I’m a big fan of Jim Collins’ work, especially the modern day classic Good to Great.

Even if you’re not interested in business, the book is inspiring and practical. Nine years after publication, it’s still kicking ass, and deservedly so.

I recently re-read my favorite passages, and I especially liked the introduction Jim used to convey how much the book meant to him before publication.

***

As I was finishing this manuscript, I went for a run and an odd question popped into my mind: How much would someone have to pay me not to publish Good to Great?

It was an interesting thought experiment, given that I’d just spent the previous five years working on the research project and writing this book. Not there isn’t some number that might entice me to bury it, but by the time I crossed the hundred-million-dollar threshold, it was time to head back down the trail. Even that much couldn’t convince me to abandon the project.

One hundred million dollars! Can you imagine creating something you love so much that you wouldn’t part with it for less than that? Wow.

Aside from making sure I have enough to live responsibly and have my adventures, I don’t focus a lot on money. But I think Jim’s right: most of us have some kind of walk-away price. It’s good to know what it is, because then you know how valuable your work is—even if it’s something you keep to yourself.

I thought about Jim’s question and tried to apply it to my own world. This year I feel confident in saying I wouldn’t take any less than $2 million dollars to walk away. I’d like to think it was more than that, but I’m not 100% sure. Next year, I hope to say that the hypothetical number is $5 or $10 million—we’ll see.

Understand, I’m not trying to get rich—the real-world, business valuation of my work thus far would be less than any of those numbers. The exercise is to think about the perceived valuation; what it would take for you to hide your work and never show it to anyone.

Most of the time, this is a hypothetical exercise. No one’s going to offer me money to stop writing on ChrisGuillebeau.com – it wouldn’t make sense to belong to anyone else, except for all those other people with the same name… which means pretty much no one.

The point is to keep increasing the perceived valuation of your work.

I feel like I’m making at least a $2 million dollar difference in the world now; Jim Collins felt like his contribution was at least $100 million.

I want to keep improving until one day I can say that I wouldn’t take less than $100 million dollars to stop doing what I do. This sounds like an audacious goal—another topic Jim writes about well.

What’s the price for your work? What would it take for you to quit and walk away?

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Image by Circulating

It’s a new month, and time for a new profile. My friend Tsilli Pines recently quit her job to go full-time with the side business she’s been building for the past three years.

Yay! Congratulations to her.

And when we were talking, she told me how she had worked at the job for eight years, and has spent the past three years carefully building her business to the point where she could take a big leap.

Entrepreneurs are often thought of as embracing risk—but I think this is a bit overrated. In Tsilli’s words: “I’m very conservative about making decisions. I probably could have quit the job last year, but I wanted to wait until I was absolutely sure.”

I thought this was fascinating, so I asked her to tell me more. You can read her answers in our interview below.

***

One month ago you left your job of eight years to strike out on your own. How does it feel? 

It feels like freedom!

However, I had a great job working with great people, so leaving was bittersweet. I learned much of what I know and became the designer that I am working with Fine Design Group, and they gave me a lot of room to grow in the years I worked at the studio. 

Then I hit my stride as a designer and started thinking about what I’m meant to do in the long term. I found myself yearning for total authorship. So while the client work I was doing in the studio was challenging and fun, I wondered what I could do if I were my own client.

Tell us a little about your business. What’s a ketubah? Who are your customers, and how do they find out about you?

A ketubah is a Jewish marriage contract. It was traditionally used as a legal document and is now regarded more broadly as a statement of commitment, ritual object, and work of art.

There is a long history of the ketubah being interpreted as an illuminated manuscript, but there aren’t many takes on the form from the perspective of modern design. My clients are design-minded folks who have a hard time finding something that fits with their style but want to include this tradition in their wedding. Most of the pieces I make are for Jewish or interfaith couples (where one person is Jewish and the other is from another tradition), but I’ve also made Quaker wedding certificates, which are similar documents.

Many people find me online—this is a product people search for pretty specifically. Now that I have been doing this for several years, I’m also getting referral business from happy clients. I try to take really good care of people, so it’s the highest compliment when someone recommends me.

How did you build the business on the side while working full-time?

I built the business really slowly and organically and fit it between the cracks. Two years before I launched my website, I met the owner of a Judaica shop in California, who encouraged me to try out my designs through her store. I worked up two prototypes and the day after I dropped them off, I had my first order.

For those first two years, I only had a handful of clients, because it was all I could handle while getting my head around the process. I learned the ropes by putting one foot in front of the next, getting guidance from the Judaica shop and a few rabbis, and making lots of mistakes.

After that initial period of incubation I felt confident that I had the basics under control: how to work with different texts and what the rules were around them, how to make the pieces, how to package and ship them. But I had never worked directly with any clients because I had the shop handling the first steps of the process. It was a wholesale relationship and I wanted to create a direct relationship with my clients.

I requested a chunk of time off from my job—a combination of vacation I had built up and unpaid time—so that I could focus on taking things to the next level. I got a month off and in that time, I developed a few more designs, designed and coded a website, figured out how I would take direct payment, researched ways to improve my process, and started doing PR to get the word out. 

Knowing that people were increasingly looking for their ketubah online, and being a web designer by trade, I focused on how to make myself most visible online. I decided early on that besides having an easy-to-use website that was optimized for search engines, blogs would be the best way to raise awareness about my work. I already followed a lot of design and wedding blogs because I was interested in their content, so I wrote a very simple email introducing myself politely, with a few images of my work. The response was wonderful and I immediately became visible.

Tip from Tsilli: For folks who are looking to market their work online, I highly recommend Grace Bonney’s generous notes about how to approach the press and most especially this round-up from design bloggers about they like to be approached. In fact, the entire Biz Ladies series is a huge help.

Having an online business makes it easier to do on the side. I determined a reasonable process for fulfilling orders, and then I built a minimum turnaround time around that. Having limited time forced me to think about how to do the work most efficiently. I batched my email responses and did the work that could be done in bursts in the evenings and early mornings. The more involved work of actually producing the pieces was done on the weekends when I had entire days to get into the flow.

But I won’t lie: the beginning was insane. I was basically working two jobs, and my husband was helping me build the infrastructure—also on the side, since he has his own day job. He continues to support the project to this day. I couldn’t have done it without him.

It got to the point last year where there weren’t enough hours in the day, and I could only be reactive in fulfilling orders, rather than proactive in my business planning. It was clear that something had to give. But after four years of growing slowly, I finally felt confident that I had a viable business, and that allowed me to leave my day job.

When did you first think about quitting the day job—was it something you planned from the beginning of the startup, or was it after things began to grow? 

I am a very cautious person and entrepreneurship always seemed risky to me. For many years, I focused on finding the best possible job working for other people in order to avoid that perceived risk. I found the perfect job, but after putting in a good chunk of years, I started to wonder what was next for me.

I always knew I wanted to create something of my own and was drawn to the dream of being a working artist rather than a commercial designer. But I didn’t really see how the money side would work. 

As I’ve grown my own practice, I’ve become increasingly entrepreneurial about it, and the small successes have encouraged me to push ahead. I now see the larger picture and realize that there are so many directions I can take things. This was harder to see when I started out. The path has appeared beneath my feet.

Did anything go wrong in the early development of the business? (If so, what did you learn?)

Oh, so many things have gone wrong. Luckily, they have all been fixable. Packages have gone missing, equipment has failed, mistakes have slipped past both me and my clients, all kinds of things! But with determination and a positive attitude, nothing has been insurmountable.

A lot of the learning process about my internal process revolved around the technical side of things—figuring out the best materials, gear, and process. Often revelations and improvements came out of failures. It’s been a constant learning curve. Tools change, materials are discontinued. So the biggest lessons there were:

Stay nimble. Designing a product means that available materials and tools will change. Keep your eye on the prize and know what you’re trying to do overall, rather than getting hung up on exactly how.

Invest in the right tools. Bootstrapping was critical to the early stages of my business. But I also held out longer than I should have on gear that helps me do my work. 

Stay engaged. Keep trying to understand how your clients experience your product and service, and always work on how to solve more for them. Don’t get complacent.

The things that went wrong externally were often related to factors beyond my control, like shipping mishaps. Any problem that came up was mitigated by taking good care of my clients. I used the following principles to guide me through every situation:

Be clear. If a misunderstanding happens and causes a problem, assume it’s because you weren’t clear, understand why it happened, and adjust all future communication. 

Manage expectations. Be very explicit about how you work, and why. Do exactly what you say you’re going to do, or exceed expectations.

Be generous. Once you’ve set up all the basic rules of engagement, there will be times when something goes wrong, anyway. Go above and beyond what you have to do and make people happy.

The most important thing I got right quickly was knowing what kind of business I was in. It allowed me to say yes to the right things and no to the wrong ones. For example, I decided right away that I was not in the custom design business. This was an important decision because my schedule didn’t allow for it. Just knowing that gave me a framework for what kind of work I could do, which set the stage for everything else. I referred people who wanted a custom design to other artists I respected who did do that kind of work.

What is the greatest thing about your new self-employed life?

The freedom to finally work on all the projects I’ve been scribbling about and thinking about for so long. The ability to take care of other aspects of my life besides work because I am no longer working two jobs. The feeling of total control over my time and my future.

What is your advice to someone who wants to “escape” from traditional work and start something like this?

Find what you love to do, and then do it, even if it doesn’t bring in money at first. Experiment on the side, experiment on the cheap. It’s the single most important concept to grasp if you are looking to build something from scratch.

What worries you?

Everything! I’m a chronic worrier. But there’s a bad way to worry, and a good way. 

The bad way of worrying paralyzes you. You worry you won’t make the money side work, and it seems so overwhelming that you decide not to even try. I used to worry in this way, and did nothing.

The good way of worrying keeps you competitive, keeps you striving. For example, I still worry about making the money side work (especially now that I’ve thrown my weight into my own business completely). I still think, “What if all the work dries up? What if a competitor comes into the market that takes away my market share?” But I worry about it differently now. I worry about it by thinking ahead of the curve, recognizing what my strengths are and what I can do to mitigate that risk.

Now that you have more time to devote to the business, what’s next for New Ketubah and you? Do you plan to hire people or stay small? 

I plan to keep things small, but do big work. I’m energized by the idea of scaling talent, in the model Jonathan Fields describes as Simplicity Driven Entrepreneurship.

I have big plans for this breakout year of mine. Some of them have to do with New Ketubah, and some are new art and design projects. Among other things, DIY Ketubah just launched today! I am giving my most popular ketubah texts away for free as a download and inviting people to share the pieces they produce with it. I want to help accelerate the growth and exploration of this centuries-old tradition by enabling more people to make their own pieces and share their projects to inspire the community as a whole.   

My weekly practice is still ongoing. I regularly post pieces that I make on a rolling basis—these include cards for people I care about, free desktop calendars for anyone to download, and my newest project: visual conversations with other artists.

I’ll also begin offering some of my design work for sale as prints, and will be rolling out a new collection of products that I am making to recast the expressions of Jewish identity I grew up with.

And that’s just the first half of the year! There are some super secret things brewing thereafter, and I hope some of the great people from AONC will join me in the journey.

***

Congratulations to Tsilli!

If you like Tsilli’s work, you can join her newsletter here or follow her on Twitter here. You can also post any follow-up questions for her in this post.

And good luck to everyone else out there who is pursuing a dream of your own. I’ll look forward to hearing about your story one day.

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I wrote a feature article for Writer’s Digest this month, and it looks like it just hit the newsstands. I also received permission to include the full PDF here if you’re interested:

Changing the Rules for Unconventional Success

You can also read a brief online supplement on their site here.

***

I’ve thought about producing a guide about freelance writing, but the reality is that it’s really tough to make it as a freelancer these days. Until I find a way to stretch it out (no one wants to buy a one-page information product), here is the Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing:

1. Don’t do it the old way. You’ll starve!
2. Find a way to take control of the process. You’ll win!

But if you want more than that, here’s 2,000 words on making a living as a writer, free of charge.

It talks about why I write a newspaper column that no one reads, why I’ll syndicate to almost any outlet, and why I don’t care that CNN doesn’t pay me for the articles they post with my byline. More importantly, it offers guidance for new writers, or those who have been unsuccessful using conventional tactics.

I want to be clear that this piece is for writers who are interested in making some kind of income from their work. There’s nothing wrong with writing for any other reason–I write in a private journal every day, and some of my travel writing is entirely non-commercial.

But I also think it’s perfectly reasonable to want to earn a living as a writer, so that is the group I’m trying to help. For those people, the reality is that it is extremely difficult to support yourself as a successful freelancer by doing things the way they have always been done. That’s why you need to change things up and embrace a new model.

From what I can tell, it seems that some people are arguing about whether the new model is “better” or “worse” than the old one. Alas, this discussion is entirely irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if something new is better or worse than something old; what matters is what you need to do to adapt to it.

I believe the phrase that best applies is “It is what it is.”

Therefore, if you want to work as a writer and don’t want to starve, you have to learn a few new tricks. The good news is that if you learn the new tricks, you can actually do quite well. More here.

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Image: SBGuy

Now that the birthday is over, we’re officially heading into Year Three of World Domination.

A few people said they were surprised that everything has happened so quickly. I regularly receive notes that say “I’ve been reading your blog for years.” It feels like several years to me too—but we’ve only just now crossed the second year point.

Last year I wrote an entire manifesto about creating a writing career in less than a year. To learn more about how it all happened, that free manifesto is probably your best bet.

Just to be clear, though, here are a few more notes. Some of them are specific to blogging and the delightfully strange hybrid career I’ve cobbled together, but I’m pretty sure the principles apply in most creative work.

Set a schedule and never miss a post. My own streak is now 336 posts in a row without ever missing a scheduled day. When you have a streak going, it creates its own motivation because you don’t want to screw it up. As I said in 279 Days, this isn’t so much about the readership—most people would forgive me if I missed a day, and many wouldn’t even notice. Instead, it’s about SELF-DISCIPLINE. Simply put, I need to do this to function well. One mistake leads to another, and I want to keep the streak going.

Get up early and stay up late. If Seth Godin creates an online book launch party and wants the posts to go live at 6am EST (3am on the West Coast, where I live), then you set your alarm for 2:45am and make sure everything is working properly. Yes, it’s possible to queue the post in advance, but what if something goes wrong—don’t you want to make sure that everything is exactly right? How will you tell people about it on Twitter and write an Amazon review?

Since I work from anywhere, I usually just tell people to set the time for a meeting and I’ll accommodate it. Later on I can figure out how to make that work. That said, I did tell Seth: next time, let’s start the book party on PST instead of EST.

Write for both men and women. We recently did an analysis with a random sample of 3,000 names on the email list. Of the names that were easily identifiable, the split was 51/49—almost exactly even (the women won by two points). I liked that. Some blogs are naturally a better fit for either men or women, and that’s totally OK. But for me, I feel like I’m doing something right if it doesn’t trend too far in either direction.

Write for all ages. Wyman Crane is one of our most active commentors and he is 72 years old. You’ll see him in the comments because he often says something about teaching an old dog new tricks. Lorraine Wright, another regular, is 65. She has visited 37 countries and recently set a goal to make it to 100 countries.

We also have a big group of high school students who write in with stories of surviving the culture of mediocrity they encounter in the education system every day. “What if my parents aren’t supportive of my dreams?” they sometimes ask.

My Suggestion: first, tell them you’re dropping out of school, changing your gender, and running away to join the circus. Then say, “OK, I won’t do that, but I do have a couple of other ideas.” That usually works.

So the clear answer is, ignore the idea that you are supposed to break people down in groups based on irrelevant information like age or sex. In other words—don’t focus on demographics, focus on who people really are. “Women ages 25-29 with a college degree” may be the kind of group you think about if you are selling energy drinks, but if you’re trying to change the world, don’t discriminate. I’m honored that so many old, young, and in-between people care about what I’m up to.

Make creative work the most important thing you do. Everyone complains about being too busy, but everyone finds a way to do what’s truly important to them. If watching a TV show is important, you’ll find a way to do it. You’ll watch it online, get it through Netflix and catch up on the weekend, whatever. And that’s fine, because we all do what’s important to us—therefore, all you have to do is make your business/blog/project/etc. extremely important.

Build relationships (really). Yes, I know that the phrase building relationships is starting to go the way of other outdated language thanks to people who have misused or exploited it. Such a shame! I’m interested in actually doing it. I answer all email myself, I don’t accept paid consulting offers, and I maintain a regular correspondence with anyone who wants to write in.

In what became a famous-or-infamous practice (depending on who you ask), I wrote a quick personal note to each of the first 10,000 people who joined the email list in 2008 and early 2009. Yes, 10,000 emails! And often many more afterwards, because people would frequently write back and ask, “Is this an autoresponder?” (Answer: nope.)

If you think this practice is trivial or a waste of time, consider the fact that about 70% of the people who join the list will never leave. I think they’re worth a quick “Hi, thanks for reading.”

Whether you want to write 10,000 emails or not, the point is: the little things matter. Do them.

You want to drop keys everywhere you go, and always focus on why anyone else should care about what you do. Pick up the check when you take people to dinner. Help people without expecting anything in return. If you ask for help yourself and the answer is no, go back and say “No problem, and thank you for considering it.” From what I can tell, only about 20% of people do that.

These things are not really that complicated or difficult. If the people you know aren’t used to them, however, that just means you’ll be that much more special around them. Then maybe they’ll start following the same pattern, and then you’ll know you’re really empowering.

Last but Not Least

Let the record show that this a long journey and I haven’t got everything right yet. I have a lot to learn, and this year I find myself being challenged in all kinds of new ways I haven’t experienced before. The only secret, I think, is continuous improvement. Watch and see.

Finally, to be really successful at something usually requires you to work at for a long period of time. Just keep at it. Don’t quit like everyone else does. When one tactic doesn’t work, try something else.

I’m in it for the long-haul. How about you?

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Image: Jeff

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of author and change agent Seth Godin. I’ve been reading his books since my years in West Africa (2002-2006), and he continues to produce excellent work almost every day on his great blog.

I had the chance to speak to Seth’s “Alternative MBA” group last year, and when the invitation came, I rearranged my schedule and dropped everything to fly to New York. (Never pass up a major opportunity for personal growth.)

Today, Seth’s new book, Linchpin: Are you Indispensible?, launches out into the world. Instead of doing the usual media interviews, Seth decided to promote the book exclusively through the blogosphere. Together with his sidekick Ishita, he recruited a bunch of big-name bloggers – and then me – to publish a group of exclusive interviews today.

You can read the other interviews here, you can buy the book here, and if you’d like to ask Seth a question yourself, you can do so in the comments section of this post.

Let’s get started.

• Linchpin begins with the statement, “This time it’s personal.” This seems to be a departure for you. Among other things, you’re writing about love, binge drinking, urinals, and art. What led to this book?

I’m pretty sure I’m not writing about binge drinking. What I am writing about is the ability of each of us, without authority or permission, to do work that matters, to have an impact and to create a place for ourselves in a society that’s brainwashed us into doing something that’s an easily replaced commodity.

A big part of that is acting like an artist. Being personal, making change, communicating a vision.

I wrote this book for every single person who’s frustrated with the status quo and wants to do more and better work.

• “The system is a mess.” Which system? How does our art change that?

The system of factories churning out stuff we can no longer afford to buy, or to store in our houses overstuffed with junk. The system that turns out college grads who are eager to follow instructions, not blaze a path. The system that depends on spam or churn to grow a product or a brand. And the system that treats employees like disposable cogs in a giant machine.

You know what changes this? Humanity. Connection. Caring. Doing work that’s not easy to replicate. That’s what an artist does.

• According to Linchpin, how do I become an artist? (What if I don’t know what I’m really good at?)

You do art when you make change that matters, and do it via a connection with an individual. A great waitress or conductor or politician can make art. So can David, who cleans the tables at Dean and Deluca. Art isn’t the job, it’s the attitude you bring to the job and work you do when you’re there.

• Are we all really geniuses? If so, what do we do to stop choosing stability over genius?

Well, if a genius is someone who solves a problem in a new and original way, then sure, you’re a genius. And the first step to making that choice is to know it’s available.

• I liked the example of Thomas Hawk putting so much of his work in the Creative Commons. I know that you publish most of your writing for free, too, but what do you do when you run into issues of plagiarism or people otherwise directly stealing from you?

I ask them to stop, or to give readers a link so they can see where it comes from. Of course, if they’re selling it, that’s a different kind of theft, and I ask them them to stop, because then not only am I being ripped off, but so is the buyer.

• “Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another” and “Art is a gift that changes the recipient.” — Would you say that if someone has a talent they keep to themselves, never sharing it with anyone, that they aren’t really making art?

That’s exactly right. According to my definition, doing private stuff doesn’t count… unless, and perhaps, you’re changing yourself.

• Can you tell us more about emotional labor?

Physical labor is digging a ditch. You don’t do it cause it’s fun, you do it because it’s your job. I don’t care if you’re in the mood for it.

Emotional labor is smiling or engaging with someone or bringing insight to your job. Sometimes you do it for fun, but you always do it because it’s your job. I don’t care if you’re in the mood for it.

• “The second person to install a urinal wasn’t an artist, he was a plumber.” Aren’t most of us, in some fashion, plumbers building off each other’s work?

  [A personal example: I read your books while I was in Africa. Now I'm getting ready for my own book launch. Editing the manuscript in December, I could see some artistry and some plumbing, building on the influence of you and other thought leaders. Am I an artist or a plumber?]

I think we surely build on each other. BUT, plumbers don’t really. They don’t strive for a better toilet install, or one that changes the recipient. They strive for a cheap, fast version of the standard and then they move on. Artists take it farther than that, much farther. That’s our assignment.

***

Wrap-Up

I wish Seth well with the launch of Linchpin. It’s a book that deserves wide attention — I received a free review copy, but I also paid full price for an additional copy that’s being sent out from Amazon today.

My work is better because of Seth’s influence and your readership. I’m grateful for both.

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You can follow me on Twitter here
You can join AONC on Facebook here

Today is the launch of my first business project of 2010 and first community group ever.

It’s called the $100 Business Forum, and it’s all about helping 150 people start small businesses on a small budget.

–>Click here to sign up or learn more

***

The premise is that you don’t need a lot of money—or a lot of advance preparation—to start what I call a “very small business.” Really, you don’t need much of anything other than a product or service, a group of people willing to pay for it, and a way for them to pay you. All of that can be done for less than $1,000 in most cases, and less than $100 in many cases.

How It Works

The $100 Business Forum is not a product you buy once and then download. It’s a community group where we’ll all meet every day for 28 days. The group is online, and you don’t have to worry about time zones – you just show up at least once a day for about twenty minutes.

This project is jointly produced with Pamela Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Nation. Pam and I will co-facilitate the course, but much of the content will come from the participants themselves.

We’ve scheduled two classes so far – the inaugural one starts on February 1 and runs through Feb 28. The second one stars April 5 and runs through May 4.

Because the group will be interacting with each other on a regular basis, we’re limiting each class size to 150 participants. Naturally, since the group is called the $100 Business Forum, the cost is just $100.

–>Read more and sign up here

***

Also, if you’d help us spread the word about this project, I’d really appreciate it. You can direct people to this post or the registration site at 100bizforum.com.

Update: Both groups are sold out! Thanks for your support.

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As part of my Annual Review series, I’m looking back at the development of AONC and the related business during 2009. I hope you’re having a great December, wherever you are.

***

The business side of AONC happened quite organically in the beginning. The only real business goal I had when starting the site was to get a book contract. As the readership quickly grew, however, I realized I could also create products to serve specific sub-sets of readers.

Thus was born the Unconventional Guide business, which you can read more about here if you haven’t already seen it. The business vision, in short, is to help people live unconventional lives by creating opportunities through self-employment and travel, while providing me with a sustainable income so I can focus most of my work time on the writing I do for free.

Starting from the ground up in 2008, it took about nine months to put together a model that generated the average annual income for my part of the world ($47,500) while continuing to focus primarily on my writing career. It probably could have been faster, but in the first few months I didn’t even think about the monetization aspect, and then I continued to take the business development side very slowly for the next few months to make sure I was on the right track.

The business grew quite a bit this year from last year’s projections, but it also happened in a very natural way. Since the launch of the first guide (Summer 2008) until now, I’ve consistently spent an average of less than ten hours a week on the business.

This is by design: I enjoy the work, but I also don’t want to become a slave to it. To be fair, much of the other work I do for my writing career (40+ hours a week) influences the success of the business by bringing in new readers, some of whom become customers – but in the categories of business development, content creation, customer support, and other traditional business tasks, I average less than ten hours a week.

Like everything I do, it’s been a work in progress, and I continue to learn as I go along. Speaking of learning, here are a few business lessons learned from 2009.

You don’t have to hire anyone, even as your business grows. After things picked up earlier this year, I felt an internal pressure to hire some kind of virtual assistant, mostly because that’s what everyone in the internet world seems to advise these days. “Get someone to do the things you don’t want to do,” is how the idea is usually sold.

I felt the internal pressure until I realized that another answer to dealing with “the things you don’t want to do” is to just not worry about doing them at all. If I have to supervise someone else doing boring work, it’s not that different from doing it to begin with. The things are still on my mind one way or another.

Instead of expanding the business to the point where I need some form of employees, therefore, I try to keep things very simple. As a reference point, I like this article about Jim Collins, the business author and speaker. Jim has a couple of employees, but the Good to Great empire is deliberately small — so I figure if he can do that at the multi-million dollar level where clients are paying $80,000 a day, I can do just fine at a lower level on my own.

Technically, I’m not entirely on my own. I’m fortunate to work with superstar designer Reese, whom I talk with almost every day. I also have other partners for specific projects, and from time to time someone will help out with a task I couldn’t easily complete by myself. But otherwise, it’s a one-man shop, and I like it that way. If it’s working out OK, why change?

Don’t launch a product the day before leaving the country. Sounds simple, right? But for me it’s hard because I have so many trips planned. I did this with the Social Web launch and it was stressful, even for someone like me who likes to do a lot of things at once. Something always goes wrong with product launches – always – so having at least a day or two of leeway in case of emergency is helpful.

I hope I’ll be able to maintain a good launch + travel calendar in 2010, but with everything going on I’m honestly not sure it will always work out to be at home every time I do something new. Perhaps I should put this on a “Lessons I Should Learn” list.

With coaching and consulting, I like helping people for free more than being paid for it. I know a few other people who are very good at paid coaching – I think of Pam Slim or Charlie Gilkey to start with – and I do understand the psychology behind the fact that you tend to appreciate something more when you pay for it.

But that’s not the way that works best for me. I launched a brief consulting service late last year and had plenty of customer interest, but I felt that the dynamic of the relationship changed when someone was paying me for my time. I shut it down after a few months and no longer accept offers to pay for access.

Never promote anything that isn’t a perfect fit for the community. Thankfully, I didn’t learn this lesson by screwing up somewhere; I just learned to say no more and more often. Every single day I hear from multiple people who all have a new project they’ve worked hard on. In fact, over the course of an average month I’ll hear about 150+ projects that people want me to endorse or promote. “It’s so great!” they tell me. “Your readers will love it!”

And of course, they may be right — but it’s definitely not in the interest of my community to promote 150 things in a month, no matter how great they are. Especially when it comes to paid products, I’m very careful. As I continually remind myself, trust is hard to acquire but easy to lose.

Also, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with promoting things as an affiliate (I have my own affiliate program for the guides), but I’ve learned in my case that it’s usually better to endorse something without receiving anything but goodwill. I’ve done that with Mondo Beyondo, Tribal Author, Escape from Cubicle Nation, and a few books from authors I know.

I’d much rather hear good feedback and strengthen relationships than receive a commission. For me, endorsing stuff is like consulting – being paid just changes the whole dynamic for me, so I prefer to do it without the payoff most of the time.

Make sure each product is accessible and gets potential buyers excited. Commercially speaking, the least successful new product I put out this year was Travel Ninja. In retrospect I realized that some people felt intimidated by it – they could relate to taking a couple of trips or maybe planning for one big adventure, but the idea of traveling as much as I do is certainly not for everyone.

The most successful, on the other hand, was Art and Money (from May-August) and then Frequent Flyer Master (November-December). With FFM, I wanted to make sure I created something that was accessible to people who don’t fly that often. The night before the launch, I still wasn’t sure if I had make the connection strong enough in the landing page and earlier messages.

Thankfully, my confidence grew by mid-morning as we sold out of all 150 introductory copies right away, and then kept going. Lesson learned: make it accessible. Oh, and making it fun helps too.

***

2010 Business Plans

In the first half of next year, I’ll be launching two online communities and one major information product that should ramp up the business profile quite a bit without infringing on everything else we do at AONC.

I’m really excited about all three of these projects. The online communities will provide the chance for a core group of readers/customers to focus on two areas (life planning and entrepreneurship) that are difficult to do in a participatory manner on the blog. Each community will run as a 28-day class where a partner and I do about half of the teaching, and the rest of the input comes from the participants. I’ll be promoting the first one right after New Year’s, and the second one in early March.

The other project will be called Empire Building Kit, and the theme is “How to Build a Business in 1 Year by Doing 1 Thing Every Day.” It’s kind of like the Working for Yourself guide on steroids — or at least, that’s how I’m thinking of it as I’m outlining the content off and on this month.

In the second half of the year, I don’t expect to do much business expansion at all. Instead, the majority of my focus will be on promoting the AONC book and traveling to meet readers throughout the U.S. and Canada. I’ll say more about that in the final Annual Review update, coming next week.

That’s My Story — How About You?

Fellow entrepreneurs – how was your 2009? Any big plans for next year?

And for all of you aspiring entrepreneurs out there – what are you planning to do in 2010 to get closer to your goals?

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You can follow me on Twitter here
You can join AONC on Facebook here

Outdoor Office Image by Barock

Over the past few weeks I’ve been preparing to kick off a new online home for the business side of AONC. It’s finally ready!

Well, almost. The site is in beta mode for the next week as we tidy up a few things and make it even more awesome.

***

Remember, I help people for free every day and have no plans to stop. I’m beyond thrilled that anyone cares about what I have to say.

However, I’m also excited about the launch of my new business home. This has been on the schedule for the past several months, and even though it’s not 100% complete yet, it’s good enough to go live as we complete the final touches.

—-> Click here to visit UnconventionalGuides.com

***

On the business side of things, we now have a real shopping cart with integrated merchant account (customers can pay directly with Visa, Mastercard, and AmEx in addition to PayPal). We’re also improving the affiliate program and creating gift certificates and new combo packs.

Beginning in January 2010 I’ll be launching several products and creating two online communities. UnconventionalGuides.com will be the hub for these activities in addition to all of the current guides. In short, things are looking up on the business side of World Domination plans.

8% Beta-Test Discount

To celebrate the launch, I’m having my first sale of all time. Apparently it’s the season for sales, and we’re excited about getting this site up. When you purchase anything from the shop over the next week, use coupon code LAUNCHTEST to get 8% off your total order.

During this time the site will officially be in beta mode, so if something doesn’t work properly in the order process, let me know so we can fix it. You can continue to use the existing subdomains as well, and the discount will also work:

• Frequent Flyer Master
• Working for Yourself
• Art and Money
• Social Web

Props

All credit for the design and brilliance goes to Reese Spykerman, superstar designer. Reese has a real talent for branding that goes far beyond basic design, and I’m always honored to work with her.

Stay tuned for more tweaks and a few more touches as we make it better and go into 2010 with some kind of actual strategy.

And thanks to all of you for your support! Fellow citizens of the U.S., have a great Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow.

Everyone else, Thanksgiving Day is all about gratitude and pie, two things I highly value. Some people also eat large birds. Feel free to join us in any or all of the festivities.

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I read an interesting article in USA Today recently, which profiled seven people who unexpectedly lost their job, then turned around to create a situation better than the one they lost.

From a bus driver to a piñata maker, each of these very different individuals used the negative experience of being laid off to make an even bigger, positive change.

I know it’s hard to believe, but not everyone who has been put out of work is wasting away. Some of them have completely changed their lives to create a much better situation for themselves.

The interesting thing was reflected in a quote used halfway through the article: “If they hadn’t been pushed, they never would have taken the leap.” In most cases, the people who jumped off to a new adventure had ideas before the push came, but ideas without action are just dreams.

I’d summarize the article, and the decisions these brave individuals made, like this:

1. Change sucks. Most of us will accept a lame status quo as long as it keeps us going.

2. When change is forced upon us, wham! We realize that maybe it’s time to make a better change.

3. All things being equal, it’s usually better to try than not to. Failure be damned.

Here’s another quote that seems appropriate:

“Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: you have no one to blame.” -Erica Jong

Yes, that’s hardcore. But so is unexpectedly losing your job. And so is striking out to do something totally different. Is it any wonder that 300+ of the Fortune 500 companies were founded during times of economic stagnation?

Think about this:

• Instead of being a complete catastrophe, a global meltdown is an opportunity for positive life change.
• Instead of finding security in a job, find security in your own competence.
• Instead of defining self-employment as inherently risky, maybe conventional employment is the real risk. (I know I certainly wouldn’t risk putting my future in someone else’s hands.)

***

An article in USA Today naturally profiles Americans, but those of us in this part of the world aren’t the only ones experiencing a blend of hardship and growth. Valur in Iceland sent me this note recently:

I got fired in the economic collapse in Iceland last October. Although a tragedy for my nation, this has proven a stroke of luck and source of inspiration for my personal growth for both me and many of my fellow countrymen.

A few weeks after the crash in October 2008 I created what you could describe as a small legacy project that even got featured in the Financial Times. It also made me the highest monthly salary I’ve had so far. All this, thanks to losing my IT job in the finance sector.

Best regards,
Valur Thor, Iceland

Not everyone who gets fired will get in the newspaper, of course. Not everyone will start a business or find their dream job.

But hard times force us to take another look at what we’re really doing. Are we waiting for a push to take our leap?

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Find me on Twitter: twitter.com/chrisguillebeau
Join AONC on Facebook: facebook.com/artofnonconformity

‘Recession Is Just a Word’ Image by Rich

This is the story of John T. Unger, a working artist who actually makes a good living. Despite the recession, each month in 2009 he’s made more money than in the same month last year, in addition to more than he did in every corporate job held long ago.

But that’s not the most interesting thing about John.

What’s interesting is what happened before his art business started taking off. The way John puts it, the best thing that ever happened to him was nearly being killed in a diner by a crazed taxi driver who held a gun to his head. (It taught him perspective, he says.)

The second best thing was suddenly losing his entire freelance workload in 2000. (He decided to stop freelancing and go all-in with his “real” art.)

The third best thing was having the roof of his studio cave in while he was standing on top of it, which nearly brought him to bankruptcy but ended up as the catalyst for the full-time art career he has now.

To learn more, go and read this article on John’s site—it’s excellent and deserves wider attention. (If you have to choose between the rest of this post and the article, read the article.)

***

I caught up with John last week to talk about recovering from disaster (and a few other things). The Q&A is below:

• Why do you think you were able to create an opportunity where other people would have only seen the disaster?

In a word: “practice.” I’ve started over with nothing more than once. In fact, one of my favorite lines about how I started my art career is “I did it with nothing, because nothing is free.” The world is full of stuff that no one wants or that no one sees. Learning to use those to build something is the same kind of thinking that goes into turning a disaster into an opportunity.

Part of my resilience is that I know from experience that just because it seems like the apocalypse, it doesn’t mean tomorrow isn’t coming. I figure that the world ends every second, and it starts over the very next second. I’ve seen the end of the world so many times I’m just not impressed by it anymore.

It takes some faith, courage or self-confidence to walk through a fire, sure. But you decide to keep going, and then you figure out how. My experience as an artist is really helpful for me in this because in some ways I view my job as “building a world.” Not the whole thing, but the parts that are important to me. I work mostly from found objects, and so my creative life isn’t just about inventing, it’s about re-inventing. I take what I find and I build.

You don’t notice opportunities if you limit what you’re looking for to a specific goal. It’s vital to maintain some fluidity, so that you can act on unexpected opportunities. Because I’m in the habit of always looking for new ideas, possibilities or opportunities it comes naturally to do so in times of distress.

• Is there ever a good time to give up? If so, when?

Yes and no. If your current plan or strategy or practice really isn’t working then it may be time to redirect your energy and focus. I don’t think you should ever give up on your core values or dreams, but sometimes it turns out that there’s a better way to implement them.

For instance, my first career was as a writer and poet. Despite some fairly high profile gigs, I was unable to support myself financially with words at the time. But those skills have made my current career as a visual artist possible— the fifteen years I spent pursuing poetry had a direct effect on how I deal with subject matter, meaning and metaphor as a visual artist. They bring a greater depth to my sculpture which makes it meaningful to people.

Also, my ability to write about my art helped enormously in building a successful career. Almost all of my sales, including galleries, come through my blog. I’ve shipped my work to all but a few states and at least seven countries. That reach would have been impossible for me before the internet, and if I had been limited to the local economy I would probably not have been able to make a full time living in the arts.

The irony in a way is that I’ve had my work included in ten books now as an artist, and am starting to see opportunities for finally publishing books of my own. So now it finally comes full circle.

• You said that the advice your friends gave you when you were in the middle of the disasters wasn’t helpful. What would you say to someone who’s in a similar situation?

In the article, I wrote, “The only way you can tell the difference between disaster and opportunity is to decide to make an opportunity out of every event.” That’s both easier and harder than it sounds. It’s easy to decide to make a change when your back is against the wall, but unless you follow through with acting on the decision, it won’t save you. Taking action is the hard part, especially if you lack resources after a fall.

When things fall apart, it usually requires an extremely creative approach to build the world again. There are techniques I’ve developed that make that easier for me.

The first thing I do is assess the situation unemotionally and try to see it for exactly what it really is. With any problem solving situation in my creative work, it’s important to look at what things do rather than what things are supposed to do. The same is true for problem solving in life events. You have to know what you’re working with in order to successfully influence it. Or subvert it.

The next step is to see if there is some way to leverage the force of the disaster itself to provide a solution. I regard this as a form of Tai Chi. I’ve never formally studied Tai Chi, but the core concept of redirecting an external force rather than meeting it with an attack has worked for me in all kinds of contexts. Any real disaster has some momentum, and if you can find a way to leverage that force, or turn it to your benefit, you may be able to accomplish a solution more quickly or easily. When my studio caved in, I was able to use the situation to find a solution that just wouldn’t have happened otherwise, and both the bank and I came out ahead the long run.

Finally, as an artist, I believe that almost nothing is impossible but many things are less than obvious. Ultimately, the solution to many problems is to approach from the side, or behind, or upside down or backwards. Part of what makes me good at this kind of problem solving is that I practice all day long by reversing and inverting ideas to see what else they hold when held up to a mirror.

• You say that things are going well now, but what does that mean? Can you be more specific?

I’ve built enough of a reputation for my work and ideas that I find I can easily reach out to other artists, thinkers and people who interest me. Having the respect of my peers is probably the most rewarding aspect of what I do. I’ve gotten a lot of nice media attention, had my work profiled or featured in books, radio, TV, magazines, etc.

Sales of my work have increased every year, and I now have a comfortable and reliable income. In fact, I’ve done better every month of 2009 than the same month in 2008, so even during the rough economy I’ve done better than I would have in a more traditional job.

I continue to try new projects, some of which succeed and some of which don’t but it keeps the work interesting and it’s nice to be able to make new work without having to worry about money like I used to.

I’ve been able to provide a lot of work for other people, both my own employees and other business who supply me and I feel really good about that. I like the fact that my business generates opportunities and income for other people as well.

***

To me, John’s story represents the triumph of the human spirit and the creativity of the desperate. As John points out, it’s not just about optimism, at least not in a passive sense. Mere optimism doesn’t pay the rent. When you come to the point of desperation, you do more than just hope for something.

As John puts it:

“The only way you can tell the difference between disaster and opportunity is to decide to make an opportunity out of every event.”

Disasters suck. No one thinks the recession is good. But sometimes the best things arrive in disaster form, and it’s up to you to decide how to respond.

Big congratulations to John for making it out of three big disasters—not that he needs validation from me or anyone else. And good luck to all of you with your next disaster.

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Find me on Twitter: twitter.com/chrisguillebeau
Join AONC on Facebook: facebook.com/artofnonconformity

Image courtesy of John T. Unger