I really hate how long its been since my last post. It seems like this perception of a recession is really affecting people in a number of ways that I find just plain weird.
I am not an economic analyst but I think like most of you like me can identify certain trends. From what I have seen so far, it appears as if most companies (and individuals included) spent more than they should have and perhaps expanded more than they should have. This obviously has to come to a screeching halt at some point.
Most of you that know me well, know that I run an Aerial Photography business and that is probably one of the most basic of basic businesses because it has to do with real-estate transactions and litigation issues. I have looked at the transactions and although some may have dropped a little bit its not the problem with the lack of construction or even the lack of litigation. Rather its the people’s fear and perception of what REALLY is happening. As a result people are afraid to spend any money until things are clarified. My job is to work 3 or 4 times harder to get the same cash flow and to generate revenue in new ways that may work better. Its a constant cycle of perfecting and more perfection.
The reason why I’m writing this article is because I started to realize through association, I was doing the same thing myself! It was almost as if my subconscious was saying “DON’T DO IT”. Then I remembered what Ken Hughes once told me in a cab on the way to lunch. He said that people called him crazy and stupid when he invested in a piece of property then to be considered a wasteland. Now its a bustling masterpiece. I have my hands in a couple of things, Earlier this year some people who I once considered friends decided to make some of the similar comments that I’m sure Ken Hughes had heard before. In fact, I bet Ken still hears it when he talks about his new developments. I had to learn just like him not to listen to broke people.
Sometimes you have to be weird to be extraordinary. It’s so easy to do what everyone else is doing and just get comfortable. What happens after 10 years of being comfortable? Or 20? What do you look back on and think to yourself? Chances are you won’t look at any of this day to day stuff and think WOW! For most this harsh reality will come to them at the end of their life when they have realized they squandered what could have been.
My parents often said that the youth was wasted on the young. In most cases this is true. The best thing you can do is find a couple of really good mentors who you respect and ask them to tear you apart every now and then. Even our best efforts lead us to disaster if left to our own devices. So give yourself a once over. I’m sure you will find something.
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NEXT EVENT ALERT:
Are you interested in meeting other young professionals in Dallas? Come meet with us at the Tower Club July 7th 2009 6:30pm. We have specifically invited those who have connections within our community. This is a private club and is invitation only. If you are interested in attending please email jeremy.mckane@gmail.com and request an invite.
Special Guest: To Be Announced
If you focus too much time on a specific task or project it’s easy to get creative block. When this happens there can be no remedy but to walk away. So many time I would be working on a website when I had my old company and I would notice that my work would plain stink.
I would run into problems that I know I had the ability to fix and the only way to solve it was to walk away and Come back. I have learned that too much of one thing can totally be a bad thing. As most of you know, I have been shooting film since I was about 12-15 when dad gave me his pentax k1000. For some reason I stopped shooting for a while. I picked up a nikon d1x about 8 or 9 years ago and it occured how much I loved taking pictures. Sometimes you forget the things you love when you don’t allow yourself the time to think about what you really love.
I try to take breaks when I get stressed out since I’m no good to my clients anyway in that state of mind. It does not happen often but I have learned that if you say enough is enough then shut the doors for a couple hours. You will find that on return you will be on average much sharper than before. My release is photography, but since I shoot land for a living I find that shooting people is a refreshing change.
Now don’t misread what I am saying here. I am not suggesting you waste time. Find an outlet that you can use to better yourself! For instance I submitted my fine art photography to D magazine and I was selected along with other artists to exhibit my work at FIG which is the fashion gallery here in dallas. So even your outlet can easily be something that can help you grow.
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What happens when you suddenly find that you have solved all the world’s problems? What will you do? If you are like most business owners, you probably do not feel that way. In fact probably quite the opposite. Working hard for your money is exactly that. When you solve one problem, another creeps right in. Some of said that business is all about tradeoffs. You trade one problem for another. How you deal with those problems is what makes you a great business-person.
Several years ago I found myself really hating my own business that I had grown and cared for. There were several problems and much of those issues were people problems. I should have fired a couple of them way before things got bad. That however is another story for another post. Either way, I was bombarded with issues and on top of that I was doing work that could have been easily delegated. I had advice from a great business mentor that I was taking too much on and failed to heed his advice. It was not until much later that I would adhere to his words of wisdom. I found that if I was wise and humble enough to trust others to “OWN” something and run with it, things moved way smoother! IMAGINE THAT! A successful business owner almost twice my age knew something that I didn’t!!! What are the odds.
(The other thing I was told was to fire the bad eggs and well I didn’t do that either. Again, another post..) So this being done I realized I had all this time now that I solved my major problems. Not to mention I started to like business again but the difference was that I no longer looked at it like a job that enabled me to be FREE FROM THE BOSS like most will try to sell you on. It turned into a drug! This was the coolest thing, I could build revenue streams and make manage them from a 30,000 foot view. All along this information was in my head and I did NOTHING with it.
When you have some free time, your first reaction is to relax and take a break but when you realize that you now have the sky as the limit to what you can do…. Need I say more? I think you get the idea. So you might be considering quitting your business because you are not making money or maybe you are having problems keeping it running because you are bleeding money. Things can be done to save it. You started it for a reason. I would be willing to say that most of you in this situation are not delegating and you are really quitting because you have learned that like other humans YOU CANNOT DO IT ALL! So you must seriously think of how you can offload tasks that are not worth your time.
Are you answering your own phones? WHY??? You can find people to do that and that will cut out a minimum of 1.5 hours per day. Are you writing proposals? WHY? Are your proposals so unique every time that it requires you to re-invent the wheel every single time? That’s probably another 1.2 hours per day on average. What about voicemail? How much time do you spend checking voicemail? Would it be ideal to have someone else check it or have the person who you hired to answer calls listen to them and email you a summary? thats another .8 hours per day. All together I just saved you 3.5 hours per day! Imagine what you could do with that time? Heck, you could even throw footballs at your desk for 3.5 hours and still make what you are making now. Or you can create multiple revenue streams that keep you personally diversifed. This is smart to be a couple of sectors because it keeps you from having highs and lows. You would not invest all your money in ONE stock would you? Then why would you invest ALL your time in ONE revenue stream?
If you find this article interesting, let me know. I am on twitter: www.twitter.com/mckaneorg! I would love for you to be a member on this site as we try to get people together at happy hours once per month. Our next event is on 5/5/09. Last event we had about 50 people show up. I look forward to hearing your comments!
Jeremy McKane
