Driving thoughts

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
11 December 2012
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Driving is a great time for me to think – in fact, I think it’s even more effective than showering.  It used to be that I’d get tons of reflection and inspiration while showering, since you don’t have much to think about beyond your routine.  However, now that I’ve taken to really enjoying all the bath products I’ve gotten, I tend to think just about those brands, why I like the products, and how I feel about it all.  Doesn’t leave me as much thinking space as I used to get.  Nowadays I’ve found that it’s driving time that is really precious and useful.  From reflections of life to rehashing business ideas, it’s an ideal way for me to get some creative juices flowing.

Unfortunately it’s not like I can sit there and take notes about what I’m brainstorming, and I always found it challenging to try to dictate my thoughts to remember.  So, I’m getting used to summing up those thoughts into a few to-dos and dictating that to my phone.  I set a few reminders to trigger sometime after I get home, and then I can sit and reflect some more.  It’s a decent system and I kind of wish I had more driving to do!  Perhaps I’ll take up some other similar activity like biking, jogging, or getting back on my beloved longboard.

Mounting pressures

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
05 December 2012
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There sure are a lot of ups and downs with trying to run your own gig.  Sometimes it’s super rewarding and fun and sometimes I take things too personally and get sad that things aren’t perfect.  Lately I’ve been going through a rough patch again, grappling with what to focus on, how to grow things, and where to develop my skills.  Between self-doubt and perceived doubt from others, it’s been tough going.  One of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur (besides trying to make it work) is the lack of understanding that you get.

Most people don’t quite get what it means when you don’t have a traditional job, work for yourself, or otherwise aren’t a part of the “normal” workforce.  They see you sitting at home all day, in front of the computer, and wonder if you’ve done anything at all.  For whatever reason, you apparently don’t amount to much if you’re not working 40 hours a week for a paycheck or going to school for certification or a degree.  At least that’s the impression I’ve gotten based on questions and feedback from some people lately.  While I don’t think they mean to judge, I feel judged – and that gives me pressure to get results, fast.

Unfortunately, that’s just not how it all works.  Here I am trying to build something, cultivate and grow it.  My little seed won’t magically become a beanstalk without a lot of love and care over time.  While it’s only been 8 months and in grand scheme of creating something, that’s chump change, it sure feels like a long time.  I think that’s partly due to all the change that has happened, which makes leaving my job feel like a lifetime ago.

It’s hard to stay patient, keep pushing, and not give up because there is no specific time frame at which I can determine whether this will or will not work.  Plus, for the time being I’m at it alone.  I don’t really have any support and nobody really knows what I’ve accomplished except for myself.  When I face a challenge, I don’t have coworkers to help me out or a manager to guide me.  While I’ve been seeking mentors for years, I just haven’t really found someone who has the expertise and time for me.  So how long do I keep trying?  There is no real answer; we’ll just have to see.  In the mean time, I’m trying to keep my spirits up and reinvigorate my enthusiasm.

Fun times with Facebook

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
29 November 2012
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Yesterday, I decided that Missy should have her own Facebook profile.  After all, she’s got tons of pictures to be tagged and a personality all her own!  I had a lot of fun setting it all up and going through, tagging all the pictures I’ve posted of her.  So far she has friended me and Cousin and Cousin was so amused by the account that she also created one for Molly.  Now both the cats in our household get to run the show on social media too!  They already rule the house, so why not expand their horizons?

I wish there was an easy way to toggle between FB accounts; for now I’m stuck with one account open on one browser and the other open on another browser.  Of course Missy has me doing the grunt work for her, posting up pictures and videos and typing to her dictation.  But hey at least now she can share some of her wisdom with the world.  You can be her friend too!  Find her at http://facebook.com/missy.qin.7 and check out some of the hilarious shots of her sleeping.

Mealtime browsing

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
24 November 2012
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Panda has this habit of people-watching (actually more like people-staring) whenever we’re out and about.  This is especially evident at restaurants, when he’s looking just about anywhere but at me.  Whether it’s a cute kid gurgling on mom’s lap, a rowdy bunch having a blast, or just a couple sitting quietly, Panda will observe every little thing – staring and sometimes even gawking.  It’s painfully obvious to me and I wonder if others notice it too.

Since this seems to be so distracting for him, I’ve taken to making sure that he sits on the side facing the wall, or the least interesting part of the restaurant.  This seems to have helped a bit but I still find myself competing for attention over meals.  I guess that should encourage us to eat in more often, eh?

Butting heads

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , ,
15 November 2012
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molly the cat lounging on sofa cushion with arm dangling

Molly in one of her calmer moods.


Ok so I’ve got this cat, her name is Molly.  She’s like 13 years old and I’ve had her for about a year and a half.  When I saw her at the shelter, she was curled up on a nice bed and didn’t really move, so I figured she’d be a fun lap pet.  When we brought her home, the first week or so I was afraid that she was going to die just like that – she wouldn’t eat, she wouldn’t drink, and she barely moved.  We took her for her free checkup and the vet said that this and that might be wrong with her… my mom stood firm in her belief that we’re just giving Molly a nice home to live out her life and we won’t spend excess money to save her from this and that disease.  I was super sad but wasn’t about to shell out the money myself so we decided to just see how it went.

I think about 10 days in is when Molly started to move around.  She explored the house and I even caught her drinking from the toilet (aha! so she wasn’t dying of thirst).  Soon enough, she was as spry as any cat and even went around the house acting like she built it, owned it, and ran it.  While I was happy that she was totally fine and actually quite active, I discovered that she actually doesn’t like being held.  So much for my lap cat idea.  Sometimes she gets into these terrible moods, where she’ll growl at you for no reason.  She’ll get mad because you walked by, because she walked by you, because you did this or didn’t do that, etc.  I didn’t want to encourage this behavior, so whenever she got grumpy, I’d keep pushing.  If she didn’t want me touching her I’d hug her.  Sometimes I’d growl with her, or give her a stern finger.  Unfortunately, this hasn’t worked and I think I’ve figured it out – we’re both super stubborn.

The more you push, the more I push back (and the more you push back).  So, our little battles escalate until Molly gets so upset that she attacks or runs away.  I can’t help it though; nothing irritates me more than backing down when she’s the one initiating the negativity.  I was hoping to train her to see that when she got mad, I didn’t leave her alone, so trying to scare me wouldn’t work.  But it seems that all she sees is that she’s not happy and I’m annoying.  It’s a pity!  I’ve never tried to start a fight with her, but that seems to be how it all ends up.  And that’s what stubbornness can get you.

Looong day

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
10 November 2012
0

I’ve had a pretty long day traveling & getting some work done and boy am I pooped!  While it’s only been about 20 hours and certainly is not one of the more stressful times I’ve been through, it has tired me out nonetheless.  From an early morning to catch a flight cross-country to pit stops for food & groceries to settling in to work, I haven’t really taken the time to recover.  I guess it was partly because I had so much stuff to do – packages to open and enjoy, new items to list for sale, and bonding time with family.  Now that the excitement has died down, I suddenly feel the achiness and droopy eyes.  I’m sure I’ll sleep well tonight!

Tomorrow’s another busy day (time for Pamper Me Fabulous again!) and I’ll need to rest up.

Down time

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
05 November 2012
0

What do you think of when you hear work from home, self-employed, entrepreneur?  Do you imagine someone huddled over their laptop all day and all night, tapping away at those keys?  Do you imagine someone kicking back with a cool drink on a warm day, enjoying the sunshine?  Or maybe you think of someone lounging around in pajamas and slippers, cupping a steaming cup of coffee and a book.  Whatever the case, people usually consider working from home and working for yourself to be less stressful than a typical office job.

When I first started working from home, I imagined being able to enjoy myself no matter where I was (and being able to go anywhere no matter when it was).  For the most part, that has been true, but another thing that I’ve wrestled with is being able to set boundaries with my time.  I’ve enjoyed far more freedom in terms of where I am and when I work, but then it all blends together.  Lately I’ve found that I think so much about work that I even dream about it and disrupt my rest.  Without realizing it, stress has creeped up on me because I am the one responsible if things go wrong and I am the only one managing all that there is to take care of.  The pressure of that doesn’t seem so bad, yet here I am, needing a break.

In a way I feel guilty – my days are hardly ever as busy and fast-paced as my previous job, so I often feel like I’m not working hard enough.  However, just because I don’t have 9-10 hours filled with work and then a respite before it all starts again doesn’t mean that I’m working less hard.  As it turns out, the entire night and weekend concept no longer applies to me and any day, any time is work time.  Whether I’m home, out eating or shopping, or taking time off for social activities, work is just a few taps away (thank you phone apps).  So in that sense, I never get rest and I never get away from the looming work that follows me around.

This weekend, it finally caught up with me.  I’ve been so overwhelmed by the constant checklist of things to do for work that I just had to mentally check out for awhile.  So, for the past two days I hardly did anything for work and instead vegged out to a variety of random entertainment.  I buckled back up and got a bunch of work done today, but I’m still not ready to throw myself back into things again.  Perhaps I need to learn to set better boundaries so I periodic bouts of worklessness.  Harder said than done though!

Shipping headaches

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
31 October 2012
0

Written a week ago:

I had a down day today. Managing this whole eBay thing has started to wear on me as I move past the honeymoon phase and learn some of the not-so-pleasant aspects of being a seller. It started off great – listing and selling items was exciting and mailing out packages was fun. But now that I’ve sent out dozens of items, I find it increasingly challenging to manage inventory, get the right shipping products (particularly appropriate box sizes), and find a good balance between price and shipping speed/service.

Mostly it has to do with shipping woes. For the second time now, someone has contacted me saying they have not received their item after waiting nearly a month. In cases like this, I am so powerless yet I feel responsible. I want to help but should I have to replace or refund an item every time the post office or customs screws me over? While I appreciate the low prices I get with USPS, I feel like there’s no accountability for when items are lost, damaged, or stolen. I have no recourse and it is disheartening.

In a similar vein, I have no idea what customs offices might be doing with my shipments… are they holding them? Did they never receive them? Will my customer get their package soon, or at all? It’s so frustrating to not know and not be able to provide any comfort to the recipient patiently waiting for the delivery.  Additionally, I constantly worry about how much abuse my packages will suffer after finding out some of my items were crushed in transit.  How do I ensure that the items are well-protected yet don’t add so much weight to the packaging that shipping costs go up?  It’s a fine line to walk.

Now, with some time to think:

All of this has led me to an old idea I had a long time ago – wouldn’t it be nice to “rent” space in a suitcase or car that will be traveling from somewhere near you to a destination close to the one you want?  People are constantly covering so much ground and not taking advantage of all the space they have to bring things with them.  If we could tap into a network where travelers can offer up the extra space they have and shippers/mailers can then pay for that space, wouldn’t that be a great way to take advantage of the travel that’s already being done?  With the rise of community marketplaces, this seems more and more a sensible reality for the future.  If I can trust the listings on Airbnb, I can certainly find a way to create a similar level of trust for listings involving assisted shipping.

Granted, there are plenty of challenges to consider, especially when it comes to international shipping, but this is a problem I’d really like to help solve.  I can just imagine the powerful community that can be created around this, and with it a built-in level of service unlike that of many shipping services.  After all, each person signing up to help deliver items wants to maintain a pristine reputation or else they won’t get more opportunities to earn money.  We’d need to integrate some technologies to assist them in the tracking process, among other things, but I wonder if overall it’d be worth all the effort.  Would I really be able to drive down the price, yet provide optimal service?  I’d sure like to try.

Hurricane Sandy

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
28 October 2012
0

Well, here we go! A few days ago it became clear that Sandy would affect our region, so since then Panda and I have been gearing up, stocking up on food and filling up all the water bottles in the household with fresh filtered water. We’ve brought out the flashlights and charged up our devices. Now it’s time to settle in and wait it out.

As a federal employee, Panda has seen a notification on TV that his office will be closed tomorrow so we’ll be holed up together as the worst of the storm hits us. I’ll be watching the fury of the winds and rain as they pick up and probably post pictures/videos in the coming days. Other than that I expect to relax a bit since I’m pretty sure USPS is closed, so I can’t send out my packages. Maybe I’ll even get some reading done.

Micro-entrepreneurism

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
24 October 2012
4

I’ve just spent a good 3-4 hours deep in the world of community marketplaces offering all kinds of awesome products and services, powered by the individual.  These sites are empowering people around the world to become part-time (or even full-time) entrepreneurs who get to choose what they do and when they do it.  It ranges from sites like TaskRabbit and Zaarly, which offer skill-based listings, to Vayable, which offers tour listings, to Airbnb, which offers accommodation listings.  Whatever the niche, the message is clear: personalized, personable services provided by your neighbors or that local in your destination city are on the rise.

Our society is seeing a shift away from “traditional” jobs and towards the more flexible, on your own terms type jobs that are a far cry from the salaried employee.  And those people clamoring for these unconventional/unpredictable job bookings find themselves serving a consumer that has evolved too.  It used to be that consumers had to go to the store and choose from whatever was available at the time, or customers had to sit through customer service calls before finally getting help.  Now it’s all about getting what you want when you want.  Who needs to sit through half an hour of automated phone menus when you can just hire the guy in your town to install that new TV?  Why go to the store and be forced to choose from food in flavors you don’t like when you can have someone come cook for you or bring you delicious baked goodies just the way you like?

It’s service to the max, because it’s customized for your needs.  On TaskRabbit and Zaarly, you can post exactly what, when, where, and how you want things done, then choose who to do it.  Or, for sellers, you can post exactly what and how you’ll do something, then determine the when and where with the “who” who’s booking you.  The great thing about these services is that it not only empowers people to make money for doing what they love and/or what they’re good at, but it offers a better experience for us as clients.  Get a tour of a city you’re visiting customized to your interests!  Discover that perfect room to stay in that’s closer to everything you want to see than any reasonable hotel option.  Let someone else handle the chores for once, so you can relax and take time to do what you love.  Meanwhile, the people doing this work find themselves more fulfilled AND with more money to line their pockets.  It’s a wonderful win-win situation.

Along those lines, I have a similar idea of connecting people with specific needs to those who can help fulfill them.  I’m still working on the details of the idea, but as far as I’ve seen there is no other service out there that completely addresses the issue.  I’m really excited to develop it further and hopefully I’ll be sharing it with the world sometime next year!  For now, you can use your imagination to try to guess what it might be… and hey, maybe you’ll come up with another brilliant (and viable) idea to take advantage of the power of community-powered marketplaces, where everybody’s a micro-entrepreneur!

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