Art Of Money

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed.

I’ve been in charge of my long desired “real” business for the grand total of about 7 days and I thought that it would be fun to be journaling my experience of trying to run and grow this beast.

Currently, I have 5 contract “employees” and enough work for about 5 other positions that I am solely responsible for. This leaves me about 20 minutes a day to engage in visioning or strategic thinking. What follows then an overview of the thoughts that I engage in during those magical 20 minutes.

#1 How the Hell Will I Ever Take a Vacation?

Sorry to make number 1 all about me but, right now it would be impossible for me to take a vacation. It actually isn’t about me and my vacations; it’s about having a company that doesn’t depend on me, which, in my mind at least, is the very definition of a “real” business.

In order to fix this situation, I need to outline the tasks and responsibilities that I handle and find a person[s] who could take them on and somehow get them involved in the business. At this early stage it would probably be a “jack-of-all-trades” type. Ideally someone who has some business sense and could contribute on a high level as well as at the day to day task levels.

#2 How can I Make Sure that the Bloggers Make a Lot of Money?

From one week on the job, it is clear to me that if you take a blog network, stick it in a pot and boil it until all the fluff is gone…what you’d better be left with is a whack of bloggers who are making money.

When I identify my biggest fear it is that my bloggers won’t make money and I know the whole ball of wax rides on me making sure that they do. Everything from pro-blogger training tips, to new site monetization schemes to creative ways to attract local advertisers, it all comes down to ensuring that it is profitable to be blogging for Home Turf Media.

Bloggers making money = network making money = more people wanting to blog for our network and around it goes.

#3 How Can This Process Scale Big?

Right now my job involves a lot of one to one emails and one-off problem solving. It is sooooo tempting to just send that email or fix that line of code, but it is almost always bad business for me to be doing that.

With every task I do, I ask myself, “is this how you would handle it if you had 300 blogs rather than 3?”

I start manuals and task lists for everything I do. Yes it seems like it takes me longer to do anything right now, but I know in the long run it will pay off.

It already has. When I rolled out the first site on the network it took me 2 days as I documented every step and continually tweaked the template to get it right before I pronounced it ready. Following my document I was able to do the next 2 sites, from domain name to finished WordPress blog in about an hour and a half each of actual effort.

#4 Create a Great Culture

Every employee survey I’ve ever seen shows the wage or salary is a secondary consideration when deciding to change employers or stay in a current job.

Money is great, but it isn’t even close to a sense of being appreciated or respected and belonging in importance; as far as our core needs goes.

I know, from working for many employers, what a huge difference it makes to have a company or boss that communicates well and often and will tell me what is going on and why things are being done the way they are.

Don’t you find yourself secretly wondering, when you watch a politician or company CEO on TV, “why don’t they just tell the truth?”

It’s the same with bosses and companies in general. I know that to create a culture that is enjoyable to work in; it all starts with truthful and effective communication from me.

I already experience a feeling of love for all the people that I’m working with and I know nurturing that love is the real key to creating a great company.

That’s it for my 20 minutes these days. I predict that what will happen is that I will continually work on these four items for the rest of my career, but I’m hoping I’ll be working on more of the subtleties rather than the broad strokes as I presented here.

Jon Symons
Building a blog network…so you don’t have to.