Prioritize

It's been an odd week personally. I've been balancing a few financial struggles since I was between jobs for 6 weeks last fall and have basically had to play catch-up since. With holiday gifts, license plate registration, losing and repurchasing eye glasses twice, car repairs and a speeding ticket I've had a string of bad luck that has kept me from saving much and paying off debt.

So, I made the decision to take a second job and focus on bettering my situation. After applying, interviewing and being hired at a local fitness center I thought I was prepared to play both the role of entrepreneur and employee. As it turns out, I arrived at training and realized otherwise.

There is nothing worse than a true gut check; one that is so uncomfortable that you physically feel sick is hard to ignore. While training for the new job, I felt just that. It was a step back personally, was not related to my career and was a temporary solution to a temporary problem. I realized I was biting off more than was necessary when I starred at a calendar and saw the nearly 70 hours of my week blocked off for work.

I came to the conclusion that if I am to work 70 hours, it should be on getting this company further off the ground. We're making great progress right now and signs of getting into the market are beginning to feel more real. If I can hold off and manage my finances closely for a few more months while working exclusively on the company I will see commission by Spring.

Sometimes it takes getting all the way up until the last second to realize that a perceived good idea is really a bad one. I'm happy I've listened to my gut and have even found a less time consuming and stressful manner (legal of course!) to make some extra cash for awhile. Sometimes your instincts are your wisest mentor.

Rumbling Stomach

While there have been days of routine and boredom in this process, today's events remind me why I am determined to succeed as an entrepreneur. I opted to review the original business plan for the current service we are developing to check for consistency and judge if it needed to be updated. What I've found is that everything we originally wrote is still relevant; only the idea has evolved to include additional tools for producing revenue, better elements of organization and a number of new features/benefits to attract advertisers and users.

This activity became so exciting and immersing, that it wasn't until my stomach started rumbling that I realized I had nearly skipped lunch. Now, here I am downing a bowl of spicy chili and reflecting on the need to remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing, because it's a long road to success and losing your passion is not an option.

The Opening Pitch

Today I embarked on my first sales pitch; the client being a friend that was passed onto me by my business partner. The expectation was that the deal was nearly complete before I had even arrived and the pitch was just to download some information and meet our point of contact, the business' manager. As it turned out, the manager had marketing responsibilities within the establishment as well and was determined to grill me with questions to ensure that our service offering wasn't something that she could provide for the company internally. Needless to say, I was intimidated at the start.

Then, midway through my presentation my instincts kicked-in and I shifted my approach. Instead of explaining, I humbled myself and I listened. I asked why she felt the service would be something that they could do themselves, knowing I had a short list of quality reasons why they could and a longer list of reasons why they should let us provide the service instead. In the end, it was a phrase that I blurted out that may have helped break down her wall, "You could unclog a toilet, but sometimes it's worth calling a plumber." In other words-- we know you can do the dirty work, but it's a lot more efficient and less mess for you if you let us do it for you.

As I left I felt a bit defeated in the respect that I had to try so hard, yet empowered by my ability to react in the moment and customize my style to the client. You can obsess over the detail and intricacies of a presentation until you fall over, but you can't always predict the personality or disposition of the individual(s) that you're going to pitch to. Ultimately you must be prepared for any question, ready to change course and willing to go outside your personal ways if you expect to complete the deal. Today I accomplished just that & to my relief, my record is 1 for 1.

Right On Time

For weeks we have struggled to come up with an appropriate name and brand identity for our new consumer service website. Last week, after taking the holidays off from brainstorming all-together, I randomly blurted out the catchy term that we hope turns to gold. While domain names are being registered and final votes are being cast I cannot reveal exactly what that word is. However, I can reflect on this naming experience.

I've learned that the closer you are to something, the harder it is to see. By over-complicating the process we had saturated our minds with preconceived notions of what the name/brand should be. This limited our thoughts and restricted the ideas we were generating. When we stopped thinking, opened our minds up and just let our brains flow freely we were rewarded.

Whether you are creating a brand identity, writing a proposal or assessing your child's homework assignment; sometimes it's better to walkaway for awhile or take some time to hear someone else's thoughts before making decisions or judgments. You'll save time and likely strike it big.