Putting my Time In + Positive Reports

So, this week in my business I have finally gotten some encouraging information.  Essentially, Apple has started to release daily sales reports.  From what I can tell, Wine Pad and Beer Pad are both selling very well (more than enough to make up for my lost day job income).  As you can imagine I am pretty excited about this.

There is still tons left to do before I can leave the iPhone apps alone for while.  My customers are clamoring for new types of products (even more expensive desktop style apps).  Its pretty amazing, but people will do your marketing for you if you listen to them.

The other thing I have been doing is participating in Internet Business Academy.

This is a subscription based website that basically helps you in everything you need to know about internet business.  It is well worth the cost and I attribute a lot of what I have accomplished so far to the influence of the owners of the site (and their book recommendations).

A good start...

One Week Today

So its been one week since my product Wine Pad has been available for sale. App Shop is doing pretty well in the first week in spite of a few dings. I got a lot of encouraging email about the product which is very nice and this gives me some indication that people are buying it. The reviews on iTunes have been mixed, some people have encounted a bug that crashes the app. The bug is pretty serious, if you put a single quote into a text field the program can crash. Luckily, I indentified the problem and a fix is in the works.

The bottom line is that my work is just beginning and there is a lot still to do. I am putting off starting some other products and refocusing due to some other customer feedback (there appears to be a demand for Wine Pad clones (Beer Pad, Coffee Pad and even Scotch Pad). Also, there is a pretty strong interest in a desktop application.

My plan is to make sure Wine Pad is solid and has an edge over its competition over the next few weeks. Once I am satisfied with this I will make some clones but customized for the subject matter. The next step is to consider releasing free "lite" versions to help drive traffic to the paid product.

I am starting to become convinced that this business model will work out.

First Product Released!

Well, this blog has not gotten much attention lately because I have been pulling all-nighters trying to get my first product released.  So, I am happy to say that Sunday nite I officially launched App Shop's first product, Wine Pad!

Now, I can officially call myself an entrepreneur.  Since Sunday, I have gotten about ten emails and 8 official reviews so the product does seem to be selling.  Most of the feedback has been positive or has suggestions that will go into the next update of Wine Pad.

Also, the app-shop.com website is getting much more traffic than any other blog I have used.  Chalk that up to iTunes...

This is a huge personal success for me, four months ago I never would have even thought of starting a business.  Today I have a registered business, bank accounts, web presence and customers.  This is a start and the actual cash situation is still uncertain - but at least there now is a cash flow situation.

Now, I have a lot of work to do.  My main focus this month is to establish a community around Wine Pad by over delivering to my present clients.  Well, off to work!

Just Read a Great Blog Post for Entrepreneurs!

The author says it better than I can so:

Here it is

When Do You Know Its Time to Leave Your Job for Your Business?

Anyone who has thought about starting a new company has had to wrestle with the idea that their life was going to change drastically as a result.  Most people have grown comfortable in the typical 9-5 workweek that ensures a steady cash-flow and routine of a corporate safety net.

For a time, people already in the workforce may be able to run their side business as a hobby but in order to fully develop an idea most people know that they need to focus as much time on it as they can.

Lately, I have gotten to this point but frankly I didn't really know what to do.

Should I just get up and leave my job, burn my bridges and jump into my new life as many authors suggest?

Should I try and sneak my company development into my current work schedule?

Should I just drop my business?

For the truly courageous entrepreneur the best move indeed may be to simply pack up and leave and burn all your bridges.  This ensures that you will be as motivated as you can to make it work.  Honestly, especially for those of us who have enough money to support ourselves for a year this is probably the best way to go.

At this point in my life I could not stomach the first option.

A friend recently pointed out that other startups have been successful even though they spent their first year as a side project of people who had full time jobs.  37signals is the name of the company and the advice is start small and develop a cash-flow that can be built on.  Here is a link to their blog post on this.

These two approaches seem to represent extreme ends of the spectrum.  I for one did not want to burn my bridges, but I do want to move things along more quickly than I could while working at my job.  Also, my better half is not willing to drop out of paying bills completely...

So, what I am trying to do is to negotiate working only 50% with my current employer.  They are not really happy with this, but they certainly think its a better deal than 0% time.  This is my compromise and I believe it is enough for me to get my business moving over the next year.

Maybe this is something that you could try before one of the two extremes above.

To answer the question posed by this article, you know you are ready to do something drastic when you have a burning desire to start.  If you are thinking about your business idea all the time and truly want it then the time is going to come when you are going to have to start pushing the boundaries of what you are comfortable with.

The key is to come up with a plan that will work for your life and then follow it through.

Why Should You Create an LLC?

Here is something you should probably do if you want to go into business for yourself: create an LLC. This means "Limited Liability Corporation" and it is essentially a legal structure that separates your business concerns from your personal concerns. The LLC is your business.

That being said, why do it if you have an unproven business idea? Well, the most important reason is to protect your personal assets from any liability from your business actions. IE: if something you do as a business hurts someone they can only sue you for your business assets and not personal assets such as your home and beannie baby collection.

Another reason is that you will gain credibility with your clients. People want to do business with an entity that they perceive as being established in some way. The ", LLC" at the end of your business name and product could be enough to cement the sale in some people's minds.

Finally, formally creating a company is a sign for yourself that this is serious business. The **** is on now! This calls back to the notion of "mindset" and a lot of the people I have been reading say that success simply has a lot to do with mindset.

So, on that note I have submitted paperwork to get the process started in my home state. I used the online service LegalZoom which put me back about $600. However, you can get a real lawyer for more or try to do it yourself for less (~$200). In the next few weeks I will update this blog on the success of this part of the process of setting an small business.

Uncomfortable Truths about Getting Rich

It turns out that money is important for more than just buying beer and the occasional video game.  Recently, I read an eye opening book, Rich Dad Poor Dad,  that puts you into the mindset of how the rich think about money.  Its a great book but I have to tell you that it really is hard for me to accept some of the points that the author makes.  The eye opening thing I realized is that I don't actually like or really even care about money.

This is a problem.

Here are a few things I learned recently that have made me squirm:

1.)Pay Yourself First

I always thought this meant buying myself that shiny new iPod before paying the taxes.  The reality is that the book recommended that you put aside 30% of your income to invest in assets.  Assets are things that make you money like rental properties.  That is a lot of money and a lot of possible angry bill collectors.  They call this motivation to go out and "invent money".  This is also money you need to be able to risk (aka: lose).

2.) Outsource

This goes deeply against my middle class brains, but living richly means delegating.  Hire a cleaning lady, a plumber, or whatever professional you need to do your work.  A rich person values their time.  Delegating the tasks that you are not needed for frees you up to make the money or spend your time wisely with the family.

3.) Borrow to Invest

I don't like being in debt, but the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad believes that you should use the bank's money to invest and not your own.  This makes sense for real estate since essentially your tenants pay your debt off and you use the banks money to pay all your liabilities.  Obviously, if you really believe that an investment will give you a 20% return then getting the bank to loan you 4 times your savings will net you a much bigger return.

Ways You Can Make Money Online

So, like many people out there I would like to get some independence from my job.  In order to frame this better, let me describe three ways of generating cash:

Earned Income - Income from a regular job or consulting done on an hourly basis.

Passive Income - Money that simple comes in as a result of an established work process.  IE: Rent from property you own or sales of a product that you have already established.

Portfolio Income - Money that is generated through your investments.  IE: Stocks or real estate going up in value.

Most people depend on Earned Income they receive through their job while waiting for retirement to access their Portfolio Income.  The dream for me would be to earn all of my income as Passive and Portfolio Income.

In order to do this, I believe that it would be necessary to get some freedom of place and eventually time.  As a brainstorming exercise I thought it would be fun to list out the different ways to earn money online without a traditional job.

1.) Consulting - you are essentially your own boss, but you are still stuck in the trap of time = money.  However, if you are efficient or savvy you can free up a lot of your time to work on your passive income (no boss over your shoulder).

2.) Online Professor - you can teach at an online university getting benefits similar to #1 if you have the right degree/experience.  Your need at least a Master's degree for this option.

3.) Virtual Assistant - if you have office skills you can hire out your expertise to people online at hourly rates.

4.) E-lancing - you can actually hire yourself out for almost any type of work that can be done remotely (programming, web design, graphic art).

5.) Create a product - this is where things cross into the Passive Income realm.  If you create a product you could start to create a business that will run itself (selling software, e-books)

-it is possible to outsource or automate most of the tasks required for a lot of business

6.) Investing - this requires money and knowledge (neither of which I have right now).  But, if you invest your money correctly you can have it work for you.  This is the best way to truly have money work for you and it can be one fully online.

(Time = Money) is a Bad Idea!

Last week, I heard this really simple but counterintuitive idea from the two guys who do the Internet Business Mastery podcast. They basically said that you have to stop thinking of time as being equal to money. That is, most people think that if they work longer hours at something that they will get paid more.  I know that when I think of how to earn more money I immediately think of consulting.

Their point was really that you need to find a way to bring in cash-flow that doesn't require your constant attention.  The way to do this is through automation.  Let's take this example: the problem you are solving is teaching people how to do bicycle maintenance.  One way to do this is to hire yourself out as a consultant; if you valued your time at $50 / hr you could probably replace the income from your present job if you worked 40 hrs/week.

This model is good, but there is a another way: if you were able to create a video or e-book that really showed people how to do this and priced that at $50 then you would be solving the same problem.  Your customers would be getting a better deal because a one time cost of $50 is much less than a few hours of $50/hr consulting fees.  You would be getting a better deal because your product will be making money for you while freeing you to do other things.

Essentially, this is the difference between owning a business and a  business owning you.  Under the second model, you will be earning income long after you have lost interesting in being a bicycle tutor.

Who am I and what is this blog about anyway ???

Right now I work for a medium sized company where I essentially do system analysis and programming for teams of psychological researchers. Before this, I went to school for psychology and spent some time in the mental health field. I love my work and the company I work for is a decent place. But, I don't really feel satisfied with just being an employee and lately I have been thinking of trying different things out.

The first thing I tried was to go back to school and get a master's degree. I did this, but what that really did was just give me another bullet point on my resume. New degrees don't really change things - they just open up new job titles. I also came to realize that "moving up" in the corporate world really means becoming a manager, then a director, and so on.

The thing that really changed my attitude and opened up a world of possibilities was the Apple announcement that software developers would be able to sell their applications for the iPhone through an iTunes-like "AppStore". At the time, the implications seemed to be that one developer, or small teams of developers, could make a business out of something they loved to do.

I am very excited about the AppStore, however the real implication of the announcement for me is that I have started to investigate the world of internet business. There are people who have made livings by simply writing blogs, selling their products on eBay, developing software for the Mac and so on. The interesting thing is that people have managed to simply make modest livings by focusing on their particular niche.

So, now let me bring this post back around to the question of "what is this blog about". As I have been listening to podcasts and generally educating myself I realized that this path I was going down is very risky and if I wrote about it honestly then the possibility exists for some high drama. To be honest, from my perspective this world of internet business seems a little pipe dreamy. My plan is to follow this pipe dream and this blog will document the ultimate success or failure of this adventure.