What you can learn as a digital entrepreneur by building real stuff

This weekend I decided to build a fence around my terrace which is about two meters up at the highest point. The old fence was removed during a renovation of the house.

This is halfway through the project. It needs some paint, but it is starting to look good.

Today I looked back on what I did and saw a lot of resemblance to things I do on a daily basis. Here are some things i noticed:

You need a plan - sketch it!

Before you run off to the store buying things for your new project and start the real work you need to plan it out carefully. How much wood do you need? How should it look when you are ready? I like to do some quick sketches with pencil and paper, just to get an idea of what I am about to build.

You will not solve all details here, but get the broad picture and understand where the challenges will be. Also, you can use the sketch to do calculation of how much things you need to buy and communicate the solution to your co-worker or clients (my wife in this case).

You need a budget and timeplan

Given how much wood I thought I needed to build the fence I went online and found prices for most of the things i needed, and a quick guesstimate told me it would be around $150 for the whole fence. A quick check with the wife that it is okay to spend that amount on a fence and I was good to go.

So, before you start building on your project you need a budget. Either from the client or from yourself (probably in hours).

Circumstances can change

I promised this would be ready during the weekend. One thing I did not think of whas that circumstances really can change quickly. In this case it was the weather. It was pouring down and made it nearly impossible to get any work done for most of Sunday. The day before that we had unexpected (but welcome) guests that ‘took’ a few hours of my time.

If I had promised a client of mine to be ready a certain date I would have screwed up in this case. In my work environment it is mostly about people calling in sick in the last minute, a support call that takes hours or a few super-important tasks that one of my team members get stuck with. You need to think about that things can go wrong when you plan.

Luckily, my wife is very understanding. Mostly because she did not finish what she promised either. :)

You need friends

I have a 7 month old daughter. She is lovely, but she needs to be watched most of the time. That is hard when you need to go shopping for wood and screws and then run around with sharp objects and dangerous tools that makes all kinds of noise. I needed a friend (in this case my sister-in-law, my wife was painting the walls so she was busy too) to watch her while I was working.

In your business you need some friends to care for you when you have a lot on your plate. That is one of the reasons why I hired someone else in my business to start with.

You need good tools

Things are so much easier and the end result gets much better if you have proper tools for the job. It does not have to be the most expensive, but stay away from the lower end of the scale when buying tools

The same goes for you digital escapades. If you think that shiny Mac will make your business life easier - get it. It is a one time expense, and you will hopefully use it for a long time. The only tools I have regretted purchasing for my DIY-projects are the cheapest ones that ends up being the most expensive since I have to throw them away and get better things after a while.

So, sometimes building a wooden fence can learn you things about your life as a digital entrepreneur. Do you have any more examples like this? Tell me in the comments below.