Management Also Means Communicating Clearly

By Amy Wise

In 2009, Brandon Pearce was living in Utah and was a successful piano teacher. This means that Brandon works for a living while still doing what he enjoys. But Brandon was also very curious and wanted to combine his interest in technology with his passion for teaching music. When he thought about the colleagues he knew, he saw a convergence betw

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amy Wise
• Release date: Oct 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9798868952685

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Management Also Means Communicating Clearly

Management Also Means Communicating Clearly

Copyright © 2023 by Amy Wise

All rights reserved

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 : MUSIC TEACHER

CHAPTER 2 : WHO DO I ADMIRE

CHAPTER 3 : BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY ANNUAL REPORT 1988

CHAPTER 4 : JEFF WILKE HASN'T ALWAYS BEEN SOFTER THAN BEZOS.

CHAPTER 5 : YOU WANT TO BE A CEO?

CHAPTER 1 : MUSIC TEACHER

In 2009, Brandon Pearce was living in Utah and was a successful piano teacher. This means that Brandon works for a living while still doing what he enjoys. But Brandon was also very curious and wanted to combine his interest in technology with his passion for teaching music. When he thought about the colleagues he knew, he saw a convergence between his skills and what they needed.

Music teachers don't want to deal with administrative tasks, Brandon said. they want to teach music. But they always have to spend a lot of time during their working day on these jobs." Scheduling classes, revising class schedules, sending reminders to students – outside of teaching time, all of these things take up a lot of attention and distract from teaching. Furthermore, most music teachers are not collecting all the money that students should pay because sometimes there are missed payments or students are absent from school.

Initially, Brandon had no intention of going into business; he just wanted to solve what he called the problem of disrupting music teachers for himself. The answer is

Music Teacher's Helper, an interface created by Brandon for personal use before transforming it into a one-stop integrated environment for music teachers of all majors. Teachers can create their own websites (without any specialized skills) and manage all matters related to scheduling and invoicing, thus allowing they focus on real teaching that they love.

Is this a market in search of a solution? It is, and this market is significant. Is Brandon giving fish to music teachers? Yes, and because music teachers' budgets are often low, Brandon made sure to highlight the fact that paying for Music Teacher's Helper can actually save them money over time, but to To ensure profitable operations, he was not too rigid about prices. The service is available in several different versions, including a free version for limited usage and later a version priced at $588 per year depending on the number of students[1].

[1] The specific pricing model that Brandon has chosen for his business is an important factor in its profitability. We'll look at pricing and how it relates to total income in Chapters 10 and 11.

Three years later, Brandon's life is completely different. Instead of living in Utah, he now wakes up to the sun in Escazú, Costa Rica, where he lives with his wife and three young daughters. He has ten employees living in different parts of the world. He carefully tracks his time and estimates that he spends 8 – 15 hours a week directly involved in business operations. The rest of his time is spent with his family and various new projects that he pursues for fun.

Brandon and his family once lived in Utah and now they live in Costa Rica, but that's not the whole story; The whole story is that they can live anywhere they want. Oh, and one more important thing: Music Teacher's Helper is currently on track to gross at least $360,000 a year. Because his customers commit to long-term use and monthly payments, it is unlikely that the number of users will decrease. Instead, this number will continue to grow as more music teachers join Brandon's clientele.

Case study 2: Photographers around the world

Starting out in Michigan, Kyle Hepp is an accidental entrepreneur in every sense of the term. When she moved to Chile with her husband, Seba, Kyle had to scrape by working on AOL side projects while looking for a job in her planned sports management field. The lifestyle in South America was wonderful, but Seba's job as a civil engineer was precarious, and the company's business began to fail. One Friday afternoon, Seba received notice that his salary had been cut by 20%. He refused to sign a new contract and left the company immediately.

Two days after learning this, tragedy happened to Kyle when a truck hit her at an intersection, throwing her more than 30 meters away while jogging. Her injuries, while not dangerous or life-threatening, were quite severe. After a week in the hospital, she had to return home to rest for several more weeks, unable to walk and with so many bruises that she couldn't even type on the computer keyboard – so she was forced to end her life. work contract with AOL in accordance with the terms stated in the contract.

By that point, Kyle and Seba had been married for almost three years and they hadn't even had a honeymoon yet, so they decided to take a vacation while they were both free. Instead of looking for work, they booked flights to Italy and spent weeks touring Europe. Before the accident, Kyle had learned about wedding photography. Kyle had never actually tried this type of work, but before flying she updated her website and announced that she was starting to accept photo shoots. An order arrived immediately, giving Kyle confidence that she could make a career out of this job.

When they returned to Chile, Kyle and Seba decided to take up photography as a full-time job, at least until there were no more bookings and the money ran out. To their surprise, request after request poured into Kyle's inbox and the shooting schedule quickly became full. Two years later, they were making $90,000 a year and had full photo shoots booked a year in advance.

They now work all over the world, photographing weddings in Argentina, Spain, the UK and the US. You may wonder why, with so many other good photographers available locally, clients from country to country still come to her? Kyle says that her clients love to travel and they don't mind hiring a photographer from far away. They know that the world is a small place and they like our work because we build relationships over time, she said.

Case study 3: Spreadsheet software king[2]

[1] Bernard, King of Spreadsheet Software, is a different person from Purna – Mr Spreadsheet Software. Lesson: At least in the world of spreadsheet software, there's always room for one more person.

Bernard Vukas's workspace is typical of wandering entrepreneurs: I work anywhere, anytime. Neither time zone nor location matters. All my possessions fit in one backpack, including my laptop. Bernard wrote to me in an email from the beach of Koh Tao, Thailand, where he was temporarily living for a while. Bernard comes from Croatia, a country that also has beautiful beaches, but he wanted to visit more places in the world.

Bernard helps companies using Microsoft Office applications process large volumes of data, creating or modifying extensions to make the data more manageable. Bernard started by bidding at a wage level that was reasonable by Croatian standards but much lower than what North American companies typically pay. This strategy worked well in helping Bernard establish a customer base and a good reputation, but his best business decision was when he tripled the pace on new customers.

One day, Bernard earned $720 for a big project. Reflecting on the significance of this amount, he wrote: Many people on minimum wage in Croatia are earning this amount in a month. People who earn twice that amount are considered to have good salaries. To make all that money in one day is something I've never heard of. Bernard may return home one day, but it's hard to imagine him ever changing his ways.

Note for choosing a non-fixed location

• Running a business while wandering the world is often easier than starting a new one. Make sure you spend plenty of time setting up the system before you rush down this path.

• With an American or Canadian passport, you can stay up to 90 days in many different countries around the world. In those countries, you can make a visa run[2] across the border when your visa term is about to expire and then return to live another visa term.

[2] Visa run: Leaving a country and returning immediately afterward to extend your stay in that country.

• You can learn about visa requirements in different countries by visiting VisaHQ  or VisaHQ.ca, a commercial service I use for my own visa applications. There are quite a few companies that offer similar assistance, and you don't need to use a visa application service if you don't do this type of travel often.

• As much as possible, keep your work in the cloud by using online services, such as Google Docs and Dropbox. This way, you can access your data from anywhere and don't have to worry much about keeping it with you.

• Change your passwords regularly and don't use your cat's name as a password (not that I've learned this through experience or anything…).

• You can find free lodging through CouchSurfing.org or at low cost from private hoteliers at AirBnB .

• You can start anywhere, but as a general recommendation, Latin America and Southeast Asia are the two easiest and most hospitable regions to begin your travel adventures.

• Some places have easier access to technology than others. Be aware of what to expect before visiting a new country, and do your research by reading the forums at BootsnAll  or MeetPlanGo .

• When you wander, maintain a balance between adventure and work. Remember that most people work regular jobs and only travel occasionally, so make sure to take advantage of the local culture and sightseeing. But also, don't feel bad about having to devote extra hours to work whenever necessary. Everything is OK; The world allows you to travel.

Digital nomads and wandering entrepreneurs travel with all their belongings, and it's hard to stay away from their viral stories. I've listened to stories like Brandon's, Kyle's and Bernard's, one after another. And I found that to be a great business model.

In these examples, Brandon is a music teacher, Kyle is a photographer, and Bernard is a software developer. The list could go on: Cherie Ve Ard, whose story we will meet in Chapter 13, is a health care consultant, and Brandy Agerbeck, whose story is in Chapter 7, is a health care advocate. graphic aid. Due to the nature of their work, most of the businesses in the case studies are completely location independent even though they currently have a fixed address. To put it another way, there is more than one way to get there, but there is only one business model that is particularly useful for location independence: The business of publishing. Since this model is both popular and highly profitable, let's look at it in a few small aspects.

Become your own publisher

As founder of 800-CEO-READ, a leading retailer of business books, Jack Covert is a veteran of both traditional and self-publishing. When I asked Jack what had changed in the publishing world in recent years. Everything has changed, he said. We have seen many authors self-publish their work, but never on such a large scale. The only difference is the quality of the work. Today, some self-published works are at least as good as the books produced by major publishers. The playing field has been greatly leveled and will continue to be so."

The other point Jack told me was this: In the past, most authors chose to self-publish because they couldn't sell their work to a traditional publisher. Today, some authors are deliberately choosing to directly distribute their works, even bypassing important offers to publish themselves[3]. But hey, who needs books? You don't need to become an author or even think of yourself as a writer to take advantage of this changing world. Digital publishing tends to fit into at least a few categories: One-off products, fixed-term courses, and recurring subscriptions.

[3] An often-cited example is Barry Eisler, who turned down an offer of $500,000 for his book. However, Barry Eisler has a sizable readership and a reputable ratings record that new authors do not yet have.

Jen Lemen and Andrea Scher, two friends who attended a retreat together, had the idea to start an online women's retreat. They called it Mondo Beyondo and created a community model for participants to post about their ideas, goals, and life to-do lists. On the other side of the Atlantic, former journalist Susannah

Conway is alone forming a similar project called Unravelling. Thousands of participants later, both projects have long waiting lists for future courses and both generate six-figure annual incomes. Part of the beauty of this model is that it grows largely by referral. When learners finish their four- or five-week courses, most of them tell their friends, who then sign up for the next course.

Like everything else in existence, this new business is not new at all. As 800-CEO-READ's Jack mentioned, some independent publishers have always known that selling direct is often better. What has changed is the speed, quality and potential to reach a much wider audience. That's exactly what these wandering publishers are doing – and this guy in Fullerton, California, is a prime example.

The e-book costs $120,000

Brett Kelly, a self-described professional computer geek, is a software programmer with a busy job and a stressful family life. Because of $15,000 in credit card debt and the high standard of living in Southern California, Brett and his wife, Joana, had to accept conflicting work schedules to meet all their living expenses. I got home and just had time to say hello to Joana as she was getting ready to go to work at the restaurant, Brett told me as we sat at a tater tot in Los Angeles. A few months later, we were both tired of the time, the kids were miserable and the overall situation was not good at all."

Over the years, Brett has watched his friends and colleagues start lucrative projects and then either quit their full-time jobs or create additional streams of income for themselves. In the end, he made his own decision: As an expert user of Evernote, a free note-taking software, Brett noticed that there were no detailed user instructions for anyone to use. get the most out of that service[4]. Brett spent months painstakingly documenting every tip and trick he could find about Evernote, compiling everything with computer