Kochie’s Tasty Takeouts

Last week I was lucky enough to attend “Kochie’s Business Builders Bootcamp” gratis thanks to the generosity of my friend Cindy Luken, who was a speaker on a panel session.

Own photo taken during Bootcamp Debrief

Marketing Power

I’d seen the marketing promotions everywhere. If you live in Australia it was hard to miss, and given that I’m about to run my own Bootcamp, I read through the program with interest. The line-up of speakers was impressive – Mark Bouris, Suzi Dafnis, Julia Bickerstaff, Naomi Simson, Camilla Franks and of course David Koch, to name (drop) just a few that caught my eye.

Green-eyed Monster

To be totally honest, even though it’s embarrassing to admit, I was jealous and disheartened. David Koch, a well-known media personality was running a Business Bootcamp just one month ahead of mine. How could I possibly compete with him? All that marketing budget and media power. The great line-up of speakers. Even the name – Business Bootcamp! I was feeling despondent and ready to give up on my own plans.

I consoled myself by brushing the event off as an just another conference, like so many others with lots of interesting people talking, sharing their own experience, promoting their own companies with a few networking opportunities thrown in.

Until I was offered a ticket! For free! How could I not go and check out the competition 😉

How Was it?

In a nutshell, the event was inspiring. Many of the speakers were impressive, some surprisingly so. Justin Herald, Rachel Botsman (girl-crush alert) and Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin were the standouts for me. Justin because I liked his sarcastic wit coupled with his “find a way to make it happen” attitude. Rachel, Social Innovator (I wish I knew about that job when I was deciding on a career path) who was smart, savvy and truly enthusiastic (& 7mths pregnant BTW). Sebastien because he talked a lot of sense and he is involved with Club Kidpreneur.

I’m sure you followed the Twitter #kbbevents stream or knew someone who attended or have read about what the presenters spoke about, so I don’t intend covering that ground here – although more than happy to share with you if you’re interested – just ask 😉

What I’d like to share with you are my personal takeouts that I think you might find tasty.

It’s Good to Press the Flesh

As a solo business owner, I spend a lot of my day talking to myself or my computer. Sure, I’m online so I interact with community on Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter and with my clients via my online programs but mostly, it’s just me and the screen. At the Bootcamp, I really enjoyed being in a physical room, with people physically present. I’m an extrovert, so I get my energy from interacting with others and at the end of the two days, I felt re-energised and had met some great people – including Jen Brown from Sparta Personal Training who I’d only ever known “virtually”.

Filling Seats is Tough

Even with all that marketing spend and media power, I don’t think the conference was at capacity. I’m not sure how many they expected but I think there were around 700 people in total. I’m also not sure how many people like me, were there for free but I didn’t meet a single person who paid. I’m absolutely not bagging out the promoters, so please don’t send hate mail! I do want to share how hard it is to get the message out to the right community and get that community to part with their dollars, even for a much publicised event. It’s tough. It takes perseverance and creativity – especially if marketing funds are limited. The other thing I realised is, that sometimes you might choose to give a bit away to create the buzz.

You Never Know Who You Might Meet at Lunch

I mentioned Club Kidpreneur earlier. When I heard Sebastien mention it, I took a note to find out more because I wanted to find out whether I could get involved and I thought it might be good for my young son. I figured I’d track it down post-event and see what I could find out. During the next break, I was introduced to a guy by someone else I’d just met and as it turned out the guy, Eamon was a Director of Club Kidpreneur which is about “building a community of passionate business owners / mentors willing to inspire and teach Australia’s next generation of kids to be more entrepreneurial.” How’s that for serendipity!

Technology is the Biz

I took my iPad (no, not iPad2 sadly) and I used it to take notes, send tweets, record some of the sessions and bookmark recommended websites and resources as the speakers mentioned them. HP were a sponsor and emailed out Top Daily Tips each day and were promoting the benefits of their ePrint technology. Many of the speakers were tweeting live and during each session, delegates could participate in live polling on the topics, ask questions & comment via SMS / Twitter – all of which were displayed on the big screen and which made for some funny moments (e.g. Lauren Brown, are you single? I’m 6’2″, funny and handsome!). I love technology and enjoyed watching it being employed for fun and productive use.

Photo courtesy Jen Brown - Sparta Personal Training

Women Are Doin’ It For Themselves

It was fantastic to see so many women, not only speakers but also delegates. In corporate world, I attended my fair share of conferences and on the most part, the majority of presenters were men and the majority of delegates were men. At the Bootcamp, there were smart, sassy, savvy women happily sharing ideas and lessons. It was refreshing. I did wonder whether women are so fed up with the glass ceiling, inequality and inflexibility of corporate land that we’re just taking matters into our own hands and running our own businesses the way we want instead.

Ideas are Good but Action is Better

There was plenty of good advice and information shared throughout the 2 days. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to participate in a Business Bunker – a breakout group of 10-15 participants but heard they were great. I got lots of ideas and we were urged by many speakers to take action with what we were learning. We were even told that we could email our “one action item” to Kochie’s team and they will send out a reminder to us to make sure we implement. I’ve already executed on a couple of ideas (Club Kidpreneur, website analysis, marketing plan) and built others into my plans.

I Know I Can Do It

I’m more motivated than ever to promote and run my Bootcamp. Instead of feeling like no one will be interested in what I’ve got to say, I now know that’s just not true. There were so many questions from people wanting to know how to put the ideas into action. We all know the information is out there and we all know that a lot of it will be available free of charge but we are busy and we want it now. The Business Bunker sessions were full because people wanted the personal attention where their own specific issues could be addressed. I know I have a great product. I know there is a market for it. I know my Bootcamp will be intimate and practical and I know that anyone lucky enough to be part of it will have a kick start on their journey to entrepreneurship.

As Michelle Gamble from Marketing Angels told us, business owners need to be “fearless, focused, relentless and consistent”.

Did you attend Kochie’s Business Builders Bootcamp? What did you like best?
Have you ever seen competitors doing something similar to you and lost self-confidence?
What ideas are you putting into action this week?
Have you signed up for my Webinar yet?

Entrepreneurship. All It’s Cracked Up To Be?

Last week I contributed to Dr Shannon Reece’s Weekly Question “What was the catalyst in your life that drove you onto the entrepreneurial path, and what keeps you on it?” Over 100 entrepreneurs shared their stories.

I loved my corporate career

I worked for good companies, starting my career in Human Resources before later becoming a Management Consultant. I’ve worked in about 40 organizations across a range of industry sectors. I had challenging and stretching development opportunities and promotions.

On the whole, I had really good bosses. In fact they were so good, I’m still personal friends with some despite not having worked for them for over 20 years!

I got to travel the world, experience life as an expat in Singapore, New York and London and I met amazing people from all around the world (long before social networking made it easy!). I even met my husband through my career! And of course, I earned a lot of money doing it.

So what was the catalyst that drove me onto the entrepreneurial path, despite such a great career?

Well, despite all of the upside, there was also a lot of downside. Many weekends on a plane, foregoing social events, missing my family, living an unhealthy lifestyle and feeling like a puppet – not in control of my own life. Work was my life.

After the birth of my son, I returned to corporate life in a part-time role thinking that would be the best of both worlds. It wasn’t. I know a lot of women manage it and I take my hat off to them.

I was torn between wanting to do a great job and wanting to be a great mother and have a life. I was miserable. I felt like I was failing at everything.

I had to work out how to put myself back in control.

I wanted to build a lifestyle that gave me the flexibility to spend time with my son when he was a toddler and as he progressed through the school years. I also wanted to do something intellectually challenging that allowed me to earn an income doing something that I love.

I’ve been running my own business now for nearly four years

But it hasn’t all been a straight path from Point A to Point B. In fact, far from it! I’ve meandered. I’ve headed down paths only to come to a dead end. I’ve hit the proverbial fork in the road and had to make a decision about which path to take. I’ve loved it and loathed it – often in the same hour!

Have I ever thought about giving it all up and going to get a J.O.B.? Sure! But the thought of having to go back to corporate world where I’d have to commute to an office, deal with office politics, be physically present between 8am and 6pm and work my butt off for a salary, just makes my stomach churn. Even just writing about it now, I can feel my anxiety level rising.

So, what is it about running a business that’s so appealing?

I recently asked on Twitter “what do you most like about running your own business?”

Here’s a summary of some of the responses that came back:

• For me, it’s the unique ability to create my own context
• Flexibility, control, freedom, ability to to listen to feedback & translate to action wherever possible
• Being able to create MY stuff MY way in a way that works for ME
• It serves my dream life
• (There’s) no real limit as to how successful I’ll be
• Freedom to be
• Being free to pursue my own goals & desired outcomes & not those of others. Being the chess player & not the piece is 4 me.
• My business works for me to provide the cash-flow AND the time-flow to enjoy life at its best. *It* is there to serve *me*.

Thanks Tweeps for your contribution

Sound appealing? To me it does.

But is entrepreneurship all it’s cracked up to be?

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I can only answer that question from my own personal perspective and the answer for me is “yes, but…”

1. You need to be realistic about your earning potential.
   Chances are, you will take a drop in income when you first start out. Sure, there are lots of success stories out there where people managed to make more than they did in a corporate job but for most people it takes time to build a business and replace or exceed the income. Work out what financial reserves you have and how you’ll manage the cash flow.
2. It’s important that you love your business idea because you will live it 24/7.
   You will be reading, networking, learning, creating and immersed in your business. It’s hard to switch off. You need to create work/life balance and this can be even harder when you work for yourself, particularly if you’re a driven, motivated, high-achiever.
3. Self-discipline is critical.
   It’s easy to spend time doing things that have nothing to do with building your business. You can sleep in late. You can go for a run mid-morning. You can meet friends for lunch. You can get the washing, shopping, cleaning done. You can spend hours on Twitter, Google, YouTube and Facebook. Before you know it, the day, week, month is gone but your business is flailing. Having a structure to your day/week and systems in place helps.
4. It can be an emotional rollercoaster.
   Every business owner I’ve ever spoken to says that they experience emotional highs and lows, often in the same hour! You need to develop resilience and find coping mechanisms help you through. Don’t rely solely on friends or a partner and don’t try to deal with it alone. Get a good support network in place.
5. It’s not for everyone.
   If you want someone to tell you what to do, when to do it and how to do it, then stick with a job. If you can’t afford to or don’t want to take financial risks, then stick with a job where someone pays you a salary. If you’ve found a job that you’re excited about, that fits with your lifestyle, that is fulfilling, that ticks all your boxes, then hang on to it – you’re one of the lucky ones.

I’d love to hear your views about whether you think being an entrepreneur is all it’s cracked up to be or whether it’s all a bit over-rated.

If you’ve got a question for me about running a business, please ask it. I’m happy to share all that I know.

P.S. If you are ready to make the leap from corporate job holder to entrepreneur, then join my free webinar, where I’ll share the five keys to starting your own business, avoiding common start-up mistakes.