Recently, I added the following tag line to my blog: thoughts and experiences in starting a career as an entrepreneur. (I thought by placing the focus of my blog on the single thing that consumes nearly 80% of my waking hours I would be encouraged to post more frequently while still capturing things that are important to me, but that’s neither here nor there).

I think the spin I am puting on things is an interesting one. It’s not just about being an entrepreneur, it’s not just about being a first-time entrepreneur. Rather, it’s about being an entrepreneur at the very start of my career, which, if you think about it, is an interesting problem.

You may have heard something along the lines of, “academics are important, but there is no substitute for experience.” [Explitive deleted]! This is so [explitive deleted] true!

I’ve found that in all businesses, but in marketing and interactive especially, the common path for the entrepreneur is to spend a good chunk at one or more big agencies, build some good relationships, work on some cool projects, and sooner or later spin off an agency of their own.

And this makes perfect sense. It’s much easier to do something after you’ve watched someone else do it first. It’s even easier if you’ve assisted that someone in the task. All of that base business-running knowledge that you get by working at different businesses surely helps a great deal when building your own.

So what about us?

Well, the one thing we lack is any real experience. The core at dynamIt are not only first-time entrepreneurs, but we are first time professionals. This lack of experience has put us in some tough situations before, there have certainly been a lot of “wow” moments along the way.

Take for example the concept of pricing. What is an appropriate hourly rate for the type and quality of work we do? This is a tricky question, price yourself too high and be precieved as a rip-off, price yourself too low and do not expect to be taken seriously. Now, imagine trying to answer this question when you’ve never worked in the industry and never purchased from the market.

So, how do we do it? How do we get up to speed? Answer: we imbibe, we soak it all in. Nick spends at least four mornings a week getting coffee or breakfast with various professionals both industry related and not. We’ve got an outstanding advisory board (yeah, they’re good). We surround ourselves with excellent mentors at every chance we get. And, if that doesn’t quite do the trick we try, fail, try again.

When people talk about the importance of (industry) experience, believe me, they’re not making it up. We’ve come a long way already, but those “Ah ha!” moments never cease.

WordCamp, a conference surrounding the open source blogging platform WordPress, was held today in Columbus. As promised, I gave a talk at the conference (for more details on my presentation check out the dynamIt Blog, to which I will post details soon). I must say, the event really exceeded my expectations. I am really glad that I participated. As a local entrepreneur in the industry, I found it beneficial for various reasons.

A networking event.

Although quite feeble, I did make an attempt at networking. I met a handful interesting people some of which are doing some cool things here in town, others on a higher level.

Putting our name out there.

I gave a twenty minute talk presenting a case study on a recent dynamIt project that implemented WordPress. So, if I did not talk to you personally, you were certainly introduced to me. Plus, when you’re introduced to me, you meet dynamIt as well.

So, my decision to speak was admittedly two pronged. I was able to say, “hey, look at us we do good work.” But, I was also able to offer insight into ways to leverage a great tool like WordPress.

Learning from the group.

I did not just come to talk and peace out. I spent the entire rest of the day listening to the other speakers. Here is a run down of what I liked, what I didn’t, and what I learned.

• Jane Wells of Automattic gave the keynote about the future of WordPress. Very cool to get the behind-the-scenes look on where the platform is going. I dug this talk, really got my mind thinking about how we can utilize WordPress to a greater degree in the future.
• Alex Brown of Bricker & Eckler spoke on legal issues in blogging. Also, a good talk, I was able to take away some general thoughts regarding copyright laws and placing content online.
• Mike Krotscheck of Resource Interactive gave a developer-friendly talk about advanced WordPress install which I found to be pretty rockin’. He introduced me to WordPressMU, which I had been meaning to jump into for a while.
• And Finally, Noel Jackson, also an Automattic guy, talked about the future of themes. Noel was an interesting guy with an uber-fresh perspective on design and development. Great talk.

In short, really excited about how the day at WordCamp unfolded.

As a Christmas gift last year, I received a 6 months subscription to Netflix. It’s perhaps the best thing ever. (I could end the post right here and feel good about it, but simple praise is not the real reason I’m writing).

I utilize the Netflix online streaming probably even more than I do DVDs by mail. It’s great, a huge library of online movies I can stream whenever I want. Well, two nights ago I went to throw on a movie and found that their streaming service was down. I was a bit disappointed, but Hulu filled my movie-watching void for that night.

What really makes Netflix special to me is the e-mail that I received this morning. It was a simple letter of apology attached to a 2% credit on my next bill. In a few short paragraphs they said, “I’m sorry we screwed up, let us compensate you for the loss in service.”

It’s not much, I know, but equate this to when your cable TV is out for a day or two (which has happened to me more often than I think it should, thank you Time Warner.) Does the cable company ever make an effort to apologize? Would they ever adjust your bill for loss of service? Simple answer: No.

Thank you, Netflix.

So, I got this crazy idea back in late March that for the summer I was going to do something fun, exciting, risky, scary, and cool all at once. That was, get a motorcycle. Most would agree the motorcycle does not exactly fit my personality. I’m typically quiet, reserved, and cautious. Nevertheless, I do have an adventurous side that yearns for excitement, he talked me into it.

When this idea first popped into my head, I had never been on a bike before, I had no idea how to ride, and the even thought of zipping down the road at 50+ mph had my stomach churning. It was not something that I had be waiting to do for a long time, the thought never crossed my mind in the past.

Long story short, I am proud of myself. When I came to the conclusion that riding a motorcycle would fulfill my criteria (fun, exciting, cool, risky, scary), I just did it. I got my temps, took and passed the Motorcycle Ohio course, purchased a bike, licensed the bike (and myself) and started riding to work, all within 6 weeks. I didn’t waste any time debating it, talking about it, thinking about it, musing over it, etc. I made the choice and then sprang right into action.

To often, I see people talk about some brilliant idea for the longest time and never take it anywhere. I’ve seen this in business on an occasional project where one will dote on an issue that is not all that important anyway thus hurting progress and blowing up timeline and budget. Sure, some critical thinking is essential, a little more can be beneficial as well, but after that, the quicker you can get to an action point, the better.

Luckily, the guys that I work with at dynamIt have a knack for finding that great balance between thought and action.

My advice: Do work. Get shit done.