The Solopreneur Life | Work From Home | Home Business
The Solopreneur Life helps you work from home in your home based business. Whether you are looking for the best in home business or to just earn extra income we are your trusted guide on your solo journey.
I’ve had “polls” as an item on my “story ideas” list for more than a year. Today is the day I got ‘er done!
Your voice is needed, so participate in the poll and tell others about it, too. If this goes well, there will be more solopreneur polls in the future.
If you have an idea for a poll question, let me know and I’ll give you credit in the poll for contributing the question.
FYI: I used the free version of Polldaddy.com to create the poll.
[polldaddy poll=7562116]
When you’re facing cash-flow challenges (and you will at some point!), you need more money and fewer expenses, but there’s something you need just as badly: time.
The good news is you can gain time by asking your creditors to give you some space. Here are three options Denise O’Berry suggests in her excellent book Small Business Cash Flow:
1. Stretch out your payment terms. Ask to switch from a 45-day window to 60 days. If you’re at 90 days, then ask for 120-day terms.
2. Set up quarterly payments. Rather than paying your bill monthly, ask creditors if they will accept quarterly payment.
3. Ask for a discount. If you’re able to pay your bill before it’s due, then ask for a discount; start by asking for 10 percent. Nearly every company I’ve ever known (including mine) will be very willing to work with you on payment terms. They want to get paid, and they also want you to stay in business! If they know that the easing of terms will help, they will work with you. And they’ll be impressed that you’re confronting your cash-flow challenges.
Make a list of the creditors you will approach and then do it.
To celebrate the launch of TheSolopreneurUniverse.com, I’m giving away five free memberships this week.
These are full memberships, so if you win:
1. You get a free 50 pixel by 50 pixel image (worth $250) on TheSolopreneurUniverse.com map.
2. You get to choose the location on TheSolopreneurUniverse.com map for your spot. Plus, you get to link your spot to a URL (the link could be a special offer, an article, the front page of your website — whatever you want).
3. You get your business in front of TheSolopreneurLife.com community, via social-media mentions on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TheSolopreneurLife.com itself.
4. You receive a profile page for your business at TheSolopreneurUniverse.com.
5. Your business receives a listing in TheSolopreneurUniverse.com index.
6. You receive the right to display TheSolopreneurUniverse.com badge (above) on your website.
Each day next week, I will draw one winner at random.
To enter the giveaway, sign up between now and Thursday, August 8, to be on TheSolopreneurUniverse.com’s email list.
Good luck!
–Larry Keltto
On Sunday, July 7, while on a family vacation in Estes Park, Colorado, we drove down the mountain (3,000 feet of elevation change in 20 miles) and into Boulder for the day. Our destination was downtown, Pearl Street, and there we found the Boulder Book Store.
You know how every suburban Barnes & Noble is laid out the same way — as predictable as an Applebee’s?
The Boulder Book Store isn’t like that.
Their three-story building is filled with nooks and crannies, with surprises around every corner. Some spaces were small with low ceilings. One room, with a vaulted ceiling, was big and dramatic. There were at least two staircases, and several half-floors. I succeeding in getting lost — the hallmark of a fine book store.
When I found my wife I said, “If this bookstore was in your town, you’d never need Amazon.”
The BBS book assortment was deep and varied, with a large used-book section. My wife bought one book for herself and two for our 12-year-old daughter.
I didn’t buy a book, but my annual quest for a t-shirt with local flavor was satisfied by the shirt I’m wearing today (below): BBS calls it Tatoo Willie (it’s William Shakespeare with tatoos). I purchased a book at a small book store located one block away, Trident Booksellers and Cafe. (I paid $12 for a used, hardcover copy of Theodore Rex, which is volume two of Edmund Morris’s three-volume biography of Teddy Roosevelt; I read volume one last winter).
BBS had dozens of t-shirt designs, many of them “retired” and adorning torso-only mannequins that sat on top of shelves, lined up like trophy bucks at a Cabela’s. The shirts bore the names of authors and books: for example, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. They’re designs that book-lovers and English majors can’t resist purchasing.
The customer checking out in front of me told the clerk she was a “Reader’s Guild” member. I went online to find out what the “Reader’s Guild” is:
Purchase a one-year membership ($12.50), then each time you buy a book, simply give us your phone number, and you’ll automatically receive a 10% discount on everything in the store (periodicals are excepted). The discount is 15% off the already low price of used and sale books. Readers Guild members also receive access to reserved seating at events, exclusive sales, and seasonal gifts!
Beats the heck out of Amazon Prime.
If the Boulder Book Store was in Owatonna, I’d visit several times a week. My father-in-law last week speculated that, with the “big box” book stores disappearing, independent book stores could enjoy a resurgence. I hope so. But if all independent book stores were like the Boulder Book Store, it wouldn’t matter what the big boxes were doing.
If you’re an avid Google Reader user, like I am, you know that Google is pulling the plug on its popular feed aggregator. Reader will go dark on July 1.
I’ve been playing with various replacements for Google Reader, and I’ve decided to go with The Old Reader.
I love trying out new tools and I’m prone to switching to new environments. In this case, however, I’m moving to The Old Reader because I want something that looks and works like Reader, which has been a wonderfully simple, efficient tool for me. The Old Reader won me over because it doesn’t try to make a news aggregator more than it needs to be.
The only thing I don’t like about The Old Reader is the name. It’s bloody awful.
Besides The Old Reader, there are many other replacement options. For example, Feedly is receiving a lot of attention (I think Feedly is overkill), and Digg is building a reader.
You will need to export your OPML file from the soon-to-be-dead Google Reader. Go over to Google Takeout and click on your Reader file.
Next, click on “Choose Services” and then click on Reader and choose “Create Archive.” It’s actually an XML file, but it works with OPML. The file will be downloaded as a zip file. After it downloads, unzip the file.
Now go to The Old Reader and click on “Import” at the top right of the screen. Navigate to the unzipped archive file and drill down through the folders to find the file named “Subscriptions.” Click it to add to the upload queue.
The upload takes a few minutes, and when it’s finished The Old Reader will feel much like your old Google Reader environment.
I’ve completed the transition to The Old Reader, and here’s how it looks.
• Read The Old Reader 101 for more information on how to use the service.
• Check out The Old Reader “about” page.
• Twitter: @TheOldReader
Have you ever brought your solopreneur business back from the brink? Do you have a business-turnaround success story you’d like to share? Then send me an email. I want to talk to you!
The Solopreneur Life has been doing a LOT of consulting lately for solo businesses that need to make things happen in a big-time hurry.
In response to this need, and recognizing that many solos can’t afford coaching or consulting at this time, I’m working on my first new product in 2 years.
The tentative name is “The Solopreneur Emergency Turnaround Program,” and the program’s goal is to help out solopreneurs whose businesses are really struggling to stay afloat.
In the program, I want to include stories from solopreneurs who have engineered turnarounds for their businesses. If you’d like to tell your story and help other solo-business owners in the process, send me an email.
The wolves are at your door. And they’re pounding on it. Hard. You have to do something fast, really fast, in order to stay in business through June 1 and beyond.
There are many things you must do to survive, but a top priority is getting those wolves (your creditors) to give you some space. Here are three options Denise O’Berry suggests in her book Small Business Cash Flow:
1. If you need to stretch out your payment terms, ask to switch from a 30-day window to 45 days. If you’re at 45 days, then ask for 60-day terms.
2. Set up a quarterly payment schedule. Rather than paying your bill every month, ask if they would accept quarterly payment.
3. Ask for a discount. If you have the ability to pay your bill before it’s due, then ask for a discount; start by asking for 10 percent.
Nearly every company I’ve ever known (including mine) will be quite happy to work with you on payment terms. They want to get paid, and they want you to stay in business! If they know that the easing of terms will help, they will work with you. And they’ll be impressed that you’re facing your cash-flow challenges head-on.
I’m excited to be BizSugar.com’s Contributor of the Week!
BizSugar is a small-business news site where you can discover and share the best small-business news, tips, and information. The site is designed for entrepreneurs and owners and managers of small to medium-sized businesses.
I highly recommend it.
Do you ever feel like bragging — and wish there were people around who knew what you were talking about?!
Long ago I worked at a newspaper in Iowa. A string of banter filled the newsroom. Our talk would begin as a torrent but disappear to a trickle when a deadline approached.
I’ll never forget our sports editor. He was a one-man department, a nationally renowned writer who probably cranked out more copy each week than any journalist in America. He called himself Robowriter, and he earned the nickname.
On Fridays he would add up the column inches he’d produced for the week — it was always a ridiculous total. He’d clear his throat and announce: “540 column inches, ladies and gentlemen!”
I would shake my head in disbelief. If he ever left the newspaper, it would take two people to replace him.
To an outsider, it might have seemed like our sports editor was bragging. It wasn’t bragging to us; we understood the awesomeness of his weekly writing totals.
As solopreneurs, we seldom get to brag to people who understand that we’re not bragging. Nobody’s around to hear us say:
“I bought extra RAM for my laptop and installed it myself. Nothing exploded!”
“Somebody just booked an appointment using my new scheduling software!”
“Five people whom I don’t know just RT’d a link to my post. And one person wrote: ‘I love this.'”
“I finally figured out why Bluehost has been throttling my site. And I fixed the problem. Hallelujah!”
“I’m up to 95% complete on my LinkedIn bio. And it’s taken me only 3 years.”
“I reconciled my checking account and I’m off by only $1.”
“I picked up the kids from school each day this month and was never late.”
“A client just sent me an email that read: ‘I really need your help on this project. It’s going to keep you busy. And I have another project for you after that.'”
It begs the question: if a solopreneur brags in her office and no one was there to hear it, was she bragging?
I’m bringing back “Featured Soloist,” a feature interview that gives all of us a glimpse at how other solopreneurs operate their small businesses. The feature was published here on a weekly basis for about a year and a half and was quite popular.
Here are four examples of the interviews:
The obvious benefits to you of being a “Featured Soloist” are: it’s a way to tell your story; it’s an opportunity to get in front of an audience and connect with people who might not know you; it’s fun. If you would like to be a “Featured Soloist,” please send me an e-mail, Larry@TheSolopreneurLife.com.
