Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Do you find that website business and life is just like waiting for a bus? Nothing happens for ages and then everything happens at once!

My website is still very young but over the last few weeks traffic and business is increasing everyday - I`m performing more mentoring and getting more sales as a result - all of which is great news. I`ve never worked so hard in my life and I wouldn`t want it any other way. I also have my own website and marketing mentor!

But the real reason for this post is those buses come along in 3`s and 4`s don`t they?

Our family dog (Border Collie), Sam is now 11 years old and was recently diagnosed with diabetes. We’ve had Sam since he was 6 weeks old so he is a member of the family – we all love him. He is a wonderful dog. In all the 11 years he has not been a problem. Us pet owners love our pets, don’t we?

Back to Sam’s illness. As a result of the diabetes, we were instructed to inject him twice a day with insulin for the rest of his life. Not a problem but we had to get his sugar levels down otherwise he may go blind. We were told diabetes is very hard to control and boy were they right. Not only did we have to inject him twice a day, he had to have his food every 12 hours and he had to have walks every 12 hours. Diabetes is controlled by diet, insulin and exercise. You have to get all three in balance to reduce the sugar levels. The vet said it could take months. It did and Sam did go blind. He coped well – other senses taking over.

A few weeks ago he had an operation to overcome his blindness and now he can see again and he is back to ‘normal’. The vet was over 50 miles away – my wife and I were making two trips a week.

You just cope don`t you? Priorities change.

If you`d like to see a photo of Sam click here:

http://www.greatmanagement.org/blogs/10/Sam-the-Dog-Update.h tml

Funny, but same with us. We`ve begun to get noticed, and now orders are starting to be regular and picking up.

What we had to do was stop and examine our *work* process. That`s one of the processes that seems so obvious it gets a bit lost in the everyday of running around like a chicken with its legs cut off.

We examined how much work we could actually do, how much product that would generate, what our limits would be before we had to move to the next step of contract employees. By actually defining our manufacturing days and hours, it suddenly changed our perception.

Suddenly, we`re not entrepreneurs starting up a business. We ARE a business, with hours, shifts, production, a mail room, customer service, AR/AP, database management, back office stuff, marketing & advertising, R&D, and materials handling.

It`s cool, on the one hand, but weird. It`s suddenly become "real," y`know?

I`d compare it more like the running of the bulls.

I was just waiting, waiting ....

and now I`m running so hard, I`m gasping for air and trying to fling myself over a fence to safety!

nhgnikole,

`and now I`m running so hard, I`m gasping for air and trying to fling myself over a fence to safety!`

...and you wouldn`t want it any other way!

Is that why people call me crazy, because I like running with the bulls?