40 Things to do before I reach 40

This week I've had my 39th birthday.

I'm a great believer in the power of setting goals and have written about this in the past:

In January 2015 I published a post Ten Reasons to Train Yourself to be Goal Orientated

and followed it up with a blog on How Do You Decide What Goals to Set.

I'm also a big fan of lists.

Anyone who regularly followers this blog on Tom Cat's Mewsings or my Authorpreneur Blog will know I'm fond of writing list posts.

I've completed 3 consecutive 365 projects in the past 3 years, the first being Project Book 365, the second being Operation Author and the third, this year, was less prescriptive but nevertheless I have completed 'Authorpreneur Almanac 365 Adventures in Writing and Entrepreneurship'.

I talk about my 365 projects on this blog entry: Ideas Are Powerful, Ideas Change Your World

The culmination of this project will be the publication of my first non fiction book 'Authorpreneur Almanac' next year in which I'll share 26 features on writing and 26 features on entrepreneurship.

This year, I'm not doing a 365 project, as such. I have 2 projects planned instead:

1. Read 12 books in 12 months - I'll leave that for next week...

2. 40 things to do before I'm 40

I put a call out on Facebook and with the help of Pinterest I've compiled a list of 40 things to do before my 40th birthday on December 29th 2016.

It was challenging to come up with 40 things. There is so much I'd like to do, in fact, I started a 'Bucket List' Pinterest board as I was finding ideas for my 40 things.

  Follow Amy Morse - Authorpreneur's board My Bucket List on Pinterest. 

Most of the things on the bucket list involve lots of money or being in another country - so choosing small, inexpensive, achievable yet worthwhile things to do - was harder than I expected.

Here are a couple of examples:

I lived up trees as a kid, but haven't done this for years. I think I'll head to Victoria Park in the summer, take a notebook and pen, select a suitable tree then sit up there and write.

I like the idea of going out with some pre-written post it notes of inspiring quotes or messages then randomly leaving them for people to find.

Any excuse to catch some rays this summer...



Here goes, these are my 40 things:

5 Non-monetary Reasons to Love Crowdfunding

 My latest...

Adventures in Writing and Entrepreneurship 

After successfully completing a crowdfund last year to publish Solomon's Secrets, when I was asked to join the organising committee for Bristol Festival of Literature this year and we talked about how we would finance such a monumental project to host a fantastic city wide event; crowdfunding was my first thought.

But crowdfunding is not just about money - there are plenty of other reasons to consider it to boost your business.

Here are 5 non-monetary things I love about Crowdfunding:

1. Building Community. You can mobilse the support of your fan base and give them a hook to share with their networks
2. Social Proof. It’s a very public way of showing that people support what you are trying to achieve
3. Marketing Platform. It’s a great excuse to embark on a sustained marketing campaign to raise awareness.
4. Newsworthy. A crowdfund is a newsworthy activity and makes better editorial copy than an advertisement
5. Telling Your Story. People don’t just buy people, they buy stories. A crowdfund campaign can provide a great platform to share your story and engage people

Support Bristol Festival of Literature by sharing this link to the crowdfund:

https://www.fundsurfer.com/project/bristol-festival-of-literature

Follow on Twitter: @BristolLitFest

Use the hashtag: #Unputdownable2015

22 Way to Harness The Power of Networking

The internet is a great place to make connections, but there is no substitute for physically meeting people.


The people most interested in you on social media and most likely to happily share your content are those that have actually met you.


The key to social media is ‘social’. It’s far better to have a small following of interested and active people than thousands of faceless followers.

Quality is always better than quantity on social media (tweet this). 


So how do you get to meet new people?


By networking.

It’s a horrible word isn’t it; networking, it feels so corporate and jargony!

On my shiny new website, I talk in more detail about the power of networking...

Read the full feature here on Amy's shiny new website

But here's a quick snapshot of my 22 Tips:

1)  Say yes to every invitation

2)  When you want something, broadcast it - But always be generous with our own knowledge and connections

3)  Show up and often

4)  Fear comes from uncertainty. Improve your chances by being prepared, you’ll feel more in control

5)  Think ahead of the meeting  about what you’d like to achieve. Jot your ideas down or do a mind map to get the thoughts out of your head and committed to paper, then they can start to become tangible goals

6)  Have a goal – for example: ‘I’d like 1 warm lead’ or a small step: ‘I will start a conversation’

7)  Make sure you have plenty of business cards. A notepad and pen is also handy so you can take notes if there is a speaker offering handy tips or so you can jot down the details of someone you meet who doesn’t have any business cards

8)  Prepare a spiel for yourself. Sum up what you do in a short sentence and have answers prepared for any questions that may follow

9)  Make notes on the back of business cards to remind yourself where you met a person. It could be weeks or months before you re-connect with that person and putting them in context is much easier when it comes to getting in touch i.e.: ‘Hi we met at such and such event…’

10)  The best piece of advice my mum ever gave me was, treat others as you’d wish them to treat you. Always be friendly and respectful, you never know when you may bump into that person again

11)  If you go to an event with someone you know make a conscious effort not to just speak to that person the whole time

12)  Look for people with open body language to strike up a conversation

13)  Look for people who are on their own. The chances are they are just as scared, if not more so, than you and they’ll appreciate your company

14)  Joining an existing conversation and listening for a wile is a good way to start to get involved and get to know people

15)  Be yourself. You don’t have to be formal, in fact people are more likely to warm to you if you’re friendly and genuine

16)  No one goes to a networking event to buy things, so don’t behave like a sales person. Ask lots of questions of the people you speak to and listen, don’t just wait for your turn to speak

17)  Enjoy it! You never know what fascinating people you might meet, be bold, behave confidently, you might just surprise yourself.

And after the event...

18)  When you make a new connection, reinforce it by connecting with them online through; Linked In, Twitter, Facebook etc.

19)  Publicly acknowledge on social media that you enjoyed meeting them

20)  Regularly share their content and join in with or start conversations with them online

21)  Arrange future meetings over a coffee to catch up and possibly do business with them or pass on referrals to people you think could help them.

22)  If they are not local to you, make use of tools such as Skype to ‘virtually meet’. Even when you are behind a keyboard, seeing a face is a far more human and real experience than just exchanging emails. It’s good to hear each others voices and look each other in the eye

  
  

What's you number 1 networking tip?

Turning Your Hobby Into a Business

It's time to move on...

My new website is now up and running and I'll be transferring my blog to:

www.AmyMorse.co.uk

This is the last installment of 'Idea-ism' as I know it - Come across to my much nicer and sexier blog for more pearls of authorpreneurial wisdom...

2015 is Authorpreneur Almanac year. 

Join me in my 365 Adventures in Writing and Entrepreneurship...

I love Pinterest. It's such a fantastic tool for collecting content and it appeals to my hoarding instincts. I can collect lovely things without filling my house with junk! 

It's also a powerful research tool, allowing me to access valuable information that may not be otherwise obvious in the endless ocean of the internet.

Here I am. Come and join me in the Pinterest playground:

Visit Amy Morse - Authorpreneur's profile on Pinterest.
 

During one of my recent cathartic pining frenzies, I came across this great article by Tilly of Tilly & The Buttons

In the post, Tilly offers 5 tips to turn your hobby into a business. It's packed with sensible and practical suggestion and a reality check.

For the past four years I've worked as an Enterprise Coach, supporting people facing just this dilemma; 'how to turn a hobby into a business'.

These are some of the the things I challenge people on when I first meet them:

One of the first questions to ask yourself before considering whether to take this step is "do you actually want to?"

The immediate response might be; "well yes of course, why else would I be here'?" but let's dig deeper...

Being self employed is not easy. It's much more difficult than being employed - where you turn up at an agreed time, do what you're there to do and get paid at the end of the month. It's a straight forward contract.

Another aspect to this is: if your hobby becomes your job, will you lose your passion for it?

Doing what you love sounds wonderful in theory, but when you're struggling to make ends meet and get regular work in, it's easy to start resenting it.

Let's assume that you've done this soul searching and addressed these questions before you seriously consider the move to self employment. The advice Tilly offers is great, however, I have 4 things to add:

1) Get help  

You definitely need to be a do-er, but you also need to recognise your own limitations.

One of the biggest mistakes I see starts ups making is trying to do everything themselves. Often, when they come to me for business advice it's because they went ahead and did things without considering the consequences and got themselves into a pickle or made expensive mistakes.

If I had a pound for the number of people who buy a limited company package off some dodgy website without understanding their statutory responsibilities, then I'd have... Okay, only enough for a round of drinks - but still it's a messy and expensive problem to fix. 

2) Learn about business 

(I don't mean a Business Studies qualification, I mean practical enterprise support) 

It's one thing being good at something, quite another to turn it into a business. And a whole other substantial step to make it profitable and sustainable.

Just because you have a brilliant skill or lovely product doesn't mean you can run a business. (tweet this)

A small business (and that includes being a one-person band or freelancer), has a multitude of different processes and functions. You're not just the maker, you will also be; the salesperson, the marketer, the quality controller, the manager, the bookkeeper, the designer, the health and safety person, the HR person, the credit controller, the administrator, the purchaser, the negotiator, the payroll person etc etc.

You can only learn so much by looking online, reading books and blogs etc. There is no substitute for going on a course or talking to a professional.

If you don't know what you don't know, how do you know you don't know it!

Recent research conducted by the Federation of Small Business, suggests that the second biggest reason businesses fail in the first year (after financial problems) is: not getting training or support. 

3) Be prepared to pay for some things

A bad homemade website (unlike Tilly's, which is gorgeous), some poor quality marketing materials you printed off on your bubble jet, emails filled with errors etc, all these things make you look like an amateur.

You can use favours from friends and family to a certain extent, but you may not necessarily be able to guarantee the quality or rely on them. And what if you get your mate to design your website and you don't like it? You didn't pay for it, so you can't very well complain (not without losing a friendship!).

In particular, with regards to printing, especially leaflets, business cards etc. they can use a lot of ink and cartridges for home printers are expensive. Often it works out cheaper to go to a local printing firm (some of the online providers have hidden costs, a bit like budget airlines!). It also has the advantage that you're supporting local business and can build a relationship for discounts etc. You can also actually speak to a human about what you really want, rather than being constrained by an online template.

4) Think business. 

This is an abstract one - here's an example:

My first venture into self employment was as Tom Cat Designs (hence the Twitter handle!). My husband and I were refurbishing properties at the time, and as a finishing touch for the rooms, I painted some big, bold canvases. I had lots of positive comments, people asked about the art and friends commissioned me to do art for their homes. Someone then suggested that I should put on an exhibition. I booked a gallery space, giving myself a deadline, and set about producing a series of paintings. When the exhibition opened, I sold several pictures and then some commissions for more work followed. I was churning out paintings and making money and it got to the point that I should declare the earnings, so I registered for self assessment with the tax office.

Then that was that...

At no point did it dawn on me that I was now, by the most basic definition; a business.

I didn't have the mindset of a businessperson. In my head, Tom Cat Designs was a hobby that made me some extra pocket money. As a result, I didn't do any research into the marketplace, my customers, competitors etc. I didn't have a plan or think about marketing, I didn't cost it out and didn't think about branding or assess my skills and look at areas for development.

With no direction, no plan and no goals, inevitably it fizzled out and I gave up.

If you want to turn your hobby into a business you need to be businesslike and that involves a shift in your mindset if you want to succeed.

I don't mean becoming some cutthroat, hard-nosed meany-pants about it, just to tell yourself; "Okay, I'm serious about this, let's do it properly."

I'm now on the next incarnation of my ambitions to work for myself, this time turning my lifelong love of writing into my Amy Morse, Authorpreneur business.


With two fiction titles already published... 

 

I'm now working on some business skills books. Look out for the first of these: 

'Operation Author: So You've Published a Book... Now What?' 

Business Skills for Creatives

I already give regular talks at events for creative entrepreneurs, and I'm available for more of this. 

I'm also working on a programme of Business Skills for Creatives. If you'd like to know more, check the website: 

www.AmyMorse.co.uk

or bounce me an email and I'll keep in touch: amy@tomcatdesigns.co.uk

What tips would you offer to people considering self employment?

So you've published a book... now what?

One of the biggest challenges creatives face is viewing what they do as a business. It's hard to separate ourselves from the things we create, but as soon as you release your book into the wild, hoping that it will be picked up and appreciated, preferably in exchange for money - you have become a business, but does that make you an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneur = [ahn-truh-pruh-nur, -noo r] A person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

Author = [aw-ther] A person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.; the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist.

Author + Entrepreneur = Authorpreneur

 

 2015 is Authorpreneur Almanac year. 

Join me in my 365 Adventures in Writing and Entrepreneurship...

Test how authorpreneurial you are by taking this quiz:

http://ideaism.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/are-you-scribbler-dabbler-or-wrangler.html


 

For the past few years I've been working with people curious about self employment, people in the early stages of turning their ideas into businesses and small businesses who have recently set up. One of the lessons I share with them, one I learned the hard way, is the importance of taking yourself seriously as a small business.

Viewing our creations can seem somehow cold or disrespectful. 

This is the first mistake; being too precious about it. If you created it to sell it you need to be prepared to give it up. 

The second mistake is to aim for perfection. Perfection is a fallacy. Your work can only ever be good enough at that time in your life. Inevitably your work will improve over time, but it will only improve if you get feedback and continue to work at it. It won’t be perfect, perfection is impossible - but that’s OK. Accept it. Move on.

I argue that it isn’t disrespectful to think of your book as a product. Quite the opposite in fact. Surely all the hard work you’ve put in deserves to be rewarded? Surely it’s more disrespectful to let your work gather dust in a drawer or languish somewhere in the bottom of the internet undiscovered?

When I published my first book, The Bronze Box, I started to put into practice the advice I have been giving to other entrepreneurs and this time, I won't fail because I'm not treating it as a business.  

I admit, I'm not great at following my own advice - I did, however set myself a measure of success, at which point I could feel that I had done what I set out to do. I set myself a goal of selling 1,000 books in three years. 18 months in, I had doubled this target. 

 

I now have two books available and I'm working on the final installment in the Sheridan and Blake Adventure Series, Gabriel's Game.

My day jobs have always revolved around enabling others. In fact, it's taken me a while to realise this, but there are really only three things I can do:

Writing. Speaking and Enabling others and at the heart of this is my love of stories.

There is no magic formula to being successful in business, but there are logical, practical, sensible steps that apply to every business. 

These key functions within the life of your business are universal, the difference is in the scale. I call these processes the Business Life-cycle and here's the flow chart to put it into context that I have developed when working with small businesses of all persuasions.

If you are a regular follower of this blog, you'll know that I'm passionate about supporting others to follow their dreams and that I enjoy sharing the tips, tricks, actions and inspiration I've collected on my own journey into self employment and also what I've learned from the experiences of the people I've supported on their journeys.

A number of colleagues, friends and business associates have suggested I compile my knowledge into a book and I'm currently in the process of writing my first non-fiction book.

In 2014 I completed a 365 day project: 'Operation Author: 365 Actions to Becoming a Successful Author' where each week I shared seven actions I had completed to further my writing career. 

It seemed natural to turn the lessons learned from this process into a series of books. The first of which will be out in the summer of 2015:

Operation Author: So you've published a book... now what?

So what's it all about? Well, here's the blurb:

  
To come up with this blurb, I conducted some research on similar business books to get some ideas. 

Here are some of the books that inspired me to write my own and helped me with my research. I've read some of these and bits of others, but they are a neat benchmark for where I see my first venture into non-fiction book writing going.  


   

I've used some of the tips from this really useful book in my own marketing. It's simple to use and gives a good overview of the characteristics of the main social media channels.



 

This is a great reference guide that I dip in and out of regularly.






I've been reading content on Joanna Penn's excellent The Creative Penn site for a while and pinning stuff from it frequently

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/blog/

Visit Amy Morse - Authorpreneur's profile on Pinterest.

What business books would you recommend to writers?