Entreprenural Tendrils

DIY’ers at Heart. This fall was spent building our second “hoop house” for my wife’s farm business. Finished it just before the snow started!

Those of you who subscribe or follow our blog know that HSC did not start because of a “grand design” of becoming an entrepreneur. Quite the opposite! HSC because of a desire to help in the aftermath of an industrial accident and continued largely due to the serendipity of finding out that we had a lot to offer to organizations.

In fact, our entrepreneurial path was started, and continued, due to the support of, and learning from, others who were, themselves more prone to the avant guard. So, I find it interesting to find that others in my immediate circle either have always had, or have been encouraged to, the interest in using their gifts in entrepreneurial endeavors.

To encourage your own growth toward entrepreneurial adventure, here are a couple examples of what those in my circle are doing. Both, mind you, from a small village of about 2,000 in rural Nebraska. Enjoy!!

My favorite small farmer (my wife) is offering a give away! Amy grows heirloom tomatoes, etible flowers, and “veg” to sell to local chefs. She also sells a few things (cookbooks, and hand made rolling pins) on line. Right now she is running a “flash give away” of her Coon Creek Herbs. Coon Creek Herbs Give Away!

Here it is . . . Coon Creek Herbs.

Andrew, our graphic designer, continues his game development with the release of The Cloud Dungeon, 2nd Edition and his new Fantas/Tragedy video game: Thistledown. The first, being a follow up to his original paper role-playing game chosen that launched as a successful Kickstarter project and that was chosen as a “Staff Pick” by Kickstarter.

Andrew also approached us with a tantalizing idea . . . and if you are a fan of the hilarious audio program “Cabin Pressure” and the John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme . . . watch for an update later in 2020.

So, dream big, people! Follow your passions. Use your gifts. Create and thrive. Test the limits of the possible and find that what success is not elusive but probable.

One Tool to Rule Them All . . . My favorite tool by far!

Wikipedia

"One Tool to Rule Them All, One Tool to find them, one Tool to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."   Someone other than J.R.R. Tolkien

My precioussssss . . .

Ever find something that captivated you like nothing else? Something you could not get off your mind? Something you constantly return to over and over again to find new facets of it's nature and utility?  No, it's not time for a trip to Mt. Doom to rid Middle-Earth of the dangerous ring. It's only an awe-inspiring app called Trello.

Trello is by far my favorite tool. I use it for almost everything I do as an entrepreneur and consultant. Among other things too numerous to mention, I use Trello to: track my business operations, market my business, store and deliver products and services, communicate and provide value to customers, create "tool carts" of resources to be used again and again with new customers . . . and I just keep finding new ways to use this tool.

The best thing about Trello is that it is so flexible and so intuitive.  You can learn to use it in minutes and you can still be finding new ways to use it after more than a year. Oh, another nice feature is it is free for the basic app--which will be all that most users need.

I am so excited about Trello that I have trained my HSC consultants on using it, provided a free web-training, and tout it's use to my customers.  Finally, because others continue to ask, I decided to record a video of my basic training so it can be shared by more people.

Pic by . . . me.  Hobbiton near Matamata, New Zealand

While Trello itself has really good resources to train you on it's use (and I would recommend using them) they often are very broadly applied--there simply are so many ways to use Trello that it would be impossible to target the training to a specialized interest. Thus you often have to search out applications that help you apply Trello's usefulness to your business needs.

In training consultants, I demonstrate the basic structure of Trello, introduce them to the common features they need to understand, and then show them the many ways we have put this to use working as a consulting firm. We think it will open up new ideas for how consultants can increase your efficiency and make the work easier. If you check it out, just don't get too obsessed with it, you don't want to end up like Frodo.

Available eBooks:

Private Practice through Contracting: Decreasing dependence on insurance.

Engaging Your Team: A framework for managing difficult people.

Family Legacy: Protecting family in family business.