Earlier today I was reflecting on the fact that over the past few years I have been approached dozens of times by people who are looking for a little bit of help getting their project, business, or idea off the ground. It just seems to happen. I’m not sure that I’m the kind of person who brings out the entrepreneur in people, maybe I just tend to have conversations that uncover peoples desires, whatever they may be. Regardless of what causes it, over the years I have been involved with an awful lot of projects and I currently act as an advisor to half a dozen or so people who are trying to better themselves in one way or another. I view these opportunities as one of lifes greatest rewards.

A conversation with one of these people today has led me to sit down and see if I can formulate the basic strategy I use when working with someone to make them more successful. This article, and what I hope to become a series of articles, will represent that attempt.

Before I get into the meat of it, let me provide you with just a bit of background on myself, what I am and what I am not. First and foremost, I am not a multi-millionaire. I have however founded a company that has generated several million dollars in revenue over the past decade. While we didn’t “hit the big time” and sell the company or go to an IPO, we manage to run it profitably. That means we didn’t generate a million dollars in income and spend two.

I am not a Harvard MBA. I am a hard working guy who has learned how to start, grow and manage a business using my own money. Yes, on occasion my businesses have borrowed, both start-up capital and operational capital for sound purposes, but I do not follow the mantra of “build fast, build big, sell out and wait for the collapse”. I prefer to build things that are profitable from day one, grow well without being over capitalized and have staying power. I still work part time at a business I founded more than 10 years ago. I also have a couple of other small and growing businesses that I enjoy very much. All together they combine to form a very nice stream of income, and I enjoy the variety I get.

While I certainly don’t consider myself average, I believe that anyone who is committed can be at least as successful as I have been. I’ll admit to having my ups and downs and I claim responsibility for all of them! So, with that all behind us, lets get onto the important subject here…You!

Everyone has a dream, most people just don’t realize it.

Several years ago I was visiting another company who was reselling some of our products. One of the technical support people, a fantastic guy in his late twenties named Ace, wasn’t in the office. I asked if he was going to be in today as he was one of their best I wanted to make sure I brought him up to speed on our latest offerings. Everyone just smiled. It was kind of an uncomfortable smile, so I asked if everything was alright with him and his family. “Everything’s fine with Ace, in fact, he retired” was the answer. “Oh” I replied and then we continued on with business.

Over lunch the conversation turned back to Ace, who hadn’t really retired, he just made the choice to live his life a bit differently. It seems that he had been running his own business on the side and it was really paying off. It was providing him with enough income that the full time day job no longer looked very attractive. The business itself didn’t take all that much time either as he had to build it on the side, in his spare time with the help of hired help. He was committing his time to is because he could, not because he had to.

The lunchtime comments were full of things like “I wish I could do that” or “wow, wasn’t he lucky” or “I wish I had though of that idea”. That is when the epiphany hit me. Other people aren’t like me. I spent a good portion of the lunch asking people there what their hobbies were, what were their interests outside of work. One person liked boats and sailing, another was into hiking and camping and one young girl wanted to be a makeup artist “someday”. They all had fantastic businesses sitting in the palm of their hands and none of them could actualize them.

The world has enough boundaries in it, get rid of the extra ones in your head.

We all know these people, or at least ones like them. They would love to run their own business, but they “don’t have the time”, “don’t have the money”, “there is too much competition”, “blah blah blah!”. So they end up chained to their jobs for fifty years, or more like 20 different jobs, until their too tired to work anymore and too tired to enjoy whatever retirement they can manage. Life becomes a grind. I’ve been there myself, its not much fun. What these people don’t realize is that most of the hurdles that they see for having their own business have been placed in front of them by themselves.

The biggest part of running your own business is solving problems. The people I just mentioned failed to even get started because they all failed to solve the very first set of problems presented to them and their potential businesses. If you feel you don’t have enough time to start the business, thats a problem. If you really want your own business, solve it! You don’t have enough  money to start the business? Solve it! Too much competition? Solve it! All of these problems have solutions, however most people get to the point that they see the problem and give up. Most people are lazy.

The first test.

The first time I meet with someone to discuss their business and see if I can give them advise I will usually have a long conversation with them getting them to tell me as much as they can about what it is that they would like to do. The conversation will cover the gambit, from gathering ideas, discussing the market, competitors, you name it. Essentially I want to know two things: A. Does this person have a solid basis of knowledge for what they are about to get into. and B. Is this person passionate about it.

At the end of our conversation I will make 3-4 recommendations, each one requiring an hour or two to complete. We will discuss them and agree that they are things that the person should do before we get together again, usually in one week, maybe two. Failure to complete them before our next meeting doesn’t represent complete failure, but if it continues into the next week then I know that I’m wasting my time.

Take the challenge.

You don’t need me for this one, you can manage it by yourself. You have no one to let down but yourself. Here is what you do. Select 3-4 tasks RIGHT NOW that you know absolutely need to be done to get you started. They don’t have to be huge, in fact they should be 1-2 hours each. Take your time assessing them and WRITE THEM DOWN.

Next you need to mark your calendar, set an alarm, whatever you do to notify yourself that something is due today. Don’t have anything like that? Hmm, there’s a problem Set yourself an alarm that says “MY BUSINESS task list due today”, set it for one week from today. If you are an organizer, do whatever you need to prod yourself along during the next week to get things done. How well will you do? Let’s find out next week.