Start Up Challenges

I am so tired. It is hard to figure out where to spend your time when there are so many things to do. I started with identifying my ideal life, made a vision board pictured my new life as I see it in the future. I’ve also started practicing affirmations, not because I think they’re the solution to all of my problems, but I figure they can’t hurt and who am I to judge?


I haven’t figured out exactly what keywords to advertise with in PPC yet and it’s driving me crazy. I ran my first campaign the week of Christmas (bad idea since few people are buying that time of year) and the ad was shown 548 times and only clicked on once. Disappointing.

I keep reading about the excitement of the first sale, hoping for that to happen and getting more frustrated that it hasn’t as time marches on. I do believe in my product and I think the reason it’s not moving is that no one knows it exists.

I’m making a commitment to participate in two forums weekly now and posting at least 3 times a week on this blog to see if that helps with some traffic. Actually this blog has become more of an online journal of my experiences and is cathartic so it’s not as much as a traffic strategy as a chance to reflect on what I've done that week for my business.

I found a great kick in the pants article on the challenges of startups that I appreciated. You may like it too. Then I was reading Liz Strauss’ blog post on attracting new clients and it was funny how both of these articles had a theme: your business will not build itself, you must commit to daily action and light a fire under it.

I’m off to work on my list of things to do that doesn’t include wishing. I’ve been doing more wishing than working this week…wishing for a big break or windfall of clients when I should be posting on women entrepreneur forums and performing keyword research. This blog is great, it keeps me honest about where I’m spending my time.

Mortality and Motivation - What Drives Us?

My Grandmother passed away three days ago and I was inspired by hearing about her life story. Her achievements had a way of spurring me on toward my own goals and her death gently reminded me that we all are in this together and none of us is getting out alive.

The motivation from hearing about my Grandma’s life in detail spurred me into writing an action plan for my business that I’m sticking to instead of letting myself feel overwhelmed regularly.

After I jotted down the action steps I thought about how grateful I am to be related to such a strong and capable woman. She burned her bra, raised four kids and built a business in an era much tougher on women than today.

Then my mind wandered to motivation as I wondered why my Grandma’s passing had such a profound clarifying and motivating effect on me.

I read an interesting article about motivation: where it stems from and how to feed it within you. According to the research, separating a project from a direct monetary reward helps stimulate more creative problem solving.

The single most motivating factor is doing something for a purpose or having a sense that what you are doing is fulfilling a greater purpose. If you lose sight of why you’re doing what you’re doing and how that serves your community, it will be much more challenging to stay motivated and on task.  This makes sense as the times when I remember feeling most motivated in my life where when I had done better than I thought I could on a challenging task or enjoying helping others accomplish something that made them happy.

So thank you Grandma. Your life story inspired me to examine my own and determine action steps to move toward my purpose. I wish I’d asked you more questions about your life while you were still alive; your legacy lives on and inspires me. Hearing about how much you did in your 79 years motivated me to consider my own mortality and evaluate where I’m at in relation to where I hope to be in a few years.

Here's to working with purpose. 

“Three ounces of humor, Four ounces of passion and 12 ounces of content.”

My husband tells me I over-think things. There’s a revelation that shocks no one. I was talking about how I need to get started posting regularly then I mounted a week-long search and rescue mission to cull information from every available source on the elements of a good blog.
My husband’s reaction was, “there is no secret formula like three ounces of humor, four ounces of passion and 12 ounces of content for a blog… just get started!” After trying to sidestep the discomfort of his foot in my ass he continued, “Keep it real, keep it honest and keep it raw. If you over-think it you’ll kill what draws people to your writing in the first place.”

Wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, (I guess I was subconsciously looking for an atta boy for killing myself) but it was definitely the kick in the ass I needed to write this.

Overanalyzing is a character trait and everyone that knows me for any length of time points it out like it’s some big revelation they’re sharing with me.

People mean well, they’re just trying to help me become less anxious and more emotionally stable I think. I’m strong willed and able to push through just about anything but I have this habit of thinking through everything from 20,000 angles to ensure I’m prepared for any eventuality… most of which never materialize. That’s exhausting to most other people but that’s just how my brain functions.

One of my heros, Mark Twain, wrote "I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened." Such is life in my head.

My business is one of those great troubles. I spent entirely too long thinking about before jumping in. I spent 9 months, 9 MONTHS, reading everything I could get my hands on about how to start and run a successful Internet business once the inspiration for my idea hit.

I can’t begin to tell you the number of hours I’ve spent reading for business knowledge. Um, it’s slightly embarrassing since I try to act like I have a life when mostly I’m constantly thinking about how to grow myself into a successful business owner.

I read constantly, but before the business my usual brand of reading involved an hour a day before bed reading to learn something. Usual topics were body language, management or leadership… something I considered useful in corporate America.

I have this insatiable need to know as much as I can before I throw myself into anything and then pick it apart while I’m experiencing it until I’ve mastered that topic. Once I deem myself sufficiently knowledgeable, then boredom sets in and I move onto the next topic to obsess about.

I’m the first to admit this is not the healthiest approach to life.

The one thing about business is that you can never learn enough. You will never be masterful at every aspect of business and that is exactly what draws me.

I know that as soon as my confidence is bumped up by sales, it will drive me to learn more and leverage what I know to continue to grow. That stokes the fire in the belly.

I will figure out how to make the gears turn faster and the sales cycle shorter. I will figure out better ways to attract new clients. As I experiment and learn it will stoke the fire to learn and share more.

The best business people talk about the need to be prepared but that there comes a point where you just have to throw yourself into the game and take action without knowing what lies around every corner.

So here it is. My second post after a week of wondering what people would “want” to read about and worrying that I wasn’t being strategic enough in my approach.

“Just get started” is helpful when you’re struggling with what to do next. You may not be lucky enough to have someone in your life to kick you in the ass instead of overwhelming yourself with information.

I’m going to recommend you do as I’ve done and channel Nike… I’m going to Just Do It. I love it.