Creating Jobs

This is soo great!

BlogHer.com has partnered with Starbucks and Opportunity Finance Network to get the word out about Create Jobs for USA

Here's the deal. Everyone is worried about jobs and the economy. This organization is collecting and then donating money to help small businesses and entrepreneurs. I absolutely love this and will gladly donate to this very worthy cause.

As an entrepreneur and small business owner myself, I can totally relate.

About 8 years ago, my husband, Robbie, and I decided to start a swimming pool service business. Because he was working at an auto dealership selling cars and I was staying at home and home schooling our son, we decided I would get it started part time while he continued to sell cars. We literally started from nothing. We learned the legal issues necessary for our industry and since we were too late to be entered in the local phone book, we ran an ad in the paper. We then got set up with a distributor, bought about $300 in supplies and home office equipment, and became official business owners. We worked from home for about 5 years gradually growing our service business.

In addition to that, we found a network marketing business that we just loved, Monavie. We really weren't looking for a network marketing business at the time, but Robbie was having some serious health issues and this worked for us miraculously. We really only started that business to get our products free. We fell in love with the company and decided to work that business part time while we build our pool business and Robbie's car selling job.

Right around that time, the car business really started to tank. He worked for a GM dealer and we all know where that went. They kept re-structuring his pay plan so that every time he started to make some really good money, they would basically take it from him. We learned that some companies don't like to give too much money to their employees, even though he was working on straight commission. Every day he would tell me how much he hated his job.
Meanwhile, the pool business was growing and I began to notice that there are a lot of swimming pools in our area with homeowners taking care of them themselves. To buy supplies, they had to drive at least 30 miles in either direction to the nearest pool store. Every time he told me how he hated his job, I suggested he quit. He wasn't making any money anyway and working really long hours. He wouldn't quit. He was afraid. He was afraid that a pool store would cost too much money and couldn't support itself. I assured him that the store would make more money than the service business but his insecurity outweighed his desire for job freedom.

Every night he went to bed afraid. He told me through all 3 rounds "I think I'm gonna lose my job tomorrow." Then on the 4th round, he called me that morning and said "I just lost my job." While that scared me a little too, I said "THAT'S GREAT!!! We can open our store now. This is really the best thing that can happen to us." I didn't want him to know that I was a little scared too, but I knew in my heart that I was right.  He didn't really believe me but went along anyway.

*As an aside: Its my belief that in a marriage or partnership, only one person can freak out. The other person is responsible for being the calming influence. Every now and then, I have to remind my husband that its MY turn to freak out!! He's a good sport about it. :)*

That was 3 years ago and our business has continued to grow and expand. In fact, this winter we're going to be selling 2 lines of hot tubs. That's in addition to the fact that we've also just recently partnered with a local pool builder as well as selling above ground pools.

Every now and then, as he tallies up the total income for the day, he says "Man!!! Who knew it would could be this great?"  I slowly raise my hand. :)

I feel blessed that we decided to start the business before we needed to while we didn't really need the money. I also feel like God has been guiding our path each step of the way. I feel blessed for the Monavie business, because the extra income there has been HUGE as well as the health benefits we've received. I truly don't think we could have done this while Robbie was in such poor health. Because of all that, we were able to start our pool business without having to borrow money. In addition to all that, I haven't really noticed any drop in business due to the economy. However, we did open the store in a bad economy and it's never really come back yet. So, who knows how great it could be when the economy DOES turn around.

I'm listening to an audio book right now written by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki entitled The Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich - And Why Most Don't.   I recommend everyone considering business ownership read that book.
One of my favorite things in the book is when they talk about how too much education is actually detrimental to effective business ownership. Too much education leads to too much specialization. In business, one needs to know a little bit about every aspect of their business. So a person would be better off learning all they can about business, sales, marketing, technology, legal aspects specific to their industry, and accounting instead of focusing only on their talent or specialization.

My philosophy has been from the get-go, if you don't have a job...make one! Create Jobs For USA is helping people do just that. Go check it out and if you feel called, give em a donation. Its a heckuva lot better than waiting for the government to take care of us all!

Money From Home (part 2)

Yesterday, I told you how we started our swimming pool business from home. I forgot to mention that we also had a sign put on the back of our truck. We also had shirts made. When in business, advertising is extremely important!! You have to let people know what you're doing. After 6 years in our pool business, in a small town, we still have people tell us they didn't even know we were here.

But, let's move on. I'll tell you how we changed from a home based business to a traditional store front. When we were working from home, we were just a service company. We tried to get into some retail and offered free home delivery but it was hard and people like to go buy products. So, that part didn't work out. Which reminds me of somerhing else important to think about when you're deciding what you want to do. You want to fill a void somewhere. Meaning, you want to offer products or services that are unique or lacking in your community.

If you'll recall from yesterday, my husband was selling cars for a GM company. Every day, he would tell me how much he hated his job. I would respond with "Quit!! We'll open our pool store and it will be fine." He wouldn't do it. He was afraid of quitting his crappy job and losing his increasingly smaller albeit steady income. So you know, there is some risk involved when you're in business for yourself. As you may know, GM has had their own financial struggles. So, quit, shmit! He got laid off! He called me while I was working and told me. What I didn't tell you is every night, that man would lie in bed at night worried about money and his job. He'd already made it through several rounds of lay offs.

So, that was a PERFECT time to open a store! :) So, the absolute first thing we did was figure out how much money we needed up front. We had to figure rent, utilities, signage, office eqipment, and oh yeah! INVENTORY!!

Once we did that, we decided we didn't want to go into debt. So, we started small. That's worked very well for us, but we don't have any competition. Think about that for YOUR business. How will you set yourself apart from the competition? We started with about $9,000. Once we had a store front, sales reps started calling on us. I called them and told them we just opened a retail location and asked if they had any display items for free. You know what? They do!! And they start giving you all kinds of stuff to promote their products.

Now, I still go out and do all the service work, along with Jake and Melanie. And Robbie mans the store. It's like our little home away from home! (We have high speed internet there!)

Now, on Sunday night, Robbie actually looks forward to Monday instead of the cranky dread he was feeling before. He's much easier to get along with too!

Which brings me to one other thing.When you're in business for yourself, you generally will have to work harder, longer hours than if you work for someone else. I think its worth it, though.

"Profits are better than wages!" - Jim Rohn

Tomorrow, I'll tell you how we got into network marketing. You won't want to miss it! It can change your life. It did ours.Search Amazon.com for zig ziglar

Money From Home (part one)

I have never in my entire life owned a swimming pool. I have, however, my entire life WANTED a swimming pool. I grew up in the country and my parents didn't have much money. Every time my dad dug a stock tank or had a back hoe available to him, we begged for him to just fill in the hole with cement and we'd have a pool. Bada Bing, Bada Boom! Instant, easy pool! Our very own cement pond. As you'll recall from the very first sentence, I never had a pool. Ergo...he always said "no".

My husband, on the other hand, grew up with a pool. He had to clean it, love it, pet it and call it George. Ergo, he never wanted a pool as an adult. How did we ever get married????

So, we've gone through all our married life without a pool. I've also alway

s thought it would be fun to own a

family business. Before we had

kids, my
husband told me that he

wanted to homeschool our children. I was like "No! That's freaky amish weird, and I'm not doing that." BTW, our homeschooled son graduates in 2 weeks. I'll tell you all about that next week. But,
right after that, we watched a television show called How'd They Do That?. On the show, there was a family that homeschooled. They did school for 3 hours a day and then the whole family packed up and went to work in the family restaurant. The kids were super smart and I immediately changed my mind on the homeschooling thing. I also LOVED the idea of the family working together. But, I honestly didn't know what we could do. My husband was in sales. I was a stay-at-home mom that taught fitness classes. I knew for sure we didn't want a restaurant. I just didn't know of anything that we could all participate in.

So, years went by and his family bought a swimming pool service business. As they started talking about how it works, my husband starting getting excited about it. We live about 2 hours from them and there isn't a pool store in our town of about 36,000 people. We started talking about it. I informed him that I know NOTHING about pools. We decided for the sake of making a living tha
t he would have to continue at his jobs selling cars and I would go out and clean pools.

We bought about $300 worth of supplies and chemicals to get started, gave our business a name, and ran an ad in the local newspaper and waited for the phone to ring. Meanwhile, I apprenticed myself to my in-laws so I could learn the basics. We would go once a week to visit and I would essentially work with them for free for a few hours and learn something new each time.

When we got our first customer, we decided we needed a way to bill people. So, we found a software that was like Quickbooks for pool proffesionals. So, we ordered that. That makes life super simple for billing. I understand Quickbooks and Peachtree offer the same thing for other businesses. I'm sure there are other options out there too. But, those are the ones I know of.

Our first customer gave us a check for Pearson Pools. Our bank doesn't know tha
t we have a business so we needed to do something about that. Also, we needed a way to separated business and personal expenses. So, we had to get a DBA (Doing Business As) from the county courthouse. We also had to get a federal ID # and a State Sales Tax # (because the government needs a taste). When you're getting your DBA, you have to know if you want to be a Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, LLC, or Corporation. It's a good idea to not do what I did and just figure it out on the fly at the courthouse. They can't tell you anything about the benefits or drawbacks. So, it behooves you to research that beforehand.

We then, contacted the yellow pages people to run an ad there. When you're working from home, you have to be proactive and hunt these reps down. They don't know how to find
 you and they generally don't make housecalls.

Then, we found distributors for our supplies so we could buy them wholesale.

We continued on like that for 5 years, working from home.

This arrangement could work forever if we wanted to continue doing this. I have no doubt that we would continue to grow. We've had some people helping us with the cleaning in the summer. One of my dearest friends, Melanie, has been working for us after we'd been in business for a year. No
w, our teenage son works for us as well.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you how we progressed into an actual store front business last summer.

FYI, we STILL don't have a pool. Now, I'm not sure I want one.

Pearson Pools
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/50173102@N04/

Home, Sweet Home....Now Get To Work!

In this economy, it occurs to me that people are looking for ways to make more money. Also, there are a lot of stay-at-home moms that would like to help with the family's finances or just have a little extra money to do fun stuff.

This week, I'll be writing about ways one can go about starting a home based business. I'll also be telling you what we've done. Our family owns two successful home based businesses. One is a network marketing business that we just love. And the other is a traditional business that has evolved over five years into a store front business. We're very proud of the fact that my husband was able to quit his job selling cars (which he hated) and come to work full time in the business. And, even better, we didn't have to go into debt to do it.

I'll be telling you what we did and what other successful business owners have done.

In the meantime, here are some things to get you started thinking about your business.

First and seemingly the easiest, but usually not, is what do you want to do? I know a few people that are so "with it" they know exactly what they want to do and how to get it. Most of us, however, are just sitting around thinking "Hmmmm....I want to do something, but what?" That was me, honestly.

There are different types of home based businesses.
Some are service type businesses that require you to leave home to do the actual work and basically you're just officing out of the house. This might not be a good option for someone with small children and lack of child care.
Network marketing is a good choice for someone who likes people. If you are shy, quiet, and introverted, this might not be a good option for you. But, according to Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki, this is one of the least expensive ways to start a home based business and reap the most returns. Most network marketing companies require very little start up capital and someone who is ambitious and likes helping people can literally make millions.
Other types of businesses could include computer work, mail order, crafts, etc.

The list is endless for someone who is creative and ambitious. Sometimes, an idea just falls into your lap, which is what happened for us. I'll tell you how it happened tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here is a really good book. Why We Want You To Be Rich, by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki.