My definition

Wantrepreneur (wan·tre·pre·neur): An aspiring entrepreneur that hasn’t experienced a great deal of success. One who has trouble referring to oneself as an entrepreneur with out feeling a little strange. Essentially someone who wants to be an entrepreneur or a wannabe entrepreneur.

I didn’t invent this word but I have been using it without knowing others were also using it. After doing a couple of searches on the internet I found some others who have also been using the term with similar meanings associated with it. There is a couple of people that have titled their blog with wantrepreneur. There is a group is Scotland which apparently is the Scotland’s next generation of entrepreneurs . I don’t necessarily agree with how they define being an wantrepreneur, but understand where they are coming from. I think you can have resources and support and still feel like or be a wantrepreneur.

What makes it ok to call yourself an entrepreneur? Is the desire to become an entrepreneur enough? Do you need to have been successful in your endeavors or can someone that has tried and failed. I sometimes joke that the main criteria is being able to spell the word entrepreneur but I finally figured that out after enough repetitions of it.

Personally I think being an entrepreneur is more of a mindset than anything. Entrepreneurs think differently than others. We (like how I included myself in that category) look for opportunities in every aspect of our lives. We lay in bed thinking about how do something a little bit differently. We often find yourself saying I could do that better or there has got to be a better way to do that!

Are you an entrepreneur, a wantrepreneur, or somewhere in the middle?

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On Thursday I got to opportunity to help one of my partners by being a roadie for his show that he was promoting. I was amazed at the amount of equipment and effort that is required just to put on a little concert. I showed up at about 9 am and unloaded the trailer. Then we unpacked and set up lighting, audio, and the stage until about noon. That was when they let all of the helpers go, the actual road crew still had to hook everything up and test it. So who knows how long they were there preparing for the concert.

Later on that evening I attended the concert that went off quite well. After the concert was finished every one got right to packing up all of the stuff that we had just got done unpacking and setting up. I left the events center at about 12:45 in the evening feeling very content that I was not a roadie full time.

I am sure there are people that would love that job, but I would absolutely hate it. Every day they show up in some random city, unload the same stuff, setup the same stuff, test the same stuff. Then they probably get a couple of free hours to check out the city. Then they go and watch the same show that they have seen a bunch of times. After the show they pack up and crawl into their lovely bed on a tour bus. What a day!

I don’t think that I could take that kind of a lifestyle. I need a little variety in my life, especially with my career. That is one of the greatest benefits of being a wan-trepreneur, there is always something different every day.

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I was just reading an article about a google service that has been available for a while but was listed as a new google labs project. Goggle voice local search, I am pretty excited about it since I used to be a frequent 411 user. I am kinda angry thinking about all of the times I needed an number and had to fork out $.75.

• This service can be accessed by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411)
• Using this service, you can: search for a local business by name or category. You can say “Giovanni’s Pizzeria” or just “pizza”.
• Get connected to the business, free of charge.
• Get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone. Just say “text message”.

I haven’t given this a try yet to see how well the voice recognition works but the next time I need a number I will give it a try.

I am curious how this is going to effect companies like 1-800-free-411. From the article it states that this service has captured 6% of the 411 market. So it will be interesting to see how google will affect the market. Pretty soon I think we all will have to factor google into our business planning. Every business might need to ask the question “is there a chance that google will create a free service that does what I am charging people for?”

I am also a huge fan of google SMS, which enables you to text a simple query to 466453 and get an answer texted back to you. I often use this feature to get Bronco’s scores when I am at church or away from a TV during the game.

I also installed google desktop for my mac, which was just released the other day. At first I wasn’t sure I would need the desktop on my mac since OSX has the spotlight search feature built in. Turns out that the google desktop is actually a little quicker than spotlight is. I am still deciding if I will keep it on my computer or just use spotlight. I am inclined to use which ever will save me the most time.

What are some of your favorite google apps?

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I ran across this great little game this morning called lemonade stand. The game is quite simple, but still even in its simplicity requires some knowledge and strategy of the “basics of business”. You are directly responsible for pricing, quality control, inventory control, and purchasing supplies. You also have to deal with some of the uncontrollable elements of business as demonstrated in this game by the weather conditions, spoilage, and contamination. Customer feedback also plays an important part in this game. As with any feed back it can either be implemented or ignored.

How many of our businesses could be boiled down to a simple game that a couple of factors can greatly influence the amount of money that you make on any given day? What can we do to help keep those factors in check and make us more money?

Give it a try. The introduction for the game explains some of the elements and theories to the game better than I could.

I ended up making $64.07 at the end of 30 days. Let me know how you do.

This game is pretty fun as well but not nearly as principal rich as lemonade stand but still entertaining. Buying and selling real estate till you can afford the big mansion.

Mansion Impossible

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I have been meaning to blog about this site for quite along time. The neglect ends here, better late than never.

I am not exactly sure how I came across this site but I try and visit everyday and enter their daily drawing. The site is www.inbubblewrap.com, inbubblewrap(IBW) holds a drawing for a business book every day of the work week. It is absolutly free, I didn’t really believe that at first but I can personally attest that you can win at no cost. The best explination of the site is from their FAQ.

“Well to make a long story short, we love business. We love talking about it and we love doing business. iBW is our way to share this love (wrapped in Bubble Wrap) with you.

iBW is a site dedicated to giving you the opportunity to win FREE business related prizes. Each day (Monday – Friday) brings a new contest with new prizes for you to win. All prizes are business related whether it’s the latest set of business books, nifty office supplies or advice from a business book author.

New offers are launched daily at 9 a.m. (Central Time) and run for 24 hours.

Did we mention that everything is sent in Bubble Wrap? What could be better than free prizes and an afternoon of bubble popping entertainment? Just a note, when in an office cube, try to save all bubble popping until after office hours. Or wait until your coworker falls asleep on his desk as it would make for a good wake-up call (please, for the sake of your career, do not try this with your boss in hearing range).”

So far I have entered 162 drawings and won 9 of those drawings. So not the greatest winning percentage I have ever seen, but hey who cares its free. The books do really come in bubble wrap, which one of my partners (ahhem, Robb) loves to annoy me with by popping them in my office.

So give it a try. It doesn’t take very long to fill out the daily entry form (2 random questions that your answers don’t really matter) and you are entered into their daily drawing.

Here is a list of the books that I have won to date:

(I have been less than diligent and reading all of these books so unfortunately I don’t have much to say about the individual books, yet.)

• Succeed on Your Own Terms
• Let My People Go Surfing
• Success Built to Last
• The Real Deal
• More Space
• Wikinomics (currently reading)
• It’s Called Work for a Reason
• Citizen Marketers
• Think Two Products Ahead

In case you are wondering I am in no way being paid to write this article or are making any money off of you entering in their daily contest. In fact I am probably costing them money and decreasing my chances of winning by getting more people to sign up.

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Over the past couple months I have been running a couple of our websites Campman.com, Dailymemories.com, and Outdoordaily.com.   It has been quite a learning experience for me.  One of my biggest takeaways has been how important customer service is on a website.

I am no stranger to customer service in the offline world.  I spend 3 years as a server at Mimi’s Café, which I am sure some of those experiences will make their way onto a post or two in the future.  The difference between the levels of customer service is like night and day.  To me customer service on the web is so much easier.

I have had a whole myriad of experiences with customer service from these sites.  I have had the pleasure of dealing with shipping problems, backorders, people not comfortable with purchasing something over the Internet, and much more.  The one thing that remains constant with each of these issues is communication with customers.  Even the most irate customers can become your biggest cheering sections with just a prompt response email or a return call.

What has your experience been with customer service via the Internet?  Is it easier to keep your customers happy or more difficult over the web?

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So today I made an attempt to venture into the world of winter sports.  I have skied once or twice but needless to say will not be joining the Olympic team anytime soon.

I have always wanted to try snowboarding and I had this dream that it would just come naturally to me.  Well I will save you the suspense; I didn’t come naturally to me at all. In fact when it was all said and done I left the slopes with my arms and face all scraped up.   It got to the point when I was on the mountain that I just had to cut my losses and give up for the day.

In my life sometimes there are times when I have to face that I can’t do something.  Sometimes it means I can’t ever do it and sometimes it just means I should quit while I am ahead and try again later.  I haven’t decided which one this will be but I know one thing I was more frustrated than I have been in a while.  I have learned that when my frustration gets to that level it is most of the time better to take a break and give it a try another time.

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I have read a couple of posts from some of the bloggers that I subscribe to on the subject of their favorite business tools/ essential business tools.  They were older posts and I can’t seem to find them to link to but when I do I will update this post.  So I figured I would weigh in on the subject.  So here are some of the tools that I need to function on a day-to-day basis.

Powerbook -  I made the switch over to Apple about two years ago and I don’t think I could go back to the pc world.  I am not going to get into the debate about which is better and reasons why.  In fact I don’t think either one is better, I believe that you should go with what works for you.  So for me a Apple just works better.  I am more productive and tasks are easier for me to accomplish on an apple.  There is probably not a day that goes by where I am not on my laptop.

Internet – I love the Internet, to me it’s the ultimate tool.  It seems that I turn to the internet for most everything.  When I am away from the internet longer that like a half day it makes me feel kind jumpy and anxious.  Since I got my Blackberry it seems to help curb the need for constant Internet access.  Some would say it’s a problem

Blackberry – I purchased my blackberry in June and couldn’t imagine my day with out it.  I actually got it after taking a vacation where I could only get on the internet through dial-up.  I forgot how long it took to download an attachment on dial-up.  My blackberry allows me to manage my emails, get on gtalk, and get onto the internet from where ever I am.

I would be interested to know what your essential tools are.

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I have always had it out for Emoticon and finally someone agrees with me. I was reading Inc. Magazine and ran across this lovely gem of an article. The author is on a quest to end the usage of emotions in all communication. A quest that I will more than happily join in on. Here is an excerpt from here article outlining her plan:

“Now when I say I am no champion of lost causes, that doesn’t mean I’ll never take a shot. So I hereby announce a (probably quixotic) campaign to banish emoticons. My plan is to subvert the reason for the devices’ existence–instant, painfully dumbed-down communication–by substituting for them long, verbose paragraphs describing in detail what the displaced symbols look like and what they are meant to express.

So, for example, consider this e-mail message: “Dear Bob–Glad to hear you finally got around to joining the gym. I was running out of suckers to pound at racquetball.” Those sentences would normally be annotated with a smiley symbol. I propose, however, following them with something like this: Picture if you will a colon: one tiny, perfect dot poised above its brother. Now imagine that colon transformed into a pair of eyes, bright and sparkling with mischief. From between those dots extends a hyphen. Yet screw up your eyes and…do you see it? A nose! Yes, a nose! Patrician in its straightness it dips toward the generous curve of a closing parenthesis. That parenthesis is a mouth, corners up-tilted in mirth. Viewed in sum, these marks compose a face whose expression of gentle amusement suggests the good humor intended in the previous remark.”

I think her plan is quite creative and just might work to illustrate the ubsurdity of those freaky yellow things to those certain people who love to send emoticons in every email, im, and every correspondence.
If you disagree and just can’t stop using emoticons then you should check out the wikipedia article and at least find some new creative ones that they have listed.

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Today I had a very informative meeting with Brent Dick of Carpet Care Craftsman. His firm is the leader in carpet cleaning in the Colorado Springs area. They have some huge accounts like Lockheed Martin. He was kind enough to take some time out of his day to sit and counsel me a bit on my journey into the carpet industry.

During the course of our meeting he made some comments that really resonated with me. He said he never sees other firms as competition. He sees carpet cleaning as a sort of brotherhood, there is a lot of business to go around and by helping one another it just increases the size of the pie for everyone.

I thought that was so refreshing to hear, especially in an environment of such fierce competition in business. What would happen if we all thought that way in every business endeavor? Would that work for every market and every business? Or is there only certain business’ that can handle the brotherhood approach?

I think that it is up to the new generation of entrepreneurship to try techniques like this and see if they work. Its kind of a “love is the killer app” type of thinking, but hopefully will help to better the lives and business of all that are involved.

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