Nearing the end of 2008, happily self employed, considering expanding my business and plotting new ideas for the year ahead, I find myself reflecting on the journey behind me and start to see the bright side of failure.

When I started what could probably be marked as my second business some four and a half years ago, I never thought that it would lead me to where I am now. As it became clear that the business would fail and that I had sunk quite a bit of money into a product that now clutters my storage space, it seemed that the happiness of doing “something I truly enjoyed”, would once again elude me.

I took that 9 to 5 and moved forward, setting the engine on cruise control I need to regroup, but I did not let that failure keep me from focusing on my goals for the future. I knew, without a doubt in my mind that this was not the last time I would venture into the world of entrepreneurship.

Now, this four and a half years later I look back at and I am able to recognize that it was not failure at all. It was a lesson, the learnings of which are applied to each and every part of the way I do business today and the reason I feel I can succeed.

As an entrepreneur, learn to recognize that failure is not the end of the journey it is only a fork in the road, a building block for something better and you will begin to see the bright side of failure.

Employees want to help. One thing that couldn’t have been more apparent in my experience as a manager is that employees inherently want to do better. They want to be a part of a team working towards a common goal. Accomplish a project and acommplish in a better manner than it has been done in the past. While you may not believe it they often time have the skill and the know how to do just that.

You have to have faith, you have to be encouraging. While securing your role as the figure head of the group you have to let your employees know that they are here to work with you not for you. (There is a huge difference in my opinion.)

It is when an employee starts to feel that they are robots in a grand plan, when they start to become disconnected from the sense of team that they become disenchanted and unmotivated. Sure they are going to show up everyday and do the work that is asked of them, that’s it. Shortly a feeling will start to creep in, a feeling that they could do it better. That someone else would be more likely to listen and allow them to have more control over the project. That is when you will begin to notice that you have an employee who is on his/her way out. That’s when you start to loose your most valuable assets.

In my experience it makes a lot more sense to play the coach than it does to play the traditional manager. You are there to facilitate the forward motion, develop the common goal and facilitate the improvement.

Happy employees who feel useful want to keep up the good work and constantly improve the work. They are motivated to come to work everyday. They feel a part of something.

Motivated employees are productive employees who in turn make you the boss a better looking guy in the grand scheme of things.

It makes a lot more sense when people want to work for you not have to work for you.

Think about it.

Eventually it is going to happen, you are going to receive a comment that doesn’t necessarily fall into the category of a good review. So what do you do with it once it’s there?

I think there are a lot of us out there that would react by hitting the delete key without a moments hesitation. But, is this always your best bet?

Personally I think you have to learn to take the bad with the good in this case. I usually advocate approving all comments even if they are not so shiny. (I do have rules, see below).

Why would I open myself up to bad reviews if I had the choice? For several reasons.

First off, if someone is upset with something you have written, a product you have produced or a service you have rendered and you don’t allow them to voice their opinion, chances are you will only fuel the fire. This can lead them to finding other venues to voice their now even stronger opinion. Worse case scenario, they have now made it their mission.

Secondly and this follows should you decide to approve the comment. Doing so on your own blog gives you a public place to control how it is handled. My advice, handle it immediately upon approval and handle it professionally. If you are in the wrong and there is something you can do to remedy the situation, then consider offering to do so. Possibly even taking it offline via email or phone to handle the situation.

Would you prefer to handle an angry client in the comfort of your own place of business or in line at the local grocery store?

The combination of the above will show your readers and customers that you are willing to accept the minor failures of your business as well as handle them promptly and professionally. This displays a certain level of transparency that consumers are slowly willing to expect from a company.

My Rules
I do follow a few important rules in making the decision to allow the bad or downright ugly.

1. I look for a professional tone in the reader when voicing their opinion. I don’t mind if some angry shows through but to leave a comment filled with cuss-words and other forms of obnoxious behavior will probably not make it through.
2. Comments sprung from a battered ego. – You have a successful site, the product is a hit, things are going well. Along comes a former co-worker that wasn’t one of your biggest fans to start with. Unfortunately this guys leaves a half assed comment just to bash you because you are who you are. Sorry, deleted.
3. The last and final is touchy. On occasion I will review another product and once in a blue moon I will get a rather unhappy user of that product to stop by. On one hand you don’t want to discourage your readers, on the other you don’t want to cause an issue with the creator of the product. Rules 1 and 2 apply here.

This is my take on blog comments and how they should be handled, I would be very interested to here how others handle the not so nice. Feel free to comment below.

In the early stages of starting a business, no matter what that business may be, you are going to be looking for vendors. It may be manufacturers of products, services to assist your business, software providers etc. Whatever the case may be, you are (I hope) looking for assistance in starting your business, don’t burn yourself out by trying to do it all.

That being said it is that you pair yourself with the right vendors. Do the research and find the right people.

When I started an apparel company a few years back I did one thing wrong in this respect and one thing right.

What I did wrong. I jumped in with a vendor that was not a good match because I was excited to see my product materialize. While this vendor was more than capable of offering top of the line product we turned out to be somewhat incompatible. While there where a number of reason we were incompatible the main reason was size. The level of business did not match. Of course I would love to blame it on the vendor but having had the time to look back on this I am able to admit that it was no fault but my own. I got excited about the prospect of having real tangible product in my hands and failed to properly research the vendors with which I paired my business.

After some time I was able to take a step back and repair myself with a new vendor. This vendor could offer a similar quality but more importantly they could easily accommodate my currently level of business as well as a bit of growth. Note hear that in my opinion it is very important that you choose a vendor who will be able to scale as your business scales.

What I did right. In the second part of the above experience you will notice that I learned from the first. After making one mistake I realized it was time to take a step back, stop rushing things and really research the best fit.

Before you begin however it is of utmost importance that you identify exactly what you need. While I think it is important that you launch your product or service in a highly polished state, you will be surprised what you can eliminate from the needs category to attain this polished state. The needs category is a list of things, that while they may seem like a good idea are not necessary in order to launch with the best possible product. For example, while buying that shiny new printer that doubles as an espresso machine may give you the feeling that you can now compete with the big boys, it it really necessary. You get the idea.

How to conduct your research. There is an endless supply of good information out there from which you can start researching your vendors. For example when I was conducting research for my venture I hit the forums, the related blogs, trade shows (both local and national) and last but not least got out and talked with people. I talked with potential vendors as well as the people who have had experience with those potential vendors.

The single most helpful aspect of my research was good old fashioned customer reviews and experiences. I’m not talking about the kind that are incentivized, I am talking about real people in real situations similar to my own.

How did the vendor suit their business. Was it a good fit. Did they have any problems. Was the vendor able to meet their needs?

In summary: Slow down, no one knows better than I the excitement of creating a new business or a new product. Contain it and step back. Do your research and pair yourself with the vendors that are going to make it possible for you to succeed. Sure you are going to stumble but the fewer hangs the better the chance of a successful partnership and the more likely your new product will succeed.

The Moral: Let it be known that while I did in fact find a vendor the more suited my business, I believe the damage was already done. My startup capital had essentially been drained and it may have already been a bit too late.

We all have a certain passion in life some of us pursue it full time other pursue it when time allows. The only failure is not taking the time to pursue it at all.

I was having a peaceful moment earlier this afternoon, watching a deer graze in the field and I started thinking about the decisions I have made in the past ten years and how I got where I am.

It was interesting to me to remember how many of those decisions have been rather split second. I more or less had a vision of what I wanted to be doing, believed I could do it and went for it. Sure I put thought into what making those decisions would mean and how they would effect my life, but in doing so I realized that we tend to over analyze. We start out having faith in our ability to accomplish something and then go about breaking it down until we talk ourselves out of it and instead pursue the safer, less passionate route.

In doing this we end up hurting ourselves in the long run. We hinder our ability to grow and ultimately end up becoming more fulfilled in our lives, careers, hobbies, whatever the case may be.

Not ever choice you make our opportunity you decide to pursue is going to result in the pot of gold that you envisioned, but if you fail to pursue the chance you can never learn from the hardships, the failures and the mistakes. The things that truly teach you what you are capable of and will ultimately help you to succeed in the long run.

Making the decision to join the military before an inevitable war and choosing to go with a highly deployable unit that often times finds itself in the middle of some of the most dangerous situations could have ended badly. The experience is something that I will never forget and would never trade for anything.

Creating a product in one of the tougher markets out there, dumping a lot of hard earned money into to it and watching it fail miserably can certainly set you back a bit. It is also something that I do not regret, the amount that I learned about business during this time is not something you can pay to learn in school.

Jumping out on my own instead of choosing the safer more secure path of full time employment when I had a child on the way was thought to be stupid and possibly even irrisponsible. I had faith in my ability to succeed and asked that others give me a chance to prove that. I have not taken a look backward.

Sometimes it is extremely hard to talk yourself up instead of down and away. Coming up with the idea is only half the battle, convincing yourself to take action is when it counts. Don’t be afraid to take the leap and pursue your passion, even if it means hardship you will come out ahead in the long run if only you learn from the experience.

As I prepare myself to head into my third BNI meeting this morning and kick off my second day as a full time freelancer, I got to thinking about networking, advertising and how to create new business. Lately my Google reader has been working overtime as I scour the internet looking for clues as to how to make it all happen. Granted this is not the first time I have found myself in this very position, but I feel that I have learned from the mistakes of the past and I plan to “do it right” this time around. My freelancing career came a bit earlier than I had planned but the key here is that I did in fact plan and if were not for that I may not be in the position to look at this as a viable opportunity. So on to my thoughts about networking, advertising and creating new business.

First I would like to touch on the idea of networking and how important I find it for the small business owner. I often read that the single best way for a freelancer to land new business is through word of mouth or networking and slowly I am starting to realize the truth behind this statement. Networking, for our purposes could be looked at in two ways. In the more traditional sense of the word you are out there networking in your community meeting people and other small business owners. Learning about what they do and giving them some insight as to who you are and what your business entails. They may not in fact require your services but in some sense they now view you as a trusted friend (well if you approach it correctly) and now feel more confident in your services. They can put a face with a name so to speak. Down the road they may come upon a project that requires your service and because of the time you took to speak with them so many months ago you are now first on the list for consideration. Every time you meet someone in life you should treat it as a possible opportunity, not only to learn something interesting about the experiences of others but an opportunity to do “business” in the future. The key here, I believe, is to treat them as more than just a business contact, treat them as a potential friend and acquaintance.

Moving on now to what some may consider the non-traditional sense of networking and that is by creating happy clients. If you approach each piece of work or job that you do as a potential networking tool I can almost guarantee you will start to see the payoff. Not every job that comes across your desk is going to excite you in the way the last one may have, but if you put 100% into it and create a happy client, the word will spread. Networking by referral it may be called. “Great website! Who did it for you?” Ah ha, now you have created real value for the customer and they will be more than happy to pass on the word about your services.

I believe next on the list was the topic of advertising and how I might go about doing so beyond just networking. This is an area that I have been putting a lot of time into researching. Let me say that during this time of “economic downturn” I see the need for advertising to be even more important for my new business venture. My potential clients are facing the same slowdown in business that I am and I would like to let them know that there are things I can do to help them explore additional marketing channels, helping them to tap into new clients themselves. Beyond my ability to get ranked in the search engines for certain services I offer, I need other ways of getting my name in front of the decision makers.

It is important that I mention the need for an understanding of your target market. In order to create effective advertising you need to understand first how your customer might be found, what they might react to and what they are looking for. In my particular area it seems that people still often turn to print advertising, so I am exploring various ideas such as a small targeted mailer and also the traditional yellowbook ad. Really it is about researching you market and determining what will work best for you.

These few ideas coupled together and I hope to not only create new business during what some might consider to be slow times but actually come out ahead.

One thing that I am not terribly afraid of when approaching my own business is the thought of making mistakes. In fact over the past ten years I have made mistakes in business on a fairly frequent basis, some that have certainly cost me money. Call it lack of experience but none the less it doesn’t bother me, I am ok with the thought of failure. Still to this day.

The reason I tend to be embracing of failure is because when I look back at the failures I have had, I can not think of a single instance that has not taught me something. Not a single instance that has not helped me to improve the next time around.

In all honesty I would say that I have learned more from a single failure than I have from a handful of successful attempts. If you are not experiencing failure, no matter how minute, then you are not pushing yourself to take the necessary risks. It is the necessary risks that will help you to move forward and take the next step.

Sure you would rather not make it habit to consistently fail in what you do. You would prefer that the success far out weight the failure, but learn to embrace the times you do make mistakes. Don’t give up because there is one bump in the road. Take that bump and learn to mold it into something more useful for the future.

Failure can be harnessed as a lesson which in turn teaches you how to do it right the next time around. Failure shapes a better product and a better business.

Using ALL CAPS to show me you really mean it. Email is fairly easy to use but some people are not good at getting the point across. Sometimes ideas are a bit more complex than what can be written out in this quick email. Sometimes we just aren’t communicating all that well. There are once and a while going to be frustrations but all caps are not going to solve the problem in fact they will more than likely further the frustrations. Unless you are in the military reciting acronyms they are unneeded. In my opinion you may as well call me up and open the conversation with “Are you stupid?”.

Cramming the entire email into the subject line. Subjects suck, sometimes I look at my email and think “how the hell am I supposed to summarize that into a quick subject line?” But, subjects are not the place for the whole email. If you need help say something simple like, blog broken, need help. Then in the body of the email explain to me the problem. When an email comes across like this I saw your blog today, I would really like to… (remaining content has been omitted because you tried to jam it all into the subject line.)

Colors. If I send over an email with a few questions and you email back with the answers in red, we’re cool, that works. When you start changing up text color inside of emails, especially when you combine that with the fore-mentioned ALL CAPS we’re in trouble. Just use bold, my eyes are pretty good, I can differentiate.

Contact me but don’t tell me who you are. Seriously it may just be me but I like to be somewhat personable with my clients. If I am going to respond to your request then I would feel bad if I can’t call you by name. Besides we are eventually going to talk further, possible even over the phone. I am going to assist your business or business idea in some way, shape or form. Eventually money will even exchange hands. Start it off right and introduce yourself.

Bonus
Solicit me through my contact form about your service without really research who you are about to solicit. If you start off pitching your service by offending the potential buyer you will probably not make it very far. Here are some key points pertaining to specific industries.

1. Contact someone who makes their living as an SEO and let them know that you can get their site to the front page of google.
2. Contact a web designer or design firm and let them know that you are running a special and can have their new website up and running in 4 days for $399

Ok that’s a short list but you get the idea.

Extra Special Bonus
When attempting number 1 listed above be sure to leave your url as www.google.com, then they are sure to take you seriously!

There are many more but I thought today was a good day to get that off my chest. Who knows, could be the start of a great series.

You see I have spent the better part of the last two years working non-stop, I just mentioned the other day that I even managed to squeeze in some work time on Christmas day of all days. Any personal projects have been late night endeavors and while I have released on of them (Charlene theme for WordPress), I haven’t really made anything substantial of it.

Two years of non-stop work coupled with a few recent project related events has left me feeling a bit burnt on the situation. As a matter of fact in the weeks past I have more than once contemplated making a drastic career move.

Having gathered my wits I realized that may not be necessary. Instead I am going to enter a short (possibly extended) period that I have jokingly referred to semi-retirement in which I will try to explore new avenues and opportunities.

I am not, at this point, exactly sure how long this “semi-retirement” will last. I will continue to support my current clients and if a really interesting project comes along I will more than likely jump at the opportunity but for now I will be concentrating elsewhere.

My first focus. I will be spending the better part of at least the first week digging deeper into WordPress. WordPress a platform that I have used almost daily for the better part of the last 4 years is something that interests me greatly. (It does account for about 95% of my client work). Themes, articles, snippets, you name it I will be working on it.

The utimate goal is to begin creating an income that allows me more time to spend with my son, more time to explore a life outside of work and some much needed time to dive into the remodel of an old farm house.

Should be a fun ride!

In order for a good idea to be successful it is absolutely necessary that you execute the idea with as much excitement and motivation as you put forth in the creation of the idea.