Busy Times; Screw the Economy

We have been working hard getting everything switched over to our new location at www.asuccessexperiment.com  We ran into a few little snags, but for the most part it was a pretty smooth move.

I have some tweaks to make to the site, and hope to get everything in order this week. We have a few pages not complete as well, and I will try to get those done this week too.

Though my business has been very slow these past few weeks I have been insanely busy.  I finished up the main design of hedmandrilling.com and they are excited about their new, fancy, functional website.  I am still waiting on additional text and photos from them in order to finish everything up.  I am very happy with how it turned out.

Sean and I stopped in at the cafe that my artwork will be featured at in July, to get a feel for the amount of space we have to work with.  I am excited at the prospect of selling a few art pieces and opening myself to getting more work painting. I have done a few custom, commissioned pieces and really enjoy doing one painting for one person and knowing it is exactly what they were wanting.  Plus it saves me the space that all my art is taking in my office.

Sean starts his new schedule this week, it will be great to have him home three days a week.  I am still confident that we can grow our businesses to a level that he can begin to work full time at them as well.  I would love for this to happen this year, and screw the economy it can still be done!

I have found myself falling into the “boo hoo the economy sucks” club and I need to stop.  Yeah, so what things are slow, it is not permanent and it is not an end all to my business.  I have learned that it is important not to have all your eggs in one basket, cliche or not it is true. Too much of my business revolved around real estate agents, and with the real estate market slowed down my business has slowed down too. If I would have had my hands in more areas of business I would not be in this situation, and would probably have more steady clients right now.

I just don’t want to get wrapped up in the hoopla of the economy, and I want to keep moving forward strong.  So today I say, “screw the economy.”

Business Idea Resources

Where do you get your business ideas?

My ideas come to me in those moments before I fall asleep; and when the ideas are really pumping those moments can turn into hours. As I lay there my mind maps one idea to another, weaving my empire in the moonlight. Several times I have got up and shuffled into my office, as Sean sleeps away, to jot down what could end up being “the idea.”

I have heard that after 20 seconds an idea can be gone forever; there have been a few that I just could not let go, for fear in the morning I would remember there was a brilliant idea born the night before, but all details were stripped away.

Another great way to generate new ideas is brainstorming with others. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen suggest developing a mastermind group for this reason. Just spending time with inspiring, successful people can really get new ideas sprouting. I love being around people that can motivate me and get me jazzed about new ideas. I am still looking for my mastermind group, at the moment most of the people I know are hit and miss on being uplifting and inspiring. Do you have a mastermind group?

Entrepreneur.com has a business idea center chalked full of possible business ventures including:

• Part-time picks
• Low Cost start ups
• Homebased ideas
• Online Startups
• Unusual Ideas

There is also a Startup Toolkit; so that once you’ve found the right idea for you, these guides can help you get started.

• Don’t be Afraid to Charge What You’re Worth
• Gather Your Courage and Launch Your Dream
• Know How Your VC Gets Paid
• Sell Value, Not Price
• When Recession Equals Opportunity

… a listing of one hundred and five business ideas thought of by middle and high school students. Hopefully this listing will illustrate the principle that business ideas are a dime a dozen and it is always the execution that counts. I encourage you to read “It’s not the Idea, It’s the Execution” after finishing this article as well as “How to Evaluate Business Ideas and Opportunities.”