Freedom Countdown

A common theme for my business seems to be that I know what to do, but I just don’t have the time to do it the right way.  Some business gurus would argue that you can’t afford not to do things the right way from the start and I’m sure that’s right.  But when you’ve got a job and a business, your lack of time leaves you wanting to focus on the fun part of the business, the part you’re passionate about, or perhaps the part that actually makes money.

This week a key supplier of mine suddenly disappeared from the internet and I didn’t have a backup plan. The possibility hadn’t even crossed my mind.  I’ve spent a week getting past the denial that they’re gone and then exploring ways to fill the gap they leave in my business.

When I first decided to go forward with the business, I did a Risk Assessment, which is a Six Sigma tool to identify things that could go wrong.  My mistake was doing it, shelving it, and never updating it.  It should be a living document that you update as your business changes and grows.

A Risk Assessment can be very complicated or very simple.  Mine falls into the latter category and is a list of things that could go wrong with a column for how likely the event is to happen and a column for how I will react if it happens, or my mitigation plan.  For example:

In some cases your risk assessment may result in implementation of tactics that almost ensure that the event never happens or it may simply make you more aware of the risks and able to respond more quickly.  Obviously, events with a high likelihood of occurring need more of your attention and a robust mitigation plan.

In addition, you might want a column for the impact of the event.  If the likelihood is high but the impact is low, it doesn’t warrant a lot of attention.  Conversely, if the likelihood is high and the impact is high, you may need to change your strategy, make different investments in your business, or hire a key employee.

Just don’t forget to update it.

How many times have you thought that?  How many times in one day have you thought that?  On an intellectual level, I know it isn’t really true.  I know happiness comes from within, that it’s a choice and all that.  But I tend to think that it’s the last piece of the puzzle in my pursuit of every day serenity.  If I could just quit, I’d be there because the rest of my life is pretty great.

Well last week I was vividly reminded of how little what I do to make money has on my happiness.  Nothing tragic happened, my daughter simply suffered a crushing blow at a state level athletic competition.  We all should have been excited she came in second in the state in her event, but somehow for the next two days I couldn’t shake the sadness I felt for her.  She had wanted to win so badly.  Even my excitement for my fledgling business couldn’t shake me from my funk.

Of course, by the third day, my perspective was coming back and the pride in what she had accomplished replaced the other emotions.  But then,  just as I was recovering,  if you will, I ran into some frustrating problems with an order I was placing for widgets.  I wasted many hours on the task and frankly felt some of the angst I feel at my job.

If you’re hoping to get happiness or even to get away from problems, it isn’t going to happen with a small business.  As a matter of fact, the number of problems will multiply because, you’re it.  There is no procurement group, no accounts payable, no sales team, no customer service department.  You’re all of those things.  And that’s actually what I like about it.  I’m in control and I can make it be what I want it to be.  Maybe that’s the kind of happiness I think I’ll find when I quit my job.

Most of the books I’ve read about how to find work that you love  ask you to perform an exercise where you write down what you would be doing on a perfect work day after you quit your job.  Over the last three years, I’ve done this several times and it always ends up with something like:

• Wake up when I want to
• Spend a couple of hours reading the paper/internet
• Start working when my body wakes up (usually around 10 AM)
• Have a variety of tasks to chose from so I can do what matches my mood for the day
• Work about 4 hours
• Have some tasks that involve going places and doing things, not just sitting at a computer
• Have the flexibility to not work at all if I don’t feel good or have a better option
• Have time to actually go out to eat lunch vs. sitting at my desk eating beanie weanies (ughhh)

In the Six Sigma world these become  your CTQ’s (Critical to Quality).  Things you must have in a new product/process/whatever.  Some of your CTQs are more important than others, so you rank them as to which ones are the most important.  As you start to evaluate options, you prioritize them based on whether or not they meet your CTQ’s. Certainly if a business idea you are considering doesn’t meet your top CTQs, you should think strongly about tossing it out.  After all, this is about creating a better life for yourself, not trading one thing you don’t like for another.  If that’s all you’re doing, just keep your job.  It’s a lot easier and has a steady paycheck.

T-Minus 312 Days

Running a business out of your home has a lot of pros and cons.  Heavily weighing in on the pros side  is the convenience and cost savings, but the single largest con of running a product driven business from home is that products, or widgets in my case, end up everywhere.  I have piles and boxes of them in every room.  I’ll get them all organized and then they overcome me again.

I’ve made various vows that I will only allow them into one room and then I receive a large batch of widgets and they overflow the room.   I’ve relegated them to my home office, only to find out that after 8 hours in my home office for my day job, I don’t feel like spending another hour or two working on widgets in that same room.  I get so sick of that room aka prison cell.

I have a large outbuilding that houses a lot of my business related stuff but it’s not heated and only one small room is air conditioned.  I’m considering moving my enterprise out there but that brings up a whole host of other issues related to Internet access,  extra computers, cell phone reception, heat, the occasional mouse, and the general isolation of that building which is really creepy at night.

I know that the outbuilding is the ultimate solution but I’m hesitant to get sidetracked spending 10 or 15 hours getting it fixed up when I have so much else to do.  I guess it will rise to the top of the pile someday.  For now, I’ll just keep moving widgets around.  It’s a good thing that I really like them.

T-Minus 316 Days

While messing around with the WordPress plugins, I noticed several for backups.  What a shame it would be to do all of this work and a server problem or a hacker cause it to all be lost. I always say to backup whatever you’re not willing to recreate.

I had assumed that my blog was automatically backed up by my web host, but after reading a few horror stories about web host issues, I decided to be safe and install my own backup system.   By the way, my web host states that they do periodic backups of my files and site, but that they are not guaranteed to work and that there is a fee to access them.

I did a little research on two of the more highly rated backups, WP-DB-Backup and DBC Backup.  After reading the info at KLKL I decided to go with DBC Backup.  But when I installed it, I got an message stating that it had not been tested with my version of WordPress.  Since I don’t really know what I’m doing yet, I decided to go with the other option, WP-DB-Backup.

It was really easy to install and the configuration settings were self explanatory.  It has options to save the backup to your host, your hard drive, or your email address.  To provide another place besides my host where the files reside,  I opted for my hard drive.  I still need to select a method for backing up my hard drive.

It also has an option to make the backup automatic so that you never have to think about it again.  Simply check the box for the backup interval you want; daily, weekly, etc.

T-Minus 317 Days

I had planned to start this blog with an elegant countdown date of 365.  But I was bumfuzzled by all of the choices in blogging software coupled with some preconceived notions about how I wanted the blog to look.  As usual, I knew enough to get me in trouble.  If I had been happy with a quick and dirty solution I could have had a blog up and running on Blogger or WordPress in a few minutes.

After buying a domain name and doing some research I decided to go with WordPress for no other reason than it appeared to have more 3 column templates and my web host made Word Press easy to work with.

I’ve intended to learn HTML for some time and have even started a few tutorials.  I know it’s relatively easy, I’m just not interested.   So in my browsing, I ran across a little $49.99 software package called Artisteer that allows you to easily create your own WordPress templates.  As you are designing your template, the changes are reflected immediately on your screen.  It has an interesting feature where you can opt for Artisteer to suggest an idea for whatever component that you are working on… colors/header/footer, etc.

The tool can also be used to create a simple company website.  That will come in handy if I ever get around to updating the store’s website.  One drawback will be having to pay another $25.00 or so for an upgrade in a year if I want whatever new functionality they come up with.

After I created my template, I had to re-remember how to upload files to my web host and how to login to my WordPress account.  But thank goodness, I had written all of that down in a binder where I keep all of the arcane instructions required to run the online portion of the business.