As I prepare for a family visit this weekend to celebrate a milestone birthday (yes, mine), I reflect upon the choices I have made in life and the influences that got me to where I am today. It also brings a bit of sadness in the fact that my father won’t be joining our celebration as we lost him to ALS in 2006… but when I think about influence, his strength and charisma still impact me today.
My father was a welding salesman, back in the 70’s-80’s when face-to-face sales were the only option. He was an extremely successful business man within that format. Yet, my dad also always had something else ‘cooking’ on the side to fulfill his inventor spirit. Most of his creations were related to the welding world, but he (and his partner) had one amazing idea way back when in inventing an above the ground swimming pool light – it installed in the side and lit up the inside of the pool, underwater, and was the first of its kind. Dad tested his invention on our pool and then worked to market it in local stores. My sister and I were brought on board to silk-screen the product logos onto the lights in our garage. It was exhilarating to be part of a new idea and see it grow, I was 9 years old…
While the underwater light venture didn’t expand, (there’s a long story of trusting the wrong manufacturing firm – another example of why choosing the right team is critical) the perseverance my dad had in trying out his ideas and having that ‘side business’ was very inspirational. Over the course of my life, my dad often encouraged me to make choices that may have seemed ‘out of my comfort zone’… which led me to a life of independence and a strong appreciation for the entrepreneurial spirit.
While my involvement in the KikScore venture started after my dad’s passing… I know he’s looking down proud as can be. What is your small business spiritual story? Share it with us!
While entrepreneurs may share various character and personality traits, there are may types of of entrepreneurs. Some exist under the radar while others get all of the hype. The one that probably gets the most news coverage and are therefore the most well known is the startup entrepreneur. The startup entrepreneur is the person that takes an idea, may get some angel or VC funding (or even self fund) and creates and launches a product. These types of entrepreneurs get a lot of coverage as they sometime have high profile exits where other companies buy their product for millions of dollars. The recent Mint.com story is an example of this.
Other Entrepreneur Types
Of course there are many other types. One that is getting a lot of recent attention is the home based business entrepreneur. Businessweek just had an article that covered some surprising stats for this group. There are also the small business entrepreneurs that have stores, shops, bars and restaurants that we all visit nearly everyday of our lives. Then there is the purely unintentional entrepreneur that due to job loss are forced into starting a business. There has been a lot of coverage of these unintentional entrepreneurs lately due to the huge amount of job losses during the economic downturn.
Enter the Night and Weekend Entrepreneur Warrior
The entrepreneur that floats under nearly every radar is the person who has a full-time day job, but still is an entrepreneur through a side business. As demonstrated from this clip from the cult classic Office Space, Milton Waddams exemplifies where some people get their motivation for their side business while they work their full time job:
While nights and weekend entrepreneurs have various motivations for starting their businesses, they all face very similar experiences:
1) Time Crunch – Even more than other entrepreneurs, because of their 9-6 day jobs, nights and weekend warriors can really only fully focus on their side businesses during limited time periods. That can be used as an advantage because since time is so precious, these types of entrepreneurs must be even more focused on time management and efficiency when they do work on their own business.
2) The Constant Pull Away From the Business– Each night and weekend these entrepreneurs face the temptation when they come home from work or on that weekend, to turn on the TV or to go into procrastination mode. It is even more tempting to the nights and weekend warriors because of the fatigue that sets in from the day job. Nevertheless, there are successful entrepreneurs that overcome this temptation and beat the fatigue and procrastination demon that is there every time you come home from the day job.
3) Beating the Not Doing Enough Syndrome – Because the nights and weekend warriors do not have a dedicated 40 hours of time for their business, they constantly are fighting the guilt that they are not moving fast enough or getting enough done. The way these warriors get through this syndrome is keeping that eternally optimistic side that is in the small business psyche and saying, I am moving forward and doing all I can. Otherwise, this guilt will overcome and doom you. Night and weekend entrepreneur warriors battle this syndrome every time they look at their “to do” list.
While these are common challenges, nights and weekend entrepreneurs also share the same hunger to create something that they can set the direction for and grow. We imagine that we will increasingly hear more about these entrepreneurs in the future.
Examples of Nights and Weekend Entrepreneurs
Here are just a few examples of Nights and Weekend Entrepreneurs we know about:
KikScore is a company that is made up of nights and weekend entrepreneurs and see here and here for some background on our experience.
Design 2 Print – which is KikScore’s hats and bumpersticker vendor. Rush at Design 2 Print offers a lot more promotional items such as apparel, glasses, mugs, badges, calendars and much much more. Their slogan is “Our Business is Promoting YOUR Business.”
Simply Astro – Shiv who owns this site and a host of others spends nights and weekends devoted to fine tuning his astrology, horoscope, match making and Feng Shui site.
Know of any more, please leave them in the comment section below.
As I prepare for a family visit this weekend to celebrate a milestone birthday (yes, mine), I reflect upon the choices I have made in life and the influences that got me to where I am today. It also brings a bit of sadness in the fact that my father won’t be joining our celebration as we lost him to ALS in 2006… but when I think about influence, his strength and charisma still impact me today.
