I like to comment on blogs or Why Don't You Start a Speaker's Bureau

Google Alerts tells me that one of my books was mentioned on someone's blog, so, before getting down to other work, I take a look and leave a comment. I think that's a pretty good practice for people like me and it's one of the assignments I give to students in my WriteSpeak classes, so I usually attempt to do it at least once a day.

As usual, I waxed prolix, so after tweeting the URL so others will look at the nice blog (as a courtesy to the blogger, who is trying to find some kind of business to start) I have adapted my comment and 'repurposed' it as a post on the Life of a WriterSpeaker. (It bothers me when a word I don't like is the best word to use, but 'repurposed' wins today.)

I'm pretty sure it won't be of much use to the person who has the blog, to be honest. I think they want to sell sporting goods. But, hey, we do what we can.

Ah, but now I must first tell one of my dad's favorite jokes, since I see that what I've done is a perfect example of it:

It's nighttime and a man walking down the street sees another man searching for something at the foot of a streetlight. The first man tries to help with the search and asks, 'What did you lose?'
'I lost a quarter,' says the searcher.
'Oh. Where did you drop it?'
'Over there, in that dark alley.'
'But that's 30 feet away!' says the first man. 'Why are you searching here?'
'Because,' says the searcher, 'this is where the light is.'


MY COMMENT TO THE BLOGGER:

Thanks for including I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was, as well as the other book I'm familiar with (and like very much), Barbara Winter's Making a Living Without a Job. I think we both come from the same place regarding starting your own business: keep it small and creative, if you've got money, don't risk it.

I never had much capital to invest and banks weren't interested in single moms with 2 little kids and miniscule child support, for which I can only thank them. Smith and Hawken authored a book I read some years ago, don't have it now so I hope I'm getting that 'Smith' part right, but it said loud and clear, 'Don't borrow money.' Their idea is that you develop your wits by relying on ingenuity.

I agree with another comment that every startup takes a huge amount of work which is one reason I advise basing a business on something you enjoy doing. The other reason is that, if you love something, you're probably gifted at it. That means you have a fine chance of standing out from the crowd and will benefit greatly by rattling some pots and pans to let the world know you exist. (Like having a blog, and commenting on other people's blog).

For my part, I always loved service businesses. No overhead, no inventory to speak of, and if the motor sputters out while you're flying, you can land anywhere, gas up cheaply and take off again. If I didn't know which services I could provide, or didn't want to provide any, I'd ask people to give me some specific ideas. On that premise, I shall give you one specific idea:

This morning, in your position, I believe I'd start a speaker's bureau of some new and fabulous kind, hitherto unheard of. (I have no idea what that would be, but if I needed ideas, I'd head right over to my bulletin board (www.barbarasher.com/boards), go into the Wishes and Obstacles forum and open a new topic with this:

"Wish: to start a speakers bureau of some new and fabulous kind, hitherto unheard of.
Obstacle: Can't imagine what that would be."

Thousands of Sherboarders might see your wish and obstacle, hundreds might jump in to answer it. People love to help people on the Internet (as evidenced in the thoughtful comments you're getting here) and the people on my boards are very smart and generous.

I'd also go to #IdeaParty on Twitter, and ask the same thing (shortening the words 'Wish' and 'Obstacle' to their first initials to save space). #IdeaParty brainstorming is hottest on Thursdays, but it's always open and, after a little wait, you'll get, umm, a few more people than my bulletin board can provide (like a couple million), some of whom might be curious enough to scare up some interesting information for you.

Then, if I were you, I'd head over to HARO (HelpAReporter.com) to see if I could find some speakers to interview and I'd return the favor by helping to publicize them on a blog. They'll tell you what they need, what they're not getting, what they wish was available.

(I might wait until I was launched before sharing *all* my new information with the world, but then I might write a book and call it 'How We Started A Speakers Bureau and Made A Fortune.' :-) No one in any of my classes has ever picked that subject so the field might be wide open. :-)

For more information, you might search google for 'motivational speakers' which will take you to loads of websites. Once there, find out who one would contact in order to book them, and then find the website of that bureau. See how they operate, who they handle, where they brag about placing their speakers.

You might want to book speakers at teh same places, focusing on on the spillover, the really great speakers who don't often get hired by big corporations. Established bureaus aren't usually interested in such people. (Another reason I love tiny businesses with low operating costs: you can get fat on what falls off the big boys' tables>)

Or you might want to handle the whole structure differently, in some original, hitherto unimagined manner, such as a co-op, or a wiki (I don't really know how that would work, actually) or some model that isn't the same old lemonade stand. (A great place to get unexpected ideas is Springwise.com (New business ideas spotted around the world). In fact, I think Springwise itself is a great model for a speakers' bureau (Unusual speakers spotted around the world). Like, um, those free bicycles in Amsterdam - you take one and ride it to where you're going and leave it there and someone else takes it from there. (I'm getting a picture of two or three speakers standing by a bicycle rack. Not good, but I'm sure you can do better.)

Back to the real world: for informational interviewing, I'd contact college and university booking agents. They're usually students and often very willing to share their information about (or complaints with) speakers bureaus.

On the other hand, it kind of looks like you might want to sell sporting goods and if so, disregard every word I've said. I like to come up with micro-business ideas after my morning whopping cup of strong coffee, just to use up the extra caffeine.

In case anyone who reads this comment cares, I find big businesses to be mostly a bad influence on our world, and pushcart or kitchen-table businesses to be the delightful, creative heart and soul of it. I'm pretty sure you want to start a small business, so, whatever you do, I wish you all the luck in the world.

WISHCRAFT'S 30th BIRTHDAY BASH - THE GLOBAL TWIP

We put up a special website for it at http://www.barbarasherwishcraft.com/ and you'll find many letters there and entries on (yet another of my) blogs at that site.

There's even a cute pdf eBook that will show you some of the wonderful things that happened and give you a sense of the excitement. I've updated it slightly so you can visit it again without me being embarrassed. I've included that with a bit more detail here:

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The 24-hour Global Twitter Idea Party happened last March and was exhilarating and exhausting. We launched one dream after another as we systematically moved through every time zone on the planet, engaging the services of superb hard-working volunteers including Success Team leaders with multi-language skills.

(There's a terrific free PDF eBook about the whole thing on the home page at www.barbarasherwishcaft.com that includes a nice example of a dream launch. (You'd better copy and paste that URL. It's got an illogical spelling hidden in there. I did it on purpose, for reasons not interesting enough to explain here, but if you're dying of curiosity, you know where to find me: @BarbaraSher on Twitter)

Where was I?

I really want to do another TWIP in 2010, I'm thinking New Year's Eve and into the next day, 24 hours like before, but my assistant (who organized the whole thing) has threatened to quit and the many wonderful people who pitched in to make it happen aren't answering my calls, so, you know, it's not definite.

It was a production, I admit. It included teleconferencing for the whole 24 hours to accommodate people who didn't have computers, as well as tweeting like lunatics for people who only had computers, which meant we were darting between messages so everyone knew what everyone else was saying at all times. Someone would call in to ask for help getting a new job in Kansas, their message would be heard by all teleconferencers including the TWIP person in charge of Twitter online -- but to make sure she heard it, the helper in charge of telephones would shout it out to her on a private line -- and he or she would frantically type it in and wait for responses (and oh boy did we get responses).

Then the Twitterer would shout out the responses to the teleconferencer -- or did we tweet it so the telephone person read it -- who can remember these things?

Anyway, it should have been a disaster. Instead, it was a triumph.

Everybody was having a ball. It was the best party ever, I'm sure of it, so it seems very sensible to do it on New Year's Eve.

But apparently people do other stuff that night. I've never understood that.

For now, you can be part of the ongoing TWIP by searching Twitter for#ideaparty. Tell us your wishes and obstacles and we'll try to make your dreams come true. We're not bad at it, and it's free. The big problem is that everyone wants to solve problems but not enough people are asking for help, so be a mensch and go ask for something. Why would you not do that?

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Go take a look at www.barbarasherwishcraft.com if you're of a mind. I tell some pretty good true stories of my beginnings as a writer/speaker in the blog there and my heroes (aka my readers) have told their stories, way more interesting, under 'Love Letters.'

If you've ever wanted my job, and I hope lots of you have because I'm happy to help you get it, their stories will show you how right you are.