Outside the Cocoon

Learning to Blog

As part of my entrepreneurial endears or solopreneur endears I have been writing this blog.  I admit to having some lack of cohesion in all of my posts and fair amount of confusion when it comes to the background of how a blog actually works or is found and read by others.  Having admitted to my short comings I decided to attend a class on Blogging Basics given by Colorado Free University.  http://www.freeu.com/

Ironically when I told some of my friends and family that I was taking the class the response was unanimously, "Isn't it just an on line diary?"  As if to imply that I would be better off just taking a writing class.  The assumption seems to be that it is all so easy to have/write a blog.  But there is the whole management piece that I am trying to learn and understand.  The class was defiantly helpful but I am still grappling with exactly how to use/setup RSS feeds.  Am I using the best blogging platform for my needs or should I host my own blog to have more control over what happens to it.  What plug ins should I use?  Do I need an image hosting site?  How many blog directories should I try to ping?  How do I know what key words to use and how should I use them?  How do I set up an anchor tag so I don't have to type the entire URL?  How do I make my entries spider friendly?

Honestly I left the class with more questions then I had going in to it.  But I do have a better idea of terminology and some of the things I need to learn. 

Pay It Forward

I have had this on my to do list since I heard about it several months ago.  Last week I finally kicked the procrastination bug and did it.  I made my first micro loan through www.kiva.org.  For those who have not heard of Kiva it is a program that allows individuals to lend as little as $25.00 to assist entrepreneurs in developing countries.  Many of the loans are for as little as 200 or 300 dollars to buy initial inventory etc.  You can choose by category or by regions or by loan amounts.

I selected someone in the clothing category.  Her name is Perla Cecillia Gamez Banda.  She was asking for a total of 300.00 to buy inventory.  When I made my "loan" (I put it in parenthesis because it didn't feel like much) she still needed 200 dollars.  This morning when I looked she was completely funded.  The loans themselves are backed by field partners in this case the company is Admic Nacional.  Perla's loan is to be paid back in 6 months.  I am excited to see what happens.  You can follow her story at the link below or go to the Kiva website and start your own.  

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=45314&_tpos=6&_tpg=7

I can't say for sure that I will ever get my 25 dollars back.  I hope that I will and I will gladly invest it in another entrepreneur.  (Paying homage to the karma gods always seems like a good idea.)  What I can say for sure is I feel happy to have the opportunity to help someone else with their business dreams.  For any of you out there with your own entrepreneurial endeavors I hope you will do the same.

Wonderland

I unsuspectingly fell down the rabbit hole yesterday.  I received an email from Borders the subject line read "The most important book of the year."  Being somewhat of a bookaholic I thought I would quickly make note of the title.  Little did I know that opening this one unobtrusive email would send me on such an adventure.

The title of the book is "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  He has also given a lecture with the same title as the book, he has been interviewed by Diane Sawyer and done some inspiring public service announcements.  All of these can be viewed at the link below.  His story is encouraging and uplifting.  But the cancer is only a part of it. 

http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

What has equally sparked my attention is the legacy that he leaves in a project called of all things Alice2.0 (yes the one of wonderland fame.)  The Alice program was designed in part at least to make learning programing more fun.  It is "Educational software that teaches students computer programming in a 3D environment."  The software is free and can be downloaded at the link below.

http://www.alice.org/

This morning I worked through the first two tutorials which were actually fun and easy to follow.  I assure you I have no programing background what so ever.  Part of the inspiration to write this software came from the drop in enrollment in Computer Science majors and the fact that the discipline attracted very few females.  So far it looks as if Alice2.0 is making some headway toward bridging those gaps.

Much of Professor Pausch's lecture (and presumably his book) is about achieving dreams, and the important role that they play in our lives.  As I reach for this dream called self employed entrepreneur I am reminded that inspiring stories are everywhere and that they are fuel for others.  I hope to keep stoking the fire of my dreams and to live my life like Alice and Professor Pausch where everyday is an adventure in wonderland. 

The Long Way Around - The Dixie Chicks

For all those times when I feel like I am doing everything wrong and still somehow miraculously heading in the right direction.  The Long Way Around can still gets you where you want to go and if life is a journey who is to say which route is better?

 

Solopreneur

I am not sure when the term Solopreneur* was first put into popular use but it was introduced to my cerebral database only a couple of years ago.  Having used it for awhile with the hopes of becoming one I have been on a quest for helpful business advise for this specific form of entrepreneurship.  There are some 28,200 search results in Google and another 183 results with the incorrect spelling (uer instead of eur.)  I am sure you can guess how I know the search results for the incorrect spelling. 

Knowing how to spell what you want to become seems an elementary step in the right direction and having tackled that I am now ready for meatier stuff to digest.  Although the term solopreneur seems somewhat self explanatory I spent this morning searching for a definition.  Hear is what I was able to find:

"Solopreneur - Term used for IPs (Independent Professional) to distinguish them from entrepreneurs but at the same time remind us of the similarities.  Some people use the terms IP and entrepreneur interchangeably, but they have different connotations.  An entrepreneur builds a company, with its own brand that could, presumably, exist even if the entrepreneur left the company (sold it, died, etc.)  By contrast, an IP builds a personal brand, tied to the individual IP.  In the purest sense of the term, an IP is not necessarily interested in expanding into a company, although some IPs eventually do make the shift."

What?? 

OK I guess I need to invent a new word for what I want to be or at least give my own definition of what solopreneurship means.  In a nutshell a soloreneur is exactly the same as an entrepreneur except that they are creating a business without employees, without much funding, and in my case starting out as a part time endeavor. 

Sometimes progress is painfully slow and the bulk of the advise that I have found so far on starting a business seems to be for those that are already miles ahead of me with fat information packed business plans in hand.  Accountants and lawyers at the ready and loan checks deposited into newly established business bank accounts.

I haven't had the opportunity to check out all 28,200 results yet but I am hopeful that hidden somewhere in that massive number are a few helpful directions for someone like me.  If I find any I will post them here.

*Ironically the term solopreneur is not popular enough to be recognized by the spell checking software on this blog maybe those 183 uer's aren't so wrong after all.  I guess I have another 183 results worth checking into.

Anyway - Martina McBride

Life doesn't come with any guarantees.  What better reason could we have to choose each day to love, laugh and dream Anyway??