One Month, One Thousand Dollars, One Small Business

This weekend, I found myself at a Beach-Boys-themed party attended almost exclusively by young academics. (I was, I think, the only non-academic in the room. My shrink assures me that I’ll recover.) It’s crunch-time for those seeking academic jobs — and given the amount of competition, the limited opportunities, and America’s imploding economy, most of these folks are justifiably concerned about their prospects.

Basically, I was surrounded by smart, quirky, interesting people who — in many cases — hadn’t held a “real” job in years … if ever. In other words, people who are in a perfect position to start their own businesses.

Would many of them even be interested in such a prospect? Probably not … after all, what’s the point of conquering academia if you’re not going to be an academic? However, talking with them did reiterate, for me, the fact that most small businesses start on the fly — frequently because the proprietor is out of other options. It’d be great if we could all hold onto our day jobs until we have the capital to launch our (well-thought-out, well-timed) micro-businesses, but that simply isn’t usually the case. And, as the New York Times online tells us, the small-business landscape continues to shift beneath our feet, demanding utmost flexibility and hybridization from folks who want to be their own bosses.

So, what’s my point here? Oh, yeah — all of this got me thinking about how one launches a business. Now, there are some great tools out there for people who have some time, or some money, both, and can spend these getting their business off the ground. For the rest of us, I’m offering the One Month, One Thousand Dollar crash course in starting a small business. Look for the pdf — free — on my website as of November 1st, 2008.

Before you get too excited, though, you should know that not everyone can use this outline effectively. I’ll get into the details on that later this week, but the model is fairly self-selecting.

The good news? Well, it’s free — and if you don’t like it, your wasted time will be refunded. Plus, it works, and I can prove it.

So, you know … keep an eye out.