I’ve got some upcoming developments with this blog this month. I know, I know, you’ve heard me say THAT before. I really am working behind the scenes to make this blog more of what I want it to be, and more importantly, what YOU want it to be.

I really know what it’s like to be a moonlighting entrepreneur and I think unless you’re doing it (like we are), you’re not really sure what it really requires on a daily basis (masses of commitment, good organization, big dreams, the ability to take a risk).

My plans are to provide a resource for folks who do this just like I do. I hope I can do that.

But I’d like to hear from you!

What keeps you awake at night as a moonlighting entrepreneur? What issues would you like to see discussed or covered on this blog? How can I help you?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. I have some of my own (never fear), so we’ll get started next week.

In the meantime, what are you doing this weekend for your moonlighting business? It can be something very simple or complex, or it could be taking a mental health break (as Andrew Sullivan says over on the Daily Dish blog). Perhaps you could reply to this post and let me know what I can talk about in future posts that would most help you? <hint, hint>

Have a great and productive weekend!

So, I have a lot of plans for this blog, but this is my moonlighting entrepreneur job, mind you. Today, I am stressed. Between filing my tax returns (on extension) and in-depth discussions with my CPA firm, I feel as if I just got buried in a pile of IRS regulation boulders.

Running a moonlighting business is no piece of cake, I will grant you this. It’s hard work. Between figuring out what work you want, marketing for the work, landing the work, doing the work, finalizing the work, getting paid for the work, I’m often exhausted. Then comes the accounting, payroll, marketing, office admin details, and before I know it, I’m ready to just throw in the towel.

So why do I do it? Why the compulsion to run a business after my work hours?

I wish I could tell you. I’m an entrepreneur. I have a great day job that I took in 2007 because I was tired of full-time freelancing. I thought long and hard about taking a full-time job (I telecommute from my home office; separate work stations and everything). I wondered if I would regret it. I don’t. And it’s been over 2 years now. I regret not being realistic about how much work keeping the freelancing would be. True, its moonlighting, and it’s fun stuff. I write, I blog, I sell info products, I do affiliate programs in my Internet marketing business, but I didn’t realize that having the safety of a day job would wear me out so much.

So today, I’m feeling a bit burdened. What will I do to fix that feeling? I need to realize it’s not as bad as it looks. I’ve still got plenty of good stuff (glass three-fourths full) to focus on. I just need to refocus a bit.

1. Make a wish list. What do I want to do more of? What do I not like to do? I’m still working on an outsourcing program and this is one of their steps. It’s a direction I need to just take. I resist and resist and then am miserable. I try to do TOO MUCH MYSELF!

2. Let go of other wishes. Sometimes, you can’t have everything. Sometimes you don’t get to do everything you have on your to-do list. I’m going to have to let a few things go. <sigh>

3. Don’t let small thinking overtake you. On Tuesday, I reviewed Michael Port’s book and wow, am I in the middle of a test. My test is “Are you going to think small when things get tough?” Sure, it’s easy to think big when things are going well and you haven’t faced resistance yet. Another story when you kinda feel like throwing in the towel.

So there you have it, a from the gut confession that this moonlighting entrepreneur has hit a wall (mentally; physically, I’m fine). And I’m going to have to work my way through it.

Anybody else have any other ideas on how to work through times like this? I’d appreciate the advice. Thank you!

Everyone’s got this problem. You’re owed money, but you’ve got bills to pay and the cash flow seems to trickle the wrong way constantly (i.e., never your way).

What do you do?

1. Contact old clients and see if they’ve got work. I can always rustle up something by contacting clients I haven’t heard from in a while. Just send a check-in email, and mention you’re scheduling now for fall and winter projects. Invite them to get in while the schedule looks good.

2. Make some cold calls. You can cold call. Just pick up the phone and leave some voicemails. This is the hard one, but it works.

3. Hit Craigslist. Their jobs listings are pretty insane. You never know if you’re going to hit a gold mine or a cheat, but I find gold all the time on there. Just search with your skill set (writer, programmer, designer) and see what you come up with.

4. Try to defer payments. Sometimes you can defer your payments until the cash flow widens, so check out your options.

5. Cut spending. And the good old standby. Just cut the spending. Quit buying supplies, training materials, books, cancel the fancy cable television, don’t eat out, whatever it takes. In early 2007, we cut our cable off and haven’t ever looked back. Well, I called just this week to price ESPN for hubby, but changed my mind when I heard the prices. Forget it, we’ll go to a live game, or just find a restaurant with college football playing. Then we can enjoy a meal at the same time.

Hopefully this list helps you to break out of your no cash flow pothole. Any other ideas from anyone?

Image by Cameosteph

A few weeks ago I wrote about getting legal help for your moonlighting business, especially as you created your new legal entity. Today, no matter what your legal entity (sole prop, LLC, S, C, partnership), I recommend knowing (and using) a good CPA. Sure, it costs extra each year to have a CPA looking over your accounts, but you know what? It pays off. Trust me.

In 2004, we purchased a business vehicle under the SUV Loophole put in place after the 9/11 attack, which was a legal loophole the IRS allowed for small businesses to write off the cost of that vehicle without any limits on price. It sounds unfair now, but trust me, doing business the fall of 2001 was no picnic (and I was full-time freelance). As a result of that terrible fall, I had to get a part-time job to support myself. By the time I got to 2004, my business was picking up and I needed a vehicle. I bought the vehicle at the advice of my CPA.

He did our 2004 taxes, last year of sole proprietorship. In May 2005, we were notified of an audit on our last year of sole prop because of that vehicle.

Long story short, my CPA handled the entire thing. We fought it. I spent half of what the tax bill was from the audit to pay my CPA to fight it. Best money I ever spent. My CPA got the IRS to rescind the audit bill and to apologize (and they begged me not to sue them for over-reach; I did not, I’m not vindictive by nature; I just wanted what was rightfully and lawfully mine.)

I never bemoaned the cost of our CPA even before the audit, and now I never ever will bemoan the cost of my CPA. He is worth his weight in gold. If I ever lose him, I will cry, a lot. To me, he’s superman.

It’s another 1k to 2k a year to use a CPA for your business. Put the money aside for next April and trust me, you’ll be glad you did. Just like your customers use you as an expert in your field of experience, think of a CPA as utilizing his expertise, the most important expertise. Mismanagement of funds (however innocently it occurred) can take a moonlighting business down faster than anything. Trust me, I was this close.

And boy did my CPA enjoy taking the IRS down a notch. I think it was the highlight of his career! Best money I ever spent! I think he bought a car from it. Fine by me! Glad to oblige. Cheers.

Moonlighting entrepreneurs are among the most ingenious folks I know! I include myself in that group, yes.

When building up a moonlighting business, they seek to do most of themselves. Good for them.

A tip about legal advice if you are interested: Hire someone to set up your entity. If you’re going to move forward from sole proprietorship, hire a law firm to help you set up the corp or LLC. I know there are kits that say you can do this on your own for less than 500 dollars. I understand if many of you just go ahead and do that, but think about my approach for just a second.

I hired a law firm in late 2004 to set up my corporation. Best money I ever spent, hands down. Cost me around 800 bucks (with all the registration fees for all the federal and state paperwork included). Fast forward a couple years, I realize my corporation paperwork is missing one piece. My lawyer has moved to practice in Israel. I’m out of luck. In those ensuing years, if I had been audited, I’d be in a heap of trouble. No proof of this certain thing that my former lawyer promised she would get to me (in the hubbub of the law firm breaking up, her moving overseas, etc., it just got forgotten; I know, I was mad, but I got over it). This very important proof to say the least.

So, earlier this year, I got a referral for another local law firm and made an appointment with them to set things to rights. Well, this law firm is much more expensive. It’s already cost me double the price of my incorporation just to get that one piece of paper put back in order. I believe it’s worth it. If it’s this much work to get my corporation in order, can you imagine if something had happened before now? What if I had been served? What if I had been in the middle of a lawsuit?

I do have this current law firm as my legal rep. I will now be protected (both by my paperwork that is now in order and by them in case any litigation does arise in future) and I feel good about that. Yes, it cost a bit of money, yes, not every moonlighting entrepreneur needs a corporation (I may dissolve mine in the near future as taxes increase), but I thought my example would help someone out there who’s dithering over details. Setting yourself up as a corporation doesn’t cost a lot (done right!) and will help in the long run.

Next time, should you hire a CPA? Well, since I’ve gone public about having a lawyer, I’ll just say, yes. Check back to find out why.

How many tasks do you do in a given day? Do you have to do all those by yourself? Can you have someone else do them?

Most business owners do too much themselves. They don’t think that anyone else can do it right or can handle the task. (Most business owners are exhausted, too, but isn’t that what business requires?)

I don’t think anyone should be doing a task that they could (if they wanted to) have someone else do just BECAUSE they don’t think anyone else could do it. Let me explain.

If I can have a law firm handle my contracts and business structure, a CPA firm handle my books and accounting, why can’t I hire someone to do anything that is done in my office on a daily basis? Design work? Technical work? Management work? Anything!

The key is not to find qualified people who already know how to do it, the key is to find people willing to LEARN how to do it. And you need to learn to replicate your processes so that you can hand over any piece of your work to someone else (if necessary). As Michael Gerber puts it in his E-Myth Revisited, you must set up your business so that it can be replicated 5,000 times.

Yes, as in franchise.

Not that you are going to franchise, but you are going to streamline. You are going to set up operations manuals, and instructions for each piece of your business.

Most moonlighting entrepreneurs will say, “what’s the big deal? It’s just me at this business. At the rate I’m going, it’s going to just be me at this business for a long, long time.”

The point is to ACT today like the business you DESIRE to become tomorrow. If you can picture your business as rather large, earning you a nice living and you’re not DOING anything now to prepare for that, are you really headed toward that goal? How else are you to get there? A corporate sponsor?

Just think about it. Is there some set of tasks in your daily business life that you could sit down and write out a how-to for? Do that first. Then be thinking of hiring a neighbor kid, a virtual assistant, your own kids, your partner, to do those tasks for you. It will free you up to keep thinking of how to get to your future all the more faster.

If you’re even thinking about becoming a moonlighting entrepreneur (what’s that?) you need to read this book. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber

“dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how
commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. Next,
he walks you through the steps in the life of a business — from
entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature
entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that
succeed — and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any
business, whether it is a franchise or not. Finally, Gerber draws the
vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business
and working in your business. After you have read The E-Myth Revisited,
you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and
productive way.”

This slim book contains a concise breakdown of exactly what running a small business entails. If you already run a moonlighting business, grab this book, if you’ve been able to leave your day job, read this book. If you’ve never had to work a day job alongside a moonlighting business, read this book.

Everyone, read this book. You’ll be glad you did.

As a moonlighter, you’ll need to either learn to let clients go their own way or to actively fire them when they aren’t a good match for your services. Fire is a harsh word, thus, I think losing a client works in both cases.

1. If you don’t know what you can do for the client, lose the client. In writing, especially with the new and varying forms of writing (social media, Web 2.0) going around these days, sometimes you may have that initial spark when you agree to take on a client, but then the farther you go into the project, you realize you’re not really sure exactly how you can do it. It’s honest to say it, but you want your client to see you as a professional. Refer them out to someone else. You’ve met other folks around (if you’re using social media) and it wouldn’t hurt to say “I think you’d be better served by someone else who has a firmer grasp of this topic using social media (or whatever); let me get you a list of names you could call.” Sure, in this economy, many moonlighting entrepreneurs are less inclined to admit this. Consider the next point.

2. If you aren’t engaged or interested in the work, lose the client. If you don’t know what you’re doing or you just don’t care, let it go. It is not fair to your client to continue pretending to be all gung ho about their project when you really wouldn’t care if it succeeded or failed. It’s a key element in this rebuilding year; successful projects will have more success if the team truly believes in it. Of course, if you need the client to pay your bills, you wouldn’t breathe a word of this, but really think about what kind of clients you want and what you’re passionate about. If you find yourself having to keep propping yourself up just to discuss the project, why are you still working on it?

3. If you can’t do the project justice, lose the client. Then there are the situations in which it is obvious to you that you can’t help that person with their project. Don’t attempt it then! I admit, there is a slight learning curve to projects and a very wise person once told me that it takes three projects to find out how a client handles their project management, so if you really want to, hang in there for three projects. But then if it still isn’t sticking (and I’m sure if it isn’t, the client will learn this a ways before three projects have completed), let it go. I’m not saying you can’t come back later and attempt it (freelancing is a tough market for second tries, especially with the same company, but you could definitely try that level again with a new company later). Give yourself time and don’t stress. There is a learning curve to every career.

Finally, I would encourage moonlighting entrepreneurs not to be afraid of any project. You don’t know until you try. I’ve attempted things I had no experience in, but that I had a passion for. Or I took on projects I knew how to do, but had no passion for. All of those I either learned to lose or I kept doing until I was miserable. It’s up to you how to work it, but don’t be afraid to lose projects. It’s not you, it’s how the business works.

I’m back from a wonderful jaunt through nine countries in Europe and it’s now June and I have a lot of do and I’m not sure exactly where to start.

I learned a lot while I was gone, what things I missed from my “real” life and what things I didn’t. I didn’t miss the blog deadlines, but I missed blogging. Go figure.

I decided that I wanted to only do what I wanted to do, what made my business authentic when I came home. So that’s what I’ve decided to harp about in this Moonlighting Entrepreneur post. I know only too well how difficult it is for moonlighting entrepreneurs to choose between the myriad of tasks on their daily to-do lists. Some days you just go and go and go and the list only seems to grow more.

1. What’s on the list that you really aren’t interested in right now? Drop it. Come back to it in six months.

2. What’s on the list that you can’t wait to do? Do that first! Hello! Use that natural enthusiasm!

So there’s my advice. I’m taking it to heart.

Today, for instance, I’m blogging fun stuff. I’m leaving the tough stuff for tomorrow when I’ll decide if I want to do it or not. I’m working on one or two other projects that I’m so excited about I can’t even begin to say.

So there you go. An easy-peasy way to choose what to do next (if you’re deciding).

Good luck!

I’ve been sidetracked from blogging lately. Too much in my head.

This happens if you’re an entrepreneur, so don’t fret when you wonder (as I do today) if you’ll ever be caught up again. You will, just don’t try to do it all at once.

I am going to get caught back up today by:

1. Focusing on priorities. First the day job; have to keep to the deadlines or they won’t let me leave for my holiday next week. Second, the blogging. Third, the extraneous stuff that has now settled in a circling pattern around my brain and is driving me crazy. The sooner I tackle some of this stuff, the better I will be.

2. Cut out non-priorities. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to make a call about what is a priority for the week/month and what is not. I’m having to learn it the hard way. I’m leaving the continent for most of May. Can’t get around that.

3. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Give yourself rewards: a break, tv show, chocolate, cookies!, anything to keep you moving forward. It will take time to dig out, but you’ll make it.

Off to focus on my priorities! Have a great Wednesday!