Designer 17

This blog contains the random, the awesome and the weird from the life of Ian Wilson. I'm an active and adventurous person at heart and a major lover of volleyball and coffee ... which I plan to show through what I post! So follow for the amazing stuff to come. ;)

[designer17]

|| PET WATCHING || Have the privilege of watching some friend's pets to help them out • This dog is a small one which I usually don't care for ... but, this one is a sweet one! Yes I love animals - not all but quite a few ... AND ... Yes dogs are the best! #dogs #housesitting

[designer17]

Five Mistakes I Made When Starting My Business

Entrepreneurs - we will all make mistakes, I mean it's almost like it's part of the title. As Stoick would say "It's an occupational hazard." The hard part of our occupation is learning from those mistakes and understanding what we did wrong so that we can avoid it next time and teach others about them as well. With that said, I'd like to share with you the top five mistakes I made when launching my first entrepreneurial business endeavor.

Had no passion for what I would be doing

Had no idea / vision of where I was going

Jumped the gun and launched a website - before it was needed

There was no marketing in advanced

There were social media inconsistencies from the start

When you start are first endeavor, for the most part, it's going to be rough. There is a lot that will be going on and even more that you'll be trying to learn. But, hopefully what I say in this post will help you through your own unique journey and enable you to avoid some of them ... or at least see them in your own business.

1. I had no passion for what I would be doing:

When I started selling stuff on eBay I was just stepping away from a high-beginner level hobby of web-design / web - development and was actually trying to find something that would help me start getting away from the desk and screen and outside more. However, there were people who wanted me to give it a go ... so, I complied and have been doing it for almost a year now. During that time I have begun to see more and more how much I don't love what I do; sure there are parts that I enjoy but I really want to travel, explore and be outside more!

Here's a quote I came across while reading the book entitled "The One Minute Entrepreneur" by Ken Blanchard, Don Hutson & Ethan Willis "If you don't do what you love, you'll never work hard enough to be the best." This statement is very true and something that kinda got me thinking, "Am I really passionate about what I do? Do I have the drive to continue or is this something that's just weighing me down? Could that be some of the reason why I find it hard to stay focused and get stuff done most of the time?" Don't get me wrong. I know that some of that is a lack of self-motivation and that I need to be prioritizing my tasks better, thereby helping me be more dedicated in what I do. But still, your passion will play a major role in whether you have the ability to fulfill your potential or not. 

If you have a love for what you do you will find it hard to do anything but that ... and that's not because it is expected / required of you.

2. I had no idea / vision of where I was going:

The title is pretty self explanatory - I failed to plan adequately and because of that I just sort of drifted along with no real direction. 

Now you may think that creating a vision isn't really worth your time or effort, that there are "more important things for me to be doing." But, in reality every business has a vision or written idea of where they're going. A vision is the overall idea of what the business will do and why it will do it, but, you're also going to need a mission statement which will basically lay out how you will accomplish your end goals and what you'll do next once those are achieved.

Let me warn you, if you attempt running a business without a plan or vision it is like driving a car with no directions; you will soon find yourself lost, frustrated, depressed and have almost no motivation to continue - personal experience speaking here.

3. I jumped the gun and launched a website - before it was needed:

When I launched my business site I really had no idea why I was doing it ... nor what I would do with it afterwards: how to improve SEO, driving traffic, making the first sale, etc. After a few months of it just sitting on my hosting server with little to no traffic I decided that I had jumped the gun and launched a site that I was in no need for at the time. This goes back to point #2 in the fact that I had not yet laid out any sort of plan before starting.

It is a very rare occurrence for your first attempt at starting a business to be an automatic success; many times it takes hard work (daily grinding), failures, your time and maybe even dropping one or more of your ideas until you find something that really works for you and aligns with the vision you have for your life. When you're trying to launch a business the best ideas are the ones that give an answer to a long asked question, solve a problem, or are so epically unique that people fall in love with them. All of these have one over arching theme in common; they all add some kind of value to people's lives. But, even if you have one of these ideas, if you don't get your name out there than you have shot your idea in the head!

4. There was no marketing in advanced:

When it came to marketing my skills were nothing compared to what I know now ... and there is still plenty which I need to learn. So needless to say I failed miserably on this one.

Marketing is all about getting your product or service into the hands of your audience. Well, if you haven't taken the time to announce who you are, what you're about, or why you came into being then the only hands your product / merchandise will end up in is that of mice and rats while it sits in your garage deteriorating. If you're not marketing in advance by building a strong audience that needs or wants what you're producing then you are not marketing! You should go read Nathan Barry's article on the Three Reasons Product Launches Fail.

5. There were social media inconsistencies from the start:

Imagine this ... a business has a slow, quite and maintainable launch. You find them while browsing your social media feed and enjoy what they've shared so far ... so ... you follow them. But after a few months of waiting for more content (which, mind you, never shows) you make an executive decision that the business must have closed out just as quietly as it had come into being. So you unfollow them.

Now, although I wasn't quite this bad when I started, I wasn't too far away from it. Being a one-man-show kind of business is tough ... especially when you have a life away from work to be involved in as well. Believe you me distractions will happen and there will be days that you don't feel like accomplishing anything except for going off and doing whatever it is that you do to relax. But, if you want success then you need to set up contingency plans for those points in time.

Consistency is the key to earning a community and following.

In Conclusion: To close this off I want to leave you with a simple list of what was covered.To the left are the failures - to the right are the qualities we should be working toward in each of our endeavors. Feel free to copy them to wherever you wish - a link back would be appreciated but is not required.

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No Passion vs. Absolutely Love for What You Do

No Idea / Vision vs. Structured Planning

Jumped the Gun vs. Do Everything With Purpose and Timing

No Marketing vs. Start Marketing in Advance

Social Media Inconsistencies vs. Consistent Theme / Posting Schedule

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We are all going to make mistakes, but are you willing to watch for them and look back on them for the purpose of learning? I hope you'll take what you read here about my personal mistakes and apply the lessons so that you can avoid a portion of them or at least be able to find and diagnose them for yourself.

[designer17]

|| SPRING BEAUTY || Saw these beautiful apple blossoms while mowing the other day • They may not be roses and I might not have smelled them ... but hey, at least I stopped and took a photo! 😜 #spring #blossoms

[designer17]

So today I started contacting some of @elslovesgod and my favorite authors and writers about being part of an article series we're working to put together for Fighting The Good Fight, a blog that we co-founded together! Here's to hoping that I get positive responses! #cofounder #blogging

[designer17]

|| JUST ME HERE || Had the opportunity and privilege to go out to breakfast with one of the Dads from my church here, this morning! It was very encouraging to get his insight into a few different topics and a great time overall ... Now I'm off to keep pressing forward! 🏃😎 #outside #clouds

[designer17]

It's Time for the Journey

We've all heard the age old saying at one time or another, "Life is a Journey." The journey each of us takes is uniquely our own and shows itself differently for each of us participating. We all have our own set of hills and mountains and even a few valleys too. 

I have definitely had my share of ups and downs and I know there will be many more ahead, but I'm excited to see how the Lord uses them to form and craft me into a man who is more like Him. 

One of the reasons I had when originally starting this blog was to use it as a way to work on and improve my ability to perform tasks and projects consistently and on some kind of schedule .... I kind of dropped the responsibility the first time around, funny how it usually works out like that. Since then I've gotten back on my feet with the help of a great friend and I am now back on that hill of consistency that is staring me in the face. Although I haven't made it to the top quite yet, I'm well on my way and pumped to see what's on the other side!

Although I don't know how often I'll be posting yet, I am going to be working on figuring that out so that I can get this blog going! ;)

[designer17]

The windy and overcast • When music, movies, audiobooks, radio drama and mobile games keep you going! #roadtrip #traveling #ohthewind #ageoftechnology #inatruck #overcast #thankyoudata #speededit

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"Business, business, business. Nun-bers! Is this working?" - Princess Unikitty • Starting a business from ground level can be both the coolest thing and the hardest thing at the same time; that's when the dedication has to kick in is success is to be obtained! #dedication #thelegomovie #doyoucommit #startup #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #workspace #apple #macintosh #numbers #bestandworst

[designer17]

As I grow and mature into an adult this is what life feels like sometimes! 😱😁😄 #adulthood #comfortzone #growingup #life #relatable

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Looking back at the past few weeks I am amazed by the the blessings and lessons from the Lord. There is an adventurous journey ahead of me and I'm excited to see where the Lord takes me these next few months! #adventure #thejourneyoflife #theroadahead #longroad #adulthood

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The strong smell of espresso fresh from the AeroPress • Well it helps that it was made from some great @starbucks Yukon coffee beans! #coffee #awesomenessinacup #sbux #Starbucks #espresso #smellthepower #AeroPress #takeitorleaveit #yukon

[designer17]

Hey just because we ship tech and their accessories out to many an awesomefolk it doesn't mean we don't shop for them ourselves! Not only do we like getting stuff shipped to us ... it's actually quite enjoyable to see each person/company's packing and shipping methods.

[designer17]

Entrepreneurial Mindset: Blessing or Curse?

A few days back I was thinking of ways to better grow BlackRaptor Deals and ... What do ya know!? Two new ideas decide to break loose and rush at me screaming "PICK ME! PICK ME!" Well. It was then that I began to ask myself, "Is having an entrepreneurial mindset built into you a blessing ... or is it a curse?" I mean, seriously. There are times it's great and there are others that it can be one of the most stressful things ever! :)

My enjoyment of working with blackraptordeals (the business that I run on ebay​) has really begun to grow as time goes on and it starts to make headway through the flood of entrepreneur businesses. Nonetheless, I keep having other really cool business ideas pop into my head ... but, I know that I need to focus on what I have now and (very slowly) incorporate anything else.

For me, running a small "in house" startup is AWESOME and I love it: the photography, social media and order fulfillment are great. This does not, however, mean that I will stop generating cool ideas for future reference (near or far) or to handoff to someone who could use them.

So to answer my own question. I believe my entrepreneurial mindset to be a blessing; all good things come only through hard work and dedication ... this includes time management. Do you have the hustle to make it happen?

[designer17]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ... Yes indeed, I just set up our artificial Christmas tree today! Artificial!? You may ask. Yes, to help with Mom's health over the holidays we decided (a few years ago) to go fake thereby still enjoying a family Christmas with a healthier Mother! 😍🎄🎁 Sure I miss the tradition of going and cutting down a real tree ... but ... I'm glad to have a tree nonetheless! #artificial #Christmas #decorations #retro #vscocam #iphoneonly #family #mobilephotography #holidays #collage #Mother #December

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Throwback Thursday: here are a couple of photos from back when my best friend (@elslovesgod) and his family visited from Oregon! #friends #goodtimes #outdoors #crosscountry #vscocam #squaready #tbt #iphoneonly #mobilephotography

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First run in well over a month ... I really hate when I let myself get off track, it makes it so hard to get back into a routine! Today's run was short but still difficult - I tried focusing mainly on my breathing; all I can say it that it needs some work. HAHA! #running #exercise #blue #active #nikefuel #nikeplus #vscocam #shortbutgood

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Ladies and gentlemen, the pressure is on ... Haha! In just one week's time my friend (@elslovesgod) and I will be launching the blog that we've been planning on for the past few months we are both excited and pray that it will be a great encouragement to many a young man! Remember December 6th! You can follow us on Facebook or Google Plus, just search for "Fighting the Good Fight" it's that easy. #weekend #newsite #blogging #writing #vsco #planning #FTGF #encouragement #vscocam #instadaily #squaready