by Marty Coleman | May 19, 2014 | Anita Roddick, Launching a Business - 2014 |
It’s #6 in my ‘Launching a Business’ series, and that ain’t no small thing.
Small Things
Having been in the humble business of drawing on napkins for many years I know this simple fact. Big things can come from small things. As a matter of fact, there is no big thing that didn’t come from something small. Whether you start with the universe itself or human DNA, everything starts small.
- That first business loan from your parents
- That first little storefront you rent and take a picture of.
- The first dollar you make and frame to put on the wall of that little storefront.
The list of small firsts goes on and on when you launch a business. How far you go with it is not a function of how small you start since we all start small, in everything.
It’s a function of how far you want to go and how hard and smart you are willing to work to make it happen.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Anita Roddick, 1942 – not dead yet, Founder of the Body Shop
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by Marty Coleman | May 14, 2014 | Anthony J. D'angelo, Launching a Business - 2014 |
I am passionate about today being day #4 of my ‘Launching a Business’ series!
So Close I Can Touch It
When I graduated with my Masters in Fine Art from San Jose State University in 1984 I went about applying for college level teaching jobs. I landed a job right off the bat as a part-time, or adjunct, instructor at Cabrillo College in the town of Aptos on the Monterey Bay of California. That seemed like a good start. I landed other part-time teaching gigs shortly thereafter at Evergreen College and Mission College in the San Jose area. I was on my way, a full time job couldn’t be far off, right?
So Far Off I Can’t
It was far off. It was so far off that 8 years, hundreds and hundreds of applications, many interviews and more than a few finalist positions later I gave up. I switched focus, retrained myself on computers during the 93-94 year instead of applying for teaching jobs. I started applying for computer graphic jobs instead, focusing on getting something in the educational computer game market. It worked and by May of 94 we had moved to Tulsa and I had started a new job creating educational CDroms for children. It was the best job of my life.
Giving Up
I made the decision to give up because I saw that my persistence and passion was becoming stubbornness and ignorance. What I wanted may still have happened, who knows, but in my circumstances of having a family and 3 small children, I could not afford to be stubborn and ignorant any longer. I made the switch and never regretted it.
Self-Awareness
The same need to be self-aware is true when you have your own business. You want to be persistent and passionate. And some may call your persistence stubbornness before you do, and call your passion ignorance before you do. You might succeed in spite of having others say you have gone over the edge in those categories. You don’t need to bow to their opinion. But you should consider it. You should be willing to hear them out, see if they have any valid reasons why they think what they do. Especially consider their opinion if you believe they understand you and always have been on your side.
Honesty
Most importantly though you need to honest with yourself. No matter what anyone else says, you have to be self-aware enough, egoless enough, humble enough, strong enough, to face reality. If you face reality, you can move forward, if you don’t, very likely disappointment or even ruin will follow. You don’t want that.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Anthony J. D’angelo, American author
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by Marty Coleman | May 13, 2014 | Japanese Proverbs, Launching a Business - 2014 |
I got distracted (as entrepreneurs tend to do) and didn’t finish my ‘Launching a Business’ series I started a few weeks ago. Here is #3.
Being the Boss
My wife works for a big company, she is not an entrepreneur. But when she talks about her legacy it’s not often about her actual work, it’s about the team she leads and how important it is that she lead it well so those under her continue to be employed and get paychecks. That is what she really cares about. These people work for her, but she works hard for them as well.
Being the Entrepreneur
It is even more the case when you are an entrepreneur. You might hire 1 or 2 people to start. And then you understand very quickly that someone’s livelihood depends on you. The man works for you and you work even harder for the man.
Here is the whole series thus far.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote is a Japanese Proverb
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 4, 2014 | James K. Glassman, Launching a Business - 2014 |
I hope I don’t cause trouble with #2 in my ‘Launching a Business’ series.
Launch
Last night was the first meeting of the 2014 TCC (Tulsa Community College) Launch program for Entrepreneurs. Napkin Dad Publishing is one of 15 teams taking this 16 week program on how to launch a business. As a result of this I thought I would do a series on launching a business. #1 in the series is linked below.
Me, A Trouble Maker?
Some might say so. But honestly, I am excited to learn the ‘right way’ to do things. That doesn’t mean I am going to do things that way mind you, just that I am going to learn those ways. I might do them too, who knows!
What is ‘making trouble’ anyway? I don’t know much about the business world but it seems the intent and effect of an entrepreneur with a good idea is to stir things up, causing a change to occur. For example, they might change the accepted order of things in their industry by putting out a product that threatens an existing product. They might brand, market, advertise and sell in ways completely foreign and bizarre to established players, vendors and competitors. Just look at the technology, networking and communication changes in the last 10-20 years if you don’t think that is possible. In any number of directions the entrepreneur is a trouble maker. I like that idea so maybe I am a trouble maker.
The Napkin Kin
I love my Napkin Kin and feel you all are some of the smartest and most insightful people around. I will be asking you questions, throwing out ideas, announcing directions and changes over the next several months. I am looking forward to hearing your ideas, suggestions, critiques and analysis as we move forward.
Feel free to send me your ideas. You can reach me by commenting on this or any blog post, of course. You can also drop a line directly to me at marty@napkindad.com. You can always reach me on The Napkin’s Facebook page or on twitter @thenapkindad. I look forward to hearing from you.
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Dreaming It – Launching a Business #1
The Trouble Maker – Launching a Business #2
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by James K. Glassman, 1947 – not dead yet, American business writer
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by Marty Coleman | Jan 23, 2014 | Launching a Business - 2014 |
Launch
Tonight I am being interviewed for a spot in the Tulsa Community College Launch program. It’s a 16 week entrepreneurial boot camp of sorts. With the help of over 32 community mentors and once a week hands on sessions the participants are led through the steps in making a sustainable small business.
Everything
I have produced The Napkin Dad Daily for several years now, and started calling my company ‘Napkin Dad Publishing’ in 2013. I have a catalog of thousands of napkins on hundreds of topics. The blog is seen around the world, by hundreds, sometimes thousands, every day. How many see it via links and forwards, I don’t know, but it seems substantial. That number increases dramatically with my presence on a wide array of social media sites, including Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, About.me, Meetup, Skype, and more. I have merchandise on Zazzle.com that sells with some regularity. I do sponsored blog posts on a variety of topics, from travel to fashion. I do speaking engagements about a variety of topics that sometimes pay, sometimes don’t. I get better than average publicity about my napkins in the local media. I sell the actual napkins once in a while. I even had a 2 page spread about me in a coffee table book about napkins, in Norway. I have a lot going for me it seems, and I am grateful and glad about all of it.
Everything But
What I haven’t done with all that YET is take the next step to it being a sustainable, money-making business. But I intend to and this is a possible step in that direction, if I get accepted. Wish me luck. If I do get in I will document the journey here, sharing what I am going through, learning, etc. Either way, you will start to see some some changes here at The Napkin Dad Daily. The content might change a bit, but not too much. It might be formatted and presented in a better, easier to navigate and read style. But the site itself, how it is designed and the technology behind it, that I think will change to a greater degree. The merchandise will change dramatically, that I know for sure. I am excited about that!
Rockets Away!
I look forward to the process of building a business and I look forward to the help you, the Napkin Kin, will hopefully give me. Thanks for your support so far, and here’s to the future!
Enthusiastically,
Marty
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Dreaming It – Launching a Business #1
Trouble Maker – Launching a Business #2
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