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Yep – I’m a Joiner!
Giving Virtual Thanks
I didn’t expect to be writing a blog entry on thanksgiving, but I really want to get this down on “paper” and into cyberspace before I forget.
Last night I was over at my great grandmother’s house making stuffing and my aunt was talking about…something…I don’t remember most of it but the last line.
“It’s horrible we live in a world where some people just get everything and the rest just get screwed.”
I watched personal responsibility and accountability go right out the window as the ubiquitous “THEY” got blamed for my aunt’s plight.
I then had to listen to my grandmother and my aunt talk about how horrible it was that she had to go to court and prove she had insurance when the car was totaled and she didn’t have it anymore. I worked in insurance for five years but my opinion doesn’t count because it does not agree with the theory that my aunt is a victim of this “horrible society/world we live in.”
Generally, I’m pretty quiet at the holidays with my family. Not being a victim is considered gauche.
Later in the evening, my aunt came out with another great quote, “When it’s all said and done it’s the little things that matter. People don’t care about money when they’re dying, they just want their loved ones around them.”
My aunt lives in a world of OR – you’re either rich OR happy, you’re either working OR have to drive to work every day.
I don’t know about you, but I live in a world of AND.
My goal is to create a legacy to leave to my children AND have them around me when I’m dying. It is not a prerequisite to be destitute in order for your family to love and care for you in your old age.
I think it’s the big things AND the little things that matter in a life when that life is coming to a close. My children being born are big things in my life. Starting and running a sustainable company is a big thing in my life. These will forever be important to me.
Perhaps the biggest, most important thing in my life is the knowledge that my path of staying at home and running a company instead of working a corporate job will imbue in them the understanding that there are many paths in life they can take. Teaching them that the “road less traveled” can also be the more financially fortuitous route will instill in them the knowledge that they can really do almost anything they want to and make it work.
My children will not be raised to hate the entire country of India for "taking jobs away from Americans." They will know that in a globalized world they have to have a unique selling proposition to create value that only they can provide. They will know that any job that does not give them freedom is a "dead end job" not worth selling your integrity for. If I’m really lucky, they’ll never have a phone conversation where they tell the person on the other end "I’m pretending to work because there’s nothing left to do but I have to look busy."
My children, as with all the children of work-at-home parents, will understand that there is no such thing as a “5 day week” or “weekend” in this new world of globalization. That’s a good thing! They won’t be chained to a desk waiting for a fifteen minute break. They will work until something is finished, and then have the ability go to the park and read a book for an hour or two. Working from home has a sense of freedom that a corporation can never give you.
So, to all small business owners out there, I will be silently toasting you tonight over stuffing and turkey. We are making a difference. We are special. We, more than anyone else, have figured out the big secret to success and happiness and the whole ball of wax.
We are the people moving everyone’s cheese.
What happens when I run out of midnight oil to burn?
Do they sell midnight oil at Target?
All joking aside, I’ve been up past midnight every night for the last two weeks. I’ve read the books that say this is a bad idea and explain exactly why so I know what I’m doing is a naughty, naughty thing. So, why can’t I seem to stop doing it?
One reason that’s fairly obvious is that my kids go to bed at 7:30pm and I’m assured quiet time until whenever I choose to go to sleep. That’s really important…I have complex projects that require coding and thinking and concentration and that just can’t happen when my (almost) two year old daughter discovers she has learned how to play the harmonica.
Congratulations are in order. My daughter can play a harmonica. Sure it seems easy to you, you have full control over some if not all of your limbs. My daughter still trips over her own feet now and then. The harmonica is a big deal for her.
Also, I get to relax. Right now, for instance. I’m not doing client work, I’m blogging. Sure it’s the business blog and I’m doing it partially to remind Google I’m here and waiting to let spiders crawl all over me (horrible imagry, I know.) It’s also a release where I can write about what I accomplished, what I want to accomplish and, of course, to tell the world my kid can make annoying noises with a musical instrument.
Segway…
I’m taking tomorrow afternoon through the end of the weekend off. It’s the first vacation I’ve taken since being in business for myself a little over two years ago (before I had any babies, much less "both babies") and I’m very excited. I’ll be spending most of the time dressing a turkey and making stuffing that we put right in the bird for you e-coli fans out there. The reminder of the time will be spent talking so loud I’m afraid I’ll make myself deaf in order to have a conversation with my great grandmother. The gist of that conversation will be her asking me what it is, exactly, I do again…and how she’s scared because this whole "internet thing" is a fad and won’t last.
My grandmother, on the other hand, will want sordid details and all the gossip I can dredge about my clients. I tell her everything, so know that my grandmother knows all of your deepest, darkest secrets. If anything happens to me, she knows where the bodies are buried. I’m kidding, of course. One of the best things about my business is that all of my clients are (wait for it, you’re going to LOVE this) ethical. Ethical internet marketers.
I’ll wait for you to stop laughing, gasping, or coughing (if you were drinking something).
No, really, I swear. Every one of my clients has a great product that they want to sell to people who can use it. Such a simple concept and it seems to be working like gangbusters for them. I’m going to save my ethics rant for another day, it being 1:50am CST and all, but it’s important to me.
It should be important to you as well. Very, very important. No unethical company will last, they may for a while, but in this "small is the new big" world we live in, you better be prepared to walk your talk. The internet is a surprisingly small place when it comes down to it, and you don’t want to be talk of the town unless you’ve done something really phenominal.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Unless you’re Canadian, in which case…enjoy the rest of your week!
Expansion – Blessing, Curse, or All of the Above?
When I began my company, there was me.
Just me.
I answered to me, I delegated to me, I was accountable for things only I had created.
What a shock when I was able to get it together enough that I needed help. I mean, I always knew I’d be successful – I’m cocky like that – but I didn’t think it would happen so soon or that I’d be so totally unprepared for what was to come next.
Subcontracting.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the process. I’m an independent contractor so I know a thing or two about the breed! I know that, in general, they are hardworking, dedicated business owners that want a business that is thriving and successful.
My modus operandi when I go into a business meeting with a potential client is to be myself. That’s saying a lot, as I have a very unique and open personality. I want to make sure the connection is there from the very beginning and that there are no vagueries or misunderstandings down the road because I put on my "interview face" instead of just being myeslf.
What I want? Someone to sell me like I sell my clients. I keep talking to people who say they "think" they can help or they’re "pretty sure" my project can be done according to specifications. Seeing "I’ll do my best for you!" in an email is not only not reassuraing, it’s downright depressing. When I talk to my clients and they ask me for something I’ve never heard of before, I respond with a hearty, "No problem!" and I mean it honestly…they will have no problem…I will find a way (by hook or by crook!) to get whatever they need accomplished.
What I need are people I can give an assignment to and feel secure in the way my clients feel secure when they give a job to me.
Also, I need to know they can actually do the work.
The first project I subcontracted was an utter disaster. It took three people and oodles of time to get done what took the third person four hours to accomplish. I think all told the three took 21 hours total. That means other than the four hours it took one person, there were 17 wasted hours of people’s lives doing the job…wrong. Completely wrong.
It was one of the most frustrating things I’ve ever done.
One of the most important parts of my business is the connection with the client. The trust relationship I build so that when I tell them I can do something, they relax, knowing it will get done. This takes a lot of planning, skill, and dedication on my part. Where is the person out there that’s willing to show me they’ll do whatever it takes if I’m the one in the client role?
Finding that person would make my day to day operations so much easier.
…and until I find that person, I’m not running a company that’s scalable. Are you?
To answer the question I ask in the title of this post, expansion is a blessing. Just one that comes with the requirement of hard work. Since I’ve yet to come across a mountain I was unwilling to climb, this is most likely just a pit stop on a much longer journey.
