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Tuesday 29 November 2011

We will have the footsteps of giants and forests will grow in the places where we step



Hi all,

Today I met with a professional business coach. Pretty impressive stuff and shows how serious I am taking the whole Hale & Fun thing right? (let us not consider the fact that it was a free thing given out to everyone who attended the business seminar earlier this month and remember how much I like free stuff but merely reflect upon my admirable level of dedication).

Anyway, he asked me if I wanted the hard coaching or the soft coaching (no really he did. I have to wonder who asks for the soft coaching? of course by the end I was kind of wishing I had made that choice. On a completely, different topic-this is known as building the expectation in the mind of the reader. You know something bad is coming but what? And how will it be resolved. This level of anticipation encourages continual reading. There was a podcast on blog writing as well this week. It also suggested that grammar and spelling were important and ironically staying on topic and not allowing yourself to be sidetracked. Hey you can’t get everything!). So the upshot of the meeting was that we broke down the actual profit margin of the business and it turns out that there are two potential possibilities for me once we reach the glorious breakeven point:

Firstly, I will either be working an incredibly large amount of hours for an hourly rate that would make a sweat shop employee laugh or that I will never met the break-even point and spend the rest of my days paying to work hours that would make a sweat shop employee laugh.


Damn those uppity and smug sweat shop employees stop laughing at me.

I got the feeling that the whole point of this “tough love” was to make me think long and hard about whether the whole business thing was worthwhile if I may never make any money. Which personally, I think totally misses the point of the whole thing. Yes I understand that I will probably never reach the dizzying heights of minimum wage pay that I was earning stacking shelves during my undergraduate or working in a toy store during my PhD, but that isn't important. The important thing is that I BELIEVE IN HALE & FUN. I know that knowledge wants to be shared, that the greatest gift you can give someone is the gift of understanding. I truly believe that learning doesn’t have to stop. I believe that as I grow older, all that means is that I have more time to learn what I want to learn, when I want to learn and where I want to learn. Everybody wants, no craves wisdom- they just need the outlet. Humanity became great by pushing back the darkness of ignorance with the torch of enlightenment. And that is what Hale & Fun is all about.

It is like Pandora Box, I have imagined a better world and can how that world can be created. And once seen, it cannot be unseen and damn it, come hell or high water or even worse-prolonged middle class poverty in a first world country like Australia- I will see that dream realised.

And while I am preaching, I have attended a lot of universities and schools, I know that lecturers are entering the world of teaching unprepared and ill-equipped. This is wrong. The only way people can become the educators that they deserve to be is to be given the opportunities that Hale & Fun offer. The chance to create their own courses, to try new methods and work with other people who are also learning how to teach. Hale & Fun is dedicated to the idea that by giving our facilitators ownership of their courses, allowing them the flexibility to build on their passion. They will be driven to excellence, to be better than even they realised they ever could be.

In short, while I did appreciate the whole dollar and cents break down offered by the business coach, I don’t think it really got to the point. It doesn’t really matter whether I make enough money to finally buy the Playboy mansion or build my army of evil mutated zombie monkeys (but that is a story for another day) or whether I will be working 7 days a week till the wee hours trying to get the business running because that is not the point. The point is that THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE BECAUSE HALE & FUN IS IN IT. The growing community of facilitators and myself who make up Hale & Fun are creating something unique, something unseen before and it will be glorious….in terms of profit….hmmm, succeed or fail, that is not important- the world will know we were here and be a better place for it and that is all that matters….


Thursday 24 November 2011

The Hard Sell

Selling is hard.
That is what I have discovered over the last couple of days where I have really dedicated myself to getting the name of Hale & Fun out there both in the press and to all the retirement villages, community centres and so forth.  Probably doesn't come as huge revelation to most people but for someone like myself who was nurtured in the safe halls of academia before this it has come as a cold shower. That doesn't mean I am not use to rejection, I am a 30 plus (yes I am metrosexual enough to start using that) male with no athletic ability, the dancing ability that has been described by one compassionate soul as akin to an epileptic mongoose and a habit of reference either zombie movies or comic books in everyday conversation (by the by is everyone watching the Walking dead- brilliant series..the comics are better..oh yeah I am one of those people as well) so I am used to rejection or cold disinterest, but in the world of academia you are generally among other people who the outside world has rejected so like penguins in the cold you huddle together and are warmed by each other body heat.

Not so much in the world of business...at least for the sole trader just starting out. Case in point, the first cold calling episode. There I was bright eyed and bushy tailed. I had a go get 'em attitude and a warm cup of Joe. I even had written on my desktop- Boss-The Buck stops here. It was the 1980s and I was Gordon Gecko.  The first words out of the potential client mouth were "please remove our business and associated businesses from your list we are not interested in your business and do not wish to hear from you again". I don't remember seeing that seen in Wall street. Still their loss is someone else's gain and while we don't have any definitely clients on board yet, things have definitely improved from that point. Hale & Fun have sent out more emails and phone calls to potential clients and media outlets in the last week than I care to imagine- Although because I am slight anal about such things (hehe anal- oh yeah did I mention immature sense of humour? another reason for rejection) I do have all it down in a wonderful spread sheet and in my business diary. So while things are still moving slowly (Where is the huge client who says "why yes that is exactly what I have been looking for- you sir are a genius here is a blank cheque go forth and prosper...and why we are at it, please date my daughter who beyond being daughter to my fortune is also intrigued by the world of graphic novels and zombies...it would mean alot to me if you did"?). There is a lot of good feedback and interest. Now to stoke those embers of interest into a bushfire of consumer feeding frenzy (hmm, I may be mixing metaphors there, I have been watching alot of seminars on being a good sales person and they seem to really love their metaphors, they get a little confusing at times). Either way, I am predicting that 2012 will be the year of Hale & Fun.

Another positive thing is an article written by Flying Solo- here is the link  http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/live-smarter/working-alone/solo-business-owner-we-are-the-soul-traders I recommend everyone read it because quite frankly it makes us small entrepreneurs sound pretty damn awesome and I need something like that to make spending my friday night trolling retirement bulletin boards and discussion forums for leads worthwhile.

Sunday 20 November 2011

Follow up on media release and the website review

Hi all,
Well the media releases have been sent out to a large number of potential media outlets. Hale & Fun has also started the "hard sell" in that contacting potential clients and letting them know about all the wonderful things we do.

One of the other important things that has recently occurred has been that it has come to my attention that the business website- www.haleandfun.com.au might be a little ambiguous in what the business does. I have to say, this does surprise me because I thought it was pretty self explanatory. Having said that I have heard this point reiterated by a number of people who are more qualified than myself so I suspect there may be some truth to this. To address this I have decided two courses of action. First off and because it is the quickest- I have requested that my web designer set up a way that I can upload the business brochure which give a much better explanation, hopefully this will act as a stopgap measure until I can organise to have a professional copy writer have a look at it and see how it can be improved (any out there who want to throw their hat in the ring on this one?).

On the lighter side of things, Flying solo (www.flyingsolo.com.au) one of the many discussion forums I am a member of (and one of the places I am getting the website reviewed- want to add comments? you can post them here or http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/forums/community-reviews/16899-website-review-hale-fun.html) is having a Christmas party. Personally, one of the greatest hardships I have had to face when running a small business is the lack of office parties (I havent had what one might call a very hard life overall!) so I am really looking forward to this.
Cheers
Daniel

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Media releases and more business seminars

Hi all,
Well it has finally come. The website is up and running and Hale & Fun has enough of a syllabus that we can really start selling. So at the moment the focus is getting the business presence really out there. For this to occur we have hired the services of a press release writer named Keeta Nova ( http://keetanova.com.au/). I found some comments about her on Flying solo business forum and they all seemed highly positive and I have to say when I spoke to her on the phone she seemed to know exactly what I was talking about and the problems I was having getting the media release to really pack a punch. I would like to believe that after spending so many days and months on getting the business up and running that I would be the perfect spokesperson for Hale & Fun and therefore should be able to create magical press releases in my sleep but this turns out to be a lot harder than it looks. Thank god we live in the age of outsourcing.

I also went today to another business seminar this time run by X10. It continues to amaze the amount of free training and advice there is out there at the moment for the small to medium business owner- If you want my advice and lets face it I am writing a blog so I am arrogant enough to assume you do want my advice- and you are in Sydney and want to start a business, go for it. Now is definitely the time, with the NEIS program and the small business seminars being hosted by the Govt it has never been easier (which is good because I am kinda lazy!).

So what were my feelings on the seminar today. Well, nothing new really but it is good to network as always and you do pick up little hints and tips on how to be more effective. It is kind of like going to a Tony Robbins seminars. Now I wish I hadn't made that comparison because I really hate those sort of motivational speakers (Oh yeah, like I am alone). So I would give it a definitely thumbs up.

It also helps they were giving away a free book on marketing and free two hour coaching sessions. I really like free stuff.