Microbusiness Mentor

My fellow microbusiness entrepreneur Dawn Rivers Baker has been a long time advocate in the area of microbusiness enterprises here in the United States.

Recently we had an opportunity to talk about an aspect of microbusiness entrepreneurship that many of us rely on but can probably reflect more often on: the mental game of business.

This is a Blog Talk radio interview where I spoke about carving your own road and swimming down your own path as a microbusiness entrepreneur, even if most others seem to be swimming in the opposite direction. It is about being truly “free” and designing your business in a way that supports both your personal growth and your life.

“…Jane has gone through all sorts of business and personal challenges and nothing can change the fact that she is one of the most brilliant, creative, and mindful people I know…”

We live in a society where status has become everything, and image has leveraging value.

We are constantly bombarded with “branding”, especially “personal branding”.

“You, Inc.! A Brand Called You! Brand Yourself! Inc. Yourself!”

It’s no surprise, then, that too many of us are concerned about how we “look” to other people, more than who we REALLY ARE.

Big difference. How you appear to others, versus how you truly are. The difference is supposed to be in “meaning”. Not in “being”.

When you are authentic, you appear to others the way you truly are. When you aren’t authentic, your true face shows up in ways that are often shocking and unpleasant to others.

Those of us who are entrepreneurs and microbusiness owners often express ourselves and “brand” ourselves through our business.

It becomes very tempting to focus more on the branding part – the image part – than the value or contribution part.

The truth is, nobody cares about who You are.
Nobody cares about “Your Personal Brand”.

Nobody cares – UNTIL you give your “who” and “brand” some substance to back it up.

Only then, will your personal brand STAND for something, about something.

We only need to look at what is happening in our economy right now to see the danger of a lot of hot air being pumped out at amazing speeds – in the form of paper-money that isn’t backed by anything other than bureaucrat consensus.

Inflation – including personal brand inflation – is superficial and short lived and often triggers some ugly demise that can create widespread harm (i.e. to entire industries or professions).

If you want your value to last, find out what makes up your “GOLD STANDARD”.
Then give it everything you’ve got to Cultivate it and Make Good with it.

More reading
Personal Brands (again) by Frank Martin
My Value-Add by Steve Woodruff

First published on Published on: Nov 18, 2008 @ 11:10

Jason Eke at Micro Magnate has been reading my business articles for some time and invited me to join his network.

Since I recently authored, Want to be Free? First Define Your Freedom, one of the first discussion questions I posed after signing up is: What is Your “Freedom”?

Jason’s response inspired me to write this follow-up article. In fact, his response touched upon the very impulse that got me to write my Define Your Freedom article.

Jason said that he didn’t necessarily want a million dollar income, but he would like a 7-figure lifestyle. He would spend his winters in Australia, a country he had lived in for six years and loved.

I had recently read a book by a popular author who advocates living in many parts of the world, in countries that allowed him to enjoy luxury on the cheap.

I know it sounds glamorous to live all over the world and take mini-retirements. Sounds like you’re making life a series of mini-vacations, mini-adventures, doesn’t it?

That’s great – WHEN YOU’RE SINGLE OR HAVE NO YOUNG CHILDREN.

… And when you love traveling and living in different countries. The first 12 years of my life was divided in 3 countries on 3 different continents, and I have no desire to do more of the same during this time of my life. I’m not even talking about moving us 4 times in 5 years when my parents first landed in the U.S. (They were looking for better business opportunities and trying to reach the “American dream” too.)

Truthfully, for a very long time, I felt like I had no root, and I was wary of forming any relationships with others because I didn’t know where I was going to be moved to next. A colleague I know whose husband’s job takes them to a different country every few years have seen some side effects of multiple uprooting in her young child. Read the rest of this entry →

I don’t know about you, but I often feel isolated as a small business entrepreneur. Sure, I have hundreds of contacts on LinkedIn and Facebook. Apparently more than 1200 people find me interesting enough to follow on Twitter (give or take a few spambots and p0rnbots).

But this isn’t the same as connecting with people in a substantive level every single day. Some of us crave this more than others. I am one of those people who like to think about life’s questions and who view entrepreneurship as part of my “Hero’s Journey” and how I “give back” to the world during my time here on earth.

Like many of you, I am juggling entrepreneurship with parenthood. I consider myself lucky that my son is going to school for 3 days a week at 2 hours each of those days: this is the only “predictable 6 hour time window” where I can accommodate schedules, appointments, and intense bouts of writing (I’m also writing a book this year – my publisher gave me 1 year from time of signing the contract to complete 60,000 words by end of 2010). This is of course, barring my son catching a bug from kids at school and having to stay home, in which case my work week becomes “not-so-much-work” week.

So it is not surprising that after a while, I start feeling lost.

It’s something I’ve come to expect on a periodic interval, maybe once a month, or every other month, I will wonder whether what I am doing would mean anything at all. If I do not address this somehow, this feeling takes over and distracts me from being productive and running my business.

Here are 5 ways that I’ve managed this “feeling lost” and become productive again:

1. Remember why I’m doing any of it.

Why do I bother risking as an entrepreneur? Working irregular hours? Demanding my brain to work harder than those who clock a 9-to-5 job?

For me it’s about teaching people how to accelerate their results and success by offering my shoulders for them to stand on. I may not be quite a “giant”, but I will get you there faster than allowing you to make costly mistakes on your own for years at a time.

2. Schedule a conversation I crave.

Like I said, I need deep conversations from time to time. This can be a highly analytical exchange with a colleague on leadership issues and entrepreneurship issues. This can be a highly philosophical discussion about whether God is necessary and/or sufficient for meaning in life.

For example, last weekend we met up with one of my husband’s coworkers for brunch and the three of us covered a lot of philosophical ground.

I’m not saying that you should get philosophical – unless you crave these types of conversations. I’m saying whatever type of dialog you need – whether this be hard-thinking or hard-belly-laugh… make a point of scheduling one.

3. Take some time off.

I’m bad about this one…. I will keep postponing and procrastinating giving myself any time off to decompress!

But there are days when you just want to “not work” for a few hours, and that’s OK… seriously, the world will go on, your business will continue to exist for those few hours, and you will not be a bad lazy human being.

It’s helpful to have a running list of “what to do” in these situations. Is it taking a walk? Watching TV (sometimes I do this as a deliberate way to induce a comatose state on my brain)? Reading one of those novels where the cover models are busting out of their super-tight frilly frocks while wrapped around men with longer hair then yours could ever grow?

4. Look at something that motivates you.

For me, this is opening my business P&L statement and analyzing my revenue earnings and the types of revenues I’ve earned. For some reason, seeing those numbers there is at once motivating and stress-inducing – but it is more motivating than stressful so I do it.

You may want to read an inspiring quote or look at a motivational poster instead!

5. Do something physical.

Getting your hands busy and body moving is a great way of re-engaging yourself without continually using your mental and emotional reserves. This is also the only way that my house ever gets cleaned!

Feeling lost is really a symptom that you have disconnected from your center – or your grasp on your ideals or your self. It’s a sign that you need to take some time out and say “hello!” to that important person in your life – the person who is powering all the many wonderful things you are doing – YOU.

Image by Nimalan Tharmalingam (UK)

For all small business owners and entrepreneurs starting out – before you get lost in the “how do I do it” question – here are even more important “foundational” questions to answer and be very clear on!

1. Know exactly why you are going into business, or engage in a specific business-related activity.

“I need to make a bit of money on the side” (for example, if you are a freelancer) and similar statements are not specific or exact enough.

I describe one of my business-related activity – my participation on the Outright.com entrepreneur community – as “I want to be known as THE no-nonsense, go-to, truth-telling, based on hard-earned and hard-learned experience small business adviser on Outright.com.”

2. Know exactly how you are going to make your money.

In other words, the revenue model. You don’t need to know all the details right now, but at least have an idea of short term (this month, next month) – mid term ( next 6 months) – and long term (2nd year of business). My time-line runs shorter because of the nature of small businesses, our “long term projections” do not run 5-10 years like big biz. We need to be agile!

3. Know how much you are willing to pay for mistakes, and how much you are willing to pay avoid making them.

I keep saying “coaches, mentors, advisers”, and I mean it, because I have seen how important it had been for me when I first started out with zero knowledge of starting a business or any experience. It was one of the key reasons why I went from bootstrap to 6 figures in less than 2 years.

Many see coaches and advisers as expensive, but I see the years I need to spend learning what they already know and the mistakes I would make as the type of expenses I would rather pay someone else to make, then teach me how not to make them.

4. Know where your business fits into your life, not the other way around.

This is the toughest but most important for the long term. We can get consumed by our businesses especially if we love what we do – and this is usually the case – then we forget why we are in business for ourselves and we end up building ourselves a miserable job that we no longer look forward to do.

I am still learning this one

What about you? What types of foundational questions do you ask yourself, to stay aligned on purpose and true to course?