Bniz Notes

Rules we Make, Rules we Break and Rules to Live By.

bniz — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:38:40 +0000

When you think of Internet geek. Does U.S. MarineVietnam Vet Purple Heart recipient come to mind? I didn’t think so. How about serial entrepreneur that just happens to be a Certified Public Accountant? Me neither. Okay one last mind blower. How about an Internet Company that actually has superior customer service that speaks English? This guy and his Internet Business actually exists. Not only that but he is phenomenally successful. His name is Bob Parsons. He is the CEO and Founder of GoDaddy.com Bob has 16 Rules for Success in Business and Life in General. He displays them on his website freely and I have chosen to list them here for your good pleasure.

Bob Parsons

1.	Get and stay out of your comfort zone.
	I believe that not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear people say, “But I’m concerned about security.” My response to that is simple: ”Security is for cadavers.”
2.	Never give up.
	Almost nothing works the first time it’s attempted. Just because what you’re doing does not seem to be working, doesn’t mean it won’t work. It just means that it might not work the way you’re doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity.
3.	When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.
	There’s an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: “The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”
4.	With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be.
	Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of “undefined consequences.” My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, ”Well, Robert, if it doesn’t work, they can’t eat you.”
5.	Focus on what you want to have happen.
	Remember that old saying, “As you think, so shall you be.”
6.	Take things a day at a time.
	No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don’t look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.
7.	Always be moving forward.
	Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.
8.	Be quick to decide.
	Remember what General George S. Patton said: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”
9.	Measure everything of significance.
	I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.
10.	Anything that is not managed will deteriorate.
	If you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.
11.	Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing.
	When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.
12.	Never let anybody push you around.
	In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you’re doing as anyone else, provided that what you’re doing is legal.
13.	Never expect life to be fair.
	Life isn’t fair. You make your own breaks. You’ll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).
14.	Solve your own problems.
	You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: “You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others.” There’s also an oldAsian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: “A wise man keeps his own counsel.”
15.	Don’t take yourself too seriously.
	Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.
16.	There’s always a reason to smile.
	Find it. After all, you’re really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time!”

Danica Patrick

So You Wanna Start a Business, Huh?

George A. Garza — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:28:43 +0000

Are you getting the itch? Ready to bolt? Do you find yourself singing I Am Woman, Hear me Roar !? So you wanna start a business, huh?

Let me guess. You can’t stand your boss. You don’t like having to come in to work EVERYDAY. You don’t like being told what to do. Especially by the idiot that is one pay grade above you and the goofy clown with the single digit IQ above him. You feel like you are in a Tarzan movie and getting restless. If they would just listen to half of your suggestions the company would soar into the economic stratosphere. But no, the trees of ignorance keeps blocking them from seeing the forest you want to deliver to them. So you are sick and tired of working for the ‘man’. Now you look at your watch and say…” time to start my OWN business”. Slowly you begin to imagine all the benefits of owning your own business. Like playing golf in the middle of the week. Coming home early before the kids. Telling that unruly customer to take his business elsewhere if he doesn’t like the way you do business. Oh, you’re getting excited now. You’ll hire more people so there is less stress in the office. Yes and you will buy a bigger ad in the Yellow Pages. Your mind is being flooded with images of growth and success. You can’t stand it.

You rush home and announce your Declaration of Business Independence: ”Honey, I have decided to quit my job.” Your spouse does not appear to share your same level of enthusiasm for emancipation. Your narrow minded partner counters with words like security, Steady Paycheck, security, Health Insurance, security, 401k, security, Stability, security, economic uncertainty, security. You defend your position with words like freedom, unlimited potential, freedom, riches beyond measure, freedom, master of your own destiny, freedom.

This article is written for those of you in the midst of the battle between your freedom and your spouses security. It is written from a personal prespective of 7 start-up experiences over the last 35 years in depression periods as well as booming economic times. If you read closely you will benefit from the battle scars that are just now beginning to heal. If you skim or casually read this article then you will run the risk of writing your own blog from your next employer’s computer.

Rule # 1: Just because you are an excellent craftsman does not mean you will be a good business owner. This keen observation comes from Michael Gerber’s book The E-Myth Revisited . This is the biggest mistake you can make. Just because you are the best computer repairman in Texas does NOT mean you will be the next Michael Dell. If you cannot master the budgets of time and money you will fail regardless of how good you do what you do.
Rule # 2: Another gem from Gerber’s book - Do not work IN your business. Work ON your business. The E in the E-Myth stands for entrepreneur. If you are the expert in your field you will have an Entrepreneurial Seizure. Believing that since you are better than anyone else, your business can’t fail. So what happens? You start your new business – a beauty salon. The hair dresser does not show up so you jump in and fix hair. Now instead of being a business owner you just bought yourself a job. You are now making less than you were before and also have the pleasure of paying for the rent and lights out of your hourly wage. A very good recipe for going broke quickly.
Rule #3: Make a profit. I once asked a bankruptcy attorney what was the most common profile of a bankrupt client. The answer startled me. She said, “an OVERLY optimistic outlook.” What? What about Zig Ziglar and Norman Vincent Peale not to mention Joel Olsteen? What she meant was false optimism. Failure began long before the day of bankruptcy but the attitude was “well it’s just gotta get better” and they borrowed to live another day. False hope is as dangerous as no hope. Except false hope makes you suffer a lot longer.
Rule # 4: Work Your Strengths NOT Weaknesses. On page 3 of Tom Rath’s best seller Strengths Finder 2.0 he says, ”…the aim of almost any learning program is to help us become who we are NOT. …from the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to our shortcomings than to our strengths.” This is a complete waste of time. If you stink at bookkeeping spending hours learning something you are bad at is a bad investment of your time. If you are good in sales devote that time to being BETTER at sales not accounting. One great advantage in a start-up is momentum. You don’t get momentum going from boulder to boulder trying to get them to roll. You get a whole bunch of little ones rolling until you create an avalanche.
Rule # 5: You must master the art of productivity NOT busyness. Productivity contains value. Busyness is simply a collection of tasks with no regard to value. As Timothy Ferriss states in his book The 4 hour work week, taking a video back to the video store to avoid the $5.00 late fee is NOT productive. Choose to do something 10 times that value and pay the fine.” When you own your own business your greatest asset is YOUR time. Unfortunately it is the easiest asset to squander. Your friend is not likely to ask you for a hundred dollars but he’ll think nothing of asking you to take him to the airport (after all it’s not like you have a real job).

Here is the most crucial and costliest of all considerations: NEVER make the idea an object of worship. Violating this principle has brought irreversable ruin to countless well intentioned business pioneers. All entrepreneurs are driven by their ideas. But the vision of the idea must be used as goal and not a god. Once you lift the idea to the status of deity you jeopordize what truly matters in your life. I know of a man who risked everything to attain his prize. He alienated his friends, brought strife to his church, inflicted great pain onto his family. He now owes well over a quarter of a million dollars and still is no closer to his prize than when he started. He allowed the end to justify the means and the means ended up destroying his life.

Starting anything is fun and easy at first. The trick is keeping it going and staying on track. Excitement will keep it going and knowing where you want to end up will keep you 0n track. Good luck and drop me a line as you travel on your journey of business ownership.