In June I finished 3 books and read about 750 pages. That brings my grand total up to 17 books on the year, and 4 away from my goal for 2019. Given that I’m going to the beach this month, I’ll likely hit that by the end of the summer (if not sooner).
Read More “Books Recap for June 2019”As I sit here writing this, I can’t believe I’ve completed 2 full years of self employment. I think another shocking revelation is I’m actually doing pretty well. This has been a strong growth year for me, and I’ve got a lot more clarity in what I’m doing, and what I need to do.
Read More “Recap: Year Two of Self Employment”As I start to plan my travel for 2019 (something I should have done in December), I’m thinking a lot about where I want to spend my time and money, and what will be the best for my bottom line. In general I try to tie real, tangible dollars to the conference I go to (in most cases). Because I’m using my own money, while education is a good metric for attending a conference, my goal is to recoup at least some of the cost. Here’s how I do that.
This year I committed to reading 18 books, and I’m well ahead of schedule at the end of January – I’ve read 3 books and about 870 pages this month. So I don’t forget what I’ve read as we move through the year, I’m going to wrap up each month with a recap of what I’ve read. Here’s January’s.
I am back from another CaboPress, and I am much more energized this time than I was last time. If you’ll remember, last year, I wrote a blog post about how CaboPress was the business conference that I needed. It turns out the timing was right again this year. I was going through a few things over the summer with my business, “Am I taking it in the right direction, and why are things so slow?” And then CaboPress happened.
Over the weekend, I gave a talk at WordCamp Minneapolis about the things I’ve learned from nearly 100 guests on my podcast, How I Built It. I covered useful tools and great advice, as well as some recurring themes. Here are the highlights.
Read More “What I Learned from Asking, “How Did You Build That?””
There are 2 absolute truths about me when it comes to books: I love reading and I don’t read enough. I try to read 18 books a year but generally end up around 12. I’m also of the opinion that I don’t read enough fiction. I focus mostly on Business books and US History. There have been a bunch of great books I’ve read in the last few years that really shaped my approach to running a business and how to grow it into something more sustainable without killing myself in the process. They’ve been so integral in the way I do things that I want help other people in the same way they helped me. That’s why I’m giving away 4 of my favorites. Enter after the jump.
Over the weekend my friend Dave asked me an interesting question regarding my business: What would you do if someone handed you a bunch of money today? The root of this question, to me, is this: what would I pay for that I currently do myself? The context of the conversation that lead up to that question follows suit. He also asked me if I’ll ever grow to hire someone, and who that would be. After talking through so solutions I came up with an an answer.
Read More “What Would You do if You got $100K for Your Business?”
I started my first business in high school, making websites for anyone who’d give me a shot. It was a great way to make money that I carried through college, grad school, and my adult life. I even did it full time a little after college, but lack of benefits and the need to learn more forced me to find a full time job. For pretty much that entire time, the stakes were different – and not very high. I didn’t have anyone except myself to support and I didn’t require too much.
That changed when I got married and had a daughter. I thought my chances at full time self-employment were dramatically lower as a result. However, today marks the anniversary of me leaving my full time job to pursue my side business full-time. I’d like to reflect on the first year.
I did some thinking over the weekend, after I wrote the post about my learning plan. I looked at my project pipeline. I looked at what people were hiring me to do, and I reviewed the next few personal projects I’m working on. You know what I saw? No coding projects. Honestly, I shouldn’t. That’s no longer my core business. I turn down freelance jobs 90% of the time. But I still want to write code. I will have to for some of the online courses I’m taking. Luckily, there’s the whole idea of a “side hustle,” and since I made my side hustle my main gig last year, my side hustle has an opening.
(and use it to your advantage instead)
Join hundreds of business owners who are building simple, powerful systems through automation.
