10 things you DON'T need to start your own business

1. A degree

2. Experience

3. Lots of capital

4. An office (see my solopreneur note below)

5. A business plan

6. A website

7. Hire staff

8. A blackberry

9. A business partner

10. An investor

excerpt taken from http://www.toiletpaperentrepreneur.com/

Hard drive

I'm mid-way through Hard Drive which is about Bill Gates and the making of the Microsoft empire, and already I am in awe of this incredible man. No wonder he became the world's richest man. His vision, persistence and focus is unparelleled!

Some highlights:

- Everything is a competition to this man, even a friendly poker game and he will not rest till he has won.

- He is known for clocking 36 hour days, only to collapse in a heap under his desk, blanket over his head. He is revived easily with a cup of coffee.

- Super-cerebal, he can take on lawyers, programmers and bosses of big companies, even at 21. His photographic memory allows him to read, understand and remember tedious business books which he devoured in Harvard while other students read Playboy.

- A visionary, he saw the future of personal computers and how we would do away with paper and pen and just communicate via our PCs...this was back in the 70s when computers cost millions and only big companies had them. He also told everyone that he would be a millionaire at 25.

- Looks can be deceiving. Bill Gates looks much younger than his 21 years, especially with his floppy hair, acne and sloppy dressing. His non-threatening looks belie an astute business mind and he is often underestimated by deal-makers and competitors.

- He is known for his tantrums, tendency to speed, arrogance (he has a penchant for calling people" stupid" or "idiots") and habit of rocking to and fro when he is in a meeting (it is common to walk into a sale meeting at Microsoft and find him and his group of managers rocking in tandem).

I find him fascinating.

What are you waiting for?

The Internet, especially today's interactive Web 2.o, has paved the way for ordinary folks to make millions. Thousands of netpreneurs are springing up everyday and there are gazillions of success stories.

I am not talking about big boys like Google or Facebook. But solopreneurs, which represent a big majority of people in the online world who work from home (I am a solopreneur who works out of my sofa). One great example is blogger, John Chow (http://www.johnchow.com/) , a Canadian, "dot com mogul" who makes money from telling people how much money he makes, literally (if you really want to know, he makes $30,000 per month!).

Blogging is big business these days and you can make serious money from it, and John shares his wisdom and tips generously on his blog. Best part? You don't even have to a techie to be a success. According to John, you need to blog about unique content, cultivate good relations with similar websites so that they will link to your site (remember, the Google spider loves links, so more links = higher rankings on the search engine) and tweak, tweak tweak constantly.

Bloggers like him make money from a wide variety of ways, from Google Adsense ads to paid reviews. As long as you command high traffic, money will find you.

I find it truly inspiring and the next time you are feeling the Monday blues or having a bad day at work, I suggest you go to http://www.johnchow.com/ to find out how you can escape the rat race...

My strange problem-solving ritual

I'm going to share a secret...

Whenever I come across a challenge and can't think of a solution, I'll take out a piece of paper and write this:

1. Challenge - list out the issue as clearly as you can.
2. Action 1 - leave blank
3. Action 2 - leave blank
4. Action 3 - leave blank
5. Timeline - usually a week

Then I will tuck the paper away and trust my mind to give me some ideas by the dateline stipulated. Letting my unconscious mind (before sleeping) run with the problem usually gives me pretty good ideas and somehow, even though the paper is hidden, my mind remains totally alert to it - drawing people, circumstances and events to provide solutions.

You'll be surprised at what you can come up with. Sure beats the other alternative of banging head repeatedly against the wall.

Ok, enough hocus pocus for now.

* Update: I have received requests for examples, here goes: My own case study.

Challenge: Sell truckloads of Boss of Me!

The solutions I came up with:

Action 1: Contribute to newsletters of business associations which goes out to 14,000 corporate eyeballs.

Action 2: Organise a Boss of Me! event to sell books in bulk.

Action 3: Book review in Think Big, an Australian magazine distributed in 2,500 news stands across Sydney.

Action 4: Guest blog on one of the highest ranking blogs in the world, http://www.johnchow.com/, http://www.problogger.net/ or http://www.shoemoney.com

Persistence is the Mother of all good luck...I didn't sit around and wait for the answers to fall on me. Instead, I researched online and one thing just led to another...of course having the thick skin to write to relevant sources helps.

I am very grateful and if all goes well, I am on my way to achieving my desired GOAL!

Do you have G-cred?

G cred (n.): Google credibility. What someone sees when they Google your name, business, product, organization or whatever. It’s an increasingly important measure of legitimacy and how seriously someone will take you.

As Google and the Web continue to mature, online visibility will equate to credibility on every level. It does now in this Web 2.0 world, through blogs and a myriad of social media sites that have become a respected, easily accessible and exponentially expanding source of cred. In short, word of mouth on steroids.

Respected marketing gurus like Tom Peters and Seth Godin have been preaching the value of building one’s “personal brand” for years. In The Brand You, Peters explains how career survival is not about blending in but about standing out:

“Regardless of age, position or the business we happen to be in, we need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.”

If you do a Google search on yourself and little comes up, or it’s dated, well that’s not good. If you happen to be someone in the marketing communications business and that happens, you’d better hope it’s not a potential client or customer doing the searching.

For more information on building your G-cred, check out John Follis' blog: http://thefollisreport.com/

I am building my G-cred via article contributions to:

www.Sellingbooks.com
Habla blog (www.wardspeaking.com/blog)
www.Smallbusinessceomagazine.com
Gurupak books

Ladies Who Launch partnership directory (http://www.ladieswholaunch.com/)
www.Ezinearticles.com
www.Articlesphere.com…and many more.

Exciting update: Think Big, an Australian magazine, would like to review Boss of Me!

About Think Big:

Think Big Magazine is published by Mindset Media Pty Ltd. Think Big has been developed to capture and reflect the values and tools of leaders, inspirational people, entrepreneurs and every day wisdom. We are interested in stories that inspire and motivate people. Think Big writers and contributors are leaders in their fields and include Chris Howard, John Demartini and Justin Herald plus many more. Think Big is published every two months and is the only magazine in its class that features a full online version. Think Big is distributed through 2,500 Australian newsagents and is available through paid subscription. Back copies are distributed through Universal and Chris Howard events and other events. Think Big also has a VIP subscriber list of over 1,000.

(Many thanks to Peter Shankman!)

Die standing

I died standing today. Not literally but figuratively, of course.

I had a meeting with a top trainer and events organiser for entrepreneuralism to explore ways to promote my book, Boss of Me! I was ill-prepared, inexperienced (in the events department) and sorely lacking sleep. The result: I asked all the wrong questions (even asking the same question 3 x!) and had no concrete proposal.

Luckily, he was a very nice guy and offered advice. The amazing thing is, he still wants to work with me! So, we are jointly organising a Boss of Me! event. This will be a great branding and sales platform for my book.

Despite my terrible show, I walked away with valuable lessons from our short one hour discussion. Events is a totally new direction for me and I am part excited, part filled with trepidation. But, what the hell! I'll rather die standing than live the rest of my life on my knees!

Wish me luck :)

AWE5OME profile

Thanks to the crew at AWE5OME:

http://www.awe50me.com/2008/09/pearlin-seow-singapore.html

(p.s. my surname is spelt wrongly on the link, haha)