MakingMike.com

Yep...that's me...dreaming as usual...

Hey everybody…I’m moving up in the world of blogging and have just landed my first major writing gig at MorethanMary.com! Check it out!

Not only will you find very useful information about business (compliments of me!) but there’s a great deal of advice to be had in many different categories. Fashion, fitness, beauty, food, nutrition, travel and wine are just a few!

Follow each one of Mary’s “guides” as we talk about our experiences and interact with our amazing readers.

I may have gone to USC business school, but my real schooling came from what you see above. This was the first major business I began. This is where a boy became a man, where the young Michael Mulhall was replaced with the harder, wiser and stronger Mike Mulhall. I may not have fought in any wars, but I waged a great many battles in the business you see above.

I exited the business about 5 years ago, but the mark it left on me will last forever. I experienced more owning and operating this business than most would experience in two life times. The business itself was based on a faulty plan which I relied on my ex-partner in the venture to develop. Unfortunately, I was very young and very naive. I wish I knew then what I know now.

While I had many positive experiences, it’s the negative ones that I learned the most from. I lost some money, but more importantly, I lost family and a piece of myself. It’s those losses that put tears in my eyes. Fear, confusion and guilt are an entrepreneur’s worst enemies, and they must be conquered and controlled to attain success. Here is what I learned from these experiences:

• Hope and excitement can seriously cloud your decision making ability. Learn to recognize that.
• NEVER have family involved in your business. But always heed their advice, especially your father. He knows a thing or two about life. Trust me.
• Perception is reality. But as an entrepreneur, it’s unhealthy to hold everything inside.
• Always trust your gut…no matter what.
• Always let life and love come before business. We’re not here that long, so enjoy it.
• Don’t waste time hoping for the best. Just plan for the worst. And if the best occurs…celebrate.
• Bad things happen, whether it’s your fault or not. Don’t dwell on it. Just keep moving forward and I promise things will get better.
• If you don’t have a real, no bullshit business plan, you don’t have a business. You have simply placed a bet.
• Lastly, it’s ok to fail. Anyone who has succeeded or done anything great has also tasted the bitter flavor of failure. That is normal and should be expected.

Here is my old business as I walked by it today. This is what inspired me to write this post. After I stepped away from the business some years ago, it declined rapidly and closed soon thereafter. Now they’re ripping it down to build a WalGreens. Standing in the parking lot, watching the bulldozer rip apart everything I built, I felt numb. I felt strong. But I also felt sad. A piece of me was being buried in that rubble.

As the dozer’s arm turned, I saw the main wall and caught a glance of the last remnants of the business I built. I had scrolled our motto, “A New Beginning,” across the walls in large letters to remind my members that we can always start over. As I saw that phrase for the last time, I smiled as I whispered it to myself. I had forgotten the importance those three words hold.

A healthy mind requires a healthy body. That goes for everyone, whether they’re an entrepreneur or not. These days, most don’t have the time or energy to actually make it to the gym. They use that as an excuse for not working out.

But who says you need to workout in a gym?? You can turn your office, bedroom, living room or just about any other room into a temporary workout area.

Here’s what you need:

• Set of combo dumbbells
• Jump rope
• Door jam pull-up bar
• Some good workout music
• Will power

My workout routine consists of 15 minutes of jump rope to get my heart pumping, followed by 3 to 4 circuit training cycles consisting of:

• Leg lifts
• Push-ups
• Regular sit ups (use your couch to anchor your feet)
• Pull ups
• Stationary lunges while holding dumbbells at side
• Standing shoulder press with dumbbells
• Bicep curls

Try not to rest in between exercises, but allow yourself 2-3 minutes of rest between circuits. As you progress you may add repetitions or weight to each exercise, but always remember quality or quantity. Ten repetitions in perfect form will be much harder and more beneficial than twenty repetitions in bad form.

Do this 3 – 4 times a week and I promise you will be feeling better and thinking clearer in less than a month.

Well if I had seen this before I opened a bakery / cafe, I may have thought twice! I came across this while surfing google images looking for funny bakery artwork.

I had a meeting with a friend of mine today who happens to be a business consultant, and who also happens to be doing some work for me. He brought up a term that I had to laugh at called “Pop Ups.” And while we weren’t discussing the internet, these pop ups are just as annoying.

He was referring to the sometimes relentless pace at which problems can arise while operating a business. Now I’m not talking about big problems. I’m talking about the little tedious tasks that can sometimes swallow up your time like a fat mid-westerner at a hot dog eating contest.

A quick summary of my day today: We’re out of receipt paper, we need it quick…a customer just called in and wants a different cake, they’ll be here in 3o minutes…repair guys are here to fix the walk-in freezer, wouldn’t it be funny if the health inspector came today…the health inspector just got here…we ran out of lettuce, can you get some…oh, we’re out of sugar too, can you go back…the phone lines are down…there goes the internet…what!? Our credit card machine is hooked up to the internet…one of your vendors is here to yell at you…make that two vendors…can you go to Home Depot real quick…oh, you already went, can you go back? I forgot about payroll, oh well…gotta do the books, pay the bills, count the drawers, open the mail, get change and somewhere in there consume about 4oo calories for the day.

Yes, this was my day today, and this was only half of it. The point of the story is this, get an assistant! Ha ha…I’m just kidding. The truth is, all business owners will have to deal with this in one way or another. The restaurant business just happens to be one of the best at creating these problems. But there’s always problems in every business, whether it be brick and mortar or virtual. This is where delegation comes into play. If one were to focus entirely on these tedious little tasks, you would never get anything done.

Sometimes I feel so discouraged from having to deal with these problems over and over, but that’s where the strength of being an entrepreneur and a self starter comes into play. Learn from everything! And never stop fighting…running your own business is not an easy task, and it’s much harder to give effective orders than to take them.

I wanted to share one of my favorite movies with you. It’s definitely in my top 5! This is the true story about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and their respective businesses. If you don’t already know the story, this movie will change the way you view a lot of things!

These guys are geniuses. There’s no arguing that. But I sure as hell would never turn my back on one of them if they had a knife in their hands.

Business can be cutthroat, especially if one plans to make it all the way to the top. This story does an amazing job of displaying that.

I’m sure you can find it on Netflix or in Blockbuster. Definitely worth the buy if you can find it on Amazon.

It’s like they always said in business school when giving presentations, visuals are key. Today’s ritalin popping culture is growing more and more dependent on visuals and short excerpts rather than essays and articles. And the more businesses try to reach their customers over the internet, the more engaging content they must create.

The saying a picture is worth a thousand words could not be truer in today’s market. And if a picture is worth a thousand, then a video (well put together) is worth a hundred thousand.  For bloggers, this means posting more photos in their articles and more videos of themselves. For companies, it may mean more videos of end-users interacting with their products or perhaps photos or videos of company events.

The costs of electronics has taken a nose dive the past few years. Good digital camerasand HD flipcamsare very affordable at around $150. Sites such as Youtube and Vimeo are free services that allow users to upload and broadcast their videos. Flickr is another free site that allows users to upload large amounts of photos for online use and sharing. Clearly, the costs of production and broadcasting are no longer to expensive for small businesses or individuals.

Examples: Check out MoreThanMary.com to see great examples of how a successful blogger does it. Mary has mastered the art of using visuals online and I myself have learned tons from her. Another great site to check out is ShopWatchBuy.com. I just recently discovered this and love its creativity. This site has taken the visual concept to the next level by allowing users to sell their products using their own videos.

So bloggers…stop being camera shy (I totally am, but that’s going to change). As for businesses, start getting creative with advertising via multimedia, and start engaging with your customers.

This is a whole new type of branding, where creativity is more important than the budget. No more giant billboards. No more million dollar Super Bowl commercials. They’re being replaced with amateur videos that cost squat and can reach the hearts of millions.

I realize this is actually an ad, but I love this video. It does a great job of summing up the reasons I started this blog…we can all be entrepreneurs.