Funny thing about priorities…we set them whether we want to or not. And after we set them—consciously or no—we reveal the beautifugly truth about what we feel is most important. And everyone can see it.

Except (maybe) us.

Okay, so maybe it’s not funny. Anyway, here’s the story…

Where the blame belongs

I was an approval-seeker for so long that I surrounded myself with people who fully (and rightfully) expect me to bend over backwards to please them.

In the past, I’ve sidelined my mental, physical, and spiritual health to meet impossible deadlines, satisfy ridiculous requests, and generally clean up other people’s messes…all for the short-lived admiration and back-slapping that comes with saving the day.

In my desperation to keep my jobs and be liked by all, my priorities were set in this order:

Work, Family, Body, Spirit

Yeah, I know. Entirely my bad.

But that was the old me.

Where the work belongs

My (step)son arrived last Wednesday for his very first visit. Dan and I agreed that work was forbidden while he was here and happily committed to our first real vacation in over 5 years.

And because The Divine One has a great sense of humor, a former client emailed me at 9:50pm the night before Son’s arrival with a list of inexplicable error messages that spewed from a database I built for them wayyy back in March.

When I saw their email the next day, I replied with a short message that sympathized with their urgency, noted that I was on vacation, and told them I would take a look at it on the following day (Thursday).

The next morning, I withdrew from our first family breakfast to read over the client’s stuff. It took me all of three minutes to determine two things: 1) They didn’t read my instructions, and 2) They didn’t test it when I asked them to (and when they said they did) wayyy back in March.

And that’s when I got mad.

Did I seriously miss out on Mom’s fresh waffles to help people who don’t bother to RTFM? Did I commit to cold bacon for folks that didn’t take 5 minutes to test their project-critical data assembly process? All they had to do was click one button, y’all. ONE.

I sent a brief email explaining the what’s and where’s of the problem and its solution. I also reminded them I was on vacation until Wednesday, and would help with anything else that popped up only if I found time.

They emailed back late that evening with a: “Hey thanks, that worked. But now we’re getting different errors. We’ll be in the office Saturday and Sunday, and also on Friday, so feel free to contact us anytime over the weekend.”

Um. It’s a holiday weekend. Even the government’s taking Friday off. And did they miss the part where I said I was on vacation?

Now, what do you think I did?

I mean, after drawling, “Fuuuck youuu” and turning off my iPhone.

Don’t bother guessing what I did next, I’ll just tell you. I hung out with my two favorite guys in the world. We—

• Ate at a quirky restaurant named Ketchup
• Walked the harbor and watched the sunset
• Hooted and laughed at fireworks
• Savored lunch at Fogo de Chao (a real treat)
• Watched movies until the sun came up
• Had a birthday party for Son
• Went to a going-away party, and
• Got on a bus to New York City

The old client sent another email while I was in New York, saying they needed it resolved by the end of the day.

Now, what do you think I did?

I mean, after drawling, “Fuuuck youuu” and resisting the urge to toss my phone under a bus.

I—

• Emailed them back, saying I would call them Tuesday
• Continued running around New York City until we almost missed the bus to get home
• Slept until 3:00pm today while the guys went to Six Flags
• Had a long lazy late lunch with my Mom (lovely and rare!)
• Reviewed my priorities
• Emailed them again, saying their work would need to wait until I got back from my vacation

And now I’m writing this post and then I’m going to watch more movies. And wash clothes. And eat popcorn and leftover birthday cake. And wash more clothes. And hang out tomorrow. And take Son to the airport. And cry some (I miss him already, actually). And then check in with my current clients.

And then I’ll help the old client with their urgent need that (Surprise!) can wait until I’m available on Thursday.

Where the rest of it belongs

It’s tough to keep priorities straight when we have bosses breathing down our necks and jobs we can lose. And when we work with and for ourselves, the lines between Work and Self and Time-With-Family can be blurrier, particularly as situations arise where it’s clear that client/customer priorities swing widely from our own.

I got some clarity on it this week, though, so I’m putting it out here before it all gets blurry again!

Work is important, but Family is ever moreso. And we need a healthy BodyMind and a fulfilled Spirit to accomplish anything at all. These days, I’m feeling the need to live in this order:

BodyMind, Spirit, Family, Work

And I’m wondering if that’s practical, or realistic. I’m also wondering how you balance your worlds…what comes first, what comes last. Do they swap around all the time, or do you hold fast no matter what? Lemme know down below…

Last week I was packing for a business trip and I pulled out a couple of skirts? The first skirt was a slick black number (with an elastic waistband) that looked damned good just folded in the suitcase. The second skirt was a stiffish cream linen with a no-stretch waistband that was tailored by the Devil himself.

I held up the Skirt From Hell and wondered who else was going to wear it with me. The no-stretch waistband was twice as wide as the skirt I just packed. It was vast, for Buddha’s sake…the damn thing would fall right off. So I tried it on.

And it fit perfectly.

And so I cried.

I was already crying, so I figured I’d try on the first skirt. It was half as wide, for Buddha’s sake. The damn thing wouldn’t make it past my knees. I tried it on, anyway.

And it fit perfectly.

And I stopped crying.

I sniffed and snuffled and whispered to it:

Liar.

About those jeans…

And so I went back to packing—wary and ornery, now—grabbing two pairs of jeans that didn’t look quite the same size. I checked the sizes, the numbers matched, but I almost cracked a rib trying to zip the first pair.

(At this point I’m way past crying, yaknowhatImsayin’?)

The second pair slipped on like they were stitched by the angels…hiding every bump, smoothing every curve, making me look like a friggin rockstar.

And I whooped and laughed and yelled at them:

LIAR!!

What this means for business

Beware of productivity tools that allow us to feel just marvy about where we are when we’re way behind schedule…and what we really need is something that will squawk and beep and kick our asses into gear.

Beware of budgeting tools that emphasize income over expenditure and pat us on the back for how much we make…when what we really need is a clear picture of how much we have left after the bills are paid and our debt is accounted for. We can kiss the checks as they come in, but we really need to watch that bottom line. Every. Single. Day.

Beware of people who support our failures. It’s good of them to console us when we’ve royally fucked up, but there are a couple of folks I know (and maybe you do too?) who are quick to accept my mistakes. Maybe even a little glad for them. They’re way happy to drag the “Poor Crystal” into an Extended 12″ Mix…when what I really need is a big hug and a few words of compassion. And then to move the fuck on.

In general, we might wanna be wary of anything—or anyone—that makes our excuses for us, that is a little too forgiving, that leaves us a little too much room.

We might wanna walk away, throw away, and turn away from anything that supports our unique brand of bullshit.

Because we don’t need things that help us believe the lies we tell ourselves:

-

“It’s not that fattening.”

-

“I’ll finish it tomorrow…

I have plenty of time“

-

“It’s not that expensive…

A  check will probably come tomorrow to cover it“

-

“What a huge boner of a mistake that was!

I’ll never, ever recover from it…

I may as well just give up.”

-

-

(LIAR)

This is a hard post to write because I want to keep it simple. Which is the funny thing about simple…it’s easy to use and maintain but really really difficult (for me) to create. Is it the same for you?

Because I’ll get this perfect little idea that’s practically sparkling with simplicity on the empty plain of my mind…

…and then a trickle of other, smaller, lesser ideas will traipse in and latch onto the original. To add interest. To round it out. To make it complete. The one idea was great by itself, sooooo adding other ideas can only make it better…right?

Right?

Bullshit.

That kind of maximizer logic is why the newest Microsoft Word has 1800+ commands. (True story).

An extreme example, but it can be like that. All those extra ideas are great fun when we’re dreaming, but they’ll bury us (and everyone around us) when we bring our new-and-not-much-improved idea into The Real.

I am guilty of this. I know better. But how I am and what I know aren’t the story. The story starts in 2001 with a loaf of bread.

Bread. Paris. Then.

February 2001, Fast Company published Give Us This Day Our Global Bread, which was mostly about Poilâne, a Parisian baker who chose FedEx to extend his reach rather than open more shops. Good stuff, really, but what stuck with me was this:

“You can make thousands of products
with only three ingredients.”

Poilâne continued: “The water and flour can, of course, be very different. Then there are the conditions: the geography and the climate. There’s yeast, fermentation, time, oven, and shape. Manipulation is important too.”

For his world-renowned bread, the three ingredients are water, flour, and a starter (which works  like yeast).

At the time, I thought: I could make a thousand simple websites with just HTML, CSS, and Javascript. The content would change, the designs would differ, and every website would be unique despite having only three ingredients.

Years later, I thought: I could make a thousand useful web tools with just MySQL, PHP, and AJAX. All different on the surface, all the same at the core, all developed with just those three.

And today–many more years later–I was in the hugely popular Five Guys Burgers and Fries and realized they only make three things: hamburgers, hot dogs, and fries. You can add cheese. You can add bacon. You can add 15 other things. Or not. You make those choices and they’ll make their three things. And they’ll make them very, very well.

Ali Brown started getting stoopid rich by pushing just one thing (email newsletters) in just three ways: email, teleseminars, and ebooks. The level of information depended on the audience and (I’d guess) the production effort. The emails were always free, the teleseminars where sometimes free, but the ebooks never were.

So for one-woman shops or regional food franchises or web developers or bakers, it can be as simple as three things.

And it can be absurdly profitable.

Us. Here. Now.

You and I can do this, too. But maybe we will—

Hold teleseminars, webinars, and live shows

or

Sell Ads, a membership program, and affiliate stuff

or

Knit socks, hats, and purses

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Simple is easier to master, easier to perfect, easier to produce, easier to market, easier to…everything.

We can work any three things. So simple.

Or we can work just one thing. So simpler.

It can be like that.

Can’t it?

Photo courtesy of Annia316

Well, @risingstarideas rang me today to point out two very different (and way nifty) examples of how this can roll with Twitter:

BakerTweet.com

They describe their product better than I can:

“BakerTweet is a way for busy bakers to tell the world that something hot and fresh has just come out of the oven. It’s as simple as turning the dial and hitting the button. All of the baker’s followers get a Twitter alert to tell them that it’s bun-time. Or bread time. Or whatever.”

Seriously, yes. They have created a device robust enough to withstand bakery abuse (flour in the air, liquids on the splash, waves of high heat) and wily enough to send messages to Twitter—wirelessly, no less—about what’s coming out of the oven.

They’ve created an offline device to supplement an online service. That tickles me no end.

The Albion in Shoreditch, London already has this running at @albionsoven, and they had the delicious good sense to include links to photos of their fresh croissants and other yummies.

Did you see their tiny zoomable Google map on the photo page? Such a smart thing. I wish it accepted addresses for driving directions but, then again, I’m 3,667 miles away…it’s not like I can get there while the apple turnovers are still hot

TweetLister.com

Here’s what they have to say for and about themselves:

• Post and re-use as many listings as you want for residential, commercial, vacation and any other type of property.
• Schedule each listing to post as often as you’d like for a set period of time - until it sells, rents or leases!
• View and download a list of all prospects on each listing. Never miss a qualified lead!
• TweetLister is the easy, sensible way to use the power of Twitter for your real estate listings.

And the interface is dead simple, right? I mean, look at it:

So you (or your real estate agent) clicks through to describe the property you have for sale, rent, or trade (!). All along the way, a tweet is composed below using standard abbreviations. They even allowed a handful of characters to add a few words of your own.

One particularly handy bit is the “Schedule Listing” feature, which enables reposting of the tweet every 1, 2, 3, or 5 days, weekly, and monthly. Also, an email address is required to facilitate contact, but (blessedly) the link goes to a contact form so your addy is never exposed to the world.

More clevernesses: You can include photos and links to create a TweetLister-hosted listing page. Their #tl hashtag conserves precious letters but makes all their tweets easy to find with a TweetLister Twitter search. And they have a listings search page, too.

The service is free, actually, but it doesn’t have to be. I suspect agents and other folks would happily pay a moderate monthly fee (TweetLater offers general Twitter-related services for $30/mth). In the meantime, I hope the indirect earnings are flowing nicely for these web developers/programmers who specialize in tools for real estate folks.

Summing Up

Two things to underline in your mind about these:

1. They serve one specific market…specific, but not too small
   Like, rather than just “small business”, they drilled down to “bakers” and “real estate agents”. Though with the requisite Twitter, it’s more like “Web-savvy bakers” and “Social-media-conscious bakers”
2. The workings may be complex, but the service is simple
   They do ONE thing. One. Uno. 1.

More on keeping it simple in the next post…

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these two. Are they missing some features? Did they spark any new ideas?

P.S. So sorry I’ve been shorting you a post the last two weeks…my world’s a little out of balance right now, but I’ll do better!

Not for the first time—and likely not for the last time—I wish Chris Guillebeau’s 279 Days to Overnight Success had been published before I started blogging. Heaps of good startup lessons in there, like the one on having a huge stash of articles waiting in the wings…

… …you do see where this is going, yes?

I don’t have an article stash or the mental bandwidth to write a new post, but–Woohoo!–I do have earlier stuff worth a rerun (another good lesson from another Chris…”archive diving”, indeed :)).

I hope you BBB veterans get a nostalgic kick out of these (I sure did), and that you new folks enjoy a peek at what was going ’round last Spring. Here’s the handful—

7 Reasons Why I Heart PayPal

Some people give PayPal a lot of grief, and sometimes they even deserve it. But last year they were the best deal out there and I suspect they still are. If you prefer some other payment processor, do drop a note in the comments? I’d love to size them up!

Going NoWare: 5 Must-Read Articles on Working from the Web

This was (and is) a way useful jump point for web apps of every size, shape, color, and purpose. A year later, it’s interesting to see which applications thrived, which barely survived, and which ones just fizzled right on out.

My Business Bookshelf

This book cover collage is a tidy snapshot of the business books I own. I haven’t read them all, and I welcome your thoughts and ideas on any that you’ve read. If you don’t see your favorite business reads, definitely list them in the comments? I’m always on the hunt for a great book.

Potluck Pricing: Letting Customers Choose What They Pay

Pricing strategies work my nerves, so it was fun to find online businesses that don’t set prices for their products/services…customers are simply invited to pay what they can. Oddly enough, I’ve since heard of restaurants doing the same thing!

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Not-so-newly retired, my Grandma visited her doctor because she was so danged tired all the time. He asked, “Well, Iris, what have you been doing with yourself since you stopped working? What are your hobbies?”

He got a blank stare as reply.

She didn’t have any hobbies. She belonged to a ladies’ club that met each month, but her days and nights had been full of work and raising her kids since she was 18 years old.

Though by this time her kids had grown up, moved out, and were busy with their own kids. My grandfather was still working, she was home alone and idle for the first time in her life. And it was driving her fucking crazy.

Her doctor could have drugged her into perkiness, but he was from the New Old Skool. Here’s what he told her to do—

1. Read the newspaper every day

The goal—as I understand it—is to connect with the world outside of our world and observe it as an unfolding suspense story. The world news is a serial full of delights and horrors that never ends…though (unfortunately or fortunately) it does repeat itself from time to time.

For my grandmother, it was (and still is) the newspaper. The Washington Post, cover to cover, every day.

For me, it’s Twitter. First thing in the morning, I turn off my alarm and turn on Tweetie. I get to observe and participate with the world’s conversations…and there’s always inspiration or a giggle waiting to make (or save) my day.

Like @HappiForever’s morning greetings to Dharma, Buddha, and Sangha. Like @charitywater’s Photo of the Day. Like Kellyann’s kid wanting to take an apple to a doctor’s appointment…to keep the doctor away

2. Have a series of 3-month projects

Otherwise, why get up today? Or tomorrow?…Or ever?

That may seem extreme if you’ve never been depressed, but apathy can be a fatal hazard for some of us. I don’t know why the doctor was keen on 3 months, but I suspect that span is ideal because it’s: 1) short enough that the end of the project stays in sight, and 2) we can celebrate 4 completed projects each year.

For grandma, that’s crafty things, decorating, photography, and helping out with town projects and elections.

I tried building websites for this, but that was a mistake. My projects requires maintenance beyond the 3 month deadline, and I’ve realized finishing is a key component. Now I’m thinking on projects where I can hold the results in my hand…maybe knitting or quilting.

3. Have a BIG project you’ll never finish. Ever.

We can’t take anything with us, so we may as well leave behind one big thing for others to savor and learn from. Maybe someone else will pick up where we left off and finish it—or not finish it and pass it along at the end of their time.

The best example I know is Alec Gerrard, who is building an incredible scale model of Herod’s Temple. He’s been working on it for 30 years and says he’ll never be done.

Grandma’s lifetime project has been our genealogy. She’s tracked our family back to the late 1700’s, shifting from pencil and paper to Ancestry.com, from library stacks to online census data. She’ll never get the whole story, but she’s determined to die trying.

I don’t have a project like this yet…it’s all I can do to sort through the 20 years of clutter I’ve been carting around since I left home (a seasonal project that feels like it will take a lifetime!). But I’ve been thinking I would love a big project around language and travel and reading and wine and food. Hmmm…

What about you?

The doctor’s 3-part prescription is simple to sum up: Stay occupied outside of your occupation. And like many simple things, there’s richness between the lines…

There’s establishing a simple routine that becomes ritual. And staying busy without doing busywork, and enjoying both goals and process. And making the best out of the time in between our now and our nevermore. And living forever through our work.

Reading back over that, I guess it’s really all about getting a life. Or saving one.

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Of course, I’d love to hear about what you’re working on today, this season, and for always. Leave a comment, eh?

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Creating the Next Big Thing is highly overrated.

Take Twitter for example. Those fellows get tons of love for creating their glorious Big Thing. But they also catch heaps of poop for Twitter’s instability as they struggle with 3-figure growth percentages.

Making Money Via a Free Service

The ironic bit is while Twitter is free and can be unstable, it’s a rock-steady revenue stream for some small businesses. Forget folks who only use Twitter to find and connect to customers. I’m talking about businesses that earn money through services and products that support and enhance Twitter.

There are hundreds (thousands?) of businesses in Twitter’s orbit and some are making money with their Twitter-related stuff. Here’s a handful of ideas—

• Customized Twitter background design services
  like the stellar work at TwitterImage for $100+
• Expansion of the Twitter service
  like scheduled tweets with TweetLater’s $30/mth Pro account
• Video Tutorials
  like the video tutorials at Twitter Money Tree for $67 (haven’t tried, but it looks credible)
• Live workshops and classes
  like @risingstarideas offers to Columbia, MD area businesses
• Desktop Twitter clients
  like Tweetie, offered by atebits at $20 for the ad-free version
  

What’s (Not) New

Looking at that list, I bet you can think of other Twitter-supporting business ideas. But don’t bother thinking of new kinds of services and products, just take something you already know and apply it to the Twitterverse.

For example, coaching and consulting are as old as the hills, but a hand-holding service for businesses new to Twitter could do well. Same for advanced marketing tactics for existing Twitter users. Or a personalized feed critique with concrete suggestions on how to improve the quality of a twitter-stream.

And despite all the free Twitter newbie resources available online, there’s a Twitter for Dummies book coming out. I know, right? There are a zillion blog posts on the topic—entire websites even—but many people prefer offline reading so there’s always room for a book.

With that in mind, why not a manual (PDF or hardcopy) for free Twitter clients, like Twhirl and Seesmic Desktop? Maybe detailed video tutorials? They’re great applications, but they don’t have Help buttons or support.

That would be rather clever, actually…earning revenue from a free desktop program that ties into a free service. Hmmm….

Other Centers of the Universe

Of course, it would suck to hitch your business wagon to the wrong star. For example, WTG if you’ve built a business in WordPress’ orbit. WordPress has a large, growing communitiy of needy users that other blogging platforms don’t—and they buy themes, plugins, courseware, books, installation services, and design services.

But every online business isn’t as deserving. Maybe their community is too small, too dead, or too cheap. To get a feel for online businesses that can support other businesses, think on:

• eBay: product listing services, books and manuals, photo hosting
• PayPal: shopping cart products, integration services

And be sure to consider supporting businesses that have their own supporting businesses. For example, DIYThemes is in Wordpress’ orbit with their Thesis WordPress theme and their product has its own slew of designers and customization experts.

Business Idea Jumpstart

Are you looking for a new business idea? Or maybe you’d like to add a new service to your existing business? Don’t start with something new. Instead:

1. Take a look at what’s out there,
2. Pick something that’s well-established with a large, active user community,
3. Use the skills you already have to—

Teach it (online or off)
Design for it
Customize it
Install it
Support it
Write about it
Analyze it
Improve it

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Et tu? There are soooo many more examples of businesses and the businesses they beget. Who did I miss?

Clearly, I love small businesses…the smaller, the better. But that doesn’t mean I hate big business. More specific, that doesn’t mean I hate big businesses just because they’re BIG.

And I’m sad to read small business bloggers’ posts that scorn the big guys for just that: being big. Often with the (false) claim that big businesses don’t offer what small businesses can: personalized service, accountability, a human touch, etc.

Because here’s the thing…

The Thing

There are certainly big businesses that raise my hackles for using their size as a weapon. They abuse their employees, short their vendors, and dishonor all of us with bullshit mission statements that say they care. Wal-Mart comes to mind and I’m sure you can think of others.

But then there are big businesses who take fine care of their people, their partners, and us. They use their size to make good things happen for businesses of every size. In my experience, Costco is a great example of this. They’re not perfect (who is?), but they’re wonderful. I love me some Costco!

With that said, here’s the other thing…

The Other Thing

There are small businesses who’ve earned a hard kick in the ass for what we consider “big business behavior”. I can think of an online service (who shall remain nameless lest I burn my tongue with bitterness) who hung me out to dry.

Their customer support reps may as well’ve been fucking bots for all the human touch I got. I asked for help with a problem and I got copy/paste answers. When I asked a follow-up question, they simply didn’t answer my email. Or my tweets. Or my second email. Humph!

And there are small businesses who use their wee size as an excuse for poor quality, weak products, or ineffective marketing. A friend told me this story: her local web host didn’t offer space, bandwidth, and other features at a competitive price. When she told him about packages she’d seen at Bluehost and others, his response was, “No one can afford to give you that at the price you’re talking about”.

WTF? Of course they can….they do and are. Try coming back with a solution instead of defense and denial, Dude!

One Last Thing

So really, I think this attitude of dissing big businesses because they’re big is just plain ol’ bigotry.

And yet there are small business folks I adore—who don’t have a racist or gender-biased bone in their bodies—who let their Big Biz Bigot flag fly.

But why, when…?

…there are small businesses owned and run by demon-spawn and there are big businesses led and manned by minor deities.

…some small’uns will put mouse turds in your ice cream and say they’re chocolate chips (hat tip to James Lee Burke for that glorious visual), while some big’uns stand by their promise to replace their product if it fails you—whenever, whatever, no problem.

…Amazon is huge, but their datasource knows what books I’ve read and what books I may want to read…and then connects me to indie bookstores where I can go buy them.

…there are tiny jewelry shops like silverdotjewelry and staroftheeast who package my treats with such personality and care that I hesitate to open them. Yet other wee Etsy shops do the least possible to make my buying experience joyful: no thanks-for-buying email, no shipping notification, no business card or note with the purchase, no nuttin’.

Big and little. Little and big. Shitty and marvelous. Fantabulous and jackassiness.

Being big doesn’t make them monsters. Being small doesn’t give us a free pass.

Size can matter, but it doesn’t have to.

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Et tu? Do you have a resolute Grrr! toward big business? Should small businesses get our love just because they’re small?

Funny thing about sex toys…

*blush* *coff*

See? This is what I’m talking about. Writing about sex toys is awkward for me. Even writing about NOT writing about sex toys is awkward for me. Which, as it happens, is a funny thing about sex toys.

They’re nothing special, right? Just simple household tools like a spatula or a can opener: colorful, ergonomic, and dishwasher-safe.

So when a friend found that sex toy cleaning instructions were a gap in the info-market, I dug into the research like any other writing project. I gathered a list of credible links, settled in for my first draft…and then watched the project drift away on my bashfulness and other hassles—

1) I Couldn’t Tell My Mother

Why did she call just as I clicked a link for dildo cleaners? And then politely ask the usual: “Whatcha working on today?”

Was I gonna say I was reading an illustrated step-by-step cleaning guide that featured a 10″ purple weenie dotted with “extra-pleasure” nubbins?

Hell. No.

It didn’t matter that I was almost 40…it’s my MOM.

2) LOLHusband

Later, Dan came home and we shared our news of the day. He talked about router failures and server backup cycles, then I talked about the differences in cleaning up after water-, oil-, and silicone-based lubricants. After the longest shock-laden pause imaginable, he laughed.

And laughed.

Annnnd laughed.

And then he asked if I wanted the usual help with inventing domain names. The conversation that followed was far too bawdy to repeat here (or anywhere), but Benny Hill would have been proud!

3) The Company I’d Keep

Let’s just say my visits to sex toy maintenance discussion forums were…stunning. Like all dedicated hobbyists, these folks were totally into their thing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It was just difficult to read with my eyes closed.

4) Special Website Hosting Required

Overwhelmed by the content and the company, I opted for a simple, typical task: get website hosting. Except the task was neither simple nor typical. Sex toys aren’t exactly G-rated, and while the cleaning instructions might have gone unnoticed, the diagrams and photos would not have.

In the end, finding a web host to carry the content wasn’t a big problem, but the fees sure were. In a word: inflated. ‘Nuf said.

5) Special Payment Processing Required

Discouraged but persistent, I went to see about selling an ebook (and whatever else). PayPal might have gone for the ebook, but things got a little iffy depending on the direction the inventory took.

Finding a payment processor that accepted sex-related products wasn’t difficult, but—once again—the pricing was horrendous. Apparently, sex stuff is considered high-risk because credit card fraud is so common within the niche. Drama.

6) Eww! Ack! Holy… Seriously!?

But really, these were all manageable issues. Mom would probably get a laugh out of it (Dan surely did); the community was unfamiliar but active, interested, and interesting; and the ecommerce setup was just a grit-your-teeth-and-pay kind of thing.

The absolute end of the project was my search for relevant affiliate products. Jiminy Christmas, what a crazy parade of shapes, sizes, and colors that got added to my visual vocabulary. I blushed and ohhmigodddd-ed and cackled until I cried. Only a few days into it, I finally gave up on the project with a giggle and a sigh.

What’s the Lesson?

Well, it’s a little about knowing yourself and a little about finding your Right People. So it’s mostly about digging into what interests you and getting involved in a community that you can appreciate and care about.

The Web has plenty of information gaps that need filling. There are too many opportunities to settle for something that bores you. Or saps you. Or even embarrasses you

Just because a topic is a sure money-maker
doesn’t mean it has to be your money-maker.

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photo courtesy of fdecomite

I didn’t have a post ready for today, and now I only have an hour to write it before a 3pm teleseminar. Also…

• My resumé (still) needs updating for a nifty video tutorials gig
• That ebook ghostwriting project is calling
• I have four other websites that need attention
• My To Read and To Listen folders have ebooks and MP3s back to January
• My desk is so covered with papers that I can’t even work there anymore
  (which is why I gotta be on time for my decluttering teleseminar)

In short, I’m fucked. And I have no one to blame but myself. Here’s what happened—

The problem: I love projects

I love the smell of a new business idea, and then brainstorming out loud (even if only talking to myself) and mad scribbles on a notepad. I love setting up a new blog and peeling back the bubble wrap for those first ten posts. I love planning stuff and working on stuff and all that stuff. Love it. Loveitloveit.

But there are only 24 hours in a day, and a decent chunk of that needs to go to cooking, eating, sleeping, snuggling with the husband, cleaning the apartment, exercising away my fat ass, and sorting through detritus from my previous lives. And yet most of those don’t get done on any given day. A sure sign something is awry in my world.

The clincher was when my project manager (Buddha bless him) informed me the only way to complete and maintain my 2009 projects by myself was if  I pushed most of the projects out until next year…through to October 2010…

…and if I worked 8 productive hours every Monday through Friday—with no holidays or vacation—for the next 18 months.

As. If.

Too many eggs. Too many baskets.

The real problem: Plan B…and C, D & E

After many Havi-esque conversations with myself, I uncovered the flawed philosophy that led me to believe my interesting-but-overwhelming collection of projects—and their endless parade of tasks—is desirable, admirable, and even necessary:

Gotta have a Plan B

And just in case Plan B doesn’t work, there’s gotta be a Plan C. And D. And maybe E. Because every backup plan needs its own backup plan. Because trusting one business project to pay the bills scares the pee out of me.

Thing is, any one of my projects might yield sufficient income if it got all of my attention. Any one of them could fail, too, but at this pace I’ll never know. With so many things going on, I never put my full will behind any of them. Nothing gets far enough, fast enough to run under its own momentum and maybe give a glimpse of its actual potential.

I’ve worn myself out trying to sail a fleet of business projects on my insecurity…there’s just no way I can power and steer and maintain all of these ships at the same time.

Too many eggs. Too many baskets.

And too many metaphors

The solution: A few eggs, one basket

It’s already gone too far. I dread getting out of bed because of the heap of work that’s waiting for me. I want to hide from my work. I want to hide from my life. So it’s all gotta go.

Well, not all of it. I’m keeping a few special eggs and my favorite basket.

This blog is the basket, and online business case studies are one of the eggs (thanks for the feedback on that). Video tutorials are an important part of that, so this new gig fits in nicely. DoodleFinder.com is a keeper for trying out online business tools and strategies first-hand.

That means a strong finish to my projects-in-progress, and no new projects for a long while. It will take a month or two to get clear of it all, but it’s worth the effort (and the wait) for a simpler work+life.

First step: A clean desk. It’s 4:07pm, way late for clean-up class. But hey, better late than never…

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Et tu? How do you know when you’re doing too much? How do you get through (or over) it?