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A World of Entrepreneurs

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if the world was filled with free thinking, independent entrepreneurs.

When you think about it, many people work for someone else. What if they all went out and started their own thing? Would it be a world of chaos or a world of great innovation?

Many of the items you use every day are put together in a factory – by people. If they weren’t there, would you be able to get the products you use every day?

It’s quite possible that the clothes you wear would be sewn together by someone you know. Most of the items you buy would likely be local. The car you drive probably wouldn’t have a nameplate that you could find on another car 1000 miles away.

So, if everyone was a independent entrepreneur would the world crawl to a complete stop? Probably not because entrepreneurs have a way of innovating to find solutions to the world’s problems.

I know that being an independent entrepreneur isn’t for everyone. Some people want the illusion of security that a job provides. (I say illusion because whether you have a job and create an income is up to the people you work for.)

However, the world would certainly be a different place if more people adopted an entrepreneurial mindset. Creative solutions to complex problems would abound. On top of that, people could use the resources of their employer to pursue these solutions.

I know for me, I’m thankful for my opportunity as an employee. It’s given me experience that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to gain if I had jumped right into being an entrepreneur. It’s also given me ideas for things I can create to improve other people’s lives.

Someday, when I’m ready to transition to full time, independent entrepreneurship, I’ll still be grateful for those who are working hard in any position that brings me the conveniences I’ve come to enjoy everyday.

 

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Why do we let what other people think bother us?

Recently I posted something on Craigslist that ended up being flagged and deleted by a user after being out there over a month. When I posted in the Craigslist forums to figure out what I had done wrong, the responses I got were note what I expected.

Out of all the responses I got in the forums, many of them had a negative tone towards my original posting. (For what it’s worth, it wasn’t an item for sale.)

While the base of what many of the people in the forum said may have been correct, the way they worded their responses was rude and discolored the heart of what they were saying. It was almost like they were waiting for the next fish to jump in the piranha tank.

The worse part about it is that it was making me feel like I was the bad person. Why is that? Why am I letting people I don’t even know make me feel like I’m a bad person or did something wrong? Why is the rudeness of others causing me to feel like less of a person and like what I was trying to do was wrong?

It seems like we can be moving along on our journey and things are going well, but we allow others to knock us off the path of success (even if we don’t know them personally). We could have 10 people say something positive to us, but it only takes 1 to tear us back down.

We can harden our hearts so that others cannot penetrate it and cause us pain, while possibly blocking the good things that happen, or we can soften our hearts and allow everything in, the good and the bad.

What do you do? How do you handle negative experiences when they come up?

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Do you make change happen or does change happen to you?

If you’re alive (and if you’re reading this you hopefully are), then you’ve experienced some sort of hardship or struggle in your life. You may even be going through one right now.

The question is, what did you do about it? What are you going to do about it? Did you take control of the situation?

The sad thing is that many people let life happen to them. Even when they feel like they are doing all they can do, they leave several other options on the table.

If that’s you, it’s not your fault. We’ve been taught not to challenge the things as they are. We’re told that we just need to keep trying or try harder.

  • Work harder at your job and the promotion will come.
  • Just pay those student loan or car payments because everyone has them.
  • Keep filling out online applications and eventually you’ll get the right job.

The reason we’re told these things is because it’s easy to accept that doing what you already know how to do is the best route. (If I told you that you could lose weight eating what you love, wouldn’t you think about giving it a try?)

Pushing against a brick wall will only give you a sore shoulder. Try leaning against it, get some rest, and then push off of it in a different direction. If you feel tired and discouraged, then it’s time to try something differently.

I want to urge you do something different each day for about a month. Some examples include,

  • Read a book that might help you in your situation. (If you don’t know of any, check out the Resources page or email me and I’ll see what I can find.)
  • Pay extra on your student loan or car.
  • Join a community or group that has the same interests as you or includes people who are pushing against the same brick wall.

Feel free to post in the comments what you’re going to do differently and then report back in month on your progress.

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What your desktop background says to your coworkers

In the land of cubicle dwellers, everyone has at least one window to the outside world – the desktop background. It can tell a lot about you to those around you.

For example, solid color backgrounds show you don’t care to open your window. You’d work in a basement if you could, most likely without anyone around you.

If you’re sporting that beautiful beach scene, it’s pretty obvious where you’d rather be. You’re either thinking about an upcoming vacation, a vacation you’ve been on, or one you wish you could take. If you could work on the beach, then your dream would be complete.

Sci-fi and action heroes means you’ll probably be late to work the day after the next Marvel movie comes out.

Cats and dogs – animal lover, possibly single

Kids – family man/woman (who is possibly trying to remember why you drag yourself into work each day)

Random pictures – you just don’t want to be staring at the same thing all the time, it takes your mind off of what you’re doing

The next time you consider “personalizing” your desktop, consider what you might be conveying to the people around you, and then change it anyway!

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IT’S ALIVE! AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO HATES MY JOB

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After months of learning and writing, my eBook has finally arrived!

Who is this eBook for? It would be easy to say for everyone, but that’s not really true though. It is primarily focused on the struggle that many experience in their job and career. I’ve pulled from my own personal experiences as well as what I’ve learned from others. I’ve also provided information and resources that got me through some of the toughest work experiences I had.

Why talk about it here? Well, shameless promotion for one. Another reason is because like the eBook, this blog was born from same struggle. I plan to continue this blog and talk about my journey as an entrepreneur as well resources I find for personal development. The eBook is just the start.

If any of that appeals to you, you feel like you’re in a job you hate, or you’re just interested in getting a peek into a portion of my life, you’re in luck. For a special introductory period, I’ve lowered the price of the eBook to $0.99 for one week. Check it out below!

P.S. For those who have Amazon Prime and a Kindle, you can download the eBook for free through the Amazon Lending Library!

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Any.do: A better to-do list

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a million things going on at any given time and you have a hard time keeping it all straight. I used to be able to run through my to-do list in my head before I went to bed, but eventually that routine just kept me up at night. That’s when I started writing things down so I could fall asleep.

Now, paper is so 20th century. I upgraded to using an app on my smart phone so I could keep track of items on the go and keep things in sync whether I was on the computer or away from home. I used Evernote and I think I may have tried Google Docs at some point too.

Eventually, I found Any.do. It’s sole purpose is to keep track of what you need to get done, and it does it perfectly. The interface is incredibly simple. There is a place to put in tasks and an area where they are displayed. You can organize them between 4 different timelines: today, tomorrow, upcoming, and someday. You simply drag your tasks where you want to keep them organized. You can also switch to a folder view to organize them another way, such as work and personal.

The best parts of Any.do are the extras.

  • You set up a time each day for your Any.do moment. At that time, a reminder pops up and runs you through your tasks for the day where you can mark them done, set a time to do them, or choose to do them another day.
  • When you have a missed call, you can set it up so that it asks you to create a task to call them back.
  • Tasks set for “tomorrow”, move to “today” the next day. Tasks set to “upcoming”, move to “tomorrow” after about a week.
  • There is a Google Chrome extension so you can see your tasks from the browser. Plus, when you’re in Gmail, you’ll see Any.do buttons to create tasks from inside Gmail.
  • The Post Meeting feature will prompt you at the end of a meeting so you can add any action items from the meeting.
  • Any.do also integrates with Google Glass, if you have one to play around with.

Those are just some of the features packed into Any.do. You can learn more on Any.do’s web site or on Lifehacker.

Do you have any tools that help keep you organized? Post them in the comments for us all.

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Business Idea: Mobile Car Wash

When you’ve been struck with the entrepreneur bug, you start seeing business opportunities all over the place. We were down in Florida about a month ago and due to some unfortunate circumstances, our Prius needed to have the hybrid battery replaced before we could come home.

While we were down there, I saw a couple guys washing the cars in the lots. I started wondering why they would be doing that when the weather is near perfect down there, especially this time of year. Anyhow, that got me thinking. What about buying a pressure washer and getting contracts with car dealerships to keep their cars looking spotless on the outside?

The dealership would provide the electricity and the water, you provide the manpower and pressure washer. It could be a deal where you simply visit once a week to keep them clean, or more frequently if that’s what they want. If you were to do it more often, it would be easier to keep them clean and the dealer would be happy.

This could even be expanded so you could travel to people’s place of employment and wash their cars while their at work. It’s just an idea until the right person comes along to take it and run with it.

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COMING SOON: Am I the Only One… Who Hates My Job?

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Some of you may not realize that this site along with a sister site, Planning to Save, were created during a confusing and troubling time in my career. I felt like everything else in my life was going well, but what I wanted to be doing for my life’s work was a mystery.

After doing a lot of soul searching, I discovered that I wasn’t the only one who felt the way I did.  Those I knew who didn’t feel fulfilled or were troubled with their jobs all seemed to have varying degrees of unhappiness and were unhappy in different ways. There was one common theme among them. It was the sense of loneliness and hopelessness. They felt like they didn’t know what to do with their lives or that things would never change and they just had to accept it.

I decided to compile the range of emotions I experienced in my different positions, including the most difficult moments, add in what I knew others have experienced and create an ebook. Not only did I want to express how I’ve felt through my career, but I wanted to write something that others could relate to and hopefully help them through a similar difficult time in their career.

Keep your eyes open in the coming months. There is some final editing to be done before it hits the electronic shelves!

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It’s a start

I’m the type of person who wants to see results quickly from the ideas I dream up. If there aren’t any results, then I assume my idea is not working and start to consider what my other options are. I’ve had to remind myself that my actions may not always produce immediate results.

If you’ve got a business idea though, there are some things that I’ve learned you can do to help speed up your ability to transition to new ideas more quickly. These are the “one time” items that after you do them, you don’t have to do them again.

The first one of these actions is filing for an LLC. It’s incredibly simple to do and in Ohio only costs $125. I decided to keep the name of mine relatively generic so that it doesn’t lead people to believe I only provide one type of service. For example, Adam’s Discount Trucks wouldn’t make much sense if I decide to start fixing computers. I decided on Adro Solutions, LLC after asking around for ideas.

Next, you get your federal EIN number. It’s free and can be filed for online in less than 10 minutes. While you could use your social security number for different business things, using an EIN protects you a little bit more.

Finally, open a free business checking account. I didn’t need to deposit anything into mine and there are no monthly fees. If I don’t make any money for 6 months, that’s okay.

So there you have it. That’s how I created a business and started a business checking account. While all of this could have probably been done in a week, I dragged my feet and it took a bit longer than it should have. But I won’t have to do it again so the next time I can get down to business faster!

If you have any questions on how to start your own business, send me an email through the contact form or post a comment below and I’ll help you get started with your dream.

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Bitten by a bug

I’ve been bitten by the entrepreneurship bug. I know, many people can swat it away when it comes buzzing, but as much as I’ve tried over the past few years, this time the venom isn’t going away.

I know it’s not for everyone, but the more I’ve explored where I want to be in a few years, I realized a couple of things. I want to spend more time with my family. I want to take the kids to school, volunteer in their classroom, and work outside on the back porch.

The biggest thing is to be able to take full personal responsibility for my life and the life of my family. How much I work, how hard I work, and how much I make is up to me. Personal responsibility is a funny thing these days. Every wants to do what they want, except when it comes to having to take care of themselves. That’s when they want someone else to do it for them.

I’ve been filling my head with all kinds of things like books, podcasts and blog posts. I’m formulating plans and I’m excited to try new things. I’ve taken a values assessment and oddly enough the two things that motivate me the most are financial rewards and altruism. Two things that seem to be in opposite directions, but can really complement each other quite well. If I do things with greater financial rewards, I can work less and give more of my life to others.

The only thing that I don’t have is a lowered risk meter. While I almost got a perfect score in the Entrepreneurship Quizzes book, the one I answered no two was taking big risks. There are ways to lower the risk like vetting ideas, making a plan, and saving some money up, but it’s still a risk nonetheless.

I guess if you’ve ever wondered what you should be doing with your life, have you ever considered working for yourself? I’m going to be releasing an ebook that I’ve written over the past few months soon. It won’t help you determine if entrepreneurship is right for you, but it may help you if you’ve been struggling in your career lately. Keep your eyes out for it!