How To Remain Productive When You Feel Like Giving Up” by Yaro Starak

Nicola says: One of the people I most admire in the blogosphere is Yaro Starak, from the Entrepreneurs Journey blog.  He writes from the heart, and writes well and intersperses his blog postings with techie stuff (such as the execellent reviews of blog themes for affiliate orientated bloggers) and the heart warming stories of his own journey to success, and those of others.  Here’s a great article about how do you keep going – and keep taking action – when you really want to give up, and it’s particularly apt in a week when someone close to me, who I thought would NEVER get going, has started taking massive action.  So cool.

YARO’s ARTICLE STARTS

Like most people, some mornings I wake up and feel less than enthusiastic about working. Sometimes, this feeling doesn’t stem from laziness or apathy, it’s a stronger power, a sense of futility and helplessness.

I know a lot of people look to my story of success as a source of inspiration and that is one of the greatest benefits I enjoy as a blogger, but – and I’m not afraid to admit it – I don’t always feel energized to pursue business and sometimes in my darkest moments, I even consider throwing in the towel.

This feeling is not so common for me now as I have lifestyle flexibility, a more stable income and a better mindset about work, but earlier on, it definitely was a problem. I want to explain how I overcome these moments (and still do the same thing now on occasion) to stay on track and how you can even have a productive day when you are not really feeling the mojo on the inside.

I expect you have felt similar feelings of despair or a lack of motivation at different stages of your business development, especially if you are yet to establish an income stream online that is sufficient for you to live off, or if you are right at the beginning and you have not seen one cent of return for the work you have put in.
Inspired or Dejected

Depending on your world view and personality style, when you hear of the success of others you may either feel inspired or dejected, and while it’s obviously more fruitful to look at other people achieving what you desire as motivation, as a fallible human, jealousy, depression and anger may be your initial responses.

Your mind is your greatest asset for success in business, but it can be just as strong a force of hindrance, sabotaging your efforts, destroying your work ethic and leaving you with no option but to return to the soul destroying job you promised yourself that you would never go back to.
How To Work When You Don’t Feel Like It

One of the characteristics I believe is at the heart of my success and the success of most entrepreneurs, is an ability to keep working in the face of failure and an ability to force yourself to be productive when you don’t feel like it.
Forced Smile

I remember many a time promoting my proofreading business BetterEdit, walking around university campuses placing posters on boards, experiencing a feeling of impatience, a lack of confidence and a constant inner-questioning of whether what I was doing was a waste of time or not.

It’s very hard to be confident of success when you have yet to seriously experience it. In many ways, at this stage of your business career, faith and fake-it-till-you-make-it confidence in your idea has to carry you through the self doubt, the set-backs and the slow growth.

Nothing goes right all the time. Sometimes clients will ask for refunds, or they won’t be happy with what you provide or the universe creates a circumstance you had no way of predicting, which you just have to deal with.

For you beginners out there, one of the greatest challenges you face is your battle with self doubt. Others around you will scoff at your attempt to buck the trend to start a business, your own results will come slowly and for a long time you will have to work every day for little reward. Patience and willpower are necessary at this stage.

BetterEdit offered a great lesson for me. Placing posters on university campuses proved an effective marketing method, but the return on investment was delayed. I put up a poster and it would not elicit a response for months – sometimes even years – so my “pay off” for hard work was far in the future. This meant that I had to believe that clients would come if I just kept at it for long enough.

In hindsight faith in an outcome is easy because the experience is had, before this, you’re playing with chance and believing in the possibility of success without tasting it. If you don’t have tolerance for ambiguity, you better avoid the entrepreneur’s journey.
What Can You Create Today?

One of the things I did and still do whenever I feel less than enthusiastic is to focus on output, rather than the external elements that bring me down. I might feel utterly crushed, but I know if I create something or take any productive action, I continue towards my goals.

The great thing about output is the power it has over your mood. Negative emotion breeds negative actions – lying in your bed or watching TV for example – or a lack of any action at all. If you focus on creating something and just take one little …..

Read The Rest Of This Excellent Article By Yaro Starak Here >>

Find Your Finance Cornerstone

(This article is reproduced with kind permission of Mike Southon, international business speaker, weekly columnist for the Financial Times, entrepreneur mentor and co-author with Chris West of “The Beermat Entrepreneur” series of books).

Mike Southon says:  This is my column that will feature in Saturday’s Financial Times, which can be found in the entrepreneurship pages of the Money section. You can also find my columns on the FT web site here )

One of the symptoms of a credit crunch moving seamlessly into a recession is the unfortunate chore of the entrepreneur spending more time with their bank manager.

This might well be to obtain more credit to cope with a short-term cash-flow problem, or to explain the restructuring required to take best advantage of unpredictable market conditions. Whatever the desired outcome, this is unlikely to be a meeting which either party regards with keen anticipation.

The challenge is that the entrepreneur and the bank manager speak two completely different languages. The entrepreneur likes to talk about new ideas and opportunities, about changing the world and making a difference and being recognised in the street. The bank manager is probably under strict instructions from above to reduce the risk in their portfolio of accounts, and can only express this in the language of the spreadsheet and the bottom line.

Meetings between entrepreneurs and banks managers can be tense and sometimes even characterised by strong language. Many years ago in my first start-up our CEO went to open a bank account. He was back very quickly and in a bad mood, so we realised the meeting had not gone well.

In his view, the bank manager was an idiot; he had not understood how clever our CEO was, how we clearly had an unbeatable business proposition and how much money we all were all going to make, including the bank.

Our CEO was ultimately right about this. We did indeed sell the company for a lot of money only five years later. But back on day one we had a small problem; we did not even have a bank account yet.

Understanding finance is one of the toughest challenges for an entrepreneur, especially if they come from a sales or technical background. It is a very large topic with constantly changing rules, and it was a real challenge for Chris West to summarise this into simple terms in Finance on a Beermat.

West worked with finance experts Stephen King and Jeff Macklin, and while there are indeed chapters on double-entry bookkeeping and tax, the book starts with simple and straightforward advice: before you do anything, you should find yourself a Finance Cornerstone.

This is very unlikely to be a full-time employee from day one; most people have a ‘virtual’ Finance Cornerstone, someone who comes perhaps one day a month and puts some order to your receipts and invoices in preparation for submitting your accounts.

But we make an important distinction between an accountant and a Finance Cornerstone.

An accountant is essentially reactive; they will do your books and then tell you that you have gone broke. A Finance Cornerstone is pro-active; they tell you in advance that unless you do certain things, you will go broke at some time in the future.

Even if they only come in one day a month, they understand your business and can advise on how to scale up your business when times are good, and how to scale down your business when they are not.

Most importantly, they speak the language of the bank manager, and should always accompany you to any such meetings. The entrepreneur should make some introductory remarks, and then leave the running of the meeting to the Finance Cornerstone. In particular, any promises made about the provision of security or repayment of loans should be made by someone who not only understands the mindset of the bank manager, but who is also more likely to be trusted to keep those promises.

And if circumstances change and repayment terms need to be negotiated, this is best done by a professional, who will present a case that is based on facts rather than emotions. After all, the bank is in the business of lending money with interest, so as long as they think you will not let them down, they are more likely to be sympathetic to your cause.

In my first start-up we were lucky that another of our shareholders, the CEO’s brother, was a vice-president of Goldman Sachs, and thus able to smooth things over with the bank. If you are not in this happy situation, then I recommend one of the organisations that provide virtual Finance Cornerstones, such as King and Macklin’s company FDUK.

Alternatively, you can even ask your bank manager to recommend someone. I am sure they will be delighted to help.

Finance on a Beermat by Chris West, Stephen King and Jeff Macklin is published by Random House Business Books.

Finance on a Beermat (Second edition):
http://tinyurl.com/6jlpxj

Evil Entrepreneurs – Or A Force For Good

Entrepreneurs don’t have a choice.  We have to do what we do – it’s as crucial to us as breathing. But many people think badly of us – and I have experienced this at first hand, many times.

So, with his name on my lips for the second time this week (read my “Note From Nicola: Wealth Coach Diaries” for the other mention….it is with many thanks to Yanik Silver for posting this inspirational and moving video about entrepreneurialism, on his blog.  This presentation by jon Butcher, was first delivered at Necker Island, to an audience including Yanik and Richard Branson among others.  Sounds like an amazing event…..

Yanik says on his blog “A few months ago, while at Necker Island, one of guests there, Jon Butcher, showed a video to everyone there during our Virgin Unite brainstorming session. We didn’t know what to expect but we politely obliged.After it was done, it seemed to have a tremendous impact on everyone there including Sir Richard Branson. You see, Jon had taken a lot of our thoughts on entrepreneurship, value creation and even the morality of capitalism that were swimming around in our heads, and finally expressed it. Yes, in our hearts, as entrepreneurs, we seem to instinctively realize as “producers” we provide incredible value – but have never stopped to put it together in this way.”

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Wealth Coach Diaries: Nicola’s Week

My new sewing machine has arrived today (£32 from eBay – why pay more?) and it’s beautiful!

Well, it’s a bit old and cream coloured, but it’s in really good nick and it’s got everything I need (forward, back, ziz zag) to make lovely linen garments and it’s even got a “quick unpick” which you slide along seams to unpick them quickly.

Also arrived today was the www.WrapOnline.co.uk catalogue and my word, they have a vast quantity of beautiful clothes, but luckily I was saved from spending a fortune by the fact they don’t do black, white or navy. Lots of lovely sludgy colours that I probably should be wearing but just can’t bring myself to buy.

Indigo, prune and kingfisher, I ask you. Bitter Chocolate, Poppy, Aubergine…..What kind of colours are they?

I have emailed them with my suggestions on how to triple their profits – stock black, white and navy in addition to those sludgy colours.

Don’t make the same mistake as Marks & Spencers for heaven’s sake.

OK, retail rant over.

Why am I sewing? Can I be that much of a skinflint you may ask yourself?

Because I’m looking for a hobby, used to be designer and can pattern-cut and sew standing on my head, and I have a much loved long linen shirt that I want to copy in many colours. Starting with black, white, navy and pink (the new black don’tcha know?). Also I want to teach Phoebe – it’s something we can do together and it’s a useful and fun skill, a bit like good cooking.

Talking of hobbies, the gardening has taken a bit of a back seat but the live Monday night Apple League poker games are coming along nicely and are great fun. I came 2nd out of 27 the other night, in the first game, and just missed being on the final table in the second game. I am getting to know the other players a bit now, still very friendly, and the landlord from the Thursday night game in The Montague pub, Worthing, came over to the Crown & Anchor pub to play this week, so I now feel that I could go there on my own if I wanted to.

Sean, a young salesman who seems to have taken a shine to me, says I’m getting a bit of a reputation for being an aggressive player who can bluff well. Bit scary apparently! I did learn from the knee of the master, Mr Watson, so that’s no surprise.

I gave Giles, the new owner of the Crown & Anchor, the book “How To Make Your First Million” by Martin Webb which I read last week and thought brilliant. I know Martin (presenter of “Risking It All” on Channel 4), from my clubbing days in Brighton. My penchant for drinking in loud nightclubs helped him make his first millions LOLOLOL and it was a fascinating read to find out what went on behind the scenes while Martin and Simon – now an aspiring counsellor for Kemptown – built their chain of pubs, clubs and restaurants. Watch a video of Martin talking about the book here
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Property Boom Kills Entrepreneurship

Over at The Business In General Blog there is an interesting article about property booms stifling business start ups.

“The negative relationship between property investment and entrepreneurship is not immediately obvious. However, the recent property booms in Ireland and the U.K. (amongst others) helps to demonstrate this relationship. In recent years, both countries have experienced phenomenal growth in house prices. That is, until everything came grinding to a halt at the end of last year. [1]

The net effect of this boom has been one where the incentive to become truly entrepreneurial was significantly reduced – why try and create a new product or service if there was a guaranteed high return from property development? Similarly, from an investment point of view, why consider any other investment opportunity if there was a perceived guaranteed high return from property development?

In Ireland, the short-term results of the boom were a huge increase in people ‘getting into property’ and in the U.K. every second TV show on Channel 4 seemed to focus on property, e.g. Location Location Location, Property Ladder, A Place in the Sun and Grand Designs. Now all manner of problems are coming home to roost as the market collapses and the scale of consumer debt is becoming obvious. [2]

The Irish Government was happy to continue to fuel the boom, rezoning land for development, and cosying up to property developers [3], given how the huge property related taxes were contributing to their coffers. As David McWilliams, a leading Irish economist points out, a national focus on property is damaging as a ‘country which experiences a property boom turns in on itself. The reason for this is very simple, property cannot be traded. Bricks and mortar are tied to the land and the land is fixed and can’t be exported. Therefore, the discipline of international competition is lost.’

I would go further than this, it also destroys enterprise – there have been countless examples of successful businesses in Ireland shutting down because there is a greater return to be had from selling the property for redevelopment than continuing the business as a going concern. [4]

As someone passionate about entrepreneurship however, I take the view that every cloud has a silver lining, and that the property collapse could prove to be an excellent stimulus for entrepreneurship.

As Michael O’Leary, M.D of low cost European airline Ryanair recently claimed, “I love recessions,” he says. “Recessions are much more fun. Good times are a pain in the bum. Good times, any idiot can make money. In recessions, the good get up off their backsides and start doing the kind of sensible things that they should do all of the time. It’s good for business”. [5]

Now that ‘property development’ is no longer a safe bet, and the Irish and U.K Governments realise that the boom is over, it is likely that entrepreneurship, in its purist form, should take off once again. Those who stretched themselves with high mortgages will face stark options: sell up at a loss, or try to make ends meet. For some, second jobbing will be their only option and this will also help to fuel the passions of entrepreneurship in people. It is also hoped that the respective Governments will play their role, after all their taxation policies and planning policies have helped to fuel the boom in the first place.

Alan Gleeson
Palo Alto Software

Business Success: The Men From The Boys

I’m really enjoying The Secret Millionaire DVD box set from Joel Comm, which was one of my Christmas presents.  (I’m using this couple of weeks after my op to catch up on all my watching / reading). 

First up I really enjoyed the ever brilliant Armand Morin on “Branding” today and then, on a whim, dived into Brad Fallon’s section (Stompernet) which I have also thoroughly enjoyed – and not just because he’s dead cute (love that jeans and shirt combo).  

This pic simply does not do him justice – lots of money and shorter hair, plus a more casual lifestyle suits Brad obviously.   New pic on Google Images, please, Brad! 

He has a confident, dead pan, calm, down to earth delivery style which I really like.  His voice and accent does not hurt your head, if you know what I mean?

Near the end – I mean literally right at the end of Brad’s slot – is a brilliant moment when he talks about the difference between those entrepreneurs who seem to effortlessly succeed and those who, while no less clever, dedicated, passionate, committed, just never seem to be able to make any money.  He was wondering why that was…..

I actually got goosepimples at that point as I could just feel a profound moment coming up….and I wasn’t disappointed.

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