Doing Business

In my forty years on this earth I have owned a number of businesses and I have worked as an independent for a number of companies.

Starting at the age of eight to about the age of fifteen I sold Christmas cards, baked goods, candles, candy and even jewelry from FingerHut. That last one didn’t turn out too well. The friend with whom I partnered spent all the money he had collected from our customers and never ordered the jewelry. Yeah, he had to pay it all back.

I remember going to the library and getting how-to books on everything from worm farms to macrame. I had grandiose ideas as a kid. It was the start of my burgeoning entrepreneurial spirit that lives today.

I am now a successful Wedding and Portrait Photographer in the Virginia Beach, Virginia area, but I haven’t gotten to where I would like to be yet. I am still setting and working to achieve new goals.

With the advent of the Internet and the accompanying technologies, starting a business is easier, but getting the business name and face out there takes just as much time as it ever has. I have to constantly pass out my business cards and flyers and business information to all who have the slightest bit of interest in photography services. But I wouldn’t change a thing. I love the hustle and bustle of doing business.

Working for a Corporation

Working for a big company is very different from working for a mom-and-pop shop. The atmosphere in a big company can be stifling with rigidity and very antiseptic. A small business affords for more creative and quick movement.

The bigger a company gets, the more difficult it is to maintain efficiency. Large corporations hire managers to try and maintain organization and efficiency, but it is a tough job.

Just keeping track of the phone bill for a company with more than a 1000 people has got to be a headache. Telecom consulting came from the need to keep track of how much is spent on the phone and if the cost is all legitimate.

On the plus side most large companies provide better health care than a small company. Sometimes with a small company healthcare is not even provided.

Pros and cons everywhere and in every walk of life.

Business Marketing Basics

I find that when I boil things down to their bare bones basics, my business moves so much better. I work a full-time job at an IT firm, but I am a wedding photographer on the side. It is my dream to become a full-time photographer, but for now I am honing my craft and building up my business.

A guy I work with said something to me today that rang true: the 6Ps.  Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Well, his was 7Ps, but I cleaned it up. The point is this: Do your due diligence and plan what you are going to do. Market research and assessment online and otherwise are keys to success in the marketplace today.

Will the business be successful in your area? Who are your competitors? What are they doing to be successful? Who can you get to help you and to be objective with you in your plans and goals?

I think this also can be applied to home life as well. Planning and studying other successful marriages and families is very advantageous to being successful as well.

The Business of Business, Part II

For my day job, I work for an Internet company as a developer of new and improved products for the websites. I enjoy the job more and more, and I have learned so much since being with the company.

We travel to one of our other offices in Florida about once a month, but more often than not, we conference over the phone. We don’t do video conferencing too much. There are times when we do Webinars where a central computer is in charge and we see what is on their computer.

I  would love to begin moving toward video conferencing. I just like being face-to-face with the people I am talking to. There is so much added communication when we can see who we are speaking with. Less room for ambiguity.

The Business of Business

I have been interested in making my own money for as long as I can remember. As young seven or eight years old, I would take loaves of my mom’s wonderful Christmas Bread (Cinnamon and Sugar with RedHots baked on top. Yummy!) around the neighborhood and sell them. My mom made everything from scratch and it was all scrumptious.

That got me started in my business careers. I sold Christmas cards, candy and even jewelry through Fingerhut, delivered newspapers, grew and sold nightcrawlers, and that was all before the age of twelve. I love to make money.

Today, I am no different. I enjoy learning a skill and making money from that useful skill. I decided to learn how to shoot photographs well and I became a Wedding Photographer.

With the advent of online business, life for business owners can be easier. Electronic check processing companies, paypal payment processing and credit card transaction companies have made collecting funds that simpler. The pitfalls and pratfalls are always there, but life for a business owner, when using the Internet to its fullest potential can provide luscious fruits of labor.

Is Writing Going Out of Style?

I enjoy blogging. It offers an outlet online that may not replace entirely the personal journal, but it is somewhat cathartic. I can talk about my life and my family and millions of others are doing the same thing. Back in the late 1990s when we began to see what the Internet could become, the idea of never having to shop outside of your house was thrown around. But that idea didn’t fly and I didn’t think it would ever fly, but now with blogs, IMs, email, cellphones and whole host of other communication devices, I think it might be possible.

But back to my first idea: writing. Specifically, writing on paper. We will always need writing instruments for our journaling. And for passing out as gifts for a business or as wedding gifts. You can get personalized pens here.

Our Baby/Guest Bedroom

When Susan and I moved in to our cozy little doll house (built in the 1940s, this little bungalow has just under 1000 sq ft), we had plans on repainting, but once in the house, we really liked the country muted blues in the living room and the computer room, and the canary yellow for the previous owner’s baby room. We just kept it as is. Recently, however, Susan did some touching up because just before we moved in, the back left wall of the house had to be torn down and rebuilt because of previous termite and moisture damage. The company who worked on the wall had made some cracks on the inside of the baby bedroom and the bathroom, and then patched them up without caulk or liquid drywall or something. One Saturday, Susan went into the painting business. She busted out the paints and paintbrushes and repainted those areas. It looks a whole lot better and really shaping up for when Susannah arrives next month.