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Should you wait for the perfect business idea or start an imperfect business now?

November 22, 2011 in A Better Way of Business, Getting Started with 2 Comments

The inspiration for this video came from a discussion I had with Kevin Gainey while making another episode of the Free Agent Toolbox Podcast.

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If you’re asking yourself:

Should I get started with a somewhat imperfect business or wait until I have the “perfect” business idea?

I yell out a resounding, emphatic get started now! Break your personal inertia and get moving!

I’m a firm believer, as experienced in my own life, that once you break the personal inertia you will find it much easier to switch gears and adjust your imperfect business into something that more closely resembles what’s in your heart.

And remember, there’s no such thing as a “perfect” business. Your “perfect” idea will last just up to the point that you expose it to the world… then the imperfections set in!

If you’re struggling to pull the trigger and start a business around what’s in your heart, let me know! I’d love to help!

~Ivan

What’s a P&L?

October 20, 2011 in Getting Started, Questions with 4 Comments

All of us take for granted certain areas that we have knowledge in and assume that what we know is no big deal. Everybody knows this, right?

No, everyone doesn’t know what we know!

Take for instance a conversation I had at the beginning of last week. I was having a discussion with a business owner that has been successfully self employed for a couple years. This owner asked me about the services I provide at A Better Way of Business and so I told them about how I help struggling small business owners get a better grip on their business and I do that initially by reviewing their books with them.

The owner asked for a more specific example, so I went on to talk about how I can analyze various revenue streams of a business.

He asked, “How would you do that?”

I replied, “By reviewing your revenues on your P&L.”

The owner responded, “What’s a P&L?”

…

That was basically my response for about 5 seconds. Confusion. I honestly thought everyone knew what a P&L was and was also analyzing their P&L on a regular basis.

The owner and I went on to have a further conversation about what a P&L is and how it’s useful. The owner recognized the value of the P&L, but also stated that they had never made one. The individual is profitable, because he pays his bills and himself and has a good bit left over, however I’m certain he could be doing considerably better if he 1) had a P&L and 2) analyzed it with some sort of frequency.

This conversation is what showed me that I take for granted the knowledge I have about financial’s, a company’s books. I understand that the majority of business owners were not and are not accountants. But due to thinking “everyone’s like me”, I just don’t think about what I know versus what someone else knows unless it gets thrown in my face.

So allow me to take a few minutes to explain a very basic P&L to you.

P&L = Profit and Loss Statement = a financial statement whose ultimate purpose is to show you your company’s ending profit or loss.

The way you get there is through the following formula (again, very basic example):

Revenue

- Expenses

=Profit or Loss

With this basic example, if your revenues, the income coming into your business due to products or services provide, is more than your expenses, out flow of money paid to vendors or suppliers for services or products rendered to you, then your business is earning a profit.

However, if your revenues are less than your expenses then your business is operating at a loss.

I’m a firm believer that there should be considerably more detail to a P&L than just the above two categories, but at a minimum every business owner should have the above two categories and know whether or not and how much of a profit or a loss their company is recognizing.

If you have any questions or would like to talk about this further, please feel free to email me. I can be reached by either commenting below or sending me an email (located at the bottom of the Hire Me page).

~Ivan

First Event I’m Attending as a Free Agent

October 13, 2011 in Community, Getting Started with 4 Comments

Kent Julian Leading at the Speak It Forward Boot Camp

As most of you read this I’m sure I will already be sitting down at my first event as a Free Agent.

Today, I’m attending The Speak it Forward Boot Camp put on by Kent Julian. Kent not only is a professional speaker, but he also “…coaches people to make the move to the work and life they love!”

In the Boot Camp Kent pours out EVERYTHING THAT HE KNOWS ABOUT SPEAKING over a three day period.

I am SO EXCITED that THIS is how I’m kicking off my first full week of being self employed!

And there’s many reasons.

The one I have considered the MOST obvious is because of the learning that I’ll be doing there. I have ALWAYS wanted to use speaking as a way to reach a bigger audience and the Boot Camp is going to help show me how to do that in the most effective way. Kent makes a considerable portion of his living through public speaking. AND HE’S WILLING TO SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM HE HAS FROM DOING THAT WITH THE BOOT CAMP PARTICIPANTS!! How AWESOME is that?!?!?

The second aspect of this that has me excited, EVEN MORE SO THAN THE FIRST REASON (but it didn’t start this way), is that I’m going to be in a room of 50 to 80 people who are MAKING IT HAPPEN in their own lives!

As I said earlier this week, Who You Surround Yourself with Matters, and for the next three days I will be elbow to elbow with other people going down a similar path to my own!!!

Honestly, prior to hearing an interview of Nathalie Lussier at CoachRadio.tv (found here), I only saw the value of conferences in what it is I can learn from them. But Nathalie had a quote, “If you only have $100 a month to spend on marketing your business, save it so you can attend conferences and meet people in person.” When Nathalie said that it blew me away. I realized I had been viewing things all wrong.

Yes, I want to get value from attending a conference. But the only value does not, more than likely SHOULD NOT, come simply from the learning experience. It should come from the people experiences you can have, the networking that can take place.

THAT is why I’m SO EXCITED about the Boot Camp now. Do I expect to get A LOT OF VALUE out of what Kent has to say and teach? YOU BET! Do I also expect to meet people who are going to change the world in their own unique way? MOST DEFINITELY!

So remember, “If you only have $100 a month to spend on marketing your business, save it so you can attend conferences and meet people in person.”

~Ivan

Double Video Post Extravaganza (and my last day at work!)!!!

October 7, 2011 in Friday Free Form, Getting Started with 29 Comments

That’s right! Today you get not one, but TWO SEPARATE VIDEO POSTS BY ME!!!

I know, you MUST be living right!

So here’s the deal, TODAY is my LAST day as an employee!

That’s right! After today I will be full time at A Better Way of Business!

I’m so excited I can barely stand it!

I’m so scared I frequently want to PUKE!

So check this out, a video I’ve recorded especially for this morning (I actually got up at 5AM to make sure I could record and post this the morning of!):

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NOW! For the official announcement of the second best idea I’ve had (according to me) this year (A Better Way of Business being the first!):

I’m going to chronicle the first 90 days of this self employment journey in a daily video blog series I’ve titled:

90 Days to a SMASHING Success!

Check out this video:

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That’s right. So each day, for the next 90 days, I’m going to record a video blog covering some of the things I intend on accomplishing that day. Whether I go over a list of 36 things I want to do, describe new tactics I’m planning on taking, or simply tell you I’m taking the day off to spend with my family (ALL entrepreneurs need time off from time to time), I’ll be making a video each and every day for the next 90 days.

Don’t worry, the videos for 90 Days to a SMASHING Success are going to be IN ADDITION TO the Monday through Friday blogs I’m currently doing. They’ll be placed on their own page (after the above video) on the site so if you want to see what’s going on you’ll have one place to go, if you don’t then feel free to not go to that page.

Buckle up folks! It’s going to be a FANTASTIC ride!

~Ivan

Question: how to stay focused in your current job when you are SO excited about all the possibilities that are ahead of you?

September 26, 2011 in Getting Started, Questions with 2 Comments

So a frequent visitor and personal friend (we’ve built our friendship through online interactions, which will be a great blog post in the future…), Alana, asked the following question:

Hi Ivan,
I’m not really sure the appropriate area to pose this question, but do you have any advice on how to stay focused in your current job when you are SO excited about all the possibilities that are ahead of you? I mean, you are still employed by another entity right now, as am I, and now that I am getting pumped and my eyes are opening to a world of opportunity, I find it even MORE difficult to make sure I am still producing for my current employer. Do you have any thoughts or advice on this?

This is a FABULOUS question and one I struggle with ALL THE TIME! To catch everyone up to speed, it’s September 24, 2011 as I type this. I am currently employed by a corporation as an Accounting Manager. My last day with this organization will be October 7, 2011.

I’M SO EXCITED I CAN BARELY CONTAIN MYSELF!

The prospect of being full time self employed is AWESOME and TERRIFYING all at the same time. My excitement leads me to thinking about and wanting to work on things for A Better Way of Business ALL THE TIME. At my day job, at home, when I’m spending time with Skye and Alexander, when I should be sleeping, when I’m driving (yeah… almost got into a wreck the other day when I was hashing through something for A Better Way of Business in my mind… not good). Like I said, ALL THE TIME!

But how should this be handled when you still have a day job? This is something that confronts me frequently. Honestly, I’ve not handled this the best, but I have some pointers that can REALLY help if you APPLY them to YOUR life!

1) Carry an Idea Notebook.

When starting your own business you need to make sure you don’t stifle your idea generator… which is YOU! But you also can’t take an hour away from your employer to hash out all the details of an idea that hits you while you’re “on the clock”. REMEMBER, your employer is PAYING you to do work for THEM, so you need to be focusing your efforts on DOING YOUR JOB!

What I have found to be the most help for me in retaining my ideas and allowing me to keep hammering away at my day job is simply to take an Idea Notebook with me to work. For me, it’s a 100 page spiral bound notebook (green). When ideas hit me or tasks that need to be accomplished I put them in my notebook to address later. This way, I don’t forget my ideas because I’m able to get them down in writing quickly (just take a few notes to jog your memory later) and I can then return to work KNOWING that I will be able to come back to the ideas I had during the day.

Since this is old school, you can supplement an Idea Notebook with emails to yourself (although be VERY CAREFUL using ANYTHING of your employers to do ANYTHING for YOUR business… not somewhere I’d want to go), take notes on your smart phone, or sign up for an account with Evernote (I do not currently use this service but will be looking into it shortly!).

2) Get up one hour earlier in the morning.

First, let me say I don’t want you to tell me, “I’m not a morning person.”

Guess what? I’M NOT EITHER!!! But I get up at 5:00 AM virtually EVERY MORNING because I know what my priorities are. Each morning I get up and get ready, then I have a quiet time, followed by 30 minutes or so of work on A Better Way of Business. On the weekends, getting up at 5:00 AM usually leads to THREE HOURS of uninterrupted work time on my business!!!

Getting up early and spending 30 minutes working on your business can help you get through your day at your “day job”. And it should help you speed up the process of going full time at your business (assuming you’re actually being productive).

3) Take your lunch break to work on your business.

I try to make my lunch break as productive as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t miss meals, so I always eat, but you DO NOT have to go out to eat with your friends or keep working through your lunch break. Whether or not you get a 30 minute lunch break or an hour, you should be investing that time in your business.

Again, I would warn you in the strongest way I can AGAINST using your current employer’s resources to do ANYTHING for YOUR business. I just don’t think that’s a good idea.

However, in today’s world, I think Skye and I are two of the only people without smart phones. So use your phone to address email, jot down notes on ideas or tasks to accomplish, or typing up a blog post (if that’s part of your business).

If you don’t have a smart phone or even wireless access in a nearby restaurant, bring your laptop and sit in your car and hammer out some activities for your business (you can always type blog posts and emails offline and then post / send when you get home).

WOW! This is the longest post by me yet. However, I think these are some pretty useful guidelines on how to make sure you still get your day job done while you’re traveling down the road to self employment.

What do you think? Agree with my ideas? Have different or better ideas YOU would like to suggest??? Please throw them out in the comments below. They’ll benefit us all!

~Ivan

Communication, Preparation, and Understanding – Guest Post by Skye Bickett

September 23, 2011 in Getting Started, Guest Post with 0 Comments

Wife, Mother, Brilliant Librarian, and Expositor of Truth

Today’s post is written by none other than, Skye Bickett, my lovely wife, best friend, and mother of our son, Alexander. I asked her if she would write a post geared towards spouses who are supporting and assisting the other spouse down the road of self employment. She jumped at the opportunity and had some GREAT points to make. Enjoy!

Being the spouse of an entrepreneur is a journey unto itself. You will have to work just as hard as your spouse to make the dream of owning a business a reality for him. There will be times when one or both of you are annoyed at the other and even times when you realize you were wrong and become annoyed at yourself (which, incidentally, still directs anger toward the other person). There will be fights and there will be misunderstandings. There may be finger pointing and there may be doubt. Rest assured, though, that there are steps the two of can take to make the transition easier.

Communication, preparation, and understanding are three of the most important things that anyone can do to make entrepreneurship an easier and more successful journey. These ideals shouldn’t be new to you, especially if you’re married. A successful marriage or friendship is based on these and they are truly needed to keep things peaceful at work, at home, and anywhere else.

Communication is one of the biggest items to work on and everyone has a different way of communicating. Some only want to listen, some just want to talk, others hear what they want, and some make up conversations that never happened. When your spouse is starting a business the two of you must talk to one another and share your concerns, give encouragement, be open to suggestions or thoughts, and be nice (Yes, I did have to specify that. Yelling, being rude, or being condescending or not a part of good communication). If you are starting to feel neglected because your spouse is working on his business at night and on weekends while holding down a full-time job, talk to him about it. If you feel that you aren’t able to devote enough time to opening your business because your spouse is constantly making plans, talk to her about it. There is a middle ground, but you’ll never find it, and resentment will form, if you don’t communicate with one another.

Preparation is another standard part of any journey, but most people don’t take it into consideration. You have to prepare for what will happen as your spouse’s business is starting. Will you see each other less? Probably. Will you have less income at the start of the business? Usually. Will there be pitfalls you didn’t even see coming? Most definitely. You can’t plan for everything, but you can prepare for issues that you know will arise and talk about what you’ll do when unexpected things hit you. What happens if a year into opening his business is no better off than when it started? Should your spouse find additional sources of income, such as a contracting job? Should you give up being a stay at home mom and get a job? Even if you think the business will jump off the ground it’s best to prepare for a struggle. If there isn’t a struggle with the business then you can do a happy dance (I do these at work and think everyone should incorporate them.). If there is a struggle then you’re prepared for what lies ahead. If you don’t prepare things can go downhill – fast. If things go great then you’re all set. If things fall apart, though, it will be a lot harder for you and your spouse to calmly discuss what needs to be done.

Understanding is the last piece of the puzzle. As the entrepreneur you have to realize that this journey is just as hard for your spouse as it is for you. They have just as much riding on the success of your business as you do.  As the spouse you have to understand that starting a business is a long and arduous process that has your spouse’s pride wrapped inside. Be understanding of what each of you is going through and what both of you have to sacrifice to make the business a reality.

All of these principles need to be used in conjunction with one another to work properly. It will make the transition of self-employment for your spouse a lot easier. It will keep your marriage strong. Unless your spouse has some hare-brained idea that you don’t agree with at all or think will definitely not work, then support them. Keep in mind, though, that you need to be understanding of his feelings on the topic and that you need to communicate your feelings about the idea without sounding judgmental or condescending. You only have one life and should live it for the purpose God intended. If your spouse thinks that’s starting his own business then see where it goes. If it’s you being a stay at home mom or starting your own business then do it…just not at the same time as your spouse.

Please feel free to connect with Skye on her blog, Carnie Poet.

For free or for fee, that is the question.

September 6, 2011 in Fees, Getting Started, Motivation with 2 Comments

Should your first clients work with with you for free or for this?

If you would have asked me one month ago whether or not I should charge for my very first few clients I would have told you no, I shouldn’t.

First, who would want to pay for an “untried” catalyst agent? When you’re first starting out you HAVE to have your first client. And my thought pattern was the first client would be mentally unwilling to pay for the services I have to offer.

Second, even though I did not intend on charging a monetary fee, I was going to be paid in other ways. Mainly by 1) gaining experience and 2) requesting a testimonial. Both of these have value to me and will also be of value to future clients, even if not directly thought about.

Enter a discussion I had with Chris Sutton, a good friend of mine who also happens to run 212 kick (link below).

Chris and I were on Skype discussing what I’ve been doing at A Better Way of Business and he asked, “What are you charging your first clients?”

I paused for a second and told him, “I’m not. I’m working with the first few clients for free so I can get testimonials and experience.”

Chris followed up by saying, “It’s hard to get people to take you seriously if they don’t have skin in the game.”

It’s like a million-candle-power light went off in my head!

He’s right!

In general, people tend to not value highly things they have received for free. Since whatever it is didn’t cost them anything they have no reservations, no hesitation, no remorse in ignoring it or throwing it out whenever. Often, without even taking full advantage of the free item.

So in the case of A Better Way of Business, what’s a person’s incentive to actually LISTEN to advice I’ve given them for free? What is the motivation to value the time we have spent together?

The answer might be the incentive is to get his or her business up and running or their existing business running more efficiently and effectively.

Or it could also be that they have no incentive to listen to me because they haven’t invested anything more than an hour or two of time with me, so what does it matter if what I say is ignored?

After speaking with Chris I’m a firm believer of having a pricing structure in place BEFORE you start working with clients. You don’t have to try to make your first million on your first client, but you also shouldn’t give away everything you know for free. By charging SOMETHING you are working with clients who have “skin in the game” and are more likely to listen to what you have to say and then ACT on it (and we all know I’m ALL ABOUT ACTION).

And please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you should start charging to respond to an email, phone call, or simple question someone asks you the next time you’re out. But I am saying you should plan to charge your clients when the two of you agree to work with each other.

~Ivan

212 kick – Chris Sutton

Be you!

September 1, 2011 in Getting Started, Motivation, Passion, Purpose with 0 Comments

As a business owner, how are you presenting yourself to the world?

Speaking in broad terms, I think how you present yourself falls into two broad categories. You can either try and present what the world is wanting from you at that particular moment in time or you can present who you actually are to the world.

I’ve heard educated individuals argue on both sides of this discussion.

I have heard it said that if you want to start a business then you should look at what the market needs most at this point in time and start THAT business. Whatever it is. Regardless of your internal wiring. You see a need. You fill a need. Period.

I have also heard it said:

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.” (Howard Thurman).

The way I interpret this, be you and present that to world, because what the world needs is the real you.

In this case you look inside at how you have been made by God and what you have that is unique to offer the world and you do that.

Guess which field of thought I lean toward…

I lean towards being yourself and giving to the world the real you. Only then will you be fully alive.

And I don’t just say this because I like the quote by Howard Thurman, which I really do. I say this from experience. I have gained several positions in the past by being what it was the company hiring was looking for. In other words, I disguised who I was in order to make myself appear what they wanted. And let’s just say NONE of those situations turned out positively.

There have also been instances in the past when I was looking for a job that I decided I would present the “real” me to company doing the hiring and if they did not like what they saw, then we’d both be better off without each other. Some of these instances I got the job. And those jobs went GREAT. Some of those interviews were VERY SHORT and we both departed a little frustrated, but I believe much better off.

Some of you might be thinking, “What is this guy like?” And I’ll tell you.

I’m intense. I’m confident. I’m excitable. I’m full of energy. I tend to see numbers and facts, and ignore emotions and feelings. I go out of my way to help those I care about. I have a hard time getting over past wrongs (but fortunately I’ve learned how). I love my God, my family, and my friends. I’m self motivated and I’m over achieving. I’ve been accused of being a perfectionist in the past, but now I’ve learned not to ruin good with perfect. I’m all this and so, so much more.

Once I learned that trying to be who others wanted me to be didn’t work I would frequently use this line in interviews, “I am who I am, and what you see is what you get.” I always thought I was smart for coming up with that. And then I was told “what you see is what you get” did not originate with me (big let down).

But it’s true. I do my best now to present to the world who I am.

And I hope you’ll do the same.

~Ivan

Can you accomplish everything that needs to be done?

August 31, 2011 in Action, Community, Direction, Getting Started, Priorities with 1 Comment

NO!

At least I can’t.

In getting A Better Way of Business off the ground I have found that there are AT LEAST 100 things that should have already been done but I have not gotten to. Of those 100 items, 50 needed to be done yesterday. The other 50 needed to be done 2 weeks ago!

And it seems like every day there are 10 more things that need to get done, for which I don’t have the time.

It can and does get overwhelming at times.

So the question is, how do you decide what to actually devote your time to?

You could simply accomplish each task as you encounter it. Although you won’t be able to accomplish every task you come across each day, you can work on the each item until it’s complete and then start the next, but realize you’ll never be able to get it all done.

I’ve found this to be ineffective. If you’re like me, you have a tendency to think of new things that need to be done that are inspired by what you’re currently working on. And if you’re like me, you’ll be prone to forget what you’re currently working on and chase after that new shiny object you just saw.

This will lead to an infinite of half complete, started and never finished projects. And if you don’t complete some of these projects your business WILL suffer.

So what do you do?

Here’s how I’m approaching it. I am prioritizing tasks based on whether or not they fall into one of three major categories I’m currently focusing on.

For instance, right now I’m focusing on: 1) Generating quality content. 2) Connecting with people. 3) A special project I’ll be writing about soon.

So each day as I come across the various tasks that needed to be completed at some point in the past I make a quick note or type a quick email to myself as a reminder of what I need to do. Then when I get home I analyze all that needs to be done and see which of the items fit into one of the three categories. If the new task doesn’t fit into one of the three categories I save it in my inbox for another day. If it does fit into one of the three categories then it gets my attention, but again, it gets my attention based on which category it fits into.

So generating quality content comes first, connecting second, and items for the special project third.

Trust me, I’m right there with you when it comes to having too much to do and not enough time. But hopefully you’ll be able to maximize your effectiveness with YOUR business if you prioritize.

~Ivan