starting

I was texting with a coaching client about Stay At Home CEO and she said:

That sounds awesome. How can you find these people? What skills or services would they offer?

I started to reply, but realized that where I had a quick answer, a longer one would be better. Limited to the length of a text here is what I had to say:

Have to find them one at a time & in packs/tribes. Services: I see three types: 1. build a biz 2. hourly 3. goods

Finding and networking with people who take care of their children, but also want to build some revenue stream is another long topic. Instead of tackling both, here is some types of businesses I expect are great for Stay At Home Dads and Stay At Home Moms.

What do Stay At Home CEO’s offer?

There are three primary types of businesses ideas one might want to pursue based on your passion, time, and other resources:

Self-standing Business
Consultants & Professional Services
Makers, Artists & Craftsmen

3. Makers, Artists & Craftsmen

A number of my friends make goods and sell them. Might be a cross-stitching, woodworking, painting, or other talent based production. They might start for fun, in the spare moments or while watching tv, but end up wanting to sell more to more people. There is a limit to doing this one and some will want to move into building it into a business. Others would just like easier ways to reach a larger market.

With this you are trading a combination of resources, but ultimately what you produce for money. There can be more to it then just making a widget, in networking, marketing, and other administrative tasks if you want to make more money.

2. Consultants & Professional Services

It is clear and easy in many industries for an individual to go out on their own and start a one man service business. I coach business leaders. I do stuff with websites; all of which can be done from anywhere my smartphone has reception. Virtual Assistants, Customer Care Representatives, Accountants, Lawyers, and many other consultants, coaches, and other professionals can easily do the same. All working whenever their kids allow & from wherever they want with the right tools, processes and systems.

In all cases, you are trading your time for money, or doing a hybrid of this and the other two activities.

1. Self-standing Business

A business owner is someone who could walk away from their business for a period of time & it continues to grow. They had a major hand in getting it started. They might or might not be needed for it to continue to evolve in a major way, but the organization is at a point (normally this was an intentional milestone) where to keep going & growing at some rate the owner is unnecessary.

Some of the types of businesses that I expect to find people & help people do include Real Estate Investing, Websites, Apps, programs, games, books, networks, and more traditional businesses.

Supporting The Dreams

Some are happy being like the friend of mine who has an embroidery machine & makes custom stuff for friends. Others are like a friend who started making camping gear. He is now setting up a business to produce the gear and a second business to market the gear to the masses.

Stay At Home CEO will support both extremes, those who want a small side project that makes some income to those who want a full on business by helping with connections, information, and inspiration.

[ image by rvaphotodude ]

The first actions are often the hardest steps of any venture. Getting started is probably the step that prevents most successes from happening.

With this first major post of Stay At Home CEO (SAHceo), I want to share three things that I keep thinking about.

1. Starting Cube 1 – Seed to Tree
2. Best Website for You
3. Good to Great

Starting Cube 1 – Seed to Tree

StartingCube is a podcast I started on 2011-01-11. I thought about it for months & had done a similar activities off and on; finding a great clip and sharing it with one or more people. The general idea was to put out nuggets of gold that people could build upon.<
The key is you have to put something out. I had a deadline, self-imposed, of 2011-01-11 & I hit it. It was rough, it was raw. It was so far below the level I knew it could and should be, but it was released. You can listen to it here:
[audio:http://www.startingcube.com/cube0001.mp3]
[mp3 – 01:51]

I am starting SAHceo much the same way, but with one additional thing – I delayed the start. I have the skills and abilities that I could have had a website up and going the first day that an idea came to me, I’ll explain a little why I did not in section 3.

Best Website for You

After years of working with people on starting a website & seeing so many bad websites I came to a realization that the way that websites are generally designed is bad, just bad.

Normal way of developing a website is you start with a picture, say you go on a cruise to somewhere beautiful. Take a camera & capture a picture. Then go and try to recreate that based on the picture. I am not talking about doing a painting, go find a location & recreate the whole beach. It takes a lot more than just the sun, waves, and trees.

Websites and businesses are much the same way. It’s not about a single picture in the mind of an individual. It’s about the content creation process. It’s about life, it’s about the customers & their desires.

In the end I came to a process that gives a person a path that they can act on today & build for the future.

That is one reason why Stay At Home CEO will start off bare bones & improve over time.

I have to see what it becomes. Find the community and see what we decide we need. More on this in part 3.

Good to Great

Good To Great is a wonderful book by Jim Collins. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Good To Great is the result of five years of study by Jim Collins’ team on the question – can an organization go from good to great?

The first step in going from good to great is getting the right people on the bus & the wrong people off the bus. The second step is getting the right people who are on the bus in the correct seats. The third step, the one most people start off with, is deciding where to drive the bus.

It’s not to say the owner of the bus, or leadership, cannot have any conditions on the future or direction of the bus, but if greatness is the goal, the fewer other constraints the more options you have once you have a team.

I have been on a path of self-employment & entrepreneurship nearly the entire time I have been married. My entire post college phase of life. From the first business idea, my wife hated it. She was not supportive. She ranged from hostile to just annoyed.

A few years ago, I decided to radically apply the “First Who, Then What” principle from Good To Great & focused all my attention on getting on the same page with my wife.

She did not know it at the time, but basically all my energy, time, and focus was either on staying alive or improving our relationship. Eventually she came around. Today she cannot imagine me at a traditional 8-5 job. She knows how unless it was a very special situation I would be frustrated & our babies would be cared for by people other than the two of us a lot more.

When I first had the idea for Stay At Home CEO I typed up roughly 450 words on it & sent it to my wife. I wanted her feedback first.

If she approved, blessed, and was at least a little interested – I would move forward.

The second group of people were friends, advisers & potential team members. Trying to get the right people on the bus.

Then I opened it up a little more, but still tried to focus in on people I already had some relationship with. Trying to build support and always looking for people to be involved.

I would love to get the logo, podcast, theme, branding, and many other elements done – not to mention some revenue streams up and running, but going at the correct pace & not burning too much of my resources at once is a key.

In the end,

my primary role in the world today is Stay At Home Dad to two wonderful twin girls. After that I split the remainder between SAHceo and coaching some business clients I keep around & want to win. I’ve learned that I have to consume, rest, produce & invest to keep going & in six months SAHceo will be different from day one – 2011-11-11.

General Business Ideas for Stay At Home CEOs