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So You Want to Keep Your Day Job?

November 25, 2008

As a relatively “green” entrepreneur that are not too many areas in which I feel like I can give meaningful advice, but this is an area where I have a bit of experience so I figured I would share my thoughts.

Lately there has been a lot of talk in the startup world about whether or not entrepreneurs should take the plunge and go full time with their startups in the current economic climate. In fact, there have been some pretty great arguments from some really smart people that support both sides of the coin.

Many would-be entrepreneurs and startup founders, for whatever reason, need to keep their day job… kids, wife that needs “security” etc, etc until they have some level of success. So how do you go about managing your day job AND pursuing your startup dreams? Here are my thoughts:

First of all, the hard truth is you can’t serve two masters master (or three or four…kids/wife etc, right?) so SOMETHING is going to suffer. You need to make sure you have your priorities straight, your expectations in check and your head screwed on straight. Until you can jump in with both feet and all your clothes on with everything including the kitchen sink, things are probably going to progress slower than you want.

If you’re like me (impatient) this is a tough one. But, at the end of the day you have to pay the bills and make sure the wife has her winter wardrobe right?

Once you’ve got that worked out, ask yourself how conducive is your day job to working on your startup on the side? Is it flexible? Can you take an hour in the middle of the day to address issues your startup is facing? Are you willing to change your day job to something that would help your startup rather than hinder it?

Having the right day job can go a long way in determing how successful you will be with juggling your startup and your regular job.

For myself, I found this perfect mix of stability and flexibility in working for another company that is really in startup/bootstrap mode and built on entrepreneurial values. The incredible flexibility offered gives me the ability to deal with client issues as they arise and handle other affairs of my venture without having to worry about issues I might be concerned if I was working in a corporate type environment.

Of course, you most definitely can not allow yourself to work on your startup at the expense of getting your work done for your day job. That’s just unprofessional.

Be prepared for success. What happens when your startup really hits and it’s suddenly taking off faster than you could have ever hoped for. If you’re not prepared, you’ll soon be in over your head and probably ticking people off right and left… managers, wives and kids all included. Have a game plan for success that will allow you to preserve all the relationships and connections you have. If your startup tanks 6 months after you finally quit your day job, you better not have burned any bridges at your previous employer!

Expect failure. Depressing or realistic? If you’re not putting 100% in, are you going to be surprised if things don’t work out? Don’t beat yourself up, this is the tradeoff you’re making here. Obviously, you’re slowly/steadily working towards success, but at some point you’re going to have to make a real (ie, 100%) commitment here or things will probably never rocket off the ground.

In the end, keeping your day job while working on your startup is a numbers game, where the forumla for success has these huge untangible variables. It all comes down to that gut feeling that only you will have about your specific situation. If everyone involved is on the same page with expecations aligned, you should be ok.

Written by Bradley Joyce · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

Local Live Art Fundraiser to Support Our Troops

November 4, 2008

h4h
Local charity Heroes 4 Heroes is putting on a really cool event this weekend that I want to encourage all of you to get out and attend. It should be a lot of fun and supports one of the best causes Americans can be a part of today, supporting our Service Men and Women who are putting their lives at risk every day.

Chris McCroskey, the charity’s founder sent out this email about the event:

Dear family and friends,

Most of you know that I started a charity almost three years ago called Heroes4Heroes.  We work directly with the military to send out care packages consisting of portable media like comics books, DVD’s, video games, magazines and books.  This year we were able to send out over 3,000 care packages, 40,000 comics, 800 DVD’s and 600 books.  We are holding our Live Art Fundraiser this weekend on Nov. 8th at the Sheraton Arlington.  I am writing this email to encourage you all to come to the event and to ask you for your help.  Last year our event venue was free and this year it will cost us about $5,000.  Anything you could give will go a long way to helping us achieve our goal of sending out 10,000 care packets in 2009.  H4H is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization and ALL, 100% of our fundraising goes directly to the cause.  All our staff are volunteers and we pay no saleries of any kind.  Please consider donating either on our website www.heroes4heroes.org/donate/ or send us a check directly made out the

Heroes4Heroes
9905 Boston Harbor Dr.
Aubrey, TX 76227

I have attached a brochure where you can read all about our organization and even read the letter we got from Gen. Petraeus and a letter from a soldier who recieved one of our packets.  Please forward this on to all your friends who have a heart for the young men and women serving in harms way to protect our freedoms and give freedom to people who have never had it.

Here is the brochure he mentioned:


h4hbrochuresmall - Get more Docstoc Buzz

Details from the H4H Website:

This weekend we will be having our third Live Art Fundraiser!  Nov. 8th, 7:00pm at the Sheraton Arlington, Arlington TX (map) right next door to the Wizard World Texas Comic Convention.  If you have ever been to one of our previous Live Art shows you know how much fun they are and if you haven’t you should come and check it out.  Admission is free and you can bid on any piece of artwork that is produced along with other donations to H4H.  After the convention ends head on over to the Sheraton grab a drink at one of our two bars and get ready for some of the best artists in the business to wow you.  Be on the lookout for Mitch Breitweiser, Phil Hester, James O’Barr, Bill Tucci, Brian Denham, Eric “EBAS” Basuldua, Art Love Magic and many more great artists.  Check out this video from last year and don’t miss your chance to be a part of a great cause and support our troops!  Here are some pics from last years event.

(Disclosure: Chris McCroskey is a partner at Squeejee, the company I work for)

Written by Bradley Joyce · Filed Under Blog, Personal, Startups |  

Local Startup Nectar Launches

November 3, 2008

tastynectar
Nectar, a local DFW startup I wrote about previously, launches today in just about 4 hours.

Nectar is essentially an easy way to create a high-quality, professional web presence for your personal brand and do it quickly and easily.

Users will be able to select from a variety of custom designs (which are limited in availability), personalize a domain name, set up email forwarding, and worry more about promoting and building their brand than having to create it online.

Here is their launch press release:

 Nectar (http://tastynectar.com), an Internet startup from DotVita LLC, was launched today after several months of intense development.

Born from the fusion of personal branding and simplified technology, Nectar helps real people strengthen their image online. Nectar was designed to enhance people’s personal brand by establishing a website format that is uniquely positioned to convey the owner’s attributes, skills, and personality.

“Your presentation online is often said to be one of the most important factors towards building your personal brand. Most businesses have done a good job of marketing themselves online but individuals haven’t fared so well,” says Dave Onkels, co-founder of Nectar. “The reality is that everyone needs to secure their own domain and have a personal website that communicates who they are, where they are online, and how to get in touch with them. Nectar provides high-end, professionally designed websites built from the ground up to market people (as opposed to products or services).”

Nectar was also founded on the premise that having a custom website should be so simple even a technophobic grandmother can participate.

“Typically, hiring web design firms is cumbersome, complex, time-consuming, and expensive — we know because we came from that industry. With Nectar you go from purchase to a fully functional website running on your own domain (yourname.com) in under five minutes,” saidBrett Tilford, co-founder.

Nectar makes the process cost-effective with automated back-end systems, providing a non-intimidating site admin tool, and offering each professional website design to multiple customers. To keep the chances of other individuals owning the same design, Nectar limits each design, or “taste,” to a maximum of 250 people, helping to maintain a balance between exclusivity and affordability. New website tastes are released twice monthly.

Complete sites cost just $199 including the design, domain, and 12 months of unlimited Nectar hosting.

Customers can learn more and view a live demo at http://tastynectar.com

About DotVita LLC

Founded in early 2008, DotVita is a privately held technology company founded by six passionate, young entrepreneurs from the Dallas area whose mission is to deliver Internet applications and services for everyday people. For more information on DotVita, please visit http://www.dotvita.com, or call 972-999-0183.

Written by Bradley Joyce · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

RustyTripod.com Launches

November 3, 2008

Being involved in a number of entrepreneurial endeavors, I knew this day would come. A little self-promotion never hurt anyone right?

Well, after much effort I’ve finally launched RustyTripod.com, an online store and community for photography enthusiasts both amateur and professional.

We have a wide ranging selection of digital cameras, equipment and accessories available at competitive prices as well as a fledgling community through which you can connect with other photographers, share photos, blog and more. We also have a number of professional photographers who will be contributing articles (how-to’s, tips and tricks) and products reviews.

The first 100 Fort Worth Startup Blog readers to make a purchase can save 10% on any order over $299.

The store is built on the Shopify e-commerce platform (which I highly recommend to anyone building an online store) and takes extensive use of their API to process orders out to distributors, provide financial analysis and product administration.

Written by Bradley Joyce · Filed Under Blog, Startups |