On my Brawny Books page, I made it clear that I love actual, real-life, hold-in-your-hand, books. I enjoy writing in the margins and dog-earring the corners of the pages that give me the feels. That confession pretty much makes me a dinosaur, according to my brother. He works for the book publishing company that delivers the well-known For Dummies series, Wiley, so he might know what he’s talking about. I agree that reading on a tablet would at least make me look more technologically savvy. However, there is something very special about letting my mind escape while reading a book in nature and I have yet to find a charging station on a tree. (That picture is a legal, paid download from Adobe; I have no clue where that tree exists.)
Writing provides me an outlet, but I also appreciate the way the craft enables me to connect with others. When I look around, (while waiting to donate plasma, for example) it’s obvious that technology is the chosen avenue that many of my fellow humans choose to have information delivered to them, at lightning speed no less. Please don’t tell my brother that I’m admitting he’s right.
As I’ve said before, I’m a full-blown Spaghetti Head. I am currently writing three books, two of which switch off getting my main focus. The other is a small idea saved somewhere in the Cloud, communicated through a text, with the actual creation spinning & waiting in the back of my mind. In the meantime, I write my blog, spurred on by intermittent inspirations caused by life. My ideas are received by my brain just like shown in the picture: sideways, at an angle, sometimes upside down or even in a spiral. I’m slightly embarrassed to let you in on the disorganized, non-linear fashionings of my mind, but I think it helps to explain why I’ve decided to blog one of my books while it’s still a work in progress. Writing my book in small little spurts that allow for instant feedback and communication will keep me marching along towards the finish line (a published entity) while also permitting my scattered (“Was that a squirrel?!”) cerebrum respites to write about topics unrelated to my book.
I’m not sure if I had the idea to blog my book and then found Nina Amir’s, How to Blog a Book, or if I came across her book first. Either way, organizing all of my thoughts into a stream of related posts along with realizing that others prefer to read tidbit-sized stories on their phone screens seems like a winning combination. So here we go:
In 2018, on one cold Indiana night (one random cold one because, believe me, there are a bunch of them) 23 pages of words about Small Business Success poured out of me. At that time, I had just left a violent 4-year relationship and had taken my three kids to live with family and get back on my feet. I was unknowingly soon to be jobless, fired by my business partner, who had also been the other half of my violent relationship. The inspiration for writing came from finally having a job that I adored just to have it yanked from underneath me, but that was just the peak event. I had years of experiences with different angles and aspects of small businesses building up to this overflow moment. While each one was taking place, I didn’t have an inner voice telling me to remember it as intel for a project down the road. But something about this cold, suckish evening brought them all back full circle.
I spent the first 18 years of my life watching my father run a one-man business. This was just enough proof for me to instill a desire to work for a company -where insurance and vacation days would be lavish. So, I became a teacher. At 25, while teaching, I married a man that was the head of a landscape company. This prompted me to quickly acquire small business accounting skills. Nearing 40, I left the classroom and dedicated 4 years of my life (days, nights, weekends & my retirement stash) helping establish an office furniture installation company. Amidst all of those years, I also worked for many other establishments (umm 24 & counting– the list is towards the bottom of When I Grow Up, I Want to Be). Because of this, I have gathered oodles and oodles of information about What Not to Do to Ensure the Success of a Small Business. I know what works and what doesn’t; I’ve been on the front lines of the good, the bad and the ugly.
One might wonder, then, why do I not run a business? My dad, my partners, and many others who work for themselves share a common basic tenet: they own their own business for the sake of more freedom. I truly resonate, deep down in my core, with their belief. There is certainly more to life than having a boss and a time clock running the show- your show nonetheless. On that cold Indiana night, I had an epiphany. I realized that for the sake of family and money, for the entire first half of my life, I had been putting my dream aside to help someone else realize their dream. My dream is (and always has been) to write a book. I am fascinated by businesses from the inside out and have enjoyed participating in them, but I have never felt the urge to run one. I had to tell people what to do for 15 years in a classroom. I’ve found that it’s hard enough to manage guiding myself around daily on planet Earth; micromanaging others and delegating work just isn’t for me.
It’s fair to say that business owners don’t have time to write books. Writing a book about small businesses allows me to share my countless observations and considerations while being my own boss. My goal is simple: to connect with others, to help them prosper and not lose their minds (and souls) amidst their small business endeavors, and to generate a laugh or two. I have gathered my memories to turn all of the crappy parts of my job experiences into my dream. While it’s admittedly ironic to set out to focus on positivity by pointing out the What Not to Dos, I must recall the words of a wise professor, “If you tell your students what NOT to remember, you can guarantee that is exactly what will stick with them.” And, let’s be honest, What Not to Do is simply catchier than a list of orders to follow.
My experience working with children allows me to explain basic business concepts in simplified, hopefully witty, stories. If you enjoy my business antidotes, you can continue to find organized posts scrolling at the top of this one or below in a list fashion. Eventually, I will have created a real book (with paper!) that will have additions and updates led by discussions from this forum (because I can’t sell the cow when the milk is free.) If you don’t give a rip about small companies, thanks for reading this far and I hope you still enjoy my posts that come to me on the fly concerning every topic under the sun that I attempt to categorize on this website. (Did you see that squirrel?!)
#12 No B.S. – Beginning Steps ~ 8/17/23
#11 Supplies ~ 5/13/23
#10 Communicate, Bitches ~ 3/29/23
#9 Accepting $ ~ 6/27/22
#8 Keepin’ it Simple ~ 1/2/22
#7 Time to Train ~ 4/18/20
#6 Spending $ ~ 11/28/19
#5 Make Them Stick ~ 9/2/19
#4 How in the Hell do you find Good Help? ~ 7/10/19
#3 The F Words in Business ~ 7/4/19
#2 From Problems to Procedures ~ 6/28/19
#1 Delegate, Dammit! ~ 6/21/19