A Totally True Spooky Startup Legend
Submitted for your consideration during this Halloween season. A true spooky startup legend. A teenage boy and his girlfriend were enjoying the October moonlight shining on a pond at a park just outside of town. The radio was playing their favorite song when it was crudely interrupted. It was a special bulletin and an almost frantic announcer exclaimed:...
The Evils of Multi-Slacking
Home entrepreneurs are highly efficient people. They have to be; if they miss that mortgage payment, they lose the "home" part of that title. We're expected to write, edit, post, design, build, market, sell, and 2.3 gazillion other duties to get our business off the ground, or at least out of the guest bedroom. Oh, yeah, and...
Stella’s Startup Cycle
I have found that inventing, starting a business up, and other entrepreneurially thingies follow the same emotional pattern as your first roller coaster ride. Step 1: I'm so excited I could just pee. This is when you size up the ride. You're caught in the moment considering the immense possibilities of your idea. The dizzying heights and...
An Entrepreneur’s Day Out or Why I Shop Alone
Entrepreneurs are different, that's a common theme on Startup Nation. We work differently. We think differently. And, by the looks of my Startup Nation profile pic, we dress and wear our hair differently. But, maybe that's just me. A case in point: I went shopping with my friends. They're your average corporate hard-charging, salary-seeking, bonus-pimping 40-hour-a-weekers....
Now I’m the Expert
Have you got those calls yet? You know, the calls or the in-the-grocery-store chats from your old co-workers, or ex-bosses who are looking at their jobs and thinking maybe the security of a full-time job wasn't such a secure thing after all? And they heard you started your own business and are doing quite well, thank...
What Part of Work From Home Don’t You Understand
I have a slight problem with the whole home-entrepreneur gig. Apparently, to you, me, and the rest of the Startup Nation, working-at-home means that you are WORKING at your HOME. That seems clear enough. However, the deluded, including the hubby, sometimes slip into thinking that if you WORK from home, you're actually just sitting around...
Everyone Assume Financial Crash Position
Ever watch Airplane? Or did I just reveal my status as dinosaur. (If I didn't, my kids will be the first to tell you how ancient I am sooner or later anyway.) But I digress... as usual. In the movie, when the passengers were asked to assume "crash position," they immediately started to scream, wave...
Why We Had Kids… For Social Networking Help
I guess my husband and I always had in the back of our heads that we would have kids, so that when we were old and grey we would have someone to push around our wheelchairs, or at least extricate our Rascal scooters when they get hopelessly wedged between oddly out-of-date pieces of furniture. I also had...
It’s His Tailgate Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To
My husband is hosting a tailgate party tomorrow for a group of his co-workers, or co-drinkers as the case may be. Hey. I'm cool. I'm down with football and kicking home runs or whatever they do. My problem is that this tailgate will be held in my home. So, first, there's the whole "how do you...
Top Ten “First Things My Evil Assistant Would Do”
Rich has asked what would the first thing my assistant would do. Unfortunately, the first things my assistants have done was to start mucking things up. The second thing they do, once they're good and trained, is leave. What I would like is an Evil Assistant. Sort of a Voodoo assistant. If I had an evil assistant,...
Startup Attention Deficit Disorder
Scientists are now studying Startup Attention Deficit Disorder - a condition that causes entrepreneurs to start up new businesses mere seconds after they launched their original idea. I know this from experience. I am a S.A.D.D. sufferer, or, as some call us, a serial entrepreneur. As soon as I start one business, I get a...
Did I Just Get an Eye Roll?
Labor Day weekend is coming, which means the in-laws are coming--or as I like to call them the out-laws. My hubby's parents are great people, but after I quit work to devote time to my business, I sensed they harbor a little bit of doubt in my project. (Little bit: as in, the Grand Canyon is...
Singing The End of Summer Blues.
I hate to see summer go. Why? The hot days? Nah. The ample sunshine? Uh-huh. The carefree days? Get real. I miss the presence of my free (sorta free) labor source: my children. During the summer, you'll find my kids stuffing envelopes, stacking boxes, and even helping me with their computer-savviness. As you'll recall, I...
Anyone Else Have That Synching Feeling?
I have a rule: the number of things you have to do will increase in an exponential proportion to the number of gadgets, whizmos, and whatchee-macallits you own. The corollary, no matter how many gadgets, whizmos, and whatchee-macallits you have, none of them will ever synch up together. I used to keep mental notes. Then...
I’m a Square Who’s Behind the Curve
I'm not a techno-phobe; I don't fear technology. I hate it. Or it hates me. Either, or. Yesterday I read about Web 3.0, which was a little disturbing to me, since, until recently, I thought that Wikipedia was a book for witches and am still unable to switch my Facebook profile from French language-mode. Oh, and I...
My Social Networks Don’t Work At All
Don't get me wrong. I love to network. I love to go do the face-to-face with clients and customers. I love beatin' the streets, hittin' the pavement, knockin' on doors, etc. But, when it comes to all these social networks, I'm hopelessly, helplessly lost. Just about every day, I have a friend... or a customer......
Why Business and Chips Don’t Mix
Does anyone else have mornings like this? You see, the problem with home-based business is that the kitchen is much, much closer. One might say deliciously and dangerously close. And, for some reason, my metabolism starts craving potato chips at 9:30 a.m. So, I stroll to the kitchen... in a moderate sprint. I calmly open the...
Where’s the Flair? Could Coworking Be Office Space II
Have you heard about Coworking, or have I been held captive to the whims of my underfed and long-suffering family for too long? Coworking is office space for us--free agents, freelancers, starter-uppers, and home entrepreneurs. You go to this shared space and, I don't know, do all the things you used to do at your former nine-to-fiver....
What I Learned About Entrepreneurship From My Dog
It's amazing where--and from whom--you pick up lessons about running your own business. I found one today just by watching our dog, Beauregard. Since entrepreneurs normally love what they do, they may find it hard to charge other people for their abilities and services. Our dog has no problem with that. Beau believes everything is...
Did Bill Gates Start His Day This Way?
I woke up this morning--and "woke" is a very relative term--to find a nice present from our dog on the living room floor, a leaking refrigerator, hungry children, and a husband who perpetually can't find his socks. My main urge was not to start working on my business, my intent was to crawl back in...