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10 Easy Ways to Turn Off Your Job

Roman — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:54:51 +0000

I found this post in my drafts more than a year ago when I lived the corporate life and decided to post it. Life was very different back then:

Back then

Dress: suit and tie everyday

Waking up: 6:30am

Conversations: bitching about the job, sales budgets, production errors and nasty clients

Now

Dress: sneakers all the time

Waking up: 8:30am-10:00am depending on how later I working the night before

Conversations: strategy, motivating people, mountain biking,arts

Anyway these are my top 10 ways on how to unplug from corporate grinding machine.

It’s Monday and you are already tired. The weekend felt like it was just a time to catch up on your projects. You’ve started to get really close to your co-workers; I mean you know their entire wardrobe and what coffee they drink. Newsflash: You work too much and you are stressed! Now you have heard it all and tried to combat it: exercising, having a hobby, or even volunteering. Too hard, right?

Here are the 10 things that I use to shut down the corporate grinder, just because they are easy for me:

Buy a pair of Converse: If your job is anything like mine that means you spend too much time making sure you have an ironed shirt, fresh tie and clean pair of elegant shoes for tomorrow. You spend most of your life in these “professional clothes” and even have a change in your car for corporate events in the evening. Wearing rock star sneakers is just so anti-corporate that no matter what, wearing them will put smile on your face. Every time I wear mine I get more compliments than the number of compliments I get for my most expensive and stylish work shoes.

Buy a video console: Don’t have time to play games? Trust me, if you take just 30 minutes to completely waste on beating that next level — you will totally shut off the voices in your head. I mean the voices about sales deadlines. Treat it as a therapeutic and needed chore! Bonus: Play Guitar Hero or Rock Band while wearing the Converse you just bought. I like to play “School’s Out for Summer” and have a total rock star experience.

Visit Wonderland, Six Flags, Wisconsin Dells ,etc.: Is the inability to read your Blackberry while on the rides preventing you from visiting an amusement park? Choose one Sunday and take it actually OFF by going to the amusement park. Trust me there is nothing better than a really scary ride to make you feel like a hero and fill your body with endorphins. Last summer I tried “A Point of No Return” ride on Noah’s Arc at Wisconsin Dells — it was so scary that when I came back to work on Monday not only could I handle all the craziness of a marketing business with a smile, but I was also completely fearless (for a couple of days).

Read Fiction: I, and most of my friends, don’t read anything if the text is not displayed on iPhones or Blackberries. When it comes to reading something on real paper it is usually the most boring case study, statistics or information for the next course. I know that time is limited and the last thing you want to do at the end of the day is read something. However, try this: allocate 30 minutes, create a really cool environment to read (backyard, cozy blanket, and fresh brewed tea – something along these lines) and choose a very interesting fiction book. The change of atmosphere will help you tune out any thoughts about how hard tomorrow will be.

Watch live stand-up comedy: I always wondered why would people pay and go for the live stand-up comedy. It’s not like you going to get a better quality sound or a better view of the comedian’s face when you sit in the audience. However, I have figured out what changes is the atmosphere and the energy. You put yourself in a great mood when you watch a live comedy. Also, if the comedian is any good, you will feel the physical vibe while you are in the audience. Needless to say being in a great mood and laughing is the best treatment for your sanity at work.

Prank someone: Have a good friend? Prank him or her. Be creative and clever though. There is nothing better in this world than the misery of your closest friend. The experience will allow you to get in touch with your creative side, try yourself as an actor and you WILL laugh really hard.

Have lunch at a nearby College or University – I don’t mean it in a freaky way, but going to college will remind you about how you were a couple (or many) years ago when the reality of the corporate job hadn’t hit you. When you are surrounded by bunch of young people with bright ideas and a positive outlook on life it empowers you and it’s a nice change from being surrounded by closed minded “professionals” who “know the real life.” I actually went with my friend, who is still a student, for lunch this week and everyone thought I was a new professor. Bonus: Prank someone in college by pretending to be a professor.

Have a party at your place: Hopefully, if you work for ridiculously long hours, are appreciated by your clients more than your boss, and wake up in the middle of the night thinking about how you are going to meet the deliverables, you are at least earning enough money to get yourself a decent place. When was the last time you had party at your place? I found out that with time, crazy parties (because they are too much work afterward) become going out for dinner at a nice restaurant or going for the grand opening of a trendy, new club. Instead try having a party at your place and invite friends from back in college and high school. Don’t invite people from work – c’mon you already spend TOO much time with those guys.

Listen to the music: We usually listen to music while multi-tasking (going to the gym or driving). Did you ever try to just listen to the music? Try downloading classic music or maybe Enigma or Secret Garden or whatever fits your taste, find yourself a comfortable spot (cozy blanket, comfortable love-seat, yoga mat, etc.) and for 30 minutes just listen to the music. Free your mind, don’t think about anything, put your brain to sleep and arouse your inner senses. Bonus: Soak in a warm bathtub while listening to the music for 30 minutes before going to bed.

Organize Photos: And I don’t mean put them on a Facebook. Look through your old photos, organize them, and actually print the good ones. If you are adventurous enough try making a custom frame and put them on the wall. Diving back into the memories will totally turn your attention to your inner self and making a frame will give you a sense of ownership and pride from decorating your own place.

The bottom line is remind yourself how to have fun and let loose.

Venture Capital: Pros, Cons, Alternatives

Roman — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:00:12 +0000

This post is inspired by different conversations I have had over the past couple of weeks; I wanted to discuss my personal opinion on getting Venture Capital (VC). In short I think getting a VC, at least in the initial stage of the business is, not only unnecessary but can even be counterproductive due to the loss of focus on developing the idea and overspending. My suggestion is to spend the first 6-12 months on generating even a small revenue and proving that your idea is viable. Learn how things work, what money is spent on, and what is needed to take your love creation to the next level. It will be easier to receive VC after this period and you will actually know where the money will go.

Pros:

Cashflow: It is the bloodline of a start-up. Often having enough of it determines the business’s success. The appropriate amount of venture capital allows an entrepreneur to concentrate on the development of the idea and not worry about cashflow for a bit. It also allows a business to take bigger steps and develop product before they get copied by competitors with more funds.

Mentorship: Is another major benefit, VC’s have a vested interest in your business succeding, that is why you are often able to tap into their experience, brain, and frequently their rolodex.

Cons:

Loss of Control: I got into my own business, because I wanted the freedom of not reporting to anyone but myself. I dress, go to bed, wake up and take vacations when I want. I am able to do all of that because I don’t report to anyone. When you receive VC you automatically start reporting to your investors. Furthermore, you exchange part of your company for the investment which means that a VC can potentially sell this part to somebody else. Moreover, many times VCs see a return on their investment when company goes public. The danger here is that VC will push for IPO, before the company is ready and the company will receive a low valuation. VC will still get their return, but you won’t.

Loss of Focus: Getting VC is never an easy task and it is even harder these days due to the recession economy. Getting a VC is a time consuming process and the danger is that an entrepreneur will lose the focus from developing the idea to running around from one fund to another, or from one Angel investor to another. Some start-ups don’t even know yet what they need the money for and are already looking for some. This is especially true for someone on their first start-up and for those who lack formal experience. The first six months of a start-up is when the idea is still new and the entrepreneur has a lot of energy and motivation. If you can, spend this energy on getting your business off the ground and prove that your idea is viable. If you would like to get a VC after it will be much easier.

Overspending: When a business is bootstrapped the entrepreneur usually counts every penny, they get what they can for free, pay only for necessities and concentrate on cashflow. Sometimes when the entrepreneur receives investment – they relax.They start flying to every kind of event out there and spend more time talking about their business than actually working on it. The inevitable result is that once the company runs out of VC it is done. One of the signs of this is when the founding CEO jumps the ship.

High Cost in the Long Run: If your company does become successful and receives high valuation you might end up giving back to your VC 1000% of what they invested. If you are positive that your new start-up will succeed try getting a loan–the APR is better.

Alternatives

Savings: For G-d‘s sake don‘t quit your day job without savings for at least 3-6 months, plus enough for some initial business investment. Some people hope they are going to find VC fast or get some sort of loan. This rarely happens fast, so better plan your exit from a regular job and save appropriately.

Government programs: I am only familiar with Canadian and Israeli programs, but I would assume that any developed country would have similar programs in place. Some of these programs are easy enough to be apply to yourself; with other programs, that are more complicated, you are better off using a third party company that works on contingency basis. This is a list of the most famous programs, there probably more programs that are specific to the industry. You must keep an eye on all the announcements from the government as they change programs and budgets often.

SR&ED credit: Research credit that is applicable to most of the tech startups. A corporation can receive up to 35% of first $2 million expenditures in Canada
OIDMTC: Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit up to 40% of eligible Ontario labour expenditures and eligible marketing and distribution expenses.
SBIP: Small Business Internship Program. Government of Canada reimburses 75 percent of intern salary up to a total of $10,000 per intern.
NRC-IRAP: Provides non-repayable contributions to Canadian SMEs interested in growing by using technology to commercialize services, products and processes in Canadian and international markets.
NRC-YES: Youth Employment Strategy. Internship Program with Innovative Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Collaborative Research Internships Program provide firms with support to hire post-secondary graduates. Up to $15,000 from 6-12 months.

Loans: There are some loans that are specifically targeted to new businesses. A word of caution: don’t borrow money unless you absolutely have to and NEVER and I mean NEVER use credit cards as the source of your finances.

CYBF: Loan up to $15,000 for two to four years with CIBC prime rate plus 2% in the first year and only CIBC prime rate plus 1% in consecutive years. Plus you receive a free mentor for 2 years.
BDC: In case you got approved for CYBF loan BDC can match it for up to another $15,000 amortised over 3 to 5 years matching the CYBF amortization period

Running a media company – productivity tools we use:

Roman — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:31:48 +0000

A couple of my friends have asked how we manage time inside our company and how I personally manage my time. To be a successful web entrepreneur managing your time wisely is not an option–it is a prerequisite. You better have a good system in place for managing your remote departments, be social on- and off-line and still have time for strategic development. What I’ve learned through trying many different set-ups is whatever system you use, make sure it provides value and is easy for everyone to use. There is no point in complicated software if nobody checks it or updates it regularly.

My own system is heavily influenced by Getting Things Done and my occasional readings of Lifehacker.com.

Principles I find helpful:

You must have a trusted Inbox where you can upload everything from your mind You must commit to make this Inbox comprehensive and check it every single day I follow Inbox Zero philosophy: Move quickly without rushing

Process:

My process pretty much follows the GTD philosophy:

Every morning I start by looking at my Gmail. I am looking first at messages that were not sorted automatically through my filters. I then decide if it is trash, resource, or an actionable item and add an appropriate Gmail label to it.
I then look through the actionable items and sort them into: scheduled events – schedualed in Google Calendar, context to-do – logged in right away to RMT or full-on projects that need to be logged into Zoho Projects.
I then look at my “Waiting” label in Gmail and see if I need to follow up with anybody.
I go throught the list of open projects in Zoho and see what tasks are pending.
I then brainstorm on what else needs to be done.
After that process, which takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, the list of tasks is born and logged into Remember the Milk to be synced with my Blackberry that by now has the list of all my apointments, new contacts and urgent task.

Tools:

Microsoft Outlook :

I use it as a Desktop Calendar that gives me reminders when I am at my computer. I also use it as a backup to all of the emails in Gmail.

Google Sync:

I have Sync installed on my desktop, laptop, and Blackberry. This allows me to wirelessly sync all my appointments and contacts between all the devices, so if I put something in my Blackberry it will show up on my Google Calendar and on desktop in my Outlook. For a person that works from any location this service is invaluable. My only pet peeve with it is that it will only sync to your primary calendar.

Google Calendar:

I use this for many reasons: 1) A hub between desktop and Blackberry 2)Ability to quickly share my events with employees and family 3) Ability to see my schedule from anywhere with internet access

Google Docs:

There is a great reason to use Google Docs – portability. There are thousands of ways to sync your documents, but I’ve found that Docs are the easiest way to have your documents wherever you are. With Docs being constantly improved I rarely use Office these days at all. Another reason to use Docs is collobaration. When working with more than 1 person on the same Doc this feature becomes a life saver as you don’t email document back and forth.

Gmail:

For me this is the best email management tools. Portability, labels and filters make it the best tool for me. If for some reason you are new to Gmail read how to become a Gmail Ninja and use filters and labels effectively.

Remember the Milk:

Simply the best task management tool I have ever used. It is very easy to capture and organize your tasks with this tool. You can access your task from anywhere with internet access and my favorite feature is it syncs with my Blackberry. I use it as a gadget to see my Gmail window. Too bad there is no official product that syncs RTM with Outlook.

Blackberry Bold:

After many trials I still prefer Blackberry over Iphone ( I didn’t check the 3GS version yet). I can write a long post on why I still prefer Blackberry, but I won’t. In summary–it is fast and has a keyboard. Due to the awesome aforementioned sync tools my Blackberry contains all of my appointments, tasks, emails and I don’t have to even plug in any cables. Applications I use: Google Maps, TwitterBerry, WeatherEye, Gmail, Gtalk, Fleshlight, FlyCast and of course Facebook

Zoho Projects:

This is where the management of the company happens. While Zoho projects are not the most sophisticated project management system, it is easy to use, economical, and people actually use it. Not only do we schedule all the milestones, deliverables, and documents related to a project, but we also use the forums for communication. That way we eliminate missed emails, and all the communication related to the project is within reach

Pros and Cons
Things I love about my set-up is comprehensivness and portability. The most annoying thing about my set-up is that it has three Inboxes: Gmail, Zoho and RTM. Hence the reason I keep on hoping that RTM, Zoho and Google will include task synching in their products.

I might write a follow up to this post on how I plan and schedule projects in Zoho Projects.

Wired Wednesdays TO : Regan Fletcher

Roman — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:30:17 +0000

Wired Wednesdays TO

Last month was the first time I visited Wired Wednesdays Toronto (@wiredwedto). The key presentation was by Regan Fletcherfrom Yoono and consisted of three very interesting demos. It was a great event to visit both for networking and for motivational lessons from people with experience. As a side note—I found that guys from BackType have the best presentation skills.

I thought the presentation by Regan Fletcher, a serial entrepreneur on his fifth startup, was rich with insights one can only get from the experience of building companies from the ground up. He obviously has a very good sense of humor along with business acumen. Here are some key points that I took with me after the event:>

Learn How to Use a Shotgun

The benefit of a shotgun is instantaneous, extreme power. Obviously Regan meant this metaphorically. What it means is that if you want to hang with the big dogs you have to act like one. One of the examples he gave is getting VC funding. When you come to the meeting with a VC don’t get scared thinking that you are just a little company and they are some big company. You have to feel that you are giving them a favor by letting invest in your amazing product. I think this is what he meant; the last phrase from the analogy was “Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.”

I pretty much agree with this thought and think that if you don’t know to use a shotgun just yet: fake it ‘til you make it. I don’t advocate misrepresenting your business, what I am suggesting is if you want your company to be something (the top creative agency for example), then start portraying that exact image from day one.

2) Know the business you are getting onto

Regan mentioned that he constantly sees people who want to make better existing ideas and “easily” make money, while not really knowing the insides of the business. Regan mentioned that he usually never hears from those guys again.

I can say that when I started running Toronto4couples I had been reading blogs for awhile and knew how to run a successful newspaper. That’s why I thought that I was ready to take on a brand new web project, but the reality is…I wasn’t. I wish a year ago I was where I am right now in terms of my experience, my team—I ran into many pitfalls that completely screwed up my business plan. At the same time I wouldn’t be able to learn about all of those details if I hadn’t been running this business for the past year. Therefore, it is the best to get involved with something you know the best, but when you do approach unknown opportunities expect a learning curve, pitfalls, and DO NOT expect that you will be able to easily improve what other smart people have been working on day and night.

3) Embrace A..holes

You are going to run into some—that is a fact. Sometimes they can be so big, that you can’t possibly fight them. Use them to learn how to deal with challenges and LEARN from them. I always say that I learned what not do from my bad bosses just as much as I learned from the good ones. Same goes for challenges, embrace them, if what you were doing was challenge free then everybody would do it.

4) Fight with a shotgun for the A round of financing.

Regan says two things in this one: it is pretty much guaranteed that you are going to run out of cash faster than your business plan says and that it is easier to receive round A of funding then round B. That is why if you decided to receive financing don’t settle and fight as much as you can for that first round of financing. Appropriate cash flow is a lifeline of any start-up and determines your ability to have an ample amount of time to develop the product and start making money off it.

5) When everything else fails there is always porn.

This was meant as a joking way to finish the conversation, but Regan was half serious—porn companies adopt and push the development of new technologies. So there is always a possibility of selling your technology to a company like and to move on to the next creation of passion.

I think all of these are great lessons from someone who has been there and done that. Have some lessons of your own, share them in comments!

P.S. The next Wired Wednesday is on August 12 @ London Taphouse.

Spam followers: Why aren’t you blocking them?

Roman — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:06:54 +0000

Why do we get so hung up on numbers? Do your grades in school really show how successful you will be in life? Do those extra 000s in your bank account make you a happier person? Does a larger Twitter following make you a social media expert? I would say the answer to all of these questions is “No”.

I registered for Twitter over a year ago, but didn’t use it too much. Simply because none of the people I knew were on Twitter and I didn’t find a lot of use for it. I used search.twitter.com to identify trends and such, but I didn’t tweet as much myself. With the installation of TweetDeck and TwitterBerry (now trying to use TweetCaster) I started to get involved with a Twitter a bit more.

I instantly learned what Twitter spam is: you type a certain keyword and you get bunch of followers who are either: bots, porn people or social media experts. My favourite kind is “social media experts” they usually follow like 10,000 people and 8,000 or 9,000 will follow them back.

Now comes the question—do you block those accounts which are obviously spam or do you let them follow you? I mean, you will look cool if you have more followers, right? Wrong, due to the simple fact that it is easy to see who is following you. So if you claim to be a marketing expert and have, say, 1000 followers and then your clients click on who follows you and sees names like Kelly4568 or Mandy124 what kind of expert are you? Of course, if you have hundreds of thousands of followers it is hard to monitor new adds, but the majority of people don’t fall in that category.

This reflects very poorly on your brand and also, from a practical point of view, you can’t really use your twitter account to deliver message to the masses. You think those bots care about your new blog post? The internet is just a medium, marketing principles stay the same: to be an expert in “Social” you have to actually be social. Social means developing conversations and, in a marketing context, helping people satisfy their needs.

So fellow Tweeps who don’t block those accounts, why aren’t you? Agree? Or think I am full of it? Let me know.

@romanz

P.S. Definitely not a social media expert.

P.P.S. But I have couple of good ones working for me.

SEO Video by Matt Cuts – Highlights

Roman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:58:26 +0000

This video is very good video as it search engines are always developing to combat spammer and help users to find the most relevant information. This video is more an hour long, but I watched it all and here are some highlights if you don’t have time to watch.

Highlights:

If you have fancy navigation (in flash) make sure that your page is accessible in many ways. Static htmls are the easiest for search engine to crawl
Alt text on the images is very important. This also correlates with Whiteboard Friday video @ seomoz.org
Do your keyword research in AdWords you might rank high for a certain word, but there might be a very popular search term in your industry that you are completely missing out on
Don’t use too much bolding, people can’t read it very well and crawlers might think it is a spam
Make sure your thumbnails lead to bigger pictures. Google tries to index bigger pictures as this is what users are searching for
Basic, but make sure your loading time is appropriate. Especially if you want people to access your website from cell phones
ALWAYS backup your website. Everybody gets hacked, timely back-ups will allow you to quickly restore your website.
My favourite: best $20 you can spend is by taking a random person, tying your hands behind your back and ask them to use your website
Before buying a website make sure you check its history. Some urls were owned by spammers, burned to the ground and then put up for sale

Overall great video. It is almost like going for class session on SEO.

Life Equals Risks

Roman — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:51:06 +0000

It’s been awhile since I wrote. Running a real life business is demanding both emotionally and time wise. Most of the time at the end of the day, after all the battles, I just wanna watch a movie and hit the pillow. The internet business is like anything else in life, if you want to succeed it is not going to be a bed of roses; you will have to work hard and some days you will hate what you are doing.

This time I wanted to write about the emotional part of running any business. After almost a full year of running a business I can say that no business school in the world can teach how to deal with the emotional aspect of starting up the business. Even working in a big corporation and being responsible for bunch of people won’t give an idea what is like to fight for your idea, be responsible for other people’s lives, have fun, make money, and stay sane while doing it.

I think that no matter what business you are starting it won’t go as smoothly as planned and you are likely to run into obstacles that can bring you down. In an internet business like mine where you sell ads you don’t even have a product to sell in the beginning (no page views no sales). We’ve been doing a lot of seeding work and you won’t see the fruits of our labour immediately. We’ve been screwed over by our web company that effectively prevented us for close to a year to start making any money on the website. So how do I personally and the company as a result keep going?

As “Good to Great” states we face the brutal facts and then we still have unconditional belief that with hard work we shall reach our goal no matter what. This is simple advice, but sometimes it is hard to continue believing in yourself when nobody else does, when you family/friends tell you to get a real job and you start doubting yourself. Guess what? This why running a business is not for everybody. This is what separates fighters from wanna-bes. Your ability to not let the emotion take over you, to believe in yourself and continue to push hard is what makes a winner. In anything there is a breaking point where 90% of people will give up and 10% will continue to push, people who push become extraordinary in whatever they do.

We only live once, so I think it is worth figuring out are you a fighter or not? So NEVER and I mean NEVER stop believing in yourself.

Discount Car Rental Review: Awfull experience

Roman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:46:31 +0000

I am not going to go into a long explanation about my awfull experience with Discount Car and Truck Rental. You can see the video, here is what happened:

-I booked a pick -up truck (because we have bicycles) and had a confirmed reservation for our four day trip

-two hours before the start of the trip I get a phone call saying that there no pick up truck as the one was in accident and that they appologize for the inconvenience, but they don’t have any other cars

-they told me I can call main line of customer service

-I left 4 voicemails to customer service and sent a letter, and I didn’t even receive an apology

My thoughts: that is some awfull customer service.I mean the left me on Thursday running around trying to rent a pick-up truck from other companies, of course they were almost none left and the prices I paid for one was way bigger than expected. I was just lucky I could get one. i understand that accidents happen, but they happen in every industry and for that you have a buffer. (Exta cars) if you don’t have anything, you go to your competition (like airline companies do ) and make the trip possible. IF you can’t do anything you still should do something to make it up to your customer: free rental, apologies, vice president calling you – something!

Not only these guys screwed up, but they also didn’t leave any ways of communicating with them and just showed they don’t really care about me. Well if you don’t care me I can less about you Discount Car Rental. I just hope other people don’t get into the same trap.

Hump Day Reading

Roman — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:31:56 +0000

Here is a new section on my blog where I share links that I found particular useful, amusing or just cool in a past week.

Top 10 Jobs for Class of 2009 -interesting to see if your job is in the list

Google Profiles Give You Control Over What Google Says About You – bottom line is that you get Googled all the time, you should control your personal brand. You can check out my profile at www.google.com/profiles/zelvensky

Tourism Montreal is Now Using 100% Web-Based Advertising - that is pretty significant shift from a government supported office. That is a great opportunity for people in media business like myself. Got to figure out who is taking care of their media buying. I think toronto4couples.com would be a great fit for them.

Blog Promotion Using Yahoo Buzz – seem like a nice tip, I am yet to try it myself

Ashton Kutcher on Larry King after winner the battle over 1 million followers - I think this is amazing that he rubbed it into CNN arrogant faces.