Tag Archives: small business

06.04.13
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The Fallacy of Starting a “Real Business”

By Anthony Hilb

Be extremely careful with the advice people share with you…this blog included! What has worked for others may not work for you. Our economy isn’t what it once was, and technology is drastically changing just about every industry. Many traditional rules no longer apply. People have told me to grow my businesses, to start a “real business” and to get a “real job.” Yet I’ve been profitable since day one, and I make more than the average person my age. What’s so unreal about that? These are the same people that want me to take on debt and hire employees I don’t need. And that’s probably why 90% of businesses fail. People new to the business world frequently listen to their elders and take antiquated routes. This isn’t always the case, but it has been often enough from my experience. Every adviser at my local SBDC has not been helpful. I would have never even started the profitable businesses I enjoy had I listened to many of my risk averse elders.  iStock_000008617758XSmall

Who has helped me with their advice? Incredible people who blog about business and authors who write about business. People like Seth Godin, Jason Fried, Jay Levinson, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tony Robbins, Richard Branson, Chris Anderson, Chris Guillebeau, Timothy Ferris, and many others have all been very helpful. They actually have experience and know what they’re talking about.

Take a route that works best for you. Pursue your business at a pace that works best for you. Some people are in a situation to start a traditional business with millions of dollars and employees, while other people prefer starting extremely small without debt. Determine a path that works best for you and get started! You may need to start your business part-time, or you may be able to start full-time. It’s all situational.

To traditionalists and many people older than myself, it may not appear like I own a “real” business. I don’t have 50 employees, and I don’t own a big office. I don’t buy everything I need for my businesses up front; I rent equipment and buy it used if I know I’ll need it regularly. Even if I do grow more and hire 20 people, those employees won’t have to come in to an office. As long as they get their work done, they can work from their home or from their own small office.

I started my first business two years ago, and now I pursue three microbusinesses each week. One of my microbusinesses gets the majority of my attention while the other two only need a few hours spent on them each week at this point. It only took a couple hundred bucks to start all of my businesses, and I hardly spend anything on marketing. I have no business debt, and I’ve always been profitable. All because I follow my instincts and grow at a pace that’s right for me.

04.27.13
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Members Only!

By Anthony Hilb

nordstromSometimes making your business exclusive is the right move. We’ve been seeing many membership websites launch over the years. Lumosity.com is a basic example. Colleges are an even better example. By only allowing a select group of people into their schools, more people want to attend. They’re exclusive. Getting into prestigious colleges often shows credibility.

I don’t believe colleges are the only way to learn, but even certain professions only allow members. Doctors, lawyers, professors, and engineers are all required to have certain degrees and pass specific tests. Fortunately, many business owners don’t have to worry about those degrees and tests. Yet they must be lifelong learners. In order to be successful, many of the most successful business owners are required to spend the same amount of time, if not more, learning as the top professionals. Becoming a successful business owner is often a members only situation too.

Making your business a members only organization shows that you have standards. This doesn’t always work when you’re selling products. But think about Nordstrom. Their prices are high and they sell quality products. It’s a membership business because many people simply don’t have the money to buy from them. So those people go to Walmart and buy a suit for $60 instead of the suit that costs $1,000 at Nordstrom. Nordstrom has to sell a much smaller quantity to compete with those who race to the bottom with their prices.

The people who buy all of their clothes directly from Nordstrom are in the rich club or perceived to be in the rich club. Buying from them is a status symbol. Once you set higher standards and focus on high quality, you can make your products and services a members only club too.

04.15.13
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Improvise!

By Anthony Hilb

Improvise!You gotta be flexible. Sometimes you MUST improvise. I’m improvising this entire blog post; I have no idea what I’ll say next at this moment, and I haven’t decided how I’ll end it. I’m only giving myself 10 minutes to finish this post. But so what! The importance of improvisation can’t be overlooked, and this is giving me a bit of practice.

Sometimes incredible opportunities unexpectedly present themselves to us. Often times these moments are when we’ll have to improvise. In conversations sometimes we just gotta improvise and go with it.

Not everything can be planned, and we have a restricted amount of time to work during the day. However, so much can be planned. To eliminate too much improvisation during your work week, set your priorities. Be ruthless about setting your priorities. This will help you predetermine what actions you will take in many circumstances.

When an amazing opportunity comes your way, you’ll be able to make an educated decision about your course of action. You might need to drop a current project or client in order to pursue a much better project/client. But you will still need to improvise and learn as you go no matter what you decide. There’s no doubt about that. Planning your every move won’t always work.

My 10 minutes is up. I hope you enjoyed my improvised rant. Get out there and take action! Set your priorities and improvise when you’re stuck!

 

04.07.13
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My First in Person Book Sale!

'Big Al Carpenter'

‘Big Al Carpenter’

By Anthony Hilb

My first in person book sale was one-of-a-kind. It was the first warm, beautiful day in Bloomington, Indiana. Me, My wife Nichole, and my friend Jay sat outside doing our best to sell my new book, Make Money with a Microbusiness.  People were interested, but nobody picked up a copy for the first two hours. Then we met a really great guy named Al. He has been supporting Indiana University football for 60 years. Read more about him here.

Naturally, he’s a supportive guy. He’s known as ‘Big Al Carpenter’ here in Bloomington, Indiana. Big Al was on staff for the Indiana University football team for 10 years when Lee Corso was the head coach. He also shared some helpful life and business advice with us. I’m so happy I was able to meet Big Al, and I’m so thankful he picked up a copy of Make Money with a Microbusiness!

03.30.13
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Retrain Your Brain!

I NEVER watch the advertisements before watching a YouTube video. This commercial has been the ONLY exception for me. It’s a brilliant ad. Most marketers need to retrain their brains and make commercials more like this one. Nice work, Virgin Mobile!

03.18.13
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Construction and Destruction

By Anthony Hilb

The rules are constantly being destructed and constructed.

As children, we were warned about the dangers of breaking the rules, and we were punished once we broke the rules. Yet something was missing: We weren’t constantly warned about the dangers of following every rule. Learning when to follow the rules and when to break the rules is the key.

Destruction happens when we break the rules in order to implement new ideas. The communities who embraced computers and the internet are examples of these rule breakers.

Construction happens when we maintain and build off of those new ideas by following a new set of rules. The group who has helped evolve computers and the internet are examples of rule followers.

Here’s the catch: The people who have helped evolve computers and the internet are also rule breakers because they had to break some rules in order to make improvements. Making improvements is a series of following rules that work while breaking rules that no longer make sense.

In business, you often cannot sWreckit!tart building before you do some destruction. Sometimes an old building isn’t even worth renovating; it must be knocked down in order to construct a better building in its place. But renovating an idea can also pay off. Dreamweaver made coding easier. WordPress made the entire process of building a basic website easier.

Destruction is taking place in order to construct better buildings. When free advertising on the internet replaced much of the paid advertising that took place in news papers, we saw this pattern. When cell phones replaced answering machines and cord phones, destruction and construction were taking place.

Sunset industries can still be used to our advantage, but we must notice where to focus the majority of our construction work. The majority of our building will benefit us more when we embrace and understand the newest technologies.

But there’s a problem: Technology is growing at an exponential rate. Many of us can no longer rely on the 30-year career path and the life of an average business is shorter unless they continuously evolve and launch successful subsidiaries.

Because of these fast changes, starting multiple microbusinesses in a lifetime will be a common occurrence in the future. With a microbusiness, you can keep up with these changes quickly. Adapting with a microbusiness is often easier than adapting with a bigger business. Folding and launching microbusinesses can also be executed quickly and smoothly.

Evolving technology makes it easier to launch microbusinesses. Small teams are creating more of an impact than they once were. Mojang AB (makers of Minecraft) profited $90 million in 2012, yet they only had 29 employees! Instagram only had 13 employees when they sold to Facebook for $1 billion!

Destruction and construction in the business world are both happening faster than ever. Be sure to consider the power and potential of starting microbusinesses!