So you have that special spark, and can believe in yourself…

Why are you going to start your business?

You should figure out why you are interested in starting a business. It will usually be for a combination of these reasons:

• for an enjoyable job, to keep occupied
• to make money and be rich!
• for independence, the challenge, and desire to try

The relative importance of these three reasons will be different for everyone. It’s a good idea to question yourself and be honest, because different types of businesses are better suited to each reason.

Ways to make money

The process of making money effectively and relatively easily, could be done in one of two ways

1. make/do something once, and sell it at a high profit margin
2. make/do something once, and sell many of them, at low margin each

Being a tutor, a gardener, or any profession where you sell your time, can be considered falling under category 1 – you are selling your time. Being McDonalds and selling Big Macs could be considered category 2 – you are selling your ingredients to a Big Mac.

Of course, there are many more ways to make money. I would however argue that you’re wasting your time if you make/do something once, and sell it at a low profit margin.

If you can work out a way to make/do something once, and sell many of them at a high margin, then you’re definitely on to something.

Different types of businesses

With this in mind, you should think about the type of business you’d like to go into. You could either:

1. Sell your time
2. Sell products you make
3. Sell products you don’t make, but value-add to

Before we go any further, please don’t consider franchising as “starting your own business” – it’s not. Franchising is literally just buying your job. Yes, being a franchisee perhaps has more freedom and responsibility than being an employee. But, you are very much tied to operating rules, territories, tied to paying commissions and fees, and your “success” is managed carefully by head office. Franchises are for (older) people who enjoy hand-rails and guide-ropes. If you feel you’re better than this, don’t franchise.

Selling your time

If you are going into business “for an enjoyable job, to keep occupied”, then you’re possibly thinking about selling your time. One thing to consider about this type of business is that there is always business admin work involved. You may or may not enjoy the admin work.

Your financial success will be very much linear, and tied to how frequently you can work, or how well you can increase your hourly rate.

A way to expand this is to type of business is to sub-contract, or employ others who sell their time. For example, you are a maths tutor, who sells tutoring services provided by your other friends (pimping them out).

Gahhh, suddenly getting very tired, and this will have to be continued….

I’ve proof read this a few times, but apologies for the tardiness. It’s been a 14 hour work day (but still enjoyable), and I’m listening to a sad song…

Sometimes (ever so rarely), we get out of the yearbook studio and meet new people.

A common remark we get, when meeting parents with children is:

“Ohhhh… my son/daughter never gets in the school yearbook!… They only put in the top sporty or academic students!!!”.

Just wanted to clear something up…. It doesn’t work like that.

The yearbook is the type of project where you take what you can get. There are rarely enough high quality photos available to “choose” from.

No one sits there filtering out photos of children who are not the top sporty or academic students. (….and if you’re sure they do, you’re sending your children to the wrong school).

School yearbook editors (that Rockstar work with) will, 9 times out of 10 painstakingly sift through photos to get the widest variety of students.

If you’d like to ensure your children are featured in your school’s yearbook:

1. volunteer to take photos at school events
2. encourage teaching staff to take more photos

Thank you to those who took the time and interest to apply for the Operations Assistant role.

We have been overwhelmed by the response to the advertisement. Some HR people write “we have been overwhelmed by the response…“, as a filler sentence. We’re not. In less than two weeks we had over 140 applicants… 160 applicants 180 applicants for 1 role.

At the moment we are reviewing all applications received. Please accept my apologies as we are unable to personally e-mail unsuccessful applicants. At the same time, I’d like to provide some tips for your job hunting endeavours. These thoughts come from our review of applications so far:

• Consider your Resume file name.

Why is your resume file name “resume_rockstar_v3.doc“? Do you create a unique resume for each potential employer? Why?
Employer wonders: What are you hiding from me or What are you making up?. Be confident and just name it “Mary Smith.pdf”

• Answer the question succinctly.

We asked specific questions. Answer it specifically and succinctly. Copying and pasting a rambling pre-prepared blurb, gets your application instantly failed.

• Proper Grammar.

Something is wrong if you type your name as “mary smith”, and not “Mary Smith”. I understand typing in a lax manner on your Facebook wall, but this is a formal job application. It is even worse, when you answer the set questions in this manner. Show some respect…to yourself. Employer wonders: Are our clients going to get this lax treatment too?

• Resume Document = max 3 pages.

2 pages is best. You want to give the employer a summarised taste of your strengths – a reason for them to want to delve more, and give you a call for an interview. Use 3 pages and you better have a damn good reason. Too many people have 3+ page resumes. You should be able to adequately summarise yourself in 2 pages. Oh and, being Primary School sports captain is not relevant anymore.

• Your e-mail is w33dmaster69@hotmail.com???

Really??? Yeah, that was cool in High School, but you’ve grown up since?…I hope.

It may seem that a lot of these things are quite picky – and yes, they are. But a somewhat accurate way to judge potential employees is on the little things. All the little things start counting, and start painting a picture of the person behind these little actions.

You may not agree with our comments – and that’s perfectly fine. Different companies operate differently, and we’re keen to know your thoughts and questions. Please feel free to comment with any.

And finally, here is a list of some of the sloth names submitted!

rockstar
Sid
William Shatner
Raymond
Lethargy Larry
Cuddly
pappi
peggy
Moon tailor
fluffy
goukki
tata
Sammy! =D
Tort
Simile (like!)
Puka
King Max
K9
Hairy
Bradypus/ brady
Michael
Bob
cookie
beautiful (because you can’t judge a book by its cover)
Slothy.
Zoban
NA
FRANK
Bubble
donald if its a boy, maisy if its a girl
Jasper-Raphael The Second
Awake
“Moksha” which means ‘liberation’ in sanskrit.
Victor
Sloth
katie
Buster
Garfield
Iggy
smokey
Willard
douche bag
Run
Cheetah
Slug
Habib
Slow Joe
rockstar
Laze
cookie
Ben
Fluffy
Ben
Dodo
polobun
Mr. Mittens
sleeper
-
I’d have to meet it first but if I have to pick a name, I’d choose Javier or Lupé so it can maintain its Latino roots.
disinclination
Rocket
Dimitrios
sparkle
Bravo
pooki
Ban Zao
Hobbes
Hormes
Curlie / Maxx
Moonface
Slothy maybe?
lucky
Misa- a nice russian name for a south american animal!
Ares
Pi
Reginald. A traditional name for a not so traditional pet.
Bakemono
elfin
Blurbly
Flat Face
nickie
Smiley
Banjo
Slown
sloth
Amelia
Banana-Nails!
Doopz
sleeper
el senor murcielago de peludo (or murci for short)
arnaza
Slowman, which sounds like “snowman”.
usain bolt
Tina
RAG
Womanupindi. As I am a narcissist. And a feminist. And it could sleep for me.
Marley
Fuzzy
Eugene. Because its a cool name but I dont think I would ever name my son Eugene. Do you guys have a sloth? That would be so awesome.
Uncle Rémy
If it’s a male sloth – John, if it’s a female sloth – Pretty
sly
A sloth should be called Sloth until I know his or her personality
Pudgy ! there just so lazy
Spunk
Jackie
Stewie (because I’m addicted to Family Guy)
TIMMY, TIMOTEO or probably SYD
Speedy
Usain Bolt
I wouldn’t want a sloth. But to answer the question, maybe slowpoke.
Gamma
Frankie
Sonic
Cheekoo
Boris
Bumble
Carnifex
Mardee
The Dude
ot ot
airy
Louisa, after my cousin, because she loves sloths and also exhibits sloth-like behaviour.
Smiley
Dorathy
Lazy Larry
Pencil
Stan Still

So here’s the excuse: We don’t blog about yearbooks much here because:

1. Our Starter Packs and other support resources contain almost everything you’d possibly ever dream of…
2. We honestly think blogging about yearbooks is dry…

So instead of letting Blogstar Memoirs whittle away, we’ll use this to write about other topics we find interesting. The first one being, starting your own business!

People who write…

A lot of people write about starting a business. I’ve read lots of articles written by self-professed experts on starting a business. Much of what is written can be helpful, but at the end of the day there’s more than one way to do it. I think you should just follow your heart.

People who write about starting businesses are generally old. By old, I mean, older than 30. I’m 28, and I consider myself, nearly old. Old people don’t relate with young people.

I’m writing about starting a business for young people – 14 to 30 year olds. I’m no expert at starting a business – I just want to share my experiences because starting Rockstar has been one of the most rewarding experience of my life.

I’m not writing this because I’m up-myself or anything. It’s more like “I’ve found a breed of chicken that lays $2 coins”.. and I want to tell as many people about this breed…. damn the analogy sux – but you get the drift…

Short bio…

My name is Nathan, and I’m 28. Went to high school in Sydney, completed an undergrad university course, backpacked europe for a bit, worked for a year for a large company, then started Rockstar.

You’re different…

Not everyone is able to start a business. Different people have different skills, and at the end of the day, particular type of people are better suited to having their own business. In my opinion, you need to have two particular characteristics:

1. a special spark
2. the ability to believe in yourself

A special spark inside you…

If you have ever played Sim City, The Sims or Transport Tycoon, and gotten really addicted, loved it, and dreamed about the game at night – you have that spark. I think quite a lot of people have the spark, but don’t act on it. They don’t try to start a business because they’re too afraid of the risks.

Society conditions us to hold onto handrails of a secure future. It’s hard to stand up, stick your head out and be different. We make excuses of why things won’t work, and needlessly run nightmare scenarios through our heads.

F*** that. It’s going to work out, and you know it will.

The ability to believe in yourself…

Until recently, I was never a very confident person. While my friends always seemed to be more confident than I was, I always knew that one day I would be truly confident and will one day “make it”. That sounds a bit wanky, but it’s said by the quiet short guy in class who didn’t ask girls out because he was too shy.

If you want to start a business, I think that being super confident is a bad characteristic to have. What you need is to have the belief that you will “probably” make it. You could think to yourself… “yeah, if I work hard, and things worked out, you know what?… yeah… .I’d probably make it”.

If you’re going to make it in life, you’re going to make it before you’re 30. Stop dreaming of hitting 40, and suddenly having the balls to quit your job, start a business, and suddenly be succesful. It’s not going to happen that way. How things start out is usually a good indication of how things will go long-term.

So in summary – if you’re young, and want to start a business…

• know you have that special spark
• do it before you’re 30
• remember that: It’s going to work out – and you know it will

Motives…

People start businesses for different reasons. I think one of the best reasons is that “it’s cool”. It’s cool because…

1. you can do for a job, what you think is fun or like a hobby
2. you can build something and help it grow, and get really cool (like playing a Sims game)
3. you’re your own man/woman

The first two reasons are self explanatory. The third reason is about standing up for yourself.

I look at my friends slaving away for large faceless corporations, and feel sorry for some of them. Some of them are genuinely happy – good on them.

Others however are not. They’re part of the system – their soul is literally owned by rich old men flying corporate jets. That’s kind of… gay… (gay as in – not cool).

Were we born to be conform to the system? We were born with a brain, a heart, and hopes and dreams to be used.

Is it not far better to chase your dreams and fail, than to just compromise and take the safe route that everyone else is taking?

It would be tragic at your funeral for your eulogy to go something like…

“Blah was a good man/woman. She/he worked really hard for different large companies. Lived for money for retirement. Didn’t really achieve much else, Didn’t really set out to make the world better. Didn’t really want to rock the boat, and try to be, create, or do something better. Oh well…”

Be your own man / woman. Be  proud of yourself, and like who you are growing-up to be. If you’re still reading this post and semi-agreeing with me, you probably have this motive to help you succeed – (if you want to start a business).

Starting your own business is as much about doing something you like, as it is about exercising your pride in yourself.

(Huge point of clarification: Of course you can work for someone else, and have pride in yourself. )

Mehh – it’s late…. to be continued…