Do you want to start your own business? Have you been thinking about it for years?

In the next few posts I will try to provide a series of practical hints to move from thinking to action – but smart action.

First – let’s look at some common myths!

1. Myth: It takes $100,000 to start a business in the US.
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   Fact: I am not sure why, but this $100,000 I keep hearing over an over. Fact is, most US  companies start for a LOT less. In fact, according to a CNN article the average cost is about $10,000. And I would agree! But, this means some have started for a lot less.
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2. Myth: Startup investment = growth potential.
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   Fact: It seems everyone I know is looking for the right investment deal to get things started. They know they need tons of money – often over $1 million just to get going. Yet, a lot of companies have started for less than $1000 and done very well. Think about Zappos, which started for $1000 and sold to Amazon for over $500 million! Not bad. And I have been in companies that have had major investment and no investment. Oddly, the ones which have cost less to start have made more money! The reasons are many – but the key is that starting small does not mean you will always be small.
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3. Myth: It takes a certain kind of guts to start a company.
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   Fact: Maybe – but it takes a lot more guts to have your whole livelihood controlled by other people doing what we call a “job”. Most people tell me they have a secure job and would not trade it for the lack of security of being in their own business. Security – really? Who are they fooling?
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4. Myth: I cannot start a company on the side. My current employer will not allow it.
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   Fact: This is another one I hear often. Usually it is followed by a story of “this guy” who started a company on the side was sued and had to give it up or quit the day job. Usually the one telling me the story does not know who “this guy” is. The story has circled the company and the details are left to the imagination. Are there such stories? Sure. If you start a company on the side which competes with your day job – your employer should stop you. But before you go with assumptions, check out the details and see what you can do. Ask the right people the right questions. Your employer does not own you – so they cannot be in control of what you do on your off time.  Think about it … would your employer care if you had a yard sale? Would they care if you mowed lawns? Probably not. So get the real facts of what they are OK with and what they would frown upon. Then – if you can – find synergy.
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5. Myth: I do not have an MBA or a business degree.
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   Fact: Good. Then you might actually succeed! MBAs and Business degrees are not about startups – they are about being middle management in large companies.

Others? What have I missed? Any other myths or truths you would like to add?

Recently, Get Rich Slowly posted this article about deciding when to quit your day job. (Click to read it in full)

In the article Sierra Black writes a lot of good thoughts, but based on the feedback the article gets, the article leaves many people asking the question “what if I don’t have a plan B?” It is a fun thing to head off into the sunset and think you might actually reach your dream. Yet, when reality hits home you find the fear thinking you may be living without an income! This is the fear Pamela Slim calls the fear of  ”living in a van down by the river” in her book Escape from Cubicle Nation. Pamela’s book is the ONLY on I know that deals head on with the fear in a realistic way.

Plan B

Well, to try and answer the questions about plan B, I think I need to say first: based on my clients, I have noticed that it is best to GROW INTO A BUSINESS instead of GO INTO A BUSINESS. I think this agrees with the spirit of Sierra’s post. I know many people who are making a ton of money on the side jobs – but they still have the “security” of a day job. One friend of mine quit his day job 6 months ago after seeing his part time business pull in over 4 times his “job” income for years. Not many of us want to risk it all like the high flying adventurer we hear about who put it all on the line – including family. In fact, I would suggest that while a few of those who risk it all actually win – and many win in a hollow victory having lost what is really most important.

What if it does NOT work?

Second, the question of “what if it does not work” is one with a lot of assumptions. You assume that after giving it a go you will be the same person. You assume that you will not have uncovered other opportunities. One client of mine went for it in a VC funded business. It did not work, but the connections he made have given him a great deal of work in other areas. He is not the same person as he was when he decided to go for it. He has never gone back to his plan B (which was to return to his old job) since he keeps finding new paths. And by the way – he often gets offers to take his old job back.

Many years ago I took a corporate buyout and did the same. It was a leap of faith – well – almost. I was financially stable in the move – so the risk to family was minimal. But, it was a leap of faith since I did not really know what was out there. But, I have never looked back – and I am where I am now because of the journey I took!

I got this email the other day:

“Something small on reverse interview:  I talked to my boss and asked him how he got to where he is today.  I used the reverse interview technique.  This worked well, he opened up and this has helped improve our relationship.  I now find him making more eye contact with me during meetings and I feel more comfortable in speaking up.”

This is one of the powerful things you get from this reverse interview – you get to know people on a more personal level. You open up the doors of communication and find common ground by getting past the corporate sterile conversations.

A friend of mine and I were talking the other day and they were telling me about how their brother had recently lost a job. Not only that, but the job he had just applied for that he thought was a shoe-in, had fallen through. So now this guy was telling me about the hard-luck story that his brother was having trying to pay bills.

Now, obviously, the story is tough. But honestly, my reaction was “How free he is now!” This guy just lost his job, he doesn’t have income. That’s the bottom. It can only go up–he can finally CHOOSE what he wants to do.

But what was he doing? He was putting in applications at every local shop in town and sitting back, waiting on a job to waltz across his threshold.

I was shocked.

“Doesn’t this guy have a degree in mass communications?”, I asked.

“Yeh” my friend replied.

“Then why isn’t he contacting some people in mass communications or searching out internships in that field, or even starting his own business doing something he likes? He doesn’t have anyone to answer to anymore. He’s free. He can go for his dreams now. Why isn’t he?”

My friend was at a loss for words.

When you are out of a job, you have two choices: you can find a job, or you can make a job. Odds are that if you make for yourself a career that you WANT, you’ll be much happier, much more fulfilled, and most likely, you’ll make more money.

So if you’re in this boat, where you need a job, then MAKE ONE. Go out today, right now, and MAKE YOUR DREAM JOB HAPPEN.  The alternative is to to be sitting at home waiting to hear back from applications. So why not give it a try? there’s no better time than now.

According to Nick Swinmurn, a 30 year old billionaire  the key to success is to “be scrappy”. In an interview for the BBC news blog, he talks about how it is the guys who don’t give up that succeed the most. It doesn’t matter, he says, if you don’t know how you’re going to do it. It only matters that you DO something. Fight against the odds, go against the grain and “try everything and just fight and claw and keep adapting, keep trying things.”

Don’t let yourself get distracted with side-ideas. While you’re working if you come up with something else that might be awesome–great. But make a list. Finish one thing well, then move on to the next. Don’t chase 4 million rabbit trails. If you spent only one dollar on each of those rabbit trails, you’ll be broke instead of 4 million dollars richer. Or $800 million dollars richer in the case of Nick. He just sold his latest company, Zappos, (a shoe selling company) to amazon.

Watch his video here. And while you do, ask yourself: Why aren’t you making shoes again? (or whatever it is that you haven’t tried because it is “too simple” or “wouldn’t work”) Yeh, maybe you should take a second look at that “crazy idea”.

Here is an excerpt from the text of the talk where Steve Jobs talks about being fired from Apple. You can find the whole speech at the Stanford News Service website.

…I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.²

These are just some of the ideas Dale Callahan  talks about in his new book “Company of One”, due out this Fall.

A man named Bill Price goes to my church. Bill greets everyone at the door every Sunday and has a passion and sense of purpose for this work of greeting. Now there are a lot of people who “greet” people. Think of Wal-Mart greeters. But Bill is different. I stood at the door with him one morning and he told me about people who came to the door. He looked at them and their faces and tried to understand where they were. Were they happy or sad? Was something troubling them?

He told me his prayer was that God would give him the words to say to the people as they came in the door that would minister to their needs. Wow! I remember walking away from this unpaid and seemingly meaningless post thinking this guy really gets it – he has a true passion and a true purpose.

He is not paid for this Sunday service, but is well known for his service. In fact, he is so well respected and successful in his “work” that the entrance of the church has become known as the “Bill Price Lobby.” He is not just standing around; he is serving a mission and a passion.

These are just some of the ideas Dale Callahan  talks about in his new book “Company of One”, due out this Fall.

Do you know the secret to happiness?

Earl Nightingale uses the quote:

“the secret of happiness is freedom
and the secret of freedom is courage."

As we look around, we have the greatest freedoms in this nation. And yet we take them for granted. We don’t recognize them. We don’t fight for them. We don’t stand up for them. As far as our government is concerned, we have spent alot of time over the last many years letting the government take our freedoms away. And they will take them away, no matter what administration, no matter what political policy.

That’s human nature

And yet on a more minor scale, in our individual lives we see that we suffer the same fate. Many of us are seeking happiness and freedom but we don’t have the courage.

So many people will tell me they want to do things. They want to start a business. They want to change jobs. They want to find fulfilling work. They want to help people. They want to do things to help people and have an impact on the world.  And yet they continue in their day-to-day 8 to 5 jobs and the things that have trapped them in their lifestyle. Things that are bringing them rewards and putting food on the table but they are not fulfilling. They are not acting on their freedom with courage.

The True Secret

There is a secret to happiness. The apostle Paul writes about contentment. Not necessarily happiness, but contentment is the key. He had learned to be content wherever he was. In wealth and poverty. In freedom and in prison. Yet you see in the apostle, that he lives out a freedom—even while behind bars—– he has exercised —with courage, with freedom—to do that which he was called to do with no apologies.

I would say that Paul, who was living behind bars, was living with more courage and freedom than many of us who are living in this nation today. We don’t operate on the mentality of freedom because we don’t operate with courage. What stops that?

Fear!

We do not want to set goals. We don’t want to think about what we might become and we don’t want to take one step towards becoming it. Many people say we are in a comfort zone. We’ve become comfortable.

But I still say—-it is fear.

We do not dare to upset anything that makes us comfortable. Even in a land where we can do things in such controlled fashions. We have the opportunity, the hours in a day, and the capability to do things with a minimal—yes I say minimal—risk, yet we will not even take that risk.

First Step

The first step I find for many people is answering the question:

What is it that you want?

You have the freedom. What is it that you would like to achieve? What’s out there that’s always been in the back of your mind? What do you think about while you’re driving down the road? What do you want to become? What do you wish you were?

Most of us have something like that that we’ve dreamed of doing.

Others of us never dare to ask.

Simple Question?

It’s been one of the most difficult assignments that I’ve given in a university classroom where I ask people what do they want. A simple flippant question that many of them will open a sheet of paper and start to write it down instantaneously —as the words come out of my mouth.

A wry smile, a quick flip open of the notepad, pulling the pencil out, and you can tell on their mind: I can write this down before he finishes the sentence

And yet there is a moment of pondering thought that shows up in their eyes as the pencil touches the paper: you can tell from the expression on their face: “What do I want? …This is an odd question.”

So what do you want?

Really! What is it that you have been given the freedom to do, but you need the courage to do it?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL81wu5FuNI

Have you ever earned a dollar that was not part of your salary? I have added this question to the list of many others I ask of those who approach me wanting help to break out of cubicle insanity and become entrepreneurs. Often the answer is no.

The $2500 goal

Here is another good question.

How long will it take you to make $2500 in revenue from your new business?

When I ask this question I can tell a lot about a person. Many people just look very uncertain – almost nervous. This question is serious – a real measurement – a real goal. While $2500 to most of us is not going to be life changing – it strikes fear into many aspiring entrepreneurs.

I can see the answers and the internal argument going on within them? Here is what I read on their faces – their internal conversation.

I have no idea, $2500 is a ton of money for what I do? Yet $2500 is really nothing. If I cannot get $2500, then how can I get $25,000 – or better the $100,000 I am after. This is overwhelming! I can’t do this!

Have you ever had these thoughts? Do you now? Seriously – this is common! If you have comment on where you stand!

Grow into business

Here is the thing – if you want to become an entrepreneur and have not had any significant part time business – you are approaching becoming a fool if you plan to quit the day job and go for it. You have too much to learn – and too far to go. And one of you biggest challenges is YOU.

So start today and begin. Get some money coming in – this creates HUGE momentum. If you can make $100, you can make $1000!

If you can make $1000, you can make $2500 – just keep doing the same thing!

If you can make $2500, you can make $100,000.

Momentum is the key!

Instead of going into business – which seems like a huge leap to so many – just grow into business. Start selling something – products, services, whatever on a small scale. Grow into business!

What are you doing?

If you have done this and met a $2500 mark – leave a comment and tell us how you did it.

If you have the fears I have listed above  – comment on that also!