Posts Tagged ‘business’

October 23rd, 2009

On Business: My Brother is Kicking My Ass at Ecommerce

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It has been well over 2 months since I have started my business experiment. Each day that passes by I get a clearer view of the next step with it. The post isn’t about me and the struggles I’m having to sell vintage wear (4), but about my bro, so here it is.

I didn’t think I would be saying this, but my youngest brother is kicking my ass at the ecommerce business of etsy.com. I don’t know how to explain it, but it is actually bitter-sweet at the same time. When I started, he was at 40 or so sells. I told him that I would catch him in no time—now he is well over 100 and making over a sell a day.

I didn’t know if he truly had it in him, I have been the one talking about business and expressing what I’ve done in the past, but just sitting back and watching him operate is quite amazing.

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July 13th, 2009

Now is the Best Time to Start a Business says Robert Tuchman

This is a guest post by Robert Tuchman.

The task of starting a new business can be daunting.  It takes a lot of time, responsibility, and effort.  And with the state of national economy, starting your own business can be even harder.  In this tough economic climate, there are a few things you can do to ease the financial burden and accomplish your entrepreneurial goals.

One thing you can do to brace yourself is to go back to your suppliers—to your telephone provider, landlord, car dealer—and renegotiate.  Go to the people you are paying out to, and renegotiate on the contracts you had made with them.  See if they are willing to cut you some slack.  Although they are dealing with the same slow-down as you are, you will find that they are more willing to do you a favor than lose you as a customer.

I cannot stress enough the need for products you are selling to be presented in more detail.  You must make the clients understand who you are and what your product is. Market better!  Understand where people are coming from: be compassionate with their concerns.  Be willing to work out payment plans for potential clients.

Save money using technology: take advantage of email and video conferencing.  You should email documents rather than sending them via snail mail.  This will save you in postage and in paper.  Also, instead of driving or flying to meet with a client or vendor, you should videoconference with them.  Both of these will save you time and money.

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February 7th, 2009

Appreciation to Adam McFarland

These post are the hardest for me to write, but also some of the more rewarding ones.

I met Adam first through his blog and then by emailing him about how we had similarities with what we were going through, followed by his company doing my first ever redesigns of my blog and personal website, and now through his continue efforts to give the no-bullshit story of his ups and downs of running a successful business and a touch of his personal life sprinkled here and there through his blog. I still think our journeys are similar, but I have learned so much about him as a person through his writing. I think that his blog has given me the strength to continue to write because through his writings you can see very evidently that he is passionate about his business and more importantly about his life. Lately I have been on a cutting binge in everything in my life; either working out, eliminating my apartment clutter, loosing some mediocre friends, deleting time wasting podcast and blogs. Adam?s blog always is one that is there and look forward to reading whenever he releases a new post.

Some of the things that I have learned from Adam McFarland:

1. Don’t take bullshit from no one.
2. Find out what you are passionate about and give your all by dedication, hard work, and to always keep learning about your field of expertise.
3. It is important to have a work-life balance.
4. Gives thanks to people that he admires and learns from.
5. Through the art of routine find a better way to do task or implement solutions to existing problems (The million dollar idea doesn’t happen over night, but is refined over time).
6. Does not apologize for his decision to start his own business!


There are many more examples like these that show the real person of Adam. Sometimes I think of all the things that I have done for myself ever since I got out of college, almost 4 years ago. I think of all of the business courses that I wasted my money on, spending $10,000-15,000 dollars on my ?race car? that was worth $2700 bucks when I finally sold it, buying 2 cars in the span of 3 years, excess amount of spending on my credit cards for stupid shit I can?t put a finger on now, wasting time doing hobbies or suppose passions because it looked good to people around me, and many more things that I can?t take away from nearly 4 years. I always think of things that I could have eliminated out of my life, but I don?t think my life would be the same, if I never came across Adam?s blog in the very short time after college. Yes I am still at a 9-5, but now I have goals, dreams, desires, and am taking steps to get to where I want to go. I am very happy in what I am doing now in my life, partly because of watching someone else grow through his writings how ever many times per year he sits behind his computer to take some time to write his thoughts, insight, blowing off steam rants, and encouragement to live the life he ultimately wants to. I am so proud of myself searching for what I truly want out of life and I thank Adam for giving me the reason to continue the exploration of my journey.
Update:
Just this past week Adam helped me out in a big way. I was in the process of moving my websites over to a new hosting and registrar site and didn?t backup this website. I have worked nearly four years at my craft and was going crazy making sure I could do something in order to save the work that I have been doing. I emailed Adam and he had a link to my existing database and I was able to download my backup and my website is still alive. Just for that kind gesture of helping me out I am going to give the charity that he sponsored last year $100 bucks for helping me out. He isn?t looking for money, but I thought that would be a kind way to pay him back for the help that he gave me when I needed it most.
Challenge:
Adam, my challenge to you is to write an appreciation to someone that you admire. I would love to see how far it goes. Thanks again for all you have done for me!

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