entrepreneur Archives — Page 2 of 3

I Quit My Job: Recovering

November 21, 2011 By Shane Ede 27 Comments

When I finally put in that two-weeks notice, I was floating on this nice little cloud, high above the world, happy with my decision and feeling like I could do no wrong. Like Andrea of So Over Debt put it, it was the first good nights sleep I’d gotten in quite a while. And, of course, for the two weeks that I was still working, I stayed on that cloud, anticipating that last day, and the end to my tenure at that employer.

As those two weeks went by, I went from anticipating the day, to downright demanding it came faster. As more and more of my tasks were transferred to temporary replacements, and I packed more and more of the stuff off of my desk, I began to think about all the things I could be doing at home, at my computer, with this site, and my other sites. It was torture!

At the end of those two weeks, I nearly ran for the door! I was already filled with ideas of what I would write the next day, the things I would do, and the changes I could make. Little did I know that I had a bit of a different path planned. You see, I woke up early the next morning, with the flu. Yep. I spent my entire first day of self employment with the flu. The following day, I was well enough to at least sit at my desk, but being productive was almost certainly out of the question.

One of the things that I decided, early on in this adventure, was that the income from this and other sites wasn’t going to be enough to make up the difference, or even to make a dent in it. I would have to get a part-time job in order to help pay the bills, while I built the sites up to a reasonable income level. I already had a lead on one, so the first full week of self-employment, I went and met with the owner and we worked out some details, and I started last Thursday. The part-time income from that should help with the bills. I’ll get a bit less done on my sites, as I’ll be working three days a week, but it was something that I felt/feel was necessary in order to keep some constant money coming in while I work on building other things.

Now, a full week and a half after I quit, and the holidays rushing in on us, somethings are coming back into focus. I’ve always gotten a bit worked up about finances. That’s why I created this site, after all. So, knowing that we lost over half of our income and will only be able to constantly replace about 1/3 of that income immediately, has me a bit stressed. My wife want’s to do some holiday shopping, and my natural instinct is to shut off all of that, and “give hugs” this Christmas. It’s caused a bit of friction, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out.

I’m recovering. From the high of quitting my job. From the flu. From stressing entirely too much over money. From a lot of things. Such a major life change is bound to require some recovery period, and I am confident that I’ll come out the other side. There’s just a few bumps in the road. What an adventure!

photo credit: alibree

My Wife Quit Her Job: And Then There Were Two

September 6, 2011 By Shane Ede 12 Comments

It’s been a little while since I last updated you on my wife’s adventures in entrepreneurship. A long while, in fact. I think the last update was when they were looking for Business Insurance. That was almost a year ago, now. So much has happened in that time! How will I fit it all in!

I think I’ll hit the highlights. And, cover the most important change. One you’ll likely be able to guess if your familiar with the series, and you’ve read the title of this post. When my wife first started this business, it was with two other partners. Each of them brought their own specialties to the table, and made the business the success that it is. As the title implies, one of them recently left the company. This partner is technically still a owner as he hasn’t sold his shares in the company, but has stepped down from any active participation in the running of the company as an employee. Basically, he’s become a silent partner.

Without letting too many of the details slip, let’s just say that over the last year or so, he had grown unhappy with his role at the company and felt that leaving an active role in the company would solve those problems. Whether it will or not is up for debate. In any case, there was lots of discussion over how this was going to take place. Much of that discussion revolved around how the control of the company would evolve and change once he was gone. My wife and the other partner had some very valid concerns about the structure of the company, it’s board of directors, and it’s shareholders. In particular, there was some confusion on what rights the shareholders held.

As a part of any corporation, the shareholders are technically part owners in the company. It gets a lot more muddled when you’re a shareholder in a large corporation like Microsoft, or Apple, but in a small company where there are only three shareholders, it’s a bit easier to see. If there are X number of total shares issued, and Y is the number of shares a shareholder owns, then their ownership of the company is Y/X. In a situation like Apple, someone who owns 1 share owns 1/924,755,000th of the company. In the case of my wife’s company, each of the owners owns 100/300th of the company, or 1/3rd. Much like a larger corporation, my wife’s company is required to have an annual shareholders meeting where the board of directors are elected and other similar things are voted on. Generally, it will just be the election of the board. So, the more direct answer is that the third, now silent, partner has a 1/3rd say in who is elected to the board of directors. Should he disagree with the selections, he could vote against it, but wouldn’t be able to overcome the 2/3rd majority that the other two partners have. So, based on that, he really has no realistic say in how the company is run.

Another bit of contention is that fact that if the company were to pay a dividend to the shareholders, as they did this last year, that he would get 1/3rd of that dividend without having done any of the work that the other two partners had done. Unfortunately, that’s just the way it is. He still owns 1/3rd the outstanding shares, so he’s entitled to 1/3rd the dividend. There are several ways around this. The most obvious of which would be if he were to sell his shares to the remaining partners and completely exit from any involvement with the company. The other method would be to take the 2700 shares that the company is able to issue and give them to the remaining two partners as an annual bonus of some sort and in effect, dilute the third partners shares. Everyone involved feels this is a somewhat backhanded way to deal with it and it will likely not happen. Short of that, it would also be possible to increase the remaining partners salaries such that the issuing of a dividend would not be reasonable. This also isn’t a great solution as both the partners and the company would pay the higher payroll tax rate on the money rather than the dividend rate. In the end, it’s probably best that they just leave it as is, and merely acknowledge that the third partner put in a years worth of work and helped build the company so is entitled to that bit of ownership that he has.

I think there are a couple of very important lessons here. The first is that starting a business is no small thing. The people that you choose to partner with may not always be of the same mindset, and they may decide that the partnership isn’t working. You’ve got to be able to live with the consequences of joining into the partnership, especially if the partnership fails for any of the partners. The second lesson is that you’ve got to keep a level head when dealing with situations like this. It would have been easy for any of the three partners to overreact and cause it to be a much more difficult situation that it was. Playing nice isn’t just for the playground, folks.

Are there any other specifics that I haven’t covered in this or other posts in the series that you would like to hear about? I’ll share what I can.

photo credit: homesbythomas

Becoming DJ Yofi

February 25, 2011 By Eric Rosenberg 12 Comments

A Dream Was Born

In middle school and high school, I grew to love music. Throughout the years, my tastes have ebbed and flowed. I have always loved rock, I occasionally enjoy hip hop, and I always despise country. One type of music that has lasted through the years is electronic dance music, often incorrectly referred to with the blanket term “techno” music.

I remember rocking out to classic tracks like “Get Busy Child” from Crystal Method, “Block Rockin’ Beats” by The Chemical Brothers, and the Darude hit “Sandstorm.” In high school, I decided I wanted to become a DJ. Sadly, though, DJ equipment is very expensive. I was able to hack into a music production program and created my first dance songs in high school and college. I called myself DJ Fire at the time. You can listen to my first songs at ACID Planet for free.

I never stopped loving dance music. At Bar Mitsvahs, school dances, cruises, weddings, house parties, and dance clubs, I always loved to let loose and dance the night away. My appreciation of dance music and night club culture skyrocketed during my semester in Jerusalem with nights dancing till dawn at top clubs like HAOMAN 17.

Becoming DJ Yofi

Just last November, I had the chance to see my favorite DJ live. I took the trek up to Broomfield, Colorado and saw DJ Tiesto perform one of the greatest live shows I have ever seen (see videos on my Youtube Channel). That sparked my interest in repeat visits to the local popular dance club, Beta, to see artists like Sydney Blu and Sharam throw down on the mixer.

That is when I had the urge to become a DJ return. However, this time I was older and had a job.

I began to research the DJ world to see how popular DJs make incredible dance music. Top DJs use a combination of vinyl turntables, CDJs (compact disk turntables), and digital mixers. I didn’t intend to start a vinyl collection or update my CD collection, so I decided digital mixing was for me.

This Is Gonna Be Expensive

From there, I began to learn the nuances of digital mixing. There are tons of guides that perplex the typical reader with lists of software mixers, sound editors, DJ controllers, DJ packages, amplifiers, sound cards, and speakers. I eventually navigated my way through the noise to find the best digital mixer package available today: the Traktor Kontrol S4 with Traktor Pro software. The cost: $900.

Oh yeah, I would also have to upgrade my laptop to run the software smoothly, buy big speakers, and get DJ headphones. The cost of all of that ended up around $120, $300, and $95 respectively.

But one day I walked into Guitar Center for the fourth time and they offered me $100 off on the S4 and speakers. I took it.

To make a longer story short, I had a dream. $1,500 later I became a DJ.

Living The Dream

I have no regrets. I love my package. I love the feeling of the bass flowing through my apartment. I love the way I look with my awesome Stanton Pro 2000S headphones. I can’t get enough. I even made a few bucks putting mixes together for people on Fiverr, but that is just the beginning.

What started as frivolous fun might go somewhere. I am quickly learning how to seamlessly transition songs, add effects, and give people a great beat to dance the night away. House parties are certainly in the future. Night clubs and bars are serious possibilities. I might be able to turn this hobby into a third income stream. Not too shabby for something I would do for free.

If you are interested, you can find my DJ life online too. Head over to DJYofi.com to check out some of my mixes for free.