The things they don't tell you about being an entrepreneur...

It's 2:05 am.  I got ready for bed around 10:30 pm...It's been a long week and I've been studying for exams every day.  I took a certification course that took over my entire Saturday and Sunday I finally took my dog on the extra long walk that he deserves before hunkering down for another afternoon of studying.

Every morning we have to check all of our social media sites, and again midday and at night.  Sometimes we check in during random hours for good measure.  We are fighting with ranking websites to make sure our company page is correctly represented, we have less than 30 days to use a great offer from GoogleAds to try to gain some business and move up on Google searches, and on top of that we had to drive our shirts to the printer before they close in order to have them in time for our sale.

We had to haggle with the printer, who tried to double the price per item, and finally came to an agreement that we could get original price if we meet a minimum order:  A small victory because now we'll have consistent pricing that we can count on!

I tried to pack for my trip tomorrow, tried to study, at least was able to get in a workout.

Again...at 10:30, I had turned off the lights and was ready for bed.  It is now 2:12 am.  Since sitting down to close the computer at 10:30 I have spoken to two potential clients, gotten a new order for shipment, added 4 new pages to our website, and written and published a blog post to social media.

This is the life of an entrepreneur.  I have to go now, my 9-5 job requires that I get more sleep than I ever do while I spend my nights and wee hours of the morning on my company and my days at theirs.

Someday this will all be over.  I'll probably miss the excitement of trying to best express our company goals in web format, or trying not to over-write and bore people with my FAQs page, but right now, it's 2:16 am and if I don't go to sleep, I'll be writing you my accomplishments again in a few hours time, so goodnight, dear entrepreneurs out there!

Get some sleep.  Your business counts on you!

Make yourself Google-able

So you have a website...don't make the mistake (or rather the oversight) that we did.

We had our website for almost six months before we realized that it's quite possible the reason our tweets and instagram photos were coming up on google searches before we ever found our website was because we never added our site to the Google Index!!  Who knew you actually had to tell Google that you exist?  Now you know.

Go here to add your website to the Google Index

Now Google searchers will be more likely to find your site, 

and not just random posts from indexed sites that mention your site,

(though those are good too).

The "Quality Quantity Price" Puzzle

Buying en masse can be really helpful price-wise but definitely make sure you check out the quality of the product before you go too crazy or you might end up with a ton of product that isn't quite the bargain you were hoping for from buying bulk.

One way to check and see about products you're buying online is to ask companies if they can give you a sample of the material you want to use, of the item, or even of your own personalized item.  It may seem like a lot to ask, but you're investing in your company and if you like the product, you're going to buy it.  Manufacturers know that and a lot of the time (if they don't already do this) they're more than willing to help you out so you know you're getting your money's worth.  It's good business because you leave a happy customer with their service AND you get a firsthand look at the product, and it's good for them because, if you like what they send you, you're going to buy...and since you already know you like it before you bought it the first time, there's a really good chance you'll be a repeat customer.

So check the quality by asking BEFORE you buy to get a sample and make sure it's what you really want.  Get a good price by ordering in quantity now that you have the quality check, and go be successful with your high-quality, cost-saving purchase!

Dream BIG!

Follow your passion

The inventor of GoPro on how he developed the idea.

You can start around 1 minute mark if you want to skip the funny intro and get to the heart of the interview.  Follow your passion.  Be in tune with yourself and your energy.  Build your life around it.

Social Media: 3 Steps to Growth

If you're just getting started, you probably won't have "someone else" who can do the social media grunt-work for you.  What you can do is be sure you're on the most popular networks (a recent article by Buffer is a good way to get started knowing what will work best for you).  I especially like  KnowEm which can help you find the best username with the most flexibility based on what is available on various social media platforms.

1) I noticed that the first strike against a page that I look at is images.  I know, I know, you're an excellent writer and you have the best product/service ever and that's what is the most important.  Put it on a shelf.  Content is second to imagery.  Get some images for any article or blog post or anything that you are going to post on your social media.  Make sure it's decent, representative or catchy and relevant to your content.  This way, people will get past the opening wall of words that would otherwise have deterred them from further exploration.  This is the thing I found most prevalent in my own use of networks like Twitter and Facebook; if there aren't any pictures to grab my attention and solely text, even if the text is really great, I'll never get to the point of reading it and I definitely won't follow.  This is the sad truth of the way the global culture is evolving.  If you can't grab attention quickly, you're gonna' lose your audience.  I had to change my own strategy when I realized I was guilty of the same thing other pages were...to much text, not enough "Look at me!"

2) Second thing is content...and YES, this is the most important thing to YOU to have it reach your audience...so NOW it's your turn to pump up the charm and wow people with your brains, knowledge, know-how, connections, and spunk.  Give the people something worth sharing about.  Give them catch-words.  Hashtag the heck out of things.  Give them locations and names and anything that might grab the people you want to see this content.  Tell people why you're awesome!

3) Finally the fish-hook.  Remind people to "like" "share" and "follow" and remember the golden rule: do unto others as you would have done unto you.  This means:  like, share, and follow others, too!  Be a good friend so that others are good to you!  It's actually quite simple.  Give "shout-outs" say "thanks" to people who leave you positive feedback. Leave positive comments on things that make you happy or excited or interested in what they are sharing!  Thumper's words of wisdom are also very useful; "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."  Nobody needs your negativity in their life.  Don't use your social media to bash others.  Keep the circle positive!

Social media is about forming and growing a community or audience.  

1) Catch them with the eye candy, 
2) Keep them with the content, and 
3) Bring 'em back for more with positive interactions!

Don't give up!

its going to be hard.  Some people will discourage you.  Some days you'll be tired.  Some nights you'll ask if it's worth it.  Is it worth it?  If it's what you're passionate about it...if you love it...it's always worth it.  Even if down the road it doesn't work out, following your passion and doing what you love and loving what you do can only bring you peace.  Yeah, it'll be hell in a handbag sometimes, but overall knowing that you aren't under direction, knowing you're working so hard for you (and partner/s) is huge.  It's liberating.  It's empowering.  It inspires others to dream big like you do.  It forces us all to think about the big questions like what life is all about and what want to do with the one we have.

So think about the big questions after you catch yourself asking "is it worth it?"  And don't give up.

Tell Everyone!

People don't know what they don't know...so TELL THEM!  Let everyone know about your company and your product or service.  If they don't know it exists, they might not know they need it!  You wouldn't believe how many people have been really amped about our project when we told them and have already started to make plans for it! Talk it up!

Take a Break

I know you're all gung-ho but when you catch yourself slowing down or losing energy or arguing about nonsense...take a break, already. No one said you had to build your fortune yesterday. No one said if it's not done by x, you're fired...why? Because you're your own boss now, that's why!  Isn't that part of what drove you to entrepreneur in the first place?  Isn't working on your own schedule and your most productive moments part of the motivation behind being able to make your own hours?  Don't wait for it to be full fledged.  Start now.  Goodness knows there have already been and are yet to come many long nights.  So if you're feeling drained or less than your best, hit the reset button, close the laptop and refresh.  Trust me: your own desire will tell you when you're ready to get back at it...and it'll be glorious.  I'm not saying be lazy...nope.  But do something for yourself and your health and your present happiness and well-being. Go do it!

How do you take a break and reset?

I run.  Or stretch. Or go to the beach and relax or write letters to friends.  I take photos or go exploring.  Anything that isn't business.  There's plenty of time for that :-). There should always be time for taking care of yourself.

WWW. vs Staight Up Website Name

If you've gotten your website up and running, make sure to try to access it both with and without typing "www." before the domain name.  Sometimes your host manager will automatically "forward" traffic but it's unlikely since you are the one deciding which version your website is actually located at.

We located our website at the www.domain.com, for example.  When we typed in domain.com, the same old advertisements for our web host were still coming up instead of our website, even though our site would show up at www.domain.com.  So, what you'll need to do is go to your control/settings on your hosting access page.  Look for something that mentions website forwarding.  Here, you should be able to find an option to forward either your www.domain.com to the domain.com site you have set up, or viceversa.  Additionally, you can redirect any site under your control to another page of your domain (and I'm fairly certain you can re-direct it to another website entirely, in the case that you wanted to buy a new domain name, for example, and forward your traffic from old customers to your new site, though I haven't tried).

Buy wholesale!

If you are buying anything that will be in a quantity greater than that of the common buyer, ask about wholesale pricing!  Even if you won't be buying in bulk now, you might later and it'll be good to find a company that will give you good bulk pricing (pricing before the retail or market markup on the item).  The MSRP is the market rate for resale (the post-wholesale pricing).

To give you an idea of what a difference wholesale can make I'll give you an example:

We searched for a large item online that is necessary for the success of our business.  The market rate for this product is $319 plus shipping.  This is what the manufacturer charges the average Joe for this item.  We need a couple of these to get started, and hopefully we'll need more as we grow.  For the six I need, it would be a total of $1,914 plus shipping. 

The lowest price I could find after scouring the Internet after checking the main brand site was $271.  This was posted by the parent company on Amazon.  So I would be saving $48/item plus getting free shipping.  My total came to $1,626 (including shipping) for the six items meaning I would be saving $288 just by taking the time to seek out a lower price (and that doesn't take into account any additional shipping cost from the original item)!

I noticed on the original website that they work with wholesalers (basically intermediaries between the mother company and the buyer).  Think any major retail store like Macy's or Target: usually they are not the brand owner; they buy from the manufacturer of the brand at wholesale price and sell it to the consumer at a higher price.

Eventually we will need to replace the items we are looking at when they break or become unusable so I decided that, even though we aren't planning on opening a Target store anytime soon, it might be worth it to get wholesale pricing information at least to understand 1) if any discounts are available for low quantity wholesale items and 2) what might my discount be for future bulk purchases if/when my business takes off.

I contacted the wholesale department for the brand and was pleasantly surprised; those $319 retail price items are only $165 wholesale, even though I only need a small quantity right now.  Larger quantities can result in even lower wholesale prices!  Good news for me!  This cost is FOB, though (FOB means "free on board" which is a schmancy way of saying "shipping is not included").  The additional price for shipping these items is $130 total.  So my wholesale buy ends up being $1,080 including shipping: a whopping $834 less than the retail price (and again, that price still didn't include the shipping)!

So, you see, even if you're only in the market for a few startup items, it's worth it to look into wholesale.  Know your options!  Knowing is half the battle (and, in this case, half the price)!!

Sometimes it's ok to not have a plan!

Get a website

If you want to maximize your marketability you're probably going to want a website.

So...we wanted a website and if you're not a computer nerd (and we aren't) this might be a useful, lay mans, guide to "getting a website" (and p.s. There is some vocabulary that you'll learn along the way).

So...we did what every intelligent entrepreneur does when tryin to do something we hadn't done before: googled it!  And there are a TON of ideas so I won't pretend that I have synthesized them all for reproduction here, just that I'll share what I found out.

Ok so a little history:  when the Internet was born, so were what I would compare to "families."  They are essentially the suffixes of the Internet community (.com .ca .uk .me etcetera).  We're generalizing here, but as in MOST families, it was necessary to give all of the kids different names so they wouldn't get confused.  Those kids are websites and their names are referred to as "domain names."  Because there are way too many people in the world wanting to have their own internet children, there had to be some overriding system so that no one would duplicate names.  This is a good thing because it would be a huge waste to build a website and have it trying to share the same website address as another.  It would be a train wreck.  So because of all this, when you want to get a website you have to go through one of the baby-naming gatekeepers.

I learned a bit about this and there are multiple options for where to get your website. The first step, though, is to see if it's already taken!  You don't need magical skills to know this; just type the website name you'd like to use into your search bar and see what comes up!  

If a full blown website pertaining to the name comes up, it's likely taken and not up for grabs (there is a chance this isn't true but unless you are interested in contacting the owner to buy their existing domain name off of them, I'd keep moving).

If the site is owned by a web domain sales company, it will usually come up with that company's site or redirect you to some sort of contact information in case you're interested in buying it off of them.  We, personally, contacted the sales company that had the name we originally wanted and they were asking somewhere in the range of $4,000 for it.  There were some existing domains I read about that could be bought for less and some for way more so you'll have to weigh your options and consider the size of your business and the capital you have available to see if it's worth it for you.

If you want to know another quick way to find out if someone already owns your domain name you can check the "who is" list which is the registry for all the baby names on the Internet.  This list can tell you who, if anyone, currently owns a domain name and you can find out details about past prices paid, location, other sites they own, and more (if you're interested).

Like I mentioned, we aren't in the position to pay $400 much less $4,000 for our site so we had to come up with another option.  If you're in the same boat, remember that flexibility is key! See if your desired company name can be shortened somehow.  Consider an abbreviation "NYtours" instead of "newyorktours", for example.  Get creative but remember the main goal is to stay searchable, that is to say, try to keep the words or names in your domain name something that a potential client might search for when looking for your product or service.

After reason quite a bit, we found this site to be one of the most useful: https://www.easydns.com/10-things-to-know-before-you-register/ it has some really helpful pointers on things to look out for on your domain contracts.

Find a place to register your domain name (an example of a registrar is godaddy.com or register.com (these are not recommendations, solely example of where you can register your domain name).  There are multiple options for hosting as well...before you buy your domain name with any given registrar, take a look at web hosting.

You will disagree. It's ok.

In business you'll disagree.  With a business partner, with a lender, with yourself!  There's a lot going on, there is (or will be) money involved, but most importantly you all want to make it work and you're individuals with your own ideas of how to make that happen and wanting to be proud to have your name on your creation.

I, for one, am amped and ready to go.  So is my business partner. We have differences of opinion on how to get to the end game. Our critical paths (the order in which we think things should get done to reach the "final" product are quite different and it definitely has caused some tension and unnecessary stress.

We also deal with stress differently.  Like polar opposites.  He sleeps and I feel a desperate need to exercise in talking last night at 10:30 pm I was ready to get out of bed (because out of respect I wasn't tryin to keep him up with the lights on (nor did I want to be on a computer any more hours of the day than necessary).  I was ready to put on running clothes and peace out for a run.  Maybe I should have because my body was calling for thy stress relief but in the end I did get up but I put my stress to good use by getting back to what I was doing on the computer, treating myself to a few minutes of "me" time on social media (which I haven't had time to do with all of the business startup stuff, and 45 minutes later I was finally ready to calm down and sleep it off, too.

My suggestion is to remember why you're doing what you're doing.  Change is stressful no matter what it is but when so much is at stake including (but not limited to) your time, your money, your energy, your passion, your reputation and your relationships, you're going to break down every once in a while.  Be prepared for this.  Be prepared (and willing) to communicate the things that stress you out and try to express yourself without the exasperation that I usually have (something I'm learning to control ever so slowly for the sake of my relationships).

If you still don't have a business partner and you're thinking about it, you should check out this post about what the author learned bout business from watching "I love Lucy."  

Breathe, stretch, shake, sleep (or run), and let it go ;)

User Names and Passwords

Write them down!

As easy as you think they are, every website will have different requirements.  Some will just be a username and some will be an email address.  Some will have loose password requirements, others will require everything short of your firstborn child, and still others will require only your firstborn child.

Write it down and no one has to get hurt...when they are frustrated and have to create new passwords every time they want to log onto or of the many sites you are using for your business...and they will be plentiful!

Store them in a safe place and keep a copy.  Use a simple system like excel so you can organize them or search the file easily.

Good luck!

Choose a name for your company

Before we decided what we needed to have for our company to technically "exist" I think we had already somehow concluded jointly that we needed a name and a website.  I think this order of operations stems from the theory I mentioned previously; marketing before your product is ready to be released is just as important as the release of the product, itself.

Ok...for starters think of a title for your company (we actually did this first).

One of our caveats was that the name had to have searchable key words. For us, this meant that the name really had to be uber-simple...the type of thing someone might type into google when they want to narrow down their options but don't have a specific brand in mind: "bird bath", "Florida trip", "restaurant deals in Barcelona." This resulted in not being able to have too much fun with a quirky double-meaning for our company's title but when we weighed the options we felt that our product is really about people and service and it depends on the capacity for people being able to find us more than catering to a highly specific group of repeat clientele.  This is not to say we aren't aiming for repeat customers, but what we are offering is a quality service not based on it being "cool" or "trendy" or "uniquely weird."

See stores like "hot topic" which cater to a very specific crowd that spreads the word within their group to visit.  It occasionally gets random stragglers but usually they are either wandering and see something unique that catches their eye, or the business reputation has preceded the visit and has brought customers in for something specifically funky or taboo (like sex toys or bachelorette party favors).  If Hot Topic was looking for a more generic audience, they might have chosen a more direct name like "funkadelic" or "crazy, sexy, weird" but they were more subtle and it fits them.  They aren't looking for the everyday person off the street to know them and "get" them and come in.  We are. So we are keeping it direct.

Being direct may not be as necessary when you have a physical location and you can grab customers with your intriguing storefronts or cool music, but in today's technology-driven experience, and with our business not having a physical location to use as a big 'ol "WE ARE AWESOME" banner, our website is our storefront and the Internet is our yellow pages advertisement, grabbing the attention of people in search of our services.  Remember, your company name matters.  Come up with a few options that you think will work...it will come in useful to be a little bit flexible when you get to creating a website!

Starting: when does your company actually "exist?"

I don't know if there's a specific order to creating a business.  I read recently (in a book about using your passion to create your dream job) that marketing something before it's even available is a highly successful way to gain clients before you even start.  Additionally, it can mean that your business brings in cash faster as soon as your product actually hits the market.  The allure of the desired product and the excitement to see it become reality make the business intriguing before it even exists.

We had an argument (I'm sure this is one of many that will come from two people collaborating on bringing a business idea to fruition) about what it really means for a business to "exist."

I argued that on some level it exists if you say it does.  No lemonade stand of mine ever existed as any more than a table and a piece of paper with some strikes of a marker.  The argument was over which item on our ever-longer list of thing to do and to buy comes first.  Which things mean we exist?

Entrepreneur As You Go

Guess what?

We're starting a business and neither of us has any experience.

Ok, that's not totally true.  I was a child entrepreneur;  I owned lemonade stands and sold string bracelets before these plastic loom things were ever in existence!  I groveled to "investors" so that they would donate to or invest in my causes from Girl Scouts to soccer teams to earthquake victims and beyond.  I even played witness to the start of a business under my lead but was not part of any of the major planning, resource, or grunt work (fail)...and...I'm starting a business.

I'm lucky because I have a lot of resources...one of them is the internet...which is absolutely nothing to scoff at given the boundless podcasts, articles, professional and government websites, online courses and more that could potentially be of use in this endeavor.  I have supportive family and friends and I'm not completely alone as this business idea is my husband's dream.  My biggest resource, perhaps, is that I'm a believer.  I believe in myself. I believe in my own capacity to get things done and to figure things out on-the-go.  As such, and given that I'm probably not the first person to start a business in the age of technology, I've decided to share our journey. Since its really fly-by-the-seat of your pants and I'm learning as I go, the title is fitting: entrepreneur as you go.

Wish us luck!