This summer I finally decided to take a plunge cancel some of our contracts to free up the time and jumped into our own project, committing both financially and time wise. Of course it seemed easier than it really was. My partner and I thought that the first month we will bring every dollar back. We are on a 3rd month and we didn’t even broke even yet, but the project finally moved into the right direction and now it is the matter of time when the risk will finally pay off.

This was not an easy time for us, we had to pay our employees steady salary while my partner and I would not get anything as all of the money we got was invested in marketing.  After we finally reached the level of income we wanted, we again said no to it – buckled up and lived off (still living) our credit lines.  This obviously takes emotional toll, but it is a great motivator and we learned so many lessons from it:

• As an entrepreneur you conquer the fear – you can’t let fear of loosing your toys, home or a car to paralyze you.  You need to sleep well at night to be energized. Instead of thinking about the money problem, you need to think about the solution – how to make your business work as fast as possible. At the end of the day you will!

• You need to be ready to start from scratch - entrepreneur are similar to gamblers. We earn our money hard and then we are ready to risk it all, for the next big thing. We can’t do it any other way, risk and reward is in our blood. If you want to be entrepreneur, you need to be ready to go back to square one at any day and any time. Your ideas might fail and you need to have enough believe in yourself to get up and do it ALL OVER AGAIN.
• Don’t cheat- when times get tough, a desire to cut corners (fake some marketing tests, scoop leads) is right there. It is so easy to cheat, however the only one who you are cheating is yourself! You need to be able to make your business work long term. If you need to rely on cheating, the business will eventually crumble. Stick to your guns (principles) and make your business work (or get into another business). That is the only way. Adherence to principles in tough times builds character and self respect.

Well, I forgot about my blog and having been posting on it in like forever.  I smile now remembering starting it 6 years ago. My first blog was on blogger and you couldn’t have categories as a widget there, but I read a tutorial on how to use Delicious tags to make it look like categories. Spent like a whole night trying to figure it out! At that point WordPress seemed like a distant planet to me.

Now I can install wordpress blog in a matter of minutes and it is possible to launch websites on wordpress that would be sufficient for 9o% of websites on the web. However, blogging lost its allure somewhere along the way – famous bloggers stopped blogging, twitter appeared, facebook became open to everyone. LinkedIn became like Twitter, Facebook became like Twitter, Google became like Facebook, Facebook became like Google.

Today I realized that between Twitter feeds, FB feeds, emails, ad copy, flyers, bills, invoices it is been forever since I read or wrote something solid. Something that takes time to write, but really helps me to get my mind off things.

Luckily for me, I don’t need this blog anymore for any kind of promotion. Business is going well and our own projects are well underway. Which gives me a lot of freedom of expression – when you don’t think about linkbait, meta tags or correct keyword balance – some nice text can flow.

So I Resurrected my blog, to sometime put my thoughts out – for once without trying to promote it. Lol. I also think I might be not the only one, some people will get tired of the fast food of information and will come back to quality over the quantity. Being wired 24/7 was very cool in 2005 to me, now being not wired seems cool and a smart thing to do…

I live in Canada which I like, but when it comes down to communications like internet, tv or cellphone we Canadians don’t have a lot of choice. Since I travel abroad a lot I went with Rogers as they use GSM standart, so after unlocking my personal phone I can talk abroad and not pay $5 per minute.

Anyways I digress, I signed for Maclean’s Magazine owned by Rogers which was supposed to be $1, but right after you subscribe they send you a letter that it is higher now, but my obvious frustration with Rogers’ bait and switch tactics is not the point of this post.

I wanted to discuss the latest editorial feature by Maclean’s “The Internet should be fair – not free – to everyone”. I think the whole article is so ridiculous that Maclean’s Editors can’t believe themselves that their “corporate” made them publish it. So let’s start with the ridiculous things in the article:

• The title, “Free Internet” so when we pay $60 bucks per month plus modem rental, plus taxes is called “Free” these days?
• “providing heavy users with a competitive marketplace and small internet firms with 15 per cent wholesale advantage” This sentence is so out of whack, that I don’t even know where to start. I would suggest the author of this sentence to take Grade 1 math. Let’s see 15% wholesale discount in order to stay competitive smaller firms need to offer discount over bigger companies, so for the argument’s sake let’s pretend that 5% discount will entice people to switch from big 3 to smaller company. That leaves us with 10%, now smaller companies believe or not need to make profit as well. So again let’s assume that for some crazy reason people decided to go into business and earn a profit of only 5%. So where does it leave us? A small internet company will have 5% for running their whole business (marketing, sales, accounting, equity etc.). I am sure this 5% keeps it really competitive and “Fair” as Maclean’s magazine would say

I am personally not against usage based billing, I agree that people who spend more should pay more – but this is not what is happening in reality. In reality even people who don’t use a lot still pay a flat fee that is one of the highest from all of the countries in the world (i am not even adding to this system access fee and cell phone rates) and people who use a lot are forced to be in quota plan and then overpay for each gigabyte so much that is easier just to buy two packages.

We live in an age of Netflix, television on Demand, millions watched Olympics online – so the average user already is not the one who uses 16 gigs a month, the average user is a busy Mom who watches her shows online. So Rogers if you want usage based billing – why don’t you make really fair:

• people who spend less will actually pay less
• people who spend more will have some reasonable packages, or price per gigabyte available for them?

Oh and stop insulting Canadians that you been torturing for years with your rates and system access fees, by “Oh that is not Fair” give me a break!

Have you ever been to a club, with a girlfriend in a car or just at a party and “Single Ladies” would suddenly go on? You know what happens next, this like a clue to all the girls in the room who start screaming along, putting their hands in the air and dancing like crazy. The weird thing is that half of these girls are not even single, some are even married.

My female friend tells me it is her anthem along with “If I were a boy,” “Irreplaceable” and bunch of other songs with catchy Choruses, but words that doesn’t make a lot of sense especially when they come from somebody who wears underwear in both her videos and concerts, and from somebody who wouldn’t miss an opportunity to shake her “bootylicious” body every opportunity she gets.

I think these song all suck for the same reasons: 1) There is generalization about all the men, you know women cheat too and stuff! 2)They all talk about the same thing – JUST GET OVER IT ALREADY  3)They come from a person that uses her body, her famous husband and Dad who pushed her to be famous to sell records.

Now let’s just go over lyrics and see what pisses me off so much:

Single Ladies

“Decided to take a Dip,” “I am up on him,” “Just cried my tears for three good years”

So they way I see it: she was dating with a guy for three years, cried through all of them and then to feel better she decided to go and have a sex with a random guy. Yeah this makes total sense! Maybe instead of crying three years you could have communicated what you needed instead waiting for a guy? Or maybe because you just went to a club and had a sex with a random guy who happened to notice you is the main reason – I DIDN’T WANT TO PUT A RING ON IT!

Irreplaceable

“I could have another you in a minute. As a matter of a fact he will be here in a minute, baby”

Again I have to ask what a hell were you doing with this guy, if you could have a tons like him in a minute? How did you choose him? Did you do a random draw? Or chose the one who lives closer to you? Then I figured that another guy is already coming over, so again I guess the best solution is to have a sex with a new guy – sounds perfectly healthy solution to me, and a song that should be anthem to all the women.

If I were a boy

“I would turn off my phone Tell Everyone it is broken,” ” You are just boy and you don’t understand how it feels to love a girl”

Turn off your phone, really? This is a best thing you could come up with if you were a boy? How about going to the army and protecting women, or being a firefighter? “Turn off your phone” why I never knew it is allowed since I am a boy, mine is always on – I got screwed nobody told me I can turn it off. Oh wait I heard it somewhere, or yeah this is another of Beyonce’s songs with Lady Gaga “honey I cannot answer” - I figured two things Beyonce has a thing for telephones and that she finally realized that turning off the phone is not determined by gender.

Then those next lyrics, because I am a boy I don’t understand how to love a girl? How does it make sense, who understands it then? Another girl? Your mother? I think as a boy I would have a first had knowledge of what is like to love a girl, it is not that easy especially when I am dealing with a promiscuous type who alternates between wanting to marry me to not picking up my phone.

Bottom line:

I hate discrimination against women just like any other modern guy, but girls – Beyonce’s songs are not what you want to be represented by, if you want a real woman’s anthem find something that doesn’t talk about being stuck in a relationship without doing anything, random sex and of course turning off your cellphone – that is just silly.

Phew, I got it out of my system now! Comments? Haters? Lovers?

I watched Google’s presentation live today about Buzz. I think it is amazing product especially the mobile components and ability to integrate with other tools. Yet it inspired this post about me being scared of Internet. I should be grateful for internet not only it makes my life interesting, but it allows me to make a living without having to wear a suit everyday and while doing what I love. At the same time sometimes internet pisses me off and even scares me sometimes.

So why do I get frustrated and scared sometimes?

No matter where you are geographically it is hard to disappear

Sometimes I need time for myself and change of scenery. Back in a day a person could go to another province and start a new life. However, these days, with tools like Skype, SMS, Facebook, Email – I feel like I never left. Which means even if I am located overseas I still get to see for example pictures of my ex with some guy. Long lost relatives that I don’t want to talk can call me on Skype whenever they want, unless I block them. Old classmates can write and ask some money to borrow.

Everything you do online is recorded, so you are accountable

Anything you do online is recorded somewhere and you have to keep thinking what if? What if my ISP gets hacked and all my visited pages become public? What if I drink too much beer and post something bad on Twitter (my Mom follows me). When digital face recognition becomes a norm it will be easy to recognize me, as I tagged more than 300 photos of me on Facebook. What if all student party pictures get posted online and anyone who Google’s my name will be able to see them?

Stalker’s Paradise

I like playing FourSquare and use other applications that need my GPS location. I have a feeling that Google Buzz mobile will be more popular than anything else before. I am always pretty careful in terms of where I check–in and try not to reveal too much information.  I try not only not to reveal where I am all the times, but also not to reveal the patterns. However, a lot of people don’t think about it. I mean I have couple of people as my FourSquare friends that I never saw in my life.

If someone will add my blog, somehow will slip into my Facebook account and follows me on Twitter they will know a hell a lot about my life. Something like that back in a day could have never been possible. The only thing here that adds me some confidence are my aikido and muya thai classes.

Addiction/Dependence

I consider internet to be an addiction, when it is gone I am going crazy and have withdrawal symptoms. However, after couple of days I sober up and understand that the life without online exists. I am also so dependent on internet and its tools. I honestly don’t know how I would manage a team without basecamp or other project management system.  I can’t live without calendar sync with my Iphone and my tricked out GMail. I am so dependent on these tools that if I had to give them up, I think I would go out of business.

Said all of that I totally understand that I shouldn’t blame or be scared of Internet. At the end of the day everything is my own choice. I choose what to do online, how to conduct myself and what to share. It is up to me to use a different phone or leave one at home when I go out drinking. I can delete my Facebook profile if I wanted, maybe should just do it – oh well, no I can’t just not right now

So here are my thoughts. I think the most valuable part of this post is that we make the choice, so we need to be responsible.

It is time for a change, time for another level of the game. During past two years I’ve been working on T4C Project (Toronto4couples) and on a side managing digital marketing business in Israel and Russia. The reality is that with the time more and more focus shifted to our marketing clients, since that is where the revenues were coming from. That is why I made a decision to put T4C project on standby and dedicate my time to open our digital marketing agency division in Toronto. Despite a tough competition on the market in North America in this field I believe that my team and I will be able to transfer the success we had overseas into the place where I live most of the time.

The key factor that contributed to our success was a personal approach to our clients with vested interest in their success. We also built strategies based on classical business and marketing strategy. We believe that technology is just a tool and human nature stays the same. I believe that adherence to this philosophy in North American market will help us to build the agency and create a market share for us. In addition we managed to develop strong relationship with some of the best designers, programmers and marketers in the world.

That is why effective today this will be my personal blog and romanz.ca will become our company’s corporate website where all the employees will contribute to the blog. We are crowdsourcing the design of it and already performed multiple usability studies, now it is all about the user experience design and creating a design that will represent us. The tentative deadline for launching a full functional website is March 1st. However, the marketing work already started and we already have a couple of Canadian clients.

I am so exited for the future!

P.S. You can continue following me on Twitter @romanZ and once we get the editorial staff set-up there will be a new company Twitter channel as well.

Hello everyone,

My blog took a backseat in light of me coming home for the first time in nearly a year. It is hard to believe that already one week of my one month recharging is already gone. So what did I do this week?

I had a lot of fun meeting my family and friends. I finally went to the beach and while I didn’t surf yet, it so the most relaxing experience in a long time. People who live here in Israel sometimes visit the beach only couple of times during the summer, because they are so used to the commodity of having the beach whenever they want. It is very different for me especially after such a long winter in Toronto. I enjoyed sitting on a warm sand and watching the waves. It is a simple pleasure, but I felt like in heaven.

Even though only two weeks passed since I quit my daily job it now seems like a distant memory or a bad dream. I finally feel awake and my energy is coming back to me. I wake up in the morning wanting to do stuff (ok writing blog posts wasn’t one of them). This is a positive side.

On a negative side my “little” brother (who is soon will be 15) is a bit of trouble at school and with his life. He started to hang around with other kids who listen to heavy metal and think they whole world hates them. He even tried to explained to me what anarchy is and why it is a great way to to build society. His behaviour effects the whole family, so dealing with him is a challenge as well. The upsetting part is that he is very talented and smart (just like his older brother), but has no desire to succeed in  any field in his life.

My plan is to be here for him and help him even when he thinks the help is not needed. Obviously, it is just a stage that we need to pass as safely as possible. If anyone reading this post have an experience dealing with a kid who got a bit lost in the woods – please leave a comment. A psychologist told me that I and everyone in my family need to constantly tell him that we love him.

So this is it a nutshell. My first two weeks of jail of 9-5 to job and living of my savings.

Love to everyone and till next time.

I was too lazy and too busy partying over the weekend to post anything. Today is my first Monday in a very long time when I didn’t and wearing a suit with a tie. This is the first day when I actually feel that I quit my daily job.

The feelings are mixed. I am reading Finding Career Path by J.T. O’Donnell and she writes that she quit and it was “the most terrifying yet exhilarating thing I ever done.” I think I feel the same way and feelings of “i need to do stuff” with “it is time to relax finally” are struggling inside me.

I think balance in life in general is really important and it is important right now. Obviously, I have millions of things to do starting from catching up on my projects at home to planning on how I am going to earn income after my savings run out. Yet I don’t know when is the next time when I will have 5 weeks of a time that belongs just to me, so I will need to make the most of it.

How do I maintain a balance? I try to be reasonable with myself: I made a short to-do list and decided I will reward myself with a book reading after. This way I am still active, but having a plenty of rest as well. My plan is to completely clean and de-clutter my house. That way when I come back I can really start from clean slate without pending tasks that been chasing me for months.

Tomorrow to do things:

-clean my office (picture at the top) it will take awhile
-buy cofee beans (no more Tim Hortons)
-check out Digsby
-have a nap
-try to print my business cards before CaseCamp
-attending CaseCamp and SummerCamp party afterwards

I will post my reflection about CaseCamp tomorrow, hopefully it will be productive and I will be able to network with a lot of people.

It is an amazing day in Toronto. I think all the the bloggers need to have at least a little post saluting a first day that looks like a real spring. The first words that I head this morning were “Thanks G-d it is Friday,” when I got to the office to my regular “How are you?” the response was “Thanks G-d it is Friday.” I agree! I love Fridays! Especially a Friday before Passover -a  Jewish holiday that celebrates the liberation of physical and mental slavery. It is a great day.

Wait it is not the end of my post. On this beautifull  day I bought my favourite lunch, wore my converse and went to relax in write this post in my backyard. I also wanted to make it offical that last Friday I submitted my two weeks notice and I am quitting my 9-5 job to become a business owner. This day is even better, but just for me.

There are different reasons why I decided to quit and say no to “steady paycheck” – it was not that steady.  Reader’s Digest version is that I believe that I am in my prime time to start a business. I am young, energetic and without a lot of responsibilities. Doing what I want to do each day (and not what I am told or just have to do) will ultimately make me happier and healthier person.

I am planning to go home for a month to completely re-boot my system and not just to recharge my batteries, but put some new ones in. Yes, yes I will spend a whole month lying on a beach without worrying about bills, deadlines, sales and revenue reports. I will just surf – the Mediterranean sea.

I have some sort of plan, not a complete business plan on what I am going to do after I return. Obviously, part of the plan is to develop www.toronto4couples.com. I am planning to use all the tools I received while earning my degree, that I forgot while doing something unrelated for two years at my job.

I feel like a kid before summer vacation. One more week and I will be released from rat race prison. Yeah I am scared, but oh well as we say in Russia you have to take risks to drink champaigne.

P.S. I wish I had quite like that Guy, but no I didn’t burn any bridges and used a polite letter from www.i-resign.com

Monica O’Brien had a reader contest running on her TwentySet blog and guess what I one a book by JT O’Donell. I never win stuff so, that was really cool!

Thanks to Monica and to JT O’Donnell for sponsoring the contest.

I rarely get to read books these day, I do read a lot of emails on blackberry though. I promise to write my own review though.

P.S. I did take JT’s assesment test and figured out that I am a “commander” type. Looks true!