It’s our baby’s 16th birthday today, our middle teen graduates in a couple months and I’m feeling the last of my hair graying, but hey, life could be worse. Oh and yes, we’re coming to the end of month number four in rebooting our offline business and I can’t (and wouldn’t anyway) complain there. Positive attitude, karma, all that I believe in.

About the only thing I’m disappointed in lately is my online time. I’m feeling out of balance with the stuff I enjoy doing online. Don’t worry friendly readers, I’m not going anywhere and not going to start making excuses for not posting more to the blog. If you see me doing that then this blog has jumped the shark. 

I’ll get my writing mojo back in good time. I do have time to sit and write but where I would have been doing that a year ago, I’m now using that time for offline volunteer work in the community. I’m feeling a lot better about my contribution to society in the offline world.

As I write this my Google Reader is poised rather serendipitously at 777 items unread.

It’s nice being able to keep that number under 1,000+ and some might recall this was done by unsubscribing from any feed that averaged more than 3 posts a day. I’m happy with how this has kept my reading volume in check, but the negative to this is that I do not feel as connected. Ying, yang.

What do you think, is this good or bad? Probably bad for our online business. Maybe bad for both our businesses since one of my 2009 goals was to make our offline business more connected online. So improvement is needed on this front going forward. Balance, balance, balance; the key of life.

The online connected drug

Being online is like a drug, isn’t it? It’s a bit scary in fact.

To become sobered by just how scary online can be just read stories like the alleged Craigslist killer with a women’s panty fetish:

Philip Markoff, the accused murderer now known as the "Craigslist Killer," appeared to be collecting women’s panties, which investigators believe were "souvenirs" from his alleged victims, two law enforcement sources told ABC News. The panties, found during a search of Markoff’s house, are one of the reasons investigators believe there could be more victims who have not yet come forward…

It would seem this Markoff guy might have gotten in way over his head with gambling debts. Balance, balance, balance. Or in this guy’s case IF he turns out to be found guilty (and please remember: innocent until proven guilty), imbalance would be the correct word to use.

Although I’ve not used enough to judge Craigslist seems like an online service that plenty of normal, sane people use for buying, selling, trading and finding people and things but when you get into large enough numbers online the darker side of humanity is exposed.

But enough of the scary side of being online. Let’s focus on the positive side. There are plenty of good reasons to stay more connected online.

I’ve tried to keep online time spent in check by reminding myself that it is foremost a work place and secondarily for social interaction and entertainment. Just as I don’t want to spend too much time at the office, I shouldn’t spend excess time online. Even if our internet connection is 24/7, we don’t have to be. Balance, balance, balance.

Gone are the days of gadget shopping and multiple weekly trips to Best Buy. I think they miss me judging by the increase in sales-related emails they’ve been sending and in a couple cases phone calls from the store. You know you are shopping too much at a retail store (balance!) when the store starts having withdrawal symptoms.

Someday I’ll make time for that stuff again, but I’m happy replacing this with the local Eagles club and working longer and more focused work days. For the most part I’m still taking at least one day a week off and not working late every night so no fear of burning out.

But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the (good) online stuff. It’s not like missing smoking, which was a habit I managed to shake 23 years ago, but it’s close. To rip a line from Arnie: I’ll be back.

On Tuesday night I went through the Eagles initiation ceremony. If I told you what happened I’d have to kill you so will skip the non-public details, but suffice to say I’m now an official Eagle member. I’ve the got the schedule of events on my wall for reference although I don’t have the member card yet. The Eagle who presents my card is on vacation and will give to me when he returns.

Last night Kara, my oldest son and I went for the all you can eat Taco dinner. For $6 you could fill right up. Afterwards Kara and I stuck around for the speed bingo from 6:30pm-8:00pm.  Our first official night of offline social networking didn’t result in much social activity other than playing a game, but it was fun and we recognized a few people there.

I think that’s part of what we need to work through with our offline social networking. Attending and getting involved with enough events that we recognize and remember more people in the community. I’m not sure how many of these type events we’ll need to attend before we start building upon the number of people we know in the community but our goal is to attend at least one event a week.

Compare and contrast this to online social networking. It’s a lot easier to do things socially online, but a lot less personal so there is a give and take.

Kara’s initiation into the Eagles will happen on April 14. She was a bit disappointed that her initiation didn’t happen the same night as mine, but the women and men have different initiations in the Eagles.

Oh, and to answer the question I’ve now heard a couple times: no, the Eagles aren’t just for ‘old people’ – we’ve seen a number of young people there (not in the bar area, of course).

Jeremiah Owyang has a good post describing how the current recession is diminishing the value of the guru and putting more focus on the things in business that matter:

The recession. This is going to cause a purging of the opinion-makers, pontificators, and the gurus to be passed up as companies need to make decisions based off intelligence, information and references of previous success. Why? their very jobs are on the line, as they have to be accountable for their budgets within their corporations, and demonstrate a return on investment to their management beyond ‘awareness, buzz or thought leadership’. 

Must admit my time for opinion has been set aside in place of doing things that produce measurable results. When you are in the process of rebooting and rebuilding your business you measure where that time is spent and what it did, if anything, for your business. You also measure what dollars you are spending and if you are financing the right causes.

The Chamber promoting businesses that aren’t in the city where we’re located

Like the Chamber of Commerce renewal that I’m currently deciding on. Last year it didn’t seem like the local chamber did much of anything for our business, but they seem to have some plans in place where they might be useful in 2009. There are three other insurance agents in the Chamber, none of which even have an office in the city where the Chamber is located which kind of bugs me. Shouldn’t the Chamber be for businesses who offices in town, creating client foot traffic in town, not just those who live in town but have businesses located elsewhere?

As I explained to my wife, when we have a client travel to our office, they travel through town and see other businesses and signage. We are creating business traffic in the city and benefitting the other businesses by simply having an operation in town. Those who don’t have a business in town are not providing the same benefit. While a business owner who lives in town may have a right to be a Chamber member by not having a business location in town they are not sharing any client traffic back into the pool for other members. I realize that there are many home-based businesses, heck we have one too, but I don’t believe home-based businesses with no foot traffic that travels through town provide the same benefit. Agree, disagree?

So we’re comparing the Chamber membership to the local Eagles club membership.

We’ve never been Eagles members before but we have a bunch of clients who are Eagles members. Any readers Eagles members? Tell me about it in the comments area. It seems like our dollars might be better spent being a member there instead of the Chamber and it costs less to join too (like $80 versus $200). To join, according to the Eagles official website (emphasis mine):

To be eligible for membership in the Fraternal Order of Eagles, you must be a citizen of the United States or Canada over the age of 18 who believes in God.

Citizen of U.S check, 18+ yup, not an atheist, so ok there (I think). We have more than a couple sponsors to get an application so ok there as well. Guess we’re onto phase two. In the Chamber there is no initiation or interviews, just paying the $200 fee every year. Less business, more community focus in the Eagles versus the Chamber as well as social focus. When people talk about how effective social networking is online, I wonder how joining the Eagles compares offline.

Back to the gurus

I don’t feel sorry for most of these gurus. Don’t see spending a penny on them for either of our businesses but if I ran into one online or offline who had a particularly good business idea, I’d open the wallet. So I’m not completely discarding their value.

However if they are as good practicing what they preach then they don’t need clients to listen to their opinions, they can use the advice to generate work for themselves in these lean times. This might be my biggest problem with people who talk a good game: can they do anything with their advice or do they just think others can benefit from it?

Now there is a difference between someone who consults that also does work. Like a programmer who offers consulting on the side while they have contracts and are doing programming work regularly. I have huge respect for these consultants. These are gurus that should rarely fall on hard times.

Truth is many people around the country right now are having to buckle down and work harder. I think at the end of the days, weeks and months the country will be better. We’ve got to get the loan channels open again though. It’s not helping individuals or businesses when the bank purse strings are super glued shut. 

Don’t know about you, but it’s getting harder to stay positive with the economy and bailouts and other negativity flowing, but hey, at least condom sales aren’t hurting:

According to data from the Nielsen Company, condom sales went up approximately five percent in 2008’s fourth quarter and around six percent this January, compared to last year. Just as millions of Americans resorted to nesting during the Great Depression, they are repeating the trend again in our current recession.

What empirical data can we draw from this? More people staying home and doing the horizontal bop instead of out spending money at the mall?

Or maybe it is just people afraid that if they don’t use it, they will lose it?

There are physiological factors, but, you know, sex slumps sort of beget sex slumps. Being sexy and having sex begets more sex. Sex is its own aphrodisiac. If you don’t use it, you can lose it. Testosterone levels — which men and woman have — start to diminish and your body and mind get habituated to not having sex.

Wish I had more to say on this topic but there are sometimes where quotes and links speak for themselves.

You might have heard last week that cereal giant Kellog’s has stopped sponsoring Olympic swimming sensation Michael Phelps because he [gasp] was caught smoking something in a bowl in a picture in a British tabloid. He hasn’t admitted to smoking pot, but it seems a little like Clinton saying he ‘didn’t have sexual relations with that woman.’

So who are some of Phelps other sponsors that could turn tail and run? AT&T, Powerbar, Omega, VISA and Speedo. Making matters worst, USA Swimming has suspended Phelps for three months.

Dave Winer, a self-admitted once upon a time (but no more) weed smoker, has one of the more reasoned takes I’ve read to date about the statement that Kellog should have made, rather than throwing Phelps under the chronic bus:

What a bunch of stinkers they are at Kellogg’s. They could score so many points by saying something like this: "We don’t encourage pot smoking, but we understand that some people do it. We have so many bigger problems to tackle in this country, and Michael Phelps is such an incredible young man and hero, we decided to be heroic ourselves, and cut him some slack, and keep him on the corn flakes box."

If I were working in the marketing department at General Mills, makers of the famous Wheaties cereal and Kellog major competitor, I’d suggest it was time to rally behind Michael Phelps and pick up his sponsorship.  General Mills has one of those rare marketing opportunities involving an incredible athlete and should consider not staying in the grand stands. They wouldn’t have to glorify pot smoking, but they could send the message that teamwork involves sticking by your teammates, something Kellog isn’t doing by distancing itself from someone they once supported.

Then again, they’re already ahead of Kellogg in the cereal wars, so they don’t have to take any risks entering the Phelps media maelstrom. They can sit back and let Kellogg take heat for getting behind a champion who allegedly smoked pot. The thing is Phelps doesn’t fit the stereotype of the lazy, out of work pot smoker in any shape or form.

Really let’s put the pot smoking allegation aside for a moment and look at what Michael Phelps has accomplished in the pool. It’s like looking at what Pete Rose did as a player.

Phelps the masterpiece of swimming tapestry 

Phelps did something no other human being has ever done before by amassing eight gold medals swimming in the freaking Olympics! Don’t know the last time any readers got in the pool, but swimming is hard, hard work. I get tired swimming one or two laps in the pool and I don’t smoke and barely drink. Swimming fast is a thousand times harder. Phelps defines the word champion. He deserves to be on Wheaties boxes and getting major sponsorship deals everywhere.

Now let’s talk pot. Ooooooo.

Pot isn’t evil

Why we haven’t decriminalized this drug is beyond me. Somebody can get wasted on beer, wine and hard liquor but gets in trouble for smoke a blunt? Strange. Let’s legalize marijuana, heck, General Mills and Kellogg both can make their own brands of weed and spend our tax dollars jailing the bigger criminals in the world.

As for the crazy talk about boycotting Kellog? Please. Over this dropping Phelps news Kellogg is showing they don’t have any stones but boycotting their many products because they are being politically correct? Equally dumb.

The time for marijuana legalization is coming

Someday soon – perhaps over the next 10 years - we’re going to see an uprising of companies and/or more major mainstream celebrities (not celebrities like Snoop Dogg or Cheech and Chong) stand up and say: enough is enough on marijuana being illegal. Jail should not be a place for pot smokers. And if you are ‘caught’ smoking pot somewhere where you can’t hurt anybody or anything, you shouldn’t be treated like you did something horrible. This could be the kind of change President Obama talked about. Wouldn’t it be something if marijuana was legalized under the Obama administration and it helped turn the tables on the national deficit? Don’t get too excited if you read the tea leaves in his inauguration speech. But hey, who knows.

But pot smoking is not, not, not cool everywhere all the time. If you are caught driving a vehicle and hurt somebody or their property while stoned, I have zero sympathy for what your sponsors or the police do to you. Yes, that includes Michael Phelps if he does smoke the stuff recreationally. Let’s not torture the guy for having a little fun.

Just to tell you how out of touch I was with what is happening outside of working offline, I had to be reminded that this coming Sunday is the Super Bowl. Sacrilege! This morning, though, I’m cracking up over the PETA veggie sex ad (YouTube video) that didn’t make the cut. Thanks Mike Doe for the chuckles.

Asparagus, broccoli … sexy? LOL. They’ve got to be kidding. I’m not sure what’s more funny though, the use of odd-shaped vegetables (hey, what wrong with the old phallic standbys? Cucumbers, carrots, you know) as sexual innuendo OR the fact that YouTube flashes the Warning: Adult Content message before you can visit and watch said video on their site.

Seriously, trying to make an event where grown men violently knock the crap out of each other family wholesome fun is a bit twisted. I can see baseball being more wholesome but even that sport has bench clearing brawls and violent collisions at the plate.

Violence ok, sex not ok, is that it? Time to grow up, NFL. All of us got here because of the latter and most as a result of being squeezed through our mother’s you know what. Having witnessed this first hand several times I’d say it’s a beautifully violent event and men have the easy part by a long shot in the birthing process.

Of course having sex with vegetables isn’t going to lead to any baby carrots. I’m just thinking from a practicality sense of women having sex with a head of broccoli. That’s going to get very messy – in a non-sexual, turn-off way. Little crumply shards of broccoli everywhere, eww. The vision is not working for me. At all.

The PETA commercial as comedy is funny but them trying to shove home, pardon the pun, some poorly veiled message that meat is bad and unsexy while vegetables are good and sexy puts PETA even more fringe than I already thought they were.

Now ladies don’t forget the next time you are on the vegetable aisle that PETA is counting on you to get very horny when see that pristine head of cauliflower. Don’t let them down. And disappoint the NFL at will. Go Cards!

Managed to catch the TV commercial that Domino’s pizza has been running bragging about how great their oven baked sandwiches are. Oh, and the fact that Subway is mad at them over the campaign and pulled out the lawyer cease and desist card. You can watch the commercial below, thanks to the YouTube generation.

B.L Ochman writes on the oven baked sandwich wars:

More likely, consumers will not care, or will forget who trashed whom, or who won. It’s quite possible that people will figure the Domino’s test was rigged anyway. That’s nothing but a no-win situation all around.  And marketers take note: Domino’s v Subway or vice versa is not at all in the spirit of the Obama era.

Raising my hand in the I Don’t Care About Their Silly Dustup camp. I do, however, care about what each is doing with their respective businesses.

Wait an oven-baked minute. Doesn’t Domino’s do pizza? Isn’t that what they are supposed to be great at? Why are they getting into the oven baked sandwich market? And Subway is supposed to do those sandwiches that help you lose weight and/or stay thin, right? So why are they trying to expand into the pizza scene which from a calorie standpoint is a negative.

Both these companies are wrong. The last time I went into a Subway to get a sandwich I was told I “had” to have the sandwich toasted that I wanted. Beyond stupid. If I want a sandwich not toasted, then I should be able to do so. I can understand toasting pizza bread, but why do they have to bug me about toasting every other type of sandwich? It makes the bread all crunchy and nasty.

Now over to the Domino’s side. Are you out of pizza ideas or what? Look at what Pizza Hut is doing. They aren’t advertising the dark side of sandwich wars complete with some silly dog jumping contest, they are advertising using real ingredients in their pies. None of that artificial garbage.

And what Domino’s delivers? Last time I checked, Subway won’t deliver sandwiches to my door, but you will. Focus on that business strength. Your competition isn’t now and never was Subway, it’s Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, Round Table, Godfather’s and any other pizza joint.

Speaking of Little Caesars, they are the go to place for pizza in our area. They went to $5 one topping pizzas and they make them in bulk. You usually don’t have to wait, just walk in hand them the money and walk out with cheap, good tasting pizza. If I want gourmet pizza, I go to Round Table. They have the sauce that I prefer.

Is it just me here that thinks both Domino’s and Subway are misguided? I understand times are tough, but focus on highlighting the bread and butter, no pun intended, of your business. For Domino’s it’s pizza and delivery and Subway it is not, not, not toasted sandwiches. If you disagree, agree or want to oven bake my opinion, the comment section below is  yours for the tasting.

I’ve noticed over the last 10 years or so my favorite sauce Tabasco has been branching out from their well known brand. They have released several different versions of their traditional red sauce including a milder green sauce, a hotter habanero sauce, garlic, barbecue, steak sauce, bloody mary mix and more. While paging through a magazine this morning I saw they even have Tabasco branded Spicy Tequila.

Via TabascoTequila.com they offer a wide variety of Tabasco Spicy Tequila alcohol drink recipes with names that harken back to their McIlhenny Company roots like, well, Avery Island. The drink has the name of the place in Louisiana where they have been growing the seeds for peppers since 1868.

Since I’m not a hard liquor drinker – not really a drinker at all, per se – I will be unlikely be tasting (m)any of these Tabasco Tequila fueled drinks but I think it’s smart seeing McIlhenny not resting on their laurels and trying to brand Tabasco well beyond their tried and true red sauce.

McIlhenny is a company that clearly wants to continue to expand into new markets. Now if only they were equally progressive technology-wise. The Tabasco.com website doesn’t have a blog (despite me suggesting they should have one for like five years now) – still using an archaic newsletter-only approach - and has a cluttered navigation and style. Is their website powered by Cold Fusion, really? Come on Bent Media, get with the program. If you need a diehard fan to send along a few blog posts here and there, drop me a line.

Last night we were sitting with some other self-employed folks and the subject of business came up. We were sharing that this month so far has been extremely busy and we’re putting in 12+ hour days. I’m loving how busy things are but at the same time am feeling a number of other things are being neglected.  We pointed out that when the iron was hot in a sales-oriented business you need to act and then someone said:

“God first, family second, business third.”

Been thinking about the whole God first thing ever since. Why must God be first – for anybody? Is God going to pay your bills so your family can keep the roof over their heads? Does God put food on the table? I suppose if you pray for your garden and believe that God will provide a bigger crop than someone who doesn’t pray, then maybe God could help. I don’t recall some God bank account that we could withdraw funds from to pay for everything.

In the practical, real world sense, forget how religious or not you are, how can any reasonable person truly put God first? The way I see it, unless I’m missing something huge here, putting God first puts nearly everything that follows at risk.

I could see putting your family first, and work second. If you pull together as a family and work together you can take care of the real world bills. Putting work first all the time is not that wise unless you have no family. Some jobs don’t allow you to have much other life. For me the order of life works as follows:

1. *Family
2. *work
3. friends
4. other

This month in particular, #2 is #1. At times the first two are interchangeable. Since we are rebooting our business in 2009 and our children are all teenagers we are spending more time working at the moment. Once/if/when we get things stable again financially, we can go back to the preferred order above.

You might note that God isn’t named on my list.

This blog is down in the “other” column, BTW. If a friend or work or family member needs me for something, my blogging duties will have to wait. Where would God fit? The other column.

Don’t get me wrong, in the spiritual sense, I understand completely why God must be first. He could be your guiding force, energy, and provide that needed lift when everything seems to be falling apart. Those who need or desire something or Someone to believe in to live more full lives, hey, God being #1 on that list is logical.  But even on my spiritual list, God wouldn’t always be first. He’d be in the top three.

Let’s say you get a call to go write a piece of business tonight that is a one time only deal or you can eat dinner with your family or head to the church to pray, which would you choose? Sorry God, I’m going with #1. Now if one of our kids was having a once in a lifetime event versus a once in a lifetime business deal I’m taking our child’s event every time and hoping that the business deal would understand that I have to put family first in scheduling conflicts like these. I’m not sure I could sleep at night putting business ahead of family every day. Some times in some situations, yes, but every time?

And God? Not even in the top three for me. A friend in need would come first. Just saying that in the real world putting God first doesn’t make sense to me. Does it to you? What am I missing here? I guess maybe if your church is a part of or is your business say as a pastor or preacher, but for those who don’t work in the church?

Cultism is creepy

Religion and cultism are two separate things, but sometimes their paths cross. Like what we’re seeing on the web right now with Steve Jobs medical condition and his job at Apple. Cultism creeps me out.

There are way too many people who have a cult-like following of Steve Jobs. I feel sorry for Mr. Jobs that there is this much cultism surrounding him. Lots of stories about him taking a medical leave of absence from Apple and the price of the stock and people wanting to know a bunch of things about his personal health and life. What Steve Jobs wants to share with us about his health and his personal life is up to him. If he needs to take a medical leave of absence, then people should accept that and move on.

All this weird speculation, conspiracy theories and demands that he tell the world his health for the sake of shareholders is nonsense. I’m an Apple (AAPL) shareholder and I didn’t invest in AAPL because of Steve Jobs. I invested because I liked what the company was doing and saw promise in the future. The stock is down from it’s high of around $200, but hey, I still think there are positive signs for the company and these are hard economic times for many, many companies. I’m not selling my AAPL stock because Steve Jobs isn’t piloting the ship any more for health reasons.

And yet I can’t help wondering if Steve Jobs is putting God first? I know nothing about the man’s spiritual guide but I’m guessing from a real world practical sense, he’s looking at his family and health first, his job second and God is down the line.

It’s not about atheism or being anti-religion

I’d like for the discussion that follows, if any, not descend into a religion vs. anti-religion discussion. I’m not trying to stoke or promote some anti-religion agenda by wondering aloud why God must be first. I respect people’s religious beliefs I’m simply asking about the practical, real world side of life. How can one put God ahead of family, work and friends? I wanted to ask this question last night but this came up as we were leaving and time wasn’t there to get into it plus I didn’t know the people well enough to make the discussion about practicality and not faith. They are two separate things to me, but that’s not the case for everyone.

Is it healthy to be afraid? A little bit, yes. In fact, when I start writing fiction novels again, I’ll be embracing my favorite genre: horror. I think conquering fear is an important life and business skill and one doesn’t live as healthy a life if fear isn’t recognized and confronted. Let’s tackle the business elements of fear today.

Before sharing the following video (embedded RSS readers, you might need to clickthru) of daredevil Robbie Maddison’s New Year’s Eve jump up and down a building, Allan asks: “how do you confront your fears?”

Among the many items in my RSS reader today, Allan’s question got me thinking more than the rest, thank you Allan. His question is especially relevant considering we are rebooting our nearly 15 year established small business in 2009 and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t somewhat fearful of failure starting (almost) over.

I’d like to take a daredevil’s approach to conquering our fears by doing the following:

1. cut excess spending, if any, from our budget. There isn’t much to cut, but we need to preserve capital for spending on marketing our business, not on some gadget or toy. Yeah, sorry, Best Buy, you’re getting the backseat in 2009.
2. plan to succeed but recognize failure as an option. Despite pulling off both stunts successfully, Robbie gashed his hand pretty deep. It wasn’t exactly as he had designed the stunts, I’m certain. The ideal result would have been no injury at all, but I doubt this will prevent Robbie from taking more chances.
3. success won’t happen without action. If Robbie hadn’t climbed aboard his bike he never would have had any chance at success. Sitting back and waiting for more business to come to us than we wrote in 2009 isn’t going to make that happen. We have to go out and get it. Be proactive. We need to stick to our plan when we have one, tweak if necessary, and take action on that plan as designed.
4. take reasonable risks. One might argue that Robbie didn’t take reasonable risk in his two jumps, but I know he and his team meticulously planned those jumps, evaluating the angles and the proper speed and many more details which only took seconds for the actual stunts to see pulled off. We’re going to have to take some risky moves in 2009. We already have by going down this independent path. Can we reboot our business within 18-24 months? I think so, but we’re not going to do it without taking risks along the way. My wife is less risk tolerant than I, which means I’m going to have to sell her first on why we should take risks along the way. If they aren’t reasonable risks she won’t buy off on them and that means we’re less likely to succeed.
5. if knocked down, get back up again. I’ll admit not having the stones to do any daredevil stunts, but I am more than happy to fail at cold calling prospects in our business and having them shut me down again. And again. And again. It happens. I also realize that not every one of our marketing plans will be a success. Some will fail. Miserably. Health willing, I can get up again to try another day.
6. reinforce strong business ties, don’t belabor losing weaker ones. We’re going to lose clients here and there, it happens. I don’t like losing any clients but realize that there are some cases where we do everything right and still lose. Instead of focusing too much on negative energy (why oh why did we lose client ABC?), instead we’re going to focus more energy on strengthening strong business relationships. This doesn’t mean not trying to learn from mistakes made and grow from them, just don’t spend too much dwelling on the negative.

Can you think of additional tips for confronting fears from either brand new small businesses or those starting over? Please share and let’s discuss.