You may choose to become an entrepreneur because you hate working for someone else or you simply want to make more money. Whatever the reason is, you should take a step backward and clearly define the things you are trying to achieve by becoming an entrepreneur. Without doing that, you will most likely end up hating your life or working in your business.

Obviously I didn’t define any goals or have the end in mind when I started Vanpromote. I just had some very vague reasons why I wanted to become an entrepreneur and start my own business. Here are the so-called reasons why I chose to become an entrepreneur:

• I didn’t really enjoy working for other people because most of the time I like to do things my way.
• I thought I had the skills and knowledge needed to build a successful business.
• I couldn’t find a decent job that I wanted to work for.
• I wanted to make a lot of money while setting my own schedule.

As you can see, my reasons were pretty bad. I think many people choose to become entrepreneurs because of the same bad reasons. And that’s the reason why many businesses fail.

What Are The “Real” Reasons

My business didn’t actually fail, it is generating enough revenue to pay the bills. But it isn’t going anywhere because there is no growth. There is no strategy or goal in place for it to grow. I am stuck doing the day-to-day tasks of keeping my business running. And there is no worse feeling than walking down a long winding road with no end in sight.

If you haven’t read Michael Gerber’s E-Myth Revisited, it is one of the most important books for any upcoming entrepreneur. You will realize that a business cannot become successful without first defining your “Primary Aim” and the business’s “Strategic Objective”.

I became to realize the difference between successful and struggling entrepreneurs. The ultimate secret sauce is the entrepreneur’s mindset.

Like many small business founders, I didn’t have the winning entrepreneur mindset before starting my company. This is the reason why my business (and many small businesses) is stuck at the “self-employed” stage. The stage where you trade your time for money.

The Primary Aim

The winning entrepreneur mindset begins with a “Primary Aim”. It is where you define your lifestyle goals and ultimate achievements. It is where you write the story of the life you want to live. Also, it is the way you wish the world sees you.

Don’t get me wrong. If your goal is to become a really successful self-employed contractor or freelancer, trading your time for money is perfectly fine. But most of the time, we want our businesses to work for us someday.

Ultimately, your Primary Aim has all the true and deep down reasons why you want to become an entrepreneur.

It’s because you believe being an entrepreneur can help you to get closer to the lifestyle you want to have, and achieve the things you desire most.

Once you have defined your Primary Aim and you remind yourself of it every single day, the magic will happen. You will begin to see things differently. You will see your business differently.

The Strategic Objective

Successful entrepreneurs have well-defined Primary Aims so that they can see clearly what they are trying to achieve. But that’s not enough.

When you start a new business, you should have a clear plan of how that business can help you get closer to your Primary Aim. The Strategic Objective of the business you are trying to start defines the “finished” version of the business and how it will get there.

Most importantly, it should give you a clear idea of what the business will provide you when the business is matured. Maybe it is all you need to reach your Primary Aim. Maybe you want to have multiple businesses because your Primary Aim is very ambitious.

So Why Do You Want To Become An Entrepreneur?

Now you should know why you want to become an entrepreneur. I know why.

It’s because I want to be able to design the lifestyle I want. I know how much money and time I need in order to live the lifestyle I want. Also, I now know that starting a business (with an end goal in mind) will help me achieve the lifestyle I want.

In a later post, I will share with you my Primary Aim (the lifestyle I want and the things I desire) and how starting a business can help me achieve it.

In the mean time, What is your Primary Aim? How will your business help you get to your Primary Aim? Let’s share it!

So what happened during the year, and what caused me to come back to write for this website?

In this post, I am going to share with you the things I’ve learned during my first year into the “real world”. Most importantly, I am going to share with you what I’ve discovered about the truth of entrepreneurship.

April 2011 – I graduated from Simon Fraser University with degrees in Economics and Marketing. With a GPA grade of above 4.0 (equivalent of an A), I got into the school’s President Honor Roll for my last semester. I felt great about my graduation and definitely felt confident about my future.

I immediately went  job hunting after I was done with school. Weeks and weeks passed by and no phone call. In 2 months, I was interviewed a total of 2 times and both times without any success.

I applied for the most entry-level retail banking position, customer service representative or simply bank teller, at CIBC. The response was that I wasn’t qualified for that position. Seriously, I had no clue why I wasn’t qualified while many first year college students were able to get the job.

Soon I learned that even for the entry-level bank teller position, connections and experiences were important. Being so focused with school, I totally ignored developing real world connections and work experience. Big mistake.

July 2011 – Paulo is a real estate agent and one of my father’s close friends. He knew that I was into photography since I started a successful photography club when I was in school. He asked me if I could help him improve his real estate listing photos and videos. I agreed because I had nothing better to do anyways.

One listing photo job after another, I started charging for my service. Paulo told his colleagues about my service and they started calling me. I went to do sales calls at real estate offices in order to get more jobs, and the responses were good.

September 2011 – Vanpromote Marketing Inc. was born to get a piece of the hot real estate market in Vancouver. Realtors were making good money and building a business to help them with digital media made sense.

Photography was my hobby and I didn’t mind building a business around my hobby. However,  the company started without a real purpose other than making money. Big big mistake.

May 2012 – Fast forward a few months, Vanpromote is cash flowing and everything seems to be fine. The problem is me… the boss, the self-employed, the person who does everything in the company.

I am frustrated doing the day to day tasks of my company. It is taking away all my time and at the same time not providing the financial benefits I expected. I am exhausted and overwhelmed.

For some reason I don’t want my business to grow at all because if I get more clients, I will be doing more work and I will end up working 24 hours a day.

In order to change my life and my business, I know I have to change my mindset about how a small business should work. I need to redefine my goals, my passion. I need to rediscover the old me, a confident and ambitious person with big goals.

I am here to share my journey of mindset change. The journey of freeing up my time, being stress-free, while growing a successful business….

Have you ever felt the same way I do? Is your small business currently stressing you out and consuming all your time? Please share you thoughts and actions below.

A watch is very important for a man. It can symbolize many things such as success, wealth, status, and style.

I am about to step into the real world and launch my career. It is important for me to choose a watch that can reflect my maturity and attention to detail. The Mont Blanc Star Quartz XL is the perfect watch. Mont Blanc is a German brand with an iconic star shaped symbol. The brand reflects a very deep sense of manliness. (Similar to the Aston Martin brand) What I like about the Star Quartz XL watch is that it displays time in a very simple but elegant way. It displays the time and date without all the distractions in a chronograph watch. Using the quartz movement means that it is an extremely accurate timepiece. What I like the most about this watch is that it has a very distinctive white leather lining. It will truly reflect one’s taste for simplicity and quality. The best part: a very affordable price.

Nothing beats spending a beautiful Saturday afternoon in a trending coffee/sweets shop filled with friendly people and staff. Thomas Haas has two locations: one in Vancouver Kitsilano and one in North Vancouver. I went to the Kitsilano one and enjoyed a great cup of latte. The latte tasted very smooth and the texture was just right. The most important part about this latte is the “art” on it. It was made by a talented barista named Marius. I have heard great things about their sweets. But I didn’t get to try any because I was too full. I would love to try their chocolate on my next visit.

It will mark the end of student life and the beginning of real life.

When I got my iPad a few days ago, I knew I needed to get a decent case to protect the iPad’s beautiful aluminum back and fragile glass screen. I began looking for the perfect case and found that most of them are either extremely bulky or simply ugly. Running out of options, I decided to give the official Apple iPad Case a try. Future Shop sells it for $45.99 and Apple itself sells it for $45. I didn’t want to go all the way to the Apple Store so I price matched it at the Lansdowne Future Shop instead. Hey, one dollar is one dollar!

The official Apple iPad case is very thin and lightweight. Unlike other bulky leather portfolio style cases, the Apple one has a slim but strong rubber material.

One thing I like about this case is that it is very functional. I can flip the cover to the back for normal usage. There is a clip at the back to hold the cover if I need to make the iPad standing up or leaning with an angle. With the iPad leaning with an angle, I can type on the onscreen keyhoard much easier and much faster. In fact, this can replace my laptop for taking notes in lectures so I no longer need to carry my laptop to school.

The Apple iPad Case is very functional and very lightweight. However, there is one major issue with this beautiful case. The rubber material provides a nonslip surface but it also attracts dusts like crazy. The bumpy surface makes it rather difficult to wipe off the dusts as well. If you are one of those people who like their stuff always looking clean, this case may not be for you.

Janice‘s contract with Rogers Wireless is due in a few months. She is looking to renew her contract so she can get the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.
I told her to call Rogers customer relations (aka retentions) to negotiate a better plan before renewing her contract.

The goal is to get the following features for a total of $48.50 per month:

• 300 daytime minutes
• unlimited weekends and evenings starting at 6PM
• My5 Canada-wide
• Call display, voice mail, and 2500 text messages
• At least 500MB data

This goal is very doable and it is well documented on RedFlagDeals forums.

Called several times to retention and got nothing but stupid “unlimited” student plans. For $50 a month she gets 500MB data, My5 Canada OR unlimited network calling. Adding call display and this and that and the total will be close to $70 per month. This is a joke! It’s almost worse than what she already has. How do they retain customers with such ridiculous plans and prices?

I used to think so. Like most iPad haters, I thought it was just an over-sized iPod Touch and it is not powerful enough to replace my laptop.

This changed when I began reading books and magazines on my iPhone. It would be way better to read those books and magazines on something bigger than the iPhone’s 3.5 inch screen.

I decided to buy the iPad a few days ago and since then I am in love with this amazing device.

Here are some reasons why I think the iPad is not useless:

1) The Screen.
The iPad’s 9.7 inch IPS screen is one of the best screens I’ve seen. The colors really pop out and texts are very sharp. The screen size is also perfect for reading books and magazines. I don’t need to zoom in to read the words clearly on any magazine page.

2) Web Surfing.
Surfing the web using the iPad’s Safari browser is a pleasure. I can view almost all websites without having to zoom in. Navigating the web using my fingers is much more natural than using a mouse. Since having the iPad, I see myself not using my laptop as often.

3) Built-in Apps.
The Mail and Calender apps on the iPad are way better than the ones on the iPhone. I can now view my inbox and the emails on the same screen.

4) Third-party Apps.
There are thousands of apps for the iPad. Apps such as the “OPlayer” will turn the iPad as a portable media player as it plays most video formats out there including RMVB files.

Things that can be improved:

1) The Weight.
The iPad is sure slim but it is quite heavy. It is hard to hold it with one hand for too long.

2) No Multitasking.
The ability to multitask will make the iPad even more amazing. the iOS 4.2 update in November should bring multitasking to the iPad.

3) Lack Of  Front Camera and Back Camera.
Like the iPhone 4, the iPad should have a front camera for webcam. A back camera will also be useful for taking pictures and videos on the go.

I’ve finally found the perfect compact digital camera for daily use. I have a D-SLR but it is rather big for daily snapshots.
I have to say that it is quite tricky to find a camera that fits my tiny student budget and at the same time capable of capturing quality pictures.

My first attempt: Samsung EC-ES70. Bought it at Future Shop for around $120. To be honest, it was a horrible camera. The built quality is very cheap and comparable to a toy. Picture quality is awful. Images have a lot of noise even at the lowest ISO. I returned it the next day.

My second attempt: Sony DSC-W310. Bought it at Future Shop for around $120 as well. Built quality is decent. Feels a lot better than the Samsung ES70. Picture quality is also better than the ES70. The images do not have a lot of noise but the color and contract tend to create a “depressing” tone.

My third attempt: Canon SD1400 IS. Bought it at Black’s Photography at around $190 after a price match (Retail is around $250). It is a very compact camera. Smaller and thinner than the Samsung ES70 and Sony W310. Built quality is very solid. The 14.1 Megapixel sensor produces very sharp and clean images up to ISO 800. Thanks to its Optical Stabilization system, taking indoor pictures without using flash is possible. The other two cameras have digital image stabilization, which is rather useless. The SD1400 can also capture 720P HD video. Video quality is so-so but I don’t plan on taking a lot of videos anyway. Overall, it is very impressive camera for the price. If you want to get a decent compact digital camera with a reasonable price, this one is highly recommended.

Pictures I took with the Canon SD1400 IS:

Here’s why: the Chinese economy had rebounded quickly after the global recession. The middle class is expanding and the rich people are getting richer. The problem is that they need to spend those money. The Chinese stock market is like a roller-coaster ride so people are trying to avoid it. The government had advised the public not to invest in real estate because the housing market is a mess. Additionally, the rich are looking for good places to live in when they retired or send to kids to for better education.

Vancouver has been one of the popular choices for rich Chinese to relocate the family for better living. In recent years, they started to buy up large qualities of luxury houses in Vancouver West and Richmond. When the demand is high and supply is limited, you get sky high prices. Local Vancouverites can’t afford to buy those high end houses anymore, so they started buying at nearby cities such as Burnaby, North Vancouver, and New Westminster. This phenomenon helped boost prices up for the rest of the Lower Mainland.

Until we get more land to build more houses, prices will remain high and the rest of us will still not be able to afford to buy houses in Vancouver.