This was a day of research that really paid off. I've been searching for postings about new businesses in the area and found a great resource. I also bookmarked a lot of information on local Chamber's of Commerce. One thing that was eye opening, that I would suggest doing periodically for any small business, is to Google other businesses like your own. I did local searches and wide reaching searches. I tried a number of different ways to describe what it is I do and even some things that don't but may be incorrectly searched for. What it told me was valuable, both good and bad. It led me down interesting paths and should help shape some of the ideas I'm currently working on.
I wish that the muse was with me today and I that I could have written some of the pages I need to complete before next week but as you can clearly read here, my grasp of the language and sentence structure are sorely lacking right now. Hopefully my Advocare Jingle Shot tomorrow morning will set me straight.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
The Day That Changed My Life Forever
So, not much happened today. My daughter is teething (2 year molars - yikes!) and all of us are a little out of sorts. What I have decided to do with days like this, since getting any actual work done is not going to happen, is I will make sure to write about an experience I've had, good and bad, to hopefully give you, my loyal readers, a little insight. Check out how many commas I laid down in that last sentence. Pretty impressive from my standpoint.
Let's start this off with a fun one. We'll call this one, "The Day That Changed My Life Forever". How's that for the dramatic? So my wife, Martha, and I had been seriously talking about opening our first business. We were living in Minneapolis and I was working for Select Comfort. I was a salesman. A good one, I'm proud to say. But I digress, on this particular day I was at a sales meeting. Basically once every couple months we were all pulled into the back room of one of our stores and taught how to sell Select Comfort Beds. Generally, as with most sales meetings I've been to, out of a 5 hour meeting there was roughly 6 minutes of real information and a free lunch. After being with this company for 3 years, these meetings were a real drag and I would much rather have been at the store making money. I mostly doodled, joked around and fought off sleep. This particular day it was mostly sleep I was contending with. As far as our business went, we had an idea that we wanted to move back to Chicago and open a baby store. Martha's brother, Mike, had offered up some money as an investor but at this point we had no business plan, no name, no identity for our business. Just a kernel of an idea.
When I had left for this snoozefest of a meeting that day, Martha had told me she was going to try and find us a location. "Right", I thought. To me, this was putting the cart before the horse. Just so you know, as an entrepreneur, this is where the cart always resides. I've got a lot more stories related to that for slow days in the future. But I digress once again, I left for this meeting thinking Martha would spend a little time on the Internet, not find anything, and spend the rest of her time brainstorming about our dream. Boy was I wrong.
Right before lunch, literally as I was giving and and letting my eyes close, one of the salespeople from that location came into our meeting and interrupted Alan, our Regional Manager. They said I had an urgent phone call. I jumped awake and ran out to the desk. I was panicked. Was Martha hurt? Had something happened to my parents or her parents? Was one of our cats dead? God only knew what the crisis was but I knew it had to be bad for her to call me out of this meeting.
When I picked up the phone, Martha said, "I found it".
"Found what", I asked.
"Our store", she said. "It's what I've been drawing as a perfect store"
She faxed the blueprints over to me and sure enough, it was exactly what she had been describing to me. It had two store fronts with lots of windows. It had a large room for furniture with an smaller room off it for strollers and bedding. It had a large main room for clothes, toys, gifts and all the other stuff we crammed in there over the course of 3 years. I guess I just blew the ending, we ended up getting the space and at the time, it seemed perfect. The reality that hit us later was it was $10,000 a month in rent and the utilities alone averaged $2,500 a month. This was way too much for first time store owners and pretty quickly we knew it but we were stuck with a 5 year lease and my horrible money handling.
To finish up the original story, I went back into that meeting and was no longer tired. I don't think I blinked for the next 3 hours. I knew from that moment forward, my life would never be the same. And it hasn't. That was the beginning of the most wonderful, painful, joyful, stressful, terrifying, exhilarating time of our lives and now I know, that it was just the beginning.
Let's start this off with a fun one. We'll call this one, "The Day That Changed My Life Forever". How's that for the dramatic? So my wife, Martha, and I had been seriously talking about opening our first business. We were living in Minneapolis and I was working for Select Comfort. I was a salesman. A good one, I'm proud to say. But I digress, on this particular day I was at a sales meeting. Basically once every couple months we were all pulled into the back room of one of our stores and taught how to sell Select Comfort Beds. Generally, as with most sales meetings I've been to, out of a 5 hour meeting there was roughly 6 minutes of real information and a free lunch. After being with this company for 3 years, these meetings were a real drag and I would much rather have been at the store making money. I mostly doodled, joked around and fought off sleep. This particular day it was mostly sleep I was contending with. As far as our business went, we had an idea that we wanted to move back to Chicago and open a baby store. Martha's brother, Mike, had offered up some money as an investor but at this point we had no business plan, no name, no identity for our business. Just a kernel of an idea.
When I had left for this snoozefest of a meeting that day, Martha had told me she was going to try and find us a location. "Right", I thought. To me, this was putting the cart before the horse. Just so you know, as an entrepreneur, this is where the cart always resides. I've got a lot more stories related to that for slow days in the future. But I digress once again, I left for this meeting thinking Martha would spend a little time on the Internet, not find anything, and spend the rest of her time brainstorming about our dream. Boy was I wrong.
Right before lunch, literally as I was giving and and letting my eyes close, one of the salespeople from that location came into our meeting and interrupted Alan, our Regional Manager. They said I had an urgent phone call. I jumped awake and ran out to the desk. I was panicked. Was Martha hurt? Had something happened to my parents or her parents? Was one of our cats dead? God only knew what the crisis was but I knew it had to be bad for her to call me out of this meeting.
When I picked up the phone, Martha said, "I found it".
"Found what", I asked.
"Our store", she said. "It's what I've been drawing as a perfect store"
She faxed the blueprints over to me and sure enough, it was exactly what she had been describing to me. It had two store fronts with lots of windows. It had a large room for furniture with an smaller room off it for strollers and bedding. It had a large main room for clothes, toys, gifts and all the other stuff we crammed in there over the course of 3 years. I guess I just blew the ending, we ended up getting the space and at the time, it seemed perfect. The reality that hit us later was it was $10,000 a month in rent and the utilities alone averaged $2,500 a month. This was way too much for first time store owners and pretty quickly we knew it but we were stuck with a 5 year lease and my horrible money handling.
To finish up the original story, I went back into that meeting and was no longer tired. I don't think I blinked for the next 3 hours. I knew from that moment forward, my life would never be the same. And it hasn't. That was the beginning of the most wonderful, painful, joyful, stressful, terrifying, exhilarating time of our lives and now I know, that it was just the beginning.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Day 9 - Lots of effort, little to show
I spent most of my day today looking at SBA, State of IL, IRS and lead generator websites. It was really a research day which is necessary even though it can be the most boring part of this process. To counteract this I did one of my favorite activities which is trying and create a logo which can help solidify my brand. Unfortunately, what I ultimately came up with was 90% perspiration, 10% lame. There is a kernel of an idea there but what I have to show seems generic and forced. Two words I am never associated with. Just waiting for that 10% inspiration!
Building my brand is one of the most, if not the most, important piece to the puzzle. It is your identifier. It's the image in people's heads when the thought of you comes up. If executed to it's fullest, your brand should be the image in people's heads whenever they think of your particular business. Time to start sketching.
Building my brand is one of the most, if not the most, important piece to the puzzle. It is your identifier. It's the image in people's heads when the thought of you comes up. If executed to it's fullest, your brand should be the image in people's heads whenever they think of your particular business. Time to start sketching.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Starting Week 2 with a BANG!
Today has been really productive. I started the day with a daunting "To do" list and actually accomplished most of it. I am confident that I will be ready to kick this off officially at the end of the month. Can't wait for tomorrow!
Today's accomplishments are; I wrote the Owner's Questionnaire, Employee Assessment Form, Service and Fees Form, revision of Mission Statement, Basic Process Outline. Once the writing started, there was no stopping it. The key thing to take out of this is just start working on something, it doesn't matter which "To Do" it is, and the accomplishments will come quickly. I guess tomorrow I'll have to revise and add to my To Do list.
Today's accomplishments are; I wrote the Owner's Questionnaire, Employee Assessment Form, Service and Fees Form, revision of Mission Statement, Basic Process Outline. Once the writing started, there was no stopping it. The key thing to take out of this is just start working on something, it doesn't matter which "To Do" it is, and the accomplishments will come quickly. I guess tomorrow I'll have to revise and add to my To Do list.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The end of the first week and all is well
Today was extremely productive for such a short time to work. I wrote my employee questionnaire, I wrote a large to do list and I tuned up the Mission Statement to the point that I will almost post it. Today is Tuesday and since last Thursday, not much has happened aside from general note taking and web surfing. Remaining positive and disciplined to work some each day is going to pay off. We've worked out a schedule around here that allows me to work 6 to 8 hours 3 days a week plus an hour here and there when I'm not doing projects around the house. This will drastically change when things get rolling (hopefully February or March at the latest) but for now this is pleasant for the whole family. My niece Katherine and her husband Adam were over Saturday and we discussed this venture for the first time. Katherine had some great ideas, Adam just wanted to play video games. I get that. He'll be interested when things actually happen. Katherine worked for us at Cella and can tell when real things are happening so she's definitely more into it. Can't wait for tomorrow - 6 hours at least to work!
One last thing... Today was Barrack Obama's inauguration. We opened out store, Cella, just before the 2000 election of GWB. When the questionable Florida voting took the headlines and the general distrust of those in power really took hold, months before 9/11, we saw our business drop off and the general spending habits of the customer get very shaky. 9/11 didn't do anybody any favors either. We did barely survive for the next couple years but the way the government interacted with us changed for the worse and something had changed within the American psyche. I pray that Obama's Presidency brings this country back to what it was. Be fearless, have hope and embrace change. This in no way is supposed to reflect my political views, it is only here to mark this point in time and what I am feeling about this very moment.
One last thing... Today was Barrack Obama's inauguration. We opened out store, Cella, just before the 2000 election of GWB. When the questionable Florida voting took the headlines and the general distrust of those in power really took hold, months before 9/11, we saw our business drop off and the general spending habits of the customer get very shaky. 9/11 didn't do anybody any favors either. We did barely survive for the next couple years but the way the government interacted with us changed for the worse and something had changed within the American psyche. I pray that Obama's Presidency brings this country back to what it was. Be fearless, have hope and embrace change. This in no way is supposed to reflect my political views, it is only here to mark this point in time and what I am feeling about this very moment.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
A slow start - Day 2
Today was not very productive as far as keeping to my "To Do List" but let's face it, starting a business that is really just selling a concept instead of goods is 90% thought, 10% sweat (at least in the beginning). I spent my time today searching for relevant things on the Internet; i.e. lead generators, SBA information and so on. I tried to write more of the business plan but the words just simply weren't flowing. Tomorrow is another day and regardless of today's slow start, we are on track according to my time table.
Keep in mind, goals are vital to your success but they are only goals and should not be road blocks when other ideas present themselves. Keep the goals and just be sure to roll over your "To Do List".
Keep in mind, goals are vital to your success but they are only goals and should not be road blocks when other ideas present themselves. Keep the goals and just be sure to roll over your "To Do List".
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Day one
About a week ago, Martha (my wife) came up with the idea that I should get back on that horse and start another business. Today was the first official day of that venture. I ordered business cards, set up this blog and bought 2 domain names. Things are rolling...
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