Just had these printed. I took the name “Night Owl Services” from the name of a now retired work-at-home drafter that named her company “Night Owl Drafting”. I liked it as it is indicative of my “hours of operation”! I’m still open to ideas since I haven’t pulled a business license yet but I really like the name so far…
Well I still can’t talk much about my business idea or it’s plans but I can mention that I’m going to be working on this very intensely once all my current projects are completed. I plan on having this up and running in the next two months. I’ve gone ahead and told my wife not to look for another job as she’ll probably be working for me after a short while.
Doing a little research here has me thinking about going the route of an LLC for liability and tax reasons but I have yet to talk with my local tax lady about it (plan to tonight though).
It looks like I may have stumbled on to what may turn out to be the ONE thing that I do as a business from now on! In fact it’s so valuable that I really can’t talk about it in detail here anymore. Suffice it to say, this could be huge! Once I get the technical details worked out, I could be doing this for a decent living pretty soon -and with a VERY minimal amount of start-up capital (if any). I’m kinda’ bummed that I can’t talk about it here anymore but I have to protect the idea as long as I can. Wish me luck peoples!
I’m starting to realize the depth and breadth of just how many directions I am able to go in regarding my business. I mean I thought I was a bit “diversified” in December just providing a variety of technical services to business and individuals but that was before I realized several other potential offerings:
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Well my business plans are ever changing. I’ve now concluded that I may be able to work on computers after all. By setting up monthly maintenance plans with clients, I will be able to start creating reliable and predictable regular income, and be able to work on computers in a more controlled environment where I’m not dealing with systems AFTER they have had a major catastrophe. Plus, by seeing most of my clients on a regular basis, it increases my availability to additional work or projects in the future. I went and got one of those aluminum contractor’s clipboards and a special notebook to start keeping better track of my customers and their history. My plan is to design a “data sheet” for each client where I can keep track of the specs of each of their computers and it’s maintenance history. This way I can make better suggestions on how to proceed in there is a problem in the future. Scary huh?!
I’m still waiting on a couple of other employment offers that are located a lot closer to home. I hate the idea of leaving the company I’m at now as they have been very nice to me and I do like the work but I still have to take care of my family and my own personal well-being. The fact is that, even when working only 4-10’s, I have calculated true total weekly working hours to be 60 if I include the commute. 4 hours on the road for 10 hours of work and 1 hour for lunch. That’s 15 hours a day times 4 days! Working a 5-8’s week brings that up to 65 hours a week so even though the 4-10’s schedule seems harsh, I am still working 5 hours less a week that before. Now if I manage to land another position that’s closer to home, I may not be able to negotiate a 4-10’s schedule with them (and most likely not at first at least). But being closer to home means that I may still have more time to work my own business plans in the evenings and weekends. I’ve even applied for a position back working on aircraft at Edwards AFB! That would put me at 20 min from work instead of 2 hours. I can definitely deal with that.
So my 3-month business plan goal has been to grow from 3 companies to 12 that I do business with. In the first month, I would say I lost 2 of the 3 that I already had -but they are just more in a “dormant” state right now as there just isn’t any business going on with them currently. Business owners who are struggling with debt payments may consider using Strategic Debt Planning services.
But I’ve also gained a company and am starting to collect prospective maintenance plan clients that could count for an additional “company”. So I could realistically say that I now am at 5 companies so far. That’s not bad considering that was over the holidays. I also have yet to get my business license but that’s in works with https://china.acclime.com/. Candi and I are also looking into business card designs.
Well this past week was another round of learning experiences for me. I’m thinking of working on computers again in my business -but more so as a suppliment to the main work. I am working out a form of a business where I sell myself as a “maintenance agreement plan” to potential clients and businesses. Pay me a monthly fee and I’ll visit your computer each month (or maybe every other month -who knows) and make sure your computer is up to date and fully functional. I can perform a lot of operations at that point that I just cant do remotely (yet) and the client will be assured that their computer is running as good as it possibly can. In addition, I may find that these monthly visits generate a lot of other work as I’m there on site and can talk with the client about their technical (or computer) needs. I guess I may be working on computers again after all -just in a slightly different capacity.
In addition, if my customer base grows to where I need to hire another staff person to help me with these maintenance plans, I can start contracting out to other techs in the area and then take a percentage of the monthly fee to pay their wadges as well…
A week and a half since my last entry. That’s shameful (or maybe I’ve just been busy). Man, so much has happened this past week I’m probably going to have to break this up in to several entries as the memories start coming back today! I still haven’t lost any significant weight but I’m not worried. It’s still the holidays and I’ve been going to parties, family gatherings and the like. People have been feeding me like crazy. Still, I haven’t GAINED any weight either which is pretty good. I’m actually looking forward to my daily walks during my lunch hour. It feels so good now to be getting back in shape.
Business is picking up still -and I haven’t even worked that hard at it this week. Even though I decided NOT to continue marketing myself as a PC technician, I got three calls yesterday (my day off for working my business) for some pretty big PC repairs. I came home from the three house calls with a check for $125 and about $150(min) coming later when I return their systems later this week. Not bad for a few hours work in the afternoon! One of the families mentioned something pretty interesting to me as they were writing me a check for $125, “I sure don’t mind paying for good help!” Yet another message telling me that I’m actually worth it! Good to hear.
Well anyways, more to come later today…
Sometimes, when I sit back and think about the business I’m planning on starting, I get scared. I am afraid the skills I’m offering people aren’t developed enough to be worthwhile to anyone. I’m afraid I don’t have what it takes to make it. I fear I don’t have the discipline to stay to the task at hand -even when the stakes are high. Am I really wired to own my own business? I guess we’ll find out…
The truth of the matter is that I HAVE to be wired to own my own business! I may not be disciplined enough now but I’m going to learn how. I may not think I have the skills needed but people are still coming to me and asking for my help -and I’m not even marketing myself. I guess the fears are not that well founded -but they are still there none-the-less. I guess I’m just going to have to face them head on. I’ve already started the process going and will be taking my Wednesdays off to work the business starting next week. I better make it count because I’m making a fairly large sacrifice of my daily time to get my Wednesdays off…
Oh well. Just thought I’d vomit out what’s been in the back of my mind lately.
I’ve managed to go for a brisk walk every day that I’ve been at work this week -and I will say that I’m starting to get back that feeling I used to have when I was in shape. I actually enjoy that feeling; an accelerated heart rate, sweating, panting…working my body out. I’m getting it back. Watching the latest episode of “The Greatest Loser” show was a little inspirational too. I haven’t started dropping the weight off but I’m not worried. It’s just a matter of time now. I am also expecting to start the 5 daily meal plan this coming Monday.
It was suggested to me to start reading Entrepreneur magazine so I’ve been reading it instead of my usual Maximum PC when I go the sit on the toilet. I’ve learned a lot recently. I also have a ton of additional ideas that I can now explore regarding other possible business directions I can go it. Their recent article that has got me thinking the most is their “Hot Trends”. They are listing some of the most recent trends in the US economy and how to possible do business in response to it. One of the things that was mentioned was “Life Caching”. That’s due to the fact that people are taking photos now more than ever since digital cameras are very affordable and there is no money spent on film. The problem is that most consumers aren’t well adept at managing the data once they’ve collected it. A possible service I can provide is management of photo websites, archiving, or even training.
I finally found my perfect pen! I remember finding these little gems at a Hallmark store years ago. I liked them at the time simply because they were thin and fit in my planner quite well. Over time, I stopped using them (AND my planner) and finally settled on the Pilot Precise v7 Rolling Ball pen:
It has a 0.7mm tip which I have found to be the perfect size for my writing. 1.0mm was way too wide and 0.5mm felt like it was scratching the paper. Well now that I’m starting to use my planner again, I’ve found that my old, trusty Pilot is just too large and bleeds through the paper too easily. I searched through all the office supply stores in town with no luck finding anything similar to the Le Pen. So with hope in my heart, I strolled on into the Hallmark store and there they were! All these years later and they’re still being sold there! Now that I’ve used them all over my office, I see just how much I prefer them over the Pilot. What’s amazing is the fact that the Le Pen has a tip of only 0.3mm yet it flows much easier and bolder. Now that I know, I’m never going back!
Isn’t this sort of information sickening to read? Who cares about what pen I use besides me? I don’t know but if you’re still reading this I thank you for paying me this much attention!!!
Well I had an appointment with a landscape designer this Saturday to do about 4 hours of work for him (at a fairly nice pay rate) in the hopes of developing some more business (which is still in the works). I was already driving to his office when I decided to call and let him know that I would be a couple of minuets late when I found out that he wasn’t even there! He had to rain-check the appointment but never told me. So as I was driving back home trying to make the best out the situation, I thought of what I had just learned from this experience:
1. Call to confirm all appointments.
2. Establish a fee schedule that includes a penalty for canceling an appointment within a certain time frame.
3. Discuss these terms before any work is done -with ANY client.
All-in-all, I’d say it was a pretty decent educational day for me!
What was intended to be a meeting about retirement planning turned out to be a pretty helpful talk about getting me off my butt and start my business NOW!
For the record, here are some of the things I took away from that meeting:
1) $3,000,000.00 That’s what I need to manage to save in the next 30 years. Not impossible nor even improbable if I start fairly soon and do some pretty aggressive investing while I can. Compounding interest should take care of the rest. When I’m 65, My house will be paid off, my kids will be gone, so I’ll only need about 70% of my income now to live. In addition, the average rate of inflation suggests that prices usually quadrulpe every 30 years so I’ll need to follow the same logic with my current income: $50,000/yr x 4 (inflation) @ 70% = $140,000/yr retirement income when I’m 65.
2) I can start saving for that amount through a combination of plans. A Roth-IRA will cover a lot of it but the limit of $3,000/yr will obviously limit some of that (considering my goal is to save $10,000/yr). One option with this situation is to hire my wife into my business and pay her an annual salary of $4,000/yr. That way she’ll be able to start her own Roth-IRA and as a family we’ll essentially double our savings throught that vehicle.
3) I think I’ve been “over planning” my business plan. I was actually thinking this would take me nearly a year to be in a place where I can get started. Brad jumped on me about this conception. I am now working within a “90-day business plan” that will essentially take me to the point where I have a business license, business cards, a fee schedeule, and beteen 10 and 15 companies under my belt as customers (I currently only have 3). This excites me as I now feel like the light at the end of the tunnel is a LOT closer to me!
4) I need to get out of working in Van Nuys…NOW!! Not only is the commute slowly killing me (and my poor car), it’s preventing any chance of marketing myself and my business offerings to local companies. I either need to negociate a new work schedule or I need to find a job closer to home that I take advantage of by using my lunches and earlier evening times to meet other businesses and sell my wares. I will be talking with my bosses this week about the possiblity of working 4-10 hour days in each week to leave my wednesday open (or something like that). The only problem with that is that I’ll need to get to work around 7am and leave at 6pm. I’ll be leaving home at 5am and getting home around 8pm most of the time. That’s a pretty tough schedule to maintain and still have a life in the evenings. I’m willing to give it a try for a week and see how I survive. The fact that the 10 hours days would only be 2 in a row so that may help making them a lot more bearable.
5) I’m reading Entrepreneur magazine now for more input. I’m going to be running through the phonebook looking for prospective businesses to solicit, I’m goint to ask my existing clients if they know any possible referrals…working my business!
I think that God is sending me more signals this past week. I was approached by a company to do some document scanning and digitizing. They want their office to be “paperless” and need electronic versions of their forms and the like. I also have been listening to the news about the Robert Blake trial. It seems that the lawyer’s apartment was burglarized and his computer was stolen. Well as the reporters started talking, I find out that the trial has taken so long due to the fact that there are literally tens of thousands of documents to be referenced and checked for the trial. All the docs needed to be scanned and put in a database to be “readily accessible” during the trial. Also, one of the main reasons that Blake fired his first attorney was because of cost. The original lawyer wanted to use a document scanning company that he’d done business with in the past but was a fairly costly company to use and Blake managed to find an alternative company on his own to do the scanning and indexing. Hmm… All this happened this past week! Candi and I sat down with the document that this company wanted scanned and digitized and estimated that it may cost them $14,000 for the work if we do it! I don’t know what they’ll say or decide but if we get the contract it could be a good place to start from. I already have a document feeder for my scanner and the required software to do the OCR operations.
So it’s looking like I may be creating a company that simply offers a “hodge podge” of services, as a friend recently described. If I haven’t done it in the past, I’m sure I can figure it out! I’m not interested in working on their computers or networks, but just about any other technical operations that need doing I can probably do.
So here’s a list of services that we’re thinking of doing so far:
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-AutoCAD drafting
-AutoCAD training
-Computer training (office productivity improvements)
-Mass document scanning and digitizing
-Office data backup solutions
-Notary Public
-Real Estate appraisal
-Custom map making
-3D animations for engineering concepts
-Website creation and management
-Digital photography and editing
Possible additions to look into in the future:
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-Computerized bookkeeping/accounting support
-Virtual Private Networking setup
So I’ve been commuting for a good portion of this past year from Rosamond to Van Nuys (that’s around 130 miles a day). I tried to take the train but that would mean getting on the train at 5:15am and getting home at 7:30pm for a full day’s work [no thank you]. Then a land developer started telling me just how cheaper it would be to build deluxe busses with plush seats and special creature cumforts and use the existing roads. It would cost MUCH less than building another rail system -and people could even “buy their seat” for a month or something. There’s flexibility to take a group of people to places that rail would simply not be able to go -so it could get you closer to a job site than the current rail system. The extra cost would be justified by the travelling comfort and shorter commute when compared to rail…
So I’m starting to wonder how hard it would be to start an independent bus line just for business commuters. Install a mobile internet connection and outlets for each of their laptops, provide spacious seats and coffee, maybe even TV reception… heck, I’d want to travel that way! That sort of thing would make ME want to pay more!
I wonder if I could pull that off…
Started reading the Business Plan Bible from Start-up Malta this past week. I’ve realized that it’s a very similar document to a resume -only 100 times more work to prepare. Considering the fact that I have helped literally hundreds of people write and improve their resumes, I felt right at home reading much of the principles of the book. I now see just how little prepared I am for starting my own business and just how much work I have ahead of me to get it going! I think this is a good thing though. Firstly, I’ve decided to to the “Executive Summary” last. There are several schools of thought on this one and I have subscribed to the one that simply states that your plan should be fleshed out before writing this part. I now have found that I’m going to be doing a lot of research in the next few months doing true and honest market research. I need to know who my competition is and what the real business climate is here in my area and abroad. I’m meeting with a retirement planning specialist early next week so that will help me better plan my ultimate goals and time frame. Looks like things are continuing to come together…
Left early today for work (6am) and managed to get to work ON TIME (8am)! What is wrong with this picture? A job in Van Nuys is the problem. I am pretty ambivalent about it though. I just love the people and the work I do. I’m learning a lot and enjoy the atmosphere. It’s by far the smallest company I’ve ever worked for -and the smartest bunch of people I’ve even learned from. They are even working with me to learn some of their more complicated programs so that some of their main design work can be offloaded from their primary foreman (and give him some well-deserved off time). I know it would be an investment for the company to put the time into me, and I have stated fairly clearly that my intention is to start my own business eventually so I will not be with them forever -or even that long. So it’s not like they are unaware of my plans, but I still feel bad knowing that I’ll be leaving in the future. Then again, I am providing a service while I’m here, I am bringing value and profit to the company with the work that I do. That isn’t a disservice!
I met with the owner of a landscaping company last night in person with my wife and we talked about his business and his needs. I indicated that I’m currently taken for the week with other work but would be able to start testing the waters next week. By using my own software and equipment, I would be charging $40/hr for the work and he thought that was a fair price. What’s amazing is that no one has actually seen samples of my work! I guess I can talk a good talk. This work looks like it would be a good addition to my client base as there is definitely not 40 hours of solid work here but it could grow in the next couple of years as he has plans to expand their services to pools and room additions. Candi has also told me that she is interested in learning how to draft with AutoCAD so I’m going to be installing it on her own computer so I can slowly teach her the basics and then get her started as well. We’re thinking of the name “Night Owl Drafting”…
I’ve got to start working more on my business plan here as it looks like things are getting started and moving along faster than I had expected so I need to make sure I’m making the right decisions.
create your own visited states map
I guess it’s fairly easy to see now that I grew up in Illinois, went to school in Florida, and then traveled across the South to California!
I’ve got a lot on my mind lately. I visited a website while I was at home sick yesterday called Start-up Nation and managed to find a massive amount of resources to start-up up your own business. I managed to get parked on one of the very first guides on this page! I’ve been thinking about those very important questions for the past 24 hours. Here are some of their points and my thoughts:
-Decide on the “End” and Backtrack: What a difference! I now realize just how far off I was in planning for my business. I never once considered just how I’d like my business to look when I’ve “arrived”. I also decided to ask Candi what she would envision the business to look like were she to have a say in things
-Ask Yourself about Retirement: Once again, something I’ve never thought of. I now see that I need to think about this and come up with some figures. If I don’t have an idea of how I’d like to retire, I may not know when it’s time to stop!
-What is your Risk Level?: Very important question to look at as a family. I need to honestly and realistically look at what it’s going to take to get a business off the ground. If the cost is too high, something has to change!
All in all, this one little page has given me a lot to think about and a lot to consider.Candi and I are now doing some of this together as I finally came to my senses and decided to include her in this journey!
Candi’s going to be gone most of Saturday. I’m planning on going to see mom for a good part of the day but I’m also planning on making that a good day of reflection, prayer, thought, and planning. Dave has give me a lot to think about and I think I need a good few concurrent hours of undisturbed time to sort through them all.
My mind has been spinning with ideas for my business. Are there other services I could provide for engineers in the area? Maybe printing and scanning services? Training programs? Minor technical support? Who knows! I’m going to have to research any of these avenues before doing anything but it’s good to see that I have several options as well as just drafting and design work.
I was called this morning for an evening teaching position in LA for AutoCAD. It sounded pretty good but they want me to work Mon – Thurs. and I just can’t give up my Wed. nights for work. The nice thing is that they’re still interested in me for substitute instructor when any of them go out of town -still with the stipulation that Wed. night is off. He sounded pretty willing to give that a go. I’ve sent him my resume so we’ll just have to see what they can do. He even has a certification program through LA county or something for any of their instructors. Sounds good to me!
Looks like God is still guiding my life (like he always is)…
So here are some of the questions I’m starting to build up:
1) Do I need a business license?
2) Do I need to be “bonded”?
3) Are there different ways of handling my taxes when I work for myself?
4) Do I need to “incorporate” or anything like that?
5) What are some of the other services I can provide independent engineering projects?
6) Could I get a government grant for starting a small business?
7) What are some areas where Candi could help out?
8) How can I setup the business so that I, alone, am not the “single point of failure”? Could I train someone to do this too?
9) what would be my REAL operating costs on a yearly basis? Software costs? If I start commercial printing and scanning, how would this affect my utility bills?
10) Can I setup a teaching program in my garage? From a space standpoint and legal standpoint? If not, where could I rent/lease the space?
well.. that’s for starters!
I just called and verified that my AC is now up and working! Two winters without a furnace and one hellish summer without any sort of cooling other than a few fans and open windows. God I can’t wait to go home!!! It’s been a long road and it’s finally over. Still I’m in a daze over the weekend. Another few days with little sleep and lots of allergy problems. I’m expecting a lot of that to go away after the house gets closed up and the air is finally filtered and controlled. A lot less dust and pollen will be floating into my place over the night.
My first real side job client is looking like he may back out of the deal. I’m not too upset about it as I was hoping to get out of it myself as I have bitten off more than I can chew anyways. I may still work with him to get some of the smaller jobs done but probably nothing after that. His accountant may be another story altogether though! If I can figure out VPN connections for her, I’ll have about 30 companies to set up for her! I sure hope I don’t screw that one up…