Observations and Inferences

Earlier this week I sent out a poll on Instagram. 129 of you answered. Of those who answered, 73% of you said you want to be self-employed. You mentioned things like wanting freedom, independence and control over your schedule.⁣
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What's more: A whopping 98% of you agreed with the idea that "I have to learn to manage myself if I want to be my own boss."⁣
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When I asked what the challenges were with doing that, the answers rolled in for nearly 24 hours straight. The most frequent responses? Motivation, discipline and "knowing where to start."⁣
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So let me do what I do best: Give you a place to start.⁣
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It starts with an offer. It starts with knowing what you want to give to the world. How you want to help people. ⁣
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The trick is not just offering something — most of us spend our whole life offering things to people, be it love, admiration, labor, etc. The trick is to offer something that is scaleable.⁣
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Being scaleable means it's a product or service (or "productized service") that can be easily...

Guess what I did last Monday?

Absolutely nothing.

OK, that’s a lie. I woke up at 7 a.m. and was out the door with a grocery list by 8 a.m. I took my sweet ass time in Whole Foods, inspecting bags of clementines like the feds. Once I got home, I diiiid send a few emails and answer a calendar invite. But I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I had nothing to do.

Winter is a slow season for many of us, especially people with small businesses like mine that primarily work with other solo entrepreneurs. Winter is a hibernation season, a time where, as the brilliant Kate Northrup put it at this year’s Business By Design Live, “the Earth dedicates an entire season to rest.”

Maybe you’re like me at the moment, in-between big clients and restructuring the way you do business. Maybe you own or operate a brick-and-mortar location and know the chillier weather keeps customers bundled up at home. Maybe you work in an office or agency and are feeling the end-of-Q4 blues.

Or maybe you’re bug-ey...