Find Motive

“If you ain’t got the Bling Bling there aint no Cha-Ching Cha-Ching”

When being a One Man Show you have to wear many hats, infact all of them. This can be a disadvantage if you let your focus slip. The issue I have been encountering lately is getting caught up in the business aspect of my startup and forgetting about my actual product.

The business side of it is a necessary evil, but its only evil if you let it take over. The process includes things such as: Setting up your business entity, getting legal, and etc., this list will grow bigger than you expected if its your first time in a startup. Doing these things right in the first place will save you ALOT of trouble and headaches down the road so don’t skimp out, but don’t forget about your product. Your product is the whole reason why you are going into business, without the product there would be no need to go through the hassle of setting it all up.

So in my case where I am the developer and the owner(and everything in between), I have to make sure I don’t get caught up and forget about my product or even worse, lose focus on what my product actually is. Yes, devote certain days to your business chores, but when its time for development, worry about nothing else. Your product is the life of your company.

To sum it up: Set time apart to set up your business correctly, but when that is done don’t forget about your product. Make sure your product has got the Bling Bling, fo sho.

I’ve heard the terms “It’s just business” or “Business is Business” over and over again as I’m sure many of you have as well, but I am a firm believer that honor, integrity, and a clean conscious are worth more than any business deal. Going home at the end of the day and being able to sleep well and with a unburdened conscious is invaluable to me.

At the end of your days on this earth what will you be remembered by? I hope I’ll be remembered as a person with honor and integrity. A business man who valued people more than money and advancement. Be careful who you step on to get to the top, because you’ll meet those people again on your way down.

I started the idea for Indiefy about 2 years ago, although it wasn’t Indiefy then and the idea has evolved, but since the idea was conceived I have done all work on it myself. I have not outsourced any programming/design/business work to anyone. This may be a character flaw or blessing, but it is hard for me to work with other people on ideas that I have conceived. Since I am able to do everything needed to get Indiefy off the ground, I find no reason to outsource. There are downfalls to this methodology and that being it has taken me longer to get this idea off the ground being a one man show, but it has also kept things simple. No partners to worry about or employees/contractors to pay.

Bottom line do what works for you and your company. Doing everything yourself may not be the best way to go for you.

Steve Jobs held a press conference Tuesday and announced new features for iTunes and some new products (or at least updated products). Here is a run down:

iTunes 7
This new release of iTunes adds movie downloads from these Disney affiliated studios: Miramax, Pixar, Touchstone, and Disney. Pricing will run 12.99 for pre-orders and the first week of release, 14.99 after that for new releases and 9.99 for older titles. Oh yeah…and you can’t burn them to DVD. Bummer.

iPods
The iPod video received a storage boost and some price adjustments on the lower end models. The nano got a colorful facelift now with 5 colors to choose from (silver, black, green, blue, pink) and a storage boost. The Shuffle was redesigned the most and is now half the size of its predecessor. I think this was a much needed design update.

iTV
This one was the climax of the show. iTV (I don’t know if that’s the final name) is a hardware device which uses WiFi to stream movies/photos from a PC or Mac running iTunes to your TV. It will be released Q1 or 2007 and will retail for $299. Last winter I started on a project similar to this, but I was side tracked by a more viable business idea. I hope to one day complete this project.

I have a few questions for my readers:

1. What sort of pricing model would you prefer for paid music downloads?
A) Fixed price. Same for every song.
B) Variable pricing, based on a songs popularity.

2. What is a fair price for paid downloads from independent artists?

I would greatly appreciate any feedback on these questions. Thank you in advance.

Money isn’t everything of course, but I would like to try and see you live without it. Time and time again I’ve heard it said that money should not be your motivation in starting a business. I agree and disagree with that statement. I think it should be said that money shouldn’t be your ONLY motivation in starting a business. Like it or not we live in a capitalistic nation and money talks, loudly.

Its also been said that having money as a motivator will cause your business and/or product to suffer in quality. Once again another agree/disagree. If your out to make a quick buck, yes then it will probably suffer, but if you are smart then you know that making a great product or service will yield the best return.

Like I said money isn’t everything, but it sure is nice to have. Also when a person can wear their wealth well and not let it control them, to me that shows great character.

Google Checkout ,which was released in June, is now on the list of payment services not permitted on Ebay:

Payment Services not permitted on eBay: AlertPay.com, anypay.com, AuctionChex.com, AuctionPix.com, BillPay.ie, ecount.com, cardserviceinternational.com, CCAvenue, ecount, e-gold, eHotPay.com, ePassporte.com, EuroGiro, FastCash.com, Google Checkout, gcash, GearPay, Goldmoney.com, graphcard.com, greenzap.com, ikobo.com, Liberty Dollars, Moneygram.com, neteller.com, Netpay.com, Nochex.com, paychest.com, payingfast.com, paypay, Postepay, Qchex.com, rupay.com, scripophily.com, sendmoneyorder.com, stamps, Stormpay, wmtransfer.com, xcoin.com

Could it be eBay(PayPal) does not want to share the pie with Google or does eBay not yet trust the new service? To be honest I have no idea. At first it seems obvious: Google is a competitor so don’t let them in, but that’s too easy. There is a catch somewhere. I would have never signed up for a PayPal account if it weren’t for eBay shoving it in my face, but if I had a choice between PayPal and Google Checkout, I would probably go with Google.

“When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.” — Theodore Roosevelt

I wrote an article last week titled Tips for keeping your vision alive which highlighted 3 points in maintaining vision and motivation. In this article I will cover several points I think are important for being highly productive, but also leaving room to enjoy life outside of work.

Know your limits, Avoid burn out
I consider myself a fairly busy person with my 40+ hour a week job and side businesses. In fact, I’ve been putting in 12 hour days this week to finish up on a project for our company expansion, but I know that I can only push myself so far until I will become less productive and eventually burn out. Now I am not saying you shouldn’t push yourself, I’m not saying that at all. I think that pushing yourself is required to get stuff done in crunch time, but you also need to keep in mind that your body physically and mentally can only handle so much. Knowing where this limit is for yourself is key. More time will be lost recovering from burn out than time spent spacing out work for yourself.

Play hard, really hard
I can’t stress how much you need to take time for yourself and relax. Don’t think about work and don’t even dare think about doing work. I love the feeling of unwinding after a long(but productive) day at work and doing something I really enjoy. Now for me, stuff I enjoy doing to unwind is riding my new 2006 Yamaha R6 (oh its sexy). Some of the advantages of living in Oklahoma is the long country roads and beautiful summer nights, which BTW on a motorcycle is 10 times better and makes stress just float away. My point is, whatever you love doing or lets you relax and put things in perspective…do it! Make the time for yourself and play hard.

Results make the money
Having a balanced life will help your productivity and creativity, which returns better results. Not too mention a more consistent workflow and healthier lifestyle. Plus all work and no play makes Noah a dull boy.

I hope this article helps and comments are always welcomed.

I hate SPAM and everybody I know hates SPAM, so with this kind of reputation, are the people who are sending out these annoying emails really making money or selling products off of this technique? I really would like to know how much revenue spammers make from spamming.

As a business rule, I always inform the user when I ask for their email address that it will not be shared or used for purposes other than the site at which they submitted it to. You can see what I’m talking about at Indiefy.com. I believe this will help build trust with your users and get you off on a good start with them from the very beginning. I even added a personal touch to the anti-spam message by informing the user that “we hate spam too”. This lets them feel like your not a machine and in this certain case that you understand how they feel about spam.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones, since I only get about 2 SPAM emails a day compared to friends and co-workers of mine who get hundreds, which thankfully most are blocked by SPAM blockers.

Vision, it’s your motivation, it’s your roadmap. Its one of the most important things you will need for success. The level of success with an idea is determined by your vision. Now I’m not talking about literal vision with your eyes, I’m talking about that screenshot of the future in your mind. I believe that most people fail when they lose this.

Vision = Motivation + Roadmap
I am a creative person, but when it comes to keeping that initial motivation from an idea I”m one of the worst. I have no problem coming up with the ideas and creating the vision, but what I do have a problem with is KEEPING that vision. To help myself conquer this weakness I came up with the following steps to keep the vision fresh.

1. Write it down
Get out that legal pad and write down the vision for your idea. Spell it out in big letters! Now this isn”t meant to be the all encompassing detailed spec for your idea, but the general outline of what you want to accomplish. This is what you will need to read over and over again to keep it fresh on your mind. When you are feeling lost or down about your project unfold this piece of paper out of your wallet or purse (or open it on your PDA, however you roll is fine) and read it until you believe it.

2. Talk about it
The way I inspire myself with motivation is to talk about my idea. Go to the coffee shop with some of your friends or go to mom’’s house, either way just talk about your idea to people who you trust and that will listen to you. When you talk about your idea to other people you are also talking to yourself about it. You hear yourself describe your vision and it becomes ingrained into you.

3. Realize that it will take work
Often I will get so excited about my ideas that I map out from start to finish what this service or product could grow into, but then reality sets in. I then realize that I have to get it started first. I have to start doing the dirty work and get something running before the potential of this idea can be fulfilled. Keeping this on your mind from the beginning will prevent that sudden jerk of realization which can really hurt your motivation.

I hope you have enjoyed this and that it will help you with your ideas. Please feel free to leave comments, they are always welcome.