Language matters. For those of us who work hard to be the best at what we do, this often involves fine tuning our language to make sure it accurately represents us. Sounds good, right? Not always! When it comes to getting more traffic to your website, the correct terms will not get you as far as the commonly used terms. Welcome to an incredibly basic lesson in search engine optimization, or SEO as the cool kids call it.

If you are an entrepreneur, then the true goal of your website is to sell services or products. Some might say “no, no, my website is a great and informative blog and the only goal is to share knowledge”. Good for you. Apply here for your Mother Teresa award. But don’t think winning will help you improve search traffic to your site, although it’ll probably improve your chances of eternal salvation and whatnot.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that just because the end goal of your site is sales, that your website is not great and informative. Mine is. But as it turns out, greatness and informativeness (gotta love being your own boss and being able to publish made up words) is an excellent sales tool. It gets people to think “hey, this person is great and informative; I should hire her or buy her products”. And so for the entrepreneurs among us who want more people to find our site to experience our greatness and informativeness, SEO is important.

Despite my greatness and informativeness, I am not actually an SEO expert. So why am I trying to teach you about SEO? Probably the more important question, is why are you trying to learn SEO from me? Maybe it’s because I’m not just giving you a teaser as a way to sell you a book or mp3 download about SEO. I’m really just a small business owner like you trying to run my business as best I can; learning as I do. But since I love writing about my business experiences, I’m sharing it. Without further ado, here’s what I’ve learned:

Okay a little bit more ado: Wouldn’t it be funny if I didn’t actually share anything with you, but instead kept writing as though I’m about to share something with you until your head almost explodes, and then offer to sell you my SEO ebook? Okay, maybe not ha-ha funny. Right – enough asides:

My Big But Simple SEO Lesson: Let Google help you choose your words.

Google has a fantastic (and free) keyword search tool as part of Google Adwords. You don’t actually have to use Adwords to use the tool. As an aside, while you’re there, I strongly suggest you check out Google Analytics, if you haven’t already done so. It’s also free, and provides great insight into what is and isn’t generating traffic to your website.

I am a personal trainer in Ottawa. I have recently opened a fitness gym, where I teach people how to exercise and how to lose weight.

If I was talking to any of the great personal trainers in my network, I would have written the description above like this:

I am a strength & conditioning specialist in Ottawa. I have recently opened a personal training studio, where I help people to improve their mobility and stability, and teach them how to lose fat.

(Hint: links back to your site from another site can be very helpful for SEO, although be wary of link swapping or of having too many links between sites that you own – Google doesn’t like that, and you don’t want to get on Google’s bad side. Eight links back in such a short section of the article may have been a bit much so I opted to only keep the links in the first paragraph.)

So what’s the difference between the first and second description? The second is a precise description of what I do and the services I provide. The first is less precise but uses words that people who are not fitness professionals actually use. So is it better to be more precise or more understood? To see just how different the two are, let’s look at the 12-month average number of searches for the keywords in each version, as reported in the Google Keyword Tool:

• 1,500,000 searches for Personal Trainer  compared to 135,000 for Strength & conditioning specialist (11 times more searches)

• 7,500,000 for Fitness gym  compared to 12,100 for Personal training studio (620 times more searches)

• 20,400,000 for How to exercise compared to 0 (or too few to report) for Improve mobility and stability  (infinitely more searches)

• 11,000,000 for How to lose weight compared to 1,500,000 for How to lose fat  (7 times more searches)

These are significant differences!

Yes, fat loss is a better term for what I offer than weight loss is. This is because you can lose weight without actually gaining fitness, and conversely, you can stay the same weight, but lose inches off your waist and hips by gaining muscle while you lose fat. According to the Google Keyword Tool, the 12-month average number of searches for “how to lose fat” is only 1.5 million, while there are 11.1 million searches over the same period for “how to lose weight”. Guess what term I’m going to make sure I use in my blog articles when I talk about helping clients to lose fat? Losing weight!

I am by no means suggesting you mislead your readers. Just remember that they are not industry insiders and therefore they may not use the precise language that you do. Let Google show you what language they use, and use it when trying to communicate with potential clients.

That’s the simple lesson: let Google help you to understand the words your potential clients are using to try to find you, and then use those words on your website so that they can actually find you. One more quick bit of advice: Don’t use keywords gratuitously – Google will find you and punish you if  you do. As much as possible, stick to your own voice, but once you are finished, have a read through before you publish and see if there are places where you have used industry insider terminology instead of terms that the buying public use.

There is much more to SEO of course, and it is worth learning more. But this simple change in how you write for your website or blog can really improve the search traffic to your site.

I have a bunch of topics on my mind, including:

• The potential fiasco of commercial real estate for small business
• My harrowing tale of survival against the Canada Revenue Agency and Canadian banks (it’s a doozie)
• Picking bank accounts, EFT (don’t worry – I didn’t know what it was until recently either), and payment processing for small business
• How much less expensive should equipment be for it to be worth importing?
• Some random blathering that I’ll no doubt come up with before I get around to actually writing the 4 topics above.

Until next time, keep that entrepreneurial spirit alive!

entrepreneur · keyword search · keyword selection · seo · small business · traffic to your website

Today is moving day. Again. The leaky roof forced me tobefore out before opening. That in itself was an experience in less than perfect service from the building owner, but it’s about time I put that to rest. Moving day means movers. Or at least it does when you have a piece of equipment that weighs over 1000 pounds. Three of the four showed up at 9 as promised. 3 of 4 isn’t so bad, except for that 1000 pound piece. I called the company a few times and within an hour there were 2 more. Okay. Hopefully the installation of the power rack will go well, as it looks like the person who didn’t show was the installer. (Post-move edit: the power rack installation went well, but the functional trainer did not get put back together properly and so it no longer works. I’m pretty confident the company will make this right though, so I’m not overly concerned.)

Part two of moving day is the space we move into. I am coming to the realization that building owners and property managers are not the best at delivering on promises. Now this is based on a small sample, but I am 2 for 2 on that. The new space is very modest. It is really a temporary space because I needed a place that was available immediately and was relatively inexpensive. Because the space is so modest, my expectations of service are equally low. But I still made a few requests, all of which were agreed to without question. But as it turns out, virtually all remain undone. I’m not going to lie – it’s frustrating. I held out on payment for a few days when the driveway didn’t get shoveled. They eventually did it, but they did a very poor job, so the driveway is now an ice field. I sense this will be an ongoing issue.

The other requests remain undone:

• replacing the sink
• adding a hose from the heating unit so that it stops dripping (please no more buckets!)
• removing the couch and doors and scraps of garbage
• removing the shelving unit in the back.

I just left a curt message that these need to be done, but I am not holding my breath that it will happen in a timely manner. More realistically, the movers (who will already be short on time) will have to move them, and I will have to continue badgering the landlord for the plumbing. The latter reaffirms that I made a good decision to continue training clients at Marshall’s for the rest of this week and open at the new space next Monday.

In theory, I am entitled to move into a space free of old furniture and with decent plumbing.

“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”

In practice, I have no recourse, so I can either be annoyed and stressed about it, or I can suck it up and deal with it. I will admit that annoyance is a strangely alluring option, but unfortunately it gets you nowhere. My advice to those who are starting or running small businesses is simple (but not easy):

1. Expect the best but plan for the worst.
2. Decide on a case by case basis whether you will pursue corrective or punitive actions when someone delivers the worst.

In this case, an extra week to set up along with an expectation that we will have to move the stuff out is the plan for the worst, and my decision is not to pursue any action because the likelihood that it will lead to anything positive is slim to none, but there is a certainty that it will be an energy drain for me. And right now, energy is a precious commodity.

dealing with setbacks · entrepreneur · opening a gym · small business

If you haven’t been following my leaky floor to new location woes, you may want to read about them (click the links); particularly if you are an entrepreneur who is or has gone through setbacks with your business – in other words, particularly if you are an entrepreneur.

Basically I am moving into a space other than the one I started to move into mid December because the roof started to leak 7 weeks ago and because of ridiculous building owners, it continues to leak today. It is literally unfathomable to me that a building owner would let water continue to wreak havoc on their building – their asset – for such a long time. In my opinion, this takes negligence to extreme levels.

But then the building owner took cheekiness to extreme levels yesterday. Get this: he had his assistant call Marshall and ask that he send them post-dated rent cheques for the coming months. Seriously???? You’ve let the roof leak for 7 weeks, forcing his tenant to move out, and leaving him without any ability to use the space, and your call is asking for new rent cheques instead of, say, giving Marshall your way forward plan for dealing with the roof, a schedule of when he can start to use the second floor again, and an offering on rent reduction to make up for the fact that he’s been unable to use the second floor for almost 2 months?

Here’s what I think Marshall’s response should have been:

“How about I send you some post-date fuck you’s?”

Marshall is a very muscular guy with a bodybuilding background, and so with this, I am encouraging a series of bodybuilding poses, each one giving the finger and formatted as cheques made payable to the building owners, with a big “fuck you” where the amount owed would be, and each dated the first of the month for the next six months.

Okay, so that wouldn’t be the responsible thing to do. But it would be the awesome thing to do.

Look for another blog post on Saturday sometime as we’ll be bringing the flooring and the small equipment into “The Shed”, and then the big stuff will follow on Monday via the movers. I’m sure they will be thrilled to be moving the 1000# Freemotion functional trainer back down the stairs less than 2 months after moving it up them! I think I need to give them a case of beer for that one.

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I had written “Good enough is the enemy of great” on the inspiration wall at Marshall’s (the gym where I’ve been training clients) a few months ago. It is an expression that I’ve seen tossed around among my peers in the personal trainer and strength coach community. As soon as I  heard it I connected to it: if you accept good enough, you prevent ever getting to great. So true. Or is it?

Later that day one of my clients said “Great is the enemy of good enough”. Now this client may tend toward sarcasm at times, which I assumed to be the case here and so I called him on it. Then he explained himself: if you wait for great, you may never even get to good enough. I will be honest that I didn’t fully buy it initially.

But it came up again yesterday. This past 6 weeks has been  a struggle for my business because of a leaky roof. I leased the space upstairs from Marshall’s in December so that I could open my studio the 2nd Monday in January. But alas, the roof has leaked since before I took possession (I wrote about it in a previous entry), and has worsened since then. The building owner continued to insist that because it is a flat roof, that they can’t replace it in winter so tried to fix it. After four attempts at fixing the roof, it got progressively worse until it reached this stage:

This video was taken Tuesday morning (2 days ago). Rewind to the previous Thursday and I looked at a place that the very same client has appropriately named “the shed”. It is not great. It is good enough. And right now, I need something. If I wait for great, I will go at least another month without enough space to train my clients. Not great.

For the past year,  I have grown my business by training clients out of Marshall’s gym on Wellington St West in Hintonburg. It has worked out very well – a perfect place for me to grow my business. But I have outgrown it. I am 95% booked for after work training sessions, which effectively means I don’t have the capacity to take on new clients unless they have daytime availability. It is true that relative to other problems, this is a good problem to have. But it is still a problem. Not being able to take on new clients during New Year’s Resolution Month is not a good business approach for a personal trainer.  With a new space, comes the ability to have an assistant trainer and increase my training session availability so that I can continue to grow. I have found a great assistant trainer – a former client who is a nice and fun person and is as keen and geeky about training as I am. Exciting! But this requires space.

Allegedly the building owner at Marshall’s has finally agreed that he will actually replace the roof instead of continuing to “fix” it. But I just can’t trust it. Will it be this week? Next week? The week after? Next month? Six and a half weeks from first leak to this decision is not the time frame of a man of action.  Staying and hoping that he will actually come through in a timely manner and that he will actually fix the wall that has been seeping water for 6 weeks is too risky.

And so I have reached an agreement with the owner of “the shed” and will take possession on February 1st.

The Shed

There are pros and cons to the shed.

First the pros:

• It is a space where I can train my clients, bring in my new trainer, and continue to grow my business starting on February 6th.
• The roof appears to keep the water out.
• It has high ceilings, cement floors and cinder block walls, which are ideal for a gym. I’m particularly excited about the cinder block walls as that will allow medicine ball tosses (rotary power!). I was going to have to engineer a medicine ball wall for the space with the leaky roof.
• Once the snow is gone, we can do sled work on the driveway.
• The rent is actually a bit less.
• It is a block and a half from the other space so no issues for clients who may not want to move further.
• There is parking.
• I can take it for a 6 month lease, which means in the spring I can start looking for the place that is great.

The cons:

• It is a bit small – 22′ by 31′ of effective training space (the leaky room is 30′ by 30′). I can still manage with this smaller space, but I will have to put my Olympic platforms in storage until I get the great place in 6 months.
• It is basically a shed. Even though my client hasn’t seen the space, his dubbing it “the shed” is not far off. It is basically a garage. It housed a carpenter before me. I actually don’t mind the way it looks (see the pic above); but I find the location a bit weird (see the pic below). It is basically an industrial style garage behind a house. The house is between two other commercial buildings, so it’s still in a commercial area. But it’s weird.
• Although Marshall has committed to giving me back the two months rent I paid for the leaky roof space, I am concerned that it may be a while before I see it. This is not a comment on his character – he is a standup guy who will honour his commitments. But the  ineptitude of the building owner forcing me to leave means a big loss of revenue for Marshall. And without that money, coming up with first and last months rent on the shed puts me in a very tight financial situation. I’m probably not supposed to advertise that money is tight, but I think I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it, because it really is part of being an entrepreneur. Sometimes even when you do things right and you grow organically within your means, shit happens and you have to deal with it. Yes, I said shit. You get to do that when you’re an entrepreneur.

Making a decision where one option involves great is much easier than picking between good enough and maybe-great-maybe-horrible.

This process has has all been made so much easier because of my amazing clients. So many of them have offered encouragement and even help to set up the new space. How cool is that? I’m supposed to be the one that motivates them and yet this time it’s the other way around. Hearing from a few of them that it’s okay if the place is not perfect was the little boost I needed to go ahead with good enough.

This email this morning was the icing on the cake:

“New space for you is exciting! Don’t worry about anything, it’s going to be great. If you need a hand with your upcoming move, just drop me a line and you can put me to work! Seriously”

*smile*

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For me it’s transportation. Long drives, bike rides and plane rides. Like this post for instance. I was on a plane home from San Diego (visiting my super cute niece) and I came up with 5 blog ideas and wrote most of them. I also came up with the the first step in making money from this blog (don’t worry, it’s not going to cost you and you will probably actually find it helpful. In fact it is the topic of one of these new blog articles).

In the past I have used my flip video to record my business ideas while driving. Probably not the safest approach, and next time I’ll take an extra 15 minutes at my coffee stop and write or record it then. The day before this plane ride, my idea came while cycling with my brother. My brain was working like crazy formulating this idea that I had to remind myself to take a break to look up and enjoy the scenery: it was stunning!

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I can’t even begin to count how many times this has been suggested to me.

Actually, no, I shouldn’t go on Dragon’s Den, and neither should you. Unless you are looking for entertainment value, or you have completely run out of options, in which case going on Dragon’s Den is an even worse idea (see note below about being a fool).

Here’s why:

• Even if you have the most incredible idea imaginable, it needs to be well developed before the dragons will “help”. By that time, you should be able to find funding by investors or bankers who are not dragons.

• You will not get fair value for the investment. If you are one of the “lucky ones” who gets an offer, odds are, it will be for a bigger cut and less money than your business deserves. Call it the Television tax. You are effectively buying yourself 15 minutes of fame in the form of a lowered valuation.

• It will take a while. In the unlikely event that you do reach a deal, odds are that it will take upwards of a year to dot the is and cross the ts.  This was the message from former dragon W. Brett Wilson at a presentation to the Ottawa chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) that I had the pleasure of attending.

• Kevin is annoying. Seriously. You shouldn’t be concerned with how to get him to invest; you should be concerned about what would happen if he did invest and you had to work with him on a daily basis. I would rather trade in my entrepreneurship and get a real job than deal with that. *shudder*.

Now if you are looking for exposure for your business, or have always wanted to be on TV, then go for it. But be careful. You may be the person they have on for entertainment value versus for the quality of your business. Here’s a quick self-check:

1. Do you have a business plan?
2. Does your business plan include financial statements and address costs?
3. Can you answer the question “what are your sales”?
4. Is your valuation $1 million even though you have no sales?

If you answered no to any of questions 1 to 3 or yes to question 4, then you will be made to look a fool by the dragons. Consider yourself warned.

business plan · dragon's den · entrepreneur · shark tank · valuation

A friend tweeted me a link  containing a great definition of what an entrepreneur is. (Side note: this is such the new world of communication – I’m writing a WordPress blog about a Linked In article that was sent to me via twitter. Progress?)

Take a read, but here’s the Campbell’s condensed soup version:

“Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.”

Love it. So true. So concise.

There’s an element of entrepreneurship that is not spelled out in this definition, but I think is implied within it:

Entrepreneurship requires making big decisions in the presence of uncertainty. 

I am currently faced with this element of entrepreneurship. I wrote previously about the leaky roof situation I am facing with the space I rented for my personal training studio.  Well, a week has passed and there is zero progress.  In fact tomorrow I will be putting tarp on my equipment instead of installing it.

On Thursday I made one such big decision: I told Marshall that I needed a commitment from the building owner by Friday (yesterday) that the roof would be fixed by the end of January, and that if  this occurred, I would spend Sunday setting up my equipment. If not, I would start looking for a new space.  He seemed to agree that this was a reasonable request. The challenge is that I sublet from him, so he has to get this information and commitment from the building owner. This extra layer is frustrating, but is also the reason I felt the need to make this demand.

This was not simply an empty threat: if you are going to make a bold statement and hope that people will respect it, you have to be willing to live with the consequence. As such, I had to be willing to actually move on and find another space in order to make this demand. That was my tough decision: am I ready to go out there and start looking for another space? Knowing full well that that  may mean I don’t get my new space for at least another month, maybe more? Knowing that the space I rent may be more expensive? Possibly outside my preferred area? It’s not my preference, but I realized it was better than the alternative: the uncertainty of not knowing when my current space would be ready for use. And so I made the decision, and I stand behind it.

As I expected, I received no response yesterday and still nothing today. No response, but there was action. Action in the form of heavy leaking from the roof. Like the entrepreneurial equivalent of pathetic fallacy (haha – totally remember that term from high school English lit class).  Thus the tarping agenda for tomorrow.

As is often the case with entrepreneurship, one big decision begets another. I started looking at spaces available for rent today (I’m a keener, what can I say),  and a couple of options presented themselves. One in particular is very interesting. It’s a location I am keen on, but the space is bigger and more expensive that I need or can afford now, although would be perfect for 6 to 12 months from now (My training business has grown tremendously over  the past year, and all signs suggest that will continue). What to do? Continue to look for appropriate spaces for my current needs? Or refer to the original definition above (“Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.”) and figure out a way to make the bigger and more expensive space work knowing it will be ideal within a year. I don’t know the answer yet, but the cool thing is that I have options. Bank financing is one such option, and a very viable one.  Especially since I am now in possession of some great equipment to use as  collateral. Investment is another option as I have been approached by a couple of clients who have expressed interest in this. I initially had said no because I didn’t need the money. Maybe investment is the answer. It would accelerate my growth potential, which is both exciting and dangerous.

And those are the two big decisions that I face now:

Is it time to go bigger?

And if so, what financing route do I take to get there?

I don’t have the answers yet, but I expect that I will within the week. That’s another element of entrepreneurship: Typically the big decisions have to be made on a fairly short time frame.

There’s an inevitable level of risk as entrepreneurship implies an element of uncharted waters. But that doesn’t mean leaps of faith without boundaries. We must still plan and calculate and assess the many what if scenarios that accompany each decision. And so for the next few days I will be seeking input from trusted advisers, calculating risks and opportunities (I heart Excel); and thinking deeply about both tangible and intangible implications of my options.

Stay tuned!

decision making · entrepreneurship · small business · what is an entrepreneur

When you’re an entrepreneur, you often find yourself doing things that you didn’t think were in “the job description”, as you’ll see in this product manufacturing and importing experience.  I had posted this as a note on Facebook and it got pretty good reviews, so I figured I’d share it here…

My business partner and I often joked that we could do a reality TV show about our experience starting a business. Initially we figured it would be entertaining from a “holy crap these girls haven’t got a clue” perspective, and as time passed we seem to have collected some fun little stories. I figured I’d start writing some down. Maybe I can eventually turn these anecdotes into the Project X Files book. (More later, but briefly, we referred to our game as “Project X” for ages as we were worried someone would steal our idea. So silly of us.)

Lesson 1: “Be able to adapt to anything” or “How I filled my spare room with 1800 lbs of board games”
After selecting a manufacturer, we ordered our first run of games. It was a small order (500 games), which we liked, as it meant we could afford it without a big investment. Then we managed to line up Amazon.com for distribution and fulfillment (basically all of the logistics of storing and shipping the product once purchased). We opt to have a few boxes sent to our home office so that we can have some for tradeshows and to send to educational reviewers and such.

We open our game excitedly. It’s so pretty! And official-looking. Like something you’d buy in a store.

We take off the shrink-wrap and open it up and are shocked to see the inside. It’s a disaster! A total mess. Essentially the insert the manufacturer used to hold all of the components in place was made of material barely thicker than paper, which of course will not hold, well, anything, in place when it’s sailing across the ocean in a shipping container (we accidentally manufactured in China, but that’s another story).

After a couple weeks of discussions with the manufacturer, we decide to get the whole shipment brought from the Amazon warehouse up to our home office in Canada so we can deal with the insert deficiency. A friend of ours taught us that its much cheaper to have a shipment delivered to Ogdensburg, NY and then drive down to pick it up than to send it to Canada. All seems good – we work out a deal with the woman who owns a UPS depot/Seadoo store in Ogdensburg. Everything’s all set to pick the shipment up on Friday, which is two days before I am heading to Europe for a little vacation.

The shipment arrives in Ogdensburg on Wednesday. Then we get the call Wednesday at 130 from the depot: They are closed Friday; we have to come today or tomorrow. Easy enough if not for the fact that I have to give presentations (fiscal reality requires me to take consulting contracts for now) Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. And did I mention that we don’t have a clue what paperwork we need to bring this stuff across the border? Or that the shipment is much bigger than would fit in a car? 400 games in 67 boxes weighing a total of 1800 lbs.

Thankfully we’ve been through enough minor catastrophes over the past few years that we no longer get too panicked about them. We just shake our heads and then we do what we have to do. This was no different. Bobbi books us a cube van, and I call a customs broker who had come recommended.
Broker: “Sure we can help. Do you have your Export number?”
Me: “Um, what’s an export number?” Yikes!

I head off to my meeting knowing that we have a plan: Bobbi will sort out the permit numbers while I’m in my meeting (until 4), then I’ll literally run home after my meeting, grab my car and drive from downtown to Walkley Road before their office closes at 430. I managed to leave the meeting a bit early so I get to the broker by 415, and sure enough, Bobbi has sorted out the numbers. The owner of Glover Customs Broker helps me out herself. Within 20 minutes she’s taken care of everything, and assures me the paperwork will be ready for us at the brokers hut at the border tomorrow morning. I write a cheque for both her services and for the GST (tax) for the goods, which is too bad because we are importing it only to re-export it. We still haven’t figured out if and how to get the GST back, but hopefully we will.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous.

Thursday, 7:15am: Meet Bobbi at Budget; grab the cube van and start driving. Get to the border by 830 (depot opens at 9).
US border guard: “There’s a $10 international border fee for commercial crossing”.
Me: “You take Visa or a bank card?”
US border guard: “Just cash”. We had less than two dollars cash between us, and we told him so.
US border guard: “There’s a bank machine down the main street (in Ogdensburg) on your right. Go in there after you get your shipment, and then come back here before you cross back into Canada and pay us the $10.”
No joke – a US Homeland Security Officer gave us the “pay me later – I trust you” option!

Off we go to the ATM…and it doesn’t work. Doh! We find another at the gas station. By now it’s 9 so we head to the depot. The woman who runs it is really nice. We back the truck up to the door, and start the assembly line: Bobbi’s in the truck; I’m passing her boxes from the depot and within 35 minutes we’re driving away after leaving a copy for the woman who runs the place after learning that she has a teenager who’s approaching SAT age.

We head to the Canadian side of the border crossing (after stopping at the American side to pay our $10 of course). We go to the wrong building to start, then to the right building, then back to the first building, which is now the right building. There are a couple of people ahead of us now. Chatty people. We’re clock-watching. I felt like I was in an episode of Corner Gas. Did I mention that my presentation was at 1pm? Finally we get served, but then we get directed to yet another building to get the customs paperwork, and then back to that first building. The customs agent decides he wants to look in the truck; but when we tell him we have to go through all 400 games to redo the inserts, he seems to feel sorry for us, and sends us on our way. It’s a bit after 10.

We get back to my house a little after 11, and we start hauling boxes – each of the 67 boxes weighs about 30 lbs, and we have to move it out of the truck, down the street, up the stairs, and stack them in the spare room. No surprise that within about 3 minutes James is practically in the truck. James is the local guy-who-stands-on-the-street-gesturing-involuntarily-at-people-and-cars. He seems to be a very nice man and definitely loves to talk to people. Bobbi is understandably a bit uncomfortable with James’s involvement in this operation. I assure her that he is harmless, but I wasn’t surprised that she chose hallway to upstairs over truck to hallway when we opted for assembly line style. She later mentioned that James had slipped her his phone number!

So we stack the boxes up, and amazingly all but 2 fit into my spare room. I start to suddenly worry that the floor won’t hold the weight, but then I realized it was the equivalent of about 12 people standing in a room, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

11:45. I drop Bobbi off at her dad’s so she can take his car back to Barhaven; and I go fill up and return the vehicle.
12:10. I drive home, change out of my jeans and the t-shirt that I now notice has newsprint all over it. Not really a big deal except that the newsprint is particularly pronounced around my breasts. I chuckle to myself when I realize how I looked while getting gas and returning the van.
12:35. I make a sandwich which I won’t be able to eat during the meeting as I’m presenting to 25 people.
12:40. I have time to bike to work but I contemplate how I could eat my sandwich while riding a bike that only has one functional break, and then opt for the car.
12:55, arrive at the client complex, just in time to find out where the meeting is,and run to the appropriate building.
Made it.

commercial border crossing · entrepreneur · small business

Grab yourself a coffee and get settled in to read a pretty cool story. It’s about a scientist turned entrepreneur (science-preneur?) who created a business to develop and commercialize the ovarian cancer treatment that she discovered while working at the National Cancer Institute, and then took a creative funding approach to continue her important work after the world economic collapse of 2008.

I met Dr. Mona Jhaveri in the fall of 2008, right about the time of the fall of 2008. We were competing against each other as North American finalists in the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards. As finalists, we were flown to France for an unforgettable week that includes a few days in Paris where we met each other, along with the finalists from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. Ya, pretty great.

(Mona is on the far left and I am 4th from the right)

Cartier wined and dined us, and put us up in some very nice hotels. I think we all enjoyed traveling Cartier-style! What an experience. We spent the week becoming friends, learning from each other, and learning from some amazing women executives, coaches and teachers, who were brought in to mentor us. We also had the pleasure of going to Normandy for the Women’s Forum, where we were humbled by the thousands of incredible women we met from across the globe. We each presented our businesses to the continental judges, and then took part in a formal ceremony to learn who would win the titles of Laureate for each continent, a title that came with $20,000 and another year of business coaching.

Mona and I sat next to each other as her name was announced as the Laureate for North America. I’m not going to lie; I was disappointed that I didn’t win. But it only took a few seconds for the disappointment to be replaced with acknowledgement that Mona was a deserving winner, and that her business was important work. I was truly happy that she was taking home the $20,000 cheque. Although I’m still a bit envious of the trophy itself – I mean Cartier knows how to make nice-looking shiny things.

Mona and I, and all of the other finalists have been trying to keep in touch since that amazing week; following the ups and downs of each other’s lives and businesses. Ups and downs that are normal for entrepreneurs; especially during an economic downturn. Recently Mona reached out to me after having seen me post about the new Female Fitness Forum that I started. I was happy to hear from her and we had a great chat. It turns out both of our businesses have taken significant turns since 2008.

I have since had to bankrupt that business (the SAT board game business that I mentioned in one of my how I became an entrepreneur posts, and that you will hear more about in the coming months). Our business did very well, but as we watched our manufacturer go bankrupt, then our distributor, then our national retailer, the writing on the wall was pretty clear. I am not a fan of failure, but I also know when it’s time to throw in the towel.

Mona’s business, FOLIGO, has also been hit hard. It costs a lot of money to bring a cancer treatment to market, and the economic downturn meant the loss of most of her investors. She had to downscale considerably, including closing the company lab and working out of lab space at the University of Maryland and her D.C home office.

Mona’s work was too important for her to shut the doors on the business, so she got creative. And that led to her becoming a consultant with Arbonne International to fund her cancer research. Mona impressed me from the day I met her (did I mention that she brought her baby with her to the competition in France – yes – she did all that while being a new mom), but hearing what she is doing now to keep her business and her dream, and the hopes of ovarian cancer patients alive has taken that admiration up about a thousand notches.

That’s the story from my perspective, but I thought some of you would like to hear it from her, and so I asked Mona a few questions, which she has answered here for you.

Elsbeth: Hi Mona, can you start by introducing yourself? Tell us how you came to be a cancer researcher, and how that evolved into FOLIGO as a business.

Mona: Elsbeth – thank you for the opportunity to share my story with your readers. My journey as a cancer researcher began with my strong interest in the biochemical sciences and how it relates to health and wellness. The cause of cancer is largely unknown, but it is generally accepted that the root of the disease has to do with molecular changes in the cells that make up the body’s organs. These changes enable normal healthy cells to become immortal leading to malignant growth of the body’s own cells.

While training at the National Cancer Institute, we discovered a way to “knockdown” the levels of a particular protein, called the folate receptor, known to be involved in carcinogenesis. Our approach is to administer a small piece of DNA that can literally “jam” the production of folate receptor in cancer cells, and in doing so, cripple the ability of cancer cells to survive and proliferate.

Foligo was formed with the intent of developing and commercializing these DNA “medicines” to combat cancer. Our first target market is ovarian cancer, one of the deadliest cancers for women worldwide.

Elsbeth:For those of us who don’t really understand what it takes to bring a cancer treatment to market, can you give us an overview? How long does it usually take, and how much money does it tend to cost?

Mona:Bringing cancer drugs to market is a long and costly process. It begins with a laboratory discovery that is deemed novel and patentable in the US and internationally. Drug discovery must be validated in relevant cancer cell lines and animal models. As per rules of the US Food and Drug administration (FDA), safety and efficacy of treatments in development have to be demonstrated in rodents and non human primates (i.e. monkeys). Once accomplished, the drug developer files an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the FDA. If approved, the developer can start testing its compound in clinical trials. The first trial, phase I, demonstrates safety in patients with late stage disease. The second trial, phase II, demonstrates safety and efficacy in a small pool of patients and the third trial, phase III, shows safety and efficacy in a larger patient population. Once all trials have passed FDA approval, the drug is ready for market. This process generally takes 10 years and can cost over $100 million.

Elsbeth: I am going to get a little “The View” on you here, but can you tell us how it felt as you watched your investors fall away? Was there a point at which you thought FOLIGO wouldn’t survive? If so, how did you get past that?

Mona:By now, I have watched investors “walk away” on numerous occasions, all for different reasons. Each time it feels like a gate has closed on me, but each time I become more embolden to try again and reach a little higher.
Closing down Foligo has crossed my mind, especially at those very low moments on my journey. Inevitably, as soon as one gate closed, another one opened. Hope restored.

Elsbeth:Using Arbonne sales as a means to fund your business is genius as far as I’m concerned, but how has the scientific community responded? Are you getting any criticism for what you are doing? How do you feel about it? (again with The View type questions!). How do you respond?

Mona:Response from the scientific community has been mixed. Some feel that Arbonne is a brilliant and innovative financing tool. Others feel I have compromised my integrity. Still others think the Arbonne route is unethical or even illegal.

I never worry what others think. Arbonne as a financing tool is unorthodox, but it is perfectly legitimate – and it’s working so I just keep going.

Elsbeth:Can you tell us why you chose to go with Arbonne?

Mona:Arbonne makes great skin care, cosmetics and health and wellness products. The company’s products are exclusively based on botanical and herbal principles. Arbonne products contain no animal products or by-products, no petroleum products or by-products (such as mineral oil) and no chemical fragrances. Arbonne skincare is particularly unique in how well it gets absorbed by the dermis. Arbonne products literally get “drunken” by the skin and they do not leave a coat of oil on the skin’s surface. This is unlike mineral oil based products that coat the skin with a greasy film, clogging pores and impairing the body’s ability to naturally detoxify through perspiration.
The other big plus about Arbonne is that their approach is environmentally sound and responsible. They do not use endangered plants. They support responsible harvest. They are vegan certified and employ packaging practices dictated by the Forest Stewardship Council certification.
Arbonne is revolutionary and an excellent fit for Foligo.

Elsbeth:How is FOLIGO doing now? How does the future look? Can you see a time at which the market will allow the investors to return, or do you think you’re on your own for the long haul?

Mona:Foligo is making a comeback. We are employing several creative financing efforts at the same time. Aside from generating income from Arbonne sales, Foligo is organizing a public/private fundraiser through its partnership with the University of Maryland, College Park. We are working to involve First Lady Michelle Obama in our efforts. We also are looking to join forces with biotech companies overseas, specifically in India or China. We see a bright future so long as we keep our financing diversified and we stay focused on hitting product development milestones. I think it will be a long time before investors feel comfortable tossing discretionary monies into risky start-ups. Times have changed. Entrepreneurs are more likely to be on their own for the long haul.

Mona:Thank you Elsbeth!
Elsbeth:Thanks so much Mona! I look forward to reading about FOLIGO successes soon.

I hope you enjoyed this. I can’t say enough about how incredible a woman I think Mona is. Not just for her work as a cancer researcher, but for her resilience and creativity as an entrepreneur.

If you have any cosmetic needs, please follow this link to Mona’s Arbonne page (http://www.foligo.myarbonne.com/) and purchase products from Arbonne, to support Mona and her company, and hopefully one day, the successful commercialization of her ovarian cancer diagnostics and treatment.

And if you are a female entrepreneur, consider applying to the 2012 edition of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Award. The application is due in March, so now is the perfect time! Worst case, it will force you to improve your business plan for the submission. Best case, you will receive top business coaching, meet and be inspired by other incredible entrepreneurs from around the globe (in France!), and bring $20,000 home for your business.

alternative business funding · bankruptcy avoidance · business venture · cancer funding · cancer research · entrepreneur · investors · small business

The roof at the studio is not fixed per se, but it is not leaking at the moment. This doesn’t give me enough confidence to move my equipment into place, but it was enough to put the rubber mats back and then finish the installation with a few cuts. I’ll be honesty that I wasn’t 100% confident in how this rubber cutting would go. But I was hopeful based on what the retailer said (that a heavy duty carpet cutter would work) and the rubber mat cutting video I found on Google. Seriously – what did we do before the internet?

Rubber mat cutting equipment:

• Heavy duty carpet cutter (about $15 at Home Depot)
• Work gloves
• Knee pads
• Chalk line
• Tape measure
• Crow bar (to help move the mats a bit once in place)
• Heavy duty locking clamps (to help move the mats. They weigh 100 lbs and are floppy. This makes it much easier)
• Cup of soapy water (I can’t recall why, but the video suggested dunking the cutter in it before cutting)
• Extra blades for the carpet cutter (sharp blades are more safe)

As I set up for the first cut, I couldn’t help but think about how well the straight line part would be. Did I mention that the only course I failed in university was drafting? And not for lack of effort either – I attended every class, did every assignment and studied hard for the exam. I got 35%. No joke. I can’t draw a straight line with a T-square. Oh chalk line, how on earth would I have managed without you?

The chalk line is so easy: Mark where you want to cut at each end of the mat, put the clip at one end, unroll the line, place the chalk line tool at the mark on the other end of the mat, lift the line an inch or so, and let go. That’s it. The line snaps down to the mat and leaves a line of blue chalk. So easy!

Then came the cutting, which was almost as easy. I basically followed the directions in the video:

• Score it first with a light cut. I went nice and slow to keep as straight as possible. I dipped the knife in the soapy water periodically.
• Next I did a deeper second cut.  This required a bit of force (hello core!), but nothing excessive. I made sure to keep a smart position with body parts out of the path of the knife in case of a slip.
• Lastly, I bent the mat at the cut and used the knife to slice through the last bit of rubber that was still attached. It was almost rip-able at this point.

I couldn’t believe how well it worked! The first 3 cuts were trims where I was cutting a few inches off to make some mats fit.Then I had to cut four of the mats in half. For this task, the final cut was going to be a bit more difficult, as it’s tough to just bend half of a 100 lb mat. Enter the Kettlebell! (hahaha – the fitness geeks will get it). Seriously though – I needed something to put under one side of the rubber mat so that I could fold it nicely at the cut. What better than a kettlebell?

Honestly I think the hardest part about this process was that I could only get one radio station (Chez 106.1), which means I had to listen to classic rock the whole time.  Cleaning it after was also a drag as the mats were very dirty from the plaster dust from the patch job on the wall (the “you won’t know we were here” line from the building maintenance guy was clearly intended to be ironic) and the water from the flooding. It still needs at least one more go around with the mop, but I’m pretty happy with how it looks.

It’ll  look even better once the trim is back up, which will be after the patched area is repainted, which I gather will happen after the roof is replaced.  Which all has to happen before next Sunday, which is the equipment assembling party.   That said – positive energy please to help make that possible!

cut rubber floor mats · entrepreneur · odd jobs · small business