Are you tired of the life of cubicle hell?

Is you boss an ass?

Do you feel stuck with the way things are now and lost about how it could change?

Do you ever let yourself dream of freedom?

What is holding you back?

Of coarse, you already know the answers to all these questions, especially the last one, or you wouldn’t still be reading this. Fear. Fear of the unknown, the unfamiliar, fear of failing, being broke, fear you might not have what it takes to make a go of that business you’ve thought about.

I have a message for you. It’s like a message from an older brother. My older brother David died when he was only 22 years old from cancer. Although I have outlived him now by 30 years, I still feel his influence on me today at 52. I don’t know you, reader, but if you’ve read this far, I know you, and I’d like to be as your older brother would be and help you re-awaken your courage.

Note that I said re-awaken, not give you. You already have it. It’s like a seed that just needs a little stimulation to awaken from dormancy. It needs a little encouragement, a favorable mental environment in which to grow. Fragile in the beginning, time will make it stronger. Be patient. Keep caring for it.

If you will think deeply, you will also come to realize why I say re-awaken. You had it, long ago, when you were a child. Find those moments from your past, they are all you.

You and I live in the greatest country on the planet. The ideals upon which our country is based all stem from the concept of individual freedom. We are not given rights by the government, we already have them. Although not a gift, freedom has to be fought for to be kept, or it will be taken away. It’s your job to keep it and support those who help you keep it. It’s your job to fight those who want to take freedom from you, no matter who they are, or where they are. It’s a war. This country and the ideals it was founded around are the best attempt yet to create an environment in which the individual is free to succeed at life. It doesn’t mean we think we are superior, just more free to live and grow. Many people want to take away freedom. It gives them power. Outside people and inside. Has to be fought constantly or it is lost. Only here in America, is the opportunity to go for it- there for the taking. The only thing holding you back is your own thoughts. Like Dorothy, you could have escaped anytime you had wanted.

Start building your own small business. Have fun with it. It’s your outlet to allow you to fight against the shackles of the cubicle and that asshole you work for. Work for yourself instead. Don’t work to advance someone else’s goals, work to advance your goals! That’s living! Resolve that you are not going to have wasted your life being a slave to anyone, or slave to your own fear. Remember Saturday mornings as a kid? You felt wonderful when you jumped out of bed and could play. You can have that again you know. Something you can’t wait to get at. Build it. Have fun with it.

For a while, maybe even a few years, you will live in both worlds. Of course it will be difficult, the difference will be the outcome. You are working toward something. Death is not acting, not doing anything. Giving up. Settling for mediocrity. That’s not who you are. You are going to grab a big ass piece of life and run with it before anyone can catch you! Run!

Although you will need to be prudent, take baby steps, not make risky money moves, nurture this baby through the fragile period until it can stand on it’s own, at some point you are going to need to start thinking big. Most small businesses languish in mediocrity because the owner doesn’t think big. The owner simply created their own job. The next stage will be to make it into a real business. That would be a business that could function without you. When you’ve achieved that, you own a business, not a job.

The End.

“Tell me more!”

I can’t.

You tell ME more. Get off your ass and go to play. Report back to me.

Oh, OK, one more thing. Courage. If you had to think about every muscle that had to be activated, in just the right sequence, in order to walk, you’d trip before making one step. You can’t know everything there is to know before you can do something. You have what you need to walk, so walk! Don’t over-analyze. Find what makes you jazzed and go act on it. You can’t wait until it’s all perfectly clear in your head. If you believe in something, act on it. That’s courage.

I love the song, “If today was your last day.” by Nickleback. Give it a listen. It is a reminder to me that I have to grab a big piece of life every day, not be complacent, do what is important, choose my priorities, and not waste a minute of it being ordinary. So, if you are serious about living you life on purpose, find a quiet place, curl up on the couch with a nice cup of coffee, turn everything off so there are no distractions, think, and pencil in your answers in a notebook or a begin Word Doc on the computer. You will want to take your time and work hard on this, go in the order I have listed, this is serious because this is your life we’re talking about!

Regret is the worst. To be old and to look back and realize you wasted it, you had opportunity, you had youth and energy, but you didn’t “go for it”, you never got out of 2nd gear, you never overcame your fears, what a waste! What you accomplish in our short time here on Earth going forward will be mapped out right here. The past is done and you cannot change it, you can only have an affect on the future, in the present. My method starts with the “big picture” and move down to the every day level. OK, here we go, and I’ll make it short and sweet…

Obituary- write it yourself, copy the exact format as it is in your local newspaper. Use the same fonts for the header, name, and body, include your picture, use similar language to what your newspaper uses. I’ll tell you right now, take lots of time to do this, and revise it. It is THAT important. Make up a date in the future that is reasonable as to how long you might have left to live. Base your life expectancy on your family history and your current health and set the age at death that is reasonable and likely. Calculate the year, make up a date. That’s the morbid part, sorry, nobody gets out of this thing alive. Hopefully you manage to live the normal life and it is not cut short by some catastrophe. Now comes the fun part, what will they say about you? They are only going to hit the highlights so here’s your big chance to write your own life’s biography. What do YOU want them to be able to say about you? It can be shocking if you realize that you don’t much care for what they could say about you as it stands right now. That’s OK! This is your wake up call. You’re Ebenezer Scrooge, you get a do-over, starting today, right now. It’s Mulligan time! Another way to approach this is to consider what you would do if you were suddenly given only 3 months to live, what would you do with the time left? That is kind of a different question so let’s just assume you will live out the normal life. The odds are in favor of normal.

Life Purpose or Mission- why are you here, just to take up space and consume resources? The question to answer here is how will you change the world? This does not mean it has to be something that changes the WHOLE world, just your little corner of it is OK too. Most of us will not do great things that affect millions of lives, but if we do things that affect one life profoundly, is that not greatness? I happen to think so. This should take another day or so. The best method I’ve ever heard of is to begin writing non-stop, one purpose after another, 20, 30, 40 purpose statements, however many pages it takes. Eventually (after 20 minutes to 2 hours of solid, concentrated writing) you will start getting at the “real” answers, the ones un-filtered by your conscience mind saying what it thinks you want it to say. You eventually reach ones that make you cry. If it does not make you tear up to think of it, keep going, you’re not there yet. When you do, that is the one!

Long Term Goals- the big goals that take years to accomplish. They must directly relate to the purpose or purposes above. Perhaps you want to be in business for yourself, to have no restrictions on your income. There are many steps that will need to be taken to accomplish this, which will take time. As long as these goals “fit” into the purposes set down above, OK. If they do not fit, perhaps they are someone else’s goals that have been expected of you by a well-meaning parent. Make sure these are YOUR goals that fulfill your purpose.

Intermediate Goals- the interim steps needed to accomplish the Long Term Goals. Maybe to do your life’s work, you need a particular college degree. Fine, that’s an intermediate goal that advances you to the long term goal. These are interim steps that need to happen along the road to the long term goal.

Short Term Goals- Those milestones which will lead to the Intermediate Goals. Answer the question: what obstacles lie in the path between where I am today and where I want to be (the Intermediate and Long Term Goals)? Make sure you are going back and filling in all these details on each and every goal. Make sure that for every upper level goal listed above, you have all the steps that get you there, list them out separately to find the missing pieces.

Daily To-Do’s. Make sure they are things that advance you toward something on the above goal list. There are urgent tasks and important tasks. Make sure your day is not spent “pissing on fires”, or just doing urgent things. The best method I know is to each and every day, generate a new list of just 3 top things. Be consistent, these are the 3 things I MUST accomplish today before I do anything else from my list. These are the 3 most important things, not urgent or completely routine things. Brushing your teeth is not part of this list! Each To-Do should directly tie to something on the goals above. You will likely have a long list. Only add during the day, un-rated items, to the bottom of the list. Once a day, either first thing in the morning if you prefer, or at the end of the day before bed, go through your list and re-prioritize it, delete the done ones. Choose your top 3, these are “A” priorities, they MUST be done before any other items get done from the list. “B” items SHOULD be done, but not until the “A’s” are done first and you have the time. “C” items CAN be done if time allows that day and everything else is done. This is important: DO NOT change your list during the day! This is going to require discipline. You will not always accomplish even all your A’s. If you are not accomplishing enough or any of them, you have some distractions you need to weed out of your life. This is going to highlight for you WHY you are not accomplishing your goals. Each day is a unit. If you get all the A’s done, now do the B’s, and so on. Do not do or worry about any of the other things on the list. Add to the bottom all new things as they pop into your head. So, you will want to have this with you at all times. I use an app (To Do’s) on my iPhone, yes, there is an app for that! Throughout the day, I am constantly referring to my list, checking things off, adding new things, etc. Or this can be a piece of paper you write out every day, whatever works for you. Fundamentally, this is the reason you are doing all this stuff in the first place; it is a way to keep you focused on doing things that are advancing goals you want to achieve on the path to a fulfilling and successful life.

Something is just not right and you can’t quite put your finger on it. Occasionally, darker thoughts well up and a voice says, “what’s the use”? Well, I’d like to get a conversation going, not so much between you and I, but between you and you. Know thyself. Take the time to reflect on some things that I will point out, which you may find useful…

Number 1. We make our lives far too complex. Although it may seem like life was less complicated in the “old days”, the reality is that it is foolish to look backwards to the time of your parents and grandparents and wish for things to return to an earlier time. Life progresses and you cannot go back. Even if you could, you would find the exact same level of anxiety then as now. There are those who have learned how to live simply, and there are those who have not, in any age of history. The particular spot in history you entered at has nothing to do with it. While we may have lost some of our innocence from an earlier time, equally we have lost certain naive and prejudiced notions too. Living simply- is a choice, we choose to unburden ourselves of our excess baggage. We lighten our load. You can’t know everything there is to know, our brains and our time is limited. You can begin to un-complicate your life by learning not to stress over everything going on in the world. One of the best ways to begin is to completely eliminate watching or listening to the news. It’s very liberating. Think about it, what possible good can it do, for you to know every gory detail about a tragedy somewhere far away. Can you help? Doubtful, people on the scene already are. So what good is you knowing about it? Is it not like pouring a toxic substance, day after day, drop by drop, on one of your houseplants and then wondering why the plant withers? One of my favorite sayings is, Eagles do not catch flies. I wish I had written that. It has to become a conscious effort in your daily life to eliminate trivia. Despite what you might at first think, simplification is the result of work. It takes effort and awareness to recognize and then decide that you are not going to bother worrying about trivial matters about which you can do nothing, or, matters that will make no difference in your life. We worry too much! Stop and think about what good will come from all that worry. Let it go. It’s killing you. Simple rule: if you can’t do anything about, DO NOT worry about it. Same thing applies to any knowledge you acquire, if it adds skills or pleasure or talent, OK, if not, why are you learning about it? When we burden ourselves with all this excess baggage, weigh ourselves down with trivia and utterly useless information and worries, our energy is consumed but we accomplish nothing. Save your energy for things you can affect. List on paper all the things you can let go of today and do it- today. Tomorrow, same thing. Soon, you have simplified your life and you no longer need to work at it quite so much. You are making room for what comes next…

Number 2. Going back to the analogy of a plant, it is natural for complications to grow wild and it takes conscious effort to clear away all but the good, healthy branches. Like the decision that our life is in need of pruning, which is radical at first, becoming easier in later rounds, I contend that there is a moral, a spiritual, a human (however you wish to phrase it) reason to live like you are living life on purpose. The reason is this: It is a sin to waste your life. Don’t get hung up on the religious tone that statement takes. Perhaps you are a Darwinist, OK, then wasting life is a biological cul-de-sac. Call it what you will. Moral guidance, which to some seem like restrictions designed only to keep us from enjoying ourselves, are really attempts to keep us from wasting our lives in sterile pursuits. But some will object, “but it’s MY life to waste!” That is true. But when we reflect for a little bit beyond our selfishness, we realize how our lives are connected to all the other beings around us, and how what we do and say affects and influences them, what is your responsibility, if not to yourself, but to them? Denial of it does not change the obligation that exists (if not to ourselves, then to one another) that we should not waste our short time here on Earth. We are not here merely to consume as much as we can until it’s our turn to die. Even people who completely reject any notion of the existence of a God believe strongly that we owe our fellow humans an obligation which surpasses a completely selfish life.

Number 3. When we prune away all the brush and briers that have obscured the light from reaching the desirable branches of our life that we wish to cultivate, and we re-awaken in ourselves the hope that something good can come from a life well-lived, that there is something that is to result from it, and that it is a sin against your God, or your fellow human beings, or Mother Ghia (whatever) to waste your life, then it follows that you need to have some sort of goal or purpose you need to fulfill with your life. The first two steps are necessary to tackle the third. Without ‘clearing the deck’ and having resolve to fashion and create, it would be pointless to try to discover a purpose for your life. You would not have sufficient energy to complete the job, and you would lose desire by losing the reason to try in the first place. So, what is your purpose? First make a list of your skills, talents, and abilities on paper. Take your time. What have people praised you for? What were you good at, as a child? List those. Write down everything. Secondly, list all your accomplishments, every win you have had. You’re going to want to recall the emotions you had when you accomplished these, it will help to reinforce the natural desire to win, keeping you motivated. Now ask yourself, if you had unlimited funds, and money was not a barrier, if you had sufficient time, what would you use the talents you possess to do? What did you want to do as a child, before everyday life pushed you off course? What is it, that the mere thought of it, makes you cry? You’ll get to this realization if you follow my prescription here and give it ample time and reflection.

Regret is the worst. To look back and realize that we wasted time, to realize it is too late, that we no longer have youth on our side, is the saddest of all feelings. The goal of this exercise is for you to establish important priorities for your limited time here. Read about the lives of great people for inspiration. We have one trip around this ball in space, make it a good one, be worthy. It is not given to all of us to do huge-great things, but we are all capable of small-great things. It may be that the small thing that improves the life of someone we care about helps them to go on and do great things that the world recognizes. It isn’t always easy to recognize the influence we have but it is there nonetheless. I wish you well and would like to hear from you, this has been my way of fulfilling my purpose.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Luke: “I’ll try.”

Yoda: “No!

Try not!

Do, or do not.

There is no ‘try’”

(Jedi Master Yoda)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3hn6fFTxeo

In a followup to my post, What would Patton do?, let me make my point another way, a more direct way. Part of the frustration that exists in the populace today comes from our leadership’s handling of these wars. Lincoln once said to McClelland something like “if you’re not going to use your army, do you mind if I borrow it?” McClelland was a ditherer, the problem is that we have no Lincoln in the White House, we have Jimmy Carter’s second term. (Bush didn’t do any better in this regard, by the way) Weakness. Lack of resolve. before you label me a war-monger, may I point out that we won WWII in four years against the most modern, powerful militaries on the planet. We have been fighting this war for eight years against an army from the 14th century! And we are losing?

Either win or get out. What could be more compassionate towards the troops? These people suffer and die and their kids are growing up without them while the commander shoots hoops and plays golf. Shame on you!

Either win this damn thing now, or surrender.

If you study history, the tactics of a winning military consist of movement. Action. You do not take up fixed positions, you do not win by fighting defensively, you go on offense. You kill Taliban in mass until the few remaining have lost their desire to be Taliban.  Or we should come home. Do, or do not. Please, enough trying…

Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Absurd? “I have to have a job!”

Perhaps I can show you another way. With the official unemployment rate at 10.2%, and the real rate probably around 18%, many people have a new reality thrust on them, but I also speak to the ones who still have  jobs, such as they are. You should be working on retiring from the traditional “job” and start living your life! First of all, jobs are killers. I ran across several articles today (easiest way is see what I Tweeted @10MinutePayroll) about how not only does your job make you sick and more likely to have a heart attack, but people who retire feel 10 years younger. What could you do with better health and rolling back the years?

Secondly, I think we all now know that there is nothing secure about a traditional job. In fact, in many people’s minds, it just isn’t worth the price you have to pay. So what do I suggest as an alternative?

Decide today that you are no longer going to be a slave- to anything or anyone. Own yourself, your talents, your friends, your personality, and the rest of your life. Declare your independence. Start a business. Don’t talk to me about money! You don’t need money to start a business! What are your talents? Build a business around what makes you happy to do, those things where you become “lost in the moment” and lose all track of time. Have you never thought about these things? Have you spent all your adult life being paid to work on someone else’s dreams?  Today there is unlimited opportunity to build a business around your unique life, the Web has made buying, selling, websites, blogs, networking, information, educating yourself, all free and available, if you will just look and learn. Start building your own security instead of seeking out someone else’s company to hand it to you. Start a business! How will I advertise? You won’t want to. Pick up a copy of a new book called “Inbound Marketing” and read it 2-3 times until it sinks in. Start living! Jobs are where people go to die, to turn over their lives, their freedom, their sacred honor to another set of people that but for their being connected, would not be in your circle of friends. You say you can’t do it all at once? That’s OK, just get started and do not let another day of your precious life pass without doing something that advances you, Inc. Nulla dies sine linea, Latin for not a day without a line, in other words, not a day without something done. It may take weeks and months but gain a little freedom each day. Stagnation is death. Start by opening up your mind to what it is that resonates at your core, my guess is that you have never even thought such thoughts, you just took life as it came to you, like a plant that is tethered to a spot that has to accept for food what passes close to it only. Time to hunt! Time to explore, time to re-awaken the spirit that makes you alive!

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Healthcare reform. Most would agree with the idea that it would be nice to rein in the upward-spiraling costs of healthcare and make it accessible to more people, right? That is how this whole thing started out. But where are we now? Let’s think about this together…There are two over-arching reasons for spiraling-upward costs. Number one. Lawsuits have driven up the costs of malpractice insurance and have caused doctor’s to ask for every possible test they can think of to cover their asses so they don’t get sued. So, there needs to be tort reform. Number two. Each state has limits to the number of health insurance companies allowed to offer insurance in the state. This barrier does not exist for other kinds of insurance, we are free to chose any national company. The lack of competing companies keeps costs artificially high. So, there needs to be a lifting of this restriction.

Making health insurance more affordable by these moves would naturally make it more accessible to those who can’t now afford it. Simple and logical. Competition would also drive insurance companies to fill needs, like selling to people with pre-existing conditions by allowing a nationwide pool of such people for the purpose of spreading the risk, something that can’t be done now because of the state-by-state restrictions.

In almost two thousand pages, the House bill could not find room for any of these things discussed here. The bill basically mandates even more restrictions on what insurance companies (private companies) can and cannot do in America. The effect of this is to create a de facto nationalized system, even though it won’t be called that. It’s a government power grab, not reform. They (the people who are supposed to be working for us) do not truly want reform, they want to control (Control is power). If given this power, they will usher in an era of unbelievable control over every minutia of your life under the auspices of controlling costs of health care. What you eat, how much you exercise, what mandatory education you receive (retraining camp, anyone?), what kind of car you drive, how much you drink, what recreational activities you engage in, and on and on.

If you want your life completely controlled, for your own good, by the state, God help you, but please move to Norway, and leave the rest of us alone. Here in America, we abolished tyrannical masters and adopted and died to defend an ideal of the government being an elected servant of the people. I think most people know these things in their gut and are about to re-awaken from the slumber of daily life, get pissed off, and cause some hope and change of their own. What a beautiful time to be alive!

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

I recently attended my Keystone Business Forum’s semi-annual Keynote event, which launched the Erie, PA branch of the Drucker Society, a non-profit devoted to education of business ethics as written about by the late, great Peter Drucker. The branch will be run by Kevin Smith, who also manages Vie Associates, a training and education company devoted to helping local small businesses grow and succeed.

The first question to be answered about business ethics is, given the directive to “first, do no harm”, is this, is your business living up to this standard and what are you doing to ensure that it is?

Although we cannot guarantee that what we do in business always helps our customers and clients, we can at least make a pledge that we will never knowingly do harm to our customers and clients. By committing to do no harm, we make a statement about the main intention of our business. We are giving assurance that the customer or client will, at minimum, not lose as a result of doing business with us. That goes a long way to build trust, which is ultimately all we must have, if we plan to stay in business for any length of time. Without trust, words are just items of propaganda which do not serve the customer’s interest. If your word cannot be believed, they certainly won’t trust your product, or your service.

To commit to doing no harm, the business owner or the manager needs to take a fresh look at every part of the business, find out what actually goes on, randomly call customers, and basically protect the asset of trust, which is easier to build than it is to re-build. Find ways to find out what goes on when the boss is not looking.

Effort and resources spent on adding to the customer’s experience are wasted if the basics are mishandled and trust is broken or is not consistent. So, is your business living up to this standard and what are you doing to ensure that it is? Get to work ON your business, hire people to work IN it.

What would the old General, George S. Patton, would have to say about the war on terror? Ever wonder? For all who think any war is evil and should be avoided at any price, that price is the freedom of millions of people in Europe. If you think that the way to deal with a crazy who wants to kill you today is to ignore him in the hope he leaves you alone, you are begging for war. I ran across this in Patton’s own words in the book, War As I Knew It…

“Pacifists would do well to study the Siegfried and Maginot Lines, remembering that these defenses were forced; that Troy fell; that the walls of Hadrian succumbed; that the Great Wall of China was futile; and that, by the same token, the mighty seas which are alleged to defend us can also be circumvented by a resolute and ingenious opponent. In war, the only sure defense is offense, and the efficiency of offense depends on the warlike souls of those conducting it.”

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

CASH FLOW

What is more important to your business than cash flow? Ultimately, it all boils down to this, right? After all, it’s the reason you got that entrepreneurial itch in the first place. It’s OK to admit it. Without profits and cash flow, you’re out of business and a lot of people are out of work. Your most important job is to manage the finances of your business to ensure cash flows properly. Getting this wrong is what kills businesses, it’s how they die. You want to live and to prosper. That’s the spirit that made this the best country on the planet.

The problem with using your books to tell you how your business is doing is that accounting can only show you the past. Where you’ve been. History. It’s like driving a car by looking in the rear view mirror.

To see the future and not the past, you need to turn around as a business owner and look forward. The future of your business’s profits depend on decisions, actions, and directions you will take today. You cannot do anything about the past. You can only affect the future. That’s your job.

Maybe you’ve tried to do a budget with your accounting software or maybe you made a budget from scratch with Excel. The problem with traditional budgets is that in practice, they are actually not very useful. Oh sure, they are good at pointing out (all year long) what numbers you got wrong. Yeah, that’s real helpful. Chances are, if you’ve done a budget, you abandoned it after a while anyway.

I’d like to introduce you to a different kind of budget. In fact, I don’t even like the word, budget. Budgets are static. Boring. My process is dynamic. Alive. I prefer to call this a cash flow plan. Let me show you why it works.

As I say, it is a dynamic process. Start by developing a base 12 month, side-by-side, monthly plan. Revise, refine, and tweak it. Update it after each month with your actual numbers. There are many variables, like how you collect your receivables, how you pay your payables, how seasonal your sales pattern is, that go into this base plan. I have developed business budget forms to give you the tools to gather the information needed from your historical bookkeeping.

Once the base plan is developed,  go over the plan carefully to check for errors and to revise it. For example, unless a plan has ALL the elements, it’s no good. Just forecasted P&L’s or Income Statements is not enough, you have to do forecasted balance sheets too to make sure the P&L forecasts are working properly and then you have to look at the forecasted cash flows- now we’re getting somewhere!

Do you see? It’s the CASH FLOWS that really matter!

Imagine it. You will be able to spot a cash crunch months in advance. You will see where your money will come from and where it will go. You will see where the drains on cash are. You will see where you can save money. YOU WILL SEE THE FUTURE, NOT THE PAST.

A base plan of side-by-side 12 months of P&L’s, tweaked to be the best it can be.

Numbers replaced each month with actual results. More accurate.

You should get another set of eyes looking at your numbers. Can’t hurt.

You are seeing in advance, in time to do something about it.

You are finally looking forward, where you can have an affect, and seeing more clearly.

Learn more at www.10minpay.com/cf

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Looking for a better job? Check out www.indeed.com. Great site, it looks at several sources for jobs, you just type in your job title and your location. You also can set it to email alert you.

On the other hand, if you are done with being a wage slave, I think a really good way to escape Dilbertland permanently is to start and build up a business WHILE you are still working for the man. What do you think? Sure, it’s hard. You’ll work your ass off, but it’s good work, you will know that what you are doing benefits YOU, doing work that is in the best interest of someone else is actually not very smart. The only benefit derived is the wage. Sometimes that’s just not enough. Life is too short to have spent it just working for a living wage, don’t you think? Well, then, get off your ass, grow some snickers, and go do something with your life! You’ve got one shot at this thing, this ain’t no dress rehersal!

I’ve read other blogs that seem to whine about how hard it is to give up the salary handcuffs. Don’t you believe in what you do? If you have something to sell that you REALLY believe in, and you KNOW it is a great value, then you should have success getting out there and selling it.

So what if at first you don’t make much money? That’s why, in my opinion, the first thing you need to do is get your personal finances in better shape so you have the freedom to act. That’s why if you are so inclined to start a business while working for someone else, getting control of your spending is priority one. You need to be able to live on very little AND build up a FU fund.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.