Interesting collaboration opportunity

Today I had another meeting with another member of my networking group. He's a really nice guy. I feel as though I can trust him. He's had a struggle to get to where he is now and I think he appreciates seeing someone like me who is currently searching for something.

The idea of these meetings is to get to know each other outside of the scheduled weekly meetings and take the opportunity to teach the other person about your business. That way they understand who you are, what you do and most importantly, what type of customers you are after. I do the same for them. So if you're a printer, I'll always think of you when someone says they're out of business cards, or need some letterheads done. He does the same for me if he sees someone struggling with their computer.

Anyhow, so today it was his turn to learn about my business, so he came by the office and we had a chat for about two hours. We discussed all sorts of things about my business. And I asked him a few questions on how I would do certain things. He seemed to like some of my ideas, and every time I've spoken to him about things, he always says very little, except what he says always makes me feel I can do anything. What little he says motivates me.

Then I mentioned something I wanted to do for a while, which has been to organise a morning or evening meeting, catering for about 20-30 people and they have to all be in local small business. I want to hold a night where I get up and talk about the value of computers in business. Basically, educate people on what they need to know to make better IT choices if they don't want to hire someone like me.

So, then he says "You know what? That would be perfect, lets say one and a half to two hours long. You talk for 45 minutes, then there's a 10 minute break, someone else talks for 45 minutes about something else, but still in relation to business. Perhaps the importance of printed media" (as you may have guessed, this person I met with today is a printer). "Then maybe we can get someone else like a small boutique recruitment consultant we both know to talk about how to employ the right people."

He had yet another brilliant idea. So maybe this November I will be getting a little dressed up and doing a talk in front of 20-30 small business operators about the importance of computers.

Luckily I have no issues talking in front of people. Heck, I've performed at the age of 6 at the Sydney Opera House. I don't think this will bother me one bit. A bit like when my friend played at the open mic night a few weeks back. His wife asked me when I got off the stage, "Weren't you scared or nervous at all?" Nope! I replied. It's as easy as drinking a glass of water. Then again, she was embarrassed when her husband (my mate) played and mentioned "This next song was written by my wife." To which she burst out with "Don't say that!!!!!!!!!" and hid behind her hair. With everyone looking at her thinking "Oh, she must be the wife." I told her, "Maybe if you didn't say anything no one would have noticed so much."

Anyway, this interesting idea to have smaller 45 minute presentations is much nicer and will give people less to digest, which is a good thing rather than 2 hours of me droning on about computers. Even I won't be able to talk that long about PC and Mac stuff.

Very interesting development, and here I am considering leaving the networking group, constantly telling myself the decision is made, then something like this happens. I suppose I should be more positive about it all. Though I'm just not enjoying being there any more.

You know, it's odd. I've been reading a lot on Buddhism and there are specific chapters talking about not enjoying being somewhere. Cutting a long story short, it's all my fault for not enjoying it there. It's my own problem that I am not coping too well with the fact that the person who has purchased the district my group is in isn't a nice person. They're a business person. They will step on anyone and cut you from the team if they feel you're not holding your own. And the only way they know this is by looking at the stats for the group. Sadly, I was hit up about it, and I wasn't even give the chance to say that the stats were wrong.

I've grown up with people telling me what to do, and is usually defied my logic, defied what I know better and went against my grain. Growing up, I know that just like this guy, I can cut off things that fit my life either. Our group was a nice group of small business who shared their interests, ideas and knowledge with each other. This guy has corporatised the group and added all this "team" building stuff like we now have to all get together and go to the pub for drinks every Friday evening. Because I'm usually playing some venue or rehearsing on Friday evenings, I can't make it, therefore I'm not a team player.

I'm not sure how this situation fits in with Buddhism, but I think there's an exception. When you're being beaten over the head with a mallet, you will eventually want to get out of the way. There's only so much mallet bashing my head can take before my patients runs out and I actually lose my temper. It rarely happens, my fuse is long, but if it's lit, and you don't put it out, stand back. The explosion isn't pretty.

How do people do it?

This has been a question on my mind for a good 5 years.

How do people do it?

I'm not talking about sex. I'm not talking about going to the toilet.

I'm talking about business. I run a pretty ordinary business. I make do with some small amount of money and I'm quite happy making enough to pay the bills and mortgage. Anything extra seems to be excessive despite the fact that I wouldn't mind being a little better well off than I am now.

Then I look at some people I know in business. One person I know comes to mind. Everything he touches seems to turn to gold. And because of this, he's a business broker. He comes in to fix your business so it is ready to sell at a good price. His market is business in the $1M+ market. So I'm pretty much well under the radar. However, he has looked at my business and told me about what needs to do done to succeed in my business, wait for it..... he's told me to abandon IT and look at another option.

The reasons aren't obvious at the start until he later got right into the why's and how's. This I'll leave for another time. But he himself, as a hobby buys and sells businesses.

He finds businesses that are pretty much on their last legs. The owners are frustrated and ready to leave it all behind. He comes in and buys them out. Builds some systems and procedures. Hires a few people and all of a sudden a year later the business has tripled in value. I've seen it with my own eyes. The man has skills.

But what makes him have that total business sense, lack of fear or what appears to be a lack of fear. He just seems to just jump in and get stuck into it. And everything goes his way.

I'm not a jealous person, but he's one person I envy the skills of. Much like how I see things in a different light, often people mistake for negative, I think of al alternative. He's on the other side, laughing at my alternativity (I think I just made that word up) by really hanging off the edge of alternative thinking.

How does he do it? How does he just jump in, get what he wants out of it and get out on a high? I'd love to have 1% of his skill.

Though I will say I think I am on the right track to eventually leaving my IT support business and pursuing other options while still maintaining my passion for fixing things.

Business Networking

I'm part of a business networking organisation. I have been for about nearly 2 years. I won't lie, it has been a great experience. I have learnt a great deal about business in a short time, and have picked up a lot of information that helps me every day from the people in my networking group.

When the group first started, it was nice, fresh and exciting. These days not so much. And in actual fact, the changes being made go slightly against my grain. Why? Well, I'm a pretty easy going guy. I go with the flow. I don't and never have liked rules and regulations. Hence why I had a terrible time at school. However, all these rules and regulations are starting to appear at my network and the sad part is, it's taking the fun out of it.

Now, I run my own business, and if it's not fun then I'm doing it wrong. That's my theory. The day I feel like it's work is the day I throw in the towel. I won't lie, that day is coming closer. There have been times when I've thought about it, and there are other times when I'm not. Though I mostly enjoy my day working on people's computers.

At the moment my business is changing though. I'm not sure if it's the right direction, but I'm taking it where it wants to be. And at the moment, it's leaning away from the current IT service role it provides, into a more interesting online sales type of role.

The competition is fierce, but that didn't stop me starting up my IT support business. One area where I am also about to change is, and I have made my mind up about this already, to abandon my business networking organisation and perhaps go with another one that is a bit more flexible.

It's a bit of a catch 22. If I leave, it's a big part of my business I'm leaving behind. If I stay, I'm unhappy with an inflexible system that doesn't allow my creativity to shine through with other ideas. I did find another organisation that seems to be a bit more suitable for me. It's a bit more upper class, however, it's a bit more flexible and more in line with the ideas of my business model in which my business will be surviving in shortly once I make all the changes.

It's not often that I'm a little frightened or apprehensive about something, but for some reason I am now. Is it because I'm older? Because I have more to lose if I fail? I know I can start again if the proverbial hits the fan, but do I want to? It's frustrating. So frustrating all I can do is laugh about it, hopefully laughing all the way to the bank.

I forgot my birthday

While it's officially this Tuesday, I forgot all about it and a couple of mates asked me about what I have planned for this year.

Truth is, or was I should say I forgot my birthday was this close. I had been so busy with business and concentrating on other business ventures that I wasn't even thinking of myself.

A lot has been happening, and the scary part is, another year has gone by and I feel as though I've accomplished nothing. Actually, I've done a fair amount of work. Though most of it sadly has mainly been fixing other people's problems. So from now till the end of the year I'm making it my mission to work on all my own crap.

The short version is, I'm going to slowly taper off and eventually cut off my IT support services. I'll be opening a couple of online stores that specialise in IT related areas. One of which is selling PC's with Linux pre-installed on it. This will be similar to what System76 does.

The other store will sell system upgrades. RAM, Hard drives, video cards. Also, I'm thinking of setting up an online store selling recycled products. By recycling, I mean I am going to manufacture my own products from materials that normally end up in the bin. I'll give you a hint.... packaging. Products made from recycled packaging.

There are a couple of other unique ideas I want to get off the ground. They cost time and money, more so than other ideas. Though it could pay off big. However, because it is such a unique idea, I can't talk much about it yet. Though I will share as it develops.

Watch this space. Why? Because I'm getting older, and I'm playing catchup for all that laziness in my youth.