While searching for a job technically I can say I was a freelancing, contracting solo entrepreneur. This period lasted for around seven months. While entrepreneur is an exciting term, If it weren’t for my cousin I don’t think I could have made it. It was nice to get a taste of being my own boss. The power to set my own schedule, and control how much value I bring is freeing. However, Being an Entrepreneur Isn’t As Exciting As It Sounds. It’s a life I’m looking to return to in the far future, but I’m putting that on hold for now. For the next year or so I’m optimistic about being a regular employee.
Being an employee brings a certain security in income, work, and what you’ll be doing. Solopreneurs have a never ending list tasks, but not all of them are work. Let me explain! B2B ventures carry more regularity than B2C, but that does not mean a stable workload. As a solopreneur not only are you in charge of doing the work itself, but also keeping track of your hours, invoicing and sending work reports. After you accomplish your task, there is still the act of shameless self promotion. This necessary evil helps to fish for more clients. The great part about employment at a corporation include HR associates and marketing employees.
Being an Entrepreneur Isn’t As Exciting As It Sounds Because of Deskwork
I started of the day preparing my hours tracking sheet and invoices to send to one of my clients. I use a template that I found in Office365 itself. The template works for the time being, but I really should find a way to automate the process. This was followed by calculating the total cost of my labor and pouring through my notes. I can’t recommend OneNote enough. Going through my notebook allows me to write a comprehensive work report.
To make things work remotely this unfortunately involves another email. Newer Tech companies use Discord, Teams, Slack, or the full capability of teams and Office365. A friend I know, Moacir, runs a lot of his business negotiations on the humble Facebook messenger. Oppositely many companies still rely on traditional email systems. I say this because some of my time is spent playing Email tag and trying to schedule meetings. While Microsoft products enable remote work, it seems it takes more than OOTB solutions to implement remote work correctly.
In addition the large majority, myself included, of modern professionals are trained on what Office 365 is fully capable. From my research when deployed correctly it seems to be quite capable. It might be that Microsoft, opposite to apple, has too many capabilities and options. Even though I’m trying to learn more about computer science, coding, IT, and the Microsoft sweet there is an information overload. Perhaps that is more a modern world issue, training is avalible, but what training to start with.
Being a Car Sales Entrepreneur Isn’t As Exciting as it Sounds
I’m still trying to launch my own car exportation venture. The car I was trying to start with blew up on me. Blowing up my Mitsubishi EVO IV was entirely my fault. I was trying my best to cosplay Takumi Fujiwara and blew it up on Akagi. Although I’m in the wrong car. . . Car Exporting is something I want to do, there is a reality that comes along with the vision or idea. I firmly believe that the way we sale exotic, JDM, and classic cars can be changed to a new form of sales. My Concept of TougeLegends will hope to make that a reality one day.
Before I can hope to make that TougeLegend dream a reality, I’d like to get comforable with the exportation space. Realistically car exportation is broken down into inventory management, product and service sales, but logistics plays a large part. Logistics isn’t the sexist job but it’s necessary. Setting up transportation, knowing the costs of transportation, fees and paperwork, that’s exporting.
Marketing is Closer to Where the Passion Lies
If I get a job in that exportation and car sales I know cars eventually become abstracted. Physical objects become chassis codes, model numbers, and low resolution images in an inventory manager. Actually the most exciting part of working with cars is in the marketing department. I worked in automotive marketing 10 years ago. IMO out of the white collar employees, the marketing team spends most time with the cars. I thought it would be nice to work with a big dealership. . . I’d hate to be in a stuffy suit in that corporate environment. Being part of an independent dealership meant I got to sit in an experience a plethora of brands and cars.
Taken to the corporate level, the marketing , and sports car development teams are the closest to the heart of passion. Why do people chose a certain brand of car? Was it seeing one in a cartoon, a memory in older model, or was it the WRC? Connecting to that special spark and broadcasting that to the world is what the marketing team does. Even the most mundane models spark some sense of joy when you see that badge on it. The Nissan Global HQ reminded me of why Nissan was special in my heart.
Car Sales is Not About Cars
Those of you who follow the blog know my friend Nathan Craig hosted me at his house last summer. Nathan has been someone I look up to, he finds time to mentor me when he can. In Hawaii we discussed my idea to start importing JDM cars to the states. I thought I had it solidly thought out before that conversation. He said it was important to know the best models with the highest return. The average prices that they sell private party, at auction, and the cost of transportations and customs. I felt woefully underprepared as selling Japanese cars was something my heart told me to do.
“All this to maybe get a return in 6 months to a year, when I can flip a car domestically?”
“What if the car sits and doesn’t sell?”
Do you know Dealerships make more money from financing, warranties, and service than they do from car sales?
“What’s your plan to source parts and offer service plans for the cars”
I had no answer. Perhaps that is the moment when I realized that not everyone in car sales is a car guy. Some people are, Nate is, but at the end of the day car sales is more about book keeping. Sales is more about networking and customer service than having a passion for the thing you’re selling.
That being said today I was going to an interview. . .well kind of.
Forging Connections With a New Car Exportation Business
Today was supposed to be an interview with a new exportation. The two founders had over eleven years of experience each and merged their companies. Last week I had a remote interview, but between that time they hired someone full-time. I was shooting for a part time position due to signing a contract with the tourism company last week. This late in my life, I’ve realized it’s important to forge connections so I went to introduce myself anyway.
Being an Entrepreneur Isn’t As Exciting As It Sounds, but sometimes you have to think like one. During our introduction and meeting they were still open to the idea of working together. Similar to my freelance work with other exporters they proposed the idea of paying for content post the creation part. A model where I would produce videos and share content with them after the fact. While I was hoping for regular part-time work to sacrifice my free time for income, it was better than nothing.
Although I’m socially unaware and neurodivergence does me no favors. As a result of living with my cousin I’ve been beginning to network more actively. No matter how much I do to improve myself, my content, or my blog, there are some things you can’t do alone.
Nissan Headquarters
After my interview I headed to Nissan Headquarters. Nissan holds a special place in my heart. Owning a Nissan is one of the reasons I was even interested in moving to Japan. While an AE86 is also a dream, I’d also like to Own an S14 that reminds me of my first car someday. The only reason I got into Initial D is because of old Silvia Forums and my friend Brandon. I knew him as a kind gentle older brother I never had. When I tore my ACL he’d let me sit at his house all day and watch him wrench on cars. Sometimes I’d help him and we’d go to eat Pho together. He changed my life when he drifted in his S13 up a hillside road I drove everyday.
My appreciation for Nissan as a brand grew after watching the Gran Turismo Movie. To even think of the idea of having an eSports Athlete put that experience into a real car is wild. It’s a dream for many, and nissan made it come true. Because I was in Yokohama Station already and admission is free I floated about taking videos for short form content. There was a touch of melancholy because a month earlier the useless Hay’s Japan, my one start review BTW, Rep had told me there was a job opening at Nissan.
To be able to call Nissan Global my workplace would have been a dream come true. Some things don’t happen like we’d like them to in life. All we can do is control what we can and work to be great.
Being an Entrepreneur Isn’t As Exciting As It Sounds You Lose A Lot
Even the most successful athletes miss the mark from time to time. Great entrepreneurs are like Good Athletes, they both miss. It’s how we react to these losses that define the story of our lives. If I wasn’t good enough for Nissan what could I learn to make myself more marketable as an employee? If you build something large enough there’s a stage in your career where brands come to you.
Every shot I miss puts fuel in my fire to prove the naysayers or those that passed me by wrong. I had almost a position at a car exporter owned by a Canadian a year prior. Since then I’ve worked to improve my videography and editing skills. I’m still working on it. That inner athlete in me hasn’t died yet. Every now and again I look at his channel and try to beat the quality of videos. I’ve also improved at social media management and SEO strategies in that time.
There’s a Les Brown Quote that reads “It’s not over until I win”. While this mindset reduced to absurdity can be unhealthy it does push you to work to improve. Research shows that athletes will run faster when pushed with faster competition.
To be clear, this mindset doesn’t apply to people who have walked my path with me. I want nothing more then for brands After930 or Sunset Auto to succeed. It’s a different animal for those who passed me by. Even worse to those who have talked down to me, I’ll prove what I can over a period of life.
Setting Up Non Negotiables
I’ve dedicated my 2024 towards dream chasing, self-improvement, and the grind. Self improvement is like being an entrepreneur, isn’t as exciting as it sounds. Online self improvement conjures up images of seminars, success, and sigma male grindset finance bros. In reality real change is just a matter of showing up everyday. The Japanese have a beautiful concept called Kaizen, or continuous improvement. As in basketball it’s one thing to make plans. As my coach used to say follow-through is just as important as taking the shot.
Tim Ferris has a concept of a “non-negotiable” or something that has to be done everyday. I thought it would be a good idea to give myself some Non-Negotiables.
Non-Negotiables For 2024
- Study Japanese For at Least an Hour a Day
- Japanese is one of the reasons I found it hard to find a job that pays well in Japan, having a language certification above N2 really helps with job searching
- Exercise for at least an Hour
- I think Michelle Obama had a campaign about this . . . I’m old I know
- Write a log everyday
- Even if the log doesn’t turn into a blogpost I want to get into the habit of writing down what I do outside of work to keep myself accountable. Being an entrepreneur Isn’t As Exciting As It Sounds, but perhaps through writing and after years of progress it might be.
To-Do List
- Make a New Year’s Video For the LaidbackMarco Channel
- Get Organized Physically/Electronically
- Keep better track and record of finances
- Design Shirts, Clothes, Sweaters, and Products for the brand
- Make a diagram of LaidbackLifestyle funnels and web
- Redesign website to integrate product sales
- Cleanup YouTube channels, linking, and tags
- Send Ophelia, Monstercat, and Other Labels a Demo. . .how do I put together a demo and press kit?
- Visualizer for “Lost at Sea”
- Vertical Visualizer
- Create shorts from Tokyo Underground Footage Vertical for LaidbackJDM
- Upload any Video To LaidbackGaming
- Finish Editing Yokohama Photos and Post Them Online
- Make a reel with trending audio of before and after edits
- Draw anime characters on them for laidbackanime
- Create Shortform Content from Nissan Global HQ
