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21/12/2017 0 Comments ENTREPRENEUR INTERVIEWs - SERIES 1INTERVIEW 5 - Seán, THE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS OWNERIn 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:
The lows:
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?
What are the top tools that have made a significant difference to your business? I would have to say:
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 1INTERVIEW 4 - MICHAEL SOKOLIN, THE PUBLIC SPEAKING COACHMichael 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. 23/11/2017 0 Comments entrepreneur interviews - series 1interview 3 - anne rainbow, the scrivernervirginAnne is a writer, editor, author and blogger. In this interview she talks about the life of a writer, how she ensures she covers all the bases in her business, and her favourite tools for writing, and marketing. Anne, what do you do, why do you do it and how did you get into it?
I am the ScrivenerVirgin, blogging about how writers can make best use of this amazing software, and hosting the Simply Scrivener Special webinars to demonstrate Scrivener features and answer writers' questions. I am also the RedPen Mentor, helping writers to achieve their dreams! I've always been a teacher at heart, and I love seeing others - especially writers - acquire knowledge and understanding and then enjoy success. How long have you been an entrepreneur? Even when officially employed, I've always also worked for myself: writing, teaching, etc. Although RedPen goes back more than a decade, the current 'portfolio' started when I set up my website and began blogging about Scrivener in September 2015. I've been helping writers to learn how to edit their manuscripts through online writers’ groups and face-to-face workshops forever, but it was in September of 2016 that I self-published my book EDITING The RedPen Way: 10 Steps to Successful Self-Editing. Since then, within the ScrivenerVirgin website, http://www.scrivenervirgin.com I've set up the RedPen Editing, Training and Mentoring service. What are the biggest benefits of entrepreneurship... and the downsides? Working as an entrepreneur means I have total freedom to work on what I enjoy, when I like and in circumstances that I engineer for myself. At home, I have an office to myself, and technology means I can work, using my laptop, anywhere in the world... so we travel too. Writers and other artists can so easily become absorbed in their work, and turn into recluses, cutting themselves off from the 'real' world. I think the same is true of entrepreneurs. When my children were young, they complained that I didn't show them enough attention. Now, on my second marriage, my partner is an artist, disappearing into his studio for hours. Individually, we are impossible to live with; together, we make a great team. What are the most important lessons, or realisations you've had about life as an entrepreneur? Although I am one person - one head and one pair of hands - I need to separate the various roles that need to be mastered. I am the boss; I am the worker. I write the words, I have to market them too. I am responsible for my own success - and need to apply myself to whatever needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and to complete everything in as professional a manner as I can. A very strong work ethic helps. Waking early and having little need for sleep is a bonus, but it's also easy to wear yourself out, so time for recovery needs to be factored in. Most important, is the time needed for the 'boss' to think ahead. What are the top tools that have made a significant difference to your business? I use so many...
You can connect with Anne at: http://www.scrivenervirgin.com. Contains copyrighted material from the book: Entrepreneurial Espresso. 9/11/2017 0 Comments ENTREPRENEUR INTERVIEWS - SERIES 1INTERVIEW 2 - COREY WILSON, THE ONLINE FREELANCERCorey is an established part of the "gig economy". He has worked for Fiverr.com for a number of years, and earns a full-time living via the site. In this interview he shares his views about the realities of freelancing online, the importance of flexibility when you have family members to care for, and his favourite software for business. Corey, what do you do, why do you do it and how did you get into it?
One night in 2013, I was browsing the Internet and found a link to Fiverr.com. I'd already tried registering on Freelancer.com and Odesk, (now Upwork) but they were so difficult to set up and required a ton of information before I could even start bidding for gigs. I'd also need to pay extra to increase my number of bids and to pass different tests. It didn't sound promising, so I didn't upgrade to paid membership with them. I wanted something simple and I found it in Fiverr. $5 didn't seem like a lot of money, but the website looked modern and interesting, so I signed up. My one and only gig was beta reading ebooks. I download a lot of Kindle books and the Indie ones always have so many mistakes, from grammar to plot holes and ugly covers - I thought if I could read them before they got published, I could prevent a lot of common errors which would help the authors get better reviews and sales. I posted the gig, it got approved and then I forgot all about it. Then, one day I got an email telling me that I'd received an order. I logged in, read the book and got my first 5-star review. Then I added more gigs - things I already knew how to do: audio transcription, PDF to Word conversions, mind mapping, online research and data entry, and that was the start of my business! What are the biggest benefits of freelancing / entrepreneurship? Unfortunately, as my monthly income increased, so did the health problems in my family - getting a full-time job was no longer an option. I needed flexibility and time for waiting rooms, trips to the ER, and home care. No employer would tolerate that much absence. That is the greatest benefit of freelancing. You have a deadline, but you don't have to work on your gig from 9 to 5, you can work on it at 5 a.m. You also get to work on so many diverse projects. No two days are alike, and as you work, you're always thinking of ways to complete tasks faster and better, and about skills you could learn to improve your value. It's very dynamic. Also, there is nobody standing over your shoulder telling you how to do your work. You can do the job in whatever way you want, as long as the buyer gets what they need. The downside is that you never know when your next order will arrive. Summers can be very slow, with days without any orders. That can be nerve-wracking if you have bills to pay. Can you tell us the top tools that have made a significant difference to your business?
You can check out Corey's Fiverr gigs here: https://www.fiverr.com/carbor Contains copyrighted material from the book: Entrepreneurial Espresso. 26/10/2017 0 Comments entrepreneur interviews - series 1interview 1 - rob cubbon, the content creatorWelcome to Entrepreneur Interviews!
We'll be kicking of Series 1 with "laptop entrepreneur" Rob Cubbon. Some of you may have come across Rob online. He has a number of books in the Amazon stores, and has his own range of online courses. He also publishes his strategies, latest experiments and his monthly earnings online. In this interview he talks about life as a location independent entrepreneur based most of the year in Thailand (I interviewed him via WhatsApp whilst he was in Chiang-Mai), the importance of making time for strategic thinking, and his top productivity tip. Rob, what do you do, why do you do it and how did you get into it? I used to work in graphic design in London doing desktop publishing work, and I was doing that for a long time. Then I started blogging. That was back in 2006. It was quite easy to rank for certain keywords in those days, and I began to get design work that I could do from home. That's how I got started. Two years after I started blogging, I was able to stop working for other people. What are the biggest benefits of entrepreneurship? The benefits of being an entrepreneur? Mainly freedom, but there are lots of benefits. Currently I'm living in Thailand - that's a huge benefit! I consider meeting people to be a benefit too. I'm in a great place; there are a lot of Western and Thai entrepreneurs here. There's a centre for it, so I get to meet really interesting people at the local entrepreneurial meetups. On top of that, you're free to choose your hours and you don't have to commute, so that immediately saves you two hours a day. Also, if you "go out to work" you don't have a choice of what jobs you do. The jobs I don't want to do I can outsource and give to other people, and the jobs I do want to do, I can do them myself - although it doesn't work out like that all the time! It's freedom of choice – I can choose what to do, when to do it, where to do it and how to do it, without anyone telling me to. What are the most important lessons, or realisations you've had about life as an entrepreneur? It depends what sort of person you are, but I've learnt that what I'm good at is getting things done. I'm not a perfectionist, in fact, I'm quite the opposite, but I've learned how to use that to benefit me. I've produced over 20 courses and 10 books, among other things, and the lesson I've learned is to finish things as quickly as possible, and to move on to the next thing. So, with courses, the first one wasn't great, as you can imagine, but by the 5th or 6th they started to sell well. The other side of it is consistency, doing things quickly and to keep on doing them, not to move on to something vastly different, but to keep on the same track, so you can become good at something and spread your bets by creating different products. You've got to find your own way. This is where it can be a very individual type of game and that is where copying other people isn't necessarily the best thing to do. What are the top tools that have made a significant difference to your business?
They really help me with outsourcing, because I can share different folders with various people around the world and get those people working in concert. I wouldn't be able to do it without those tools and the ability to get things done securely. My best tip for productivity is an offline one – set yourself a goal every day. For example, creating a video every day, or when writing a book, I'll make sure I write 500 words every day, so whatever I'm doing is finished within a month. I set myself a short term, medium term and a long-term goal, on top of what I'm doing whilst I run my website business, https://robcubbon.com/ each day. I make sure that I also do that extra task which goes towards a mid-term, or long-term goal, and if I do that, I'm contributing to my productivity. It is difficult, especially for entrepreneurs, because you're dealing with all sorts of things and want to get involved in others and find yourself pulled all over the place, but I find a good way of grounding myself is to complete that one extra task a day. Maybe it takes an hour or so, but it builds towards your future vision – that's really helped me. You can find out more about Rob at: https://robcubbon.com/. Contains copyrighted material from the book: Entrepreneurial Espresso.
In Series 1, I'll be posting 5 interviews with entrepreneurs from a range of different sectors, and locations around the world - one location independent entrepreneur is based in tropical Thailand!
They were all interviewed for my 4th and most recent book, Entrepreneurial Espresso: 450+ business-boosting and productivity enhancing tools to take the hard work (& guesswork) out of running your enterprise, one of our software survival books to help modern entrepreneurs get the most from the great free and low-cost software available to manage business "chores", save time and money, increase productivity... and to save us from going crazy with all the competing demands we have to deal with on our own, or with help from a small team!
When you have too much to do and too little time...
Here's where you can find our more about us and our books. In addition to talking about their journeys, each interview features top recommendations on great software for small business owners... Why? Because Purposeful Products is all about building, and buying great software products (plus, who doesn't like to compare notes?!) With huge thanks to:
Series 2 of Entrepreneurial Interviews starts in early 2018, where 100% of the interviews will be with tech entrepreneurs. In each interview, we'll review each person's story, and how they got "from idea to launch" with their software products.
You'll find all the interviews in the blog category Entrepreneur Interviews - Series 1, beginning with my interview with Rob Cubbon. You may have come across this quote from Steve Jobs (also attributed to Rob Siltanen, founder of Siltanen & Partners advertising agency.) It's so inspirational that it's well worth sharing here to kick off series 1 of our interviews with a salute to entrepreneurship: “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” Here's to making an impact! |
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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