This is going to be somewhat like the average blog post on "finding yourself" and other categories usually attributed to the word entrepreneur. Hopefully though, I will have found a way to make it better and to reach you in a more meaningful way, while also bringing you new information you can use along your journey.
Finding our purpose in life is probably one of if not our most difficult task, really. People go about finding their purpose in different ways; some folks like to sit back and think about all of the things they enjoy doing or what they think they would enjoy doing and from there planning and organizing a plan of attack, while others just simply go out into the world, take the risk, and do it. It's probably best to utilize a little bit of both strategies to find your purpose.
But there's a key piece that is often neglected in literature; uncomfortableness. Doing things that make you uncomfortable, whether that be defined as something embarrassing, fearful, or simply stressful, can be very helpful to us as we set-off on a path of self-discovery ending with finding our purpose in life.
I don't want to get into specifics of what can make a person uncomfortable, you know yourself better than I do but I will say that for me, a great way to venture out of my comfort zone involves helping other people I come across on a walk or around the college campus, travelling to a foreign country, trying new foods, or simply starting a conversation with a stranger and making an effort to understand their life through a sometimes brief passing.
My journey has been all over the map; the first company I launched was landscaping, lawn-care, and snow-removal when I was a kid. About the same time I developed an interest in website design. My first website was dedicated to gaming and specifically to cheats in games for a variety of gaming consoles and PC. It was a big success! My work started slowly because this was around the year 1998 and there were few resources available to help me so I had to learn as I went. Every night I would log in and work on adding new pages, content, and sometimes graphics as my skills matured. After I got to a point where I thought I could be proud of it, I learned how about ad creation and basic marketing. Not too long afterwards, I had e-mail subscribers and thousands of visitors monthly and before I knew it, my website had become one of the most visited websites in the world for gaming cheats! Pretty cool!
Things didn't stop there! Major magazines began sending me free subscriptions and stuff through the mail, people were contacting me about the site and wanting to get in on the action. My biggest competitor at the time was another website called CheatCodeCentral. A cool organization that did the exact same thing I did but with greater resources and a full-time staff. I was a kid with other responsibilities so I couldn't add content at the same rate they could. Eventually, my interest dwindled and as a result, so did my customer base, but I was alright with that.
I launched a few other websites, but none of them reached the same level of success. The takeaway here is that I was able to become moderately successful through doing something I liked. I didn't view it so much as work as I did as something I enjoyed doing. It was fun and rewarding for me.
My lawn-care/landscaping business was hugely successful in the mean time. In fact, it was more successful than I ever hoped for! My strategy was basically to obtain clients by beating my competition at the margin. I designed and printed ads on my computer using regular printer paper and distributed them door to door almost every day. I would usually print and then distribute about 40-60 a day working street by street all around my house. It grew incredibly fast, especially as word spread about the quality of work that I did. Mind you, I had a push mower (push, not self-propelled or anything like that, just simply a push mower), a weed eater that I either carried or placed on the handlebars of the mower, and a five gallon container of gas that I would place on the mower deck and I would push it all block by block to each house whose lawn I mowed.
Eventually, the furthest I would venture was about a mile from my house because any further would take too long to travel to since I was pushing my way from house to house! As I got older and obtained my drivers license I would get clients from other parts of the city and drive over, eventually I had to hire my older brother to help, and then a couple of my friends, and then a couple of my brothers friends. It was a huge job! I had more money than I knew what to do with so I saved every bit of it that I could and reinvested it in my business through buying more mowers, maintenance, tools, materials and supplies, and of course paying everyone a fair wage.
I grew tired of it though and sold everything, my brother took over most of it but he also grew tired of it and eventually dissolved everything. But my strategy had paid well. I ended up with more business then I could actually handle, I made great money, and great friends. Enemies were made as well. I'm very competitive and viewed the competition with a look of disdain, I undercut them, many of them severely, and would go out of my way to help people for free in order to keep clients. As a result, my competition made it clear how they felt. Some of them attended my church and others were neighbors. Most of them had clear cut established businesses, some of them were in their 30's and 40's, and they did not like me at all. But hey, I beat them fair and square. They weren't willing to negotiate and make less on the margin like I did, and my income came from the number of jobs that I had and through the special jobs I would outside of typical lawn-care.
Now, I find myself in a place where I'm not really sure what I want. I have studied finance extensively, math extensively, economics fairly extensively, I know how to program in Python, R, and other languages, and have set myself up for a fair bit of success in quantitative finance but alas that's not really what I want to do. I like the basics of finance and creating charts and graphs and analyzing companies and doing valuations. I think what I really enjoy is more hands-on stuff that isn't purely hands-on; construction management, and business consulting. I love teaching and helping others, especially small business owners. I don't think I could ever go back to staring at numbers and charts all day every day, there has to be more of a hands on side to compliment that very quantitative aspect of work that I typically do. I want to be able to speak with people and go out and use my hands and knowledge outside of the computer and digital world. Maybe project management or consulting is where I should go. I love teaching as much as I love to learn so if I could be something like the next Sal Khan, I'd be happy.
Well, this quickly turned into a rant and something else like a journal or diary entry but it helps me to clear my head and hopefully you will get something out of this as well.
Monday, June 6, 2016
Monday, November 16, 2015
Career Idea: Web Development, part 1
We all would like to work hours that suit our schedules and personal feelings. Some days I frankly don't care to get up early in the morning to work. I know I need to work because I need money. I need that money to pay my rent, utilities, gas for my car, insurance, food, and every other little thing, but sometimes I just don't want to work!
It's a dichotomy for the ages: You need money to live, but you don't want to work for it. Actually, most people do want to work for it, it's just that they're stuck working a job they really, really don't like. Perhaps you work in insurance, a 9-5 job Monday through Friday. It's stable, not terribly difficult, and the pay is OK. But you hate it. You dreamed of being a quarterback in the NFL, or a professional boxer, or a Nobel-prize winning author. You dreamed such things because that's what you were passionate about, and ok... maybe the money would be good too. But your main focus on any of those professions was a direct result of your natural attraction to those trades. Insurance is a grind to you and you get zero utility out of; no satisfaction.
Truth is, most of us are stuck in similar situations. Grinding day after day, looking forward to going home, eating a big dinner, and plopping ourselves in front of the television and turning our brains off! Well, what if life didn't have to be that way? What if you could do something that you may actually enjoy? Or at the least, enjoy more than your current job.
Introducing.... web development!
It's not glamorous like playing in the NFL, and frankly maybe its not something you're super interested in, and that's ok because this is just one example that you can extrapolate to many other professions. I am focusing on it specifically here because I just want to... I will do others later.
Why web development?
Generally speaking, if you decide to start your own web development business, one awesome thing about it is that you can learn it entirely for free using any number of video tutorials, academic courses, and free coding camps. Want more reasons why it's awesome?
1) Free to learn
2) Low startup costs
3) Can start as a freelancer, no business licensing!
4) Set your own hours
5) Make as much or as little as you want
6) Do something new every day
7) Help others
8) Lots of help available through supportive communities
9) Work from home
That said, there are some peculiar cons:
1) Very competitive at scale
2) Can be time consuming
3) Financially expensive for large, custom jobs
4) Difficult clients, unrealistic expectations
A good thing to note about the cons is that only half of them apply to smaller web-developers. Probably the most frustrating thing is dealing with clients. We love them and we.... don't love them sometimes. Some clients will be happy just to have a website up and running, others will want a specific design which, after you give them exactly what they want, will then ask you to redo the entire website for whatever reason.
It's also important to note that a web-developer today is not like the webdev of yesterday... or more like ten years ago. Today's webdevs have more responsibilities, such as SEO, digital marketing, site maintenance, and sort of a business partner/liaison.... if you want to grow significantly.
It is common to establish yourself with clientele who care only about the basics, and are not interested in anything more than simple websites and maybe some upkeep. It's a great way to earn a a few hundred dollars a month, but in most cases you will eventually run into a more complex, and demanding client that will rock your boat. Just be prepared!
To get started, you will need to learn the following:
1) HTML
2) CSS
3) Photoshop/GIMP/basic image editing
HTML is pretty easy to learn. It's important to know the basics of HTML and the basic HTML layout of a website.
CSS is slightly more difficult at first, but you will quickly pick up on its structure. Again, you don't need to master it to get clients and complete basic jobs, but you should know some of the basics. Anything you don't know, you can Google.
Basic image editing is important because your clients will ask you to insert images, create logos, or edit any number of things. It's a great tool to understand and become good at.
These three tools will get a lot further than you may think. Again, you don't need to become a master at them. A lot of companies and individuals will be happy just to have a site, so if those are your clients then you don't need much more.
Another useful thing to use are templates. Some webdevs argue that templates are too easy and take away from the real art/science/whatever of web development but I would strongly argue against that. Most businesses and organizations ranging from small to medium size will not need a built-from-scratch website. And why do you want to spend the time building one anyway when there are templates available to you? You don't! You want to crank them out fast but with exceptional quality. The thing with templates is that you must get familiar with them and you will have to change and customize some of the code, that is a fact. So while you don't have to become a master at HTML and CSS it would be good to build a site from scratch just as a way to practice and become familiar with everything.
After you learn those three skills, you should build your own website. You can do this first through a simple editor, I like Notepad++. Then you should buy a domain name, get your own real-working website, and go from there. After all that, the next item on the agenda list is to get clients.
Getting clients can be difficult and frustrating so I will share what I do.
First; I build multiple websites, and use one website as my main "web development company" and I use the others as part of my portfolio. Next, I market like crazy. Social media, commenting and including my website as part of my comments on as many websites as possible (especially tech and local websites), I print out paper flyers and post them wherever local businesses will let, and if I hear someone complaining about computer/web issues while I am out, I will politely introduce myself and offer my services. Basically, I become a walking advertisement.
The next issue to work out is pay.
Let's assume you finally get your first client, he or she will want to know what you charge... by the hour? By the project? Piece-meal? What about additional fees? Weekly fees? Monthly fees? Lump sum?
There are a ton of ways you can devise a pricing structure, but I find that simplicity works best. A good piece of advice to listen to but not exactly follow is by looking at the market or going rate. This varies considerably but I like to dive and see what other webdevs are charging in my area so I can undercut them. If you can't find any of that info then create your own prices. My rule of thumb is to price humbly. I know exactly what I can do and I know exactly what my time is worth. Personally, I usually don't charge for the initial meeting, but not always. I like to feel out the client as best I can and decide if I think it will scare them off or not. As you get more clients you can charge a more standard rate as you figure out what your time is worth.
I'll just throw out how I do my pricing, you don't have to follow it like this:
1) No charge for initial meet and greet.
-Involves saying "hi", getting to know the customer and explaining what I have to offer and listening to their needs.
2) Charge for anything more than a very basic meet and greet.
-Involves going over everything in detail, sometimes includes a walk-through of their business.
-Includes the initial fee for meeting them (1 hour minimum fee) plus a higher fee for every hour after that (I charge by the hour here).
3) Charge for website mockup
-This would be a demo of the website, not a fully functioning site.
4) Charge for travel expenses if over a certain number of miles from my residence.
5) Charge per-project + hourly for any additional changes.
-In some cases, I charge only hourly. Mostly depends on the project and what the client wants.
6) Any additional work outside of coding the website is charged.
-Includes graphics, photo editing, analysis, etc.
7) Charge by month for any maintenance up to a certain threshold then I being charging both monthly and hourly.
If it is a simply website, I will explain to the client that I will charge them for the project itself plus hourly if they have any additional requests. So, if they have one additional request and it takes me anymore than five minutes to implement, I charge them for the full hour. I do this because I know what I am worth and have plenty of demand.
Maintenance costs are a pretty standard, flat-fee. These include upgrades to the site, updates, changes, and any social media maintenance. For smaller companies I don't require a lot of upkeep I will charge them monthly, because more often then naught I will only have to go in for an hour a week at the very most to make changes, market, and update the site. It's normally very easy, very simply, fast, and at the end of the month I will have an extra $200 or so. Again, it depends on the workload.
If you have any free time, or have yet to get a client, use that time to hone your skills and market yourself. And practice, practice, practice. If you're going to use templates, you will have to decide if you can manage with free ones, or paid. And how is that cost going to be passed down to the customer?
Lastly, before I forget: learn the basics of SEO! It is incredibly important you learn about tags, meta, permalinks, and how to build a site that is searchable and crawler-friendly!
It's a dichotomy for the ages: You need money to live, but you don't want to work for it. Actually, most people do want to work for it, it's just that they're stuck working a job they really, really don't like. Perhaps you work in insurance, a 9-5 job Monday through Friday. It's stable, not terribly difficult, and the pay is OK. But you hate it. You dreamed of being a quarterback in the NFL, or a professional boxer, or a Nobel-prize winning author. You dreamed such things because that's what you were passionate about, and ok... maybe the money would be good too. But your main focus on any of those professions was a direct result of your natural attraction to those trades. Insurance is a grind to you and you get zero utility out of; no satisfaction.
Truth is, most of us are stuck in similar situations. Grinding day after day, looking forward to going home, eating a big dinner, and plopping ourselves in front of the television and turning our brains off! Well, what if life didn't have to be that way? What if you could do something that you may actually enjoy? Or at the least, enjoy more than your current job.
Introducing.... web development!
It's not glamorous like playing in the NFL, and frankly maybe its not something you're super interested in, and that's ok because this is just one example that you can extrapolate to many other professions. I am focusing on it specifically here because I just want to... I will do others later.
Why web development?
Generally speaking, if you decide to start your own web development business, one awesome thing about it is that you can learn it entirely for free using any number of video tutorials, academic courses, and free coding camps. Want more reasons why it's awesome?
1) Free to learn
2) Low startup costs
3) Can start as a freelancer, no business licensing!
4) Set your own hours
5) Make as much or as little as you want
6) Do something new every day
7) Help others
8) Lots of help available through supportive communities
9) Work from home
That said, there are some peculiar cons:
1) Very competitive at scale
2) Can be time consuming
3) Financially expensive for large, custom jobs
4) Difficult clients, unrealistic expectations
A good thing to note about the cons is that only half of them apply to smaller web-developers. Probably the most frustrating thing is dealing with clients. We love them and we.... don't love them sometimes. Some clients will be happy just to have a website up and running, others will want a specific design which, after you give them exactly what they want, will then ask you to redo the entire website for whatever reason.
It's also important to note that a web-developer today is not like the webdev of yesterday... or more like ten years ago. Today's webdevs have more responsibilities, such as SEO, digital marketing, site maintenance, and sort of a business partner/liaison.... if you want to grow significantly.
It is common to establish yourself with clientele who care only about the basics, and are not interested in anything more than simple websites and maybe some upkeep. It's a great way to earn a a few hundred dollars a month, but in most cases you will eventually run into a more complex, and demanding client that will rock your boat. Just be prepared!
To get started, you will need to learn the following:
1) HTML
2) CSS
3) Photoshop/GIMP/basic image editing
HTML is pretty easy to learn. It's important to know the basics of HTML and the basic HTML layout of a website.
CSS is slightly more difficult at first, but you will quickly pick up on its structure. Again, you don't need to master it to get clients and complete basic jobs, but you should know some of the basics. Anything you don't know, you can Google.
Basic image editing is important because your clients will ask you to insert images, create logos, or edit any number of things. It's a great tool to understand and become good at.
These three tools will get a lot further than you may think. Again, you don't need to become a master at them. A lot of companies and individuals will be happy just to have a site, so if those are your clients then you don't need much more.
Another useful thing to use are templates. Some webdevs argue that templates are too easy and take away from the real art/science/whatever of web development but I would strongly argue against that. Most businesses and organizations ranging from small to medium size will not need a built-from-scratch website. And why do you want to spend the time building one anyway when there are templates available to you? You don't! You want to crank them out fast but with exceptional quality. The thing with templates is that you must get familiar with them and you will have to change and customize some of the code, that is a fact. So while you don't have to become a master at HTML and CSS it would be good to build a site from scratch just as a way to practice and become familiar with everything.
After you learn those three skills, you should build your own website. You can do this first through a simple editor, I like Notepad++. Then you should buy a domain name, get your own real-working website, and go from there. After all that, the next item on the agenda list is to get clients.
Getting clients can be difficult and frustrating so I will share what I do.
First; I build multiple websites, and use one website as my main "web development company" and I use the others as part of my portfolio. Next, I market like crazy. Social media, commenting and including my website as part of my comments on as many websites as possible (especially tech and local websites), I print out paper flyers and post them wherever local businesses will let, and if I hear someone complaining about computer/web issues while I am out, I will politely introduce myself and offer my services. Basically, I become a walking advertisement.
The next issue to work out is pay.
Let's assume you finally get your first client, he or she will want to know what you charge... by the hour? By the project? Piece-meal? What about additional fees? Weekly fees? Monthly fees? Lump sum?
There are a ton of ways you can devise a pricing structure, but I find that simplicity works best. A good piece of advice to listen to but not exactly follow is by looking at the market or going rate. This varies considerably but I like to dive and see what other webdevs are charging in my area so I can undercut them. If you can't find any of that info then create your own prices. My rule of thumb is to price humbly. I know exactly what I can do and I know exactly what my time is worth. Personally, I usually don't charge for the initial meeting, but not always. I like to feel out the client as best I can and decide if I think it will scare them off or not. As you get more clients you can charge a more standard rate as you figure out what your time is worth.
I'll just throw out how I do my pricing, you don't have to follow it like this:
1) No charge for initial meet and greet.
-Involves saying "hi", getting to know the customer and explaining what I have to offer and listening to their needs.
2) Charge for anything more than a very basic meet and greet.
-Involves going over everything in detail, sometimes includes a walk-through of their business.
-Includes the initial fee for meeting them (1 hour minimum fee) plus a higher fee for every hour after that (I charge by the hour here).
3) Charge for website mockup
-This would be a demo of the website, not a fully functioning site.
4) Charge for travel expenses if over a certain number of miles from my residence.
5) Charge per-project + hourly for any additional changes.
-In some cases, I charge only hourly. Mostly depends on the project and what the client wants.
6) Any additional work outside of coding the website is charged.
-Includes graphics, photo editing, analysis, etc.
7) Charge by month for any maintenance up to a certain threshold then I being charging both monthly and hourly.
If it is a simply website, I will explain to the client that I will charge them for the project itself plus hourly if they have any additional requests. So, if they have one additional request and it takes me anymore than five minutes to implement, I charge them for the full hour. I do this because I know what I am worth and have plenty of demand.
Maintenance costs are a pretty standard, flat-fee. These include upgrades to the site, updates, changes, and any social media maintenance. For smaller companies I don't require a lot of upkeep I will charge them monthly, because more often then naught I will only have to go in for an hour a week at the very most to make changes, market, and update the site. It's normally very easy, very simply, fast, and at the end of the month I will have an extra $200 or so. Again, it depends on the workload.
If you have any free time, or have yet to get a client, use that time to hone your skills and market yourself. And practice, practice, practice. If you're going to use templates, you will have to decide if you can manage with free ones, or paid. And how is that cost going to be passed down to the customer?
Lastly, before I forget: learn the basics of SEO! It is incredibly important you learn about tags, meta, permalinks, and how to build a site that is searchable and crawler-friendly!
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Steps... so cliche'!
I really don't like it when someone publishes a list of steps to follow for folks who are looking to be entrepreneurs because it's just so old. So. Old. If you're here then most likely you're interested in becoming an entrepreneur so I will give you tools, advice, support, everything you need to help you do that as best as I can across this digital dimension.
Back to lists... yes I really don't like them; I don't hate them, but I just don't like them. Go to Entrepreneur.com if you don't believe me, everything is a list of steps; "8 steps to become a millionaire", "the 5 things successful entrepreneurs all have in common"... it goes on, and on. Unfortunately I don't know of a better method so I must use a list, but I will try to keep it simple, straightforward, and informative.
First, come up with an idea. The best way, and in my experience the only way to come up with a legitimate idea is to stay busy doing anything and everything you can; keep working your current job, keep doing household chores, keep hanging with your friends, and just keep doing what you're doing mostly. An idea will hit you sooner or later. The worst thing you can do for yourself is to sit and think about and try to force an idea to come. Don't do that!
My father is an entrepreneur; he started buildings homes in his early twenties and busted his ass to get to where he is now: he owns a construction company, property management company, and a lot of profitable real-estate. But he worked exceedingly hard, I know first hand and for me it is incredibly humbling. His work ethic has never diminished either.
When I was around nine years old, my father would have come out to job sites and pick up scraps of wood, shovel dirt, whatever. Some of it I enjoyed, a lot of it I didn't, but I quickly learned that I could hire my friends to help me for a fraction of what my father was paying me. So, if I was earning a dollar an hour, I would hire one or two friends to help me and pay them each 25 cents an hour. That way I am still making money even if I am not there... I would usually have them come out when I was not around.
By the age of eleven I was mowing lawns. I make advertisements on my parents computer using the old Microsoft Word, print out 30-70 at a time, and go door to door around my neighborhood setting them on peoples welcome mats, next to their doorknobs or anywhere I could so long as they were highly visible. Then, I would just wait for the calls to come in. For every 20 ads I put out I would usually get 2-3 calls. I don't know if my future clients knew I was so young but after I mowed their yards and they saw my work I would usually get the job throughout the summer (the only time of the year to mow lawns in Montana). Eventually, I saved enough money to buy a weed-trimmer, a five-gallon container of gas, and gloves and snippers. I'd set my trimmer on the mowers handle-bars, the gas can (which I could hardly lift) on the mower itself, along with my snippers... the gloves I could just wear. I'd push my mower anywhere within a ten block radius, anymore than that was too far and just not worth the effort.
I took great care of my tools and I took pride in my work. I would first scan the yards and do a walk-around, checking for anything in the grass that might hurt my mower or something that I might hurt, like an injured bird, a piece of concrete, or a kids toy. After that, I would prime and then start my mower and away I went. I changed my mowing pattern every time (and mind you I did not have a self-propelled mower, all push baby!) some clients like me to bag their grass, others preferred that I simply mulch.
Although I was young, I learned to listen to my clients needs and wants, like what time of day and how frequently they would want me to mow, how short they liked their grass, etc. I always showed up on time and always did my best, it was easy because I loved mowing lawns! I was excited to go out everyday and mow some grass! In fact, I still like doing it.
There was also a double whammy to this: these same clients that I would mow for, I would also snow-shovel for in the winter. I would do relatively the same thing, print out flyers, go door to door, and carry one, sometimes two shovels, and a bag of salt. After a couple winters I decided to buy a cart because trying to carry all of it was very, very difficult.
My lawn-mowing business taught me a lot of things: always check my gas levels and bring extra gas, always check my oil, check my blade, sharpen it if needed, wash the mower blades frequently, how to not flood the engine, how to start the engine even when it doesn't want to start, and various other things. I dealt with a lot of problems, like wheels falling off my mower, pull-strings breaking, wet grass (which is a killer with a push mower), and other issues. But I learned how to overcome all that and eventually I became very good at it.
After a few summers of mowing, I also began landscaping and pulling/clearing weeds and rocks. In between sports, occasional school work during the summer, and my other job of helping my dad, I stayed busy, but again I loved it. And I loved having money; my friends never had their own money, and when they did get any, it was mostly a product of their parents generous hand (monthly allowances, allowances for good grades... I never had these things). Before I knew it, I had clients ranging from residential houses to apartments complexes and plenty of cash, almost all of it I had saved.
At night, I learned how to code and build websites. One website led to another, which led to another, and another, etc. I had websites on Christianity, gaming, news, politics, war, you name it.
So the point I am wanting to get across to you is that I know what I am talking about because I have been an entrepreneur my whole life, and maybe you have to. Either way, were here together.
Entrepreneurship is about problem solving: you want to solve a problem that any number of people have; the more people who share the same problem, the more earning potential you will have. Competition does not matter... yes I said it... competition does not matter! This is something I have not heard any entrepreneur ever tell someone else. I learned this from my father and eventually from my own personal experience.
Competition doesn't matter.
Why not?
Well, because if you're doing your best chances are they aren't. This is a good time to reference Game Theory and the Nash Equilibrium, though that assumes that everyone is perfectly optimized and has perfect information. But from my experience, people, including entrepreneurs, are lazy. 99% of people I have met are lazy. They may have a successful company and they make good money but they can still be lazy. This is where I come in and exploit that laziness for my own gain. I see someone mows a lawn for $25, so I go and offer to do it for $20. I see someone has shoveled a driveway but has neglected to shovel the sidewalk, I offer to do both for the same price. Boom! Job is mine!
Most people are competitive, they will look at what others are doing and work to do it better, but they often neglect the most basic of principles: work smarter. Everyone has heard that saying, but few understand it.
For example; most people work between 9-5, I don't. I work anytime, day or night. I capitalize on their mistake. I develop personal relationships with my clients and I go out of my way to offer them more for less. If you mow someones lawn that's great, but maybe for an extra $5 I will come mow it, and trim/pull the weeds. You charge based upon the current marketplace, I charge according to whatever it takes to beat you. I don't care what the market says my work is worth, I care about how I can beat you. This works well when you have a lot of clients.
For example; if you charge $50 per lawn and it costs you $30 in fuel to travel there, gas your mower and weed eater, and for the oil and anything else then you have made yourself a nice $20 profit. I look at that and see $20 less that I can charge. I figure I can undercut you and so long as I am doing similar quality work, others in the area will take notice and my clientele is likely to grow. This works, I used it when I was younger and I use it today in my current businesses.
So long as I am not losing money, I am OK. And if I mow enough lawns I will eventually grow beyond my breakeven and become profitable. From there, I can adjust my prices for future clients and maybe charge a little more once word gets out... I just have to keep an eye-out for the punks out there looking to pull a me on me and undercut my prices.
To be an entrepreneur, you have to have some guts. To step ahead of the crowds and go your own way. You don't need the best tools, you don't need the fanciest equipment, you don't need any of that. You just need the right attitude and the right tool for the job. I can mow a lawn with my fifteen year old mower just as well as you can with your brand new self-propelled one. You may be able to do it faster but you won't do any better of a job, plus those self-propelled ones always break so while your mower is in the shop I just took a couple clients from you.
I can extend this analogy out to my web development and business analytics company. You charge a client $500 just for an estimation and first meeting? I will charge $400. It's all about your attitude. This is why I laugh every time someone says "this job market is way too impacted!", yes it probably is way too impacted if you're a sheep. I can come in and undercut you, out-perform you, out-work you, and out-smart you because I live and breathe to work. You work to buy games, TV's, etc, which is fine, but rather than taking time out of my day to use those games and TV's I would rather be making money, so now I have just gained an upper hand on you. If you do your best you will be successful; if you only do as good as it takes, you may still be successful but not nearly as successful or happy as that guy or girl who is truly doing their best at their job.
This is where entrepreneurship is so different and so much better than working for the man! Your best actually shows, it really matters and you will immediately see results. Rather than working in an office, preparing taxes all day for some boss who takes a cut of everything for doing nothing more than provided you the tools, office space, and marketing. I mean, you can do all that yourself for cheap! I just had an idea... a mobile, traveling, tax accountant.
Back to lists... yes I really don't like them; I don't hate them, but I just don't like them. Go to Entrepreneur.com if you don't believe me, everything is a list of steps; "8 steps to become a millionaire", "the 5 things successful entrepreneurs all have in common"... it goes on, and on. Unfortunately I don't know of a better method so I must use a list, but I will try to keep it simple, straightforward, and informative.
First, come up with an idea. The best way, and in my experience the only way to come up with a legitimate idea is to stay busy doing anything and everything you can; keep working your current job, keep doing household chores, keep hanging with your friends, and just keep doing what you're doing mostly. An idea will hit you sooner or later. The worst thing you can do for yourself is to sit and think about and try to force an idea to come. Don't do that!
My father is an entrepreneur; he started buildings homes in his early twenties and busted his ass to get to where he is now: he owns a construction company, property management company, and a lot of profitable real-estate. But he worked exceedingly hard, I know first hand and for me it is incredibly humbling. His work ethic has never diminished either.
When I was around nine years old, my father would have come out to job sites and pick up scraps of wood, shovel dirt, whatever. Some of it I enjoyed, a lot of it I didn't, but I quickly learned that I could hire my friends to help me for a fraction of what my father was paying me. So, if I was earning a dollar an hour, I would hire one or two friends to help me and pay them each 25 cents an hour. That way I am still making money even if I am not there... I would usually have them come out when I was not around.
By the age of eleven I was mowing lawns. I make advertisements on my parents computer using the old Microsoft Word, print out 30-70 at a time, and go door to door around my neighborhood setting them on peoples welcome mats, next to their doorknobs or anywhere I could so long as they were highly visible. Then, I would just wait for the calls to come in. For every 20 ads I put out I would usually get 2-3 calls. I don't know if my future clients knew I was so young but after I mowed their yards and they saw my work I would usually get the job throughout the summer (the only time of the year to mow lawns in Montana). Eventually, I saved enough money to buy a weed-trimmer, a five-gallon container of gas, and gloves and snippers. I'd set my trimmer on the mowers handle-bars, the gas can (which I could hardly lift) on the mower itself, along with my snippers... the gloves I could just wear. I'd push my mower anywhere within a ten block radius, anymore than that was too far and just not worth the effort.
I took great care of my tools and I took pride in my work. I would first scan the yards and do a walk-around, checking for anything in the grass that might hurt my mower or something that I might hurt, like an injured bird, a piece of concrete, or a kids toy. After that, I would prime and then start my mower and away I went. I changed my mowing pattern every time (and mind you I did not have a self-propelled mower, all push baby!) some clients like me to bag their grass, others preferred that I simply mulch.
Although I was young, I learned to listen to my clients needs and wants, like what time of day and how frequently they would want me to mow, how short they liked their grass, etc. I always showed up on time and always did my best, it was easy because I loved mowing lawns! I was excited to go out everyday and mow some grass! In fact, I still like doing it.
There was also a double whammy to this: these same clients that I would mow for, I would also snow-shovel for in the winter. I would do relatively the same thing, print out flyers, go door to door, and carry one, sometimes two shovels, and a bag of salt. After a couple winters I decided to buy a cart because trying to carry all of it was very, very difficult.
My lawn-mowing business taught me a lot of things: always check my gas levels and bring extra gas, always check my oil, check my blade, sharpen it if needed, wash the mower blades frequently, how to not flood the engine, how to start the engine even when it doesn't want to start, and various other things. I dealt with a lot of problems, like wheels falling off my mower, pull-strings breaking, wet grass (which is a killer with a push mower), and other issues. But I learned how to overcome all that and eventually I became very good at it.
After a few summers of mowing, I also began landscaping and pulling/clearing weeds and rocks. In between sports, occasional school work during the summer, and my other job of helping my dad, I stayed busy, but again I loved it. And I loved having money; my friends never had their own money, and when they did get any, it was mostly a product of their parents generous hand (monthly allowances, allowances for good grades... I never had these things). Before I knew it, I had clients ranging from residential houses to apartments complexes and plenty of cash, almost all of it I had saved.
At night, I learned how to code and build websites. One website led to another, which led to another, and another, etc. I had websites on Christianity, gaming, news, politics, war, you name it.
So the point I am wanting to get across to you is that I know what I am talking about because I have been an entrepreneur my whole life, and maybe you have to. Either way, were here together.
Entrepreneurship is about problem solving: you want to solve a problem that any number of people have; the more people who share the same problem, the more earning potential you will have. Competition does not matter... yes I said it... competition does not matter! This is something I have not heard any entrepreneur ever tell someone else. I learned this from my father and eventually from my own personal experience.
Competition doesn't matter.
Why not?
Well, because if you're doing your best chances are they aren't. This is a good time to reference Game Theory and the Nash Equilibrium, though that assumes that everyone is perfectly optimized and has perfect information. But from my experience, people, including entrepreneurs, are lazy. 99% of people I have met are lazy. They may have a successful company and they make good money but they can still be lazy. This is where I come in and exploit that laziness for my own gain. I see someone mows a lawn for $25, so I go and offer to do it for $20. I see someone has shoveled a driveway but has neglected to shovel the sidewalk, I offer to do both for the same price. Boom! Job is mine!
Most people are competitive, they will look at what others are doing and work to do it better, but they often neglect the most basic of principles: work smarter. Everyone has heard that saying, but few understand it.
For example; most people work between 9-5, I don't. I work anytime, day or night. I capitalize on their mistake. I develop personal relationships with my clients and I go out of my way to offer them more for less. If you mow someones lawn that's great, but maybe for an extra $5 I will come mow it, and trim/pull the weeds. You charge based upon the current marketplace, I charge according to whatever it takes to beat you. I don't care what the market says my work is worth, I care about how I can beat you. This works well when you have a lot of clients.
For example; if you charge $50 per lawn and it costs you $30 in fuel to travel there, gas your mower and weed eater, and for the oil and anything else then you have made yourself a nice $20 profit. I look at that and see $20 less that I can charge. I figure I can undercut you and so long as I am doing similar quality work, others in the area will take notice and my clientele is likely to grow. This works, I used it when I was younger and I use it today in my current businesses.
So long as I am not losing money, I am OK. And if I mow enough lawns I will eventually grow beyond my breakeven and become profitable. From there, I can adjust my prices for future clients and maybe charge a little more once word gets out... I just have to keep an eye-out for the punks out there looking to pull a me on me and undercut my prices.
To be an entrepreneur, you have to have some guts. To step ahead of the crowds and go your own way. You don't need the best tools, you don't need the fanciest equipment, you don't need any of that. You just need the right attitude and the right tool for the job. I can mow a lawn with my fifteen year old mower just as well as you can with your brand new self-propelled one. You may be able to do it faster but you won't do any better of a job, plus those self-propelled ones always break so while your mower is in the shop I just took a couple clients from you.
I can extend this analogy out to my web development and business analytics company. You charge a client $500 just for an estimation and first meeting? I will charge $400. It's all about your attitude. This is why I laugh every time someone says "this job market is way too impacted!", yes it probably is way too impacted if you're a sheep. I can come in and undercut you, out-perform you, out-work you, and out-smart you because I live and breathe to work. You work to buy games, TV's, etc, which is fine, but rather than taking time out of my day to use those games and TV's I would rather be making money, so now I have just gained an upper hand on you. If you do your best you will be successful; if you only do as good as it takes, you may still be successful but not nearly as successful or happy as that guy or girl who is truly doing their best at their job.
This is where entrepreneurship is so different and so much better than working for the man! Your best actually shows, it really matters and you will immediately see results. Rather than working in an office, preparing taxes all day for some boss who takes a cut of everything for doing nothing more than provided you the tools, office space, and marketing. I mean, you can do all that yourself for cheap! I just had an idea... a mobile, traveling, tax accountant.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Were going to be entrepreneurs together
Just as the title says, were going to be entrepreneurs together. Follow me and we will do it.
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