Moments of Clarity

I think work-life balance talk must have come from corporate consultants

So after about 90 days in the red, I'm trying to free up some time starting the 20th of Dec.  As of right now, that's not looking so hot.  I am probably going to keep the accelerator down and then shut the car down for a few days in a row.  Is that balance?  No. It's swinging the pendulum wildly from one direction to the other.  Somehow, I don't get much energy from being in "balance".  To me (at least for now) balance means not accomplishing/growing/driving ahead. 

My boy asked me if he could work with me the other day.  (He's almost 6).  That made me very happy.  I wonder if I can get him up to speed on some things before 1st grade :) OK just kidding.

I made this image below to illustrate my thoughts.  What say you?

Next class offering - Becoming Findable on the Web

OK so we renamed my Blogging for Business class offered through the Des Moines Community Education system to see if it change response rates.  Here's the description:

Become Findable on the Web 4 Wks $50

Blogging can be the most effective and affordable form of business marketing. Taught by Doug Mitchell, a successful technology entrepreneur, this class will provide an action-packed workshop-style class. Students will learn to search for, subscribe to, create, and effectively write blogs while gaining a clear understanding of available technologies, most of which are simple and low cost (if not free). Most importantly, students will understand how business blogging can translate into more loyal customers and enhanced 'findability' on the web. The class will include numerous professional-blogger guest speakers from around the metro. Instr: Mitchell

B016201 Roosevelt-107 Wed January 14 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

I hope YOU can join us for a great class that enriches knowledge through robust QA and fun real world examples.

You can register ONLINE or via other methods by clicking on the link below:

http://www.dmps-adulted.org/register.html

Questions?  Let me know!

Converting seminar attendees into clients

Do you speak in public?  If you do and you're looking to convert more of the attendees into paying clients or referrals, get some free advice from this piece in Manage Smarter. Since I just finished up a couple of public speaking gigs, I found this very informative.

Here's the key nugget of knowledge I took away from the piece:

Many believe that if they dazzle their audience with their knowledge and give lots of information that shows their expertise, they will want to buy. While information does build credibility, the goal of any educational seminar should be to pique your attendees interest so much that they walk away saying, "I can't do this without them." If your attendees don't walk away with this belief, you need to rethink your approach.

Dead on.  I love informing and sharing my passions about what COULD BE for my attendees.  But I'd certainly like them to become clients too if we're a good fit for each other.  Keeping your eye on that goal is key. 

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Gen X vs. Millennial usage of the web

With all the talk about millennials and text messaging and twitter, it's tough to be part of Gen X, the forgotten generation which I claim as my own.

Gen X'ers (32-43) are emerging of course as "seasoned leaders" and innovators who have a bit more perspective and battle scars from living through the dot com implosion.  You see back then, we were the "young irrational kids who didn't care for the modern business rules instead creating our own as we forged ahead".  (Yes sadly we're the Kozmo/Webvan/Flooz generation).  (top 10 biggest dot com flops list here)

But now, research shows that Gen X uses the web for research much more than entertainment (like their millennial followers).  That's good research to have on tap when trying to target the segment.  According to e-marketer:

How can online marketers be heard? “For Gen X, the Internet is a resource,” said Lisa E. Phillips, senior analyst at eMarketer, who focuses on demographics. “Effective marketing is marketing that helps them research. It’s relevant and has a value proposition up front.

“In these economic times, coupons are a big draw,” Ms. Phillips added. 

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Do I need the small biz accounting silver bullet or outsourced book keeping?

I've been ranting back and forth on twitter about my accounting system trauma.  For the last year I've been trying out new systems since my transaction volume is low, my needs are typical, and my main goal is 99% automation.

I was on Quickbooks for windows.  Powerful but not web based which I prefer now.  Oh there is a version of Quickbooks for the web you say....BUT NOT FOR MAC! What????  How difficult must it be to create a Mac friendly version of a web based accounting app?  Oh yeah, there are tons of other options so Quickbooks loses.

Here's the deal, there are a million great applications out there with specific goals.

1. Mint
2. Wesabe
3. LessAccounting
4. Freshbooks

But all of them do 80% of the equation.  The ones that do a GREAT job (Mint) of automating and auto updating bank data aren't really geared towards business and thus don't really do invoicing.

Those that do invoicing still don't seem to have the ability to auto-import expenses from a credit card or otherwise. 

People are on there (like me) requesting this functionality but it seems that this is something that "everyone takes note of and will get to eventually". 

Well I'm here to say, if any ONE of you get to the point where you have a web based small biz/entrepreneur oriented accounting application that has ultimate automation and invoicing and expense management wrapped up into one package, I know a boatload of people who'll migrate instantly.

So if I'm paying $14-$30/month for this service and I'm disappointed and left with say 2 hours a month of accounting work, could I get an outsourced bookkeeper/virtual assistant to make my life whole for $100 month?  $200?  I don't know. 

If this was simply handled by someone else (ie THEY got the expenses from paypal, bank, amex) and uploaded/reconciled and i just billed people (that part is fun anyway) could I streamline this process and be happy about accounting again?

Help.

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My Small Biz Bailout Proposal. Please Forward to Washington

"Anyone who has reported small business earnings/losses on their taxes in the last 2 years, or who has a Corporation that meets the "small biz' requirements that's at least 2 years old, will get a stimulus check of $20,000 and will pay no taxes for the next 2 years." 

It will called the "Rule of 2's" bill.  This will have to be done retro to avoid the onslaught of "I wanna get my piece'ers"

Bullet proof no.  Real stimulus to get the economy rolling...heck yeah.

Give my regards to DC. 

Explaining the cyclical nature of my technology learning curve

I'm not a "tech guy".  In fact I really don't want to know as much as I do about the guts and inner workings of certain technologies.

 But I do. 

As a business owner I'm confronted with my ignorance in certain areas daily. 

Even still today I find WYSIWYG editing actually:

What you see is not anything close to what you thought you'd get in the pleasant editor so you have to switch to the raw html editor.

So here's the way things work for me.  Do they work this way for you?

1. I hang with very smart people and ask them for help and ideas on how to execute on great, money making ideas that win new business and propel clients.
2. Those smart people suggest a platform or technology that we know nothing about. 
3. I begin "toying around" with the technology/platform and spend a week inefficiently flummoxing around and building a list of questions and stymies.
4. We approach gurus again and pay them to execute for us while we answer that list of questions and work side by side.
5. Our knowledge, having reached a new plateau, empowers us to get more done on our own, faster than ever before while grasping EXACTLY how LONG things take to get done.  (What took us 40 hours last week took only 6 paid hours of "edu-working" with the wizard.)
6. Now we can execute rapidly on the parts of the technology that have a very low opportunity cost and engage the resident sorcerer to execute on the advanced potion with clear and realistic expectations on how long will take and what it will cost to get done.  

Then, we do this all over again with new tools and technology that make us better and more desirable to those businesses and individuals that will engage our services and products.

IT folks probably have a love/hate relationship with us.  We ask a lot of questions.  We like to learn what they know so we can be better business owners/executors.  We get no pleasure in knowing what makes the car run...but now we can build quite a bit of that car from scratch rapidly and bring in some experts to accessorize it. (ok maybe we get a little pleasure...shhh)

But our knowledge level means that we can set realistic IT expectations and goals for both time and monetary investment.  These items are distinctly absent in a majority of the corporate America IT tug-of-wars many of you have first hand knowledge of. 

Who gets blamed for being behind schedule?  IT. 

Who wasn't given enough time or resources?  IT. 

Conversely:

Who blames the very people people who generate the revenue to pay their salaries for everything wrong with their jobs?  IT. 

Who leverages the fact the they know techno black magic to ensure expectations set upon them are gray at best? IT.

Our approach ensures open communication and realistic expectations between the business demands...and the technology requirements.  It works. Or for us...

IT werx

Dialog about Angel Financing in Iowa

Looking through search stats on this blog a few moments ago, I noticed that this search "angel financing in Iowa" produced a first page result for your humble author.  I've written about how Central Iowa needs to organize and bring together:

1. The amazing talent and tech (not just software mind you) sub-culture that thrives here.......with
2. The entrepreneurial minded angel investor who is willing to attend regular pitch meetings and put up RISK capital for prototypes and bootstrap launches.

Not so tough right?  Wrong.  The feeling among many here in town is that we have no truly open Angel funding network.  Central Iowa start up funding seems concentrated into small groups of Angels that are intertwined with business and government.  To the outsider with great ideas and little funding opportunity who gets pushed into the same funding funnels, this can be frustrating.

A couple of days ago, a lapse in my Twitter attention span excluded me from a heated exchange that resulted in this upcoming meeting at Impromptu Studio in Des Moines.  I will be attending for sure and can't wait to hear how our perception of reality is received.

I believe we could coalesce central Iowa under the www.centraliowaangels.com moniker so we don't have to see the results below when someone searches for capital to fund the next massively successful idea that could have been.

(Taken from Gaebler Ventures website, the result just below my post in the search results)

Kirk to Spock, "Let them Die!"

Image via WikipediaRant-Observation compilation:

Have food prices come down now that gas prices are less than half of what they were when the experts said, "Expect these prices for the rest of our lives here in the USA?"  No.  Are the providers trying to leave things where they are to recover from their plummeting margins over the last year or so?  Sure, and as Al Franken would say....."And that's.......OK."

"We'll never seen oil below $100 in again."  Really.  $1.00/gallon gas is not that far off it seems and oil is barely hanging around $40.  Again the experts are simply part of the "sensationalization machine" that our media has become. E85 was $1.41/gal last night locally.

"Too big to fail"  Really?  Imagine the innovation and market opportunity that could arise from the failure of companies that have had crap leadership and let themselves hemorrhage to death.  Let the car companies figure out how to make things work right and let Obama spend our $150 billion in clean energy research.  I think in 10 years we could be out of the oil hole.

We should absolutely take a lesson from James Tiberius Kirk in Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country regarding the Big 3.  In his dialog with Captain Spock, he is sage. (Yes.  Seize any opportunity to leverage Star Trek to make life points)

Capt. Spock:	There is a historic opportunity here.
Capt. James T. Kirk:	Don't believe them! Don't trust them!
Capt. Spock:	They are dying.
Capt. James T. Kirk:

Let them die.

Doug talks to Drake on Entrepreneurship

OK so when you're 36 and you talk to 18-22 year olds, you are quickly aware of how old you are!  I had a great time and many thanks to Tom Swartwood the instructor...and friend.  We talked about the power of ASKING for help in your entrepreneurial quest.