Have you got what it takes?

So, You want to Ben an Entrepreneur is a great article from Wall Street Journal that stems from a lot of observations. And the good thing about it there is a 10 question questionnaire that would help anyone asses whether they got the traits that would eventually determine you would do well or not. It was an eye opener for me as well. Just as many others, I also HAVE lofty dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur without giving much thought to what sacrifices it would take or how I could cope with the ups and downs.

Here's my take to the 5 questions from where I stand now. These answers may change over time, but for now, this is it.

1. Are you willing and able to bear great financial risk?
This is the biggest thing that is holding me back and making me moonlight. I have financial obligations like a mortgage and a lease that puts a fixed strain on my financials month by month. Though the lease is only another three years my mortgage runs another 13 years. SO unless I find a way to settle that first or build a recurring additional income that can pay the mortgage, this is my biggest drawback.

2. Are you willing to sacrifice your lifestyle for potentially many years?
This is something that I don't have a problem in doing. I can sacrifice my lifestyle for many (few) years. I have less risk here as my wife is on a pretty stable and well paying job and there is a fall back when it comes to supporting our lifestyle.

3. Is your significant other on board?
I think so! I did send her the link to the original article and asked for her response. My wife basically supports my goals as long as it doesn't put a lot of strain on our family time. But any new undertaking will take up quite a bit of time to be invested on it. I think the answer would lie in finding ways to improve the quality of the time spent with family, so even if you spend little time, you make that time count.

4. Do you like all aspects of running a business?
Yes and no. So far, from what I have experienced, I am good at certain things but not on somethings. I think the answer to this will also lie on the question 10, by finding a partner who likes to do the things that I don't necessarily enjoy doing.

I have recently joined a consortium of people to re-start an online venture that we planned sometime back but never got around to actually launching it. I think the arrangement that we have there is a good way for me to move forward. Stick to my knitting, and do what I am good at and enjoy doing and specialize in, and get other partners on board to handle the other areas.

5. Are you comfortable making decisions on the fly with no playbook?
This is something that I enjoy doing. I like making decisions and to keep things moving. I hate it when decisions are not made and are waiting for others to analyze and revert back. Like in most things in life, it is the decisions that you make that will make your business go forward or backward. You basically start with a clean sheet of paper and then write your story.

6. What's your track record of executing your ideas?
This is definitely one area that I would have to put a lot of effort in. With my recent dabbling with productivity improvement and what not I have improved myself slightly. But I was one of those people who had a lot of things that were put off. Procrastination was second nature to me. But thank god I am moving away from that self of mine.

7. How persuasive and well-spoken are you?
I do consider my self to be well spoken and this is something a lot of people agree with me on. And I am comfortable in selling, but just not so much on cold calling. I am a good presenter and can convince people. Again, what I need to do is to find a partner who is good at the pure selling part and I can sell the concept once the initial ice is broken. I am good at taking but not in breaking the ice!

8. Do you have a concept you're passionate about?
YES! I do have a broader concept that I am passionate about. I am passionate about the way the mobility and connectivity is changing our life styles and any business that I so must revolve around these concepts. Though I think real estate is a good line of business I will not get into business in that line.

9. Are you a self-starter?
I tread the middle path on this one. I would consider myself a self starter. When an idea energizes me I tend to be impatient until I try it. But I also do tend to get somewhat discouraged from the failures. This is another area that I am constantly working on, in not getting too down. But I generally have the ability to pick up from my lows pretty fast.

10. Do you have a business partner?
From the analysis above, it is critical that I have a business partner who would complement my strengths and weaknesses. I think I have a few people in mind, some of them that I have worked on a few projects with, and who are willing to join in with me in a new venture.

One test will be the new partnership that I am working on with a few others. If things go on well in that, I can draw the partners in that into the new ventures that I am passionate about. I just need to get them passionate about them as well. That is where my selling skills will be put to test.

Getting free consultancy from freelancers

Recently I spent quite a bit of time with a potential client, after I was invited to an interview on oDesk, discussing his project. I discussed a lot of technicalities of the project, even before he prepared the spec, giving my input and expertise in preparing the technical specifications of the project.

This was a Windows Mobile project and involved printing from the device using a Bluetooth printer. The client, though he was a techie, did not have a clue on how to accomplish the printing task, as I had already done this before on another project.

That was one of such incidents, there were quite a few other issues. In terms of how the applications was going to communicate with the server application, how to store the settings, how to store the application data in the device, how to handle situations when the connectivity is lost, etc.

After all of that, I was informed by the client that they had decided to go for another provider who quoted a lesser rate. I had spent hours of my time and shared my expertise free of charge. I basically feel robbed.

How do you handle situations like this in free lancing bidding phase? You need to share your expertise in order to convince the client that you are the best man for the job. And then the client gathers this expertise and goes elsewhere.

I assume this scenario also applies more to the web designing jobs as well. The clients may ask us to submit a proposal, which would include a concept for their web site. And then they run with our concept. What are the safe guards, us freelancers have to protect ourselves from such scenarios? Any ideas?

Freelancing on the surge?

Contrary to my earlier posting about what I have noticed on the free lance job market, oDesk blog has a post which states, with actual data from oConomy to back it up, that free lance jobs are on the rise.

Their commentary also makes the point that though companies are laying off employees the actual work that needs to get done remains more or less the same. And the smarter and leaner companies are turning towards free lancers to get these work done, rather than having full time employees to this work.

From a company stand point, this makes perfect sense as having a free lance employee costs them a lot less overall. They do not need to pay them any other benefits rather than the fees for the assignment. Also, since more and more people are joining the freelance workforce, with the rising un-employment rate, the competitiveness in the freelance market is going up, driving prices down. There simply is more supply than demand.

Another interesting factor they have noticed is that the number of home-shoring projects have gone up, meaning more US based freelancers are being hired. That is not very good news for other providers from the other part of the world, like India and Sri Lanka. According to their statistics, the number of Russian providers who were hired on oDesk have gone down, while India is still pretty much holding on to it. USA providers being hired are on the rise. So the out-sourcing market is turning out to a home-shoring market and not an off-shoring market.

The facts in this post are pretty bad for my situation, as a provider from Sri Lanka, I am one of those who are badly affected according to this data. And with the current employment situation in Sri Lanka also being on a hiring freeze, this leaves me in a rather perilous situation.

So what can I do to make my situation better? What creative ways can I use to make myself an attractive prospect to the buyers?

• Should I strive to acquire the niche skills that are in demand? If I do, what are the chances of breaking into a project without any references to show for that skill being used prior?
  
• Should I lower the rate I charge? As I have mentioned in my previous post, I have lowered my rate already? Lowering it more would require me to work night and day, just to earn enough to stay afloat.
• Any other ideas?