Pajama Entrepreneur

I am in San Francisco for the Supernova 2007 conference. I flew in from Amsterdam yesterday afternoon and in the early evening, went to a party sponsored by Jaiku. Today, I chaired a panel on better broadband. There are parties tonight and tomorrow night, plus two more days of conference sessions. I’m exhausted and jet lagged.

The best way to burn out is to ignore the body. That’s why I developed several ways to deal with stress and tiredness.

(1) Take naps: I do this not only when I travel across timezones, but almost everyday. My naps are 10-15 minutes and I wake up refreshed. Nap time for me is 3:00 pm.

(2) Meditate: What happens when you meditate is that you quiet down the white noise in your head. You become more focused when you work, you become more aware of your thoughts and feelings.

(3) Exercise everyday for at least 45 minutes: I run and work out in the health club almost daily (taking a day off). I find that when I exercise, my mood improves. I am actually happier and more creative. I realize this does not seem like “rest” but when I run, it’s meditative.

(4) Go out of town into nature: take a walk in the woods or along the beach, sail, ride your bike or go on a hike.

Unless I get rest, I work less efficiently and I’m crankier. I find my creativity suffers.

The New York Times has an article called Can Blogs Become a Big Source of Jobs which talks about bloggers who get paid to write articles on global blog networks such as b5media (based in Toronto) and those who use blogs to get more business. Consultants and entrepreneurs can attract new business using blogs. Indeed, startups today have blogs to communicate with their users.

The NYT article has not hit on anything new. Many people are already familiar with WeblogsInc (which Jason Calacanis sold to AOL for $25 million) and the fact that they pay bloggers to write about particular subjects. Weblogsinc is an aggregation of blogs on topics ranging from automobiles to gadgets. I am a long-time reader of Engadget and the guy who writes it, Pete Rojas, is well-known in tech circles.

B5media is similar to WeblogsInc because they cover a wide range of topics and run ads across them. The bloggers get a bonus based upon the number of people who read their articles.

While being paid by someone to write a blog is a way to make money from blogging, I did things differently with Muniwireless.com. I set up my own blog and in the beginning, got advertisers for the site myself. Two years ago, I partnered with Microcast Communications to take Muniwireless.com to the next level: conferences, seminars, webinars and a magazine. I went beyond just blogging and with partners, created a small media company.

In all the articles I have read about the business of blogging or bloggers making a living, they never talk about this option. It’s a viable one.

Read my series on how to turn your blog into a media company.

The path I have chosen is not for everyone. It takes a lot of time to set up a blog and maintain it, especially if you host it yourself. Most bloggers go with Blogger.com, Wordpress.com or Typepad. Getting advertising is also not for everyone. It’s time consuming and most people don’t even know where to start. Signing up with a blog network such as B5Media or Weblogsinc may be the best way to make a living through blogging.

I came across the Open Coffee Club for entrepreneurs, which is located in cities around the world. Local entrepreneurs create clubs on Meetup.com or Upcoming.org and meet.

When I saw this mentioned on Read Write Web, I thought, “The bubble is back. This looks like First Tuesday.” But I will be going to our local coffee club in Amsterdam on Thursday and let you know if  indeed it’s First Tuesday brought back from the dead.

There is no excuse today to pass out boring business cards. For inspiration, check out this article with lots of photos of truly beautiful and quirky cards.

But if your budget is small (like most starting entrepreneurs), try Moo. They will print business cards for you using images from Flickr and other photo sites. And they ship everywhere in the world.

Recommended reading for anyone who decides to start a business is James Dyson’s autobiography entitled Against the Odds which Jason Fried of 37 Signals calls “one of the best books about design, business, invention, and entrepreneurship I’ve ever read.” Click here to read Jason’s post.

Dyson is the inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner. He calls the inventor’s life one of “failure” but adds that often you learn more when an experiment does not work out.

An excerpt from an interview with Dyson:

We’re taught to do things the right way. But if you want to discover something that other people haven’t, you need to do things the wrong way. Initiate a failure by doing something that’s very silly, unthinkable, naughty, dangerous.

[Via 37 Signals]

I started this blog because more of us are starting businesses (as I did with my blog Muniwireless.com) and some of us even run them in pajamas.

This site devoted to a lifestyle — for people who don’t have to go to an office everyday, suffer through nasty commutes and put up stupid office politics. Many of us left big companies so we could work on OUR projects. We are passionate about our work and believe that it should be fun and meaningful. We love our independence and want to determine how we spend our time.

Among the things we want to know:

- how do I organize my work so I can do it from anywhere (Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, San Francisco)?

- what are the best home office chairs?

- what online applications should I consider so I can do my work outside the home/office?

- how can I furnish my home office (or any office) with style but on a budget?

- who are the other Pajama Entrepreneurs out there and what useful tips do they have?

- how do I find balance in my life so I am not working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week?

- where are the best Wi-Fi hotspots around the world?

- which mobile phones, laptops, Wi-Fi tablets and other gadgets should I consider?

- where are the cool places for PJ entrepreneurs to hang out?

I want to hear from other pj entrepreneurs out there about their inspiration for starting out on their own and tips they can share with others.