Getting Tired

My Mom was telling about a book she had read about de-cluttering one’s house. It mentioned a concept called the boredom factor. That’s how quickly someone gets bored with something and then moves on to other things. Toddlers have very short boredom factors.

So, what does this have to do with business? Just about everything. I like crafts, and at any given time I have several projects going on at once. Why? Because I too have a short boredom factor. I get tired of working on one project, or I get an idea for a new one, then I just drop whatever I’m doing and go on to new things. In other words: previous projects don’t get done, I get tired and depressed quickly, and worst of all – I find it hard to concentrate on one business and the tasks associated with it. I’m still struggling with choosing one business and sticking with it. I can’t imagine myself doing one business for years to come, much less the rest of my life.

Now don’t start worrying quite yet. There are a couple of things I can, and am, doing. 1. I just need to find something that will keep me hoping from one project to another and keep my mind and hands busy doing new and fun things. 2. Learn how to focus my attentions. Learn that I can’t go on to another project until the previous one is done. And learn how to stick to it and have patience.

Of course I’ll be struggling with this my whole life, but I’m slowly getting there. If fact, any business worth it’s salt takes a lot of time, hard work, and perseverance. It’s very rare to be a smash hit right off the bat. So, I’m patiently waiting for the perfect business idea, for someone to buy my products, and even for learning all I need to know about starting and running a business.

New Contacts Make Me Dizzy

It’s amazing what kind of lessons can apply to business. For instance I got new contacts today for the very first time in my life! That all great, but I had no idea that they would make me dizzy. In fact, I hear tell that my eyeballs won’t be used to them for about three days! Yikes. If I had been a big business person with important meetings, events, and the such, being sea sick for three day would not have been the best idea.

So with that said here’s what I’ve learned:

1. Make sure you know what you’re getting into and all that it includes (at least as much as you can)
2. Think about how it may affect your business – even if it is a physical or personal thing it can have a large impact, but don’t put off doing something that needs done, just prepare for it so there’s minimal impact
3. Try to be prepared in case something sneaks up on you

I Lost a Client :<

Apparently it hurts when you loose a client. This one was one of my freelance clients (i.e. Web Design). I guess I don’t blame her. I was slacking off, but that makes it hurt even worse. Knowing that you could have done something about it. At least we are even on the payments. So this is what I learned from this experience:

1. If you say that you are going to do something – make it a priority and get it done ASAP (i.e. before you go do much of anything else).
2. Do the very best job that you can. The client is more important than yourself (but always remember that your family has the highest priority).
3. Make sure that you don’t have to depend on your clients for anything, especially paying your bills. This means KEEP YOUR DAY JOB.
4. Have a contract! Not just what the developer will deliver and when, but what the owner’s end of the deal is too including the payments. For web site work I strongly suggest doing a check point payment method. Make steps and goals for your site (for example: the site design, design implementation, shopping cart, etc.) and then pay the site developer after the step is done and approved.

That said, I’ve been guest lecturing in a friend’s class in which I talk about hiring a Web Developer. Here is the PowerPoint I’ve created for that lecture: Hiring a Web Developer (note: this PowerPoint is in constant flux, I will occasionally be re-uploading it, last upload on Nov. 13, 2007)

VacancyComics.com Turns One Year Old!

Okay, so this is a little late (see my post about business requires a lot of writing). I have my excuses, but they are pathetic.

Anyway, yes VacancyComics.com turned one in early October. To celebrate I posted the very first comic that I ever drew (the one with the psychologists). I also posted some interesting facts about VacancyComics.com including I started drawing comics over three years ago. When I started drawing them I thought I’d run out of jokes quickly, but now I have other 500 comics and even more ideas.

As for business goals achieved – zilch. I was kind of hoping to get out of the red, or even better make enough profit to have to file taxes (in Utah I heard it’s something like $200), but no such luck. I did sell one shirt this year. It was a commissioned piece with an LDS theme (if anyone is interested I can easily make another one ;). Well, better luck this year.

I hope to do a lot on the site this upcoming year including a new site design, some SEO, and perhaps even some advertising. We’ll have to see, but in the meantime I’m handing out even more business cards than ever and traffic to my site is slowly rising (very incredibly slowly, but still rising).

Business Requires A Lot of Writing

Well, I’m sure starting out right – not! Yes business requires a ton of writing, and not just business plans and financial statements. Let’s do an example: let’s say that you are taking a class (perhaps an English class). Being a student means writing a lot of stuff, right? You have to write things like papers and other homework. Well, now imagine that you are the teacher. You have to write the tests, grade the papers, and give reports and not just to the students but also to the school and parents. (Being a teacher includes even more paperwork, but we’ll skip that part for brevity.) Well, now imagine that you own the school! Send letters to parents; city, state, and other officials; donors; the community; etc. Keep paperwork and records. And then if you are a state school there are the billions of forms and legal stuff. Yep, running a business is like that. Not can, but is.

Now for that sad part: I haven’t been doing it. (As evidenced by how recently I’ve posted to this blog.) They say that if a goal isn’t written down then it’s only a dream, so this past week I started writing down some ideas for another business venture that I dream of one day doing. No, not my comics (although I should start writing my ideas for that), but an event hall. What a minute. Where did that idea come from? Simple. I’ve always enjoyed fantasy (dragons, princesses, fairies, etc.) and it dawn on me that there was no place in Utah for fairy-tale events. In other words there wasn’t a castle. Yes folks, one day I hope to build my very own castle. Every other little girl’s dream of a lifetime. So, if anyone has any great ideas for a castle (no evil or scary stuff please) then feel free to email me. Thanks.

Now I’ve got to get writing (including being better at posting to my blog).