Saturday, December 23rd, 2006...2:10 pm
Good Words from the Blog Carnival
Thank you for your thoughtful replies! This is a really long post… but the information is wonderful. We’re happy to add any additional posts throughout the coming week– this is definitely a busy time for everyone! 
Q. How did you decide to create your own job/business instead of continuing a traditional jobhunt?
A. Jason Alba/JibberJobber
How did you decide to create your own job/business with JibberJobber instead of continuing a traditional job hunt?
To be clear, I did continue a traditional job hunt. Let me lay out the early part of this year. I was laid off on (around) January 15th. I was given one week to transition the new CEO (the board didn’t allow me to have that title because I was too young. Lame.), and then got a few weeks of severence. I busted my chops looking for a job - during the first six weeks I put in about 60 hours a week - and really got nowhere.
Around that time, with amazing frustration and emotions (I had no idea that a job search would be so emotional - but when you have a lot riding on the outcome (like being able to pay mortgage + cars, and having a pregnant wife, etc etc etc), emotional doesn’t seem to capture it), I realized that I needed to step back and re-evaluate. I re-evaluated two things: First, what was I doing wrong (or, why was I not getting the results I wanted), second, how could I prevent myself from ever being in this situation again.
The answers to the first question eventually led to JibberJobber - I won’t explain or discuss it here but recommend that anyone and everyone begin to take control of their own career management and get a free account now.
The answers to the second question was along the line of the book “Multiple Streams of Income.” The idea is simple - don’t rely on just one stream of income (like, a job), rather, create multiple streams. I had read through this book a few months earlier with the idea that I’d look for other streams — I’ve always wanted to own my own business but was too busy working long hours, commuting, travelling, etc. and never put enough time into my own financial welfare (I was working too much for my bosses financial welfare - and they are doing quite well, I might add!). When the severence paid off I realized what a disservice I had done to myself. All that hard work for a few weeks of severence? Give me a break.
Even though I was super-stressed I still had time to think about me and my future. I had come up with two very cool, fun internet businesses that I wanted to pursue. These would be business what would be self-sustaining so that when I got a job they could still continue, and perhaps grow into something bigger than my job would be. That was the goal. I set out to look for a highly talented programming team to develop my ideas, and started to put together business plans.
Note that during this time I was still not making much progress in a job search and all of the “failure” was wearing on me - it was very very healthy for me to work on this project where I could have some successes, keep my skills sharp, etc.
One morning had to log some activity with my job search into my tracking spreadsheet so I wouldn’t forget to do something later on. As I opened the spreadsheet it hit me like a ton of bricks: having this tracking ability online would be the bomb. I began to think of all the cool things that I could do with my spreadsheet if it where online… and this was the beginnings of JibberJobber. (It quickly grew much bigger than the spreadsheet.)
The interesting thing is that when we released the first version of JibberJobber my job search started to show results. I’m not sure if it was a function of how long I’d been doing the job search but on May 15, 2006 I started to get calls back. I think that its because I was able to substantiate who I was and what my skills were. I even wrote a post on how job seekers need to substantiate who they are… one of my more popular posts.
Eventually my wife and I decided to do JibberJobber full-time and not pursue a traditional job. Here’s why:
- Even though it was a “job seekers market” it didn’t mean that finding a job would be easy or fun. I went through months of hell, not getting replies, not getting any respect… I admit that I started off wrong but it was a discouraging process.
- I’ve always wanted to own my own business. JibberJobber wasn’t my first choice but when we thought about the potential, and how many lives we could affect for the better, it was a no-brainer.
- Things happened so fast, and we made so much progress, and got so much encouragement from career experts that it helped the momentum. That momentum continues on today, and will be a driving force during 2007.
- I have learned so much about website stuff, internet marketing, customer service, etc. This has been an awesome “laboratory” experience for me, and has really sharpened my skills in a number of areas. If I ever want to go back into the market again I’ll be much better for having done this.
- We could financially afford to do it. We have been contributing to 401k for quite a while, generously, and our parents are both in financial positions where they could contribute. Without our own money or the ability to tap OPM (other people’s money) there’s no way we could have done this.
- We knew that we could be committed. My wife had been amazingly supportive, which is the number one key. Our families have been supportive but they know that even if they pull back we’re still doing it. We have all of the emotional backing that we need between the two of us and our users. Their success stories in finding a job, or networking has been a significant amount of joy for us.
Aside from all of those reasons, and this may sound weird to some of the readers, I realized that JibberJobber was much bigger than me, or anything that I could become. The feedback I was getting from users and experts was so encouraging that I realized that if it grew to where I saw it could grow to, Jason Alba would be “just along for the ride.”
And I am along for the ride - and its funner than anything than I ever imagined.
(one final note - I was on the fast track in corporate IT. I loved it - it was fun, somewhat low pressure, and comfortable. But a few years ago I changed from cost center to profit center… I went to work in a capacity where I was involved in software sales and everything we did was working towards generating revenue/profit. And that was when I had said that “I had tasted the forbidden fruit” and was no longer interested in going back to comfortable corporate IT.)
Q. “How is resourcefulness vital to a new business?”
A. Ryan Byrd/Ryan Byrd.Net
Some of you will remember my post earlier this month breaking the news of the Hundred Dollar Business experiment. As you must have assumed, Ryan Byrd dot net was the *first* weblog in the WORLD to mention the experiment. That should come as no surprise to you. Here at the Ryan Byrd corporate headquarters, we hold ourselves to rigorous reporting standards and nearly impossible levels of execution, all with the goal of better serving you, the highly intelligent, discerning blog reader.
To that end, Ryan Byrd was selected to participate in a business blog carnival. I know what you’re thinking, “Carnival! isn’t that a raucous, drunken fest held down in South America?” Yes, yes it is, but we’re talking about something different: [kahr-nuh-vuhl] not [kahr-nee-val]. When I think of non-Brazilian carnivals, I think of small, rickety, rusty rides with peeling paint, twirling their frightened patrons about at tremendous speeds, threatening death at every turn. I think of the shifty-eyed, unshaven felons with leery gazes who operate the rides with bored disinterest. I think of the overpriced corn dogs and cotton candy, the small families with their children, the packs of goth kids with their angst and piercings, the incessant carne music, the Siamese twins, the strong man, the bearded woman… Good times. Good food. Good memories. …
So… Carolynn D., over at that Hundred Dollar thingy emailed me the following business blog carnival question: “How is resourcefulness vital to a new business?”
And that got me to thinking about what I’ve really learned during my MBA program at the U. Here it is, in a nutshell (and you can quote me), “No one knows how to make a successful (ethical) business. What we do know are quick ways to sink a business. Is in the avoidance of those bad actions plus lots of hard work plus good luck and serendipity that businesses make money.” Because we don’t have control over happenstance, we can’t reliably produce a fail-safe business every time. Still, we can stick to proven principles, know our goals, avoid the pitfalls and through a lot of work, hope for the best.
That said, I think we can influence our business luck by careful planning, synergistic networking and, once again, continual hard work. I think, as the thirty days comes to an end, Carolynn knows something about hard work.
Part of good business planning should involve a resource assessment; finding answers to the question: What do I have already that I can use: ideas, skills, things, and tools?
Here’s Are some quick thoughts on Resource Assessment for the Budding Entrepreneur:
Ideas: Though basic ideas are important, a perfect idea is not essential. Let’s face it– there are a lot of ideas out there. If you take a mediocre idea and put a lot of work and energy into *doing* it, you’ll make much more money than if you just sit around thinking and pondering. For example, my parents live next door to a multi-millionaire who made his fortune painting gun safes with automobile paint. That idea won’t win him any genius awards, but he went out and sold lots of his pretty, shiny safes for lots of money. Now, for fun, he races Porsches in Germany on the weekends. List ten good ideas you have.
Skills: What can you do well? Do you have an eye for design? Can you pick up new technologies rapidly? Are you a good salesperson? Do you know how to cook? make candles? Are you a natural teacher? All of these skills can be parlayed into viable businesses. If nothing else, there’s always the possibility of writing how-to guides or books describing those skills. Make a list of your talents and skills and abilities.
Things:with the international ubiquity of the Internet, your trash really is someone else’s treasure. Here are two examples: people in Europe are buying boxes of old books at estate auctions and then removing and selling each page of the book (suitable for framing.) My brother David recently bought a few pages of an old medical textbook for 30 or 40 dollars each on ebay. Another example: a friend’s mother visits thrift stores and garage sales and with her internet-ready cellphone checks the value on the items. When she discovers something good, she puts it for sale on her website. I’m told she makes several thousand dollars each month, mainly on out-of-print children’s books. Write down the items you have, or have access to, that can be sold.
Tools: whether it’s a skill saw, a Dremel, a soldering iron or a laser engraver, you’ll likely be able to put those devices to work for you. The goal is to add value be it through repairing, building, creating crafts, etc. Even better, train a friend work *for you* to add the value and then go drum up business. What tools do you have?
That’s all for now. I’ll add some more thoughts soon.
Q. “Which internet applications/technology provide the most effective way for a new business to maximize their web presence?”
A. Chris Sandburg/Sandberg Ventures
There are hundreds of ways to promote a business online. I come across new ways to advertise and promote a business online almost every week. However, to simply things I recommend you first consider doing the following things to get the most bang for your buck.
1. Do some basic Search Engine Optimization
Search engines can bring in a huge amount of highly targeted “free” traffic to your website. You can just launch your website and hope you get listed in Google, but with some SEO knowledge and some effort you can almost guarantee that you will get traffic from search engines. My article Three Steps to Search Engine Traffic outlines a pretty straightforward SEO strategy to follow. While it isn’t really too hard to learn the basics of SEO, it is important to remember that the most important factor in SEO is backlinks, which could take a bit more knowledge and some creativity to obtain in a cost effective manner. Knowing how to do SEO and having the creativity and resources to carry out a plan are two separate things. If you have the budget, hiring an outside SEO firm or an SEO expert in house would be a good investment.
Many of the promotion methods listed below will help you obtain backlinks which will complement your SEO efforts, so it is important to consider SEO first so that you can best leverage the impact of other promotion methods.
2. Run PPC Campaigns
Running a Pay Per Click Campaign is probably the quickest way a business can start profiting from their online presence. One great thing about PPC campaigns is that you can know exactly how much profit you are making on each keyword and you can test different ad copy and get quick results. For a good introduction to Adwords, Google PPC network, check out Perry Marshall’s free course 5 Days to Success with Google AdWords.
PPC click campaigns can also complement your SEO efforts. As you find out what keywords, ad copy, and landing pages are converting the best you can adjust your SEO efforts to put a greater priority on the things that are converting the best in your PPC campaigns.
3. Start a blog
There are many benefits to blogging. It helps build a community around your business, helps with your SEO efforts (it creates more content and attracts backlinks), it can act as a “maven trap” (discussed in The Tipping Point), it empowers customers to easily spread the word about your products and business, and it can help you network with others in your industry.
4. Pay Bloggers to Review your website and/or products
Within the past six months or so many websites have launched which will help you find bloggers to write reviews. The four that I am aware of are ReviewMe, PayPerPost, Blogitive, and LoudLaunch. ReviewMe seems to be the best if you want to reach a large audience because the bloggers there tend to have a larger readership, but you will also pay a lot more per review than the other blogger review sites. PayPerPost could be a good option to increase your backlinks, but don’t expect as much traffic initially as you would from a ReviewMe Review. I have no experience with Blogitive and LoudLauch but I will be writing about them when I do.
I hope these tips help you get the most from your presence online. Feel free to contact me if you have specific questions, and check back often for more advice and tips in the future.
Q. “What staffing considerations should entrepreneurs be aware of and plan for when in “startup” mode?
A. Rob Merrill/Utah Tech Jobs
“When you’re moving into a startup, there are several determinations you need to make relative to staffing, and they usually revolve around what your business is actually doing. The main staffing-related problem most startups have is that there is no such thing as a “static” organization in a startup. By definition, staffing a startup requires constantly moving targets with an insane amount of simultaneously fluctuating variables. Because of that, many entrepreneurs get stuck either understaffed, or constantly reacting to problems rather than proactively creating self-sustaining infrastructure for your business’ future.
At the earliest stages, while you’re still fresh in the “entrepreneurial seizure“, you need to determine what the mandatory roles in the business are. In a startup, of course, there is no room for bureaucracy or drag of any kind. 100% of the resources need to be maxed to 100% or more. Vanity is death, though entrepreneurs by nature are often susceptible to vanity of some-kind or another. Beware! However, you need to reach out into the future to predict how the different “legs” of the organization are going to grow.
Take each group or functional area of the company and work on each “leg” planning out the infrastructure. Physically DRAW these out on an organizational chart.
For example:
- When shipping capacity reaches X, I will need a new clerk
- When shipping capacity reaches Y, I will need three shipping clerks total, and my original one will be the lead/manager.
Now, look around your network and fill all the roles on your chart. If they’re not urgent enough for someone do to them now, re-examine your chart. Give people many roles, or all of them (if you’re on your own). By default, the person taking on the role/responsibility of, say “Product Fulfillment”, is going to own the shipping process and all positions under that as well.
In terms of locating the right people, talk to your family, old co-workers, anybody. It’s not just who YOU know, it’s who THEY know. If you have investors, talk to them… they are vitally interested in your success, and will give you access to their network as well. At this point, if you have not been building and strengthening your network before this point (”networking” = giving, not getting), you will feel the pain here.
For now, you (yourself) may occupy all or many of the roles in the org-chart. No problem. What’s important is that you know what’s next in line and, while you’re doing the shipping clerk’s job, you’ll be working hard to be sure that, when you do hire a clerk, you will have a system in place to ensure that you don’t spend all your time training them–and that the level of service you expect will still be achieved.
The value to drawing out your organization in stages is that you can simultaneously:
- Grow each part of the business on-demand, but still according to your plan.
- Prevent yourself from vain distractions by hiring “on a whim” because someone is “good”. If they don’t fill a role you’ve already defined, and if there isn’t a clear need for 100% of their skills, then you must NOT hire them.
My final note of advice is that it’s more important to hire people vitally interested/invested in your purpose than it is to hire people who “know everything” or “can do everything”. Skill is surely important, but desire is gold. If you don’t know why, go see Rocky this weekend at the movies.
Remember: “The bigger the problem, the bigger the check.” ~ Mark Hughes.”
Q. “What should we do with The Hundred Dollar Business?”
A. David Rogers/Split Bamboo
“I think for your next round, you should pitch this idea to FundingUniverse as a contest that they could run on a monthly basis. Here’s how I would imagine it:
“1. Contestant puts in $110 in an acount.
2. $10 is put into a kitty for the winner. If 1,000 people participate, the winner makes $10,000. If you had 10,000 contestants, the winner takes $100,000; if 100,000 contestants …
3. They use the other $100 to start and run the business. It is managed through some kind of account like PayPal and there needs to be guidelines to make the contest fair and legal.
4. After 30-days the contestant with the most money in the account wins the kitty. Everyone else keeps what they’ve got.
5. Make it visible using web 2.0 tools. Contestants could blog about what they are doing and solicit help from anyone. Also use audio, video (interviews, etc.)–and make it social networky.
6. FundingUniverse gets buzz from the events and bring in more entrepreneurs and and Angel Investors.
7. Top few businesses could win business plan help and be invited the pitch to FundingUniverse Angels.
8. I could see this very big on college campuses. You could even do College Bowl-like face offs.”
Q. “What were your thoughts when you heard about The Hundred Dollar Business?”
A. Jerry Nelson/Mentor, BYU Center for Entrepreneurship
“Only pure dedication and passion for the project will pull this off!!! As to what to do after December…need to know the results of the project. Business is most often result guided, i.e. after learning what works (or doesn’t work) an entrepreneur can build on the success.”
A. Ken Fakler/Mentor, Orem Small Business Development Center
“I wasn’t sure you could start it on $100, but you did it. With much effort and a plan in mind you made it happen. I would keep the $100 concept going - start another micro business. Also, write an article and submit it to a business journal (BYU’s, UVSC’s, Daily Herald, etc.). I plan to nominate you for the SBA micro business of the year
award.”
A. Mark Nygren/Professor, “Entrepreneurship Skills”, Brigham Young University-Idaho
“I am excited about your $100 Business idea. I used to do the business game in my class where each team took $5.00 from each team member, $20, and started a business. You have got my attention to do that again.
“In response to your question, “How does the teaching emphasis and campus motto of “Rethinking Education” at BYU-Idaho foster an entrepreneurial attitude in students?”… we are entrepreneurial from the sense that we are willing to reinvent education and are willing to change, be innovative in our teaching, and think outside the box.”
Thank you everyone! 
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