From employment to starting up your own business

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Gassy Jack

Just me and Gassy Jack in Gastown, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Are you likely to find yourself in the same position as most when you are starting up your own business?  Most new business starters make must make the transition from full time employed to full time business.  The tricky part is the middle ground where you will juggle part time employed and part time business.

The problem arises because you lack the funds to leave your job on Friday and launch your new business on the following Monday.  It is also hard to leave job security and that regular paycheck behind.  So you hide your fledgling business from your employer and hide your day job from your clients.

Being caught in the part time middle ground can also affect your client communication because you are stuck at your employer’s place during business hours with little opportunity to meet with clients or use the telephone.  It can also adversely affect the quality of your work.  You are probably working longer hours and sacrificing sleep.  In this circumstance, trying to give 100% to both employer and clients can be challenging.

So here are a few tips to help you through.

  •  Find an appropriate transitional job where you can work 3 days a week, (preferably one that doesn’t directly compete with your new business). You will then have 2 full business days for client interaction and to concentrate 100% on their work.
  •  When you find the transitional job you need, be upfront with your employer.
  • Don’t tell clients that you have a day job but if they ask, don’t deny it.  I used to tell clients that I had a 3-day a week contract with a major client.  The day job was providing business training to insurance advisers, which was quite plausible because it wasn’t too far removed from the services I was offering at the time.
  •  Your life during the transition will become a lot easier if your business is 100% online.  That eliminates a lot of telephone and face-to-face contact.  However, depending on the nature of your business, this may not always be possible.
  •  Make email your main means of client communication.  Use web mail to reply to emails during the day when you are working your day job but only before and after work or in your breaks.
  •  Make phone calls during your lunch hour from your car (which can be a very compact office).
  • When starting up your own business, do the right thing by your employer.  Keep your activities separate and don’t abuse his or her business.

Until next time!

Gary

Starting up your own business – waiting for that one top small business idea

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A busy fruit shop business at the famous Pike Place markets in Seattle, Washington, USA

If you wait around trying to think up that one top small business idea that will transform your life and make you lots of money, then you will probably be still waiting around in 10 years time.   

Inventing a new mousetrap is not the way.  However, becoming a mouse expert, and solving mouse related problems in a humane and environmentally friendly way is a concept with much brighter prospects, if of course mice are your thing. 

There are plenty of opportunities around that will make you lots of money.  It’s a matter of choosing what’s right for you.  So follow your interests, do some thorough research, find the demand and get going.

The fact is that not all ideas and opportunities will interest you.  If that is the case, then you will probably find it hard to get out of bed each day to go to work.   You will not make money if you don’t apply yourself.

The process of choosing ideas to start a small business is not unlike making decisions in years gone by about what you wanted to be when you left school.  Some school leavers just know.  They want to be a doctor, a lawyer or join the police … or whatever it is. 

Other people aren’t as specific as that.  All they know is that they want an office based job, or one where they are outdoors; or one that involves meeting people; one that involves working with their mind; or one that involves working with their hands.   Others still can only define what they want to be in terms of what they don’t want to be.

Think about your strengths and your interests.  What are you good at both at work and away from work?  What kinds of things really fire your interest?  What do you do with your leisure time?  What gets you talking passionately from the heart? What engages you in an interesting conversation?  The answer is in there somewhere.

Starting up your own business doesn’t mean that you have to invent a new gadget.  You only have to sell people what they want, regardless of how many other competitors there are.  Your ideas to start a small business could involve ways to improve an existing product or service or an innovative ways to combine products and services.

It doesn’t take much to create a business edge.  Your top small business idea might be as simple as building a reputation as being an expert, being trustworthy, being on time, or being friendly.  Consumers are not fools but they are generally easily pleased with ethics, politeness and good value for money (please don’t confuse at with cheap).

 Until next time!

Gary

Theft in small business

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One of the common complaints I hear from owners of small businesses is that employee dishonesty runs rampant.  These complaints come most often from busy cash-based businesses like shops and cafes.

Some owners learn to live with an ‘acceptable’ level of dishonesty, having come quite cynical about the possibility of total eradication.  They treat the loss just like another business expense.

Opportunistic theft of cash often arises because many people have the mistaken belief that only the wealthy are in business.  The logic is that they can afford it and if any more justification is needed, it is that the thief is underpaid and overworked.

Serial theft seems to occur when people become bored, disinterested or disillusioned.  Access and opportunity, combined with lack of supervision, lack of systems and lack of employee accountability can create the environment for systematic dishonesty and deceit.

One of the golden rules of business is not to entrust anyone with sole guardianship or sole access to cash.  Two people and separation of their duties is a classic cash handling safeguard, because it is much more difficult for two people to collude in dishonesty.  However, this is not always possible in a small business, so you must look for symptoms.

As a Business Consultant who has walked into many businesses as ‘Mr. Fixit’ on behalf of banks and remote owners, there are a few classic symptoms to look for.  One is identifying any person who never takes a day off and never takes holidays.

Serial dishonesty needs to be covered up and the perpetrator will never risk anyone else looking at what they have been doing.  The reason they give for not taking holidays is always the same.  They would have you believe that they are so busy and so caring about your business that they can’t afford to take time off.

Hence, the irony is that it is often the person who appears to be the hardest worker, the most trusted and the most dedicated to your business, who is ripping you off.

Until next time!

Gary

Interacting with staff

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The goal of leadership is to have people follow and support you.   It is not to force obedience, although some days with some people, that appears to be the only option.

The power of ‘positive influence’ is a much more valued attribute than the ability to simply ‘boss people around’.  The development of people skills will always enhance your power of positive influence.

It’s hard to respect a lazy or arrogant leader, so develop a desirable ‘presence’ and to be admired for something in your working life.  One way to develop that is to be very good at something.  In that skill area at least, you can be regarded as an expert and be seen to be leading from the front.

As a leader, you must have confidence in yourself and it helps to be happy with who you are.   You should always have what is known in Aikido terms as a ‘beginner’s mind’, which means having a mind that is always open to learning and new ideas.  As soon as you think you know everything, your mind becomes closed to productive communication, knowledge and opportunity.

A good leader seeks to include people and their opinions rather than exclude them.   Information is to be shared, not an instrument of power to be withheld.  At times, confidential information must be kept secret and sensitivities respected however, telling some people and not others, based solely on favoritism, creates unhealthy division.

Employer – employee relationships should be based on mutual respect.  However, you are never going to please everyone all of the time so just be true to yourself.

Being true to your self usually means being straight forward, honest and ethical with staff.  People need to know where they stand with you, and it is not unreasonable to expect the same in return from your staff in exchange for a reasonable salary.  However, this does not mean that you must be everybody’s friend.

Until next time!

Gary

Create peaks in your business life

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If you are creating your own peaks then you really can’t spend too much time in the valleys. Here are 8 great ideas to help your thought process in generating happiness, interest and excitement in your business life.

Reset your goals each year and ensure there are some short term milestones and thus reasons to celebrate throughout the year

Give you and your team a reason to get out of bed each morning with performance based incentives.  Think carefully about this one!  Your ‘team’ extends way past your employees.

Research something new.  Always have a new project on the drawing board.  Plan it, research it, roll it around the group but don’t make it too complicated or unwieldy

Reward yourself by giving.  The act of giving will usually make you feel good.  This doesn’t mean you give away money or your emotional energy. Give a client a thank you; give an employee your trust; give empathy to someone having a bad day, give a pick-me-up gift, give your attention and interest to a person’s offer or suggestion.

Find a reason to celebrate – e.g. a birthday, a milestone reached, a goal kicked, good news, a good deed

Pay yourself – if you are being paid just like everyone else to do a job in your own business, you will be more inclined to get on and do it.  Feeling like the poorest but hardest working employee is debilitating.

Short ‘help-me’ meetings – can lift the spirits at any time.  The help can be for your self or for someone else.  It can be small informal chat over coffee about a problem, a suggestion, a concern, or an opportunity.

Go to a business seminar or network function – the aim is to learn something, to be inspired and/ or to meet someone.  These meetings are full of like-minded people, just like you, who are there for exactly the same reasons.

Until next time!

Gary

Quit living in the past

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Forever replaying the losses of the past in an endless loop is energy draining. Loss of relationships, loss of customers, loss in negotiation, loss of money, loss of opportunity and loss of face are events that we would like to re-live and change the ending.

Typical emotions are anger, frustration, vengeance, sadness and hollowness.  All these emotions are negative and draining.  And the major problem here is a reluctance to move forward until the mind has sufficiently dealt with all of these past losses.

It really holds you back.  It is easy to get stuck in a rut.  After all, who can be innovative and creative when full of anger and frustration.  Your business needs innovation to continue to grow.  You need to manage your emotions to do what needs to be done.

You must find a way to live easily with the past.  If it means making better decisions, then do that.  Seek advice from others, take your time deciding, do some more research and think through the consequences.  Do what you need to do but when you make your decision, be prepared to accept the consequences.

If you do this you won’t feel so regretful later and hopeful avoid the endless loop replays of despair. That will make it a lot easier to stay focused in the present and get some work done.

Until next time!

Gary

Focus only on what you can control

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You will waste a lot of time and energy trying to control everything and everyone around you.  In fact, you can’t!  The only thing you can really control is your self – your own attitude and behaviour.

People can behave in any way they choose but all you can control is your own response.  And it is important that you do.  When others behave badly, it is a strong temptation to respond with similar behaviour, particularly when rudeness or aggression is involved.

Our non-thinking response comes directly from Ego.  We don’t want the other person to get away with their inappropriate outburst.  But meeting rudeness with more rudeness and aggression with more aggression only serves to escalate to situation.  Abuse and violence can quickly result from a poorly chosen response, where calmness and soft words could have diffused it.

When you employ someone, you may be tempted to believe think that for the amount you are paying them, they should work 24/7 and that you should own their soul and their children as well.  The fact is you don’t!

You can’t control other people’s feelings, desires and emotions.  You can make them go through the motions of performance but you can’t make them put their heart and soul into their work.  You can talk, cajole and influence but you can’t make them care about your business as much as you do.  You can make working for you an attractive choice, but it is only a choice.  You can’t stop someone from leaving you.  When people want to follow their own path, ultimately you must let them.

The best you can hope for is to influence the actions of others but you will never own anyone or control their thoughts.

Until next time!

Gary

Don’t be in business to please other people.

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It is important to do whatever makes you happy.  Building a business structure to please other people is a dog’s life and a draining existence.  If you don’t like what you do for a living, then do something else.  Build a new business direction.  Upgrade technology.  Take a holiday.    Do whatever it takes.

If you find that people are trying to control you, using you, abusing your good nature or wasting your time, then change it.  Make the first change within yourself.

Move yourself to a new level of self respect.  You will find that people will treat you poorly only to the extent that you allow them.  High self respect usually attracts higher respect from others.

It may also involve putting distance between you and others.  If there are people you can’t remove from your business life, remove your self.  Sack troublesome clients.  Make new business friends.  Find the source of your unhappiness and frustration and fix it.

You really have to find your own place of peace and happiness.  Remember that your place of peace might not be another place at all.  It may be that you really need to find a feeling of peace and calm inside you.

Until you stop worrying what other people think about you, you will never break the invisible shackles that hold you back from realising your own dreams.  Take advice as you see fit but make your own decisions.

Be prepared to be at ease with the consequences your decision creates.  That may mean an honest conversation with family, friends, colleagues or staff.

In business it is important to do things your way.  Don’t create committees; just follow your own path.  As I have said before, colour your business the colour of you.

Your role is to present your business to the world and to control its destiny.  By doing so, you will be creating your own destiny.

Until next time!

Gary

It’s ok to be emotional

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For many people in business, expressing emotions is considered to be a sign of weakness.  Traditionally, weakness is never shown to other business people because it is something that will be pounced upon and taken advantage of.

Employers expect the same of their employees.  Employees are hired for their skills and capacity for hard work, not for the emotions.  It is expected that they keep their personal life at home and detach their emotions before entering the workplace.

However, this does not stop many bosses who bring their emotions and bad attitude to work and display them in an inappropriate and often uncontrollable manner.

Unfortunately, employees are the group perceived to be least able to defend themselves.  Some owners and managers have the misguided belief that the payment of wages and salary entitles them to vent their bad attitudes and behave inappropriately.

The truth is that everyone is an emotional being and everyone brings their emotions to work.  Some are better than others at recognising and controlling their own emotional states.  Some are better than others at understanding and dealing with the emotions of others.

In the early 1990’s the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) was introduced and since that time, EI has blossomed into a large field of corporate research.

In simple terms, EI is an awareness of one’s own and others’ emotions and the ability to control those emotions and influence the emotions of others. Those with high emotional intelligence show high levels of emotional restraint and empathy.

Researchers have found a direct correlation between EI and effective leadership, team success and employee performance.  It has also been shown that those who have high levels of emotional intelligence are generally happier with them selves and suffer less stress.

Until next time!

Gary

Leaders and managers

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Management is the art of guiding your business and allocating people and the resources of your business where needed.  However, the concepts of management and leadership are not necessarily interchangeable.

Not every manager is endowed with great leadership qualities.  In fact many who are called managers are poor leaders.  They are simply implementers, organisers or system supervisors who can enact the elements of a plan and follow through.  Their strengths may lay in sales, systems, technical, finance, knowledge, projects or idea generation but they can still lack the essential qualities that make a good leader.

Conversely, many great leaders make poor managers.  Their skill is to inspire people and enlist them to a common cause but can be very poor when it comes to control or managing the detail of implementation.

In the case of your small business, the leader is going to be you, the owner or founder.   You are also the chief manager.  In fact, you are likely to be performing many new roles at the start.

As an entrepreneur, you purchased or created the jobs that have to be done.  There was no requirement to have training or experience in any type of leadership or business management when you bought in to your business.  There is no guarantee that you will be good at it.

So regardless of whether you are the right person for the job, you are already in the job and you are unlikely to have all of the required skills.  So you probably have a lot to learn right here!

Business owners and managers too often over-rely on the false belief of power they perceive they have over employees.  They don’t see the need for leadership because they don’t have to.  Their view is that they own the place and everyone will do as they are told!  That can be an expensive business mistake to make.

Until next time!

Gary