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 →

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?

You have probably heard sayings about how successful people have mentors and coaches and are members of mastermind (MM) groups.

But I wonder – just as coaches and mentors should come with a label that says “results may vary!” (or even “results not typical” like those infomercial program fine print at the bottom of the screen) – mastermind groups vary in quality and effectiveness as well.

Mastermind groups are often misunderstood and not created optimally – as I have learned from personal experience!

The people who are selected for masterminds must be at a comparable caliber of business achievement with slight deviations in business result. Members should have similar drive and goal standards. If these pieces are missing, the mastermind will not work to the members’ benefit. It’s a bit like playing tennis – you improve when you play with someone slightly better or much better than you – not someone who is a beginner, even if you are a beginner.

If you are a pro and you want to help others, then you can be a great mentor or coach. If you are a beginner, you want to learn from people who have done what you want to do, so you do not have to make the same mistakes!

In the past when I have been in similar groups I was often one who had already created a successful business, and other members were at the step of creating one or still figuring out what their business idea was. Even if I was looking to start a new business, I want to be amongst people who are starting their 2nd or 3rd of even 5th business – not 1st.

As a result, I found the meetings informative (I can always learn something from others) – but not truly educational for me to move forward in a meaningful way. When I have to pay money for it, then it becomes a waste of my hard earned dollars. Even if I didn’t have to pay for it, I do not want to waste precious time!

Another factor of a mastermind group is the facilitator’s skills. There are some who do not know how to run a mastermind group, and they appear to let the meeting wander in whatever direction the members move the meeting. Again, if this is the set-up of the mastermind (“we are here for creative brainstorming, so we are going to let ourselves wander and see where the conversation takes us”), then this is expected. On the other hand, I doubt that time-limited entrepreneurs like myself will have the patience to attend a meeting we thought had a clear agenda with defined goals, and we show up for a meeting where anything goes.

This is one of the reasons why I create mastermind groups with a specific “revenue achievement” pre-requisite. It is not so much about the dollar amount, as the amount of skill, drive, experience, and resourcefulness behind that revenue achievement. Someone who has a $500 a month business is at a different level than someone who has built a $5000 a month business, or someone who has taken a $5000 a month business to a $50,000 a month business.

If you have been a MM member – what makes the group work? What makes the group not work?

If you haven’t been a MM members – what would make you want to join one?

Image by Rodolfo Clix