Dear fellow native NYer!

#1. Congrats. You are in the one of the businesses that has an extremely high failure rate... and you've survived 5 years.

However, seems to me that you are ready to take your self-employment to that of a business. (For more on the self-employed versus the business owner, read the book my clients all read -- "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter.) I wrote an article on the concepts he speaks about and you can find that at http://www.coachmaria.com/articles/leaveselfemployement.html


Five years ago, you had a dream and passion. You got off track and now want to get back on it. That part I've deal with myself.

But before you start making any changes with employees, I'd recommend that you first get yourself on track by creating a One Page Business and Marketing Plan. The book, One Page Business Plan is by Jim Horan and it's available on Amazon.com It's a work book. I've been one of their consulants for 4 years now and while my clients don't do their plans from the book (I send them courseware and they create a draft in less than 2 hours). Doing it from the book is a first step to get you back your vision and passion.

I'd also recommend listening to a class on the book, which you can get for free if you subscribe to my newsletter. The audio is either 60 or 90 minutes long. I teach classes both ways. The link is in the Welcome Note. Or write to me as I'm teaching a free class for The National Networking in November. You can listen in then.

The first person you need to be in control of is yourself... and your business. Once you are sure of what you really want to do, you'll start becoming more consistent. The business plan book has you recreate your business vision, mission, objectives, strategies and action plans. I've had clients in your space, and they got their passion back, just by doing the process.

I also recommend checking out the local community college, SCORE and SBA office to see if they have classes on dealing with problem employees. Cause that's what you have. They'll teach you how to start documenting problems with them, etc. You may have to fire folks -- even your family members. But I wouldn't even look at that until you decide how you want to run your business, etc.

Another book to read is the Emyth Revisted by Micheal Gerber. There is a good chance that your business will do better when you create processes and rules on how things will be done. Why? again, you'll be consistent, the clients will see that, etc. When you read the Emyth, you'll see why that is so important! And if you are unable to read it, purchase the audios or CDs but don't purchase the summarized version. Get the version where the whole book is on tape.

Go for it! And again, congrats on 5 years.