My response -

Go Out There!

The answer to your question is in your question itself — ‘get myself and my brand in front of people’. Seriously, go out there, attend conferences, go to networking events, shake hands, kiss babies, be online (facebook, twitter, linkedin, youtube etc)… Be personable, mannered, warm, helpful, resourceful, sharp, & street smart but most importantly, be consistent, build a brand!

Here’s the link to full article on Huffington Post

- Can your employer take away your startup or property built out of your side project?

- What are your legal rights and responsibilities for your day job and the side business?

- What’s the best way to tell your employer about your side gig?

- Where to go if you need more legal help but can’t afford it…

And many more such legal questions that don’t let aspiring entrepreneurs sleep at night are answered in this interview where I had the opportunity to chat with Doug Bend, the startup and small business attorney. You can find him on Twitter @DougBend and read on now to make sure you’re covered.

DD: Doug, thank you so much for joining us for the chat, how are you doing?

DB:  I’m doing great thank you so much for having me and I’m so excited to be part of this.  I have been following all the work you have been doing and happy to contribute.

DD: Awesome! Why don’t we start with you telling us a little about yourself, what you do, how you help starting entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, and we’ll take it from there.

DB:  Sure, you bet, well as you said my name is Doug, I am an attorney, I have been practicing for about five years now.  Went to law school at Georgetown and moved out to the Bay area to help startups and small businesses out and that is the focus of my practice.  I have to tell I really enjoy it, I really enjoy what I do, I love helping people get their businesses off the ground and running and helping small business owners with their transactional needs so they can focus on their products and on their clients.

DD: Why did you choose to work with startups and small businesses?

DB:  I think the reason I like it so much is I find so much of the law to be divisive and attorneys are fighting over the kids or the house and what I really like about what I do is you help businesses and products and create jobs and help people really realize their dreams.  So a lot of clients come to the door and say hey I’m thinking about starting X company and you’re on their team to help make that happen and it’s very constructive and at the end of the day, end of the month you look back and say I helped build 4, 5, 6 great companies that are creating jobs for people and creating great products and I find that to be very fulfilling.

DD: So as you just mentioned that you have followed a little bit my work and what I do so you know that we are all about breaking the 9 to 5 jail, all about getting out of the rat race, so give us some idea of all the legal bases and how to cover them when you are looking at starting a business on the side while keeping your day job as an escape option.

DB:  I think it’s tough, I think what it really comes down to at the end of the day people really only have two options when they have their job and they are starting a company on the side.  They either decide to go stealth and do it without telling their employer and hope that their employer doesn’t find out or they are honest with their employer.  Both approaches have a lot of advantages and disadvantages.  I am really a fan of the honest approach and I will tell you why! I think anytime your business starts to get any sort of traction whatsoever your employer is going to find out and there is only so long you can keep it from them and when they find out they are going to be much more upset that you weren’t honest about it.  I think taking the honest approach with employers is really the way to go because if you go stealth, don’t tell them they are going to find out eventually in most cases and they are going to be understandably very upset and you are going to take a risk of not only lose your job at that point and time but possibly being sued.

DD: I believe in the same that let them know because if you don’t tell them and they find out  some other way they are going to be more upset and then covering your side or giving explanations would be much more difficult than actually coming clean in the very beginning say “hey you know, there is ___________ I am passionate about and I am working on it in evenings and weekends, it’s not as big but I just wanted to let you know”.

So,what is the best way to tell your employer? What are an employee’s duties & rights? What can I do just in case my employer doesn’t like that I am working on something on the side other than my job, how’d that work out?

DB: I think the real key to it is selecting the business on the side very strategically and what I mean about that is understanding that if you have a startup company on the side that is going to be a threat to your employer or direct competition or taking opportunity from that or taking clients, they are much more likely to not let you do that and not being ok with you doing that and running into much more legal problems.  When you think about starting your company on the side if you really do want to keep your current job while you are getting it off the ground and running really thinking about what type of business is not going to be threatening to your employer, I think that’s step one.  Two when you are going through that process of selecting what type of company to start really thinking about what type of businesses are going to allow you to have a job nine to five that you can start your business on the side.  Starting a business that needs to be open nine to five, you need to be answering emails and phone calls during regular business hours probably isn’t the best fit for a startup of while you trying to keep a normal job.  But a job that has much more flexibility that allows you to take care of your business when you get home at night from your normal job on the weekends, a job like that is not in direct competition which your employer it’s not going to be a threat to them, it’s much more likely to be acceptable to your employer and much more likely for them to be ok with you doing that on the side as long as it does interfere with your normal work job.

DD: I’m not an attorney and the one thing that I very often tell my clients is to look into their employment agreement because there is a lot of stuff that we sign, these are lengthy agreements that we sign in the beginning of a job. I have worked for Fortune 50 companies and I know nobody reads them, we take them home but don’t read them. So what is the best way to not read the agreement yet find what’s the meat of the agreement, what is it that I have signed, what are my rights, what I can and can’t  do?

DB:  I think in an ideal world you have an attorney advise you in a an ideal world.  But of course the problem with that is attorneys are expensive and so you have an attorney look over every single document you sign you spend most of your income on attorney’s fees.  But if you are able to find an attorney you trust that charges you reasonable rates to look over those documents it might be worth the fee upfront to really understand what you are getting into and for them to point out really where the pitfalls are and where you are going to get in the most trouble down the road and point out those provisions to you.  If you are not able to afford an attorney if the resources aren’t there I think look over the agreements and the first point is that employment agreements are very biased towards the employer, it’s their attorneys that are drafting the agreements and its very favorable to the employers and so when you look at your agreement your first reaction will probably be oh my god I can’t believe that’s very favorable that’s pretty standard for employment agreement and if you are going to pick out one provision to really pay attention to out of the agreement I think it’s really a section that relates to how much work you can do at home and on your own time and some of those provisions are much more restrictive than others.  Some of them go so far as to say anything you do outside of work that provides you with a profit, provides you with revenue is the property of the company even if it’s not related to the company y and I think those types of provisions are the ones you really need to keep an eye on if you have a goal of starting a company unrelated to your current company, on the side that doesn’t interfere with your current job.  Some courts take a look at those really egregious provisions and say hey listen this is ridiculous this employer had this person sign this agreement and now they are suing them for doing something on a Saturday that’s completely unrelated to their day job but other courts can take a look and say hey look its contract they had an option to review it, they had a consideration they took a job and they agreed to it so those provisions have been upheld. So I think recognizing you can’t courts in that that situation and taking a look at that provision and really egregious absolutely everything the sun outside my employment you might want to push back a little bit on that.  The second point on that is not only to look at the employment agreement but also take a look at the employee handbook and see what kind of restrictions are in the employee handbook in addition to the restrictions in the employment agreement.

DD: Great idea and actually that answers what I was going to ask you next can an employer really take away your business or the profits or are the content that you created or the product or the model or anything that you have created as your side project? Is it a far flung possibility or do you see that happening very often? What’s your thought?

DB:  No it’s not far flung, it’s something to be very aware of and a typical lawyer response is it depends, right.  It totally depends and it does depend on your employment agreement you signed, so you signed an agreement that has very very extremely broad provisions saying anything you do outside employment belongs to the employer and he agrees to that you are more likely to be a lose a project and the profits from the projects.  Two back to my initial point when we started recognizing that projects that are in direct competition with your employer that are taking away clients and opportunities for your employer are the ones that will be the most problematic.  If you sign an employment agreement anything I do outside work belongs to my employers then after that you go out start a company that is in the same industry, the same field, potentially broaching opportunities for your employer those are really the cases you are mostly likely trouble in and come after you and try to acquire what you can work on.

DD: Thanks for that great answer.  Now you mentioned that lot of times resources are not available for the starting entrepreneurs. So, if I can’t afford to hire a lawyer and I don’t want to take Google’s advice on legal matters because they are too sensitive and on internet people just tend to ask and answer same questions in different ways until they hear what they wanted to hear in first place. What are some of the credible resources for legal advice that you recommend?

DB:  I think that’s a very good point because an attorney who can afford someone who is very good SEO or they are very good SEO in their own right that’s having their articles pushed to the top of the searches you running might not be a qualified attorney answering that question and so kind of recognizing that just because they pop number one on a Google search for whatever you are searching for doesn’t mean that that’s the best source for relying making important decisions.  First of all if you can afford an attorney that’s really the best route to go, someone who does these transactions again and again and again that can help you out.  But if you can’t afford an attorney I think there is number of great resources out there.  I am a really big fan of the NOLO book series and they available on Amazon for around $25 to $50 per book and they do a really great job of writing on different legal topics and their target audience is not attorneys, its people that are looking for self-help legal work and they really do a good job at doing as an explanation so even someone that is looking at hiring an attorney picking up a NOLO book in their area that have attorney working on I think is a smart idea because they are going to ask much more smart good questions and I think what makes NOLO so great to is they have that filter, they have editors, they have publishers.  They are not just somebody posting a blog, there is a review process it goes through review process before you are reading it.  Other types of websites that blog is submitted they have a list of editors that review the blogs for content and for accuracy relying on those types of posts is really a good way to go. Venture hats often has an intervene has articles on legal issues and they have been filtered by their review process and probably a little more reliable to have very big user base a very big reader base reading the articles so if there is something blatantly wrong it more likely to get flagged and then finally I think looking outside the interment looking outside of books is your local resources.  A lot of nonprofits have programs to help out entrepreneur and looking in those which ones might be able to help you out and then finally also important is the SBA has a number programs that helpful for entrepreneur not only in the area of legal help but in marketing and bookkeeping and I would recommend any entrepreneur look into that.  The two office for entrepreneur who is looking at getting a business off the ground and running to request in your area help with and the small business development center, once you are entrepreneur and you are off and running there is a wide variety of grants out there where they hook you up with everything from a marketing consultant to a law firm, a local law firm and they are paid for through the SBA to help the young entrepreneurs, to help small businesses out at no costs so take advantage of those resources.

DD: Thank you so much a couple of them I didn’t know of and when it comes to books on legal issues again I feel like maybe they have not been updated to mirror current laws but as you just mentioned since they go through review process they are a very great and credible source of information.  So thank you so much Doug, was there anything you wanted to share with us and our audience.

DB:  No I’m so excited to talk to you! Entrepreneurs are great! It takes a lot of courage to step out there and to really start growing a business and I just wish everyone the best of luck.

DD: Thank you so much Doug really appreciate you being here.  Ladies and Gentleman this was Doug Bend and just a quick disclaimer because Doug is an attorney this interview and the all the information we have provided here does not create any relationship between you and Doug as an attorney and a client.  All the information is because of the generosity of Doug and it’s for your education & information and it’s always recommended to hire a lawyer if you feel the need.

DD: Doug, did I say that disclaimer right?

DB: Are you sure you aren’t an attorney? That was pretty good.

DD: Thank you so much, Doug.  Ladies & gentlemen, if you’re concerned about the legalities of starting a business while keeping your day job, definitely reach out to Doug at bendlawoffice.com and on twitter @DougBend

Success to all!

Last week GenJuicers rocked Facebook with questions for entrepreneur Devesh Dwivedi, an expert on breaking free from 9 to 5 daily grind.

Devesh started his first business, a comic books rental company, when he was only 14, and since then he has founded and co-founded several businesses. He has an MBA and worked for multiple Fortune 100s in corporate America, but, being a square peg, he never fit in that round hole. Today he loves helping aspiring entrepreneurs.

Many thanks to Devesh for his insight and to our inquisitive GenJuicers.

Question 1
Hi Devesh! What is a brief checklist of what should be accomplished for your business before walking away from your 9 to 5?

Well, the first one is finding a profitable idea by rigorously testing out the many “wonderful” ideas you’re flirting with!

Second would be finding your survival model – A. Will you flip burgers and work on your startup? B. Will you stay in some part-time job while you build your startup and C. Will you help another startup to make some money while you work on yours as well (learning benefit)?

Point is “burn the ship and bridges” is a romantic notion of walking away from 9 to 5; however, you’ve got to be careful about a lot of unromantic stuff in building a business before you get to that romance.

Question 2
What are some (ethical) ways for someone to leverage the resources at their current full-time job for a business they’re building on the side?

1. Read the employee handbook. I know I know; no one does, and you don’t look cool while reading, but that’s your Bible to understanding what is and isn’t acceptable at your employer, so make sure you find out your limits and respect them.

2. Make sure you don’t steal – the hours or goodies!!

3. Build strong relationships and most importantly build as strong relationship with your immediate boss as possible. Then leverage that to get some special permissions like telecommute, or flexible hours etc to better manage your time and productivity at both your job and the side gig.

‎4. Learn the industry, and use this time to dig deeper into and test all your ideas. You gotta come up with an idea that’s profitable and sustainable and doesn’t just sound like it. Understand what you’re going to do and why will someone pay for it.

Question 3
What are some websites/books/other resources that could help in transitioning from a standard 9-to-5 to working full-time on my venture?

I suggest the following: Michael E Gerber’s E-Myth; Young Entrepreneur Council; Scott Gerber’s Never get a real job; Pamela Slim’s Escape from Cubicle Nation; Mike Michalowicz’s Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

Question 4
I hear you should be making 3x your salary at your side biz before taking it on full time. Is this a good rule of thumb?

You should be grateful if you make 1/3rd of your salary at your startup/side biz before you walk away from your 9 to 5. Of course there are the success stories that we all would love to repeat, but most side businesses would remain side businesses with little or no income unless given due time and investments. I’ve never heard of this rule, but I suggest don’t wait for that day because it’s not coming.

I’ve heard the “rule” that you should charge 3X your current hourly rate at the employer, in case you decide to go the consulting or freelancing route, and that makes sense because it takes into account parts of the compensation that we don’t usually count when we look at compensation as factor or our time’s worth, compensation like the vacation, sick days, benefits, bonuses, etc., altogether make up the compensation and not just your salary. It could be good rule; however, pricing shouldn’t be done on such cookie cutter rules.

Question 5
What people/resources/knowledge were most useful to you personally in realizing you could break the 9 to 5 jail?

Well, I was an entrepreneur before going for an MBA and then being sentenced to Fortune 50 jails so for me it was quite a black and white comparison – my experiences at any of the traditional jobs I ever held never came even close to the freedom, the power, the risks and rewards that I had already experienced as an entrepreneur.

Resources and knowledge – 1. I started a Consulting Business on the side where I worked with hundreds of startups and learned a great deal at each one of my assignment. 2. Reading a lot and then writing my own.

Question 6
Can you share an example of someone who was not successful in quitting their corporate job and building a business out of their passion? What can we learn from them?

Of course! Not all stories have a happy ending, and while I would not call any name for being unsuccessful, I would absolutely love to share my observation. Yes it is very important to love and be passionate about what you do. But what’s even more critical are survival and success. Nothing will make you money simply because you’re passionate about it. You need to build a profitable and sustainable business around that passion, so think of a revenue model. Build a service or product (around your passion) that people need or would pay for. So, marrying your passion with a solid business and revenue model is the key to success. Passion alone will end up being either a nonprofit or failure.

Question 7
As an undergrad about to finish a degree with a specialization in Entrepreneurship, but not currently having “the” idea, what types of jobs or companies are BEST to try and seek employment with in order to build the skill set necessary to be starting my own venture a few years down the road?

Working at any startup or recently successful startup would be great start simply because you get to see the struggle, the hustle, and the challenges first hand. Plus, since you’ll be away from corporate bureaucracy, you’ll learn more.

Question 8
What are some ways to develop and build key business skills and experience in finance and entrepreneurship?

‎1. Working at a startup or a small business always helps simply because the closer you’re to calling the shots or whoever is calling the shots, you understand this game better.

2. Consume, but spit it out too. When you read a book or blog, make sure you comment on or review the content you just consumed, this helps you better understand what you just read and gives YOU a voice as well.

3. Consulting small businesses can be another successful way to be closer to them, getting to see them inside out and develop skills.

Question 9
I’ve been researching and educating myself on business and finance for the last two years. I really want to take it to the next level now, but I want it to be official and thoroughly planned. I want to star a T-shirt company but I really need insight on the best steps to take in general.

Two years, wow. Sound like you’re waiting for the perfect time! I’d highly recommend not waiting any longer and starting to take some action steps towards turning your idea into a business.

1. At this point I would suggest you document a Business Action Plan. Simply pick every element of your business (Idea, Target Market, Product, Operations, Strategy, Marketing, Finances etc) and add details to each element in precisely six dimensions – What, Why, Who, How, When, and Action Steps. Remember, our mind is incapable of having a plan inside; we can conceive ideas in our mind but not a plan because an effective plan is when you pen down the idea and add all the elements of execution to it.

‎2. I would also identify your USP (Unique Selling Point)… in the age of threadless, cafepress where I can get a custom T to GAP & Armani Exchange and many in between, how is your T better or cheaper or exclusive or simply put, why should I buy it?

Question 10
Can you give us tips for assessing the sustainability of a “side hustle” or “idea” before attempting to leverage it as a full-time business?

I suggest work on making money with your idea first, doesn’t matter how much, just find real customers to pay for your service or product, this takes care of the profitability and feasibility of the idea. Then look at your product and service from a scalability point of view, could this be multiplied and grown bigger with and without you. Last but not the least, understand the long term potential of opportunity. Is your product or service based on a current trend or fashion that will fade away sooner or later? Or is it based on a nuts and bolts opportunity in the market? I’m sure you’d know the answer.

Question 11
Do you feel time efficiency is key in big any successful business? Do you feel that maximum effort exerted into business will reap best results?

Work smart or hard isn’t the question in a startup setting. You gotta smartly work very hard in order to build a business. This means leverage the tools and technologies available to not waste or duplicate your efforts. I believe rewards are directly proportional to risks and efforts so if you put in side gig efforts and take side gig level risks, it will always remain a side gig. You know what to do!

Comment from a fellow Genjuicer: I think you need to know your audience and what they find value in too.

Question 12
Can you name three businesses you’re a fan of and why?

Apple Apple Apple! Steve Jobs is a great example of being a true entrepreneur who knows how to spot an opportunity and build a winning product or service around it.

Question 13
What is the best way to build “advisors” to share in one’s business idea?

1. Ask!
2. Work with biz bloggers and advisors; you’ll be surprised that we are very easy to work with.
3. SCORE or SBDC is your city could be a great FREE resource.
4. Successful business owners in your neighborhood or online (LinkedIn FB etc all have the groups and forums of almost all industry and expertise)
5. Forget the NDA unless it’s a “rocket science” formula you’ve figured out.

Originally put together and published by GenJuice in May 2011.

Share your questions about starting a small business on the side to escape from 9to5 in the comments below and I will do my best to help.

Point is, a business plan is nothing but communication in writing, where you tell the reader everything about your business/ idea as clearly and in as much details as possible. Leaving no room for guess work!

Question still is, how do I know if it’s the right idea and if I should write a business plan or execute the idea?

Simple, any business idea that you come up with has to pass three questions:

1. Will I pay for this? Would people pay for this service/ product?

Always think of “will people pay for this?” first. Don’t assume that people need what you are creating, rather find out what people want and are ready to pay for and then create it. Put together your product/service quickly and put it on for pre-sale, and then promote the hell out of it. See if people are ready to pay for this product you have been thinking about. You can NOT sell what you can not PRE-SELL. If it sells, then this could be the idea to invest more time and money in. A quick and easy way to test your ideas is to put together a landing page or simple website with paypal button and all the details of your potential product and advertise it via craigslist or other free classified ads. Work on making money with your idea first, doesn’t matter how much, just find real customers to pay for your service or product, this takes care of the profitability and feasibility of the idea.

2. How quickly would this make me rich?

Is this an idea that you believe would make you rich overnight or in a few short months or with little or no work at all? Immediately scratch this idea off, if you answered yes. 10 out of 10 times such get rich quick ideas are stupid schemes that involve fooling the prospective buyers in some or the other way. Hurts your credibility even before you build it. Remember what they say – if it’s too good to be true, well it is. There’s nothing wrong with having an eye on the top dollar returns but the ideas like $29 ebook or $49 seminars promising you free money, or to help you earn thousands while sitting home doing nothing or finding just 3 motivated people to build your MLM empire and many more cousins of such ideas are the ones that you really have to be concerned about. Avoid what I call ‘dollar driven’ ideas. This question has more to do with how honest you’re with your own self and your entrepreneurial aspirations. Are you in for building a business or are you looking for easy money?

3. What would this business look like 5 years from now?

Look at your idea [product or service] from a scalability point of view! Could this eventually be multiplied and grown bigger with or without you? Is your product or service based on a current trend or fashion that will fade away sooner or later? Or is it based on a nuts and bolts opportunity in the market? This will help you understand the long term potential of opportunity. If you can vision a somewhat definite growth and scaling plan for future, this could be the idea to invest your time and money in.

So, your idea only deserves a business plan & execution, if it is feasible, profitable, scalable, and strictly NOT a ‘get-rich-quick scheme’.

Next post, I will talk about “The 2 Sentence Business Plan”!

Last week while helping one of my clients put together a business plan, our discussion of course turned to what makes a good business plan, what makes it bad and what ugly mistakes do the entrepreneurs commonly make. Here’s what I came up with:

What makes a good business plan…

• A good business plan is a revolving document, a guide, an objective plan that charts out the what(s), why(s), how(s), when(s),  who(s) of the each aspect of the business concept (idea, model, sales, revenue, strategy etc etc), for example: what’s the problem, what’s the solution, how will it make money, when will it make money, who will do what, when to exit, how to launch, how to market, how to break-even, what’s the exit strategy just to list a few… versus a 100 page fancy theoretical plan that will eat dust on your shelf and not help you guide your business.
• Preciseness, Objectivity, Uniform Formatting with minor or no grammatical mistakes make a good business plan!
• A solid Executive Summary detailing the opportunity/ problem, solution, and the big picture along with the well researched and realistic financials make a good business plan!

What makes a business plan bad…

• Baseless fancy assumptions on industry growth, revenue potential, and other projections.
• Typos, bad formatting (too colorful, too small/big fonts) and grammatical mistakes.
• A cookie cutter business plan downloaded or copied from somewhere.

What ugly mistakes the business owners commonly make…

• Not including an Executive Summary is the most common mistake, I’ve noticed.
• Not doing enough research and using baseless assumptions to do financials.
• Leaving important elements of the business unaddressed – exit strategy, break-even analysis, intellectual property  or other legal issues etc.
• Slapping their name and logo on top of a cookie cutter business plan from a software.

If you look at the above lists carefully, you’d notice that it’s pretty much the same things that if done right, can make the business plan good and if done wrong or omitted, make that same business plan useless. The reason behind this is the entrepreneur’s psychology, too few entrepreneurs look at their business plan as a critical piece in their success, and most of them look at it as “a formality I need to fulfill for the bank or investors”. Not only this is wrong but it’s useless and waste of time, simply because the investors and banks who you’re doing this exercise for, see dozens of such “me-too” business plans everyday and your chances of raising or borrowing any money are not just slim, but non-existent.

So, if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, don’t let me, any book, or a software force you into writing more than what your business needs as a business plan. And, I’d strongly suggest you writing one by yourself. For a very simple reason that your business is your baby and no one knows it better than you do… If you need help, start with Govt. and Non Govt. resources for small businesses and entrepreneurs, like local chamber of commerce, and chapters of SBDC &/or SCORE. Try Linkedin and similar networks to find a business consultant who could help you put together a business plan. In any case, do your research, write original, try to avoid the ugly mistakes listed above and while you’re at it, write a winning business plan that your idea deserves.

Have you written a business plan? What mistakes did you make? What do you wish to re-do, if given a chance? Please share your thoughts via comments below.

Success to all!

In my next post, I’ll talk about – “Does your idea deserve a business plan & how to write one?” Stay tuned!

Here’s how the story goes…

As my friend was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from the ropes they were tied to but for some reason, they did not. My friend saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.

“Well,” he said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” My friend was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Just like these elephants, many of us were brought up with a false self-limiting belief of some sort – ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘why try if I am not going to make it’, or ‘success, riches & freedom are for the chosen ones’, ‘entrepreneurship is not for me’, ‘I’m only destined to do a job I hate & pay the bills’ and many more versions of this same belief that underestimates the capability, talent, and potential within us.

Consider this post a reminder, “Don’t be an elephant”.

Look at yourself, you’re smart, you’re talented, you’ve a gift, and you’re capable of doing anything you set your heart to… The giant iron shackle that’s keep you in the 9-5 jail is nothing but a weak rope of false belief… Break out of this false belief that you can’t do it, or you’re not good enough, or whatever it is that’s keeping you & your family away from the success & freedom you deserve! Come on, break it! Break free from 9 to 5 jail…

Success to all!

I wish I got a penny every time an aspiring entrepreneur told me how s/he is going to go full time in his/ her business once the business starts making at least as much as s/he is making at the day job. I believe this thought process is based on a [false] belief versus being based on logic. I mean, how many part time jobs pay as much as a fulltime job? It is very simple; rewards are proportionate to efforts put in and risks taken. If you put 2-3 hours of evenings and weekends, how do you expect it to become a business with stable cash flow that generates fulltime income? And yes this applies to web based startups too.

So, going back to cloning, most of the side-gig startups, when they see some growth and the workload seems to go out of control, the Founder faces a dilemma – go full time on the new business or self clone: hire someone to manage & run the business.

Hiring someone to run their business looks like a great idea to many aspiring entrepreneurs and here’s the ideal arrangement they hope for – “I need someone who can run my business as effectively as I do, make it profitable and pretty much do anything & everything as I do. This person’s compensation would be either based on performance (sales – I mean there’s no limit to money you can make, you bring money in, and I’ve no problem sharing it) OR steeply lower than what I make at my day job”.

Now as good as it sounds and logical it seems, it’s NOT. It could be a good idea in some models, for instance if you open a sandwich store, you can hire some college kids to make and sell the sandwiches, or if you open a retail store, you can hire a store manager and a couple of sales reps and not be involved in day-to-day operations yourself however, for most other businesses like a web or tech startup, a service based business etc it is not as good as it sounds.

First of all, why would someone who is as qualified as you, can work as effectively as you, and can sell as well as you do, pretty much be your clone and replace you, work at a fraction of your current salary or only commission? Would you take it if someone offered you a similar arrangement?

Second, when you yourself do not have enough confidence in your business that it will make money (the fact that you’re sticking with your day job at this point clearly shows you’ve zero confidence in your business, don’t lie to yourself) then how do you expect someone else to have passion and confidence in your idea?

Third problem with this situation would be – employees are not as driven as the business owners; they don’t have a direct investment in the business and therefore they do not have the sense of urgency and motivation that business owners have. Essentially, you would be leaving your business to someone who has no direct investment in what you have created with your own time, money & effort. They may very well run it into the ground. Is the reward worth the risk?

Having said all that, I believe the goal of any side hustle should be to prove the idea, test the market, develop a prototype, create a working model, hopefully get some initial clients and help the Founder cut the cord confidently. A side hustle should FREE the founder from his/ her 9-5 jail FIRST. If Founder’s escape from 9-5 jail isn’t one of the goals, then that side hustle barely stands a chance to turn into a business.

The founder should be the first fulltime player in the team. Period. Startups scale and become businesses on ideas, effective implementation efforts, and driven individuals. The founder brings ideas to the table based on his/ her vision and feedback from others, the founder helps effective and timely execution of those ideas and finally the founder has to be the cheerleader to keep everyone motivated and productive.

I would love to hear your experiences. So, if you are working on a startup on the side, or have made the transition from side hustle to a business, or failed to make a successful transition… What were your challenges, lessons learned in the process, and what do you suggest to your peers in the same shoes as you once were? Please share it via comments below.

As much as I loved reading both of these posts, I don’t agree with either. I second each one of the productivity tips that the “Anonymous” writer suggested in the article however, I would not encourage the young and aspiring entrepreneurs to utilize these tips to finish early with the day job and spend rest of the day on their side gig. Don’t get me wrong here! The post is full of practical tips that everyone should follow, only not for the purpose that the title & opening paragraph suggests. Just saying!

Similarly, while I like a couple of the tips in the other post, I still won’t suggest anyone to follow the rest of the advice there. Even if we totally ignore the personal ethics, honesty & integrity part of what’s wrong with this scene, to avoid who’s right or wrong and what should happen versus what does happen arguments, these tips for using your 9-5 to pay for your startup could be diabolic.

Here are a couple of reminders I give to my clients, who want to work a 9to5 as well as start something on the side:

Read the employee handbook! Well, skip to the sections that talk about employment exclusivity & relationship. Depending on your position, employment contract, company policies, and nature of your side gig – if caught, you may even have to hand over your side gig to your employer, simply because the employer owns whatever your produce/ create in those hours that employer paid you for. In some cases, the contract would clearly state that the compensation is for your exclusivity and comes with certain restrictions like – no business ownership, no part time jobs, or side gigs, etc all. You see, if you’re not a temp employee paid by the hour, the holidays, vacation, sick time, weekends etc all are part of compensation to make sure you are mentally & physically healthy to contribute 100% in those 9-5, 40 hours.

They are watching! Most HR & IT have access over almost everything you do behind the gray walls of 6X6 cubicle… They watch who is doing what, emailing what and to who, browsing what websites, making what calls etc. Plus don’t forget the office spies, gossip queens, and thin walls. If caught and you were let go because of “misuse/ abuse of company resources”, that would be pretty shameful and finding another 9-5 for paying the bills or whatever it is that’s keeping you there, would be pretty tough! What would you tell your prospective employers in the interview, why were you let go? Would your former boss still give a reference?

Now, enough of being the bad guy, the naysayer…

I did not write this post to discourage anyone from getting in the side hustle, in fact that’s one of the safest routes to escaping the 9-5 jail. I’ve done it, many of former clients did it and many of my friends and current clients do it.  I wrote this post to share my thoughts and forewarn every one of possible consequences. So what should the side hustlers do? Let me suggest some tips (& they all pass the integrity test):

Talk to your boss and get an informal green signal: As difficult as it sounds, this is the easiest and pretty much the only right way in reality. Here’s how you do it, first make sure you pick the right time, may be a time when you are getting some informal recognition for a job well done, may be the performance review time or just a casual coffee break. When would that time be, depends on your boss, time of the month/ year (if it’s a seasonal business), and most importantly your relationship with your boss. Prepare for the talk, make sure you don’t start the talk when you’re feeling the urge to, simply because you are angry at a peer or frustrated on something done a certain way in the office, because then it only sounds like a rant. Be prepared to answers questions like – why & how do you have so much time at hand when someone else in similar capacity is complaining about burdened with work? Why should you be given the special permission? Or what’s in it for the company? Be prepared for more tasks assigned from your boss, be prepared to justify why, be prepared to talk about your career & goals, and be prepared to suggest options (you dared to initiate this talk, might as well finish it with a solution instead of bringing it up over & over again)… Here are a few suggestions you can make depending on what you think would work with your boss and company (for example, if there’s someone in the team or office who’s already enjoying any of these arrangements, it gets easier to convince your boss). Assure your boss of the productivity and commitment towards the job and request him/her, if you can have an arrangement of:

1. Come early, leave early: How about a 7am-3pm work day? So that you could have some interrupted time at work to be productive and most of the evening with a couple of business hours on hand for your startup. This one has the least compromise for the employer and hence is an easy sell.
2. 4 days work week: How about 40 hours in 4 days? A weekday off in return of 10 hour long workdays for rest 4 weekdays gets them same amount of work from you and gives you one business day along with the weekend to better focus on your side gig.
3. Telecommute: How about telecommuting/ work-from home? Promise them the 40 hours & productivity… This will save you the commute time and exhaustion as well as flexibility of taking occasional calls or replying super urgent emails of your startup, without feeling the guilt.
4. Contractor or part time: If the first three don’t work, ask your boss, if you could be brought on board as a contractor or part time employee, with less 9-5 physical presence commitment and more deliverable based commitments.

If all else fails, you have two options: first, convince your boss that you’re fine with his/her decision and keep your eyes and ears open for “We will pay a lot of money if someone could do ‘__________________________________________’ for us.” This statement is full of opportunity juice! Can you be that someone who could do this for your employer as a contractor. Second, get a part-time job, with less responsibility and after-work stress, and resign from the current 9-5. May be an entry level/ part time position that you know would have least after work stress, so that you still have enough time & energy for your startup. This is a great way of keeping the cash flow in control, working on your startup, and staying social as well.

On a side note, here’s what I believe in - rewards are directly proportional to risks and efforts, if you put side gig efforts (evenings, weekends, some stolen hours from 9-5), it always will stay a side gig; if you don’t take the risk to face the uncertainty and give your side hustle, a fair shot full-time, it will always remain a side gig. Your call! Do you just enjoy working on one more project along with your job for some extra cash, or is it more than that? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Are Business Plans a waste of time?

First of all, I really enjoyed the write-up as well as some of the very insightful and thought provoking comments!

Now, as someone who has done both, started and run a successful business without a formal business plan in the past and someone who helps people start businesses and write business plans, I find this topic very intriguing. To quote a particular commenter -

“Last but not least, W. Randall Jones wrote the book, “The Richest Man in Town,” which profiles 100 of the wealthiest people in their respective towns across America (including Warren Buffet’s often forgotten co-founder). They are all entrepreneurs. The poorest among them is worth $100 million and all of them say business plans are bunk. Maybe they’re just the most talented, action-oriented, focused entrepreneurs around and so they didn’t need a plan to execute well. But there is something to be said for their unanimous opinion.” – Felicia Joy

Makes us all wonder, what is it about some of the entrepreneurs that they can start, run, and succeed without a business plan and some would fail even after having the fanciest business plan ever? While I may not have an absolute answer to that question, here’s what I’ve observed:

1. The entrepreneurs who looked at business plan as the low hanging fruit, “I’d write a business plan, raise money and be rich by next year” were always the first one to complain “the business plan is a waste of time” simply because it did not serve their get-rich-quick purpose and they had nothing else to blame their failure to.

2. The entrepreneurs who looked at the business plan as a critical element of the startup process, did proper research and wrote the business plan but for what it is needed and not just for a bait to fish an investor, never complain “Business Plan is a waste of time” regardless of the outcome.

3. The entrepreneurs, who accepted the fact that “we are in this alone” (no need or intentions to raise much capital in the traditional way) at least to begin with, or until they prove their idea or model, were the ones who had the liberty to test and implement their ideas as they go and these were the ones who if failed, couldn’t  put the blame on the business plan because they didn’t have one to begin with, and if they succeeded they definitely went on to argue “business plan is a waste of time” simply because they succeeded without one.

So, is a business plan really a waste of time?

I don’t know and I believe nobody but YOU, the entrepreneur, only knows or will ever know if your business plan is (was) a waste of time or the best use of your time? However, I’d like to take this post as an opportunity to remind and request each and everyone of the aspiring entrepreneurs, not to see the business plan as a low hanging fruit, or a document that you just write once and blast it out to bunch of banks and investors to see if someone takes a bite…  Look at it as a blue print that you need to develop before you lay the first brick, look at it as a map that will give you the directions to move forward in your entrepreneurial journey, look at it as an extensive to-do list for implementing your ‘otherwise-sitting-in-your-head’ ideas, instead.

Wishing you all the best in your venture, with or without a business plan!

Suggested Reading: NEVER Write a Business Plan (YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog)

Success to all!

If you answered honestly, now you know where that stats come from! All such failure only because the process and system of setting up new year resolutions is flawed… Many of us in fact use it to procrastinate more… “oh I will do this in the new year”… and the reset mode that we get into the year end is a fantasy….just because you got a new calendar and planner doesn’t mean it’s a clean start, you still carry forward the baggage, the losses, the attitude, the habits, and the plain old YOU to next year…! So, how are you expecting a clean start or a different results? So, what do about it? Well, here’s a 3 step approach I suggest:

Step 1 – Have a New Year Vision! Have a vision for what you want to accomplish in the new year! Getting a six pack Ab or authoring a NY Times Bestseller or whatever happens to be your goal for the year, try to stick keep your list short and simple, having a few goals and achieving all or most of them is better than having too many goals and not finishing any… Having a short list also helps you remember each one of your goals by heart and stay focused!

Step 2 – Create an action plan! Break your vision/ goal down into milestones! Start writing a blog or writing 5 pages a week, or going to gym 3 times a week, having a personal trainer and a peer/ accountability partner, collecting feedback from readers, prepare for a marathon, etc are just a few examples of how your can break down your bigger goals into granular level action steps.

Step 3 – Celebrate and enjoy the milestones! As and when you reach these milestones, acknowledge and celebrate your success, reflect on your journey towards bigger goal so far, this will act as motivation, incentive, and fuel to keep you moving and staying on track… This is how you will make every new year resolution, a reality!

A vision backed by an action plan broken into multiple milestones is the only practical way to make your resolutions a reality.

2011 – a new year, a new start! How about a new you? It’s the perfect time to start working on breaking your 9to5 jail and we are here to help you through your employee to entrepreneur journey.

Have a brilliant year ahead!