I’ve always wanted to build some sort of interactive pdf file, and I finally did it.

I am working with a couple of local businesses, helping them with marketing and what not to build myself a portfolio. I would like to do this as a business, where I tell people what they need to do (you know, crazy marketing ideas that don’t cost very much) to help them improve their sales or meet their specific goals.

Right now I am working with the "Barista’s Daily Grind" Owner Ryan Dennhardt. He is an awesome guy that had to have his arm twisted to let me attempt to help him out. Their biggest opstical right now is that they recently moved to a new location and they have lost a lot of their old clientail (And frankly, not many people know where their new location is). So we’ve decided to give back to the local community business owners, as a way of saying "thank you for supporting us during this transition", and also let everyone else (that aren’t current customers) know where they are located. And everyone business owner that is part of the local Chamber of Commerce will get a Buy One Get One Sandwich coupon.

Here’s where I come in: I told Ryan that I would help Barista’s out by creating this coupon for them. It is going to be emailed to everyone, so I thought that it would be great to find a way to have a clickable link that would take them to a google maps page of Barista’s new location. [Note: I did have to set up the location as a business in google maps first, I did this a few months back] I found this link to an Adobe Acrobat Proffesional tutorial for creating interactive PDF files (it is so cool how you can print this file off and some of the text doesn’t print). You do need to own Acrobat Pro to be able to do this however.

Here is my end file, check it out,
Barista’s Buy one get one free Certificate

Ok, OK, maybe I’m patting myself on the back a little too much. But I think it turned out sweet. I will definitely be doing more with PDFs.

~Chais

P.S. If anyone happens to see any typos, if you would let me know, I would very much appreciate it. Thanks, and Have an Awesome Day.

Warning: This may sound kind of Geeky for those non business lovers out there!

In my spare time, I like to develop possible business models and brands as a hobby, and while some people might think this sounds like work, I really enjoy challenging myself and experimenting with what my mind can come up with. When I am working on and creating business models and fictitious brands, I try consider a few things to make sure my idea is even worth my time.

1) Does this business/brand have the possibility of having passive income from the beginning? If it doesn’t, how long will it take to create passive income (either through subscriptions, investments, services, etc.)? [Note: Passive income from the beginning is not a requirement, but there has to be an investment account or a way to create it later on. Why do I think it is so important? Because wealth is not measured in the amount of $$$$ a person has in one day, it is measured in time; if I stopped working today, how many days can I live forward (with my same lifestyle expenses) with my current income, liquid assets, savings, etc. - Example: I have $2,500 in monthly expenses, if I have subscriptions or memberships coming in from a service I provide of $4000 a month, than I am infinitely wealthy (as long as my passive income doesn't decrease or my expenses go up). Every month I would be netting a $1500 profit and I wouldn't every have to work again.]

2) What is the length of time it will take for me to get this business started? I ask myself this because I don’t want to spend 6 months on something if I could have done something else (with the same benefits) that would have only taken 2 weeks. (That is pretty much common sense, but I have to ask myself anyway so I don’t start on a rampage working on one project without thinking.)

3) How much upfront cash is required by myself or an investor to get this off the ground? I love the businesses that require my sweat equity (many bootstrappers have no other choice but to spend there own time and money in the beginning, Including me) and not much more. The only disadvantage of Sweat Equity is that time is precious and if you can’t make money right away than you need to divide your time up with something like my cash/growth items ratio (like what I talked about in a previous post “The Perfect Ratio, What is it?”).

4) Does this fit a niche or does this business fall into a huge market category? There is not a right or wrong answer here, I just prefer the niche Markets. For me the smaller markets are easier to access with advertising (more specific), and they take less time to get input from the consumers, as well as there are less products/services you need to create or develop (allowing us to become more of an expert in less amount of time).

5) Will this business/brand benefit who I want to sell to (my target market)? If it won’t, why spend the time (or you can change your target market)? Unfortunately, if I have an idea, decide on my target market, and then realize, “oh, I don’t think this will benefit them that much”, it is probably better to just drop the idea or put it on the back burner for future reference. Why try to force someone to spend money on something that they won’t utilize or love, It is a losing battle. Like Seth Godin Says in The Dip, Sometimes it is okay to quite. [My Soap Box: I don't want to become another company that sells Shit on an infomercial that no one needs. I might even make a little money right away from those out there that are addicted to buying, but are they going to tell their friends about my product if no one needs it? Probably Not. Are they going to shout to the world how great our product is if no one actually NEEDS it? NO! Okay, I'm done]

If anyone has a better start up question list, please let us know about it. Maybe we are missing something very crucial. Thanks for your time and have an awesome day. [By the way check out this great day to day blog I found by Angelo Bell]

~Chais

Has your inner voice ever said: ” You can’t do that.” “You’re going to fail.” “You’re hopeless.” “You don’t know anything.”? Sometimes hitting bottom is the process you have to go through so you can then pull yourself back up and dust off. I feel like the “hitting bottom” part is what Chais and I are experiencing right now. Not in our relationship, not in our businesses, but in our finances. We are making “ends meet”, but I haven’t experienced the “living pay check to pay check” reality in over a year. I became accustom to making $60,000 a year between Chais and I, and now we could easily say that we now only make maybe $20,000 a year. My stomach is in knots, I am fearful for our future. I came across a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, which became a strengthening tool to quit my job and go on my own…and is now a quote I read so I don’t forget why I quit : “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” Let’s talk about fear. The upside and downside of fear according to Kim Kiyosaki:

“Fear has it’s upside. Fear alerts us to possible life-threatening situations…there is a markedly positive side to fear. There is also a destructive side to fear. While fear can warn us of life-threatening events, it can also be a killer – a killer of dreams, of opportunities, of our own personal growth and passion, of living our life to its absolute fullest.”

So at this $40,000 a year drop in income, it’s very fearful. How are we going to make ends meet? I have severe trouble with my hips, and have recently been going to the physical therapist twice a week …how are we going to pay for the medical bills? How are we going to make it to an upcoming family vacation, in which my dad thinks we have the money to pay our way? There are so many fears I am currently having. Honestly, this fear is going to gradually paralyze me if I let it, in which I am currently letting happen. I can’t. Looking back, this fear in not life threatening…it’s my opportunity for growth, my opportunity to expand myself.

“It’s often through this type of agitated process that we grow the most. And when you come through it it’s exhilarating! You are not the same person you were before the process. Think of it this way: fear is how we grow. Instead of dreading fear, look it straight in the eye and know you’ve just uncovered your next level of growth…if you so chose seize it.” ~ Kim Kiyosaki

I will seize it because this is my journey to the reward. The reward of living financially free, and being able to say “Although we struggled, Chais and I did this on our own, and now we are not the same people because of it, we are exhilarated and free.”

*Shawna

This is my first post to a blog not to mention my first post to my husband and I’s blog. I thought I would take a swing at it. I am reading one of my favorite books “Rich Women”; by Kim Kiyosaki , and in the mean time have been collecting my thoughts on what to write to you all. My husband and I quit our jobs in May because we wanted to learn to be free financially on our own, and to be free of 9 to 5. To be quite frank, I just hated being told what to do by someone who only cared about their company and not their employees. So now what do I do? I can either lay around all day, feel sorry for myself, and constantly worry about money, or I can take control. “Its time to we take control” states the title of Kim’s book on page 41, which continues,

“We finally came to the point where we simply had had enough of this chaos that we created. Robert (Kim’s husband) came to the conclusion that no one was going to make his life better except him and that it was time for bold measures. I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself. I stopped blaming everyone else for my circumstances. And the two of us simply made the decision to take control of our future and to get to work. So we did.”

I feel like its the “So we did” part that has actually been the hardest for me. I have come to the conclusion that no one is going to make my life better except me, but where do I go now? How to I make this happen? Recently, which was not soon enough, I become motivated to ACTUALLY start getting work done. Not that I wasn’t bringing in some cash flow before, but now I really need to do that along with getting my dream business up and running. “The list of things to do for my future” became the title, now I have to make the list happen, now I have to take control, now I have to start my journey to love my “job”, my life and become financially free. So how does one become financially free? That is a whole new post in itself!

P.S. I would love to hear how you have taken control of your life.
*Shawna

We decided to organize our lives [online].

At our home office we can have filing cabinets, cupboards, and shelves full of our business stuff but that doesn’t make it very easy to access something if you are out of town. Sure you can store some stuff on your portable computer (if you have one) which we don’t have currently. You can even keep all your stuff on your office computer and VNC into it if you need to email yourself some files (but that is a pain in the butt). So we’ve decided to use a Media:Wiki in our pursuit of complete online organization.

I have to be honest with everyone, it is not the easiest to set up at first, but well worth the time and energy if you like to mess around with ftp clients , hosting providers , and HTML editors . If you would rather save the frustration and time (your time is your money after all) than take a look at some really neat options from a company called 37 signals . Basecamp is probably one of my favorites, but they are all great if the fit your needs.

Here is an example of what the Media:Wiki looks like (a very boring version, that I haven’t customized at all yet).

Happy Organizing,

~Chais Meyer

Now that we’ve been doing this, “working on our own”, thing for a few weeks now, I’ve determined that there has to be a perfect [cash work v.s. building work] ratio.

This may sound a little confusing so let me explain. Out of every day my wife and I work on our own, we have 2 major objectives and goals we need to accomplish:

1) Do things that will bring in Cash [hereinafter known as "cash items"] (If we don’t have Cash, we don’t have possible business growth, but more importantly we don’t pay our own personal bills [or eat]).

2) Do activities that are geared towards growing our businesses for the future [hereinafter known as "growth items"] (not necessarily providing funds for us on a daily basis, but making our businesses more complete.)

Now that you can see our daily goals objectives, what do you think our daily schedule should look like?
-Do we spend 50% of our day on cash items and 50% on growth items (50/50 ratio)? How can we make enough cash if we only spend 50% of our day on cash items?
-Or do we spend 80% of our day on cash items and only 20% of it on growth items (80/20 ratio)? How can a business grow if you only spend 20% of your days on growth items?

Remember out of every dollar (USD) we make, we only get to use 40% (this is explained in “The 30% Rule” post) of it (.40 cents) on our businesses and ourselves personally (after withholding income tax).

We don’t know what the perfect ratio is and would love to hear from someone that has a better idea.
Please post your comments if you have them, we would love to hear from you.
~Chais Meyer

I am realizing a few things about my life: I have bad credit because of my irresponsible past, I no longer work for an employer and I depend upon my wife’s and my work habits for how we live, and I have very few professional relationships for help and advice.

I came to terms with it.

Now I’m doing something about it.

I met with a banker today that allowed me to ask every question under the sun that had to do with my wife’s and my future. So I did, and the nice man from Wells Fargo Business Banking Department Answered my questions.

[C] = Chais Meyer, [W] = Wells Fargo Man – [Below is a paraphrased version of our conversation]

[C] What are some steps I can do to help fix my credit score (besides paying bills on time)? I want it to be easier to get a mortgage for future real estate investment properties?

[W] A Main tip for your credit score to be top notch is called the 50% rule, do not have more than 50% of your total
available credit card liability used. Stay under that amount and that will do two things, You will be using credit in a positive way (building credit), and You will not be abusing it (maxing your cards out) and the credit card companies will see those as a huge positives. Another thing to consider is your limit on credit cards. If you have $20,000 available credit on 4 different cards, to creditors that is saying that any given moment you could (only if you wanted to) spend $80,000 dollars on whatever you want (bad news).

[C] While I am working on my credit, to get it up where it needs to be, what can I be doing in the meantime to build a relationship with the local banks (getting ready to borrow money for investments)?

[W] One thing that will really help is a CD Guaranteed note , purchase a CD (for a value of $250-$1000, a small amount) and use it as collateral on a personal loan from your bank. [side note: if you were to save up $1000 and purchase 2 CDs @ $500 a piece, from 2 different banks, and then use those CDs to get a $500 note (loan) from each bank, you would then be able to use the loan money from the banks to pay off your loans monthly. This Process is guaranteed to build your credit (as long as you pay on time) and build professional business relationships.] A very easy way to help yourself out for the future.

[C] So, after I have built some professional relationships and have been working on my credit, what are some rules that I need to know before I come to a bank for a mortgage?

[W] The main question we ask ourselves is, is there enough cash flow to be able to afford this extra payment? Debt Service Coverage ratio : What is the ratio of income compared to your total monthly debts (not including household utilities, etc.) ? We look at the loan payment for the Mortgage, Property taxes, etc. Your bare minimum debt service coverage ratio should be 1.25. [click on the link above for a more detailed description.]

[C] O.k., the last thing, What kind of down payment will I need to have to purchase an investment property?

[W] It all depends on who is purchasing it (Personally or through a business entity ), and if the owner will be living in it or not.

1) If a business entity is purchasing a property and it is owner occupied, you can expect to pay at least 20% down.

2) If a business entity is purchasing a property and it is not owner occupied, you can expect to pay at least 25-30% down.

3) If a person is purchasing a property and it is owner occupied, you can expect to pay at least 10-20% down.

4) If a person is purchasing a property and it is not owner occupied, you can expect to pay at least 40% down.

This was a great meeting and very informative, Thanks to the Wells Fargo Man for giving us a little insight in the banking world. I hope this time spent will help others that have an interest in real estate investments and getting your life in order.

~Chais Meyer

As it turns out, if you are married and going into business with your wife, you need to focus on working as a team (or it really sucks!).

My wife and I are building our businesses as we speak, and there have been moments that I am more worried about my business models than hers. [by the way, try to stay away from the "mine and hers" mindset, it's dangerous if you're trying to work together] This has led to many arguments and needless to say, not much lovin’.

The Problems – [P]

The Solutions we came up with – [S]

[P] Business models require a lot of time, energy, thought, and planning, and it’s hard to do it myself.

[S] We have decided to dedicate a certain portion of every day to help each other’s business models. It really helps with creativity, as well as getting some outside (if you consider your spouse an outsider) opinions.

[P] Not being motivated to work @ the best of our abilities because we don’t feel like the other cares about our business.

[S] Care About Each Others Businesses! If we are not caring about each others businesses (especially when passion is involved), than we are not caring about each other.

It is really amazing how much more work we get done, and how much we are willing to work together if I am thinking about my wife as a spouse, and a friend, and not a business associate. Don’t compete with your Spouse, work together!

~Chais Meyer

We are following this rule with our finances that we call the 30% rule. 30% of all income we bring into our household (after we take out our Personal income tax) goes into 3 different areas:
10% goes into an Investment account [look for a blog later about high interest/low cost investment accounts], this account is designed to be put towards investments that bring in Cash flow.
10% goes towards tithing/charity. We are believers that if don’t give when we are small, we won’t give when we are big.
10$ goes into a (money market 5% return) savings account that is designed for Emergencies or other investment opportunities where we need up front cash.

Now the rules to this sound pretty simple, take the 30% out of all income before you do anything else with it & Do Not Take Money Out Of These Account When Times Are Tough (except for the Emergency Savings account of course). That is probably the most challenging part.

Q: What do I do if my bills are more than the money I have left over after I take my 30% out?
A: Well, you can either find a way to Make more money, or pay what you can to the bill collectors. We are not telling you to not pay your bills, we believe that it is very important to pay your bills and on time (be responsible and at least contact the businesses you owe money too). But if it comes between being able to purchase investments (that will feed you for the rest of your life with passive income) or paying every single bill the full amount, we would choose the first. This is designed to challenge us & you to push harder to make things happen faster, for us, it is a much needed exercise.
By the way, the term “Pay Yourself First” comes from the book:

~The Meyer’s