Jaime writes:

I’ve interviewed over 50 millionaires in the past year, and three big mistakes keep coming up. Here’s how successful millionaires found out how to get through them:

Mistake #1: “But I don’t have any time!”

“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time’ is like saying ‘I don’t want to.” — Lao Tzu

I was talking with a millionaire the other day about how entrepreneurs want the newest tips and tricks to give them more time. In reality, though, it’s the fundamental elements that matter. The word focus has come up over one hundred times in the 50 interviews. We all have the same amount of time. Imagine if you removed everything from of your schedule tomorrow. No work, no driving, no eating, no Facebook, no TV. Just sitting. How long would tomorrow feel? In business, we dilute our efforts by adding so much to our plate. Len Schwartz, founder of Pro2Pro Network, said:

“It became incredibly obvious to me that I was diluting myself and my efforts and my focus and my energy so much so that I was just spinning plates and getting nowhere. So, for all of you listening that are like that and/or have experienced that, please embrace the value of extreme focus.”

Many successful businesses were built in just a few hours a week. Take David Heinemeier Hansson from 37Signals. He said, “So on the programming side of things, for about six calendar months that we worked on BaseCamp, I spent ten hours per week. That’s it.”

In a job, it’s about how many hours you work. But for an entrepreneur that’s not it at all. It doesn’t matter how many hours you work. It matters what you produce in those hours. Michael Burcham, serial entrepreneur who runs the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, said:

“Entrepreneurs aren’t rewarded necessarily by effort or hours. We’re rewarded when the outcome, the product or service we’re producing, actually does something that people care about. I see all the time individuals who are totally putting in crazy hours.

The things they are spending their time on are so unimportant. They’re refining Page 21 of a business plan describing an operating model in an area form that no one is ever going to read. That’s a complete waste of energy. So I would submit to you that it’s much more about what constructively you are doing every day and less about how long you are doing it for.

My own personal philosophy is I give everything a really good six to ten hours in a day.”

Action Item: Are the items you have on your to-do list today driving forward your business? Are you making an active effort every day to both 1) acquire new customers and 2) serve your existing customers better? To really grow your business, you have to do the tough work of prospecting for leads and closing sales.

Mistake #2 – “I Don’t Have Enough Money!”

“You can make excuses or you can make money but you can’t do both.” — Pat Mesiti

Money is always an issue for a newer entrepreneur, whether you have some or you don’t. This is one of the most common excuses I hear from prospects and clients. Money is not your issue. Your creativity and pushing through boundaries is the issue. Don’t get me wrong–it might be true that you have very little money to spend. But many of the millionaires have had the same issues. MJ Demarco, author of the Millionaire Fastlane, said:

“For someone to say ‘Oh, I don’t have any money. How am I going to start a business?’ That’s an excuse. It really is. I started my business with $900. All the capital that came into my business was human capital. Hard work, sweat, and the other thing I want to mention is that it was all self taught. I took the time to learn. Everything I learned insofar as my company, I had to teach myself. I was on the Internet, learning and buying books; I was at the library all the time.”

Joy Gendusa from PostcardMania.com said:

“When I started doing postcard marketing for my company I had no money. So it was literally my paycheck that was going into postage and I started out sending 1,000 pieces every single week.”

They find a way. I’ve heard stories of going to SCORE, figuring out how to get people to work for you for free or for trades, or learning how to do things yourself. In fact the time we live in now is probably the cheapest to start a business. We no longer have to have a brick and morter store. We no longer have to pay for expensive printed brochures, or yellow page advertisements. Now we have WordPress, social media sites like Fiverr.com. Instead of thinking how little you have, start to think about how much you have. You are so lucky. David Heinemeier Hansson also said:

“It has never been easier to create something in software with no capital on hand as it is today. If you can do it self-funded, you can do it on your schedule, on your own time and with you being in control of the entire process the entire way.”

And a side note about funding: You don’t need to get funding. In fact most of the millionaires I asked discouraged it. Most of them didn’t even take loans, especially in online businesses. They started small, and just kept working and reinvesting.

Action Item: Is there a way you can barter your services and trade your expertise for someone else’s? Can you learn how to create a website, program the software you want to create, etc.?

Erica’s note: When I first started my hosting company, I traded my HTML and CSS skills to a web design company in exchange for my first Cisco switch. I dug servers out of Dumpsters and fixed the hardware myself. I bought parts on eBay. One of my employees, later in my business, said, “Wow, this entire business was built on eBay.” Yeah, pretty much!

I built my own website, and figured out PHP to learn how to accept credit cards online. (These days it’s a lot easier!) Stop telling yourself you can’t do this stuff. Instead, buy the books, sit down and learn what you need to learn, and ask questions. I had no schooling in this area, and I had no “mentors” who taught me everything. I learned via IRC channels and people at work who knew this stuff.

Don’t know anyone who knows what you want to learn? Look up local meetups in your area. They may be even worth driving a few hours each way to, or camping out in your car for a day or two. Do what you have to do to make your business succeed. The worst thing you can do is sit around waiting for someone to finish your website.

Do you know–I knew a guy personally who had a hosting business that pulled in over $350,000 a year, and he had no website. He had a domain name, with a page on it that said “Sorry, we are still building our website, but email us if you need help.” followed by an email address. He signed up some huge customers. If he can build a 6-figure business that way, you really don’t have any excuses.

(end Erica’s note)

Mistake #3 – “I don’t know how!”

You may not know, but other people have been there before and succeeded. Just because you don’t know how right now, does not mean you can’t learn. Sometimes you even paralyze yourself because you don’t want to make a wrong move, or you think we need to learn the “right” way (of course there isn’t a “right” way, so you keep looking continously). This excuse is usually based in fear: fear of the unknown and fear of failure. Fear is normal though — for you and for millionaires. They feel the fear and do it anyway.

Amos Winbush III started a company called CyberSynchs. He was a songwriter and wanted to start a tech company.

“There was nothing on the marketplace to fix my issue and I thought that if I had this same problem there had to be millions of other people who had this exact same issue, so I said, “Let’s start a company.” I called my business manager and said, “How do I start this company?” He said you need to find some software engineers, so I did a lot of research to find out what software engineers actually were and what their function was.”

When he was starting a tech company, he didn’t know what software engineers actually were, let alone how to start a business! He started the business with only $250, too. (He found a CTO on Craigslist for free!) He had a million dollar company in only 18 months. Amos leaned on his mentor and just kept taking action. He didn’t let his excuses get to him. He didn’t have a plan or money, but that didn’t matter.

Frank McKinney didn’t know how to do real estate before he started, just like Craig Wolfe didn’t know how to make rubber ducks that look like celebrities (Celebriducks). If we already knew how to do every step it probably wouldn’t even be that interesting to us. The only thing you need to know is the next step. Figure out what that next step is. If you don’t know, ask someone who does.

Action Item: The real truth is that most of us, even those who have made a lot of money, don’t feel like we know what we are doing. Millionaires aren’t necessarily smarter than you–or more talented than you are. They do know, however, how to push through their fears and make the tough decisions. Today, work on one thing you previously feared. It probably won’t hurt as badly as you think it will, even if you fail. Just give it a shot!

Bio: Jaime is a business coach and speaker who has been featured on CNN Newsroom, MSN Money, Success Magazine, Fortune, Yahoo’s homepage and more. She interviews millionaires every week to get advice from them on how you can become a self made millionaire.

If you are in the beginning stages or just starting business in 2012 and have thought to yourself, “I don’t know how to even start!” or “I don’t know what to do!”–register for Jaime’s free webinar series now. Hurry–the webinar is on Tuesday!

Erica’s note: I’m now accepting guest posts on erica.biz again–check out my contact page if you’re interested in guest posting on erica.biz.

Scott McNealy, former Sun Microsystems CEO, and
Larry Ellison of Oracle announce a closer partnership
in 2006, which led to Oracle acquiring Sun in 2009.

Back in 2000, the company that I worked for, Cobalt Networks, was acquired by Sun Microsystems. I interviewed, and was accepted for, a position in Sun’s marketing department, working on Sun.com. As part of Sun’s marketing department, I got to see some of the advertisements Sun created to sell products to potential customers.

Sun’s potential customers were mainly large government agencies and giant corporations. These government agencies and corporations were used to buying products from IBM, Oracle, and the like. (Imagine a customer so large that your billion-dollar company is still considered a “startup”!)

The Tactic

Sun’s main tactic was to go negative in its advertising. One ad I remember them being so proud of (they actually photographed it in the San Francisco office I worked out of) was a shot of a man in a suit. He had dollar bills in his pockets, and the ad made it appear as if they were being “vacuumed” out of his pockets. The tagline was, essentially, “This is what IBM does to your company.”

The request for a negative campaign like this came straight from the top–from Scott McNealy, who was CEO at the time. Sun was negative toward everyone else in the industry. IBM? Hated ‘em. Microsoft? The devil! Apple? A joke! Oracle? Pfft!

At the same time I was working there, I was studying sales psychology. The books verified something I had already suspected: When you go negative in your advertising, the net effect is that the potential customer thinks more about the thing you’re being so negative about. (That explains why the “War on Drugs” actually increased usage of many drugs during its lifespan.)

I also made a friend in the sales department. Over lunch at In-N-Out Burger one day, he told me something interesting. He said, “I hear this over and over again–a large organization requests Sun, IBM, and others to make a presentation about their products. IBM is first. They show a great presentation about their product line. Then comes another vendor. They show up and do another fantastic presentation about how amazing their products are. Then it’s Sun’s turn. Sun does a presentation–about how awful everyone else’s products are!”

He continued, “The net effect is this. Most of these people have bought products from the company Sun’s presentation is bashing. So they get to thinking, ‘Well, IBM’s product isn’t as bad as Sun makes it out to be.’ And then, they go buy from IBM. We lose the sale, again and again and again.”

I was stunned. “Haven’t you taken this up with Sun’s management?” I asked. (Scott McNealy in particular practiced an “open door strategy” where he appeared to be responsive to suggestions.)

“Oh, yes,” he said. “But they don’t care. They like this sales strategy.”

Leading from the Ego

It was then that I realized two things: One, Sun was leading from an egotistical perspective of “we’re better than everyone else, and we’re going to prove it by bashing everyone else.” And it wasn’t making them many sales. Two, if they didn’t change, they weren’t going to survive as a company. Not only was the sales culture bad, but it created rot within the company as well. The company culture was oppressively negative, and it attracted people who enjoyed complaining and bashing others.

More importantly, though, I realized I had to take this to heart. When I ran my hosting company, I remembered this clearly. People loved to ask me, “Why are you better than [a competitor's name]?”

In response, I would always ask who they were hosting with now. If it was the same competitor they just named, I was careful to not bash the competitor–because that would be bashing the choice that they made. Instead of indulging my ego, I said, “I completely understand why you’ve made the choice you have. You wanted a good deal.”

Then I would find out what had happened that made them want to change hosting providers. If they were just shopping around for a better deal, I’d tell them honestly that we probably weren’t the best fit. But if something had happened–they’d had an outage recently, or they needed room to grow–that’s when I’d be able to go into my preferred sales strategy, which was showing them why we were a much better choice for them. I’d point out our redundant power, have them meet our employees, and do a datacenter tour. By the end of the tour, 90% of the time, they were ready to sign up with us. Then I wouldn’t hesitate to collect their credit card information and get them set up!

Despite its questionable company culture, working at Sun taught me a valuable lesson. You can’t serve your customers effectively when you’re busy bashing your competitors. And you can’t survive as a business (or as an ideal) if your main issue is “We’re not this other thing.”

What are you saying to your customers? Are you presenting your business in the best possible light–or inadvertently turning your customers toward a potential competitor?

Recommended Reading:

• One Million Dollars, The Hard Way. Ever wonder how I sold a business for $1.1 million? This post gives all the details.
• Are You Making This Common Mistake (That Could Ruin Your Business)? Here’s another big mistake (and a true story) that could really kill your business.
• How Writing a Story Could Strangle Your Business. What is “writing the story”? Are you doing it? If so, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table…

And here’s the (shocking) story of how I almost gave it up entirely.

Earlier this year, I could feel things were coming to a head with erica.biz and me. My relationship with this blog wasn’t healthy. I have a fantastic audience full of fans and supporters, and the time had come to figure out how to turn my blog into a full-time income.

“How to make money with your blog!”

I didn’t like my options. There are those people who treat their email lists as if they are not real people. Those marketers (most of whom view blogs as “a waste of time”) constantly email their lists with the latest “make money online” product of the day. “Buy this!” they say. Then next week: “What you bought last week didn’t work? Try this week’s special!”

I know several of those people, and they encouraged me to send more product offers to my email list. But I couldn’t do it. It felt…so yucky to me. And, despite my huge background in sales and being a personally huge advocate of learning sales…it still didn’t sit right with me.

It didn’t help matters when my then-boyfriend, now-fiance Brian tried to help me with it. “Okay,” I told him one day. “Go to Clickbank and find the top-selling products in the make money online niche. Surely there has to be something good there. Watch all their sales videos. Here is my business credit card. Buy whatever you want under $100. If something’s good and will actually help people, I’ll email my list about it.”

He spent 30 minutes on the task and then resigned. “I can’t watch these sales videos,” he told me. “I looked at two or three different products–and they’re just awful. They feel dishonest to me.”

“I know,” I sighed. “I understand.”

And so that route (with the exception of a handful of products that are actually worth it) closed to me.

“Help! Help!”

In the meantime, my email inbox was bursting with people requesting help. Stories poured through the digital wire. The grandmother who just wanted to retire. A guy from Nigeria who wanted to show people in his country that there was a real way to make money–rather than trying to scam people via email or Facebook. A disabled woman who felt that working on the Internet was her ticket to getting off of disability for good. An enlisted officer who wanted a better life for his family. The stories went on, and on, and on. I wanted to help. But what could I do? This blog wasn’t making much money–but not because it couldn’t, given my traffic numbers and awesome fans. It wasn’t making money because I couldn’t bring myself to promote utter crap at the expense of my audience.

And sure, I could have taken the easy way out and sent the disabled woman and the military guy and the Nigerian dude and the grandmother some get-rich-quick product link. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. But I didn’t know what to do. These were real people. They needed my help. And I didn’t have any solutions that wouldn’t involve working for free for them, when I could not afford to work for free.

So I did one of the things I do best: I sat down and cried. I just lost it. Here were real people who needed my help. Not faceless “traffic” or “email list members”. Actual individuals. And I had nothing for them.

Then I decided to give up on email for 30 days. I needed a break. I needed clarity. I needed to retreat from the stories from a bit and focus on a solution.

Digging myself out of the email hole allowed me the clarity I sought–but I fear it might have come at the expense of some people, who got upset that they couldn’t reach me. Still, in that 30 days, interesting things happened.

My “No Email” Trial Turns Interesting

A famous author of a best-selling book that has sold more than 500,000 copies (if I tell you his name and the name of one of his books, chances are you will have read it) contacted me. And when he found out I wasn’t checking email, he had his assistant freakin’ track me down. His assistant contacted me via Twitter, Facebook, and Skype.

He wanted to meet me in person. Surprised, I obliged. And it was then that he said something that rocked my world. He said, “I’ve written one of the most famous books on running a business. I found out about your blog, and read every word. I read your article on how to hire an employee, and I was stunned. It’s some of the best advice I’ve ever read.”

Then: “I know this may seem out of left field, but can you help me hire a new assistant? I could really use your help. I loved your step-by-step process. I’ve never seen anything like it, even having read basically every business book that’s been out in the past 30+ years.”

“What If…?”

That encounter started some thoughts bubbling in my head. I didn’t want to bombard you with advertisements (and we both know those aren’t really the path to a full-time income via blogging, anyway.) I didn’t want to bombard you with affiliate links for products that suck (yuck!) A grain of thought planted itself in my head. What if I wrote something myself? Something that would really help an individual who didn’t necessarily have technical experience start an Internet business? Some step-by-step videos?

I mind-mapped. I charted. Then I started recording videos. I named the course Step by Step Business. I figured once it was done, I’d figure out how to find the people who needed it and get it to them/you at a reasonable price. I knew the content was worth $1000, or more. But I wanted to find a way where the average person would afford it.

I spent the entire month of July recording videos. I did a small speaking gig then, and sold the first few “beta” copies. (Two people out of the tiny group who took the first course have already started making money online.) It was a breakthrough. I finally knew how I was going to make money with my blog–by actually helping people. (It seems so obvious in retrospect!)

Meanwhile, I had quietly ended my 30-day no email trial (which had stretched on past 60 days) and was receiving and replying to email again. Several people asked me what had happened with that, so I decided that would make a good blog post. There was a voice in my head that said “Don’t post it!”, but I didn’t understand why it would say that, so I posted it anyway.

The comments were immediate, and negative. I had set up a (pretty harsh) autoresponder. I was sick of getting bombarded with PR requests and basically, a bunch of crap. That was 90% of my incoming email. The other 10% was people who actually wanted help. I wrote the autoresponder for the PR jerks, not realizing it would hurt the people who sent me real emails.

Called out on my blog, I saw the autoresponder for what it was and quickly realized my commenters had a point. Looked at from the lens of someone who wanted help, it sounded cold and distant. I changed it immediately, then dropped it entirely a week or so later.

Yet one commenter wouldn’t let up. “Make no mistake, Erica is in it to make money. There’s nothing wrong with that, I do the same, but there is no need for her to be so superior and rude,” he wrote. (That was after I changed my autoresponder and admitted I’d made a mistake.)

What made it more devastating was that this comment was from someone who’d actually purchased products from me in the past–someone I’d talked to personally, 1-on-1, who I thought would know me better than that.

I Considered Shutting Down My Blog Entirely

Shaken, I reconsidered everything. I’m still not sure why that comment dug so deep. Maybe it was because I thought he knew me, but mostly it was because I really wasn’t “in it to make money.” Heck, I’d gone to great lengths to treat you as a real person, not just as someone to be marketed to. All the people out there who just spam their lists with crap–and he couldn’t see the difference between me and those other people?

That day, I couldn’t see myself ever blogging again. I seriously considered pulling down erica.biz entirely. Why waste my time blogging for free here when I could just run a business and be free from the hateful personal attacks? What was I even doing here? Whatever I was doing, I was apparently doing it all wrong.

I threw myself into Whoosh Traffic, and here we are. Four months later, and I’ve only written two blog posts since that fateful day. It took me four months to get over that comment.

This blog post is me closing the door on that and looking forward. I’m still angry about it, but I’ve decided I don’t want to give up blogging. Besides, who would I be to let one asshole get in the way of helping people? That’s not really how I want to present myself to the world. So I’m shaking it off…slowly.

I switched over to Disqus comments after that, although it wouldn’t have made any difference with that comment, as that commenter used his real name. But I figured it might help some other anonymous attacks I’ve gotten in my comments. Instead, my blog filled up with spam comments. Apparently the spammers exploit Disqus. I am looking for a better solution.

And Now, For my Most Surprising News of 2011…

I wanted to make this a separate blog post, but it seems fitting to add this here. It’s going to surprise the heck out of you, I think!

A few of my personal friends know the hassle I’ve gone through trying to get a mortgage over the past year. The banks just do not want to give mortgages to self-employed people. I moved to Austin, Texas, and am ready to buy a house here (especially given that a mortgage here would actually be cheaper than the rent on an equivalent place–the way it should be!)

In case you’re self-employed and haven’t tried to get a mortgage lately, first, the banks will only count W-2 income (salary) from your business, not dividends you pay yourself. I pay myself in dividends as well as salary, so that reduced my income dramatically. Secondly, they want 24 months of W-2 salary from your own business, and then they take the average of those 24 months. If you’re like me, and just learned that you have to have W-2 income, sorry, it’ll be 24 months before you can qualify for a mortgage.

I even had one bank pull all my tax returns directly from the IRS, which showed that I made plenty of money to afford the mortgage, and had for years. (We’re talking a $200,000 mortgage here.) No go. Since over half of it was dividends, I didn’t get to count that income. And they didn’t like that I had seed-funded Whoosh Traffic out of my personal savings, instead of getting investors.

Tired of fighting, I raised the white flag and decided to beat the banks at their own game. So I went out and got a job.

Yep, you read that right! I’ve had a whole lot of job offers over the past few years, but I knew what I wanted to do–make a real difference at a startup company. So the first person I called was Jason Cohen over at WP Engine, which does WordPress hosting. I told him I was on the market because I needed a mortgage and W-2 income, and I’d help them get more customers for their hosting business. They’re located here in Austin, and Jason had been after me for a while about doing some consulting with them.

So now I have a job. A real W-2 pay stub with a boss and everything! (I called my dad and told him, and he almost dropped the phone: “That’s something I never thought I’d hear you say!”) I’m having a blast designing landing pages, helping them set up ad campaigns, and tweaking their website for maximum conversions.

And now I can get a mortgage! And I have health insurance.

I announced this on Facebook recently, and the questions poured in: “Does that mean you’re no longer doing Whoosh Traffic? Is Whoosh Traffic okay?” The answers are: Whoosh Traffic is doing great, and I’m still working on it! I’m happy about how this turned out anyway, because now we can use Whoosh Traffic’s income to hire more people and do some marketing, instead of having some of its income diverted to my salary.

I’m stoked because we may be able to hire another programmer even sooner than I originally thought! We are really rocking it out with our rank tracker, and even had a Fortune 500 company sign up recently for it. (And they love us!) We plan to go deeper into the SEO tools niche in 2012. But I suspect I’ll have another, goals-related blog post to talk about that in!

As we close out the year, I’d just like to say thank you for your support. 2011 wasn’t the easiest year for me. But coming into 2012, my resolve to help you get started making money online has only deepened.

Oh yeah–and about that Step by Step Business product? Stay tuned. It’ll be here very soon, in an extremely affordable fashion. I’m ready to start 2012 with a bang. I’ll be busier than ever, but I feel more energized and motivated than ever!

Me, when Cobalt got bought out by Sun
in 2000, with my employee number and a
fake bar code marked on my arm.

I grew up in a small farm town in Indiana. I first got online in 1995. My parents had given me a computer, but everything else I had to buy on my own. I got an allowance, but my parents refused to pay my burgeoning Internet connection bill (which was dialup, and since it wasn’t a local number, billed me by the minute!), so I took jobs to get by.

I worked Internet jobs all through high school, starting in 1997, when I took a job at an SEO firm, working from home, submitting sites to search engines. (Back then, SEO was all about how many search engines you could submit your site to…how things have changed!) I got paid pretty well, and learned how to fly through copy-and-paste.

My First Job and Bounced Checks

When the first check arrived in the mail from the SEO company, my mom took me to the bank to deposit it, and then gave me a lecture on bad checks and bounced checks. She had a tough time believing that I had a real job online–but I did. I continued to work for that company through high school.

All this time, I was learning how to build and fix computers. Living in a small town, we didn’t really have a computer repair shop, so I did repairs myself. Later I found I could also repair my neighbors’ and friends’ computers–which I did in exchange for small amounts of money, or sometimes just for a good home-cooked meal.

In 1998, I got a job at a web design firm for the summer. I found the job by hitting up the local Yahoo directory (for Cincinnati, Ohio–the nearest city to where I lived!) and emailing every web design firm in that directory. I had a showcase of various websites I had built.

From those “cold emails”, I got two interviews. One of the interviewers laughed at me when I came in and he found out I was a 16-year-old kid. The other firm saw potential. They gave me just above minimum wage and hired me out to their clients at $75/hour. I was their staff HTML “programmer.” I also taught myself Perl using the books they had around their office (and various websites) and built things like contact forms for their customers. I was just happy to have a job doing what I loved, which was building websites. I continued to work for other web companies throughout high school.

Off to Silicon Valley

In 1999, I graduated high school and moved to Silicon Valley. I knew Silicon Valley was where I wanted to be. I only applied to two schools–San Jose State and Santa Clara University. I was accepted to both, but Santa Clara University wouldn’t let freshman choose their course times, and I wanted a stable part-time job as well, so I went to San Jose State.

I went on craigslist and hit up companies in the Valley, looking for a job as a web designer. I didn’t find much–until I got a phone interview. I closed the deal, getting hired on as their “Marketing Manager” for the whopping sum of $15/hour, part-time. (With promises to increase that salary in the future!)

When I walked in to their office in Silicon Valley to meet them for my first day at work, they found out I was an 18-year-old college kid. They fired me pretty shortly thereafter.

I tried again, hitting up craigslist and looking for web design jobs. I didn’t find any, but I did find a job doing desktop support at a startup company called Cobalt Networks. That has, so far, been my all-time favorite job. Even though I didn’t get paid much, I thrived. I was able to use my hardware and software troubleshooting skills to help people, and I got along well with everyone in the office.

Cobalt was a shop that made Linux-based servers. I had some familiarity with Linux, but begged the engineers at the company to teach me more. I remember going up to one of the engineers after work and asking “What’s a ‘for loop’?” The engineers, most of whom were only a few years older than me, thought it was pretty neat that a young, cute girl was trying to learn bash shell programming. They brought me piles of books and gave me advice on how to code well. I spent many late nights at the company, absorbed in books and websites on programming and system administration.

At Cobalt, I learned an up-and-coming language called PHP. Cobalt engineers were fans of PHP (back then, it was either PHP or Perl, and PHP was a lot easier and more friendly to program in.) My boss, seeing my interest in programming, asked me to make an intranet for the company. I wrote it in Perl and then switched to PHP.

Cobalt Halloween party, 1999. I’m the cheerleader on the left.

Up until then, I’d never considered myself a “programmer”. Programming was uninteresting to me–the only programming class I’d ever had, in high school, taught useless, out-of-context things like how to build a fake cash register. But when I was introduced to web programming, I thrived. Now I could build interactive websites that people would actually use! I launched our intranet proudly. I’d built the whole thing myself, with self-taught knowledge.

The End of College

In 2000, Cobalt was acquired by Sun Microsystems, and I learned that Sun would only accept employees who had full-time jobs. At the time, I was still working part-time. I realized that to jump into Sun, I’d have to be a full-time employee. So I made the decision–not an easy one–to drop out of college.

My boss at Cobalt said it was the worst idea he’d ever heard.

My mom, when I told her, started crying and said it was the worst decision I’d ever made.

I went ahead with the decision, and my parents cut off all financial support. (They’d been paying for my classes, monthly cell phone bill, and dormitory housing. I was responsible for everything else.) After 1.5 years of college, I was done–and truly on my own.

Sun did hire me–because I was again aggressive about getting my foot in the door. I hit up their internal job portal, found all open jobs that had anything to do with web development, and called people until I got interviews. I got 2, and, impressed with my initiative in building the intranet, both teams offered to hire me. I took the full-time job that I felt had better resume potential (as I felt I would need a great resume with no college degree) — as one of the 6 core developers behind Sun.com.

Then, my grand plans hit a snag. I had a low salary at Cobalt because my main job was still doing desktop support. I had consistently asked for raises, and I’d gotten up to just above $22/hour. Sun inherited that salary of mine, and then–so my boss claimed–they couldn’t raise me more than 10% above my existing salary.

I was devastated. $22/hour was fine when my parents were paying my dorm rent, but now I was done with that. I had to pay my own way. This was in Silicon Valley, during the dot-com bubble. To give you a sense of how crazy rents were, I watched a new apartment complex get built near our office. I drove by it every day, and one day a sign popped up: “Waiting list now available.” I found out that not only were rents $1800+/month for a tiny apartment, but that they had an 8-week waiting list at that price.

One of our summer interns (older than me) at Cobalt moved to the Valley to take a job for the summer and ended up literally living under his desk because he couldn’t find a place to live. We had showers in the building, and he ate a lot of take-out. That’s how insane things were.

I eventually found a place–a shared bedroom in an old lady’s house–for $950/month. Even today, that number seems crazy to me. I had no kitchen privileges, but the area did have its own entrance. I set up a toaster oven and ate out a lot. My boyfriend ended up paying for a lot of my meals because he felt bad.

My friends urged me to quit and find a better job, but right around the time I got drafted on to Sun, the bottom fell out of the Valley economy. Now rents were starting to drop–but there were no jobs to be had. I clung to my Sun job for dear life.

My job moved to San Francisco, where I couldn’t afford to live. I found a tiny 1BR apartment 35 miles east of San Francisco. I took the BART (train) in to work every day. My rent went from $950/month to $1475/month. The train was about $9/day. Buying a sandwich for lunch in San Francisco was $9. (Most people have no idea how expensive San Francisco is until they live there.) I was starting to have massive credit card debt.

There was another girl, a couple years older than me, doing pretty much the same job I had. When I found out her salary was $72,000/year for the same job I was doing for $22,000/year less, I threw a fit. I took it all the way to HR, who basically said “Take it or leave it.”

I cried one day on the way home when I read the paper and realized that the person driving the BART train had a higher salary than I did.

There were pros to my job at Sun. I took a week-long Solaris system administration course, which gave me a deep insight into how UNIX servers worked. I helped build a Linux-based intranet at Sun, after one of the directors there saw what I had done at Cobalt. But mostly, for an entire year, I was miserable.

I did not stop taking action, however. Every day, I used Sun’s fax machine to fax resumes to companies that were looking for web developers. I had heard somewhere that faxes got read more than emails, so I faxed nonstop. My boss told me to stop abusing the fax machine. I didn’t. I wasn’t making ends meet, and every month I was getting deeper into debt. I didn’t have a choice. I needed a better job, and I knew Sun wasn’t going to be able to provide it.

The Big Job Interview

Finally, a breakthrough came. A friend of mine saw my PHP skills and was suitably impressed. His company (in a cheaper area of the Valley) was hiring. He invited me in for an interview.

The interview was with his boss. The guy scowled at me when I came in. “You know, from your resume alone, I would never have even given you a second look,” were the first words out of his mouth to me. “But Mike said you’re good, so I did him a favor and called you in.”

I just sat there, not really knowing what to say.

The boss ushered me into a conference room with a white board. A couple other men were sitting around a table. “Okay, show us in PHP how to make a database connection to MySQL and select rows from a table,” he said, gesturing to the pens in the whiteboard tray.

This was not an open-book test. There were no books or websites. I had to have it memorized.

Little did he know that, besides faxing resumes all over the place, I’d also been working every night on my own website–for my fledgling hosting company. And just last night, I’d written that exact code. So it was fresh in my mind.

Without hesitation, I picked up the marker and began to write. On the right side of the white board, I drew out a MySQL “users” table. And on the left side, I began to write, perfect flowing lines of PHP code.

“Do you want me to select everything from the ‘users’ table?” I asked as I wrote. I was met with shocked silence. Taking that as an affirmative, I continued to write. When I was done, I turned around. Their expressions were a mixture of grief and amusement.

It was then that it hit me–they’d set me up to fail. (I found out later that they had interviewed 12 people for that position, and every single one had completely failed that task.)

I had passed their setup with flying colors–and now they had no idea what to do with me.

The rest of the interview was a lot of paper-pushing, mumbles, and “We’ll call you.” I left with high hopes. I had aced their test!

I prayed so hard for that job. It paid $74,000/year, which might as well have been $1,000,000/year from where I was sitting. I prayed nonstop. I knew I wanted to start my own business, but wouldn’t it be so much easier with no debt hanging over my head? Without sweating how I was going to pay bills?

They called me back a few days later. Would I–the only one who had passed their test out of so many candidates–get my “dream job”?

No.

They chose not to hire me, because, as the boss man said, I had stated in the interview that I wanted to start my own business, and he didn’t think I was going to stick around the company very long. “We want someone who’s going to be here at least 4 years,” he told me.

Of course, you and I know that he never wanted to hire me to begin with. Whether it was because the company was almost entirely male, and I would have been the only female in the department, or because he just didn’t like some young kid showing him up–we’ll never know that.

(Ironically, he left to start his own business less than four years after that. Yeah, I kept tabs on him.)

I was devastated. I felt like the world was stacked against me.

Back to Sun

Sun finally got wind that I didn’t want to be there, and put me on a “performance improvement plan.” That meant I was on a 90-day watch. I had to do better, or I was out of there.

While signing the plan, I noticed a loophole. A paragraph in the long document said that if I chose not to take part in the plan, I could get paid severance to leave. Immediately, I knew that was my “out”. Total pay, including vacation time, would be about $8,000. That was enough to live on for about three months. I could make it.

I told my boss I wanted out. He said that wasn’t the intent of the plan. I told him I didn’t care; that I was done. We conferenced with HR. The HR person said I didn’t have to leave. I told HR I wanted out immediately. (They ended up paying me for 2 weeks’ severance and then asking me to hand over my keys right away, it was so clear that I didn’t want to be there any more.)

On my way out the door, my boss said the #1 most insulting thing anyone’s ever said to me: “Well, I guess when you’re gone, we’ll just replace you with an intern.”

I shut out all the noise and continued building my hosting company website. I launched my business a few months after I left Sun, in July 2001. Of course, it didn’t end up paying my bills for years. I did contract PHP programming for years, mostly finding gigs on craigslist. I built shopping carts, merchant account integrations, and even entire content management systems for my clients. (This was long before the days of WordPress.) And mostly, I scraped by, still with credit card debt, but most months coming out about even.

I took any extra money I had and and poured it into buying servers for my hosting company. And it grew, slowly but surely. (The rest of my story running my business can be found at Sharing My Journey to One Million Dollars, which was written just after I sold my business, but while I was still “embargoed” from talking about the sale, and The End of An Era, where I speak candidly about my 10-year journey through Silicon Valley.)

The Moral of the Story

The moral of this long-winded story is this: Everyone talks about (and remembers) the big moments. Like the day when I signed those papers to sell my business, on September 7, 2007, for $1,104,000. Or the day when I quit my job in 2001 and walked out of the door into the blustery winds of San Francisco, and almost cried, because for the first time in a year, I felt free.

But it’s easy to forget what it takes to make those moments. I never stopped fighting…not even for a second. And I never stopped learning. I was self-taught in everything I do. I am a graduate of the school of “Everyone said I couldn’t do it, and look, here I am.”

After my parents cut me off, I was determined to prove to them that dropping out of college wasn’t a mistake–that I could be successful anyway. And I blew them away. But I still haven’t stopped fighting. Now I’m passionate about helping others–whether that’s by hiring people or whether that’s doing cat fostering and rescue (which is one of my hobbies.) And writing this blog, which I do because I’m passionate about helping you succeed.

I said back in December 2007, when I turned my personal blog into “erica.biz”, that I started this to help figure out why I was successful when so many others aren’t. And, as the years have passed (I’ve been blogging here nearly 4 years now), I realize there’s another, deeper purpose: To give you the strength, determination, and grit you need to succeed.

This world does not hand you success. It certainly doesn’t hand you a job. I’ve had to fight for everything I’ve had in this life. I’ve taught myself what I need to know to be successful. And, if you see yourself in any of this, my message to you is: You can do it, too. Just don’t expect it to be easy.

I’ve avoided many of the “easy” routes to making money on my blog, too. I could have sold a bunch of cheap, crappy “make money now!” programs–and probably made some money. But I didn’t feel right in doing that. (If you’ve been around a while, you’re probably surprised at how few affiliate promotions I run on this blog, whereas the predominant theme in Internet marketing is to email your list a new promotion every day. Garbage, I say, garbage.)

Changes I’m Making Today

Lately, I’ve thought a lot about how to help you even more. My 30-day “no email” trial was a success in many ways, but also a failure in an important way: it cut me off from communication with you, my readers. I know many of you are looking for an honest way to succeed. And in cutting off email, I cut off your questions and a way for you to share your successes with me. That was my mistake, and I apologize.

So today, two things are happening:
One–I’m opening email back up. If you receive emails from me (as part of my email list), you can just hit “Reply”, type your response, and I’ll read it. (Note: If you’re planning to write me vitriolic hate mail, save your breath and just unsubscribe instead. That will make both of our lives better.)
Two–I’m introducing an exclusive, limited program for those of you who would like more personal access to me. Now, I’ll be upfront about this: This won’t be cheap. I’m looking for a small group of people I can help mentor.

You probably know how many people are out there teaching this “how to make money online” stuff. Chances are, you’ve even bought a program or two, and perhaps you haven’t been so happy with it. (That’s another big reason why I don’t promote that stuff much any more.) And if you know that, you know how rare it is when someone who’s actually made over $1 million online, in a legitimate business (not hawking “how to make money” crap products), opens up mentoring spots. In fact, in all the four years I’ve run this blog, I haven’t done it, either.

But I feel that now is the right time, especially with the economy the way it is. I started working from home online in 1997. I have a lot of knowledge I’d like to distill–everything from figuring out the right niche to go into to in-depth business strategy and growing your business to new heights. I even have some “ready to go” business ideas that I think can make a mint, in the hands of the right person. So if you’re not sure what you want to do online, this may very well be your chance to really “go big” with a business idea that’s already been vetted and tested by someone who’s made millions online.

As I said, this won’t be cheap. But if you think you might be interested, and want more information, just put your name and primary email address in the box below, and I’ll let you know more details. (And if you’re struggling with money, I will likely offer a scholarship to at least one person, so put your name and best email address in there as well, and I’ll let you know about that, as well.)

There’s no obligation, so go ahead now:

Building an online business isn’t easy, but it’s worthwhile. I’m ready to work with you to achieve similar heights to what I achieved. I believe you can do it. And just like I had people to ask about programming, you may just need someone to help you get clear on what to do and how to get there. I’m happy to be that person for you.

Put your name and primary email address in the box below, and I’ll follow up with you with more information about my mentoring program within the next few days (remember, there’s no obligation, so if you’re interested in finding out what I have to offer, go ahead!)

(If that form above doesn’t load, click here to subscribe.)

Let’s talk about current events. There’s a lot going on in the news right now. The 99% (aka Occupy Wall Street) movement. A backlash against big corporations, government bailouts, politicians who promise to change things and then don’t do anything, and a lack of jobs in our country.

Listen to the protests, and you will be instantly sucked in. It seems everyone has a side; a story to tell. Now, you must make choices. Are you a “liberal” or a “conservative”? A 99%er, a 53%er, or a 1%er? (No one will own up to the latter.)

I’m here to tell you: Not only does this stuff not matter, but it’s a distraction preventing you from changing the world.

In the rush to label ourselves and prove that we are “different” (or the same as!) others, we’ve forgotten one thing: We all stand here together. And if there are problems with this world–our society–then it’s up to us to go out and fix them.

Oh yes, there were things the government did wrong. And big corporations. I’m not saying to ignore it–I’m saying stop getting caught up in it.

What would happen if, instead of engaging in a debate where no one’s mind gets changed and enemy lines get drawn between your friends and you, you simply opted out?

What if, instead of watching TV and getting furious about those damn liberals or those hopeless conservatives, you spent an hour working on your business?

Jobs

Let’s talk about the lack of jobs–since that seems to be a sticking point. There are 50,000 monthly readers of this blog. What if half of you went out and said, “Today I am going to make a difference in the world by hiring someone who needs money.” And then you went out and hired someone to mow your lawn. Once. Or clean your house. Just once!

“But Erica, I don’t have the money to do that.” Then I suggest you start by ending your cable TV subscription and selling your TV. That will get you the money to hire someone. And it’s a thousand times better than a handout.

Together, just from you and others reading this post, we could create 25,000 jobs. Oh sure, they’d be temporary jobs. But instead of taking your money and handing it to a big corporation like a cable company, you’d be handing it to a real, live person–your neighbor, or someone who lives in your city. And that person would be eternally grateful for a hand up, instead of a handout.

And who knows how many of those jobs will stick around? Hey, it’d be nice to have a few extra hours a week to work on your business. So hire a babysitter for the kids and do it. Hire a house cleaner. Do you understand how grateful your babysitter or house cleaner will be for that job? Marilyn, our housekeeper, looked at me recently with almost-tears in her eyes, and told Brian and I that she loved us. That she was so grateful to be saved from a terrible desk job where she had a boss who constantly yelled at her.

You and I…we’re better bosses than that. We’re the entrepreneurs. We’re the job creators. And if there are no jobs, we’re the ones who need to step up and make those jobs happen.

So ignore the news. Ignore people posting protest photos on Facebook. Instead of getting sucked in to endless drama, and debating back and forth, go out there and figure out how to create a job instead. Get that fire in your belly. You deserve better. You need to learn how to start that business, not just for you, but for your family and your community.

The world is counting on you. And right now, we need you. We need your help to make America what we want it to be. We need your help to lower the unemployment rate, to help good, deserving people get jobs, and to make this world a better place.

Turn off the noise and start creating.

Recommended Reading:

• How To Hire An Employee. My epic step-by-step guide to finding an amazing person to help you. No more excuses.
• Find the Path Toward Your Perfect Day. What do you really want to do with your life? Follow these steps to help get clear…
• What Money Can’t Fix. It’s really eye-opening what problems money makes go away…and what problems remain, or get worse…

When I started the trial, I felt completely overwhelmed by email, and I just wanted a way out. I was waking up every morning to an incessant barrage of PR people, sales letters, chain emails, people wanting me to write about their product, companies wanting me to promote them without compensation, and–generally–a bunch of junk. Not “spam”, really, because it was sent by real people (sadly.) But a ridiculous pile of useless crap that wasn’t easily filtered.

Since my email address is public, and my blog is popular, it seemed like every day I’d end up on some list that I didn’t ask to be on. People would sign my email address up for everything from political updates to PR posts about seemingly random companies sent from a “do not reply” address.

In short, my email inbox was a micro-Hell waiting for me every morning.

The First Seven Days: Transition

I woke up the day after I wrote my “I’m done with email for 30 days!” blog post, and realized I needed to have systems to handle my inbox. Email filters weren’t cutting it–I needed a real person’s help.

In Google Apps (Google’s Gmail solution when you have your own domain name), you can “delegate” access to your email account to another person. So I set Susan, my virtual assistant, up with an @erica.biz email account so I could delegate my inbox to her.

Now came the tricky part: Actually distancing myself from email.

Getting Rid of the Crap

I set up a brand-new email account that only Susan, Parnell (my co-founder), and Brian (my boyfriend) had access to. I disconnected my erica.biz email from my phone and set it up so that my phone only had my private email account on it.

Whew! What a relief! Finally, I had disconnected from what seemed like an endless stream of email. I set up a mind map so that Susan, with her new access to my email, could do routine tasks like automatically deleting PR junk and unsubscribing me from lists. She also sends me a summary email every morning. Here’s one summary email she sent me (names and sensitive data have been blurred out):

You can see how much time this saves me every day. Instead of having to go into my inbox and wade through a pile of junk, filtering messages one by one, Susan does it for me. Based on her daily emails, I tailor my mind map and give Susan further instructions on how to reply and/or filter specific types of email I receive.

The Next Step: An Autoresponder

I then implemented an email autoresponder that would respond to anyone who emailed me. If you’ve emailed me since June, this will look familiar. Here’s what it said:

Hello, and thank you for emailing me! Please read this carefully…what I’m about to say is important.

I’ve made a radical change in my life, and I’m taking a sabbatical from email. (Note: I’m still around and working–just not replying to email!) This means that the email you just sent to me will likely NOT be read.

Please read this blog post for more details about why I am doing this:
http://www.erica.biz/2011/30-day-trial/

What should you do now?

1) If you are a Whoosh Traffic customer, please email [redacted] for assistance with your account, and our staff will get back to you quickly. (Always email [redacted] instead of me directly in the future.)

Please note that [redacted] is for Whoosh Traffic customers only. Any non-Whoosh Traffic-related email that is sent there will not only not get read by me, but will likely get you permanently banned from emailing that address again.

2) If you and I have corresponded in the past and you need to get in touch again, feel free to call me or find me on Skype ([redacted]). (Note: If you are a Whoosh Traffic customer and need help with your account, please email [redacted] instead.)

2) If neither of the above situations apply, please find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ericabiz and send me an @ reply there. (I will be checking once a day.) Alternatively, you can find me on Facebook at http://facebook.com/ericadotbiz . I will also be checking this once a day.

Thank you for your understanding.

-Erica

I wondered if putting our Whoosh Traffic support email address would cause people to email us with all kinds of junk, but during the entire 30+ days, I only received one out-of-context email there (and promptly banned the sender, as promised in the email.)

As I implemented these solutions, the noise died down. I get just 2-3 pitches a day now (and I quickly reply asking them to remove me from their email lists.) Susan handles my inbox with aplomb.

In short, my 30-day trial was successful. The only drawbacks were few compared to the hours I gained back. The biggest negative was a few Whoosh Traffic potential customers who weren’t sure whether it was okay to email our support email address. I fixed that by updating my autoresponder. This is what I use currently:

Hello, and thank you for emailing me! Please read this carefully.

I am not currently accepting guest posts on erica.biz.

If you are a PR company emailing me about your product or service, I ask that you please remove me from your list.

I read all emails, but I may not have time to respond to you. My assistant, Susan, also reads my emails and may respond where appropriate. If she responds, you will see her name in the From field and also in her signature. If it says it’s from me, it’s from me.

If I do respond, it may take a week or more. For Whoosh Traffic-related issues (sales *or* support), please email support@whooshtraffic.com, use the live chat feature on http://whooshtraffic.com, or use the contact form on our site. Please do not send Whoosh Traffic-related issues directly to me, as I can’t respond as quickly as our support team can.

Thank you for understanding and for helping to keep my inbox clean.

-Erica

(Note: This was different than the autoresponder I had previously…you may notice a few comments on this post referring to my old one.)

This cleared up those issues, and that’s what I plan to stick with in the future.

How Much Time Did It Save/How Much Did It Cost?

Susan spends about an hour a week on my email, so that’s a bit over $60/month in direct costs to me.

I use RescueTime to show me exactly how much time I spent on email then and now. RescueTime measures how much time you spend on each website and in each application on the computer you’re running it on, and is now my “gold standard” to see where I’m wasting time. If you want to know where all that time goes when you’re on the computer, RescueTime is your solution.

I went from spending 1-2 hours a day on email to 3-5 hours a week. That’s a savings of approximately 5 hours a week. At my consulting rate of $500/hour, that’s a $10,000/month savings.

Of course, not every hour I saved could be billed out at $500. But even if every hour I save is worth $50 (and I think that’s a fair assumption), I saved $1,000/month.

In other words, unchaining myself from email massively benefited me in terms of both having more time and having a better emotional state (which is, frankly, priceless.) I don’t hate waking up and getting on the computer any more. That’s huge.

Apply This to Your Business

As business owners, there are a lot of little things we do that are total time-sinks. I don’t even think we’re aware of them.

If you claim you don’t have time to do something, it’s time for you to get better delegation skills. If outsourcing your email scares the bejeezus out of you (like it did me until I reached my breaking point), that’s reason enough to try it. You may be pleasantly surprised with the extra time you receive back in return for having the courage to make a tough choice.

Recommended Reading:

• RescueTime. Sign up for a free account and start seeing where you’re wasting your time. I am a huge fan.
• How to Hire an Employee. My complete step-by-step guide to hiring an amazing employee.
• How to Make Money on the Internet. There are three things you need in order to make money on the Internet…

In 2009, after living in the Bay Area for nearly 10 years, I decided I wanted a change of pace. San Diego called my name, and I’ve been here since. But now I’m ready to move on…and I’m sad to say the reason why.

You see, I love it here in San Diego. The weather is amazing, the beaches are beautiful, and the people are friendly and generally entrepreneurial. It’s a refreshing change from the Bay Area, where everyone seemed like they were always “too busy” to hang out. Here, life is more laid-back, and I’ve grown to appreciate it.

But one thing I’ve struggled with about California for years is the government. (Yes, I’m going to break my own unspoken rule and wax political on my blog.) The government is notoriously business-unfriendly–with everything from high taxes on business earnings to badgering businesses into more work.)

Examples of the Crap California’s Government has Put Me Through

Okay, you want examples. Here are a few things I’ve had to deal with:

1. The State of California arbitrarily decided that all businesses that gross over $100,000/year should have an account where you have to report quarterly on the sales tax your customers pay you for goods sold. The only problem? My company only sold services–not products–which aren’t taxed in California. When I closed the account (by going into a local office and spending nearly an hour explaining my situation), they forced it open again and sent me a nastygram explaining that I would owe fines for not filing the quarterly report. You have to file it 4 times a year, and it takes time to fill out, even if you haven’t sold any products and owe the state nothing.
2. The state charges an income tax of 10% on all income over $47,055. This is in addition to the Federal income tax of 25% on income over $34,001. This is also in addition to an 8.25-9.25% sales tax (depending on where you buy products.) I paid enough in income tax for 2010 to the state of California alone to hire another new worker for my business. I’d bet a lot of money that I’m far more efficient at creating jobs as a small business owner than the state is given the same amount of money. I’d rather have that money to hire someone.
3. And a really dumb law for small business owners, which Meg Whitman promised to repeal: An annual fee of $800 just to have a corporation in the state of California. (Most states don’t charge you, or only charge you a few dollars, as an annual fee to set up a business. California’s is exorbitant, and it applies as long as you, the primary officer of the corporation, live in California…no matter where you incorporate.)

The Final Straw

But the final straw came recently. I had an inkling that if California voters elected Jerry Brown that I’d end up leaving the state. I campaigned hard for Meg Whitman, as she is extremely supportive of small businesses like mine. Alas, she didn’t win, and California elected a governor for another term who was a ridiculously weak governor in his first term.

And he managed to royally screw things up for small businesses again. Here’s what happened: I have a side income selling products on Amazon. Recently, I’ve invested far more time and money in building niche sites to help bolster my Amazon side income. It’s steadily gone up, from a few hundred dollars a year to what will amount to a few thousand dollars this year. Sure, it’s not a ton of money, but I get the payments in Amazon credit and use them to buy many everyday items.

And then Jerry Brown, our idiot governor, signed a budget that included what many have come to call an “Amazon tax”. Basically, the law says that if Amazon has affiliates (people like me who drive traffic to Amazon in exchange for a cut of sales made from people who click through our links), that Amazon has a “presence” in the state of California–and therefore must collect sales tax here. (Kind of like forcing small businesses to file ridiculous quarterly paperwork based solely on our earnings, not on whether we actually sell taxable goods…)

Amazon made the right decision: Instead of kowtowing to California, they immediately cut off all affiliates here in the state.

And that day, I decided to move. It was a “straw that broke the camel’s back” sort of thing.

Jerry Brown Makes an Idiot Move

Here’s the deal: Amazon sends me a 1099 every year. For those of you not in the United States, it means they send the state government, the Federal government, and me a “receipt” every year showing how much I’ve earned in affiliate commissions. I am then required to pay income tax on that money. And I was dutifully paying income tax on all money earned from Amazon for years.

The state of California just cost itself a bunch of money with that deal. Now, not only do they make less money from affiliates like me who paid income tax on income received from Amazon, but they don’t make any more money from Amazon, because Amazon still doesn’t have to pay sales tax to California.

This is, in effect, one of the dumbest laws ever passed. And it’s pretty much par for the course for someone like Jerry Brown.

I could get around the law by setting up a corporation in some other state and then setting up my Amazon payments to go through that corporation. But then I’d still have to go through the hassle of registering that corporation in California and paying the $800 annual fee (because I live here.) And, of course, I’d still have to pay all those bloody state income taxes. Why bother–when I can just move somewhere else and use that money to help my business and create jobs instead?

But Where to Move…?

The obvious states to move to were states with no state income tax, so that I can move there and immediately create a new job in that state instead of just paying state income tax with that money. The states with no personal income tax are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.

In addition, it would be nice to not pay business income tax, either. From the list above, only Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming have no corporate income tax. (See the full list of states with no income tax on Wikipedia.)

Of those four states, Texas is by far the most palatable. I already spend a few weeks a year in Austin thanks to various speaking gigs. In fact, Austin and Las Vegas are the two cities I travel to most. I didn’t want to live in Las Vegas…so Austin it is.

Brian and I are moving to Austin before the end of the year. At this point, I’m not sure exactly when we’ll move, but it will be in November at the latest. And to California, I say: Love your weather–but good riddance!

About the Weather…

The beauty of running an Internet business is that we can truly live anywhere. Yes, Austin gets hot in the summer. But I don’t care, because I will have the income flexibility (thanks to both lower taxes and a lower cost of living) to spend a few months out of the year anywhere I like, as long as it has Internet access. That means I definitely see more long-term, international travel in my future–something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Austin will be a great “home base”, and with its thriving tech and Internet marketing communities, I feel confident we will pick up some great Whoosh Traffic customers there too.

California just isn’t worth it. My priorities have changed. I value income freedom and flexibility more than I value living near the beach. I value having a paid-off house I can call “home” more than I value having a half-million-dollar noose around my neck that declines in value by the day.

Republican vs. Democrat

And lest you think I’m “Republican”, let’s set the record straight on that, too: I believe in small government, dramatically lower spending, and the right for everyone to smoke marijuana and marry whomever they want (as long as both people are consenting adults.) I refused to vote Republican or Democrat in the last presidential election because both candidates believed we should spend our way out of a spending problem. And I abhor the Republicans’ current stance of cutting spending on everything but the military. I love Ron Paul as a politician, but I don’t understand how someone so obviously brilliant doesn’t believe in evolution, and it’s for that reason that I don’t want to see him run as President. If forced to define myself, I tell people I’m a Libertarian.

There, I should have pretty much pissed everyone off with that last paragraph. Now wage your wars in the comments. I’ll go run my business, create jobs, and continue to advocate for less government, fewer laws, and the freedom for us all to create more small businesses…from my new home in Austin, Texas!

What’s Wrong With Us?

The young people’s discontent starts off early. Their parents and grandparents push this mantra: “Go to college, get a stable job, and then be happy.”

But they don’t see it the same way. The younger generation, by and large, doesn’t want to work for big companies. They want to travel, make their own way in life, etc. They’ve watched the Baby Boomers splurge relentlessly on consumer goods and bigger houses, and realized that it doesn’t make the boomers any happier.

Oh, sure, the kids are trend-aware and brand-conscious–perhaps the most brand-conscious of any generation we’ve seen. But they would rather have one $200 pair of jeans that they love and wear every day than 10 pairs of $20 jeans that don’t fit and look bad. That’s one of the differences between the younger generation and Baby Boomers.

Warning: Generation Y Is “Opting Out”

Brand-conscious though they may be, many of Generation Y are starting to “opt out” of the traditional life their parents envisioned for them. Embracing minimalism, they keep all their things in one backpack and go “couchsurfing”.

Many of Generation Y/Z have gone to college and have college degrees. They have also usually had one of those “stable jobs” that their parents so raved about–working for some big company or government organization where they were a meaningless cog in the wheel. And they gave it up after a short time.

The younger generation has embraced cell phones and laptops as two of their most prized possessions. Their goal? To make enough money to live on while they explore their dreams.

The problem, then, is the giant gulf between what these kids want and what employers have to offer.

What Generation Y Values

The employees of Generation Y and Z value freedom and mobility, and want to have a job that is meaningful. They are willing to work for very little–if that job is for a company whose goals and values they believe in, and their job will make a significant impact on that company.

The employers (Baby Boomers and Generation X), who themselves value stability and security, want to put Generation Y and Z into cubicles and have them do rote work.

And then we wonder why Generation Y and Z are dropping out of the workforce, and choosing to live on a couch for a year or work at a coffee shop instead of doing what we (employers) want them to do.

Both sides need to have a realistic sit-down and come to grips with this reality. If we don’t, we’re going to be faced with an entire generation that abhors “work”, and we employers will have to rely on an ever-shrinking (and more expensive!) pool of older workers.

What Can Both Employers and Employees Do?

As employers, here is what we need to do:

• Figure out how to satisfy the largely mobile workforce that is Generation Y.
• Rewrite our job descriptions to show that we care, that we as a company have a mission to change the world in some way, and that we value employees’ freedom.
• Strongly showcase our mission on our websites and in corporate branding.

And as employees, here’s what Generation Y/Z need to do:

• Wake up and realize that a job at Starbucks is working for a large corporation, and that you might be far better off going out on your own, starting a startup, or working for a smaller company.
• For graduates: Don’t shun your field entirely. Find a job that helps you utilize your degree, or start your own business in your field.
• For Computer Science graduates specifically: Programming is fun! Find a company that values your contribution, and don’t write the whole computer industry off because you had a bad experience working for a huge company or government organization.

The Struggle Between Making a Difference and Making Money

I was born in 1981, and I straddle Generation X and Generation Y. I find I fit in more with the Generation Y way of doing things. I grew up in a large house with parents who weren’t always happy, and I have far less of an attachment to material things than my parents do. I would definitely rather have less stuff and love every item I own.

I’m content starting my own business, but also feel strongly that Generation Y needs to accept that revenue is directly correlated with the value that you give to the world. If you are a “life coach” with no clients who lets your spouse, parents, or other people pay your bills, are you really helping the world in any meaningful way?

If you refuse to get a job because you want to do something more amazing with your life, but then you move back in with your parents, are you really making a contribution to the world? The answer, in my mind, is a firm no.

Changing the world and making a profit don’t have to be at odds with each other. In fact, some of the people changing the world in the biggest way now are the ones who made huge profits and then used those profits to make a massive impact. (Look at the Gates foundation, and Warren Buffett.) Personally, I would rather become a billionaire and start a foundation that helps millions than become a life coach, struggle to find 2 clients, and barely be able to feed myself. I wish more people had this perspective on life. Sadly, many of us just don’t think big enough…

What Changes Can We Make?

Ultimately, I believe it is up to those of us who hire younger people to sculpt our job opportunities to their wishes–to allow more part-time employment; to open up our job positions and allow people to work from anywhere; and to make it clear that we are on a mission to improve the world in a significant way.

But it’s also up to younger people: to not give up on an entire industry because the big company they worked for previously was clueless; to be more open-minded about the types of jobs they accept; and to understand that it’s perfectly acceptable to make a huge profit and change the world–that, in fact, making a huge profit may enable them to change the world in even more significant ways.

We have the opportunity to close this gulf now and get some younger people back into the workforce and helping us to change the world. We just have to sculpt our message to clearly resonate with them. Let’s take a page out of our own marketing playbook and apply it to engaging Generation Y and Z.

Recommended Reading:

• This Simple Saying May Kill Your Next Business Idea. Most products aren’t anything completely new or unique–they’re just a different take on a product that is already out there.
• Are You Ready? One of the most powerful posts I’ve ever written–that you probably haven’t read.
• Are You Making This Common Mistake–That Could Ruin Your Business? I pinpoint one mistake I’ve seen over and over and share a true story of how it nearly killed a business.

Before I tell you what it is, let me share with you a typical day in my life as of right now. I want to show you exactly what the hell is that I’m going through.

Let’s start with the good stuff. Whoosh Traffic is doing amazingly well. I’ve created a business that is earning well into 6 figures a year in just 8 months, which is extraordinary. I couldn’t have done that without my team (which now includes 8 full-time staff members, and my super-cool co-founder Parnell) and my amazing community and customers (yes, that’s you!) So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

And rest assured–Whoosh Traffic isn’t going anywhere. In fact, we’re growing quickly (and we’re hiring a Python programmer, so if you know anyone with relevant experience, have that person email jobs@whooshtraffic.com with his/her resume, and Parnell will get back to him/her.)

Neither is this blog going anywhere. But you may have noticed that I haven’t written in a while. That’s because of my aforementioned nemesis. It’s choking my available free time, my creativity, and my energy. I have had enough.

My Typical Day

My typical day goes like this: I wake up around 8:30AM or perhaps 9:15AM if it was a late night. (I usually get 8-9 hours of sleep a night, and I don’t use an alarm clock.) Then I check my email. The next few hours are absorbed with trying to get my inbox to zero, which I am pretty much never successful at. I also may have client consultations–as I do a 1-on-1 30-minute search engine optimization strategy call with every customer who signs on to Whoosh Traffic.

Late morning is also where I try to schedule interviews. I’ve been on several podcasts lately, including Shift Your Consciousness and Tech Zing Live.

Sometime in there, I eat breakfast and take a shower. It’s usually lunch time by then. In the afternoon, I focus on creative work. This is where I often work on Whoosh Traffic. Occasionally, I have doctors’ appointments and other miscellaneous tasks in here, though Marilyn, our housekeeper, takes care of most of our routine tasks.

About once a week, in the afternoon, Parnell comes over and we have a team meeting, where we sit down at the dining room table and hammer out what we want to work on at Whoosh Traffic.

Then, in the evening, it’s back to email. Sometimes I will work on it for 3+ hours at night. Unfortunately, email is like an annoying pest that never goes away (and that’s not to be offensive to anyone who has ever emailed me–it’s an aggregate feeling.) I have an aggressive filtering system set up in Google Apps, so I never get email list emails, product shipping notices, or anything delivered to my inbox that isn’t pretty personal. And I get upwards of 40+ emails a day that need to be replied to. Most of them can’t be replied to with a sentence, either. I have to spend time thinking about it.

Email is a weed that has taken over my life. It is a cancer that kills my creativity, eats my free time, and demands my attention. And through all that, I never feel “complete” about it. Inbox zero only lasts for a few hours at most–until someone else emails me with a question and I feel obligated to reply.

Although it’s popular to declare “email bankruptcy” and simply archive all the emails in your inbox and start over, that is not the problem I have. The problem I have is that email does not stop. It is like a sewage line being pumped directly into my house that I have to wade through every morning.

And I have had enough.

So, for the next 30 days, I’m not going to check my email. And I’m going to take additional steps so that–hopefully–I will never have to check email again.

I’m that fed up with email. And while I totally understand that you may not really “get” the situation I am in, I at least ask you to understand that email is crushing me like a giant weight. I wake up every morning and think “Ugh, email.” I feel overwhelmed every time I look at my inbox. I get chronically depressed because my inbox is never zero, there is always more email to respond to, and I don’t ever feel like I’m doing a good enough job at responding to emails. (Some of you can attest to my complete lack of followup; I have emails that I haven’t responded to in weeks or months, and I know you’ve followed up. It’s not you, it’s me.)

Email makes me feel like a compete failure, every day of my life.

While my previous thought pattern tells me email was required, I’ve now gotten so tired of it that I don’t care if it costs me money, lost opportunities, or anything else.

The Steps I’m Taking

Here are the steps I am taking immediately:

1. I am setting up an autoresponder for erica@erica.biz that explains this and links to this blog post. Officially, this email break will be through July 5. Unofficially, I don’t ever want to have to deal with email again. I will reassess this 30-day trial in early July (most likely publicly, here on erica.biz!)
2. I will be using our support desk to reply to both Whoosh Traffic pre-sales and support emails. And I will also be training my assistant, Susan, to reply to many of these emails, so I can detach from that loop of endless replies as well (though fortunately, our Whoosh Traffic customers pretty much rock and the volume on the support desk email is pretty low.)
3. I will set up a private email address that only three people know: Parnell, Brian, and Susan. They can “triage” there–if something comes through the support desk that they can’t handle, or if they have a business issue for me that isn’t urgent, they can email me there. All three of them are cool about only emailing me when they really need something, so that volume should be low as well.
4. I will engage Brian, our designer, to implement live chat clearly on Whoosh Traffic’s website as a way for potential customers to contact us for pre-sales questions. It’s far easier to answer questions in live chat than it is in an endless stream of back-and-forth emails.
5. I will continue to be available via Twitter and Facebook, and I will check each of those at least daily (although if you spam me there, expect that I will block you.)

What Do I Expect to Accomplish?

I expect that getting rid of email will free up 2-3 hours a day of my time, or at least 20 hours a week (since I often work on email on weekends as well.) My goal with dumping email is that I will have more time to work on this blog, as well as Whoosh Traffic.

I feel strongly that I can provide much better value to this world by writing blog posts than I can when I’m caught up in an endless stream of email replies. And I’ll be able to better serve Whoosh Traffic customers when their emails don’t get caught up with a bunch of other stuff in my inbox.

So–this is it–I’m done with email. And if you’ve ever emailed me, don’t feel guilty! (Especially if you’ve shared a success story–those are the emails I enjoy most.) I’m taking the steps now that I should have taken a long time ago. By doing this, I will be able serve you better–I will be writing more here and less in my email client.

If you can pull one lesson from this post, it’s this: Nothing is required in this life. If something is causing you emotional agony but making you money, it’s not worth it. Forego both and clear the space in your life, then focus your energy on finding something awesome to fill that space.

I’m making a radical change in my life to create the space I need to serve you better. Yep, it’s not what other people do, but fuck what other people do. I’m doing what I need to do to make this world a better place. And I know in my heart that this is the right thing to do.

I’m back, world. Spread the word…I’m ready to start blogging again. And I do believe erica.biz–and my life–will be better than ever because I had the courage to admit that I was failing and make this change.

Special thanks to Pamela Slim for helping me figure out what’s most important.

Recommended Reading:

• Shift Your Consciousness podcast interviewed me. Check it out!
• Tech Zing Live interviewed me. This is actually almost completely different content from my Shift Your Consciousness interview, so definitely grab this one too, especially if you’re interested in hearing about my childhood.
• How Do All Those “Idiots” Make So Much Money? Does it drive you nuts that some idiot with a terrible product seems to be constantly making sales, when you know your product is better? Read this post…

How to hire an employee.

With this post, I’ll take hiring an employee step-by-step and show you exactly how I hired someone to help me out at home.

The situation: Brian, my current boyfriend, moved in with me about 7 weeks ago. He’s a freelance graphic designer who builds custom WordPress websites. He works part-time on Whoosh Traffic and takes other client contracts part-time.

He also loves to cook, and we now eat most meals at home. Neither of us enjoy cleaning, and between our businesses, we barely have time to work on the house. If you’ve been reading erica.biz for a while, you know I’m a big fan of hiring out for housekeeping, yard maintenance, etc. We already have a gardener (it’s included in the rent for our house), but we needed someone to clean the house.

I hired a housekeeper when I moved to my current house in December, and she was great. Unfortunately, sometime in February, she flaked out on me (and on one of my friends) completely. It was time to find someone new.

Most housekeepers come every couple weeks and work for 4-5 hours at a time. That may work fine for others, but it wasn’t a perfect fit for our needs. With both of us working from home, and four animals in the house (a dog and three cats), we needed cleaning more often.

First, Envision What You Want…

The first key to grasp is that you don’t necessarily have to conform to what’s out there. Especially in times where the economy is not booming, you can post what you’re looking for and get it, instead of just calling a housekeeping service and hoping for the best.

I started by envisioning what would be my perfect fit in terms of a housekeeper. First, I wanted someone who would do laundry. I don’t mind doing laundry, but I find it’s one of those things I keep forgetting about until I suddenly have no clean clothes and have to do several loads in a day to catch up. I don’t want to live that way, so I noted that my housekeeper should handle that.

I also wanted someone who could work on some organizing in the house. I like my house clean, but I’m not particularly good at cleaning it. Like laundry, I tend to let it go until I can’t ignore it any more, then spend 2-3 hours in a frenzy cleaning everything. With the amount of time we spend in this house, plus the animals, an every-other-week arrangement would have had me (or Brian) doing a cleaning frenzy every 3-4 days. It’s not a workable situation.

Realizing these two things enabled me to figure out that I wanted someone at least a few times a week.

Then, Post An Ad…

The next thing I did was to post an ad on craigslist. This is different than what I’ve done in the past. In the past, I’ve asked for referrals from my friends on Facebook and Twitter. In my experience, asking on social networks may be a good fit if you need a high-end programmer, designer, or other techie, but it’s not a good fit for a housekeeper need. People do send me referrals, but I often only get 1 or 2 leads, and then I have to follow up. I want plenty of leads, so that isn’t the right fit.

So craigslist it was. I headed toward the “gigs” section, where you can post odds-and-ends type of jobs at no charge. I posted in the “domestic” category, and this is what I wrote:

Looking for house cleaner/organizer 3x a week near SDSU (Near San Diego State)

I’m looking for a housekeeper/organizer 2 hours a day, 3 times a week, in the afternoon. I live with my boyfriend, and we are both busy entrepreneurs, so we are looking for someone to help out around the house every day.

I live very close to San Diego State and ideally, you’ll live close too (so the commute is easy.) You are:
* Detail-oriented
*Organized
*Extremely responsible
*Looking for a part-time gig (This is 6 hours a week [2 hours a day 3x a week] afternoon/early evening vastly preferred)
*Willing to clean, do laundry and various household chores (no lawn work needed–all indoor work–cleaning dishes, vacuuming etc.) Also taking items to the post office, organizing, etc.
*On time every day…no excuses
*Good at setting up a schedule and communicating with me when you need time off

Perfect gig for a close-by stay-at-home mom or perhaps a responsible college student.

I’m happy to pay $400-$500/month for the right person. Pay is 1099, based on how many days you work. I can pay weekly by check. The 3x a week/2 hours each time part is non-negotiable, which is why I recommend you live close to SDSU/my house.

Send me your resume, 3 references, your phone number, and your email address to be considered.

Follow Up with Serious Candidates

I received 21 responses back in the next 2 days. From those 21, I filtered it down to 4 people. First, I looked for anyone who had followed the directions in my post. (Some people just sent me their phone number with “CALL ME”…uh, no!)

Most people who had responded sent me resumes. I looked for someone who wrote decent English (it didn’t need to be perfect, but it did need to be readable), and who lived close by (or who explained that they came to San Diego State on a daily basis).

To the final four people, I sent the following email:

Hi [their first name],

I had a lot of responses to my craigslist post, and I had to pick my
top 4 people. Congratulations–you are one of them!

I’d love to have you come over and work for a couple hours. Consider
this a “paid interview”–I will happily pay you as long as you show up
and get the work done. I’m sending this to 4 people, so from those
paid interviews, I’ll pick whoever seems like he/she will work out the
best.

I can do this afternoon (Friday), Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Let
me know which of these days you are available. I’ll then send you my
address and confirm date/time. I’ll definitely hire someone by the end
of next week.

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing back from you!

-Erica

Interestingly, all four of the people picked different days, so that made it easy. I paid each of them $35 cash for the two-hour job “interview”–a reasonable rate for my local area. (The rates people want in your area may be larger or smaller…this is where it pays to check with other employers in your local area to see what they are paying for similar services.)

Finally, Pick the Right Person

All four showed up on time (or early!) and did a great job. I think the reason they showed up on time was at least partly due to the psychology of my letter. They knew this was an interview and that three other people were competing for the job. They knew I had a lot of applicants. And there aren’t a lot of jobs out there like this, where they can work flexible hours and get paid.

From those four, it was pretty straightforward. I talked a bit to each of the four when they were out here. Honestly, any of them would have done a great job, but Brian and both gravitated toward one in particular. We plan to award her the job, so by the time you read this, we will have 6 hours a week of our lives back!

I couldn’t be happier with how this turned out, and I don’t feel like I’m chained to someone who is not a good fit. That’s the beauty of the interviewing process vs. getting recommendations–you can pick who really works for you. By the way, had I tried to hire based solely on the emails I sent back and forth with each interviewee, I would have not have picked the woman we hired. That’s why it’s great to do the paid interviews…you can see how each person who wants to work for you really fits in.

Once You’ve Hired

Great–so you’ve found the right person! Don’t forget to have the person you hire sign an employment contract. You can find templates online easily. If you are in the United States, get proof that they are eligible to work here. You can do this by following the instructions at IRS Form I-9. Also have them fill out a 1099 form, so you can send them a 1099 at the end of the year–since you will probably be paying them more than $600/year. Check with your accountant or bookkeeper to see if you can write this off as a business expense–you may be able to.

No Excuses! (Your Questions and Answers)

I always get questions when I post a blog about how to hire an employee. Here are some of the most common questions I get, and my answers:

Question: Aren’t you worried about strangers in your home–that they will steal your stuff?
Answer: No, not particularly. I tend to judge a person by the energy he or she brings to the place. I find that most people are genuinely nice. Besides, I don’t think most people, especially in a down economy, are interested in stealing. They’d really rather have the job.

If you’re really concerned about this, there are organizations out there that will do a background check for you before you hire someone.

By the way, if you plan to hire people, change your door lock to something like this: Schlage keypad. This is the front door lock I have and it’s great. Even if you’ve never installed a new door lock before, it’s pretty easy. Having never installed a front door lock, I followed the instructions and had it up and running in about 20 minutes. You can give yourself one key combination and your housekeeper, babysitter, etc. others–and then delete those key combinations when you no longer employ them. This is far, far better than duplicating keys and it’s well worth the money. Plus you never have to use a key to open your house again. Worth every penny.

Question: Is this really worth it? It doesn’t take me that long to clean my house.
Answer: The answer to this is pretty straightforward. Do you have plenty of time to work on your business, and do you enjoy cleaning your house? If so, then by all means keep on doing it.

If you don’t have time to work on your business, though, you need to seriously consider this, especially if you’ve already cut out most of your TV-watching. If you hate coming home to a dirty house, then do something like this and come home to a clean house most days. I find my mood vastly improves–and I do better, more focused work–when my house is clean. If you find yourself nodding in agreement to this, then hire someone. It’s worth it.

The Biggest Question and Answer

Question: I don’t make that much money. Should I still consider this?
Answer: If you feel you can “arbitrage” those hours into making more money, then yes, do it. I don’t recommend going into debt for this, but I do recommend it if you’re making a bit of money with your business.

Let me be clear on one thing: Look at this as an investment. It’s an investment in yourself and in your business. This is not “spending money” or “wasting money.” This is freeing up your time, which should be more valuable when spent on your business. And it’s enabling you to bring far bigger value to the world. If hiring someone else enables you to serve the world in a bigger, better way, then hire someone else!

This is also a huge investment in your community. It’s arguably one of the best services you can provide to your community–giving someone else in need of money some work. I know in America in particular we tend to want to do everything ourselves, and we take a large amount of pride in doing so. But we also tend to work ourselves into the ground, get less sleep than we need, and get sick more often than people in other cultures.

In other cultures (particularly in African cultures), it’s considered rude to not hire others in your community when you have the money. Take that perspective and stop feeling guilty. You are giving a deserving neighbor/community member some work while allowing yourself the time you need to contribute more value to the world. Realize that your guilt is manufactured due to the culture that we live in, and embrace employing others in your community.

No more excuses. Remember all those politicians who wring their hands about “job creation”? Small business growth is what drives job creation. Let’s go out there and create some jobs–and keep climbing the ladder of bigger and bigger value creation!

Recommended Reading:

• Five Steps to Freedom: How to Outsource Your Repetitive Tasks. An earlier post on how I hired a personal chef. (I don’t have a personal chef any more, but this was super fun!)
• Finding the Path Toward Your Perfect Day. If you’ve never done the “perfect day” exercise, read this post. This could be a life changer for you.
• You Are Worth More Than You Think: Overcoming The Key Reason Entrepreneurs Fail.If you have ever said, “I just don’t have enough time to do [an activity I love]“, read this post.
• Schlage keypad. Get this when you decide to hire someone. Perfect for babysitters, too. I can’t recommend this highly enough (and Amazon has the best price I’ve seen.)