Tag Archives: dream business

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“Business Opportunities Are Like Buses…”

“… there’s always another one coming.” – Sir Richard Branson

Opportunities Are Like Buses

If that’s the case, then why aren’t more people living out their dream career or building their dream business?  Everyone mopes about their 9-to-5 but keeps clocking in.  If the next bus is coming within 30 minutes or less, why aren’t more people boarding?!

Business opportunities are like thoughts (and buses, according to Sir Richard Branson) — nice on paper, but utterly useless without action.  Lots of thoughts cross our minds.  We’ve thought about what it would be like to be a millionaire, to travel to wherever whenever we wanted, to be in business for ourselves (hint, hint) or what it would be like to live so comfortably, we’d never have to work again.

We’ve definitely daydreamed about it, but there we are — those of us still swiping a time card — grinding out 40 hours a week for someone else during the best parts of the day … daydreaming about those opportunities.  And not to add insult to injury, but the 9-to-5 block is the better part the day that’s given up and given over to someone else — five days week … think about it.

We daydream and wonder and think about what we could do never really believing any of those thoughts or opportunities or buses, or whatever the hell they are — are coming are way.  Most of us (and I can say ‘most’ with a great deal of confidence) will never board the bus because all we see is what we’ve already seen.  Those wonderful thoughts about what we could do if we actually did them are just nice little mental escapes we give ourselves throughout the day not realizing we’re letting another opportunity pass us by.

Oh, it’s just a thought to you?

The average person can have anywhere between 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts A DAY!!!  Now, they may not all be about being self employed or financially free, but that’s still a lot of potential opportunities to let get away.

Or maybe you missed the bus and didn’t know it.

Richard Branson is right.  Opportunities are always there.  And just like buses, they may not come exactly when we need them or they may have so many people on board headed the same way that you can barely get on, but they’re still there.  Opportunities come — they just don’t linger.

 

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25 Fears That Holds Us Back

  1. Our businesses won’t be successful and we’ll never get it off the ground
  2. We’ll never achieve the kind of success we want
  3. We’ll always have too few clients or customers
  4. People won’t be willing to pay for our products or services
  5. We don’t have a good business idea, it won’t be profitable
  6. We don’t have enough experience or education to go into business for ourselves
  7. We’re not personable enough for people to want to do business with us
  8. We need more money than what we have
  9. We don’t have a real office or place of business to do business
  10. We’ll never be able to get a loan to start our business
  11. We don’t know how to write a business plan
  12. We don’t know how or where to market our business
  13. Our business will not be able to sustain itself or support us financially
  14. Someone’s out there doing what we want to do and they’re better at it
  15. All the good ideas and businesses are taken or have already been started
  16. We’ll never have a social life or be able to start a family
  17. We’ll never earn the respect of a reputable business man/woman
  18. We’ll never grow fast enough to keep up with the times
  19. We can’t afford the software and tools to have a competitive edge
  20. We really don’t know what we’re doing
  21. We’re going after something that’s too big for us to succeed at
  22. We’ll let ourselves and those who supported us down
  23. We’re going to fail
  24. If most people who start a business fail, then why bother
  25. Maybe we’re not meant to live out our business dreams

If everyone let their fears hold them back, we wouldn’t have the society we have today.  It’s not perfect, but it  has been built by people who, despite their fears and doubts, pushed the boundaries, embraced the risks and marched on.  Fear is nothing more than an anchor meant to keep us from reaching our greatest potential.  We can let fear hold us down or we can hold down fear.

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If We Had No Limits…

Sky Is The Limit

If we had no limits, how high would we reach?

How ambitiously could we soar?

What could stop us?  What could ground us?

Would we achieve every goal, live every dream?

Would we be our best and give our all?

If we had no limits, what would we envision?

What would we create?

Would we alter inspiration and redefine innovation?

Would we be another start-up, a Silicon Valley story?

Could we be a tech titan or an App ally?

Would the masses know our name , would the media our faces?

If we had no limits, would funding be an issue?

Would investors be needed?

Would we have to crowd-fund, would we dare to fund raise?

Would we know all the answers and have all the tools?

Would we be an overnight success or gradually build an empire?

Would we do it for the love of money or do it for love?

If we had no limits…

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Giving It Up

Throwing Away The Dream

Ever wonder what you’d be throwing away or giving up on when you decide to let your business dreams and aspirations go?

Yes, you may go back to getting a paycheck regularly.

Benefits and insurance may be a guarantee.

And your days may go back to being stable and structured.

But what about the passion you had to do something greater than yourself?

What about the ideas you started playing with and talents you wanted to harness?

What about all the experience and knowledge you gained all long the way?

Could someone else sitting in their big office and expense account ever pay you aptly for your invested time?

If it’s not about the money, what about the joy?

You could be happy punching in the clock and counting down the hours?

Would you be okay with going back to the status quo and what’s expected?

Could you go back to having a job instead of establishing a business?

If you wanted to leave something for your kids or your grand-kids, would your job give them your title? Your salary and your bonus?

Could you be okay with never knowing all that you could have accomplished?

Could you give your all to building someone else’s dream?

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Event: Los Angeles Speed Coaching

What: Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream Speed Coaching Event

 

When: Tuesday, August 21, 2013

 

Time: 5:30-8:30 PM

Food & drink provided!

 

Where: LA Mart

1933 S. Broadway

Los Angeles, CA 90007

 

 

 

 

Since 2008, Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream program has been providing business owners in the food, beverage and hospitality industry with the essential ingredients to start, strengthen and grow their small businesses.

 

To learn more about Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream visitwww.samueladams.com/btad

 

 

 

 

 

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Learn the essential ingredients to get started, build on your success, and grow!

 

Last chance to sign-up for the August 21st Speed Coaching event in LA where you will have the opportunity to:
Learn about

  • Marketing & PR
  • E-Commerce
  • Packaging
  • Food Sourcing
  • Sales and Distribution
  • Accounting and Financing…and more!
  • Network and connect with fellow entrepreneurs
  • Contact local organizations that support small business
  • Have a FREE business consultation with VEDC to learn how to access critical capital

 

 

 

 

Just come prepared with product and packaging samples andspecific questions that we can help answer. VEDC will also be on hand to discuss how you can access capital for your food, beverage, or hospitality business.

 

 

 

{All information and images are credited to the VDEC}

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What Comes First: The Funding or The Planning?

For some of you, this is a no-brainer kind of question.  If we were on a game show, I would guess many of you would hit the buzzer for “planning”.  Duh!  It makes the most sense.  If there’s no plan in place, how can you ever fund the business?  But let’s change the scenario a bit — You have a great multi-dollar idea.  You don’t have all the details just yet and you definitely haven’t planned how this is all going to work out, but the idea is valuable.  To top it off, you’ve just landed yourself an investor!  You have a great idea followed by a great pitch.  After bouncing the idea off a few friends and family you now have someone who’s willing to invest.  Let’s morph this wonderfully ideal dream back into a bit of reality and say that the investor has agreed to fund the business but of course, wants a business plan, a proposal, a timeline (a deadline, really) and whatever else to assure him this is a lucrative and probable investment.  All from an idea.

Funding

Think of all the in-the-shower ideas we had come to us.  What if your multi-million idea was just like that?  An idea that  was born out of some repetitive task or inspiration brought on by frustration that anyone in their right mind would want to jump on and be a part of.   But while you’re lathering up and rising off, did you bother to figure out how to find the right manufacturer, or commercial slot or print ads in every national paper?  Probably not.  But you still have the idea.

What if you don’t have an idea for a product, but rather a service.  Manufacturers are not needed, neither is inventory or stock and overhead is probably much more manageable.  But a service idea is harder to picture than a product idea, which even in it’s conception phase can be sketched out.  Do you seeking funding for that idea first, or do you plan first?

Planning

Truth of the matter, there is no real easy answer or right decision, at least not across the board.  Some people are better at selling and others are better at planning.  Sellers will pitch to investors and planners with dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’.  It’s also probably best that if you have a service based business idea, that you prepare a plan, an outline of what it is, what’s provided and how to get it from conception to realization.  The same goes for if you have a product based business idea.  But unlike a service idea, sometimes a concept is enough to win over the masses and a few investors.  That that conception has to be something that can be actualized.  And don’t feel bad if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like to write or focus too much on the itty-bitty details.  You can either outsourced that to someone else for a decent price or start building a team of people in which someone on your team can do that for you.  No matter what you idea is about, at some point planning is going to have to be involved and so will funds.  But in what you arrange them it’s up to and the idea.

{photo credits: dream designs and artur84 via freedigitalphotos.net}

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Make Every Experience Count

In order to be successful in this life and never work a day in our lives, we must find what we’re passionate and pursue it.  We’ve heard this and we know it.  So we have.  We’ve tapped into the activities and hobbies that make us smile and laugh.  We found the things that we could do endlessly without ever looking at the clock and we’ve even manage to find company that supports our exploration and business ventures.  But when we follow our passions, are we suppose negate every experience, every job we ever held?  What about those valuable lessons and skills we picked up along the way?  Should we forget about the things we’ve learned when we follow passions?

Subway

I worked at Subway for a couple of months during the year I took off from college.  It was actually a second job I took on to help supplemental by tuition going back to school.  This was the only fast food job I ever held and believe you me,  that was alright by me.  And don’t kid yourself, Subway may tell you to ‘eat fresh’ but it’s still fast food.

  • Watch those that have been doing the job longer and pick up on the tricks they’ve learned to make the job easier to perform.  It takes everyone some time to get the hang of any new skill and after awhile, you develop a knack for doing tasks so that they don’t become overwhelming.  The take-away — no matter which business you decide to pursue and no matter what passion drives it, someone out there has done it before.  Find them, study them, mimic them if you have to.  If they’ve been in the game longer than, they also a system in place that you can follow until you get the hang of things.

Dillard’s

I worked there my all of my junior year and part of senior year in college.  I worked in Men’s Fragrance.  Just a little FYI, men rarely buy men’s fragrances.  Only during the holidays did we see a substantial amount of foot traffic and it was mostly from women buying for their significant others.  So most of the times, our counter was dead quiet and had next to no business.

  • Create business.  While cleaning out our own tester inventory closet, I had an idea about offering tester fragrances we no longer carried to those customers that applied for our store credit card.  Needless to say, within two weeks time, it was a smash.  Customers heard about the promotion and would stop in just to apply for a credit card for a free fragrance.  While they were waiting for the approval, they would look around to see what else we sold.  Traffic increased and so did business.  The take-away — business is not going to come to you unless you take action.  It doesn’t have to be grand or over the top, it just has to be something people are going to be interested in.  Grab their interest them and you’ll get them coming to you.

RGIS Inventory

This is one of those jobs I hated.  The hours were long and no one could ever tell you how long the job was going to be.  Breaks were short and sometimes forgotten.  The company is surprisingly still around despite the many class action suits they’ve had regarding employee breaks and proper compensation.  I worked this job while in school too.  It consisted of going to various retail stores and counting their inventory for them.  And because these businesses ran during normal business hours, the job always started in the evening, like after 8pm.  Night owls need apply.  But in 5 months time I was promoted to a Team Leader position with my own team of 8 people.

  • Jobs come and go, so make your peace with that.  Do the job as best as you can and  be willing to help others along the way especially when it benefits the whole.  I was promoted not because I was the fastest counter.  I was promoted because I was always looking to get the job and get it done right the first time.  If that meant jumping on board someone else’s section and helping them get it done so we could all leave, so be it.  The take-away –  Teamwork is the best avenues towards success.  People feel more confident in completing a job when they’re not doing it alone and/or they have someone who is willing to help.  Get in the trenches and help when you can.

I’d like to think I’ve been structuring Intel Boutique from a wonderful perfectly laid out dream.  But it truth, it’s summation of all my experiences.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s a passion of mine to help people get the information they need to live out their passion, but it wasn’t something I fell into overnight (I wish!).  I’ve made sure to put every experience to use.  Everything I’ve done, every job I’ve held and every experience I’ve had, I make it matter.

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A Lot of Possibilities

This gallery contains 3 photos.

Is this just an empty lot, or a possibility for booming businesses and enterprises?  Do you see weeds and trash or do you see commerce and transactions? In the heart of Koreatown  in Los Angeles (K-Town to those who know better), a couple blocks south of Wilshire, this vacant lot sits, untouched, unused and untapped waiting […]

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Familiar Inspiration

People have always tried to find a correlation between their success for the future and from those that came before them.  Sometimes we believe that if we have had successful relatives, that we too will see success with whatever we decide to embark on.  Well, we know that not to be the case.  One’s relation to a successful person doesn’t guarantee their own.  Everyone’s different; everyone’s drive is different, everyone’s strategies are different and more importantly, everyone’s ideas are different.  Our success depends on us, no matter how close we may be related to it by blood.  Yet, that doesn’t mean we can’t look to successful relatives for inspiration.

In my family:

  • My grandfather, may he rest in peace, owned a restaurant for many many years and had a number of other business ventures that were just as successful.  He was the first person in my family to have earned over million dollars from his business.  But his calling in life lead him to become a minister and that’s how he spent the last few decades of his life.
  • My uncle, my grandfather’s son, has owned and operated at least two businesses since 1992 —  a cleaning carpet business and a moving company.  He’s worked all over the Greater Los Angeles area and has moved people all over California and the southwest.
  • My 2nd uncle, my grandfather’s brother-in-law, has bee in business for at least 30 years in electronics.  He started from his home garage repairing and selling used electronics to neighbors, friends and family.  As devices and technology have changed and advance, so has his skills to keep up with his clientle needs.
  • My grandmother, many many years ago started a tax preparation company in additional to her regular job.  It wasn’t until she relocated from California to Illinois that she was able to make it her full time business handling individual and business income taxes.
  • My cousin writes on the side of her teaching job.  She writes for independent and short films as well as poetry and short stories.  Her writing has led her involvement to working on video production and play writing, giving her greater professional freedom and creative expression.

I would love to say that what my relatives have amounted to, I will as well.  But my dreams and goals aren’t theirs and vice-versa.  We don’t share the same direction or trajectory.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn from them, learn from their mistakes, learn from their victories and how they handled each obstacle that came in their way.  We may share a similar goal but not that same path.  Some people, family included, are meant to inspire us to with their life’s work to we can go after our own.

 

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You Have An Investor, Great! Now What?

You just landed an investor for your company.  Applaud yourself.  So many people struggle searching for someone, sometimes anyone, to believe in them and their dream enough to help finance it.  And you did it.  Whether your pitch was flawless, the business plan was impeccable or the investor believed in your vision, you nailed it.  You’ve just secured the capital to make the business dream a reality.  Now, I don’t want to pump the brakes on your early celebration and make you shelve that bottle of bubbly, but there are a few things you’re going to have to get in order to continue to boost confidence in your investor and in his/her decision.

Get Board.  Find at least 4 people not including your self to establish a board of directors.  I say 4 because you’re going to want an odd number of people (not too many people to start with, but not too little either) when it comes to voting and decision making.  Your investor can be on the board as well, but that is something the two of you are going sit and talk about and decide how that will work (voting vs. non-voting rights).

Disclose Nothing. Make sure everyone who is working with your company signs a non-disclosure agreement.  Everyone including, board members, regular employees, interns and independent contractors/ freelancers.  This helps protects much of the intellectual property during your start-up and launching phases.  And to be quite honest, it’ll probably come in handy more once the company is up and running.  But you want to make sure everyone understands  that the processes, strategies and decisions are important as not to be shared outside the company and especially not with the competition.

Plan Again.  Yes, you already created and worked the business plan.  After all, that’s probably the first thing the investor wanted to see be fore saying yea or nay to investing.  But there’s no harm in going back over it.   In fact, it’s encouraged.  As things come up or are introduced, you want to make the business is prepared and aware for as much coming its way.  So find that business plan and see what you can add, delete or re-vamp.

Role Play.  Everyone involved in your company needs to serve of purpose or they’re an unnecessary expense.  Find a role for them that fits the needs of the company and matches their skill sets.  You want to have the best team of people possible as you humanly can.  And you want people who believe in your dream business just as much as you do.  Slackers and suckers need not apply.

Make A Statement.  Every company needs to have a mission statement.  Or else it’ll fumble around doing whatever without any real guidance.   And you can’t travel for too long without knowing where you’re going and not crashing.  A mission will help you define the company’s target market, level of service, customer expectations, product quality and purpose in the community.  State your mission.

Securing the investment is one battle conquered for your business.  But there is still much more to do and what lies ahead.  Go ahead and celebrate the victories but do not take your eyes off the prize.  Investments come in many shapes, sizes and opportunities, keep an eye out for them.

 

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