the name of the "thank you page" and they can circumvent Clickbank and get stuff for free. Clickbank does offer some hints, however, if you know where to look (here).
But still, it seems to be a simple yet elegant solution. There is a $50 startup fee, and they charge $2.50 for every check they send (though after a while they can set up direct deposit). Commissions on sales are $1 plus $.075 per dollar in sales price. For example, if I sell a widget for $10, they'll pass $8.25 along to me.
They can also fix you up with affiliates who will sell your product through their sites for a commission of up to 75%. Note that this is on sales not on click-throughs or page views.
I have nothing to compare them with so far, but they sound fairly reasonable. I looked into PayPal a little last night, but that was for a tip jar. PayPal charges $.30 per transaction, regardless of size. I didn't look into their ecommerce options, which may be comparable in price to Clickbank. That may be a good topic for a future post.
But I'd say that for a quick, simple solution for selling online, Clickbank is worth a look.
Someone at work with whom I've been discussing my ideas mentioned that she uses Clickbank.com for a site she's been putting together. I had no idea what it did, so I thought I'd check it out.
What they have is actually two different solutions. The first--and the one my friend is using--is an affiliate program, where you sell stuff for others on your site. You've probably seen similar things, like when people link to items on Amazon.com and get a small bonus if someone clicks through and buys something (disclaimer: I am not an Amazon.com affiliate. Yet.).
The second is an amazingly simple method for selling digital products and subscriptions online. For your part is requires two web pages. The first is the promotion page where you describe the item for sale. On this page you place a link to Clickbank for the item you wish them to purchase (Clickbank must approve the item first).
The second page is where they can download/read the purchased product, which they call a "thank you page". The purchaser will be linked to this page after they complete the transaction. They're essentially the tollgate between the two pages. Simple, yet elegant.
The first question I had is how you keep people from noticing that all they really need to do is guess the name of the "thank you page" and they can circumvent Clickbank and get stuff for free. Clickbank does offer some hints, however, if you know where to look (here).
But still, it seems to be a simple yet elegant solution. There is a $50 startup fee, and they charge $2.50 for every check they send (though after a while they can set up direct deposit). Commissions on sales are $1 plus $.075 per dollar in sales price. For example, if I sell a widget for $10, they'll pass $8.25 along to me.
They can also fix you up with affiliates who will sell your product through their sites for a commission of up to 75%. Note that this is on sales not on click-throughs or page views.
I have nothing to compare them with so far, but they sound fairly reasonable. I looked into PayPal a little last night, but that was for a tip jar. PayPal charges $.30 per transaction, regardless of size. I didn't look into their ecommerce options, which may be comparable in price to Clickbank. That may be a good topic for a future post.
But I'd say that for a quick, simple solution for selling online, Clickbank is worth a look.
Rethinking Strategies
Yesterday I was doing a little research and came across an article from Steve Pavlina on how to build web traffic. Interestingly enough he doesn't talk about page-rankings and linking. He talks about producing quality content. I guess he knows what he's talking about. He gets about 208,000 hits per month on his site.
But more importantly he encourages people to keep money in perspective:
If you think that Mr. Pavlina is a complete altruist, just read another article of his on how to make money from a blog and you'll get another picture.
But the point stands. He is successful (in 2006 his blog was bringing $1000 per DAY) because of the reasons he states in the first article: he's in it because he wants to make a difference, and he's passionate about what he does. He does believe in getting paid for his work, but by concentrating on what he most enjoys--personal improvement--he creates a product that is evidently quite lucrative. If he contentrated just on making money and had no product he wouldn't be nearly so successful.
So my wife and I had a talk over dinner last night (which usually isn't very easy with three young kids), and we're going to shift our focus. Money would be nice, but we'd prefer to be in this to make a difference. And since this business is more about my wife's passion than my own, she has to be in it for the right reasons or she won't be in it for long.
That's not to say I'm not passionate about this. I'm just passionate about different aspects of it. I believe in the cause we're advancing, but it's not my passion. My passion lies in writing to influence, in creating something bigger than myself, and yes, in making money to one day provide me the freedom to really focus on what I enjoy. So while perhaps our passions are not shared, they certainly can be mutually supportive.
So after our discussion we are altering our focus a little, but not by much. We'll just be providing more free content than we originally envisioned. Now that we've got that settled, it's "once more into the niche!"
But more importantly he encourages people to keep money in perspective:
It’s important that I generate some money from my work, but it’s not necessary that I extract every possible dollar. In fact, relative to its traffic levels, I’m seriously under-monetizing this site. But money is only a means to an end, not an end in itself. Making a positive contribution to the world is a lot more important to me than money. Money can be useful in achieving this objective, but human relationships are far more important. The funny thing is that the less I rely on money, the more of it I seem to have.
If you think that Mr. Pavlina is a complete altruist, just read another article of his on how to make money from a blog and you'll get another picture.
But the point stands. He is successful (in 2006 his blog was bringing $1000 per DAY) because of the reasons he states in the first article: he's in it because he wants to make a difference, and he's passionate about what he does. He does believe in getting paid for his work, but by concentrating on what he most enjoys--personal improvement--he creates a product that is evidently quite lucrative. If he contentrated just on making money and had no product he wouldn't be nearly so successful.
So my wife and I had a talk over dinner last night (which usually isn't very easy with three young kids), and we're going to shift our focus. Money would be nice, but we'd prefer to be in this to make a difference. And since this business is more about my wife's passion than my own, she has to be in it for the right reasons or she won't be in it for long.
That's not to say I'm not passionate about this. I'm just passionate about different aspects of it. I believe in the cause we're advancing, but it's not my passion. My passion lies in writing to influence, in creating something bigger than myself, and yes, in making money to one day provide me the freedom to really focus on what I enjoy. So while perhaps our passions are not shared, they certainly can be mutually supportive.
So after our discussion we are altering our focus a little, but not by much. We'll just be providing more free content than we originally envisioned. Now that we've got that settled, it's "once more into the niche!"
Monday, February 16, 2009
Business Plans
One thing I plan to not skimp on is a business plan. A business plan can really help you think through all the various aspects of starting your business. Like how you plan to make money. Who are your customers? What are you selling? What are your start-up costs? What are your expected operational costs and revenues?
See your local Small Business Administration for tips, tools, and templates for writing a business plan.
In some areas they can even put you in touch with mentors who can help you take your rough draft plan and turn it into something more useful and concrete. These mentors are often current or former business owners who want to give back to their communities and pass on the knowledge they wish they'd have known starting out. The SBA can also hook you up with other resources in your community.
My business plan is still taking shape. I've mainly got an outline at this point. But it's a start, and it's already helped me think of things I might not have otherwise.
See your local Small Business Administration for tips, tools, and templates for writing a business plan.
In some areas they can even put you in touch with mentors who can help you take your rough draft plan and turn it into something more useful and concrete. These mentors are often current or former business owners who want to give back to their communities and pass on the knowledge they wish they'd have known starting out. The SBA can also hook you up with other resources in your community.
My business plan is still taking shape. I've mainly got an outline at this point. But it's a start, and it's already helped me think of things I might not have otherwise.
Building a Site on the Cheap
One of the ways I've been able to convince my wife to join me in this crazy escapade is to convince her we can do this fairly cheaply. And you can. The question is whether it's a good idea or not.
So far our expenses have been about $75 dollars for graphic editing software (used) and domain-name registration (we bought .com, .org, and .net just to make sure we don't get any copycat sites taking advantage of any domain confusion. Paranoid? Probably).
We want the site to have a main content section with an attached blog or two and a discussion board. There are two directions we could take on this.
The first is to just use existing hosting services. Our domain registrar gives us free space to set up our site, so that part would be simple. I've set up a website before, albeit a very simple, hand-coded HTML one, so I know I can do that much.
I could also use services like Blogger.com or WordPress.com for the blogs, and through some technical wizardry make our blog on their site look like it's on ours. The same could be done for the discussion board. It's free, and at least it looks easy. The only problem might be how much control we have--and whether we can migrate if we do decide to host everything ourselves at some point.
The other options is to pay for web hosting. My ISP has been quite good, and I know they'd treat me well. But to host a site is $50 to set it up, and then $25 per month after that. I'm not entertaining any delusions of being able to make $350+ our first year. And I'll soon be out of a job.
On the other hand, I could control every detail of the site, and could get the blog and discussion board software for free. I'd just have to figure out how to set it up. I'd be able to control every aspect of the configuration, which could be fun--and time consuming.
At some later date I'll need to add the e-commerce components to sell the ebooks. I'm fairly certain that would almost guarantee we'd need our own hosted site at that point. And I work in the technology industry. I know how the seemingly simple task of switching to one system to another can become a disaster. So it's very tempting to start out on the architecture I will eventually have to move to anyway, regardless of the cost.
Anyone out there tried this themselves? Any advice to give?
So far our expenses have been about $75 dollars for graphic editing software (used) and domain-name registration (we bought .com, .org, and .net just to make sure we don't get any copycat sites taking advantage of any domain confusion. Paranoid? Probably).
We want the site to have a main content section with an attached blog or two and a discussion board. There are two directions we could take on this.
The first is to just use existing hosting services. Our domain registrar gives us free space to set up our site, so that part would be simple. I've set up a website before, albeit a very simple, hand-coded HTML one, so I know I can do that much.
I could also use services like Blogger.com or WordPress.com for the blogs, and through some technical wizardry make our blog on their site look like it's on ours. The same could be done for the discussion board. It's free, and at least it looks easy. The only problem might be how much control we have--and whether we can migrate if we do decide to host everything ourselves at some point.
The other options is to pay for web hosting. My ISP has been quite good, and I know they'd treat me well. But to host a site is $50 to set it up, and then $25 per month after that. I'm not entertaining any delusions of being able to make $350+ our first year. And I'll soon be out of a job.
On the other hand, I could control every detail of the site, and could get the blog and discussion board software for free. I'd just have to figure out how to set it up. I'd be able to control every aspect of the configuration, which could be fun--and time consuming.
At some later date I'll need to add the e-commerce components to sell the ebooks. I'm fairly certain that would almost guarantee we'd need our own hosted site at that point. And I work in the technology industry. I know how the seemingly simple task of switching to one system to another can become a disaster. So it's very tempting to start out on the architecture I will eventually have to move to anyway, regardless of the cost.
Anyone out there tried this themselves? Any advice to give?
Getting Serious About Self-Employment
Let me introduce myself. I'm an employee of a Fortune 40 company where I've been employed for four years. Last month I was informed my position will be terminated in April. While this did not come as a surprise, it's still not something I look forward to, especially in these economic times.
Last week my church sponsored a small business seminar. I think pretty much everyone who has ever worked for someone else has thought about running their own business someday. I'm not exception. The reality is, if I don't find a job withing a few months, I may have to try my hand at it. So a little up-front advice wouldn't hurt.
I came away fairly convinced that I can't start a brick-and-mortar business right now. But I also came away with an idea for an ebook to try selling online. The trouble is that it would involve partnering with my wife, who has not been all that thrilled with the idea of me starting my own business.
It turns out she likes the idea. We got to bed late that night from brainstorming ideas. We decided to give this a try, as the initial outlay is fairly low and the payoff could be well worth it. But it's not something we'll be able to do overnight. We want to do this right, so that we can open up several potential revenue streams at once.
What it involves (I'm going to avoid details for now) is establishing a web site with accompanying weblogs all aimed at our particular niche market. We want to load it up with unique and credible content that will drive traffic to our site. When the traffic numbers are looking decent we'll add some of the simpler revenue streams like web-ads, tip-jars, or affiliate programs.
When the traffic hits a higher goal we'll then try selling our ebook. Though it will be on the same topic as the rest of the site, we're hoping to provide new content with value-added components that will make it worth paying a few bucks for. If we have enough customers it could add up to some serious money.
But at the moment there is still much to plan, much to decide. And that's what this blog is all about--the process of getting from here to there.
Last week my church sponsored a small business seminar. I think pretty much everyone who has ever worked for someone else has thought about running their own business someday. I'm not exception. The reality is, if I don't find a job withing a few months, I may have to try my hand at it. So a little up-front advice wouldn't hurt.
I came away fairly convinced that I can't start a brick-and-mortar business right now. But I also came away with an idea for an ebook to try selling online. The trouble is that it would involve partnering with my wife, who has not been all that thrilled with the idea of me starting my own business.
It turns out she likes the idea. We got to bed late that night from brainstorming ideas. We decided to give this a try, as the initial outlay is fairly low and the payoff could be well worth it. But it's not something we'll be able to do overnight. We want to do this right, so that we can open up several potential revenue streams at once.
What it involves (I'm going to avoid details for now) is establishing a web site with accompanying weblogs all aimed at our particular niche market. We want to load it up with unique and credible content that will drive traffic to our site. When the traffic numbers are looking decent we'll add some of the simpler revenue streams like web-ads, tip-jars, or affiliate programs.
When the traffic hits a higher goal we'll then try selling our ebook. Though it will be on the same topic as the rest of the site, we're hoping to provide new content with value-added components that will make it worth paying a few bucks for. If we have enough customers it could add up to some serious money.
But at the moment there is still much to plan, much to decide. And that's what this blog is all about--the process of getting from here to there.
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