Today I went to the gym at 2PM right in the middle of the day and I got back online at about 4PM. I honestly feel better then usual and have more energy and motivation to do things for the rest of the night.

I think as entrepreneurs we have to remember that while we have responsibilities and we still need to be active during the day when more people are around its important to mix it up. I know a big reason I am trying to start a business is because I don’t like the hours 9-5. I like to wake up later and go to bed later. I also rather be outside in the middle of the afternoon on a nice day and then work from 8PM-2AM instead.

I think a lot of us got into this game because we didn’t like that schedule and the boring routine of everyday 9-5 jobs. So don’t fall into that trap when starting your own business.

Change up your hours:

Go somewhere in the morning

Stay up until 4AM

Sleep until 10AM

Play golf at 2PM on a Weds

Whatever it is mix things up and I think you will stay fresher and you will find you get more done in those awkward hours once in awhile.

Have you fallen into a 9-5 while starting your business?

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.

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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.

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

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.

I ran into this problem today when I decided to switch my twitter name from @jotoole4 to @JaredOToole. Now it doesn’t seem like a big deal but it is.

Here are my reasons for changing:

1. If it’s your name its much more likely someone will remember it if you tell them in person.

2. Think about your biggest points of contact online. Mine are Facebook, my blog, my company. All of those contact points use my full name. My favorite social tool online is twitter so why should it be different.

3. I have a lot of accounts like stumbleupon, digg, technorati that I can’t change from jotoole4. But those aren’t my biggest points of contact, they are more for fun so it won’t hurt me in the end.

4. I watch a lot of ustream shows now to connect with people in the chats. Again I use my full name when I tell people who I am.

5. Social networking is becoming more and more personal. I don’t use a user-name when I introduce myself to someone in person so why should I use one online when I am trying to form relationships.

Now not everyone’s name will be available on all of these sites. For example my buddy Matt Wilson’s name was taken on twitter already so he made his name @MattWilsonTV.

It won’t destroy your efforts if you can’t use just your full name but get as close as you can.

Remember these user-names will be on these sites forever. Think about where you will be in 5years. What would you want your name to be then?

Now if you have already started using different names like I have it makes things a little tricky but you can do damage control. Twitter lets you change your name easily, just announce it when you do. Otherwise focus on your biggest points of contact and if you make the switch try to alert everyone.

Remember this is your personal brand you are creating.

But there are 2 key things here.

1. He has a personality – a very strong yet good one

2. He is informative/helpful

These are 2 key elements you need to be successful at lifecasting. If you don’t have a personality well maybe just a written blog is better for you. If you aren’t informative/helpful well maybe you should look into acting. Have neither….find a way to learn at least 1 of the skills.

Also you have to be quick on your feet. Remember this is live. People will ask you random questions or say things that might anger you. You can’t freeze up and be dumbfounded or get angry at these people. You have to have the ability to control this and either blow it off or spin it. @Garyvee gets people all the time that say hes dumb or the show is stupid. He tries to find out why and respects their opinion but if the person ends up just being obnoxious or stubborn he moves on and doesn’t let it get to him.

Lifecasting can be a great promotional tool for yourself and your business. It really lets people form a relationship with you, probably the next best thing to actually meeting them in person. This gives you a chance to really get in depth and answer questions. However the most important part is the ability to show your passion for the material. This is something that can rarely be done through writing. For many people that passion and excitiment is the reason they make that sale in person and now you have the chance to show that to a much larger audience.

But before you jump into something like lifecasting, practice! Get used to speaking into a webcam, simply get used to speaking (not to different from presenting to groups), and make sure your ready for anything. Remember 1 slip up in this ultra connected world can be a huge setback because word spreads fast.

Overall just look at it and see if its right for you. You shouldn’t have to change yourself to be good at it. A little practice doesn’t hurt but the most successful lifecasters are just themselves.

Also there are many variations on lifecasting. Most people don’t literally broadcast their entire life. But many people find a way to integrate live broadcasts on a regular schedule, many times with no specific topics or reasons behind the broadcast. Just find what’s right for you!

Check out my live events for Under30CEO.com with @MattWilsontv. Tuesday’s 10pm EST. Entrepreneur talk. Let me know what you think!!!

Any success stories from lifecasting? Or examples of it being done very well?

You never want to fall into the “okay” zone as Seth Godin mentions in one of his posts Is Everything okay

What “okay” means in…

Weather – calm before the storm

Sports – less effort in practice – note #1UNC vs Boston College last week

Relationships – lacking excitement, getting dull

Job – going about the routine = not getting the promotion

Now I’m sure everyone has made new year resolutions and if you have a business I bet some of the resolutions revolved around that business. This is great because you most likely set a big goal or set out to do something that might have some great potential that you haven’t done before. This is KEY because it takes you out of that comfort zone. Making a resolution means that you now have to innovate and create that path that will let you keep that resolution. This gets the creative juices flowing again and it also gets people excited for the possibilities.

Unfortunately this only happens once a year for most people instead of monthly, weekly or maybe even daily which is how it should be for entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur you need to be constantly creating and innovating. Everyday you should be finding new ways to improve your business even if everything is “okay”.

You can never settle. If you look at your business and your not worried or excited about something then there’s something wrong. It means your in your comfort zone and not challenging yourself or your business.

If everything in your business or life is “okay”. How will it ever be remarkable?

Now I have experienced this exact situation so far and I have a couple ideas on what I think is a good strategy.

I have been out of school for 7months and have been working on my business but don’t have any other job yet.  I am lucky enough to have parents that let me live at home thus no rent and free food so I don’t have many expenses.

My advice is take that summer after graduation off. Spend the summer letting loose and creating. I spent basically my entire summer on a porch outside drinking beer with a friend (MattWilson.TV) until 2am. This was probably the most creative and constructive summer of my life. Almost everything I am doing right now is a product of ideas and thoughts that originated on those summer nights. So I would recommend NOT getting a job for those summer months and instead relax and layout your business ideas.  Or if you already have a business use those months to really push it over the top so you can get a better idea of where it might take you and what it will take to do that.

However as winter nears I would recommend picking up some work, personally I’m looking for part-time work. Right around November my personal funds began to dry up and I have since found myself struggling to get a few beers on a Friday night let alone go on a vacation somewhere South for a week. This has really begun to wear on me as I find it harder to get motivated to do things because the 20 degree days, dark at 5pm, cloudy skies, and sitting in front of my computer all day just begin to wear on anyone. I wish I lined up some kind of work starting maybe in November just to fund weekends and maybe even save for a trip to warmer weather. Also I think a job part or full time would help with being more social and just getting out of the house during these months.

I must say I’m not looking for a career in whatever job I end up with. But just something to help provide me with the stuff (money) that I need to do things I love (going out, trips).

So after that summer look into some kind of work. Even if you have a solid business idea the reality is it will likely take awhile to get off the ground let alone make you some money (many businesses take 2-3years to really get going). So just make sure you have the means to get out of the house and do some fun things over the long winter months.

I didn’t really pay much attention to the conversation at 1st but then over the past couple days I got my first taste of automated DM’s. I have to say that I do not like it. It makes such a personal service so impersonal. I don’t understand the point of sending an automated DM to someone other then to promote your own stuff. Each auto DM that I got said something like this

“Hi, thank you so much for the follow. I am looking forward to connecting with you and would love to hear your thoughts on (my site/blog).”

The basic twitter etiquette has been established as form relationships by giving to people. It’s not about how many followers you have but about how close your relationships are with those followers.

These automated messages completely break that code. It looks like you either

1. Just want people to look at your stuff.

2. Don’t have the time/care who follows you so why should I care/take the time to look at your stuff.

If you are providing good content and helping other people by providing them content then you will eventually get noticed. Don’t push it on people with these automated messages. It may take a little longer for them to take a closer look at what you do but it will be worth it.