I was looking forward to Never Get a Real Job: How to Dump Your Boss, Build a Business, and Not Go Broke, but it was kind of meh for me.  First time author Scott Gerber goes out of his way NOT to sugarcoat the difficulties of entrepreneurship, but it makes for an strange angle when the book is supposed to be about achieving financial independence through your own business.  I guess it’s better than to set unrealistic expectations, but I found it almost dreary in a way.  It was surprising to read such a constant negative tone about a subject meant to so positive.

Never Get a Real Job is aimed at the graduating and recently graduated millenial generation.  Gerber explains that if you rely on someone else for a paycheck, you’re never truly free.  But then he goes on to detail the common mistakes, misconceptions, and disasters of entrepreneurship.  By the end, I was left wondering if the start-up lifestyle was really a better way to go at all.  I think the idea was for the author to air all his rookie mistakes in the hope that readers could learn from them.

The business advice is nothing groundbreaking, but at the very least was a reminder of what I should be doing.  (Manage cash flow, keep customers happy, be creative, etc.)  On the positive side, the book does list some valuable resources for bootstrapping young companies in several areas.  I was familiar with some of the recommended companies but not all, so I’ll be checking those out.

-Nick

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It’s hard to believe it’s been 3 years since I quit my job.  In that time, I’ve a lot of fun and a lot of stress.  There have been times when I’ve made a lot of money and times when lost a lot of money.  I’ve made some smart moves and some big mistakes.  But I’m still here, and I think that counts as a victory.

Life has definitely not been how I imagined it would be, but I was due for a reality check.  There’s no such thing as “business as usual.”  Overall, I’ve received an education in business more intense and more personal than any b-school could offer.

Now I’m facing a major fork in the road, and I’m not sure which path to take.

-Nick

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I received a letter from the IRS last week, saying I had failed to file some form that was due in October of 2009.

It’s very likely that is a true statement.  I can’t say for sure, because it’s been 19 months and I filed a lot of forms in that time, but I’ll take their word for it.

Form 941 calculates Social Security and Medicare taxes due.  It is a revenue-generating form for the IRS.  Given the dire financial situation of the federal government, you would think they would be a little more aggressive in collecting what’s due.

Can you imagine any business taking 19 months to go after a delinquent customer?  Without that cash flow, they might be out of business pretty quick.

-Nick

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I got called in for jury duty this week.  I’ve been summoned a few times, but never had to actually report.  Some of the highlights:

• I was assigned to the Hayward Hall of Justice.  Merely calling it the “courthouse” would not suffice; instead it sounds like something out of a comic book.
• I do not miss commuting.  At all.
• You have to go through airport-style security to get into the building, which makes sense given the number of (alleged) criminals coming inside.  Yet there was only one screening station and quite a back-up:

• The person in charge of “juror orientation” spoke English as a second language, and had a time with his “Rs”.  And wouldn’t you know it, they put 2 of ‘em in “juror”.  Cruel, but it sounded a lot like, “Thank you again to all the Jews who came out this morning.”
• I was immediately chosen for the 1st pool of prospective jurors.
• The judge explained the nature of the case — can’t say the details but it was pretty juicy stuff.  The defendant looked like a normal guy, until the judge read all the bad stuff he allegedly did.  Then he looked like a total sleaze.
• After that, the judge explained the how in a criminal case, the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  If I was giving the spiel, I would move that part ahead of the rap sheet, so people are primed to not jump to any conclusions.
• I tried to go in with a positive attitude, excited for the learning experience and the chance to be a part of the judicial system and see how it really works from the inside.  You know, civic duty and all that jazz.
• The judge then explained that this particular trial, if all went well, should be wrapped up by June 9th.
• Whoa easy there, turbo! OK I’m all for civic duty when it lasts a day or even two or three days, but being forced to take 3 weeks off from the biz would be bad news bears.
• The judge interviewed some potential jurors.  Most people answered honestly, but some clearly stretched the truth in obvious attempt to get dismissed.  I saw people get dismissed for speaking poor English, being pregnant, and even for having to go to the bathroom.  What?
• People came up with some pretty convoluted reasons why they might have a hard time being impartial.  When the judge rolls his eyes, that’s a good indicator you’re trying too hard.
• I submitted a written request for dismissal, on the grounds that jury service of this length would be a financial burden for a self-employed business owner like me.
• Thankfully the judge agreed and I was dismissed.  I was really grateful.  I didn’t know what to expect; I’ve heard stories of judges being really unforgiving and not giving a crap about people’s business obligations.
• At that point, I was a free man.  Well after an inexplicable 20-minute traffic jam in the parking lot, I was a free man.

Hayward Hall of Justice, it’s been real.  See you next year.

-Nick

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VigLink and Skimlinks are two companies that aim to help bloggers and other website owners monetize their content and traffic.  They do this by transforming regular outbound links into affiliate links wherever possible.  If any sales result from those links, the website owner earns a commission.  (Technically, VigLink or Skimlinks earns the commission, which they then pass on to the website owner after taking their percentage.)

The way it works is you paste a bit of javascript into your site’s code, and that will turn a regular link into an affiliate link for you.  For example, if I have a cooking blog and I’m writing about this amazing spatula that is only available from Cooking.com, it will change my link to an affiliate link.  That way, I can earn some money if any other aspiring chefs want to buy the same amazing spatula.

Both VigLink (pronounced with a hard “g”) and Skimlinks are free to join.  The benefits of using their service include:

1. Earning money.  Let me be upfront, this is not going to turn you into an overnight millionaire.  In two years of blogging on this site, I’ve probably made less than $5 from affiliate links, and only marginally more from Adsense.  But I’m OK with that.  The primary purpose of this site for me is not to sell anything.  It’s mostly just a hobby and an outlet for writing.  But, if you have serious amounts of traffic and product-related content you are not earning money from, VigLink and Skimlinks can help you do it.
2. Saving time.  It is far easier to install their javascript and link normally than it is to apply for a new merchant’s affiliate program each time you want to link something, wait for approval (and risk getting denied), and go into the third-party affiliate network interface to create your unique affiliate link.
3. Expanding your options.  By using VigLink or Skimlinks, a small website suddenly has access to thousands of advertisers.

	VigLink	Skimlinks
Sign-up	Very easy and fast. 30 seconds, including confirmation email.	Had to "apply" rather than simply sign-up. Much longer form, and can take "up to 3 business days" to get approved.
Installation	Copy and paste javascript. Easy.	Haven't been approved yet...
Merchant Partners	More than 12,500	More than 12,000
Revenue Share	75% / 25%, meaning they keep 25% of all commissions. This is NOT transparent on their site; it only mentions a "small fee."	75% / 25%
Contextual Linking	No -- VigLink only adds their affiliate script to existing non-affiliate links.	Yes -- Through SkimWords, Skimlinks can auto-generate affiliate links based on product mentions in your context.
Payments	Monthly payment through PayPal with no minimum.	Monthly payment through PayPal or direct deposit, with a $50 minimum.
Referral Program	If you sign up other website owners, you earn commission equal to 10% of their earnings for a full year.	Earn 12% of first-year earnings on website owners you refer to Skimlinks.
FTC Disclosure

Serious affiliates will probably find it’s worth their time to do their own linking and save the 25%, but for beginning bloggers and for sites with a lot of user-generated content, VigLink or Skimlinks are perfect ways to monetize any outgoing links.  Also it is best for people who want more of a “set-it-and-forget-it” solution, so they can focus on their writing or other aspects of their business.  Plus, because they do such a large volume of business, VigLink and Skimlinks often can negotiate a higher overall commission rate with the advertisers.  That means that even after their 25% cut, you may still be better off than you would be “on your own.”

The best part about either of these programs is that they are free to join, easy to set-up, and whatever you earn is 100% incremental revenue.  And if you already have some affiliate links on your site, neither VigLink nor Skimlinks will overwrite those.  I’m interested to try out the SkimWords application, if/when I get approved.

-Nick

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I read a really interesting article in Inc. magazine this week on business in Norway.  The gist of it is that Norway — land of Vikings, fjords, and ridiculously high taxes — is beating America at it’s own game.  Norway has more entrepreneurs per capita than the US, and their economy grew nearly 3% during the recession, despite operating under the supposedly business-stifling grasp of socialism.

Consider this:

• Norway has 3.5% unemployment, despite very generous unemployment benefits that you’d think might discourage active job-hunting.  Our unemployment rate is almost triple that: 9%.
• Norway has almost no poverty.  In contrast, over 14% of Americans, or more than 40 million people, live below the poverty line.
• According to the Gallup global happiness survey, Norwegians are the 3rd happiest people on the planet.  Their fellow Northern European socialists in Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and The Netherlands round out the top 5.  America was 14th, below Brazil, Panama, Israel, and even Canada.
• Norway has a GDP per capita of $84,500, vs. $47,100 for the U.S.  In basic terms, this means that Norwegians, on average, are 79% more productive economically than we are.
• The murder rate in America is 700% higher than in Norway.
• Norway’s government is a net creditor of debt, whereas each American household owes $4000 a year just in interest on our national debt.
• Norway holds the largest capital reserves per capita of any country, while America owes trillions of dollars, much of it to China.
• In 2010, Norway was ranked the 5th most peaceful country in the world.  The U.S. was 85th.
• Also in 2010, Norway was ranked the most democratic country in the world.  The U.S. was 17th.
• 8.3% of Norwegians are obese, compared with 30.6% of Americans.
• Life expectancy in Norway is 80.7 years, compared with 78.4 years in the U.S.

Are those crazy socialists are on to something?  At the very least, I think Norway has shown us that high taxes don’t necessarily spell Armageddon like our politicians (on both sides of the aisle) would have us believe.  The average Norwegian is better off than the average American in just about every measurable way, even after their high tax bill.  After taxes, the average Norwegian has a higher standard of living, is better educated, and is healthier and happier than the average American.

The difference is in America, we don’t want — or plan — to be average.  And even with all our poor, fat, uneducated, and unhappy people, we still lead the league in millionaires.

But those taxes.  Just how high are we talking?  Think in the range of 40-50% for income taxes and 25% for sales taxes.  Unthinkable.  Unsustainable.  Crazy.  How and why do they put up with this madness?

Refer to the results above.  There are a handful of Norwegian would-be-tea-partiers, but the sentiment isn’t nearly as inflammatory.  Rather than being cast as an unfair burden being wasted by a byzantine bureaucracy, taxes in Norway are largely seen as a purchase in exchange for goods and services, and as an investment in the future.

Lesson to Uncle Sam: put on your selling shoes and pitch the real value you provide.  Or if what you’re providing is not valuable, how about stop providing it.  Just like shopping, people gladly pay for things they value.  It’s hard to imagine a place where people happily pay half their wages to the government, but apparently it exists up near the Arctic Circle.  There’s got to be a political takeaway in there somewhere.

Here are some other interesting facts about Norway:

• Norway has a population of 5 million, making it one 60th the size of America.  For the sake of comparison, 15 million live in Greater Los Angeles.  Norway also doesn’t attract anywhere near the immigration America does.  For these reasons alone, it would be difficult (understatement of the year) to implement similar social policies here.
• There is no privacy.  Everyone’s tax return is posted online.  This discourages extravagant lifestyles and is very egalitarian, but would never fly here.
• The cost of living is significantly higher than in the U.S.  Apparently a beer in Oslo can cost $15.  Yikes!
• Norwegians are very rational and secular.  Only 2% of Norwegians attend church each week, and 3/4ths do not believe in “a personal god.”

See?  Godless commies.

-Nick

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It’s been a rough year for the biz, which has at times turned me into a giant grumpy stress-ball.  Wish I could blame the economy, but it’s almost entirely my fault.  I’m thankful for my amazing community of family and friends who have helped me through it and brightened each day.

-Nick

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I got an interesting mailer the other day from a company called storesonline.com.

It said, “FREE Livermore Dinner Conference… Two Tickets Enclosed…” and, “Dinner Table for Nicholas Loper and guest.”  Now, knowing that nothing’s free, I was even more curious to find out about this company and what the sales pitch was going to be.

Red Flag #1: The “Livermore” Dinner Conference was really in Walnut Creek (26 miles away), Concord (31 miles away), Vallejo (46 miles away), or Napa (62 miles away).  But whatevs, the customization is part of what makes this mailer such an awesome marketing piece.

The next cool thing was the very real-looking admission tickets, complete with an official-looking Guest Reservation ID number.  Very classy.

And then, to seal the deal, they throw a couple free gifts at you.  Everyone who attends their conference gets a free MP3 player, and the first 50 people who RSVP and attend the conference get a free netbook computer!

Red Flag #2: If they’ve got to give away items of high perceived value just to get people through the door, that might not be a good sign.  But on the other hand, they must have a pretty profitable business if they can afford all these goodies.

So what is storesonline.com selling?

The letter is about creating and marketing an online business.  Storesonline.com provides “full e-commerce services,” but is professionally (and intentionally?) vague about what that means.  I interpret it as website templates, hosting, tech support, training, and shopping cart software.

But what they’re really selling is hope.  Hope of financial freedom, success, and independence.  Which is very, very smart.  “Full e-commerce services” are cheap, and some open-source solutions are even free.  But hope is priceless.  And in the case of storesonline.com, hope costs $2400-6000 to start, plus recurring monthly fees of $20-30.  (Based on limited info I could find online without attending the conference.)

There are a lot of people bashing storesonline in forums and calling the company scam artists and frauds.  I don’t think storesonline.com is a scam.  I think they’ve come up with a creative way to package and sell cheap commodities at a premium price.  I think the nature of the business inherently sets customers up for disappointment though.  After dropping that kind of cash, customers expect a magic bullet solution, and when they don’t see immediate success, they blame the system and call it a scam.

Storesonline.com is right: building an online business is an excellent path to financial freedom.  But it’s not easy, it’s not for everyone, and there are no guarantees.  If you attend a storesonline.com conference, they will probably pressure you to sign up on the spot, before you can fully research the company and what they’re offering.  The salespeople are very good at what they do, and it is definitely in your best interest to have a self-mandated cooling off period so can do your due diligence and make an informed decision.

You may find that you can piece together the same “full e-commerce services” for far less money.  But if the conference motivates you to make some lifestyle changes and really go into business for yourself, it was well worth the 90 minutes.  Hopefully you can use your new free netbook to get started!

-Nick

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Saturday’s Husky loss at BYU (13 straight road losses!) got me thinking about winning and losing.  I like to reason with myself that the time spent watching the game is all worthwhile if it results in a victory, but completely wasted if it’s a loss.  This is flawed logic because the true value lies in the fan experience and the friends you watch with.

Of course victory can’t be as sweet without first knowing the sting of defeat, but losing still sucks.  The problem is you have no impact on the outcome.  Or maybe if you’re at the game, a very small impact (unless you’re Steve Bartman).  The score will be the same whether you watch or not.

Watching helplessly as time ran out served as a painful reminder of some poor business decisions I’ve made this year that essentially made me a spectator in my own life.  When you lose control over your own livelihood, it’s an uncomfortable and frustrating position to be in.  Of course everything’s clearer in hindsight, but winners wouldn’t allow that to happen.

Time to “control the controllables” and get ‘r done.

-Nick

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This year, British Airways awarded 100 Business Opportunity Grants to small and medium sized businesses.  The grants included free business class airfare to London and connecting cities, and $1000 to spend on a hotel stay.

Those Brits are pretty smart.

The grants were awarded to companies looking to meet face-to-face with clients and partners overseas.  The airline is banking on those connections to turn into long-term relationships and for the grant recipients to turn into long-term paying customers.  They even commissioned a Harvard Business Review study to prove the value of face-to-face communications.

It was a smart move by British Airways because their potential upside is far greater than the costs of the program.  They had to build an online system to accept grant applications, hire someone to review them, and find an empty seat on a plane.  And since the plane was already making the flight, and fewer people are flying business class because of the economy, the seat was probably empty anyway.  And the cost to the hotel was negligible assuming they had empty rooms as well, and they’ll get first consideration for any return trips.  If even a small percentage of the winners create long-term business relationships, British will reap the rewards for many years to come.

-Nick

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