How I Created A Start-Up in One Day

Posted on by Beth V Powell

This summer I read The 7-Day Startup by Dan Norris.  I admit I was skeptical.  It was a book recommended by the author of another book that I really enjoyed so it was worth my time to try it.  What I found was that it made sense.  I was completely surprised.  You see, when I was in college in the stone ages I was taught that to start a business you needed research, a good business plan, and lots of prep to see if it even made sense to start the business you had in mind.  If the market share wasn’t there, then it wouldn’t fly.  Dan’s book was the opposite of this.  It turned my degree in Small Business Management/Entrepreneurship on it’s head.

I shouldn’t have been surprised because I launched a business in one day.  Back in 2001 my secure job as CAD Manager came to a sudden end when a new president took over the company I worked for the previous 10 years.  It was his decision that he didn’t see a value in having a department to create drawings in AutoCAD for salesmen to present plans to their clients or full construction drawings to show the installation crews how to install the project and get permits or even as-built drawings to provide to clients.  I was suddenly out of a job!

I was level-headed enough to not burn any bridges even though I was not in a good mood.  I had just purchased a house a matter of weeks before and hadn’t even made my first mortgage payment.  I did over to buy any of the equipment or software, but was denied.  Still, I felt like something could change.  It was a gut feeling and I listened to my gut in this instance.

The very next morning word got out to the rest of the company what happened.  I received a phone call from the most successful salesman with the company.  He asked if I would be willing to work on a contract basis.  See, my gut was right!  I agreed and set to work.

By the end of the day I had created a name for my business, CAD Fuel Design.  I applied for a business license with the City.  I obtained software from a colleague of mine through the software user group (networking pays off).  By the end of the day I had a business and was ready to roll.  Later I would add QuickBooks for invoicing (I typed invoices in Word initially), a laser printer, a large-scale plotter, and a better computer.

For the next 10 years I continued the drawings of fuel stations that I’d done for the previous 10 years and never skipped a beat.  I followed the standards I’d created when I was tasked with starting their department from scratch.  My clients grew to include other companies that were started by other employees that left the company and ventured out on their own.

I worked some other jobs over the years, but kept my business going on the side.  I couldn’t leave it.  It made for some very long hours often working 8+ hours at a day job and coming home to a quick dinner and then working until bedtime and/or weekends.  I always turned work around quickly.

I didn’t realize at the time or even years later that this was anything special.  Now when I look at the idea of just jumping in and starting a business it doesn’t seem so foreign.

What have your hobbies taught you?

Posted on by Beth V Powell

It’s said that hobbies are healthy.  I can remember hearing about to local dry cleaner where I lived once who worked hard and saved all his life.  He retired and had plans to travel with his wife with their savings.  The day after he retired he died.

Some of us have too many hobbies.  I’ve had some hobbies I used to enjoy and was considered skilled at such as plastic model building, a skill learned from my dad.  I made dioramas and competed in national events.  That would be an attention to detail if you were listing hobbies as resume skills.  I also learned to see a project through.  I sold a few dioramas as well.  Taking an idea or out-of-the-box template and creating a winning business with imagination sound familiar?

I grew up in the old car hobby.  I can work on older vehicles and know quite a bit about identifing different makes, models, and years.  The specs, how driving an older vehicles from the 1940’s through 1960’s differs quite a bit from today or even 20 years ago.  Taking tried and true classics in any condition and make them fit in today’s world can translate into a variety of business situations.  You have been using the same management style you learned in school and it’s not working?  Time to update it.

I enjoy genealogy and history.  We learn a lot from where we’ve been to be able to understand the imporance of moving forward even in directions that we couldn’t imagine 5 or 10 years ago.

I collect a wide range of ‘junk’ to some even though I’m a minimalist at heart.  I’m always evolving in this aspect the way we all must evolve to be successful in our personal lives or business ventures.

Lastly, I volunteer and spread the message that we all have something to give and should give something of ourselves.  There is nothing better for your soul or your ability to look at any situation more openly than to volunteer with something you feel passionately about.  If you’re not passionate, then it won’t mean nearly as much.  We must be open minded and open to new ideas to be successful in any business venture.

I’m interested in what your hobbies have taught you?  Email me or leave a comment.

Who will you influence?

Posted on by Beth V Powell

I recently had a conversation with my dad.  We talked about some of the books I’ve been reading and he brought up the idea that he believed because I was raised in a small business environment I was better prepared for the world and more open in business.  I never gave that any thought EVER.  Do you think it’s made any difference in your life?

Yes, when I was very young my father ran the local airport.  He was a flight instructor also.  He started his own trucking business when I was in elementary school.  I began answering phones after school and taking messages.  My voice has never been feminine so people would always comment on how polite his ‘son’ was on the phone.  I later began making appointments and by late junior high I was doing quotations for customers.  In high school I took some accounting classes and did the day-to-day accounting which transferred to my grandmother who was in business for herself as a public accountant and who did our taxes at the end of the year.

I also learned a lot from my grandmother.  She worked in the trucking business for decades in freight claims near the end.  She began working from home and doing books for a number of clients and doing audits for businesses and her church.  Come January she was always swamped with income tax business through April.  She wouldn’t turn anyone away.  She did this until the day she died at age 98.  A true inspiration.

I don’t know that I am any more rounded than anyone else, but I do have a background and positive experiences in business.  I know how important it is to look and act professionally.  I realize how important word of mouth and customer service is.  Any of these not handled well can sink a business.  I ran my own business for 10 years.

I’ve done other business as well even if not officially a business.  For a few years I ‘flipped’ cars.  Before the Internet I would buy rust free cars in Oklahoma where I lived and adverstise them in Old Cars Weekly, a national paper, and sell and deliver them to buyers in the rust belt.

I’ve also been a very successful eBay seller.  I started in 2001 when my late husband (before we married) began moving some of his belongings from Philadelphia (where he lived) to Roanoke, Virginia (where I lived).  There was a lot of overlap or things he decided to part with.  We would make sure everything was clean and take excellent marketing photos.  He would generally write the descriptions as he was a great writer.  We researched similar items that sold and were selling to find our starting price.  We sold some amazing stuff we never believed.  After his death I carried on and spent six months carefully cleaning, photographing, and researching vintage go-kart speed parts and lived on that alone.

I was fortunate enough to have a lot of great role models in my family.  Everyone contributed in some way to who I am today.  We all have opportunities to influence people.  You don’t need to have children to influence someone.  How you act, what you write, what you do with your life can all influence.  Who will you inspire today?  Will it be something you say at dinner?  Will it be something you write give pause and makes someone think?  We all have that power.  It’s what you choose to do with it that matters.  Who will you influence?