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Small Business Startup – Time to Move On

At a certain point during your small business start-up you will realize that your plan is working, kind of working or not working at all.

To start a business is one thing. To keep it going and have it succeed, let alone make a profit is entiely another story and that’s what I’m going to dig into today.

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, it’s best to find mentors to guide you along the way, especially if you have never been in business before. Find other seasoned business owners that are willing to help and assist you so you can avoid icebergs, sharks, barracuda, jellyfish and all the other hazards that could sink your new enterprise.

The earlier you find these people the better.

Because a small business startup take time, perseverance and a willingness to do whatever it takes.  But without a plan and guidance, you might find yourself back in a job with the other percentage of folks who didn’t make it.

And now we’ll continue with the startup saga of the Two Jacks and Dave…

This story continues where we left off in part two – Beyond the Startup.

After the initial opening of the business and settling in we leased an office we couldn’t afford. This was a mistake and cost us dearly because we then had to move the office into my partners Mother’s home.  Boy was this humbling and an experience that I will never forget.

Fortunately for me I was very young, flexible and had tons of energy but the agency/management/product business was fledgling, underfunded, unfocused and not going to make it, unless serious changes were made.

Believe it or not this was a really great experience for me. Both the hard lessons learned and connections made were worth it, although at the time I can say it was quite stressful and led me to living in a hallway for $50 a month.

Talk about a hit to the self image. VP of Ad agency living in hallway – that’s what a client wants to know….NOT!

Anyways -we looked and searched for funding, but no takers arrived. I funded some of our dealings with my credit cards and ended up paying these off over a period of years. It’s a nice reminder of your mistakes and misdealings when you go to pay a bill every month for a few years.

Time to Pull The Plug…

At the point where I realized it was time to move on, it was almost too late, but I got out just in time. Instead of sticking it out I decided to move on and start anew, and start anew I did, but in a totally different small-business venture that again included family.

This was painful but proved to be the right move at the time. I needed stability and could not move forward with my existing business partner.

The downside of the split was that Uncle Jack had to pay off the bank and neither of us had enough cash to pay off Uncle Jack. This led to Uncle Jack’s kids coming after Dave and then Dave had to take an advance on a credit card to pay off his distant relatives.

Sound like fun? If not, then avoid the pitfalls and road blocks in your start-up by taking advantage of these points:

1. Have solid partnership agreements in place, even if it’s family. Make sure to have your legal  house in order, no matter what the potential partner says. Because when it comes to money or debt or liabilities, you could end up holding the notes like I did.

2. If you have a vision for your business and the market is ripe… Pursue and stick to your vision like GLUE!  Just like we should have with the ‘On Hold Product’ that we produced.

3. Like I said in the beginning of this post – FIND Mentors and people who will guide and help you along the way. It may take a month or two or three but it will be worth it.

Enjoy the journey…because it’s the only one you have.

Dave Krygier
Publisher

Secrets of the Tiny Store

 

 

 

 

Beyond the Small Business Startup

The story continues as Dave and the two Jacks move forward in their small business start-up. Maybe you missed part one in the continuing saga. If you did – check out my post Start Up a Business Now and you’ll see where the story began.

To bring you up to speed, the agency business was started by the two Jacks and myself. This was back in the late 1980’s, pre-Internet, when the fax was a mainstay for business communication and Motorola brick phones were a big deal for small business guys like us.

I left off with my Uncle coming into review the books the first week, but we had barely finished setting up our little office and the loan money hadn’t been in the checking account
for more than a few days. It was awkward and the other Jack was a night owl who didn’t function well in the morning.

We did have a plan and networked like crazy, but my Uncle Jack(the loan cosigner) didn’t see the ‘big bucks’ rolling in immediately, so he pulled out within months.

The good news was that we started to bring in a few accounts and cash flow picked up, but not enough to sustain both of us and the business.

So what did we do?

Like all determined small business owners starting out ….(well, maybe not all)…we started a management division and started managing musicians.  Oh boy was that a roller coaster and that took our focus off the agency.

Then we developed a marketing product for the telephone. It was one of the earliest ‘on hold marketing programs called ‘Marketing On-Hold’ and this started to take off but we didn’t focus on it.  Clue here for you my friend – if something you are doing starts to take off and grow – WATER AND FERTILIZE!

What’s sad about this story is that the MOH product really had the potential to be a big hit for the fledging little agency and initial testing proved that the product was sound and that there was a market for it. But the partners didn’t agree or focus on it long enough. This along with not doing our legal homework brought a lethal blow to the new product and our future together.

Now I could go on and on about the details – crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s, but know this – the lack of attention to detail cost us dearly.

So pay close attention to the details before, during and after your small business startup and find mentors and coaches who will guide you along the way. I know this sounds elementary but the details and guidance are very important. This way you will minimize the bumps in the road and have less repairs to make along the journey.

Stay tuned for the continuing saga about the Two Jacks and Dave. It’s worth the read.

Dave Krygier
Publisher

Secrets of The Tiny Store 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Startup a Business Now!

Have you got the bug to startup a business now?  Gotta get outa your job and be your own boss? Run your own show and call the shots?

Maybe it’s time you got started on your way and put your dream into motion and live it. First you need to be patient 5 minutes longer and let me share a quick story that starts out like this…

I was a young buck with entrepreneurial blood runnin’ through my veins and I desired to be in business for myself but wasn’t sure what kind of business I would start. So the GM of the business where I was working at decided to go out on a limb and start his own enterprise and asked me to come with him.

And with that we started our very own advertising and marketing agency. And boy was this a leap of faith, because neither of us had any money, never had been involved in an agency and had to bring in my uncle as a partner and co-signer on a loan. Well we got up and running but my uncle wanted to run things, and he even came into work on the books during the first week, when we opened the doors!

Aaaaaaahhhhhh! It was like – what did we do? And how do we change this?

Look – I’m not gonna tell ya all the details in this post (more about this startup story later), but I will share this…

No matter what business you choose, there will be struggles, failures, frustrations along with triumphs and victories. But just because you startup a business doesn’t mean you’ll actually make it.

 It takes persverance. It takes work. It takes time.

Because success is a journey and as long as you are moving forward or as John Maxwell puts it – “Failing Forward” – you can make it.

Back to our topic – “Startup a Business Now” and the phsycological factors that you need to address if you haven’t already done so:

You need to have the ‘mindset’ going into the startup or you’ll quit, retreat, get frustrated and second guess or maybe take the wrong path.

How do I know this? Because I’ve been around startups since I was a little kid and personally I’ve been involved in more than six startups plus worked with other entrepreneurs

So, what are you waitin’ for? The right time? The right business? For some sign? For everything to line up just right!?

Well I’m here to to tell ya this… Da bizness is not going to come knockin on ya door
and pick you up off tha sofa or out of the lazee boy chair and drop a business in your lap
like a ready made microwave meal. (a little of my New Yawk upbringing it coming out in this post –

You need to do some work…

But I believe it is ‘desire’ – yes, a true desire that will get you to start a business of your own. You may be negatively motivated, which is great. Maybe you have to get out of your job or switch careers.

Whatever it is that is motivating you to start up a business and become a member of the small business community, remember this, to start a business is one thing. To keep it going and have it succeed, let alone make a profit, is entirely a different story.

So dig deep and determine why you really desire to start your own business and then check out this Small Business Startup resource.

To your small business success,

Dave Krygier
Publisher

 

Start Your Own Business – Part I

Have you been thinking lately that maybe it’s time you start your own business and run your own show? With all the options to choose from in today’s marketplace how does one make a decision as to which business is the right one?

One thing is for sure, starting a business can be a lot of work and takes time, effort and money. If anyone tells you different, turn and run the other direction.

Now making the new business a success and becoming profitable is entirely another story and this pertains to both online and offline ventures. So which way should you go, online or offline; home based, office location or ???

For the remainder of this post I’ll focus on starting your own business online and some of the current options available to you.

Online Business Options:

Although some online businesses might be less money to start up than offline ventures, there’s still a learning curve and money that you will need to get your business started.

One of the things I see is that people think with online businesses you can start them for free or next to nothing. Well I’ve got news for you, no matter which online business you choose, there are expenses involved like hosting, domain registration and site development, let alone traffic generation.

A few of the options that you might consider and look into are:

1. Affiliate Marketing is where you market other people’s products and services and when a sale is completed you receive a commission on the sale. Commissions can range from 3% to 70% and in some cases even 90% or greater. The range of affiliate products available to the online marketer are many. Affiliate marketing also works well with my next option and that is email marketing.

2. Email marketing is where you develop a list of subscribers and convert them into buyers through the process of selling products and/or services, either your own or someone else’s. This process is also called list building and can be referred to as building an email list. To start a business with email marketing is a great way to go, especially if you already have existing expertise on a specific subject or you have a passion about a product or service that you would like to market.

Email marketing can also be used if you decide to establish an e-commerce site of your own where you market your own products or affiliate products.

3. E-commerce is the original online method of moving goods and services. Back when I first started out on the web in 1995, this was how transactions were primarily done. E-commerce is still a sound method, especially for those business owners looking to develop and grow their own business online while having the freedom to mix their own products with other brands.

Look for part two of this series about starting your own business and I’ll go further into more online options plus how you can transition an offline business some things to watch out for. In the meantime – here’s another resource that might help you in starting your small business: Start a Small Business

Should you find that your start up is missing a part or needs something to get going – go see the Small Biz Mechanic and he’ll get you fixed up.

Dave Krygier
Publisher

The List Building Mindset

List building in the online world is a wonderful thing if you have all the pieces of the puzzle and know how to put the puzzle together. One of the most important pieces of this puzzle is the ‘mindset’ that you need in order to develop and build your business.

Now I refer to this as the ‘list building mindset’ but really this works for all small businesses.

The bottom line is that you are running and operating a business, unless of course you have decided that building a list of subscribers is for philanthropic reasons or just a hobby.

This article is written from the business perspective and is focused on the mindset that the  business owner needs to have.

So first you need to ask…

Do I have the mindset of a business owner or an employee?

Maybe you already have a business mindset and understand what it takes to build and develop a successful business?

Maybe you have never been in your own business and this is your first go at it.

Here are three things or what I’ll call components that you need to put in place in order to build your business:

#1  There is no get rich quick here. You need to do the work and put the pieces of the puzzle together just like any other business. It needs to be a do whatever it takes attitude.

#2  You need to have a long-term mentality. In other words – you need to understand that it is going to take time to bring in enough subscribers, so you can convert them to actual paying clients. Building a list of subscribers and monetizing it takes time. It is not poof and the money shows up.

Note: You can see some success right out of the gate, but it all depends on how you position yourself, the product or service you are offering, the market you are in and the kind of traffic that you send to your pages.

#3 You need to have ‘The Why’ solidified in concrete, so when frustration, delays, issues, complications and life in general gets in the way, you still keep moving forward. The Why is your goal(s), long-term and short – term.

If any one of these components are off kilter or out of line, then you may not make it.

So ask yourself, “why am I building a list of subscribers?”

What’s the purpose?

Is it to be free from a job you don’t like?

Is it to have part-time income?

Is it to pay off debt?

Is it to support a church or charity?

Is it to run your own business on your own terms?

What exactly is it? What is your why for building a list of subscribers and clients?

So, with all that said…Are you willing to do the work?

Are you willing to take the necessary steps to put all the pieces of the list building puzzle together so you can have a successful business?

The mindset that you have will determine if you are going to make it.

The mindset needs to be – I am going to do whatever it takes to get the work done, so my business is a success and continues to grow.

The mindset needs to be – I am a business owner and what I offer to my subscribers is the best information, products and services available.

I hope this all makes sense, because your mindset will determine if you are going to make it and build your business or stay in whatever it is you currently do.

For more information on list building and how you can develop your business, check out The List Building Guide.

To your continued success,

Dave Krygier
Publisher