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THE PURPOSEFUL PRODUCTS BLOG

21/12/2017 0 Comments

ENTREPRENEUR INTERVIEWs - SERIES 1

INTERVIEW 5 - Seán, THE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS OWNER

In the final interview of Series 1, Seán shares his views about the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, persevering for 6 months before he got his first client, and his top software resources.
Seán, what do you do, why do you do it and how did you get into it?
I run WPStrands and we are going to change the view of website maintenance from a non-essential luxury, to an affordable necessity.
We do this for business owners who are delighted to have their WordPress website maintenance (configuration, backups, updates, security, coding, performance checks etc.) done for them at WPStrands, https://wpstrands.com.

After 24 years in a corporate career I wanted to do something meaningful for online business owners, and for myself.

How long have you been an entrepreneur?
Two years, but it feels like I only started doing it properly in the past 6 months!


What are the biggest highs and lows of entrepreneurship?
The highs:
  • Learning and freedom - I love both.
  • Knowing I'm doing something that genuinely helps people.
  • Seeing how happy a customer is when you get them out of a jam.
  • Every new customer we work with.
  • Being able to be with my daughter more - for important moments, or when she's sick.
  • My biggest high was getting my first large corporate client. It's interesting to be providing specialist services to the kind of companies I used to work for.

The lows:
  • The doubt and insecurity.  It's a predator constantly circling, ready to pounce at random times, though the circle is slowly getting wider and wider!
  • Getting way off schedule because of client problems.
  • Dealing with the naysayers, including close family and friends.  If they can't be convinced to believe in you, then just fall back on being stoic.

After 6 months with no clients, thinking: "Why am I wasting my time on this? I've no idea what I'm doing and no-one cares."  The thing that kept me going was knowing that 80 million WordPress websites exist. Surely the owners of a few hundred of them would be interested in my help if they only knew about me!
Both the highs, and the lows come and go. Thankfully with increased experience, confidence and knowledge, the ratios of highs to lows increases.


What are the most important lessons, or realisations you've had about life as an entrepreneur?
  • Most people do not work very efficiently, but you can learn lots from those who do. Smart time management and routines are important.
  • Most people are not reliable, but you can learn lots from those who are.
  • Most people do not have your expertise, and they ARE willing to learn from you.
  • Selling is not evil, or greedy.
  • There are no secrets. From the ancient Greeks, through to Carnegie, Napoleon Hill and Tony Robbins, the most important things have always been written about: purpose, belief, desire, persistence and consistent work. There is very little about getting things done that hasn't already been written.
  • It's hard. Much harder than you think!
  • It's rewarding. Much more rewarding than you could ever imagine. The simple satisfaction of waking up every day eager to get to work and help people is incredible.


What are the top tools that have made a significant difference to your business?
I would have to say:
  • Buffer, www.Buffer.com for social media scheduling.
  • Google Calendar, https://calendar.google.com/ for scheduling, planning, and keeping myself on track.
  • Slack, www.slack.com and Skype www.skype.com for communication.
  • Canva, www.canva.com for images of all kinds.
  • Piktochart, www.piktochart.com for images, and charts.
  • Irfanview, www.irfanview.com for quick image editing and resizing.
  • Wave, www.waveapps.com for invoicing.​

​You can find out more about how Seán got started at: https://wpstrands.com/bootstrappers-journey-100-customers/.

Contains copyrighted material from the book: Entrepreneurial Espresso.

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7/12/2017 0 Comments

ENTREPRENEUR INTERVIEWS - SERIES 1

INTERVIEW 4 - MICHAEL SOKOLIN, THE PUBLIC SPEAKING COACH

Michael Sokolin is a public speaking coach.
In this interview we'll find out how he got started, his experiences as an entrepreneur, and the software he relies on to manage and build his business.
Michael, what do you do, why do you do it and how did you get into it?
I run public speaking classes, and offer different courses based on customers’ skill levels – I deliver beginner, intermediate and advanced courses.

In the past I hated public speaking!
I always struggled with it, and hated it my whole life. I despised anything to do with performance; reading in class, doing presentations in school, at university, and at work...
I got into this line of work because I wanted to get better myself and to help others get better.
When I first started attending public speaking courses and seminars about 5 years ago, I realised how bad some of the services were and I spotted a business opportunity in the market. I saw the problem, and the commercial aspect to it - a lack of good teaching, a lack of structure in delivering the courses, and an inability to get results for students.
I have trained as an actor as well, and noticed much more growth in myself and the people around me in developing through acting training.
As a result, the basis of my classes at http://www.michaelsokolin.co.uk is threefold:
​

1. Personally having been in a place where I hated public speaking, and having gone through the journey myself, now wanting to help others because I understand how they feel.
2. Seeing that there’s a lack of good training available.
3. Having undergone acting training, performance training, clowning, stand-up comedy and improvisation, and having integrated those to help people boost their confidence in public speaking.

How long have you been an entrepreneur?
I've been an entrepreneur since I was 13 or 14 years old.
Whether it was selling candy, or washing cars, I'd always come up with ways to make money.
I've been involved in different businesses; my first formal business venture was owning a nightclub. It didn't work out, but there was the concept of running events in a stylised way and after that, this public speaking business came about.

What are the biggest benefits of entrepreneurship?
For me personally, the biggest benefit of being an entrepreneur is the ability to stretch your mind – you're essentially growing as a person by constantly being on your toes, because you are the business.
If I have a lazy day or week, the whole business stops, so there is pressure to think and come up with ideas, but this sparks your creativity and motivation. It makes you think on your feet and become more alert, and you become more intelligent almost, and more organised!
​

I also like the freedom of doing things how I want to do them.
I struggle with working for others, which is probably one of the biggest traits that entrepreneurs have - that difficulty in working for someone else and having to bow to someone else's command... That's one of the hardest things.
I always have my own ideas about how I think things should be done and found it hard to sacrifice those for what someone else was telling me, so it's good to be able to do things my way!

What are the most important lessons, or realisations you've had about life as an entrepreneur?
My biggest realisation is that it's not as easy as I thought it would be!
There is freedom, as I've mentioned, but there is also a lack of freedom which relates to time. It can be hard to take time off – I've been craving a holiday for ages.
I'm planning one now, but I won't relax 100% because I'm going to be thinking about my business and my courses and who will be attending. As an entrepreneur, you're not getting a fixed salary, and it's harder to switch off and not think about anything on holiday and at the weekends. It takes time to build an infrastructure that employees can work within so that you don't have to think so much about some of these things.

There can also be an illusion, or romanticism about what it means to be an entrepreneur, but it can be tough in reality.
It's been 4 years since I started running the business, and in the next year I hope to have more time freedom!


What are the top tools that have made a significant difference to your business?
Since I run events, event platforms like Meetup, https://www.meetup.com/ and other event / networking websites like Funzing, www.funzing.com/ (UK) / http://uk.funzing.com/ (US) and Wonderush, https://wonderush.com/ are helpful.

​Email service providers like MailChimp, https://mailchimp.com are convenient in terms of keeping my contacts organised, sending people emails and maintaining a database.
I'm in the process of setting up a CRM system – I like HubSpot CRM, https://www.hubspot.com/crm/. It's a good way of keeping your leads organised and to keep track of customers, potential clients and your communication with them.

You can find out more about Michael at: http://www.michaelsokolin.co.uk.

Contains copyrighted material from the book: Entrepreneurial Espresso.
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    WHAT INFORMATION WILL YOU FIND on THE PURPOSEFUL GROUP BLOG?

    Want to build a mobile, or web app to offer to your existing customers?
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    Tech and software are complex entities, and it makes good business sense to make sure you have a grasp of the important things that you need to know, and understand in order to run your business effectively, and to make good business decisions so you can avoid rookie mistakes, pitfalls, and wasting time and money.

    On the Purposeful Group blog, you'll find information, resources, and support to help you build, and buy software, plus tools and tech to help you automate, and run your business.

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