Posts by jsangl
SERIES: Lessons Learned While Starting A Small Business – Part 2
Welcome to the latest series on JosephSangl.com – “Lessons Learned While Starting A Small Business”. Starting a small business can be tremendously exciting and frightening at the same time. One of the most common trends that we see among small business owners is that they are very good at providing their product or service, but they are not so skilled at the “business side” of doing business. This series will focus on some of the key lessons we have learned from meeting with many small business owners as well as truths we have learned as we have built a small business.
Part Two – You have a much greater chance of success if you have a great product/service.
This seems almost too fundamental to even write, but you would be surprised at the number of people who forget this. You can do great construction work, but it is worthless if you fail to show up when you say you will. If you are selling a new computer device (one that calls your cell phone and also sends a text message when your freezer has stopped working), you will not receive repeat orders if it does not send the message when the freezer actually fails. Great products and services generate one key thing that we can not generate on our own – positive word-of-mouth press. When others tell others about their awesome experience with your product, you have a great chance at succeeding.
Here are some good questions to ask about your product/service:
- What makes our product/service better than our competitors?
- How are customers finding out about our product/service?
- How can we leverage positive customer feedback to reach more potential customers?
- What is one thing we can do right away to take our product/service to the next level?
Bottom-Line: Great products/services vastly improve the chances for business success.
SERIES: Lessons Learned While Starting A Small Business – Part 1
Welcome to the latest series on JosephSangl.com – “Lessons Learned While Starting A Small Business”. Starting a small business can be tremendously exciting and frightening at the same time. One of the most common trends that we see among small business owners is that they are very good at providing their product or service, but they are not so skilled at the “business side” of doing business. This series will focus on some of the key lessons we have learned from meeting with many small business owners as well as truths we have learned as we have built a small business.
Part One – Starting a business will cost more than you think.
If you believe that you will start a business without it costing you anything, you are living in a fairy tale. It is going to cost you money. It will cost you time. It will cost you hobbies. It can even cost you relationships. Starting a small business is not for sissies. It requires great resolve, passion, focus, money, tremendous effort, patience and time.
Money Dr. John C. Maxwell states in his book, Put Your Dream To The Test, that your dream will cost you, and it will cost you more than once. Start-up costs alone can cripple a new business from the start. Legally organizing the business costs money. Office supplies and equipment cost money. Office space costs money. If you are not willing to put your own money into the business, don’t expect anyone else to invest in it either. Take the amount of money you think it will take to successfully start your business and double it. You will be close to the amount you will really need. Your business is going to cost you money.
Time If you are pursuing a dream, it will consume large amounts of time. It will rob you of sleep. You will quite possibly stare at the ceiling for hours throughout the night as you think through the countless opportunities that lie in front of you or the enormous costs coming up that the bank account can’t cover. In the book, The E-Myth (I reviewed it HERE) , Michael Gerber challenges a small business owner to draw up the organizational chart for all of the positions necessary to make the dream become reality. The next step is to put a name in each position. If there is no employee for the position you have written down, then your name is to be entered there because you will be the one doing that task until someone is hired to do it! Talk about intimidating! I discovered that I am the CEO, resource development, HR, shipping clerk, travel agent, and janitor all at the same time! No wonder I was tired! Your business is going to cost you time.
Hobbies If you want to start a small business and still maintain a great family life, some hobbies will have to take a back seat. I love golfing, but golfing loses out right now. I can’t afford five hours away from family and the business once or twice a week. I love fishing. I have greatly reduced the time spent with this hobby. When I do go fishing, I bring along my daughter to maximize that time. You will not have to say goodbye to your favorite hobbies forever, but they might have to be moved down the priority list while launching your small business.
Bottom Line: Launching a small business will cost you.
Your thoughts? Small business owners – I would love to get your thoughts into the conversation – share them in the comments section.
Saving For Dreams
Saw these at the Dollar Tree store the other day.
This is called saving for your dreams! It is the third category of savings that I discuss in my book, I Was Broke. Now I’m Not. AND it is the MOST FUN category of items to save for!!!
Here are some other jars I believe others would like to see are:
- Honeymoon Fund
- Trip Around The World Fund
- Start My Business Fund
- New Boat Fund
What jars do you want to see?
Ways To Eliminate The Mortgage More Quickly – Part 5
Welcome to the latest series at JosephSangl.com – Ways To Eliminate The Mortgage More Quickly. It is my hope that this series can help you eliminate what is usually the single largest expense in the household budget and free that money up to much greater things than make a bank rich!
Part 5 Eliminate one “nice-nice” monthly expense and send it to the mortgage company
How much do you send to the cable/satellite company each month? Let’s say that it is $70/month. That is $840/year. Cancel the cable and re-route that monthly bill to the mortgage payment.
Other items that could be reduced/eliminated include:
- Grocery bill (use coupons!)
- Dining out
- Clothing
- Spending money
- Magazine subscription
- Insurance premiums
Less payments toward these bills means more money for payments toward mortgage elimination!!!
Read the entire series HERE
Ways To Eliminate The Mortgage More Quickly – Part 4
Welcome to the latest series at JosephSangl.com – Ways To Eliminate The Mortgage More Quickly. It is my hope that this series can help you eliminate what is usually the single largest expense in the household budget and free that money up to much greater things than make a bank rich!
Part 4 Pay one extra payment each year
One of the most common ways that people reduce their mortgage payback period is by sending in one extra payment each year. This will eliminate 5 to 7 years from a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. You can send one extra payment each year using a variety of methods.
- Send in one extra payment when you receive a tax refund or profitability bonus
- Since this money is not part of the normal budget, it is can be easier to send this money immediately toward the mortgage.
- Set up 1/2-payments to be made every two weeks
- Since there are 26 two-week periods in a year, this means that 13 full payments will be made each year. Presto! An extra payment!
- Send in 1/12 (8.3%) extra on each monthly payment.
- 1/12th payment/month X 12 months = 1 full payment per year
Use the Early Pay-Off Calculator located HERE to run some numbers for your mortgage and become debt-free sooner!
Read the entire series HERE