Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I finally completed my business plan and now I"m at the stage of completing assests and protecting them. I find myself slipping a bit though. When I was reading books on starting a business and doing research for the plan I found myself running with a high amount of enthusiasm.
I still have the passion, but now that I`m at the actual do work stage, I find myself falling into a slight lull. I now have more time to work on the business. This could be dangerous if I end up wasting time.

 So my question to you all is: How can I keep the forward momentum?

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Follow the journey of Marvin Hawkins Visual Concepts and Nothing Like It Games at http://gamerdeveloper.blogspot.com/

What things motivated you in the first place?  What are your greatest inspirations?  Tap into those resources to charge yourself up.  For me I find inspiration in other people`s successes.

Step back from all the work to reflect upon your aspirations.  Think about what it is you really want to achieve.  Take a look at the business plan you recently worked on.  Read between the lines as only you can.

Also think about your past accomplishments.  You got this far.  Congratulate yourself.  You`ve gotten farther than most people who dream of starting their own business.  That rocks!

What I mean by this is really put the work to the side for 5 minutes, an hour, a day, a weekend or whatever time you need to recharge.  Do something you love.  Go for a bike ride, treat yourself to your favorite restaurant or take in one last day of spring skiing.  You won`t be able to get the business and work out of your head, that`s not the point.  The point is to get it in your head where you can`t wait to get back to it.

If I was you, I would set project calendars and deadlines. This can be from learning about the best rates on credit card processing services to learning the building lease contracts.

We don`t worry so much about the paperwork, details, and accounts. Instead, we get into developing cooler and cooler ads for places like Ebay. We come up with secondary product lines, ideas for after-market sales, and such.

What`s your product?

I`m still doing the games. 

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Follow the journey of Marvin Hawkins Visual Concepts and Nothing Like It Games at http://gamerdeveloper.blogspot.com/

If the game development isn`t driving you on a regular basis, then that`s a problem. Otherwise, don`t worry about momentum. :-) Let "the boys in the basement" move in new ideas, concepts, processes, and make connections. When it`s time, they`ll send up the "next step" for you to accomplish. In the meantime, go fishing.

Only problem is I`m the boys. I`m finding my passion again. Everytime I go to work I`m reminded of why I`m doing this. It`s just hard to keep forward progress going when you get bogged down in the minituae of setting up a new business. My rally cry now is "I just wanna make games" I`m sure when I can hire other people it`ll be a little easier to manage. 

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Follow the journey of Marvin Hawkins Visual Concepts and Nothing Like It Games at http://gamerdeveloper.blogspot.com/

"The boys in the basement" is a Steven King reference to the subconscious mind. If you`re passionate about game development, you`ve taken care of the initializing paperwork, and for the moment "feel" as if you`re at a standstill, let it go.

Think of your conscious mind as RAM in a computer, and your subconscious as a combination of a hard drive and remote network connection. As you get what you have to work on into your conscious attention, you`re drawing on a sort of queue, coming from the subconscious. Like a print-queue.

At some point, you`ve loaded all the information and accomplished the work. Then there`s a moment when you have to store that information into your long-term memory, and start (open up) a new application. It takes a bit of time for that new "idea" to load into conscious attention.

I believe it`s a sort of natural way to take a break, have some fun, do something different, and clear out fragments from the previous work. It`s only if you find yourself letting time pass, on and on, for weeks and weeks, that you might question whether there`s some other psychological problem. Doesn`t sound like your case, though, from what you`ve described.

oh Ok. I get where you`re going with this Craig. Yeah. My parents say I`m always trying to do too much. As a child I wanted to be a Fireman, a Police Officer, a Mail Man, and an Olympian. I still have multiple aspirations, but I realize that trying to do all or even more than one simulataneously can create a brain bottle neck. Which is bad.

I will work more breaks into my work though.


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Follow the journey of Marvin Hawkins Visual Concepts and Nothing Like It Games at http://gamerdeveloper.blogspot.com/

Funny thing about being a smoker. A nicotine emergency produces breaks, regardless of how concentrated I get on other things. What I`ve seen, and many other smokers have noticed, is that when you have a big problem or you`re bored, or things aren`t moving along, it seems as soon as you step away from the desk and relax, BOOM!...that`s when the solutions shows up.

I`m not advocating smoking as a problem-solving solution. ;-) But I am advocating taking a fun break periodically to clear the mind, and allow the "boys in the basement" to send up the next idea via the freight elevator.