I have never been a fan of this mentality. Traditionally, the world of startups is plaqued with non-disclosure agreements and a lot of secrecy around your business idea. So again, lets take a look at how the opposite from the norm.

I was looking at attending an event and saw a sponsor of the event that piqued my interest. The name is Cambrian House and the concept is “Crowdsourcing”. Spell check doesn’t particularly like this word yet, well because it isn’t a word. Maybe in the near future though, it will be as commonly thrown around as “dun dun da dun… Outsourcing”

The concept of behind crowdsourcing is that anyone is able to join the community and pick projects that they are interested in working on. Their work towards a project earns them royalty points to share the profit for that product. You can learn more about this by visiting their site at: http://www.cambrianhouse.com/

If you don’t know about Darwinism or have at least heard about it, good things or bad, then you may not understand were I am about to go.

Because I refuse to think the same way 99% of the American workforce thinks, I am currently seeking out answers to the questions I have about business and my startup in completely unrelated areas. Hence the reference to Darwinism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin). I was inspired recently driving to the bank to make some deposits that the answer to every entrepreneurs golden question (what is your advantage?) had nothing to do with efficient business models, unique product, or catchy advertising, instead the answer had to do with a science subject I learned about in middle school.

Helm Technology Solutions is based around adaptation. It seemed to work in mother nature, why can’t it apply to a business that I am starting? I have decided that I am not working towards building a business that provides the top-of-the-line solution with the latest and greatest features produced by thousands of man hours in research and development labs. I am not interested in having a strict set of offerings. I am interested in providing services that have the ability to change rapidly. I am interested in being agile and creating a business that fosters change.

I subscribe to the GoBig Network Newsletter and received the recent post which happens to be the most straight-up honest view of entrepreneurship I have read in an article.  Call my crazy but reading this article only makes the fire burn deeper inside of me.

http://www.gobignetwork.com/wil/2007/2/21/starting-a-company-is-a-crap-sandwich/10108/view.aspx

While I traditionally do not like negative attitudes towards any kind of subject (and I do sense some negativity in this article) I do think the message is important and good to take into consideration.  All the issues that he brings up are issues that I have already been faced with in starting my business.  My attempt to put a positive spin on this article is to suggest you read this article and spend 10-15 minutes to find out were the acceptable balance is with each of these subjects.

I had to do it, as corny as it is. But Nightrepreneur precisely explains my current situation. Instead of seeking out investment from others to grow our business, we (my business associate and I) are both maintaining day jobs while working on our business at night. The income from a steady position helps us focus on creating our product, while still keeping a roof above our heads. Being a nightrepreneur is great for building a business while retaining ownership of your business, while still reducing the risk that is typically associated with entrepreneurship.

After 1.5 years of being a nightrepreneur, I have a few words of wisdom for those interested in giving it a shot.

1. Be open and honest about your business at your day job. Trust me on this one, it may seem like a bad idea at first, but if any issues arise, you are better off not having kept your side business a secret.
2. Make sure your clients are aware that you have a day job. Depending on your line of work of course, your customers will probably not need up to the minute responses on issues. Limit your customers to those that are willing to wait up to 24 hour response time and if you write a contract for those customers, be sure and include 24 hour response time.
3. Throw your TV remote away, it’s a waste of time. Once you stop watching it for a few days, you won’t miss it.
4. Focus on your day job during the day and your business at night. If your employer begins to untrust that you, you better hope that your business is ready to support yourself full time very soon.
5. Invest more time than money into your business. Save your money personally and invest your time into the business. Trust me, there are definitely times when your business will need to dip into your personal savings. Keep that savings well stocked!

I also found this article for you to read that has a lot of good points about conflict of interest. Its on Startup Nation. http://www.startupnation.com/pages/articles/succeed-business-side.asp