Integrating Personal Life and Business Life

I remember trying to separate personal and business. Trying to have the corporate name and websites be different from my personal name. There were a few reasons for it:

1) Too young – maybe I would be perceived as too young to own and operate a business, and if a potential customer saw that I was the owner, operator – maybe they would doubt it. I remember making websites seem large, like an army of people must be behind that company

2) Fear of being “found” – maybe that is the old internet, “web 1.0” – where names and personal faces were not online – people would make up strange “handles” or usernames to mask their personal self from the internet – I remember forums and BBS usernames like superman1413, angelstar631, etc – not many people used to put their personal name and tied it to the internet. This fear of being found on the internet.

3) Liability – Sure, there is a “corporate veil” in business, that protects the owners from lawsuits and other liabilities of the company if there is some unforeseen problem. “piercing the corporate veil” was never clear to me exactly, and if the veil is pierced in a lawsuit, the assets of the personal owners and / or directors can also be liable. In USA everyone sues pretty easily, and therefore when I was younger, this was also a reason to keep business and personal separate.

4) Scalability – If your business is only you, and your name, it is also hard to grow, right? I mean if customers only want to talk to the owner and do business with the owner, how can the company expand? But maybe this isn’t the case, as I feel sure there is relationships in business, but not daily operations, that can be scaled. Companies need “mascots”.

5) Sellability – If a business is to be sold, and the above point is proved that the owner must stay with the company in order for it to operate, this may be a problem in the future. To be able to separate the current owner to a new owner….you would want that to be smooth. I think its called a process-oriented company instead of a owner-oriented company.

But man, I am totally just putting it all online….being a real person on the internet. I meet friends, customers, and potential customers – and people know a lot of what I’ve been upto without me having to explain. I guess that was the main reason for creating this blog, so friends could follow me on my travels and I don’t have to repeat my crazy stories over and over again each dinner and bar I go. But its almost kinda scary.

And I run with EMOTIONS. Passion. So many people tell me I have to be less emotional. But I’m thinking its gotten me to where I am today, and I’m an emotional person – I am not afraid to tell people how I feel anymore. I am hustling all over the world….and I don’t have time for “games” so I learned along my way I just have to get it all out there and not hold back. People aren’t mind readers, right?

And starting a business, bootstrapping, feeling every speed bump along the way – is a struggle – it’s a fight. And a dog fight. You have to be ready for anything, adapt quickly. And it takes RAW EMOTION. The will and drive to put up with the bad days, and stay calm on the good days – because you have to be ready for the rainy day.

So there it is, I am a bit nervous about the move to NY – it is one of the most expensive places in the world to live- but its my kind of place – and I am certain I will grow clients and relationships and networking like a madman while I’m here.