Horror movies have always been a Hollywood staple. Sometimes, the film maker intends to truly shock and horrify us, like in Silence of the Lambs.* Sometimes, the picture is a campy takeoff of a horror film, such as Sharknado.** And then there are films that were purportedly serious, but wind up unintentionally humorous. Plan 9 from Outer Space, anyone? *** [Read more…]
The three fundamentals of work-life balance
This post is courtesy of Lynn Nagora, a Virtual Assistant whose services I use and heartily recommend. For more information about Lynn, her company and her services, please visit: High Caliber VA.
Many an author has penned an article about work-life balance. Yet, this oft-mysterious foundation remains an elusive goal for most of us. Nonetheless, if you are able to achieve that proper mix between career/business and your spiritual/social/personal side, you will achieve better success in your work and so much more satisfaction in your life. [Read more…]
Why Hiring is a Bitch and How You can Avoid It
Congratulations! Your business has done well. Youʼve grown your firm to the point where youʼre working way too many hours, but getting rewarded in that the revenue stream is steady and impressive. You feel you are ready to obtain help. This is a big decision for an entrepreneur.
So now you reach that question. Who do you hire?
Many entrepreneurs start with hiring family. Spouses, children, and similar folks can be good choices. In theory, they should be as committed to your success as you are. Of course, there are downsides to hiring family, as you well know by reading this blog and other content on this website.
Another common choice of the newbie entrepreneur for the first employee is a friend. Like family, friends can be incredibly helpful to you. A good friend could become a good employee. But if kids and other family can be minefields or missiles, friends, who are sometimes referred to as your family of choice, can have similar propensities.
What is a “SMART” goal?
Coaches and consultants alike encourage clients to set goals. A useful acronym in this regard is that for a goal to be an effective benchmark, it needs to be “SMART”. [Read more…]
I can’t work for anybody else.
Maybe you are like me. You chafe under the authority of a boss. Even a benevolent boss who may be a great person to work for still exercises a great deal of control over your day. [Read more…]
The best job ever?
Solopreneuring is the best alternative to a job. In today’s world, no one has assurances of continued employment except under rare circumstances. Virtually every job, even those once deemed to be less subject to layoffs, are no longer safe harbors. And as for myself, I feel more secure trying to make my own job, so to speak, every day. As an entrepreneur you are in control of your future. Well, more control anyway. And no, there is no security when you run your own business. But there’s not much working as a wage slave for someone else either
Yet another reason to be an entrepreneur . . .
Being on my own gives me the opportunity to brainstorm and to solve puzzles my own way. One of the missions of virtually every large organization, from the military on down to most corporate environments, is to train or mold employees into serviceable parts. Whether you are a private in the U.S. Army, or you are an IBM-er, you have to be trained or indoctrinated into matching your goals with those of your organization. On my own, I make up the goals. Moreover, I really enjoy brainstorming to try to figure out solutions to problems. That’s something that’s tough to do as a wage slave. Yes, I know there are companies that value innovation and encourage free-form thinking, but I believe these are still rare. With myself, sometimes bouncing ideas off of other colleagues, I can think of 100 ideas, of which 99 would suck, but one of them might be really valuable. Not only is this a cool way to spend my day, I think I might be run out of any typical big organization.
How to exact revenge
Revenge. It’s not only a TV show. Haven’t we all thought of “getting even” with someone at some point in our lives? [Read more…]
The Seven Deadly Sins of entrepreneurship — part four
The fourth of Gandhi’s seven spiritually detrimental traits is knowledge without character. In the world of entrepreneurship, think of this fourth trait or sin, as being all analytical while ignoring your “softer” side. In other words, you deal only with cold, hard facts, and brush off the intuitive, emotional, and creative elements of your self. [Read more…]
The Seven Deadly Sins of entrepreneurship — part two
The second of our seven deadly sins of entrepreneurship, adapted from Gandhi’s list of seven spiritually detrimental traits, is “pleasure without conscience.”
What this “sin” speaks to is greed. Greed is also commonly listed as one of the biblically defined seven deadly sins. What we speak of is the accumulation of wealth without regard to how you procure it or for what purpose you intend to use it. The goal is simply the acquisition and nothing more. Think of the character Scrooge from Dickens, or, for those of you with a more well-rounded education, Scrooge McDuck from the comic books. [Read more…]