Time Runs Out - Use It Wisely

Its been 5 days since I wrote my last post at Blogtrepreneur. I think this has been the longest time between articles since the start of the .com era of this blog, so if you’ve been waiting and wanting more posts, then I apologize (even though you shouldn’t really apologize to your readers for not posting - Blogging Rule Of Thumb No.1!)

Anyway, life has become rather hectic for me. In general, lessons are more demanding, taking up more time at home and at school so Im unable to do the stuff I really want to do (make sites, populate them, write, go on the internet…) At the same time I’ve been playing a bit of tennis recently and have a tournament coming up on Saturday. More exciting news includes starting a company at my school for Young Enterprise, which is a program lasting a year, which allows school pupils to have a taste of what running a real business is like. Fortunately for me, Im the Financial Director (always had a soft spot for Maths), and so am in charge of the money! I couldn’t think of anything better to do.

No doubt I’ll be going into that in more detail, but I won’t give away my ideas just yet, in case my competitors are lurking around this blog! Other news in my life includes the start of a monthly fast. Now in general (apart from the one time) you’ve hardly heard me talk about religion. Its not something that I like to bring into an entrepreneur blog, however at the same time, I feel its important to let the reader have an insight into the type of stuff I do. The fast (in the month of Ramadan) includes not eating or drinking from sunrise till sunset. The idea behind this is to gain discipline, to see how life would be like for those less fortunate than I am, and also acts as a useful detox for the body. Fasting and religion as a whole helps to give me direction in life, now while this may not be the case for everyone, I think it definitely gives me a headstart as an entrepreneur.

So what am I trying to get at in this run-down of my life events. Time is a commodity and one which you have to use wisely. Many people have talked about the different ways you can manage your time (divide each part into 10 minute section etc), but use whichever method suits you, otherwise - like me - you’ll see yourself missing out on vital opportunities, having many delays, missing posts and generally feeling down in the dumps because you havn’t got time to do the stuff that you were planning.

Look After Your Customers - And They’ll Look After You!

First up as a little update, I would like to thank all those who linked to me in this week’s Group Writing Project on Problogger. I wrote a post called 5 Ways To Piss Off An Entrepreneur which was received very well. In total I had new commenters which I always love, and a whole load of pingbacks (7 in all). I noticed that quite a lot of people posted the whole list of 343 entries to their blogs, but I won’t do that!

Getting back to the topic in hand, on my weekly round through the blogosphere a while back, I commented on a particular bloggers post. He was fairly high profile (I won’t mention names, as in reality he is a nice guy) but after waiting for a few weeks I didn’t get a reply back. Now my comment wasn’t spam; it complimented his blog, blogging style and in the mix I asked him a few questions as well.

When I checked back on his blog a few days ago, I realised that someone else had commented after me in the same sort of admiring style to the author’s work. However, the author had written a reply to that person’s comment and had neglected mine without even thanking me for dropping by. Now, just so you know that I wasn’t being fussy, the same thing happened to me on someone else’s blog. It’s been driving me up the wall, and I wanted to talk about how (as a blogmaster) you should respond to commenters.

People don’t actually have to comment on your posts. For most of the time (bar the spammers) they do so out of kindness and generosity, and mostly always have nice things to say, humorous comments and great attitudes. In return for this, all it takes for you is to say at least 1 word, “Thankyou“. Being a good host is not only key for blogging and being on the internet but it relates directly to real life as well.

Read more

Economics - My First Few Lessons

Never in my whole life have I loved a subject as much as Economics. Even before the school year started I was anticipating this topic the most and it sure hasn’t let me down! Already I’ve learnt so much about the business world that I thought I’d give you a taster of what I’ve been learning in Year 12.

I have 7 Economics periods a week, each of them consisting of 40 minute lessons. Overall I have 3 teachers who are all pretty cool, and that just makes it even more fun to learn. By the way, please correct me if Im wrong about any of the following facts - Im still learning! Anyway, we spend a bit of time looking at macro-economics (looking at a whole economy rather than just one company), and then we look at how the market works (like demand and supply).

I also heard my teachers saying the word “entrepreneur” for the first time in any of my classes before. Just the word sent shivers up my spine, as I don’t talk about my online activity with my schoolmates. Im still not sure why, but I just prefer to keep it that way, at least then if I become successful online, it will come as a complete surprise to them!

I’ve also learnt the workings of interest and inflation. It was really interesting to know how hard it must be the the Chancellor to keep the UK on budget and to continue economic growth at the same time without encouraging a boom period (which is normally followed by a horrific depression) or a shrinking of the economy (which in reality decreases the standard of living). While Im here I might as well go over the 4 main government objectives that were drilled into our heads. Im guessing these are important:

• Economic Growth - measured in GDP (Gross Domestic Product or National Output)
• Low Unemployment - and therefore high employment figures
• A small trade deficit - this means that we’re importing more than we’re exporting here in the UK, but because we have few valuable natural resources, that’s not that much of a problem.
• Low inflation - measured in RPI

I know this might all sound like jibberish to you, especially if you havn’t studied economics, but simply talking about business in school is a huge tick in my box and with the added project of Young Enterprise (which I will come to in a later post), Im finding myself enjoying every minute of these lessons which is a big change from last year!

5 Ways To Piss Off An Entrepreneur

I’ve been meaning to write this post for quite some time, but now that Problogger Darren Rowse has posted up his latest Group Writing Project I thought I’d put fingers to keyboard and start typing. What’s more exciting is that there are $1800 worth of prizes to be won in this project, so hopefully if I have a bit of luck on my side I could get a nice kick out of this post! Anyway, here it is and sorry if the title is a bit on the abusive side - there was no other way to get the message across - and anyway, most readers like a catchy opening!

Entrepreneurs are constantly wanting to move forward - believe me I know the feeling. I hate staying in the same position and am always looking for new ways in which to progress with my projects whether they be on the internet or in “real life”. You might call entrepreneurs a little shortly strung (in reality patience is key), but nevertheless here are ways to annoy an entrepreneur:

1) Cut off the broadband: I can’t think of anything worse than not being able to access the internet. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to have any international networking and therefore I would have to start a proper offline business. And let’s face it, these can be irritating at the best of times, and can be costly. And don’t mention dial-up to any internet savvy person (just speaking about it sends shivers up my spine!)

2) Give ‘em a 9 to 5: Oh no what will they do without their morning lie in? Unlike the majority of the working population, entrepreneurs are able to have a reasonably flexible working schedule. So when they have to set an alarm to wake up early, tempers will be lost!

3) The dreaded boss: One of the main entrepreneurial benefits is the BMOB (Be My Own Boss). Once you take that away, the entrepreneur is left working under a gruelling dictator who sets your own lunch breaks and gives you special doggy treat bonus packages if you work extra hard.

4) Cell phone destruction: The cell phone (that’s a mobile for those who speak proper English!) is used by an active entrepreneur nearly 24/7. Whether they’re involving themselves in a business deal, chatting to their designer about new prospects, or giving their mothers laundry instructions, without a mobile telecommunicator an entrepreneur becomes a standard Joe who has no communication with anyone but those within a 100 metre radius. And that can’t be too good if you’re wanting global recognition?

5) Noise, noise, noise: Finally, the surest way to piss me off is to continually talk around me or have noises in the background whenever Im trying to do an important piece of work. As a general rule of thumb, I never have music on when I work, and I try and close all doors to shield out the family. Blasting heavy beats in my face, sister-brother bickering and non-peace will be sure to drive me over the edge.

If you have any more points which irritate the heavens out of you as an entrepreneur, then leave a comment so that everyone can see - I really want this to be a long list of all the stuff that makes us mad. Also don’t forget to Digg this, if you thought it was good!

Mistakes Happen - Ask Tiger

I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. Ask any golf fans in this part of the UK as well and they would tell you that this Saturday and Sunday would be special. Today is the final of the HSBC World Matchplay at Wentworth and all of the top pros were going to be at the event which was starting on Thursday. The most anticipated golfer appearing at the tournament was the one and only Tiger Woods. I’ve always wanted to see Tiger in the flesh and so this was definitely going to be a very special moment - for me as a young aspiring golfer.

Unfortunately, I was at school for the first day of play on Thursday when Tiger was playing another American called Shaun Micheel. To my absolute horror, Tiger got knocked out, in a straight 4 & 3 loss (for those non-golfers reading, this means that Tiger was 4 holes down with 3 left to play - so he lost). I was devastated, as I knew that Tiger wouldn’t therefore be playing at the weekend and that I wouldn’t get to see him - shock, horror!

According to Mr Woods, his putting just wasn’t on form, “I felt like I hit the ball pretty decent all day but I just didn’t make any putts.” And sure enough it was his putting that let him down. The stormy weather the night before must have had an impact on the greens, but other than that you can’t put the blame on anything else apart from Tiger. But mistakes do happen. In his past 5 tournaments, Woods has won all of them and so this just goes to show how nothing is set in stone.

I suppose the same comparison can be made to business and entrepreneurship; at one point you think you’ve got everything sorted and in the bag, the next moment you’ve got a problem which needs sorting out or it threatens the destruction of your company. But mistakes are inevitable as well. You can’t be perfect but when you do make mistakes - learn from them. There’s nothing worse than repeating the same wrong move you already made a few years back, with the same dreadful outcome.

No doubt Tiger’s going to come back from this embarrasing defeat with a vengeance, and no doubt that he’ll stage a big upset at the Ryder Cup which starts this Friday - Im so excited, but I won’t be let down again!

Next Page »