First they took away the Native Americans land and now it's the aliens. Who will stop all these white people?. [Boing Boing Blog]
8:57:28 PM  #  

Four Attractive Stocks. Matt Richey continues his series with four cash-generating companies at low valuations. [The Motley Fool]
1:33:13 PM  #  

Well the meeting went well...I'm pretty sure I got the deal.  They want to look it over and have me call back tomorrow.
12:04:52 PM  #  

I have my first big presentation for a prospective client.  By big I don't mean that it's an elaborate presentation.  I mean that it is the first meeting with a client past the initial introduction.  The first meeting further down the sales pipeline.  It's the meeting where the prospective client wants you to prove the value to them and has seen fit to grant you 20 minutes of their time.

I'm amazed at how calm I am about this.  It's interesting to note that the things that stress you out when you're starting your own business are different than when you're working for someone else.  I no longer worry about presentations, proposals, etc.  I know longer worry about being right.  The concept of proving to you my solution is the best is now moot.  The money talks, pure and simple.  I can have all the value in the world, but if I haven't proven it to you, I'm not doing my job.  I also don't worry about winning.  What I worry about is making the wrong moves and closing doors (clients, contacts, whatever) permanently.  As long as I have a shot at coming back next time and you're willing to see me on a friendlier basis, I haven't failed.

The interesting thing to note is that I am coasting right on the edge of my comfort zone.  I'm going through a lot of motions I've never had to do before (cold calling for example).  What this means is that each time I'm about to do something new, there is a slight feeling of hesitancy.  This is fairly typical whenever I'm doing something that I've never done before and that I have a reasonable chance at failing at, what is unusual about this is that my brain basically stops it short by saying, "you can either do this and feel uncomfortable about it, or go back to your 9 to 5 job working for somebody else, there is NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE!"

After that it's fairly easy to get through what it is I need to do.  Even more amazing is that due to the necessity of the situation I find myself failing less often than I would consider normal

7:02:37 AM  #