This is a guest post by Ryan Rivera of calmclinic.com.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that I wanted to start my own business. All I needed to do was experience the unparalleled hypocrisy of a poorly run business firsthand to realize how little I wanted to work for someone else, and how great a financial and personal advantage I would have if I started a business for myself.

My case is a little unique, in that I started my website as a side project for myself because of how passionate I was about the topic, and only realized the profit potential later, but whether you have a business in the works already, or you’re freelancing and seeing where the money takes you, the lesson I learned is the same: invest, invest, invest.

How Badly I Needed Investments

While I technically had a business up in the works, it wasn’t making a lot of money, and I spent a great deal of time freelancing and consulting. What I found was that on most weeks I could make an enjoyable amount of money, and I was living well. But I made a big mistake – I assumed that money would continue. I ended up spending money on a few luxury items, and while I wasn’t wasting money as though I just won the lottery, I wasn’t investing. I was living with a modest savings account and otherwise assuming that it would go up in time.

And three different times, that belief came back to bite me. The work died. I’d either lose a client, or the client would run out of work and suddenly I wasn’t making a single penny, and what little savings I had created became my only livelihood. When I started my own business, I acted like I was still a salaried employee, when I should have acted like a businessman – finding new ways to create income to supplement the downtimes and set myself up for a better future.

Finding Those Investments

Now, I’m not an investment guru. I’m an anxiety specialist that happens to own his own business. I can’t tell you what stocks to invest in or whether it’s worth buying a home. But what I can tell you is that you should consider everything. Look for high risk investments and low risk investments. Put money into the stock market or a savings account you can’t touch. You don’t even have to be that traditional. Maybe you’d have more fun investing in silver bullion or using your money to pay someone to create websites or products for you to market.

I found that I wasn’t skilled at traditional investing, so I opened up a little spot in a popular antique store (finding antiques gave me something fun to do on weekends), invested in gold, and put some money in a few business ventures that some friends of mine were doing. Some of these yielded revenue, some didn’t. But what’s important isn’t whether or not these investments worked. What’s important is that I took the time to make them. I stopped looking at myself as an employee, and started looking at myself as someone that is trying to set themselves up for long term success – someone that wants to be free of boundaries, and someone whose money is working for him, not the other way around.

Creating a Long Term Strategy for Success

I can’t know what’s around the corner. I can’t know if my business will thrive, or if some change in the world renders my field obsolete. But what I do know is that my plan is to never leave myself that vulnerable to the way the rest of the world works, and instead I’m making sure that I have as many investments as I can to maximize my long term potential as a business owner.

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Ryan Rivera is an anxiety help specialist that started his website as a way to help others cure their anxiety. He can be found at www.calmclinic.com.

This is a guest post by Nat of WhoIsHostingThis

As an entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur, you’ve undoubtedly heard the name Seth Godin.  Even if you’ve been living under a rock, there’s a good chance that you’ve been touched by his work.  You may have heard an idea referenced from his influential marketing books, seen a video clip of his famous speeches, used a term he coined, you may have even used the Web 2.0 platform he founded in 2006 – now one of the top 200 most visited websites in the world – Squidoo.com.

Beyond his accomplishments and credentials, perhaps what makes Seth Godin such a popular, beloved figure in the business and marketing world are his paradigm shifting ideas.  Seth has a way of taking a great new idea and expressing it in a way that resonates with the masses.  He’s a master at creating what he might call an “idea virus” – ideas that spread organically based on their exceptional merit.  Furthermore, Seth’s philosophies reflect a vision and purpose that we can all aspire to, even if we often fall short of the mark.

As a successful bootstrapper himself, Seth has some great wisdom for those entrepreneurs trying to build their own businesses from the ground up.  Here are 5 bootstrapping tips and lessons drawn from the man himself.  These tips are drawn from the highly underrated Bootstrapper’s Bible – which Seth published in the early 2000s – where he fleshes out rules that every bootstrapper should follow.  Many of these concepts have been iterated on in some shape or form in Seth’s later books and blog posts, and are every bit as relevant today as they were at the end of the .com boom.

1. You Are Not A Big Company So Don’t Act Like One

Large companies have advantages that a bootstrapper simply cannot compete with.  Not only do they have more money, but they have better distribution networks, an established customer base, a trusted brand, and thousands of skilled employees.

Any bootstrapper trying to compete with a large company in any of these aspects is doomed to fail.  Seth gives the example of trying to put a new computer game directly into national retail outlets (putting you in competition with giants like Electronic Arts), or trying to get a new line of sneakers into nationwide stores (Nike, Reebok, Addidas).  The lesson is that boostrappers should stay out of markets that require established distribution networks/large capital and compete in areas where small, nimble companies have the advantages.

Where are the bootstrapper’s advantages?  Bootstrappers don’t have an established territory to protect like a big corporation does – bootstrappers have nothing to lose.  That means you can attack new markets and ideas with no regard for angering shareholders or losing market share.  Bootstrappers are also able to tap into small, uncompetitive niches that large companies simply can’t settle for, given their enormous overhead and shareholder demands.  Seth gives the example of Disney – while a Disney movie with its team of animators, writers, executives, marketing departments, legal departments, nationwide distribution etc. would need to earn 40 million on a movie just to break even – a low-budget indie film maker who markets and sells directly to the consumer might be thrilled with earning $100,000.

As a bootstrapper, you can also leverage human connections in a way large companies cannot.  Fueled by the excitement and passion of a great idea, you might be able to get a lawyer acquaintance to help you out for free, or perhaps acquire distribution rights with no money down.  You could employ smart, intelligent, passionate people for significantly less than their market value, simply because they believe in your idea and your vision.  These are things that a large company – with their legal departments, middle management, and corporate policies – could never accomplish. And with just 1 or 2 executive decision makers, a small staff, and all the flexibility in the world – changing the direction of your company or developing new ideas can be accomplished quickly.

Finally, as a bootstrapper, you (should) have the advantage of operating with virtually no overhead.  While a large company has multiple layers of management, human resources departments, legal departments, accounting departments, IT teams, insurance, corporate expense accounts – you have yourself, an internet connection, a phone line, perhaps a few trusted employees, and your business.  In theory, this means you should be able to create a superior product or offer a service more cheaply than the larger corporations.  As Seth says, “if you can’t make it much more cheaply than the big guys, you’ve either picked the wrong product or you’re going about it the wrong way.”

2. Choosing The Right Business Model Is Critical

According to Seth, a successful business model needs the following attributes: It needs to be profitable, protectable, self-priming, adjustable, and usually it should have an exit strategy as well.  Seth has pointed out that just because a business may be cheap to start, it doesn’t necessarily make it a good business.

This is a common trap for bootstrapping entrepreneurs looking for businesses that they can start with their limited resources.  Without a profitable, protectable business, a cheap business isn’t worth the enormous time investment required to start.  Seth gives the example of an acquaintance who started a business around the same time that Staples opened their revolutionary low-cost office supply stores.  At the time, companies were used to paying much higher premiums from office supply companies, so Seth’s acquaintance would buy products from Staples at their low cost and sell them to companies at a slightly marked up price – but still at a lower price than their usual suppliers charged.

Since companies were used to paying higher prices, they were happy to purchase from Seth’s acquaintance – at first.  Of course once they discovered Staples, they quickly switched over and Seth’s acquaintance was out of business.  Seth’s acquaintance had discovered a cheap, profitable business – but a business that was absolutely unprotectable.  He had no competitive advantage other than price, but even there he was foolishly competing in the same marketplace as his supplier.

3. Money Is the Key To A Bootstrapper’s Survival

As a bootstrapper, it’s easy to get caught up in your dreams and forget that the failure of your business is tied directly to the 1s and 0s in your bank account  As Seth points out – without cash your employees won’t stick around, your creditors will cut you off and your spouse will be concerned.

While it may be glorious to think of yourself as a bootstrapper risking it all for the dream, planning your finances and managing your spending is even more important than your product development or marketing.  Every month, your primary goal should be to earn more cash than you spend.  You should always have a realistic (even pessimistic) projection of how many days or months you have until you run out of cash.

If need be, you should be prepared to move, sell off possessions, downgrade your lifestyle and cut personal expenses.  To quote Seth:

“One surefire way to determine if a bootstrapper is going to succeed or not is to check out how she changes her lifestyle when she starts the business.”

The earlier these sacrifices are made, the greater chance your business has to survive.  Make these tough financial decisions early before it’s too late.

4. Every Bootstrapper Is a Salesperson

No business can survive without sales and this applies doubly to a bootstrapped venture.  With limited cash, it’s essential that a bootstrapper start acquiring paying customers as early and as frequently as possible.   A bootstrapper doesn’t have the benefit of a large sales team or an endless advertising budget fueled by venture capital.  Yet for what a bootstrapper lacks in size and volume, he/she can make up for it through passion and hustle.  A bootstrapper can and needs to make sales by doing everything in their power to provide their customers with what they desperately need.

5. Remember That The Journey Is The Reward

The entrepreneurial journey is a tough, lonely path – especially as a bootstrapper.  It takes years to build a successful, long-term business – years that can be filled with struggle, long hours, and an endless stream of obstacles.  As a bootstrapper trying to make your way in the dog eat dog world of business and startups, you need to enjoy the process of building your company.  Relish every late night brainstorming session, every customer email, every hard-earned sale – it’s what makes the entrepreneur’s journey worth taking.

Nat is a blogger and marketing consultant for WhoIsHostingThis – an Alexa top 10k web property. Nat is fascinated with every aspect of entrepreneurship and the stories of those individuals who have chosen to venture off the beaten path.

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A friendly note to wish you a happy halloween!

Company culture is part of what makes a company what it is … not only in terms of how the public seems it, but also how employees see it. This is an important aspect of business, as it illustrates the company’s philosophy and approach to business. For example, when Microsoft walked into Apple in the early days, before Microsoft was Microsoft, Bill and Steve were surprised to see various displays of art in the lobby, including a BMW motorcycle.

This has nothing to do with the actual operation of Apple, yet it demonstrates their approach to what they do. The BMW motorcycle was an excellent piece of work that the Apple team drew inspiration from for their own work with computers, and so, their culture was established.

One of the most common forms of this today can be found throughout the various startups in San Francisco, which are often found having nerf wars in the office, expressing themselves freely with their clothing, and playing pinball.

The key is to practice your culture.

It isn’t something that you build overnight. It’s something that comes out over time in the way you do things. Just because you have one nerf war doesn’t mean it’s your culture, for example, it means you’re trying to have culture, but it just isn’t the way you do things.

Look beyond business to infuse your company with culture.

How do you achieve this?

By being awesome.

When it comes down to it, you can create loyalty in a variety of ways, but the ultimate is by providing your team with the tools needed to do an excellent job. This might mean giving your team MacBook Airs to work with … not just at work, no … I mean give them their own laptops to work with however they chose to work with them, including both work and personal usage.

Yes, it’s expensive but in the ned you get a dedicated team inspired to work smart for your company.

Loyalty.

Other perks come in hand as well, including time off, work from home days, lunches, the freedom to work whenever works best for them are all example of perks employees appreciate.

If you can afford it, I’d highly recommend it.

Between a fancy italian made leather chair or a team that loves your company … which would you pick?

One of the most common reasons why entrepreneurs miss out on opportunities to form the first platform, product, solution, or service is because they simply don’t act on e their idea when they have it.

How many times have you heard someone say “I thought of that a while back … way before Amazon did anything!”

Countless times.

It means nothing.

If you didn’t do anything about your idea, and then it’s developed and it’s a smash hit, the joke’s on you … you didn’t act and someone else did (not with your idea, but with their own). They call this parallel development in Hollywood, because  even though one screenwriter may have come up with a story, another could be across town and come up with the a story similar. For writers this is a bit uncomfortable, and there’s usually a law suit if one of the stories is picked up and produced.

This happens with business all the time, so be sure to move quick!

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Just read a great piece of advice from Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier-Hansson that goes on to suggest we don’t write down and keep track of customer feedback, because we’re likely to hear the important stuff again and again if it’s truly important.

Yet another piece of advice I dig because of how it simplifies things.

I wouldn’t personally keep an excel spreadsheet full of customer suggestions or feedback for wearabl, but I do save email for later. Hearing it’s okay to forget everything you hear with the notino that you’ll keep hearing the important stuff is incredible freeing, because I don’t feel so obligated to keep every little crumb of information stores away for later just in case.

Who does that!?

Create yourself a crisp setup by not tracking what people are saying in response (tracking your social activity is a little different — this is more about direcet feedback about your brand). As a writer, this is sometimes suggested to people interested in the methodologies of tracking ideas, because like customer feedback, ideas will stick around if it’s truly important.

Though I like the idea of ditching the paper from the supplies list, I’ve recently discovered my productivity ultimately starts on paper.

How do you track your feedback … will you consider stopping?

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They already have a competitor, which is making headway toward that profitable market by enabling users to purchase content directly from the site. It’s called the Fancy, and it’s pretty exciting. Join me and earn some money to spend!

That said, The Fancy doesn’t have the street cred Pinterest has, so we’ll see who comes out the winner. Or, even better, we’ll see how they both win in their different ways.

Take a look at the following list of social networks for a quick glance at what to expect in 2013.

facebook

Pay close attention to what happens in 2013 for Facebook, as I have a feeling ads are going to become more aggressive in light of the shareholders. While I respect Zuckerberg’s ability to fight off motions designed purely to make more money, I’m not sure how it’s all set up so he might have sacrificed some voting rights in the IPO.

Regardless, watch the old FB for new installations and additions, redesigns, and announcements. It’s still the most popular place on the web, so you can’t really afford not to be involved if you’re planning on getting social with your brand.

twitter

One of the best places to connect with likeminded strangers around the world, Twitter will strive on offering more branding tools for business owners interested in increasing their exposure on the network. Perhaps Twitter will follow in Facebook’s footsteps and make it even easier to promote a post to your friends.

linkedin

I’ve never been a big fan of this social network, as it always seemed like it was designed for professionals trying to be cool, but weren’t. That’s all changed. The redesign is really impressive and I’m personally planning on using it a bit more throughout 2013.

There’s a lot going on in terms of their advertising network, but again, I’m not too familiar with it as it’s not my fav.

myspace … yep

It’s going to back a pretty big comeback if all goes well. Think about the re-branding Microsoft is trying with their latest software release for Surface … but for social networking — that’s what Myspace is about to pull. It looks pretty rad and most likely offers a unique experience compared to everywhere else, which will help it gain users back.

Now let’s just hope Justin can hold out on all the ads.

google+

This social network is vastly under appreciated, but then again, maybe that’s a biased opinion. Google+ offers exceptional tools and beneifts for publishers, including the implementation of the rel=author tag, which creates beautiful results in the search engine index including the author’s image next to their post, but they seem to struggle with the non-publisher crowd.

The non-tech crowd really doesn’t seem to care about Google+.

It will be interesting to see how Google cross-pollinates its devices and products online in =effort to boost acceptance of google+. I’m not sure it will work, but it provides exceptional SEO benefits so there’s absolutely no excuse for not getting involved.

Overall, 2013 is going to be an exciting year for the web, as it’s bound to increasingly develop in a way that produces new products, services, and apps.

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I’m looking for some tips on who or what to spotlight throughout next month, but I need your help!

As you can see, we’ve got a new category up in the menu, called Spotlight. This is where we’ll be keeping all the awesome-sauce we find from around the web, including tools, companies, people, services, and books.

And probably other stuff too.

If you know of someone or something that should be spotlighted here at FuelyourVenture, use the handy contact form way up there at the top of the page to get in touch and kick us a note.

I recently wrote about how you can find the simplicity of your blog over at FuelYourBlogging, but I think it’s even more applicable here because it has to do with finding the core of what your work is all about … and while blogs and business tend to explore and meander sometimes, it’s super important for the entrepreneur to know what makes her company.

What’s the simply core of your company?

To discover this, you merely need to look at how your company sits next to other startups. It’s not a competition … it’s about definining what one company is all about and then defining what your company is all about.

If you can’t do it, then you don’t know the core of your company.

Wearabl has certainly swung back and forth between a few cores, which is a testament to the fact that nothing is set and that you have to be able and willing to adapt to the changing climate in which you’re operating.

Try to define your company in one sentence in the comments section!

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It’s pretty insane how fast the social web and web 3.0 creations are grabbing the world, turning it in circles, and then surprising it with new advancements. If you’re starting a company right now, or plan to have something going in 2013, consider the following four apps your key to connecting with people interested in what you have to office in the space they want to interact in.

instagram

Instagram was purchased by Facebook for a billion dollars. WTF!?

Yeah, insane sauce. Anyway, it’s been incorporated into Facebook in a smooth way, and users are hoping on to use Instagram’s slick collection of filters faster than the line of diehard Starbucks fans grabbing their eggnog lattes this morning. Watch for ads to hit instagram in 2013 :(

pinterest

This is kind of the all star of the group because of it’s breakout nature in 2012. Watch for how the company moved into a profitable position in 2013, and get ready to get involved if you’re interested in the retail world.

Yelp

This isn’t exactly new, but the company is helping us express our experiencing with brands, stores, and restaurants around the world, which is pretty awesome. I became a pretty passionate user, writing reviews, connecting with people, sharing comments and tips, and claiming the dukedoms as I checked in, however, I found that it I took it much more seriously than I previously had with one of the original check-in apps …

Watch for Yelp to increase their efforts to remain the leading check in review site.

FourSquare

I reverted back to FourSquare when the news spread that they were going head to head with Yelp by offering local suggestions, because after all, they were one of the first companies focusing on the check-in gamification app world. It’s fun to earn badges, share images about local spots, add tips, and now get suggestions about other places in the area. I’m sure I’ll use Yelp to some degree still — probably to call bad guys out or help good guys beat the competition.

Whether you’re deciding on which market to target with your product or what table to sit at for your meeting at Starbucks, you need to be able to identify dilemas in need of a decision and then swiftly make the decision needed to move forward, build momentum, and ultimately achieve your goals with your company.

Why you shouldn’t put off making a decision

The longer you put off those difficult challenges in need of a decision, the more difficult they will become. What once was a pretty basic challenge in need of your decision has now grown into a problem affecting multiple aspects of your company … all because you simply didn’t make a call when you should have. This is one scenario I have a feeling a lot of amateurs make because of the lack of supervision. Because no one is making us decide, we continue to put it off until there’s no option to put it off any longer.

You’re just as capable of making a good decision right now as you are tomorrow

I’m not sure where I read this, but it implied there’s no reason o put off making a decision when you’re perfectly capable of making it right now. What’s another few hours going to provide you anyway — especially when you already have a feeling of which way you’re going to go?

Stop delaying and just make the call.

The faster you make the call, the faster you can get back to building momentum.

Sure, you’re going to make mistakes like all of us, but at least you’ll have learned while moving forward, as opposed to learning in a still wind.

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Just because you have the money doesn’t mean you should take your company out to a luxurious steak dinner every weekend, yet that’s how some people spend the money they’ve been granted in exchange for partial ownership in their company. The scary part is once you run out of that money and go back for more, you’re going to have to give your financiers even more ownership in your company.

Countless startups experience this due to negligent spending from the founders, even though they probably knew what they were doing wasn’t the smartest thing.

But why?

Maybe it’s because there’s a sense of invincibility or endless funds … maybe the founder abandons the idea of pursuing the company all together and instead spends everything away carelessly. That said, maybe there’s a legit reason I’m overlooking — I’d love to hear your experience if you’ve been there.

If you plan on raising money for your startup, consider the danger involved not only with overspending your funds, but also how much you have to give up in terms of ownership to the financiers. It will come down to whether or not you think the percentage of ownership is worth the money or not. Regardless, be careful not to go crazy and buy yourself crap you don’t need in celebration of the company you just got paid to take to the next level.

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Since that cloudy day back in 2011, it seems there’s been a pretty massive boom in entrepreneurship. Perhaps it’s in light of the economic status, the realization that our employers’ bottom lines are more important than us, or any variety of variables capable of sparking us all into action, but it’s definitely been buzzing.

Thanks to places like Kickstarter and indieGoGo, the community of entrepreneurial thinkers are able to take action on an idea even if they’re not connected with any angel investors. In fact, crowd sourcing has proven to be an exceptional route, as investors don’t take a bite of your company during the funding process.

Regardless, the point is we’re taking action and we’re not taking no for an answer anymore.

Our culture has seen what can be done when you set out to change the world.

Though not all of us are aiming for that epic of scale, we’re all changing the world we know in terms of our own lives. So even if you don’t revolutionize at least four industries, you can still prevent yourself from having to into that awful cubical hell of a job you loath.

Take action!

We still miss you, Steve.