My friend Tim Crane and his girlfriend, Stacy Fesler were robbed at gunpoint in Dallas, Texas on April 23; in broad daylight.

Three Shots were fired, all missed their target.

I'm happy to report that Tim and Stacy, while shaken, were unharmed in the incident.

It really led me to think. If it were my time to go, what impact have I made on society as a whole? What legacy will I leave? What have I done to make this planet a better place? What people have I influenced that made their lives better?

For many, it's that lifelong dream of starting a business. For many it's a business that will have an impact on the world and leave it in a better place than you found it. I for one have spent my entire career as an entrepreneur, but it wasn't just making money, it was the chase I enjoyed. I enjoyed building things and, once successful, became bored with it and subsequently sold those companies. I'm a 3 to 5 year guy at best.

My wife has asked me numerous times why I never hold on to those businesses. "I get bored. Once I know how to create traction, the boredom sets in," was always my reply. I was always ready to move on to something else that piqued my interest and go learn something new. Most VC's won't touch me. I don't blame them. They want someone that's going to around long term. That's never been me.

In 2003 I had a vision to change that after reading a book, "Half Time" by Bob Buford. It made me look back over my career and contemplate whether I had made and impact on anyone's life. What will my legacy be. Hmmm. And, if I am to leave a legacy, I need to start working on that now.

But for many, you've never even started. You stay at your dead end job, unhappy, knowing inside is a business waiting to get out. I see more and more twenty somethings getting into business. That's awesome. You guys have less responsibilities with family or kids and is certainly easier to do when there aren't the stresses of a mortgage, life insurance, or worrying about what would happen to my family if the business failed. Those are all valid concerns.

But ask yourself this...and this is for anyone of any age. What if....what if your business was successful? What if it gave you the life you always wanted? I'm not talking just money. I'm talking about freedom. Influence. Helping others. What if you could start a business and leave a legacy, at the same time?

Don't get me wrong here. Business is tough. It takes money and more time than a 9-5 gig, but the rewards are huge.

Once your business is going you can always hire more people. In my younger days I had trouble hiring the right people. I also have a tough time letting go and trusting the people I hired to what only I thought I could do. I learned to hire the best, pay them well, take home a little less money, but, I had more time to spend the money I made.

It was a life changing moment for me. I found happiness in life and in business and enabled me to help more people, in less time and still have time to spend with my family. I also had time to spend my wealth on things that created experiences, not just stuff.

You also can create a business. A business that solves social issues. It's okay to make money and do good. I call it, MAKING GOOD BY DOING GOOD.

The question is, have you even started the planning process? How much money do you need? Can you raise the rest? Can you fund it yourself? What's the end result?

The end result should be that your business provides you with an income you are happy with, a retirement plan and will sustain the business as well. There's much that goes into planning a business but you have to start, and start today with the planning process.

You'll never reach your goal of even opening your doors until you commit to the planning process.

I always say, "give me your bank statement and your calendar and I'll tell you where your priorities lie." People spend time and money on their priorities. What are you spending your evening hours and money on?

I challenge you today to start the process of planning your business. Write the performa first. See if your business is going to sustain itself and give you the income you need. Not everyone wants to build the next Google. I certainly don't. I do want to ensure all the businesses I start do reach a certain milestone in revenue. You need to do that too.

What resources will you need? If your business is still just and idea, that's all it will ever be until you start planning.

Personally, I'm at the point in my career I want to start planning on my legacy.

Planning a legacy is no different than planning your business. It's takes years. I have to start planning today.

If today was your last day, what legacy will you leave? One of disappointment and regret? Or, regardless of success, one of a person that lived as a 10, not a 1? One that was self centered or one that helped your fellow citizen's of planet earth?

I'm still amazed at the misinformation from well meaning professionals from Wall Street, CPA's, Attorneys, family members, friends and the many well respected educators in our fine educational system here in the United States when it comes to startups. They have it all backwards. It's not READY, AIM, FIRE...it's READY, FIRE, AIM. Sure there are exceptions to any rule and businesses are full of them. However, if you truly want to be an entrepreneur, wouldn't you want to learn from those that have done it?

When I started my first business, mowing lawns at 14 years old, I didn't balance any books, I didn't keep track of customers, what my costs were or track my profits or calculate cost in a bookkeeping software platform. I just did it. But, as I think back I did all of this in my head. I knew what my maintenance costs were on my mower, what the mower cost, blade sharpening costs, fuel, how much fuel each yard took and how much I would make on each yard. Usually about $18 a yard in profit. That was 1980 so a gallon of gas was $1.25. Now that I'm older I realized I never included labor and many other costs. The fact is, I just did it. I started another business in 1987 the same way.

When I started my first real company in 1992, I started printing tee shirts at first. I had no business cards, and frankly no business. Not legally. I had my customers pay me in cash or if they did pay me with a check they made it out to me personally. It was about 3 months after I started that I finally filed a business name with the state and started keeping books. A year later I partnered up with a guy, he printed while I went out and sold during the day. It wasn't long before we started printing bumper stickers, signs and banners which catapulted me into the billboard printing business. We focused solely on billboards and no longer printed anything else. It was much easier then because we had very little competition. I think there were 25 competitors in all of Dallas / Fort Worth. By the time I sold the company in 1995 we were a $37 million dollar company and the yellow pages had five pages of my competitors. While I do things a bit differently these days, I still follow some of the same rules. The big one; Just Do It.

I've since started a total of 16 companies, multiple acquisitions and hundreds of millions of dollars have passed through my hands by selling those companies.

It frustrates me to see so much poor advice for startups. I read books and blogs all the time from folks that have never been in the trenches. They say things like have an attorney draft your Articles of Incorporation, file a C Corp, write your business plan, do market research, talk to others in the market and see if your product or service, craft your marketing message and a host of other things before you go sell anything.

That's horse puckey. That's Ready, Aim, Fire. Frankly it's poor advice to getting up and running quickly.

I see many startups take this advice and they end up doing nothing. It becomes the old 'analysis paralysis' and it's so overwhelming to the new entrepreneur, they do nothing.  Or worse yet, they fail within 18 months because they spent so much time planning they forgot the once rule of business. You have to sell something. Many would be business owners drop the idea all together because of the start up costs the sages throw at them. I can see where this would be daunting if you can't afford an attorney or business cards.

I have a different approach. One that will have you in business tomorrow.

I do believe in assessing the market and personally like going into markets that aren't crowded or mature, but that doesn't mean it's for everyone. If you are an expert in your corporate job and feel you'd make it on your own. Then do it.  If you are looking to be in business for yourself and merely want to replace your income, or make double or triple or even more than what you are earning now in your corporate job, then listen up. This is for you.

You certainly need to file the necessary legal filings in your state. Do so. It's not only required to open a bank account, it also protects you personally. Of the thousands of entrepreneur's I've consulted over the years, not one has ever been sued, but you certainly don't want to take that risk. So protect yourself. But...you don't need to do that first. You just need to go sell something.

You don't need to conduct market research, ask peers if this is a good idea, or pay some consultant to confirm your idea. Just do it. There are some caveats but I'll cover those later.

Here's my reasoning behind Ready, Fire, Aim.

Getting ready is not a business. That's just an idea.

That's Ready, Aim, Fire.

Ready, Aim, Fire is doing all the things you think you need or have been told to do to get ready to do business. That's not business, that's business planning.You are not a business until you make a sale. Until then it's still an idea. It's a startup.

Here's the old way of Ready, Aim, Fire....and this is certainly not inclusive:

1. Write a business plan
2. Write the supporting performa (financials)
3. Conduct market research (this takes months in some cases and a boat load of cash)
4. Price your products and services
5. Name Your Company
6. Make sure the domain is available
7. File with the state
8. Open a bank account
9. Go get an office and furniture
10. Get phones and internet installed
11. Print business cards, letterhead and envelopes
12. Purchase expensive accounting software (Quickbooks)
13. Now you are in business (which is actually a fallacy)
14. Now plan your strategy, marketing
15. Design beautiful brochures and have them printed
16. Design the website
17. Go Sell something and get that first check

What a waste of time and a huge waste of money. This is all about getting ready. The guru's will tell you to get ready, plan your strategy (AIM) and then go sell.

As I stated before, I've started 16 companies. Many of those I had no company filed with the state, no business cards and no website. I just went out and sold something. Once I had that first check in hand it was time to file with the state and get a bank account open. I don't always do this today but when I do open a new business I follow a very different model these days.

Here's my Ready, Fire, Aim approach:

1. Write the performa (financials). I want to know if the business I'm going into is going to make the money I need. (READY)
2. Go sell it. (FIRE) Get your first check.
3. File with the state (READY)
4. Take the first check and open a bank account (READY)
5. Download FREE accounting software like NCH's EXPRESS ACCOUNTS http://www.nchsoftware.com/accounting/index.html  until you can afford or need a full blown  accounting platform. (READY)
6. Design a FREE website at Wordpress.com (READY)
7. Get FREE business cards at VistaPrint www.vistaprint.com (READY)
8. Use your cell phone and work from home. (READY)
9. Go Sell (FIRE)
10. Revamp your marketing / strategize (AIM)
11. Go Sell (FIRE)
12. Revamp your marketing / strategize (re-AIM)

There's much more to business than one post could ever cover. Or even one book for that matter. The fact is, go sell. Change your strategy, marketing and copy as you go. Learn from others as you go. Seek out advice from other professionals in areas you need help.  You don't need to be perfect right out of the gate. Your strategy and planning will need work as you move forward. But that's the beauty of READY, FIRE, AIM. You make changes in your marketing, sales copy, strategy as you move forward instead of trying to 'get ready' and be perfect from day one. As the saying goes, "you can't steer a ship from the shore."

Businesses change. Markets change. All the planning and strategy session in the world couldn't have prepared you for 911.  By using the Ready, Fire, Aim approach, you'll be in business faster and start making money quicker instead of spending all your time planning. By strategizing as you move forward, you'll have a better understanding of your business, prospects, customers and their needs and how you can customize your service or product to the market.

Let me end with the caveats.

1. You do need to plan financially. You need to write the performa (financials) first. This will allow you to see if your idea is even viable.  Writing the performa will give you insights into the business, what your costs will be and how many sales you will need to reach your goals. Personally I never start a business without a performa. I've even scrapped a business idea if the profits didn't meet my expectations. The fact is, if you aren't making enough to survive you'll close your doors. So knowing before hand if your business will generate enough sales is key.  I've been in the position of having a spouse irritated with me for going 2 years without a salary while I built a company. But I also knew before hand that in year 3 I'd have a company that was generating the income I needed, usually well beyond any job could pay and typically will make up for the past 2 years.  That's why I always start with the performa. Always. If you need a copy of a performa, email me, I'll send you a template I've used for years. It's extremely involved but all you need to do is plug in your numbers. You'll find how much money you need to sustain the business month to month and more importantly, yourself.

2. This is not for every business. Many businesses required inventory, software needs to be developed, people need to be hired. You either need to be able to invest in your own company or you need to find investors to get started. I could write tomes on solving these issues but we'll reserve these solutions for another post. There are solutions to every problem. After consulting thousands of businesses I've resolved many issues for startups and fast growth companies with some creative funding and sales solutions to pretty much any problem a business could face.

So get READY and start FIRING and worry about your AIM tomorrow.

In the summer of 1995 I was in my office interviewing a potential employee when my business mentor, Jerry Server walks in. We were having our weekly lunch meeting so Jerry had arrived a bit early.

"So how much money are you looking for?" I asked the man sitting in front of me.

"About twelve dollars an hour," was his reply.

"Well, the position only pays nine bucks an hour," I said coyly, using my old tactics of getting good talent for cheap.

"Stop!" said Jerry. He look at the man, he looked at me. "Is this man worth hiring at all?" asked Jerry.

"Of course he is, he came highly recommended by a friend" I replied.

Jerry looks back at the man and said, "You're hired. Come back tomorrow, you'll be working at fifteen bucks an hour."

"But I only need twelve bucks an hour" the man stated."

Jerry repeated himself, "You'll start tomorrow at fifteen dollars an hour. But know this. I'm paying you more than you want. So you can never sit in the corner with your arms folded. You can never say you'll work harder until I pay you more. I am paying you more. I expect you to work your butt off." Agreed? The man agreed and left.

I sat there in disbelief. Did my mentor just hire an employee for me at almost double what I wanted to pay?

"I can't afford that" I said.

"Michael, if this man isn't worth hiring then don't hire him. If he is, always hire people at more than they ask for. They'll work harder, perform better and you'll never have to watch your back."

Jerry was right.

This one fact has allowed me to be extremely successful in hiring talent in my startups over 20 years. I now only hire great talent and over pay what they ask for. But I always tell them exactly what Jerry told that man. "I'm paying you more so I expect more."

Sometimes in business we are always looking at ways to cut costs. Employees are not an area we should do that. As entrepreneur's, many of us hire the wrong people for the wrong reasons. We hire the cheapest talent and frankly we usually end up getting what we pay for. We also end up churning good talent and the hiring process continues a vicious cycle.

Hire the best and pay them well. And, continue to give them bonuses, raises and other incentives to keep good talent.

You'll stop the vicious cycle of hiring and you'll attract and keep good talent, regardless if they make $15 bucks an hour or $250k a year.

We are changing the game of business. Everything has gone online, digital and mobile. For startups, whether on or offline, whether mobile or not it's a confusing place to find the information you need, all in one place. Instead of searching all over the internet to find a question to a business problem, you can now network to have that solved quickly.

This will be a member run and members helping members website.

We need YOU.

if you are an expert in HR, Legal, Biz Dev, Sales, Marketing, SEO, Mobile Apps, software DEV, CRM, voip or any other product or service a business may need, we want to help promote your business.

1. Be our partner...

2. Reap financial rewards for running a local networking group  (this is NOT MLM) (we have an extremely well thought out pay plan ...up to 50%....launch date TBD)

3. Allow us to promote you as the expert in your field

Here's how it works:

We are (right now) building a web and mobile app that will network businesses with the products and services they need...with people like YOU.

The website will offer the following:

1. CoFounders. Don't have a ton of cash to launch your idea? Network with other members to help you get launched. Find business partners.

2. Capital. With our network of angel investors, angel funds, VC's etc...and with the coming of Crowd Funding, we'll help you get funded at any stage.

3. Customers. We'll promote our CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS (more on that later) and their business to our members. We'll want to link to your blog, twitter feeds etc...it's a two fold exchange....you do what you do...HR, Legal, Consulting....you don't have to do anything except educate our members...and well promote you and your business to our members. Post and bid on projects.

4. Consulting. We are looking for key players in major markets. You'll become partners with us, at no cost, to promote the brand.

Memberships:

1. Member. Business owners and startups that merely use the site

2. Contributing Members. Members that use the site...AND....have a B2B business, excellent reputation, ethical and honest in all their business dealings...will contribute by educating startups and SMB's in a specific area of business....you must be an expert in your area of expertise. You'll be able to categorize the areas you are an expert in when you log in. Your contributions will be in the form of video, audio, books, articles, blogs. Physical products are not needed at this time. You are a member and one of our EXPERTS we rely on to educate startups and SMB's looking to grow their company.

• Contribute to the education of startups and business owners via your own blog, articles, books, audio's and video's
• We'll market you as THE expert in your area of expertise
• The goal is to get your phone to ring with paying customers
• It's a two way street for you. You educate our members, our members will hire you.
• Be a guest speaker on our weekly webinars
• Host your own branded site in your city...and...reap financial rewards for being our partner.
• Allows you to network with other experts and help your customers in your current business.

What Members get: (what YOU get as a member)

1. Education. Members can view videos, listen to audios, interviews, webinars, articles on any area of business. Fully searchable. We all know that 95% of business owners and startups cannot afford us, won't use us, or will waste our time. That's ok. We are all here to help. The other 5% will use us and pay us to solve their problems. That's the goal.

2. CoFounders. Network with other like minded entrepreneur's to help each other get an idea off the ground with little to no capital....and...get a demo up and working...get to that first sale.

3. Capital. Funding is much easier once revenue is generated and / or proof of concept is proven. Investors love this. We'll have a funding match service between our members and investors. This is key to targeting the right kind or investor for you and the investor.

4. Customers. By being a member, we'll market your business, in your region, zip code etc. More to come as we roll out. This is the key ingredient to our site. You'll be able to post or bid on projects posted by other business owners.

5. Consulting. Contributing Members will be promoted in their area of expertise. This is where you come in. You provide us links to your blog, videos, audios, articles etc...we'll automatically link them to our site. You don't have to do anything...it will never cost you a dime.We'll send you interested parties that need your services. Also, members and contributing members can become part of 'pods' for group consulting or one on one consulting in any specific area of need.

You are helping us build ONE website for startups and entrepreneurs. Instead of startups an business owners scouring the net for answers, our site will provide everything the need, all in one place.

Where we are: (as of 4/30/2012)

Phase One:

Phase One will consist of gathering the EXPERTS. That's YOU. If you own a business in HR, Legal, voip, Web Dev, Finance, Bookkeeping, CPA, Marketing, SEO, Banking, PR...and any other service to startups or small businesses, AND you want to become a contributing member, contact Michael Gilbert on the contact page and let us know you want to be a contributing member.

We will link to your content. (No paid Content)

Phase Two:

Once we have the demo (Alpha) site up...you will be able to:

1. Sign Up on the site

2. Categorize your business / service

3. Post projects / bid on projects

Phase Three

1. Connect with CoFounders

2. Connect with Capital

3. Weekly / Daily Webinars

4. Full content available via webinars, seminars, articles, videos, books, cd's, DVD's...if it educates startups and small business owners, they'll be able to find it here.

So go ahead, let us know if you would like to get involved and contact us via our contact page. We'll get back to you within 24 hours. Please send us the following information:

1. Name of business

2. Website(s)

3. How long in business

4. What area of expertise you can offer

5. Why we should choose you to be our expert in your line of work.

To Your Success,

Michael J Gilbert

Robert Eaton

Co-Founders

Oh trust me when I say I’m talking about myself. But I’m also talking about you as well. US, yes, all of us. Us, Entrepreneur’s, business owners, startups guys.

We are the most arrogant type I know. We seek advice but don’t put it into action. We want to be successful but we do what our competitors are doing instead of forging a trail on our own. We have great ideas but sit around crying and whining about having no money, no time, not enough people on our team with the right skills.

My suggestion…get off your butt, quit your whining’ and go find these people. You may have to talk to 1,000 that understand your dream. You may have to have some MBA asshole tell you how dumb your idea is; although he’s never started a business on his own. And you’ll have to endure your spouse, kids, family and friends tell you to get a job.

But I guarantee you this. Personally, I will not lay on my death-bed with any regrets. As Frank Sinatra said, “…regrets, I’ve had a few, but too few to mention.”

I will not go quietly in the night. No sir.

It’s amazing how many times I’ve listened to the sage advice from highly educated people with zero common sense. Frankly, I’d rather listen to the guy that graduated from 10th grade and has been in the trenches over someone with merely theoretical advice but has never tested it.

It’s seems that the person that always says “everything will be okay”; comes from the person with the least amount of experience.

So, how do we STOP being dumber’na a bag of hammers?

1. Continue to listen to the one’s that have done whatever you are trying to accomplish. Sign up to their blogs. Call them up. Ask them questions. I hear this all the time, ”I want to talk to ________ but they are a big celebrity speaker / author / business owner…blah blah blah." So?! What’s your point? You giving up already?
2. Network with as many people as you can. Be annoying, be different. don’t follow the crowd. Be original. Find the talent you need. Sell the cow pie, not the stink.
3. Find people who like to argue fairly. I don’t need everyone agreeing with me. I don’t need YES men. I need a Devil’s advocate. What have I NOT thought about? Did I think this through?
4. Screw raising money. If you can get your project off the ground with Co-Founders and no money, you’ll be more focused the solution rather than raising capital. Raising capital sucks. It takes your focus off your project and why you were passionate about it in the first place.
5. Sell it. You do not have a business until you sell something. Up until that point, it’s an idea. All Startups are ideas. Real Businesses have revenue. Nuf Said! Always be selling the solution.
6. Fill Your Brain With Good Stuff. (I stole this from Tim Sanders www.sanderssays.com or on twitter @sanderssays. Get rid of your morning newspaper or any negative people that cloud your vision. Read positive articles. Read books and blogs that will inspire you. It’s tough enough being a trail blazer. I don’t need any help stepping in manure. I do that quite often all by myself. Do Not get side-tracked. Stay Focused. Help someone else. Keep smiling.
7. Do it. Get…off…your…butt…and…do…it!!!!! Quit playing games. Delete all games from your computer. All of them. Or any websites that are a distraction. This includes facebook, twitter etc. I have two computers. One for getting work done and one for marketing. This way my twitter and fb account or any other accounts I may have, are not a distraction. If you can’t do this, at least shut them down until ALL of your work is done. You’ll get more done in 2 hours than most people do in 8.
8. Pareto was a liar. You know…the 80/20 rule. With technology, we have found that the rule is more like 90/10 or worse 95/5. We certainly cannot continue to try and do everything ourselves. Find good talent, sell them the idea. Pay them well. Rinse, Repeat.

Look, all startups and small businesses are about sales. You can go about it on your own or connect with people that can help you reach your dreams. You can’t play CTO, CFO, CMO…you need help. Find the one thing you know well and fill the team with people that are passionate about what you are doing that fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle.

I like being dumb some days. It’s only then I can surround myself with real talent. Talent that is smarter than me in the areas where I am weak.

So open your bag of hammers and get to pounding the streets.

And remember, just be Too Stupid To Quit and Too Smart To Fail.