Well the floor of my building has been hard at work, some new items checked into the project:

• Old-school barber shop style glass comb dispenser—where someone found that, I haven’t a clue.
• A bottle of water
• Reading material
• A poem on a post-it

Seems like the project has achived stability, the bottle of mouthwash is now half-empty, it seems we have some real users out there :)

That’s all for now, til beta 0.3.

It seems we have a grass roots project started up in the bathroom we share with another company in our building (Hobson’s). What probably started as someone leaving their toiletries on the counter accidentally has blossomed into a beautiful community-driven effort to stock the bathroom like none other…

We now have (left-to-right) mints, incense, hair gel, tip jar, deodorant, toothpaste, cologne, odor eaters, more deodorant (if sharing a roll-on dispenser gives you the willies), mouthwash, dental floss, and air freshener. I committed the mouthwash + floss last visit.

Screenshot:

We’re very busy getting the next iteration of the project out, and we’re trying to decide the best place to host the project (Sourceforge or is there something better out there?), and of course how to monetize.

Just launched an ajaxy website for my brother-in-law Chris Dickerson. If you’re in southwestern Ohio and need help with your existing or new water garden, he’s the best in town.

I recently did a talk to The Cincinnati Entrepreneur Meetup Group and I figured I’d post some of the content from that session to the blog. The talk consisted of 12 points, here’s #1:

First, expect lots of naysaying to your business idea. Even the best startup ideas will have many reasons not to pursue them. There is no perfect idea, not even close.

It’s easy to ignore the people you expect little wisdom from—it’s when the smart/hip people start ripping into your idea that you’re going to question yourself. Here are some famous smart/hip (at the time) naysayers and their classic wisdom:

• “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” – Thomas Watson, Chairman, IBM 1943
• “There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home.” – Ken Olsen, Founder, Digital Equipment Corp. 1977

Everything looks like a big mistake—until something good comes out of it. And know that often times, what appears to be the safe play is the risky one (killing your idea).

When I decided to start my blog, my “inner-naysayer” said some fairly damaging things to me. “You have nothing to say that hasn’t already been said. There are literally a million blogs out there, why add more noise?”

A good post by Steve Pavlina on a few self-employment myths. My favorite from his list is #4 Self-employment means putting all your eggs in one basket.

A smart entrepreneur builds multiple income streams. At a glance, it seems risky to attempt build multiple income streams (yet another myth). In truth, it’s the safe thing to do. Even if you have a full-time job, you can use your 9pm-12am time (after the kids are in bed, if you have them) working on your business (or businesses) to add a second stream of income to your primary one.

Remind yourself from time-to-time that you may be subscribing to ideas that when confronted head on, are mythical. These notions are blocking you from making daily progress on your business venture. Fight back!