On one of my assignments I worked with a guy named Dave, and he was magic. Dave had long red hair that was kind of wavy, and a beard and mustache that was also red. He looked kind of like a wizard and he most always wore a hat. Not a wizards hat, but a baseball cap. I actually got a chance to learn some magic from Dave too.

Now if you never took the time to get to know Dave, you would have never expected him to be magic. In fact, most people may never meet him as he spends most of his time on another plane or even in a different dimension them most of humanity. Luckily for me, this otherworldliness didn’t scare me off. In fact, I had been to this realm before — I had worked the graveyard shift.

That’s right, Dave worked the graveyard shift. What did he do on during the middle of the night? Well, he cleaned your floors. Maybe not yours personally, but he cleaned the floors of a number of businesses around town. He had a schedule he rotated through. Typically showing up after everyone had gone home for the day. He had a key, and his own equipment. We would come in, sweep the floors, empty the trash, and then he would work his magic as he polished the floors.

Dave took a lot of pride in his work, and he did his best to teach me how to do a good job too. Unfortunately I never got a chance to run the big equipment, which was when Dave performed his serious magic. When he was done polishing those floors, he would always look at them and smile. He knew he had gotten those floors as clean and shiny as they could. I remember a few times he imparted bits of magical wisdom to me.

He would say things like “They aren’t scheduled to have a deep waxing this week, but I really think this floor needs it now, and since I have the time, I am going to do it anyway.”

Or other times, after he got a floor polished to an amazing shine, and he was showing me how brilliant it was he would say “Most likely no one will notice tomorrow, and after the first few customers come in with dirty shoes you won’t be able to tell, but doesn’t that just look amazing right now?”

So why take so much pride in cleaning floors? Why put that extra effort into polishing them just right, putting down that extra coat of wax, or running the buffer over the floors one more time? Especially when no one will notice, and people will just scuff them up in a matter of minutes as soon as they get the chance? Well, that was because Dave is magic, and he wanted to use his magic to do the absolutely best he could.

He probably could have gotten away with doing less then his best, and no one would have known, well, no one but Dave. I think that is what it really comes down to. Many us may consider cleaning floors to be brainless work that we never really give any thought too, unless we notice that our floors need cleaning. But when I was working with Dave, I realized that it makes no difference what you are doing, it is how you do it. You can bring passion, commitment and depth of skill to anything you do, and you can even bring your magic.

So what is this magic? I still don’t know that I completely understand it honestly. Dawn and I just finished watching Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium.  Our whole family really enjoyed it.  In the end Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman) had to finally believe that she has magic in herself to save the store.  I think that is really it.  We all have magic in us, if we are willing to believe and use that magic.

So we all really have two choices:

1. Are we going to believe in and use our magic?
2. When we do, what will we use it for?

While not everyone can be fabulous at everything, I do believe we have a number of opportunities to express our magic.  We can choose from one or more of those opportunities and create magic and wonder, or keep our magic bottled up and never brighten the world.

I am glad there are people like Dave who enjoy cleaning floors, that isn’t something I enjoy, but I don’t discount someone who does.  A lot of people probably wouldn’t enjoy what I do.  I know people who think they might enjoy what someone else does, because it looks easy or glamorous – grass is always greener and all – but often times when they get a chance they find the ease boring and the glamor over powering.  Other times it is the person who is doing it who makes it look easy, or they bring the glamor to what they do.

Sometimes believing in ourselves, and then tapping into that magic can be scary.  That would seem counter intuitive that we be scared to accomplish our potential, but that has been my experience, that I worry I am not ready, or what might happen when I do.  This is why it is often easier for those around us to see our potential and encourage us, and while that helps, I don’t think that is ever enough.  To truly tap into our magic and our potential we must discover it ourselves.

I sincerely hope Dave is still out there working his magic.   I actually saw him years later.  I was out late one night, and riding my bike through a shopping center parking lot that was closed, and I saw him busy cleaning the  floor, making sure it looked marvelous.  When I think about him, I take a moment to look at the floors where I am and wonder if maybe he cleaned them, or maybe it was someone else just as magic as him, who took the time to make sure that floor looked great.

Believe in yourself, take pride in what you do, and what ever it is your are doing, do it well.  Focus on what you are doing and leave everything else to someone else.

What’s the big deal if you are a law abiding citizen? Well, what if you work for a company that has private records, internal or customer records, that you are required by law to keep private? That would be a breach if you grant them access. Maybe they might discover something you picked up on accident and decide you are smuggling inappropriate material?

This reminds me of a paraphrase of a quote attributed to Ben Franklin “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

A practical solution to keeping data safe, without being too suspicious would be If you were to have a VMWare image that were encrypted. So you could boot up to your unsecured desktop and it would appear normal. Then you could decrypt the VMWare drive image and boot into it, where all your secure data could be kept. If needed you have backups of that secure data and you could wipe out the VMWare image. Read the article though, there are some other good resources and points as well.

Honestly, I think if you were seriously in need of transporting sensitive information over an international border then I believe your best bet would be to mail encrypted DVD’s to your destination (multiple copies via different carriers, just to be sure) and take a brand new never been powered on laptop with you. Combine that with their advice to download other data electronically once you are there would work great. That would also circumvent any installed Spyware/fedware they might install since you can just format and reinstall from the encrypted DVDs when you get there.

It you wanted to you could use steganography to encode your encrypted data into DVD family videos. It would take more disks, but you could do that too. The advantage of DVD’s is you know they are read only, additionally you could check a hash to make sure they are your originals.

The thing that really annoys me, is it is obvious that someone who really wants to get something over the boarder can easily circumvent their system making it is for the most part useless. So why subject the rest of us to the invasion of privacy and inconvenience for a system that doesn’t work? This takes us back to Mr. Franklin’s quote.

First of all, do not ask “Would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?”  That is probably the worse thing you could ask, because it puts people on the defensive and forces them to make a decision right away.  Besides, they probably saw you there and figured you were selling cookies.  This is what they expect you to ask, and if they say no, they ended the offer.

Probably the best thing to ask is “What is your favorite kind of Girl Scout Cookie?”  Most people will have a favorite kind of cookie, and thinking about it will remind them how much they like your cookies.  This is also what is called an “open ended question,” which most answers leave them open to buying cookies.

Second of all, know your cookies.  It seems like you have some that are fat free or low calorie.  If they say they don’t eat cookies, then ask them if they knew about your fat free or low calorie cookies?

Once you know what their favorite flavors are, and they know that they can eat these delicious cookies on their diets, then a great way to close the sale is ask them “How many boxes do you want?”  Hold up their favorite flavor, or the one that is compatible with their diet.  Let them know you have more in the van, so not to worry about buying too many.

Next ask them if there is any other flavor they would like, or ask them if there is someone else they would like to buy some cookies for.  This is a great way to increase on the sale you have already made.

If they say they already bought some cookies, or when they have selected a few boxes, ask them “Did you know that Girl Scout Cookies freeze really well?” then you might ask them if they have any freezer space available.

The key is to ask open ended questions (ones with more then a Yes/No answer) when possible, and handle any objections with an acknowledging question.  Make a list of any objections you get from them, and then before the next day come up with a good way to handle them.  For example, if they say they already bought some, you tell them thanks, and ask them if they have freezer space.

Come up with questions and answers that work for you and that you are excited about, then practice.  Good luck!

So we wanted to get our family a Nintendo Wii for Christmas. They run about $225 – $300, which is reasonable, but then you start adding games and things get carried away pretty quickly.

So back in November we decided to start shopping. We tried WalMart and the other big box department stores, and they would promise to have some in first thing in the morning in two days, but then when I would show up, they would only have more empty promises that they would be in tomorrow or the day after. That got old quick.

Next we thought we would look online. The only place we could find a Wii by itself was eBay, but the price reflected the higher demand then supply. Since we still had some time we decided to file eBay away as a possibility and keep looking locally.

Then we called GameStop (a little video game boutique store), which had 80 Wii’s in stock. They were a $249, which is about $20 more then WalMart claimed to sell them for, but they were in stock. Bird in the hand is better then two in the bush and all that, so we decided to go for it.

Before we took the plunge, Dawn and I talked about it and decided we might take advantage of the price gap between GameStop ($249+ tax) and eBay (around $300+ shipping). GameStop said they were limiting Wii’s to two per person, so we decided to pick up a second one and sell it on eBay.

The next day I stopped by the GameStop across the street from the Alderwood mall next to my office. They had no Wii’s, so they called over to the GameStop in the mall across the street, which reported to have some in stock, so I headed over there.

When I got to the game stop in the mall, they said they only had 3 Wii’s in stock, so they were limiting it to one Wii per person, but the other GameStop in the mall should have more (it is a big mall). So I took one there, and went down the way to the other GameStop. They had a few, so they sold me 2 more (which I made the mistake of putting on the same receipt – oops.)

Now to list the Wii’s on eBay. We wanted the auction to end on a Saturday evening, so on Tuesday I started a 5 day auction. I looked at a few other successful Wii listings and borrowed bits and pieces and added some of my own verbiage. Listed the Wii, and then let Dawn review the listing. She said it was good, so I listed the second one. We decided to hold on to one just in case the well runs dry.

Needless to say, hiding 3 Wii’s in our apartment isn’t easy, Sherlock Jonathan discovered them. We strongly believe in not lying to our kids, but at the same time we didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag, so we told him we thought we would sell some Wii’s on eBay to make some extra money. His immediate response was that we should take the money from those Wii’s selling and roll that into buying more Wii’s to sell until we have enough profits to buy a Wii we could keep. I told him that was a great idea and we would see how it turned out.

Saturday night rolled around and we were out to dinner for TJ’s birthday. I decided to check my email on my phone and see if they sold. The first sold for $350 and the second sold for $400. I was quite pleasantly surprised. So we decided to pick up a few more Wii’s and repeat the process.

Listing subsequent Wii’s was really easy. You just select one you already listed and tell it to list again. I would tweak it from time to time to try different shipping prices and descriptive details. None of it seemed to make too big of a difference.

I continued to buy and list Wii’s and Dawn handled counting the money (via PayPal) and shipping them (through PayPal and UPS). Once we had the weight and dimensions of the box shipping was a snap. All in all, we made an average of $80 a Wii after eBay fees (listing is cheap, but they take a percentage on the sale), PayPal fees (another percentage) and Shipping (we listed them flat rate, but UPS charged on distance, so it averaged to about a wash).

Once Thanksgiving rolled around it got really hard to find them, and the price on eBay crept up a little bit. In the end we got a number of games and accessories to go with the Wii, as well as other gifts. The great thing is the Wii ended up paying for the rest of Christmas.

Making the extra money was great, but all the thank you notes from our buyers on eBay was very cool. Most of them said we made their Christmas. We had buyers as far away as Florida (a couple there) and as close as our same apartment complex (but they had their shipped 20 miles from here).

What did we learn?

• Calculate all your fees in advance so you know what your real cost is.
• Get each Wii on its own receipt so you can include the receipt with the Wii.
• Because Wii’s were in such high demand, they were a commodity.  The listing duration (24 hours to 7 days) didn’t make much difference.  We always ended in the evening, but  different days of the week didn’t seem to make much difference.
• Follow-up on feedback and you might still get it.
• If you are willing to risk (starting your auction at $1), you can make a great payoff (all of our auctions ended in a profit).
• Risk is mitigated in volume.
• Once you find a winning strategy, repeat.
• The best purchases are the ones that pay for themselves.

It was a great experience overall.  I hope Jonathan learned from it as well.

If you get a lot of really significant change requests that conflict with your vision, then it may be time for evaluation of how attached you are to it.  You are the author, not the committee, but if you won’t have any readers it won’t do you much good.

If you are going to get a traditional publisher, then work on getting an agent and publisher first.  The publisher will provide editors and proofreaders for you.  They will also provide cover design help as well.

Here are 4 levels of choices when self publishing a book.

1. LuLu - offers a wealth of options and support for authors, all available ala cart – you only use what you want.  They create an online store and ship the book for you too.  The result is you can publish your book at $0 cost and they only pay you the profit per book (you set the price.)
2. Ingram Lightening Press – They are actually one of the printers for LuLu.  Their offering is geared towards publishers (like LuLu).  It is still print on demand, so you can still print only what you sell (thus $0 risk), but you end up doing a lot of the other services that LuLu did.
3. Your local copy shop – like Kinkos – They will print and bind exactly the number you want, and for a price competitive with Lightening Press, but they are local.  Usually you will end up printing a few ahead and have a small inventory.  A little more risk, but still very minimal.  This is a great source for books that you will be selling in person.
4. Your local offset printer – here is where you will print in large quantity and get the best price per book.  Your risk is higher, but your profits could be better if you have enough demand to justify the size of the print runs.

Warning: There are a lot of “self-publishing” companies that bundle a bunch of books in your order along with author services.  This results in a hefty initial investment.  Usually their goal is to sell to you, not your customers.  Based on my evaluations, they are no better priced then the ala-cart packaging offered by LuLu where you only pay for what you want.  Figure out what services you want and do the math.
A good strategy would be to start with LuLu.  Then move up the risk scale and reduce your price only as you have the demand to justify it.  Reinvest your profits and you minimize your risk.  Once you have enough profits and demand from LuLu to justify buying a few hundred books at your local copy shop, then you can start to offer the books in person (speaking engagements is a great way!)

I hear some people considering print on demand debating if they want to sell through Amazon and other retailers, or just stick with LuLu.  The advantage of LuLu is they take a smaller percentage.  Amazon expects a 55% discount off cover price, and then they split the difference and sell the book under cover price where they still make a profit.

Here is a little trick for that: Start out only selling your book through LuLu.  You offer it on your website and through your mailing lists.  You will see sales ramp up slowly.  At some point you will see them start to plateau or taper off. You decide when the right time is to offer a second edition of your book (which LuLu allows) that is basically the same book, but you added an ISBN, and you now charge 25-40% more for.  This edition you setup for distribution through Amazon and other retailers.  They take their discount off cover price, and then mark it up.

The result is the Amazon/retailer price is a little more then what you are offering it through LuLu and your web site (you do the actual math to make sure you have a good figure).  You always offer the best deal through LuLu and your site to your “people,” where you have the largest profit.  Then you get the results from the larger net that Amazon and other online retailers offer, but at a smaller profit per book.

If there is interest I could put up some actual figures and charts for you.

One thing about selling books online, is if possible, you want to come out of the gates with a lot of sales in your first month.  This gives you a ranking on the sales ranking for the day, which can create positive momentum since people are more likely to see you there.  A great way to get a lot of sales on the first day is with pre-orders.  You take the order information in advance, and then sit on it.  When the book goes live on Amazon or where-ever, then you and a bunch of friends (or contract employees) enter all the pre-orders.  This generates the sales to shoot your book to the top of the list where other people will see it and start buying it.  This hopefully keeps it on the top of the list.

As pet project or hobbies we do stuff ourselves, and we talk with our friends about it.  The whole time doing everything we can to spend as little money as possible on it – because it is a hobby.

At some point the pet project needs to be evaluated to see if it has business potential.  This evaluation is as much a gut check (what do you want) as creating a business plan and evaluating it for income potential.  Your frustration will be reduced if you accurately evaluate it though.

Four outcomes are possible:

1. It stays a pet project and you continue to invest little money in it.  Pros: Doesn’t cost much and stays “fun”.  Cons: Doesn’t generate much income.
2. It becomes a semi-self funding hobby – still a hobby, but it generates almost enough to cover the costs.  This may even look like a business at this point, but the objective is a self funding hobby.  The principle remains the main player, usually with their friends.  Pros: Still doesn’t cost much, may even cost less, gets more exposure.  Cons: You may have just created yourself a new job.  Little income potential.  Element of risk.
3. It becomes an underfunded business.  The objective is for the business to generate revenue for the business owner and employees / shareholders.  But it is funded like a hobby, and requires way too much time from the principle (the principle becomes the biggest cog and the biggest clog.)  Pros: Could grow to a level 4.  Cons: Takes a lot of time, but produces little output.
4. It is treated like a huge business and becomes a huge business.  This represents an investment in sound legal and financial council.  Everyone’s roles are clearly and legally defined.  A corporation is often setup.  The principle has the potential to retire and earn residual income.  Pros: Greatest income potential and greatest impact.  Cons: Requires capital (maybe investors), time, and some risk.

The cost, potential and risk goes up with each level.  A level 1 costs very little, but generates very little income.  A level 4 costs more, and generates a lot more income.  Not to say a level 1 cannot generate more then a level 4, but it will usually mature to that level before the income gets that high.

Are you involved in a pet project that may have income potential?  What I would recommend is you set down with your principle players (maybe just you).  Decide what your objective is.  Put it in writing.  Define everyones’ roles.  Put it in writing.  If you want to go the business route then make a business plan and find a business coach/mentor (someone who has done it before).  Secure some investment capital (which may come from the principles or outside investors) and then get some good sound legal and financial advice.

Or you might be happy with a lower business maturity level.  It is important you know what exactly you want, because before you define what you want you cannot get it.  As long as you are honest with yourself, there is nothing that says you can’t start at a low maturity level, and advance it over time.  It is important that you take the income you generate and reinvest it in growing the business.

Most people who have move to level 4 maturity level and experienced success will usually jump straight there next time.