Energy, money and creativity-ma to all Buffista biz owners.

It's really good to see what others are experiencing and overcoming.

And with a SWOOSH of my Writing Cape, I am back to work!

ETA: SWOOSH back, real quick: I got my biz cards!

If anyone wants to do a biz card exchange, like I'll send you 10 of mine, you send me ten of yours, and we hand 'em out to people who might not need OUR services, but who might find a Buffista biz owner useful, let me know.

Also, Liese, when you get your annual campaign running, let me know. I know a LOT of peeps in non-profit and a few who teach/work at Haskell in Lawrence, KS and will send out an email.

I love the idea of a biz card exchange, Erin. I have both cards and a 'referral card' that you all helped me create.

I can send paper and electronic versions.

There is a graphic designer I would like to give your info to.

I feel you around the spam issue. Thankfully, wordpress captures all my spam and sends me an email reminding me to 'moderate it'. In other news, nuke it.

I found an interesting article about encouraging comments. It basically suggests being super controversial and asking questions in the post text.

You are right, though, major blogs don't always get comments.

I think the pioneer woman gets the most I have ever seen.

So once again I have come to the realization that I need to start my own company rather than working for someone else. I've never done this before despite having a needed service and a market, because everyone says that you have to quit your day job and work 110% on your startup. And because I don't have venture capital.

I can't quit my day job - not only do I have a family to support, but it ties into my market and I need to maintain those contacts.

How did you guys get started?

Raq - I'm just me, so I essentially just took a huge, perhaps somewhat imprudent, step and quit a job that was sucking the life out of me and not paying very well. My thinking was that if I'm working that hard, I want it to be something I like and I want to earn more of the profit I'm generating. At some point, the second part of that should actually support me. It's not yet. BUT, I am only taking the risk for myself; I don't support a family. That's a whole other ball of wax that others might have insight on.

In truth, it took a couple years for me to work up equal parts of courage and frustration to make the perfect storm that propelled me to take the risk. I got to a "now or never" place, and never was just too scary and demoralizing to choose.

***

What success did you have this last month?

I'm doing what Liese did and using two months. Success was making the decision to do MK full time and make a career out of it. Got all of my ducks in a row sample-wise so that I can do whatever kind of session I need to. Made the trek faithfully up to PA every week to our business meetings (when I settle in DC, I will find a unit meeting in DC, but until then, I trek. Scheduled and held several one-on-one sessions. Found a good resource (book/website, etc.) that speaks sense to me about booking/growth strategies for direct selling business. (Michael Port's Book Yourself Solid for those interested.)

What do you have an eye on for the next month?

More networking and bookings to grow my business. Am setting daily goals for F2F contact, personal training (MK specific and outside resources). Accountability with tracking forms and reporting to director to face up to slow growth and inspire faster growth. Getting systems nailed down and in place. De-scatter my brain.

Brag point, frustrations, brilliant ideas?

Frustration with myself in not narrowing my focus -- get too scattered. It's a huge change in the way I exist, and I'm going to get disciplined and busy enough to make it work right.

I do have a good sized class coming up this evening that will start me off well for August, and I will keep that momentum going.

Didja at least pay the rent?

Yes and no - I'm bunking with my sister, who doesn't have rent or mortgage, so she's passing along those savings to me. Incredibly kind and supportive. I did manage to eat, so there's that.

In my case, I had a husband whose job would get us through until I started making enough to really contribute. And like JenP, I was in a job that I really disliked and that helped push me.

While I didn't steal or recruit any clients, I knew I had clients who would come with me and refer me to others. And I started really cheap. My expenses were just an office that I used very part time ($150 a month) and business cards, phone, gas, etc.

So, because I didn't really have anything huge I needed to buy, and because I had a spouse who had a job that could pay the bills, I didn't need any start up capital. Things were very very tight for 2-3 months, but then it got easier. I will add that trusting that business will come is very very hard for me and like I said in my post, i occasionally start to feel tight-chested when I think about the bills I have to pay now (an employee, rent, advertising) but I try to keep a cushion in the bank and that helps me a bit.

Raq, when I first went independent, I was working for a non-profit that constituted my market for organizational development consulting.

My first clients sprang from coalition meetings. I didn't even buy business cards for 2 years.

From that came a 4 year, highly lucrative consulting gig to a government agency.

All this is to say, your needed service and built in market may not require the kind of machinations I have to go through as a therapist/coach.

I say, begin now. Develop an identity, craft a message for your audience and toss your hook into the pond. As long as you do not cross any conflict of interest lines with your current employer, you should be okay.

Depending on what you are doing, it might be worth getting some legal research done to ensure against the above.

Go for it!

Can I just say, I would really, truly love to have an excellent spouse with an excellent income.

You and me both. I mean, I have an excellent spouse, but he unfortunately works for the federal government. Which isn't as secure a job as it once was, and which means we can't afford to live where we have to live on one salary.

What I need is a wife, someone to do the cooking and cleaning and admin trivia.

My concern is that I need funding because I can't do it by myself. So I need to be able to hire and pay people. I'm thinking about Kickstarter to at least get things to where clients will contract with us.

Raq, are there any organizations/corporations that could offer you space and admin in exchange for services?

Also, do as I say and not what I have done by setting up a meeting with SCORE or the SBA. They might have more ideas for funding than meets the eye.

In any case, the very best of luck!

I got started because I lost my job. Technically, I quit my job, but it was a quit-or-be-quitticated situation, and both I and the job were utterly miserable with each other at that point, and when I looked at what to do next, I realized that the only project that had been making me happy lately -- building the looniversity WordPress service -- was what I'd been looking for when I first landed the job, but had been doing less and less of over the years.

GULP. Time to go back to calling myself a web developer, I guess. With ZERO recent portfolio that I could use, but pretty decent chops from a big high-profile project on a fairly hot technology (phew!)

I had enough vacation/sick time payout from the looniversity to get me through the first couple of months of (my share of) living expenses, so my first goal was to get enough work in that time to make the business pay its own expenses. I started out with my linux netbook and the web domain I hadn't used for anything since my last job search; the first client bought me a used Mac Mini and a couple of decent monitors. After the initial equipment costs were paid and the looniversity money was used up, I reset the goal to trying to make ongoing business costs (which is mostly taxes right now) + a certain amount toward our living costs each month. We've had to hit and repay savings once when the mortgage payment came before the paycheck, but I haven't yet dipped into living money to cover business expenses. Even when it's making almost nothing, it's at least paying for itself. (That said, it's a ridic cheap business to be in once you have a computer that's up to the job - other people's actual costs will totally vary!!)

I just passed the six-month mark, and I'm absolutely determined to keep doing this. I STILL don't have a portfolio up. Sigh. Most of my business comes from referrals, friends of friends, contacts I've made, etc. Which terrifies me because OMG what if all those people figure out I'm like a total flake??? But all I can do is keep building, eh?

I'm completely blessed to have an excellent spouse. Other than him, my biggest cheerleader has turned out to be my fencing coach (herself a sole business owner in a mostly-male field), who was the first person to say to me "I'm excited about your business", back when I was still thinking in terms of "I guess I could freelance...?" I've really come to believe in having great support networks, even though I'm absolutely pit-of-the-stomach afraid of falling. I'm incredibly angry that we as a society don't do a better job of such support on a large scale: I spit at the rhetoric that the current political right is in any way "pro-business" when the massive fail of not having universal health care, equal legal standing for all families, and a fair shot at a decent education for everyone prevents people from even the minimal business risk that I've taken. I'm incredibly privileged. I also LOVE that going into business for myself has turned me into so much more of a ravening socialist ;)

I'm deeply skeptical of a lot of startup culture and especially venture capital; like the rest of Wall Street, it can be a dick-swinging game for the investors rather than a real reflection of the true potential of the business. More to the point, I don't trust the demands early investment typically places on the business itself: pressures to have a particular business structure that's ultimately designed only to sell, to give up control and IP, etc etc. That said, it may be an expected part of the game for the field you're in.

I'm a much bigger fan of bootstrapping something from a small kernel into something sustainable. Although I'd recommend starting with side consulting rather than getting fired first.