Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Okay, you`ve taken the plunge. You told Da Man you`re outta here, and you`re starting up a business. Maybe you`re still working a day job, but in your own time, starting that business you`ve thought about forever. Or, you`ve got some money set aside...or maybe a spouse to keep food on the table....and you`re committed. You`ve begun. You are an entrepreneur. But it isn`t easy, right?

Nope...not at all. And time after time, you find yourself saying, "This is making me NUTS!" :-)

Sure there`s the fear and uncertainty---those are two good ones to start off this topic. Uncertainty as to whether people will buy or even like your product; uncertainty as to how to get it to market; doubt that it`ll sell for enough money, and so on.

The doubt/uncertainty isn`t the same as fear. There`s the fear of getting sued, fear that you won`t get deliveries, fear you`ll lose customers, fear that you`ll have too many customers, not enough customers, no healthcare insurance, and other fears

What makes YOU nuts? :-)

The check is in the mail.

As a designer I am usually rushed by the client to get their project done as fast as possible, regardless of whatever other project I`m working on at the time. Yet when the tables are turned and payment is due the net terms are pushed to the limits.

Most of my clients are very good about paying on time and I even have a few that pay way before terms. But every now and then you get the "forgetful" ones.


-------------------------

Justin Runyard
Graphic & Multimedia Design
www.jrunyard.com
justin@jrunyard.com

Alright, that`s a great one! Would you agree that it could be categorized under "Business courtesy?"

In other words, not only would waiting for a check be making us nuts, but also waiting for a contract signature, promised content, a return phone call, an so on. It`s the idea that YOU are supposed to be instantly efficient, delivering on all promises immediately. But somehow THEY get to delay, avoid, ignore, and forget, and that`s (somehow) okay. Right?

In my experience, clients know when they are delaying a project.  I don`t think they believe it is okay for them to do so.  Most often when this is the case, they are dealing with their own set of delays.  Why haven`t they delivered yet?  Usually for the same reasons with any of us, other things get in the way.  Sometimes a response isn`t as high a priority as I would like it to be, or that it is for me.  Part of doing business with others is the understanding that not everything happens on my schedule.

But now I`ve just touched on what drives me nuts!  Life getting in the way.  I wake up on any given day ready to work.  I have my schedule and goals.  But then I get calls, walk the dog, pay bills, do laundry, have to eat, straighten up, go exercise, etc.  Time management is one of my "issues" though I am continually getting a better handle on it.  Some of this stuff are things I want to do, some are just things that need to get done.  Lately I`ve been in the throws of trying to sell my condo to purchase my first house.  This is great and exciting but the process can be such an interruption of my work.  What drives me nuts isn`t that I have a full plate.  I actually revel in that.  I just wish I could sit and create artwork for hours on end without having to do all that life requires.  That`s not how it is though and I`m not trying to live in a fantasy business.  Just that sometimes it drives me batty!

Before starting projects, especially with new clients, I always get asked, "How long will this website (or whatever project) take?"

I tell them that I would love for it to take two weeks but it never works that way because of the inevitable delays on their end. I tell them it`s not their fault...things just pop up for them that push design type projects to the bottom of the pile. I tell them I understand that they have a business to run and I`ll do my best to keep it on track with them.

So, yeah, Craig. Business Courtesy is a big one...clients not returning emails/phone calls can fall in there as well.


-------------------------

Justin Runyard
Graphic & Multimedia Design
www.jrunyard.com
justin@jrunyard.com

Good: business courtesy. :-)

Steve, I also know what you mean about how life gets in the way! It`s like that old line that work really gets in the way of my layin` around time! :-D

I wonder what we could call that, as a categorical "makin` me nuts" type of thing, though? Obviously, life is going on fairly regularly each day. But so is business, plans, schedules, and so forth. And sure, we know that "time management" is a good thing, but we couldn`t really say that "Chaos makes me nuts," could we?

There`s this concept that you can`t understand a system from within the system.

For example, if you`re a point, you can`t understand a line. All you can perceive and comprehend is the single dimension of being a point. However, if you`re a line, then you can understand all the many points that go into making that line. But you can`t understand a "plane."

To understand a system, you have to be outside of that system. That`s why it`s so much easier for other people to give you advice than it is for you to perceive the best course of action on your own. Not always true, but often the case.

Being caught "within" the business, you then fall "out of" your life. It appears as an outside force reaching in and messin` up your best-laid plans. But when you take a break and get back to your life, you often can understand the many things that need to be done for the business. That`s being "on top of" the business. (I don`t care for the expression "working ON the business.)

So what is it that makes you nuts? You can`t really say that it`s a lack of organizational skills---you`d learn those and put them into place. Nor can you say it`s constant interruptions, or you`d find a way to stop those interruptions.

I get what you`re saying, I just can`t figure out a neat way to categorize the actual "thing" that makes us all nuts. :-)