Julia has a small daughter, Laura. Every morning on the way to her teaching job, Julia drops Laura off at day care. Julia remembers her mother spending the day with her when she was Laura's age. She hurts each morning as she leaves her daughter, even though she loves her job teaching. She would love to spend more time with her family.
Mark is sitting at his desk late at night. Spread before him on the table are the month's bills. He is trying to decide which of the bills he can pay this month. There is more month than he has paycheck. He longs to get out of debt.
Sophia is working 60 hours every week at her job, 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. While she loves her work and is well paid, she dreams of having time to pursue her dream of owning her own business and being her own boss.
Robert and Mary are celebrating their 50th birthdays this year. They have been frugal their entire married life. They have put their children through college. They have paid down the loan on their house. They are looking forward to retirement in a few years. However, despite their savings and frugal lifestyle, their retirement income is limited. They long to be able to have a better lifestyle, having worked hard to earn the right to enjoy their retirement days.
Brad loves his wife, Ann. She has had two beautiful boys with him, Jack and Al. They are now 5 and 7. Ann works full time as a production assistant and earns about $40,000 per year. Brad has a good job with an air conditioning company and makes about $60,000 per year. Between their two incomes, they are able to make their budget but neither of them can spend the time with the family they would like. Brad would love for Ann to be able to stay home and be a full time mother. Brad would also like to able to spend more time with his boys, coaching their teams, and being able to attend all of their games instead of working the late shift. They worry about how they can pay for college.
Victor is a busy attorney. He has made it in his profession and is able to charge a high hourly rate for his work. He is able to keep a constant stream of clients coming in the door. He works long hours but is paid well. Unfortunately, he is also spending most of what he makes. Very little has been set aside for retirement. He is trading his hours for dollars but if he does not put in the hours, he does not get paid.
These scenarios are the "why" of starting a business. Whether you want to:
spend more time with your family
allow a parent to stay home with children
get out of debt
pay for your children's or grandchildren's education
have a retirement income plan
Be your own boss
control your time
have a better lifestyle
provide a safety net
escape the rat race
provide funds for investment
To obtain these benefits, one needs money. The business is the means to the end. What is important is what one can get with the money - that is the dream.
One has to bear in mind that a business is a tool to get the money needed to get that dream. Just like an electric drill is the tool one needs to put the hole in the wall to hang the picture that you want to see.
The tool to obtain the money is in the business system you choose.
In almost thirty years of law practice, James Montgomery has been giving advice to clients on how mortgages work, how compound interest can make one rich, and how to develop extra cash flow for investing in real estate or another similar investment. During my career, he has been a lawyer, banker, business owner, real estate investor, and marketer.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Parenting Business: What Parenting has Taught You About Starting and Running a New Business
Sure, you can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan, but who is going to unload the dishwasher and find a clean one? The ideal that was “working Mom, the woman who can have it all” has been exposed for what it is and left most of us with “there’s got to be another way”. But can you ditch the 9 to 5 for the freedom of working from home AND do the Mommy thing? You know there are ways to make money from home, but what can you really do? Are you qualified or just kidding yourself?
Just what have you learned throughout formula and diapers that you wouldn’t have learned while getting your MBA? You mean somewhere between the training pants and training wheels I acquired the skills to become a “captain of industry”? Can you please explain just what exactly I could proudly display on my resume besides, “lives on no sleep” or “tells an awesome bedtime story” that would help me to get ahead?
Would it surprise you to know that some of the key elements to starting a new business are the same things you do every day?
When you start a new business, you need:
Courage
The complete disregard for potential disaster is what got you this far in parenting! Think about it; if anyone really thought about what could have gone wrong just to this point, they would have talked themselves out of it. Common sense and logic have the unique ability to steer us through possible dangers, and if we let them, talk us out of magical opportunities. If you were really afraid of showing up with egg on your face at some point, you never would have had kids. Now that’s the pioneering spirit which will help “talk you into” starting a new business. Did you think you’d be a perfect parent? Were you nervous? A little scared, but totally excited? Did you have a passionate desire to start a family? The same passion can be used to create a successful business; and you’ve got it.
Stamina
Anyone who can survive through nursing a child during a childhood disease or a bad cold or colic, has the energy to be a CEO. I remember staying up 4 nights in a row when my daughter had the chicken pox thinking, “I should get a promotion for this.” How many all-nighters have you pulled since you first came home from the hospital with your child? How many times has it just been sheer determination that kept you awake in the car on the way home from work? And then you get dinner on the table! Starting a business will require that kind of tireless determination, especially in the beginning. Sometimes you’ve got to hunker down and just get the task done, that’s the difference between you (a success) and the other guy (who will close up shop). Just the will to get it done automatically starts you on the path to success; and you’ve shown that you’ve been able to do one thing, sometimes the most important thing in business – hang in there.
Focus
Sure, you might not know at any given moment what’s in your checking account, where your car keys are, where you dropped off the dry-cleaning or what that guy who keeps talking to you at work name is but when it comes to your child, you’ve got laser-like focus. You know what they’re doing, where there are, what they’re feeling and why 24 hours a day. You’ve read every article, every book, taken them to the right classes, heck, there for a while you even stopped talking like an adult and every syllable was a mimic of their babble! No one could ever say you haven’t been completely focused since the day they were born. You changed priorities, schedules, habits and your lifestyle. Remember when you first started changing diapers? You were such a bumbling novice, right? Now you’re like a diaper-changing machine. You did one thing, you did it well and you repeated it. A business will flourish and prosper with that kind of focus.
Balance
As the founder and owner of a new business, on any given day you will start a new advertising campaign, streamline the accounting system, make several cold calls for new business and then go to a networking meeting in order to grow your list of contacts. That’s all? Hey, as parents, that might actually be a nice relaxing day! In this juggling performance entitled “having it all”, you know the priorities and you’re multi-tasking from the moment you wake up! You can pack a nutritious lunch while changing schedules while folding laundry while planning dinner. Balancing multiple tasks comes naturally to women (especially mothers), which makes the balance required to prioritize and meet multiple goals simultaneously a breeze. Why not use some of that creativity toward a business?
Patience
There are some days when your child wakes up wild. We don’t know why, if it’s too much sugar or the full moon or a “stage”, all we know is that occasionally, some days you’ve just got to wait and hope they knock it off soon. There are some days when you start your new business that you’ll spend a lot of time waiting. You’re waiting for responses to that new direct mail piece, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for the check in the mail. This is where many new businesses quit and go home; they don’t have the patience. They expected instant results and now they’re going to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Parenting has taught you though, waiting it out doesn’t mean in you’re in the wrong place, you’re just open and ready for the right opportunity.
So be confident! There are some wonderful opportunities out there for you, and if you think you can start a new business, you most certainly have the “right stuff” to get it done.
Just what have you learned throughout formula and diapers that you wouldn’t have learned while getting your MBA? You mean somewhere between the training pants and training wheels I acquired the skills to become a “captain of industry”? Can you please explain just what exactly I could proudly display on my resume besides, “lives on no sleep” or “tells an awesome bedtime story” that would help me to get ahead?
Would it surprise you to know that some of the key elements to starting a new business are the same things you do every day?
When you start a new business, you need:
Courage
The complete disregard for potential disaster is what got you this far in parenting! Think about it; if anyone really thought about what could have gone wrong just to this point, they would have talked themselves out of it. Common sense and logic have the unique ability to steer us through possible dangers, and if we let them, talk us out of magical opportunities. If you were really afraid of showing up with egg on your face at some point, you never would have had kids. Now that’s the pioneering spirit which will help “talk you into” starting a new business. Did you think you’d be a perfect parent? Were you nervous? A little scared, but totally excited? Did you have a passionate desire to start a family? The same passion can be used to create a successful business; and you’ve got it.
Stamina
Anyone who can survive through nursing a child during a childhood disease or a bad cold or colic, has the energy to be a CEO. I remember staying up 4 nights in a row when my daughter had the chicken pox thinking, “I should get a promotion for this.” How many all-nighters have you pulled since you first came home from the hospital with your child? How many times has it just been sheer determination that kept you awake in the car on the way home from work? And then you get dinner on the table! Starting a business will require that kind of tireless determination, especially in the beginning. Sometimes you’ve got to hunker down and just get the task done, that’s the difference between you (a success) and the other guy (who will close up shop). Just the will to get it done automatically starts you on the path to success; and you’ve shown that you’ve been able to do one thing, sometimes the most important thing in business – hang in there.
Focus
Sure, you might not know at any given moment what’s in your checking account, where your car keys are, where you dropped off the dry-cleaning or what that guy who keeps talking to you at work name is but when it comes to your child, you’ve got laser-like focus. You know what they’re doing, where there are, what they’re feeling and why 24 hours a day. You’ve read every article, every book, taken them to the right classes, heck, there for a while you even stopped talking like an adult and every syllable was a mimic of their babble! No one could ever say you haven’t been completely focused since the day they were born. You changed priorities, schedules, habits and your lifestyle. Remember when you first started changing diapers? You were such a bumbling novice, right? Now you’re like a diaper-changing machine. You did one thing, you did it well and you repeated it. A business will flourish and prosper with that kind of focus.
Balance
As the founder and owner of a new business, on any given day you will start a new advertising campaign, streamline the accounting system, make several cold calls for new business and then go to a networking meeting in order to grow your list of contacts. That’s all? Hey, as parents, that might actually be a nice relaxing day! In this juggling performance entitled “having it all”, you know the priorities and you’re multi-tasking from the moment you wake up! You can pack a nutritious lunch while changing schedules while folding laundry while planning dinner. Balancing multiple tasks comes naturally to women (especially mothers), which makes the balance required to prioritize and meet multiple goals simultaneously a breeze. Why not use some of that creativity toward a business?
Patience
There are some days when your child wakes up wild. We don’t know why, if it’s too much sugar or the full moon or a “stage”, all we know is that occasionally, some days you’ve just got to wait and hope they knock it off soon. There are some days when you start your new business that you’ll spend a lot of time waiting. You’re waiting for responses to that new direct mail piece, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for the check in the mail. This is where many new businesses quit and go home; they don’t have the patience. They expected instant results and now they’re going to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Parenting has taught you though, waiting it out doesn’t mean in you’re in the wrong place, you’re just open and ready for the right opportunity.
So be confident! There are some wonderful opportunities out there for you, and if you think you can start a new business, you most certainly have the “right stuff” to get it done.
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