This felt like the right post to kick things off with as I’m celebrating a minor victory in getting this blog started and I also celebrated a milestone for COLOURlovers having its first 1,000,000 visitor month.

I’ve written about startups, social media and bootstrapping for several different blogs, but this will give me a home to focus more of that energy.   I hope to share biweekly-ish articles, ideas and lessons learned from an internet entrepreneur living it and loving it.

Launching a new project can sometimes feel like you’re trying to summit a mountain made of sand… with every step forward, you sink back down a little.  As you grit your teeth and push on step after step up that mountain, it’s easy to forget to stop and take a look back down to see just how far you’ve come.  These are very important moments for you. For taking time to thank and acknowledge those that helped you get there and to refresh your mind, body and soul.

The challenge lies in not downplaying your achievements with the next major milestones that are already looming and not over celebrating every little thing and losing focus on the big goals.  I hope you’ll get a little something from these lessons I’ve learned and that you remember to celebrate your next small victory.  You deserve it.

A Trophy Case Full of Almost Awards

COLOURlovers has been acknowledged by a couple major awards.  We were nominated for best community site of 2007 & 2008 in the Webby Awards and we are one of TIME’s top 50 sites of 2008.  I probably should have celebrated these achievements, but I was too busy focusing on the what we almost won.  Both the Webby Awards and TIME’s 50 Best had popularity contests built into their awards, so we immediately got busy trying to promote our site in hopes of winning the people’s vote… and with that losing the opportunity to recognize what we achieved for even being included.

A big part of what I missed out on in those opportunities was to let the accolade for our work sink in.  Those are specifically the validations that we need to make that pot of coffee at 10pm for the long night ahead, or to boost us back up after we get another no from a partner, investor, or customer.  Take time to celebrate your achievements and keep the awards, certificates or schwag close to where you work.  Remind yourself you’re doing the right stuff and are that much closer to reaching the stars.

Winning Your Own Awards is Just as Powerful

Chances are, nobody will be waiting to pop bottles and throw confetti for you when your site gets it’s 1,000th member… or you sell out of your inventory… or you have your first profitable month.  These are milestones you’ll set internally and they are just as valuable to celebrate and acknowledge. Make sure you and your team have created some milestones on the way up your mountains and you all take the time to celebrate them.

Some examples of internal milestones I failed to celebrate when I should of were when COLOURlovers had its 1,000,000th color named and shared in the community… The launches of version 2 & version 3 of our site (I was always so stressed planning the event and detailing the site that I never really got to enjoy the occasions)… our 100,000th registered member.

A 1,000,000 Visitor / Bubble Celebration

I probably shouldn’t mention “bubble” too often on a blog about web startups, but I’m talking about the kind that come in champagne. A few weeks ago, as part mental exercise and part remembering to celebrate our milestones I bought the most expensive bottle of champagne my local market had. (That sounds more impressive than it was, it cost $50.) I didn’t know exactly what I was buying it for, but I was reminding myself that that we’re succeeding and that life was worth celebrating. I’m a big believer in the “what you believe you will achieve” sort of stuff and this was one of those woo-woo positive affirmation things.

But, the bottle did end up getting popped. We received 1,020,663 visitors last month at COLOURlovers so I took the bottle and some plastic glasses (I thought the plastic glasses were the appropriate contrast to the expensive champagne for a bootstrapping startup) over to Chris, my partner and developer’s house to share the achievement and to talk shop about what great things we have coming up. *Note to self, I need to get much better at blasting off the cork from the bottle and showering people with champagne… true grand victory celebration style.

How To: Setting Small Goals on the Way to Greatness

I hope you have big dreams and huge aspirations. I also hope you’ve set some milestones along the way so you don’t burn out and can see how you’re progressing. Each project will have its own unique milestones, but here are some general ideas to help you organize your own.

In the book, The Success Principles, Jack Canfield has a lot to say about goal setting and review. Goals need to be measurable. They need to be worded in such a way that there is no doubt when they have been reach. Canfield says that a goal that is not measurable is just a “good idea.” For instance, “I want to write a book” is a good idea. “I will complete 200 pages of my book by January 31st,” is a measurable goal.
More great advice at Evaluating Your Goals for More Productivity.

On Route. Your milestones should be part of the big picture of what you’re planning to achieve. If 10 million registered members is your big goal, perhaps you could create milestones at 10K, 50K, 100K, 250K, 500K, 1 Million, 5 Million and 10 Million. Not all of those would need to be major celebrations, but they’re all major steps towards your big goal and should be recognized as validation of your efforts.

Defined. You need to be able to easily identify when you’ve reached your milestones. If you had just set them as some members, a lot and tons of members… you probably wouldn’t even know when you’d reached those points. Set clear definitions of your milestones.

Reachable. They should be reachable in a few months. A big part of mini-milestones is so you can know how you’re doing between the major milestones. If you make these too grand, you’ll be sailing blind for longer periods of time than you should.

Aggressive. You will get done what ever you set out to get done, in however much time you allow yourself to get it done. If you give yourself 2 weeks to get your yard mowed and the hedges trimmed, you’ll take two weeks to do it. You’ll tool around on the hedges one day… trim one half of the yard on another day, etc. If you give yourself only one afternoon you’ll find a way to get it done. That may mean hiring out some of the work or calling you poor little brother who has spent 27 years of his life in involuntary servitude to you. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself.

Quality. Milestones should be positive. They should add value to you, your project and even the world at large. Guy Kawasaki had a great point in his book, The Art of the Start, relating to doing good. That way even if you fail, at least you failed adding good to the world. I hope you won’t fail, in fact you’re going to reach all your milestones… but just in case, make sure you’re adding good to the world while you chase your dreams down.

6 Ways to Celebrate Grandly On a Budget.

Ok, so you think celebrating milestones might be a good idea and you have a fairly good list of what your own milestones are… now here are six ways to have a grand ol’ time celebrating those achievements on a bootstrapper’s budget.

Break Bread

Photo by Thomas Hawk
Sharing a meal is a great way to reward key people. You can either take them out for dinner, drinks, or host a get together at your place. Dinner for a large group could get a little pricey, so if your group is huge… consider hosting a potluck dinner and enjoy the conversation and celebration with your important supporters.

Pop Bottles

It doesn’t get more iconic in terms of celebrations than to pop the cork out of a bottle of champagne and rain down upon you and the surrounding people frothy bubbles… not the best use of your money… but it is fun. If you don’t drink alcohol, you can always use sparkling cider. I think using plastic cups is a nice reminder of your startupness.

Early Christmas

Buy yourself that thing you’ve been wanting. Reward yourself for your hard work and dedication. Even more bonus points if it is something you can use for work, like a nice digital camera. (This only works if you haven’t been indulging your gadget fancies and have been putting off some purchases.)

Mini-Vacation

Photo by pete4ducks
Get out of town for the weekend. It doesn’t have to be someplace exotic or far away. Take your loved one or a good friend and just unplug / decompress. This is a great opportunity to catch up on those books you’ve been meaning to read.

Veg Out

I have a couple TV shows that I really love, but I can’t keep up with the them on their regularly scheduled times. When I’d knocked out a major chunk of work I’ll reward myself by catching up on all my shows in bulk… the great info / media gorge. Most shows are available on iTunes or are watchable on their network sites. I’m getting excited for the upcoming Lostee binges, how about you?

Game Day

Photo by bonacheladas
Ok, it won’t be cheap if you opt for a major league event… but a minor league game might only cost you $100 for a few tickets and some beer / snacks. Even if you don’t regularly follow the team, most sporting event are pretty easy to get into if you let go of the outside world and join in on the cheers & jeers. Take a lover or a friend as a thank you for their support.

The Darius’ Advocate

The thoughts & ideas above are based on my experiences as an internet entrepreneur, but we’d love to hear yours as well… even if you completely disagree. Thank you for your time and happy launching!