Doug Hood - Invoice is King

Invoice is King

Wednesday, 11. February 2009, 15:36:09

It's Wednesday again, but it is no longer a "day off" as it were. I called it that last week, but that's really a misnomer because the genuine purpose behind reducing my hours "at work" was to put the energy saved into creating an income at PMA Consulting. My mantra when I got this job was "it is way better than nothing" and although true, it is not a motto that you can fly at the van of an army or use to inspire greatness in a ball team in the lockers prior to going out for the second half of the game. It just hasn't got the same ring as "remember the Alamo" or ". . . the shores of Tripoli"; the 300 Spartans aren't going to rally to "it's better than nothing". So I need a much better motto, something that better reflects the purpose of this endeavor. Something along the lines of DO SOMETHING FOR WHICH I CAN COLLECT MONEY today. That's close, but not quite, because I don't really have to collect the money today, just be confident that I can collect the money in the near future.
DO SOMETHING INVOICEABLE
Yeah, I know it isn't a word, but we can chalk it up to poetic license for this week, I like the ring and I'm going to use it.

You might have noticed that we've got a lot of neighbors and friends that are seriously underemployed today. It might well be postulated that we'll have even more as we march bravely into what 2009 has in store for us.

Most of those folks are not entrepreneurs, so their energy is going to be spent flooding the postal service with resumes and applications or maybe going back to school to polish up some marketable skills that they can put on that resume. I would like to suggest that a better exploitation of those resources would be "do something invoiceable". If you find yourself underemployed--which is definitely my situation, the fact that someone can buy a person of my calibre for $20k/year is almost nauseating to admit--then maybe you should adopt my new motto.

When you are NOT underemployed, you happily commit 40-60 hours a week to arriving at and creating upon your vocation, the sun shines, you notice birds singing and roses blooming and life is pretty good. Our index of that state is usually money and we entice an employer into giving it to us. Finding that employer today isn't as easy as it was in recent years past, and the prospects for the immediate future aren't very good, so I'd like to suggest that we find multiple short term employers whom we can give an invoice. The game is to become much less UNDERemployed and the first step is admitting that you are now in a state of UNDERemployment, not UNemployment. Those of you that are collecting an unemployment claim because you don't have a "real job" are really suffering from a state of UNDERemployment. Completely inadequate expoitation of your considerable resources. So start by defining those resources. I like using a white board, but paper works really well for this too, having it posted on the wall conspicuously is an important part of this technology.
SCHEDULING:
The first obvious resource is your time. Write down a standard schedule and then adhere to it. Have breakfast eaten and cleaned up in time to go to work and be in your seat at the computer and "logged in" at the beginning of your work day, work through to lunch and then be back and logged in after lunch until the end of your day. Do that for the five days a week you've chosen as your standard schedule. Honor that schedule, you might have to ask your boss permission to shift days off for the week, but when you give yourself that permission don't lose sight of the need to get your 40 hours of production out of that week.
BattlePlan:
Write a battleplan for tomorrow before you end your day and ensure it is written with my motto constantly in mind. Do something invoiceable. A battleplan can be a simple "To Do List", but that really is the irreducable minimum, better would be a full blown Business Plan suitable for selling to a loan officer at the local Community Credit Union (notice I didn't use the "B" word). Take care, however, to avoid going into a pure organize that loses sight of the almighty invoice. Use a careful balancing act between coping through to the invoice and organizing against a future that you are creating. Organizing is much more fun, but it is coping your way through the obstacles doggedly pursuing the invoice that puts food on the table and pays down the credit card bills.
Weekly report:
I think Diary Technology is one of civilizations most powerful tools. End your week with a report to yourself of progress made toward your goal. Do not fail to report the amount of money you invoiced last week and target yourself to invoice more money next week. Use that target in next week's battleplan.
Do good works and broadcast that fact loudly:
This is not a silent activity folks. The obnoxious and even obstreperous ones are the early winners of this game. This technology will work for the quiet and timid also, but not nearly as quickly or effectively. Bulk emails, bulk mailings to purchased lists, lots of phone calls, flashy webpages and personal letters out are all part of the OBNOXIOUSNESS FACTOR, use them liberally and without apology.
The purpose is not money:
The almighty invoice I've been referring to is a remuneration for the service you've rendered. I should probably have started this article with this paragraph, but it should still serve here. Money is important, maybe even vital, but it isn't that banner that will get you out of bed in the morning or drive new customer-client-patient's to your door. The purpose is some kind of service or product delivered in excellent form and properly invoiced. Money is particularly nice in that it is a number that can easily be put on a graph to index your effectiveness at delivering on your purpose, but it is NOT THE PURPOSE. Keep that in mind while you're pencilling up your exploitable resources and writing your first battleplan.