Because of the nature of my business, I sometimes talk to startup entrepreneurs with a dollar and a dream. Which is fine. But sometimes, these dreams seem a little far-fetched to me. Usually when that happens, MLM or Network Marketing is involved.

Let me be plain up front - I am not a fan of MLM. Not at all. I think it’s a sleazy way of doing business, because the basic premise isn’t honest. The focus of the business is not on the products and services, despite what anyone says - the focus is on building a network.

Every now and again, I get asked to write sales copy for network marketers. I’m not one to turn down paying work, so if you want to hire me and take your shot with your MLM company, I’ll be happy to help (although if you ask, I’ll give you my opinion of MLM).  

But, I *do* have to feel good about it. That wasn’t the case today.

Two weeks ago, a woman gave me a deposit of $750 to write a few sales pages. We were going to do a typical site - Home | About | Products | The Opportunity | FAQ | Contact.  

This kind of thing I can get behind - we’ll sell product, we’ll have a page talking about “the opportunity”, etc - it seemed pretty close to a normal business. I was scheduled to start the project this week.

The today, she e-mails me “the rules”, as laid down by the company. One of the products she’s selling is Sprint wireless service… but I’m not allowed to use the name Sprint. She’s also selling something called Clear4G, and I can’t mention that name either.

Huh? How am I supposed to sell a product online when I can’t mention the name? Sorry, no dice - I’m not doing it. I can’t in good conscience say to her “ok, here are your sales pages” when I *know* they aren’t going to sell squat.

So I call her and explain my point - she says “ok, how about just writing a lead capture page for the opportunity?”. We discussed it, but the same rules apply - I can’t use any names. I could just talk about “National Companies”, “Wireless” “4G” etc etc. 

Yea, that’s do-able to a point, but you know, it’s not do-able by me. I don’t like pie-in-the-sky BS, and I don’t write for it. I also felt bad for my client - she was a bit bummed at these rules herself. The whole thing just didn’t feel right.

So I did the only thing I felt I could: I refunded her money. Even though I booked time for her, I could not keep this person’s money and do work I didn’t believe in. I’ll eat the time loss - I’ll be fine.

I may be $750 poorer, but I’ll sleep tonight. And I believe in Karma and stuff (that’s fodder for another post) - that $750 will come back to me.

Yes, despite the title, this post is about work. Or more importantly, recreation related to work. Or maybe it’s just so I can say I wrote about cigars and scotch in my blog in a feeble attempt to claim a tax deduction on my latest vice purchases.

I just got back from the cigar store, having purchased two smokes - one for later tonight, and one for next week. I really like cigars a lot, but I also realize they aren’t that good for you, so I limit my intake to about one a week from April-November (once it gets cold out, I don’t smoke, as I smoke outside.)

Anyway, after tax, I spent 20-something dollars total for these two smokes. Got a Pardron 4000 Maduro that I can’t wait to try (that’s tonight’s smoke), and one of my old favorites, a Romeo Y Julieta Cedaro #2 (this is my go-to stick). Combined with this cigar burning will be a bottle of Glenlivit 18 year-old, simply one of the finest single malt scotches out there. The bottle retailed for about $90 here in NY.

This post isn’t to impress you about what I smoke/drink. To start, you likely don’t care, and I’m sure many people would say I’m stupid for spending $90 on scotch when the same size bottle of Johnny Walker Red is $15. And that’s fine. I do admit I have developed expensive tastes in this regard (I also drink fairly expensive beer and coffee), but really, I mention the prices to more or less make a point about work.

And that point is I noticed my tastes for this stuff rose along with the income I produced. Yea, there was a time in my life when I bought the Walker Red and convenience store cigars (MSRP $5 for 6). And that time was when I was working one of my many jobs, making $30-$40k. I also drove a used Nissan Altima during this time, and bought cheap “Skil” tools, a far cry from the nice truck and DeWalt drill I now have.

Now, let me tell you - the “top end” stuff is worth the money. It simply tastes/performs/drives better. It’s unlikely there are many scotch drinkers out there that actually prefer the Red to the Glenlivit 18 y/o. And there are likely no cigar aficionados that, given the choice where money was no object, would light up a Dutch Masters over that Padron that’s sitting in my garage. But when you bring price into the equation, things change. A 28 y/o Dan would have never, ever spent $90 on a bottle of scotch, no matter how good it was. Because 28 y/o Dan didn’t have that kind of money to throw around. Truthfully, 28 y/o Dan was pretty broke (good looking, but broke). Part of the problem was I was working for money, and not success.

In the end, when you boil it right down, technically, we all work for money. But it’s deeper than that for me and people like me (other entrepreneurs, etc). I don’t want just money. I can get money working at WalMart. I want success. For some people, success is millions. For others, it’s just a roof. And for others, it’s working at home with freedom while being able to afford some of “the finer things” (like nice scotch) without killing yourself workwise. Either of these are valid. For me, part of the taste of that cigar and scotch is the taste of success. And it tastes really good.

Stop working for money. Start working for success, however you want to define it.

I talk a lot here about the benefits of working for yourself, and yea, I admit, it’s a pretty nice gig overall. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, either. There are some drawbacks, and I’d be remiss if I did not mention a few of them. Keep in mind these are more slated towards me and people like me (basically a one-person or very small operation.)

• It’s hard doing everything in relation to your business. For example, I answer my own phone, and I answer all e-mail (I know you are saying “big deal”, but really, these two tasks eat up a lot of time. I’m getting better at reducing the time spent, but still, it’s a lot. )
  

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• In relation to the above, guess who is responsible for all marketing and such… like adwords, updating the website, blog posts, business forums (gotta keep up a presence), etc. Yup, me again. And increasingly, these tasks are far from the “set it and forget it” they were a few years ago. Your website needs constant work. Your adwords needs attention. You need to write a blog. A few twitters won’t hurt. Etc. This all takes time. Truthfully, you get very few actual days off. The only time I ever really take off are my vacations, when I totally unplug. Otherwise, it’s generally seven days a week. Admittedly, I try not to do client work on weekends, but I still do the e-mail thing, I still work on the site and my marketing, and I’m writing this very blog post on a Saturday. It never really gets shut off.
  

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• Us smaller operations are very vulnerable to the economy. Right now, I am working harder than I did two years ago, for about the same (and maybe even a little less) money. In an overall sense, the jobs (and invoices) have gotten smaller, there’s no doubt about that.
  

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• We’re also very “exposed” in terms of competition. Here’s what I mean by that… my brother-in-law owns a popular local jewelry store. To compete with him, you really kind of need a million dollars to open a competing store. What do you need to compete with me? Some writing talent, a small website, and enough $$ for a few adwords ads… am I leaving anything out?  The barrier to entry for us small businesses is minuscule. That’s, of course, a good thing for people starting out, but it’s also not so great for those of us already here, as I just illustrated.
  

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• There’s also the “grow or die” thing that all businesses seemingly must adhere to. If you aren’t moving forward, then you are moving backwards. But… maybe I’m happy where I am. Maybe I don’t really want to grow. Maybe I don’t really want to hire other writers and juggle 10 projects at once. I’m at this point right now - do I want to stay (essentially) a one-guy shop, or do I want to expand? See, staying a one-guy shop will be hard, because of my third point above (smaller jobs, more work, less money). But growing… that’s scary. What to do? I really don’t know the answer, so my first inclination was to actually try and combine the two by growing the “Dan Furman Brand”, so to say.  Which is what I’m going to try (that’s what the new website I’m working on is for.) 

I left out a lot of stuff, obviously, but the above should give you an idea that working for yourself is by no means ”easy” (as some people have told me it must be.) In fact, I wish sometimes my life was as simple as showing up to some job Mon-Fri, collecting a paycheck, and not even thinking about work during off hours. I’ve done both, and working for yourself is way harder. I like it better (by a good deal), but it’s by no means easy.

Goodness, that felt good to write

I wrote this for a magazine once:

Entrepreneurs / business owners come in all shapes and sizes. In fact, the one defining trait about them is they are so indefinable. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs didn’t even go to high school, while others have dropped out of Harvard.

But, in my career as a serial entrepreneur (which is a nice way of saying that I’ve experienced success and spectacular failure both) I’ve found that there are certain characteristics that most entrepreneurs share.

So the next time you’re sitting in your cubical, staring at the fourth quarter spreadsheets while dreading another boring (and utterly pointless) meeting, read this short list and see how you match up with the entrepreneur mindset:

• Entrepreneurs have little fear, and have supreme confidence in their professional ability. They are generally not afraid, for example, of losing their job. They figure “heck, I’ll just get another one.” If that sounds like you, you might be a closet entrepreneur.
  

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• Relating to the above, entrepreneurs HATE micromanagement. The best kind of boss a closet entrepreneur can have is one that says “Just do it, and bring me the results when you’re done.” The worst kind of boss a closet entrepreneur can have is one that says “See me after each step so I can check on your progress.” (*groan*… it hurt just to write that.) Unfortunately, boss #2 far outnumbers boss #1.
  

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• Entrepreneurs have little regard for arbitrary rules. The silly “you need to wear a tie even if you’re not seeing customers” rule comes to mind here. What’s up with that?
  

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• While not workaholics, entrepreneurs never stop thinking about work. This is because doing good work is important to them. If you find yourself coming up with a work idea at the Sunday BBQ, despite the best efforts of your six shrieking nieces and nephews to distract you, you might be a closet entrepreneur.
  

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• Entrepreneurs often feel like they are not paid what they are worth. However, they feel this way because they truly feel their work warrants better compensation. They don’t, for example, think they should make more because “Becky in accounting makes more and does nothing all day.” In fact, they don’t care what Becky makes (she’s an idiot anyway.) Entrepreneurs care about their own compensation deal, and nobody else’s.

All in all, an entrepreneur definitely marches to the beat of a different drummer. And although sometimes I’ll question whether this particular drummer took their medication or not, I can tell you that the rewards of being your own boss are substantial (and even when they aren’t, at least I can take off my tie.)

I noticed something about Facebook… not all of my friend’s posts make my front page - ever. Facebook seems to pick and choose what makes it to my default view by a “most popular news” thingee…

Which begs the question - how do they figure what’s most popular?

Which brings us to a second question - how long before businesses, who are starting to “get” Facebook, start looking to ”FSO” (Facebook Status Optimization… my term ) their way to the top?

Just a quick food for thought. And while we’re on it, WTF happened to Myspace? There’s fodder for another post.