MindFrenzy

Found this cool post over at The GrowingLife.com titled:

Healthy, Wealthy, and DEAD?: 5 Reasons Why Getting Up Early Might be Harmful

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a late riser! But this also goes hand in hand with staying up late. I would say I get about %75 of my real creative and productive work done between 11pm and 3am. I don’t know why but this is just how I am. I find it very hard to get anything very productive done in the mornings.

I really have most of my ideas at night. I’m one of those people who just never wants to go to bed. I’d stay up until 5am every night except I make myself get to bed so I don’t sleep into the afternoon.

I know a huge reason for wanting to create my own business is for the hours. I want to work from 6pm-3am. I love that idea rather then being forced to be productive at 10am. Not that I can’t get stuff done early but the everyday grind of it makes me less productive in the long haul.

I also think that there is just so much to do during the day. Especially during the summer I want to be outside all day. Once midnight roles around everything quiets down and I am left to do whatever is on my mind.

Anyway what does everyone else feel? Are you an early or late riser? When do you feel the most productive?

What a wild ride starting a business can be. You never know what is coming next. Everyday I get hit with things I didn’t see coming or decisions that can decide the fate of my business. Recently we made one of those decisions over at Under30CEO.

We decided to change the name from Under30CEO to Factor77. I’m not even going to bother explaining our reasoning behind it, we had good intentions and truly thought it was for the best but it killed us! We got away from our brand and lost track of everything we set out to do - inspire people to do something they love in life.

The results - Our progress as a business basically came to a complete stand still for 2 months, actually went backwards I would say. What a bad move! We knew the decision was a big one and a tough one but wow we did not see that coming.

Now almost everyday it gets brought up at some point by either Matt or myself and what happens? We laugh. We just laugh at what a bad move it turned out to be. At how we lost 2 months of progress due to it. How it sent a cash strapped, bootstrapping business downhill. haha.

I mean what else is there to do?

We went for it. We crashed and burned. We went back to Under30CEO. And we move on.

2 things here:

1. Laugh a little (its good for you)

You won’t make all the right moves. Hopefully they aren’t quite as bad as ours but in any case its in the past. You can only control whats next. Don’t lose sleep over it. Lift your head up take the next step and laugh it off.

2. Realize when your wrong

Once you make a mistake don’t be afraid to admit it. Realize what you did was wrong and now make the right move. Do whatever it takes to get back on track. Learn from that blunder and move on. Don’t be stubborn!

Cheers to all of our mistakes!

Recently did a Post over at Corp Magazine. Here’s the intro click through to read the rest.

As I have entered this crazy world of entrepreneurship, I have noticed a few key things that have kept my ventures moving forward. Launch, Learn, Revise, and Repeat. Seems so simple, but this process is what will make any project a success in the end.

Launch
This is by far the most important and most feared step of the process. Too many people have ideas yet never do anything. They make a product and are never satisfied and keep tweaking until they are sick of the product themselves. Launch it! You have to put yourself out there. This is first step is the biggest, but most satisfying hurdle to overcome. Obviously if you don’t implement your idea it never has the chance to succeed or fail. Not a SINGLE project has ever launched with everything perfect. The idea is in place, but the expression of it is rarely fully developed. That is just fine! Don’t run from this step.

Read More

Last week Under30CEO saw the very exciting launch of Help An Entrepreneur Out (HAEO). HAEO is a community driven newsletter. Anybody with small business or entrepreneurial related question can simply fill out the form on HelpAnEntrepreneur.com to submit their question. Then it will be published in the next newsletter so everyone can give their responses. It’s all FREE!

Remember you have to subscirbe to the newsletter to answer any questions.

Why?

To help entrepreneurs! Everybody has questions and at times it can be hard to get these questions answered. With HAEO you will not only receive answers from our experienced community but there will be a variety of answers. This lets you see all the angles and then choose what’s best for your situation.

What can I Ask?

Anything business related! Maybe you want to know what business events are in NYC during the week your visiting. Or possibly a specific question about marketing for your company or ideas on the layout of your website. Even ask about finding a specific consultant for your company such as a branding consultant.

Why Answer?

To show your expertise! If you take time to answer a question it shows your expertise on the subject and could possibly create new leads for you. Answers can also be as simple as linking up a blog post you wrote about the topic (if that’s what the person is looking for).

One of the great things about HAEO is all the answers come in the form of direct email or twitter. So relationships can immediately be formed if you provide a great answer. There are no user-names to hide behind.

Of course you can answer if your simply in the helping mood!

Just remember to think twice before answering, will this REALLY help the person asking.

Sounds like HARO?

We are not affiliated with Help A Reporter Out (HARO) in any way. We simply thought of a great way to help entrepreneurs get the resources they need to be successful. When we saw the domain HelpAnEntrepeneur.com was open we just couldn’t resist the name. I mean the name says it perfectly!

Our goal at Under30CEO is to get more people to do something they truly love in life. Get passionate about something and realize there are unlimited options out there. HAEO is the way we aim to make all of these inspired and passionate people more successful!

So lets help spread the word about this and help some entrepreneurs out!

Hope you guys like it! What do you think? If you have any questions just ask Jared(at)Under30CEO.com

Guest post from Ben Johnson of Logoinn.com —- custom logo design

Logo designing is the first activity any new business takes on to launch a brand image. Over the years, businesses have spent a lot to get unique identities which describe their nature of business, their goals and objectives. For that, they consulted different design agencies and freelance designers since online logo design companies were not that common those days. What difficulties did they face while getting their logos designed from a design agency or a freelancer and what were the benefits; we will discuss it in this article. Moreover, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of the three categories.

Design Agency

Many starting businesses have the budget to spend millions of dollars on a custom logo for their businesses and therefore they opt for renowned design agencies to design one for them. Going to a design agency has its pros and cons.A  logo is one of the basic tools to creating an impactful brand identity and if your design agency succeeds in creating something which gets instant recognition and fame, your money pays off, but what if your agency comes up with an awful logo. Your money and time would be wasted. In early days, when there was no internet, companies would hire graphic design agencies to handle their entire image building project, from creating a logo, to developing marketing and advertising campaigns, which included ATL and BTL activities as well. Fewer options were there to choose from as compared to today, where there are innumerable agencies to cater your needs.

Advantages:

There are obvious advantages of hiring a design agency for your logo project:

• Famous design agencies are professional and accountable

• Renowned design agencies are reliable to work with

• Handle large number of accounts

• Have a battalion of professional logo designers

• More designers signify more logo concepts

• More designers indicate broader skill set

• They are secure to work with. They won’t disappear anywhere

• Frequent face to face meetings with your designer

Disadvantages:

• Design agencies are highly expensive, their fee is usually fixed and not negotiable

• Logo design is one of the design services they offer, so they might not have the expertise in logo designing
• Their turnaround time may be too long since they handle large number of accounts
• They may run into delays

Freelance Designer

Apart from design agencies, there are many freelance designers, companies can hire these days for their logo project. It all depends upon the budget; even design agencies sometimes prefer having a combination of in-house designers along with freelance designers. There are countless online freelance designers to choose from for your custom logo design, but one has to be careful because of a number of factors. Since there was no internet in early times, there were offline freelancers unlike online freelance designers. They were usually considered starters or amateurs with less expertise. However, today, there’s a mushroom growth of online freelance designers to choose from at very low rates as compared to graphic design agencies.

Advantages:

The following are the advantages of a freelancer:

• Renowned freelancers are reliable to work with

• They focus on few projects unlike big design agencies

• They are cost-effective

• Minimum turnaround time

• Can be an expert in logo designing

Disadvantages:

• They may disappear for some time, they are less accountable

• Sometimes low price indicates low quality work

• You can’t have face to face meetings with your freelance designer

• One designer means less concepts or similar concepts

• Your freelancer can be a teenage amateur

• Credibility is one issue

• Can use a design template

Online Logo Design Company

Even small businesses have realized the importance of having a unique logo for them, so in order to cater them; many companies have started offering design services online, with a major emphasis on custom logo design services. However, there are so many logo design companies online, that it gets very difficult for companies to choose the best design company for them.

Advantages:

Online logo design companies are getting very popular each passing day and a lot many businesses are contacting them to get their logo designed.

• Cost-effective
• Expertise in logo designing

• Professional and accountable

• Renowned logo design companies are reliable to work with

• Handle large number of customers

• Have a battalion of professional logo designers

• More designers signify more logo concepts

• More designers indicate broader skill set

• They are secure to work with. They won’t disappear anywhere

• Fixed turnaround time

• 24/7 customer support

Disadvantages:

• No face to face meetings with the designers

• Not suitable for entire branding projects

However, what I think is, the advantages and disadvantages are all relative and restricted to what and how you want it to be done. But one thing is for sure, at the end of the day, every business wants to put up the best with minimized expenses. If you think I have missed out on something, feel free to put forward what you think should be there as an advantage or a disadvantage of a freelancer, design agency or an online logo design company.

I always focus my writing for entrepreneurs and small businesses. So when I set out the other day to set-up a dry erase board for $15 I knew I had to write about it because I think tons of people could benefit from this. Who doesn’t love bootstrapping!

I’ve always loved dry-erase boards because I think better when I’m standing or pacing around. It lets me get more into whatever I’m thinking about. This is important when starting a business because there are always new ideas on things and its great to get a big visual of stuff. Until now though I have only had access to decent size boards at colleges.

You can buy a board at places like office depot but be prepared to spend. In store the largest boards are still relatively small maybe a few feet by a few feet with prices in the hundreds! That was not happening.

So I did some research and found Tile Board

Tile board (sometimes called shower board) can be found at places like Home Depot or Lowes and comes in 4′ x 8′ sheets. For $15! And it works exactly the same! I had the best luck at Lowes. There are usually a handful of versions of tile board (I had to ask a few employees before I found one that knew what I was talking about). It is used in bathrooms to resemble fake tile (so its waterproof). So there will be a bunch with different colors and patterns as tile would look. But there will be 1 that is just a flat white sheet…obviously get that one. The sheet only weighs a few pounds, its very thin with only cardboard for a backing.

The main thing it will be lacking is a nice aluminum frame or a place to hold your markers. Bummer but I’ll save the $300. Here’s a 4′ x 8′ dry erase board at office depot.

Here’s what mine looks like…

As you can see 1 sheet takes up the whole wall pretty much. I haven’t tried cutting it but I’m sure its easy and you could fit it perfectly to the entire wall if you like.

As far as the actual erasing of the marker it works pretty well. Obviously the sooner you erase something the better chance you have at getting it all off. That pic was taken right after I erased the entire board that had the same stuff on it for about 15days. It left some light marks but remember the board is waterproof, so I took some windex to it and it came off.

It also only took a few nails to hold it up…its very light honestly 1 might have done the trick. If you don’t want to use nails I think things like the stick on coat hangers or picture hangers would work. Get a few of them and just use the sticky pads around the edges. Didn’t try it but I think they would hold it.

So there you have it! $15 for a huge dry erase board. I’m very happy I never invested $300 in a board so I could have an aluminum frame.

I found a similar material at Home Depot that was $32, I almost bought it thinking it was the same stuff. It’s not! About $15 is all you should be spending!

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

We are Under30CEO again. Will be explaining soon in more recent posts.

So a lot of people who have been following me know about Under30ceo.com. If you don’t it is a social network that I started back in November with @mattwilsontv when we got the urge to connect with more innovative and ambitious people.

Now we have finally turned the corner and added a business model to the project. Under30ceo.com is now Factor77.net. Same network just different name. See why at Mattwilson.tv.

The big new addition is Factor77.tv. This is where we will be interviewing expert coaches and consultants to help people get the info they need to move their business forward. On top of that in each interview we will be giving away FREE stuff! Generally a 1hr consulting session with the consultant and a free book or 2. To win the prizes just watch the interview and see what you have to do (it usually involves saying something in the comments or sending a tweet out).

So how do we plan to make money?

Well on top of this we will be promoting these consultants books and products using affiliate marketing. You will see the links below the interviews where you can purchase their stuff if you like the consultant!

Also we have a referral system set-up for their actual coaching and consulting services. So we hope to help people find the best coach or consultant for their business. Again you will see the ability to contact the consultant under the interview if you are interested in hiring them.

For more check out the About Us Page

Look at the interviews as not only a great way to get some free insight into these experienced professionals minds but also as a preview of what they could possibly do for you or your business if hired.

So there it is! We are really excited about this launch and we hope you will support us with it. PLEASE give us feedback!

The business model, site layout, interview style, hair style whatever it is send us your thoughts. You can email me at

Jared(at)factor77(dot)com.

Check out the site Factor77.tv

Follow us on Twitter @Factor77

Fan us on Facebook

Check out the interviews we have up so far:

Interview with Marketing Expert Shel Horowitz

Wait. Starting a business is easy? Yes it is.

But Can You Scale It?

Anyone can go out there and start a business. All that really means is you made a decision to sell something. You don’t even have to incorporate anything in the beginning if you don’t want to.

- It’s easy to start a clothing line there are a million places to get t-shirts made

- It’s easy to go on craigslist and pick up some web development jobs

- It’s easy to ask some neighbors if you can mow their lawns

- It’s easy to start a website/blog

There is only so much time in a day and with that there are only so many things you can get done. None of those examples above will allow you to live a comfortable life unless you have an idea of how to scale them.

Are you planning to spend your whole life surfing cragslist battling for development jobs or are you fine tuning your skills and slowly making moves on larger projects. You won’t find a $50,000 design project on craigslist. So do you know or at least have a plan to find out where that project is?

Are you building a website with the plan to make most of your money on advertising? Now are you building a niche site that is unlikely to ever have good traffic numbers because the niche is so small? Some niche sites can be great but again it depends on your model and in some cases it actually might be impossible to generate ad revenue with the size of your niche.

The point is make sure you evaluate how scalable your business is. It’s just fine to start small but make sure you have an idea of how you can take it to the next level.

Also make sure you aren’t trapping yourself in a business that literally might not be scalable. Again you can only do so much. Whether it’s a site that simply won’t get numbers or maybe your starting something thats based on sheer volume you can put out (lawns in a day).

Start small but dream BIG

How much time do you spend when making a title for your blog posts? If your like me well probably not that much. I have always assumed that my content will triumph and that’s what I want to focus on. Recently I have realized just the opposite.

Title is EVERYTHING!

Why?

- When I go to a new blog I don’t read the last 5 posts and see what I like. I do a skim of the titles and if 1 catches me then I read the post.

- Twitter - There is no summary of your post with your tweet. It’s your title and the link, that’s it. People aren’t going to click that link unless that title catches them.

- All of your feeds (facebook, friendfeed, ning networks) they will have a brief summary with your new post but what is in bold? The title. This is what people see.

-Everything is becoming more and more of a mashup. These mashups are less and less descriptive and you need that 1 liner to catch them (your title).

In this hyper paced world people don’t get into things unless they truly see a reason to. If your title doesn’t give them that reason then it won’t matter how amazing your content is because they will never see it.

Kait Smith of Marist College wrote up an awesome article on Under30CEO for the college paper.

Check out the article HERE

Check out Kait Smith on twitter @kaitsmith