Welcome! I'm Erica Douglass. I sold my successful business at age 26. Now, I'm committed to teaching you how to build an inspired, successful business. I also encourage you to think differently about investing, real estate, and negotiation.
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Smooth like buttah!
Wow. I know I haven’t updated in a while; I apologize for that. I simply haven’t had time to do anything lately.
We finally dug ourselves out of the driveway in Indiana (I’m waiting for my mom and uncle to forward me their pictures of it since mine didn’t turn out), and I came back to California for New Year’s.
2004 was the close of a big year for me — Simpli’s biggest year yet (we tripled in size since 2003), and overall a highly stressful year for me. I was feeling awful for a lot of the year since I was taking on too much work. At IBI 1204, the biggest thing that came out for me was that I was just drained and exhausted. Having my own business should be fun, but for me, too often, it resulted in sleepless nights, customers who were driving me up the wall, and health problems (my wrists being the #1 culprit; it got so bad in December that I was actually unable to type for 2 days.) Changes had to be made; that was clear.
So, in a complete and utter change of pace, I hired C as my COO and let him take over the day-to-day operations of Simpli.
I can hear all your mouths dropping right now. “You hired C? After all of your personal problems, etc. with him?” Yes, I did. Why? Two big reasons.
1) He’s extremely talented at leading teams. He has been in IT longer than I have been alive. He shows intelligence and thoughtfulness at leading, and he spoils his teams rotten. His management style is far different from mine, but it’s effective and that’s what is important. (Mine, at this point in time, is not effective because I do not have time to properly manage a team and still do all the other responsibilities of my job.)
2) For all of the personal things we have been through, he’s still a damn good person who deserves a great position at a stable and growing company where he can really flourish, and Simpli was a clear fit for him and his experience.
C has been kicking butt at Simpli lately, setting up a to-do list, forcing me to stick to agreed-upon deadlines (thank you!), and generally cleaning up the place. I’ve received loads of compliments from customers about him, as well. I am quite relieved and proud that he is working out well.
On to things about me. Oh, sheesh, where do I begin? First of all, this New Year was the best New Year I have ever had, mostly because for the first time I can remember I actually let go 100% and stopped caring about what everyone thought. I danced and danced and danced.
I have more to update. At IBI 1204 I met a really interesting guy who is now my boyfriend. In keeping with the tradition of not naming real names, I’ll call him N. We have been dating for a little over a month now and so far it’s been going really great. He was the one who took me dancing for New Years, and we’ve had a couple fun outings since, including skiing last weekend in Tahoe.
N is not like most of the other guys I’ve dated. First of all, he isn’t a geek. Does it surprise you? I bet it doesn’t surprise you if you know me well. It surprised me at first, but then I looked back at who I really was and it dawned on me that being a computer geek is a just fun aside that also happens to tie into my business. What’s the real me? Well, being a serial entrepreneur, of course! N also happens to be a serial entrepreneur, so that’s all good. We have fun plotting out company ideas, developing strategic plans for our companies, and raising capital for our companies and other companies. I love the fact that he has the same true passion I have, which is starting businesses. We’re both extremely competitive, but since our companies are so different (his company manufactures a line of all-natural deodorants) we can help each other kick butt in different areas. This is really cool, and honestly, it’s a relief to not have to be competitive with him in the computer arena. He is Chinese, knows kung fu, and is a total cutie, too. 
So what’s next? Releasing two sub-companies of Simpli, one of which should be online on Friday. My wrists, having received a month’s hiatus, are feeling a lot better. I am up in Sacramento a lot since that’s where N lives. I’ve started to really enjoy my life and I do love who I am now. All in all, it’s a fantastic, amazing turnaround from just a few months ago.
I feel good.
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9 Responses to “Smooth like buttah!”
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wow that was about a months worth of stuff happening that you crammed into one blog ^^ well, glad to hear things are going well for you I’m sick with the flu, and eating solid food makes me wanna puke, so it’s soup and jello for me :/
In the early 90’s I met this cheery white-haired guy named Mr. Smith while blundering around as a college student in Cambridge, MA. Mr. Smith was a fountain of ideas and loved to spin them off into businesses. He started the Booksmith, Videosmith, Learningsmith retail chains and later the Cybersmith cyber cafes which were well ahead of their time.
Now, because he had so many ideas that he wanted to accomplish, he didn’t like to get stuck on the day to day difficulties of actually running these businesses. He would get them started, prove that the idea was viable, and then sell them off for a good profit and go on to create another.
Now all these businesses eventually failed, that’s not the point really.. Mr Smith is probably quite wealthy from them and if he’s still in good health probably still spinning new ideas.
It surprised me at first that someone would not want to maintain control of their creation. I had previously assumed that this was some kind of natural instinct and virtual law, that creators are protective of their creations. But now with a lot more business experience (not to mention software development), I can see that it is quite natural for a good business to outgrow the direct control of its founder. And Mr Smith’s way might be the best attitude to take. He made a good living coming up with ideas that, in a minor way, made their mark on the world.
I still envy his startup capital
hey, congratulations! glad to hear things are going well with you. keep up the good work with Simpli - I appreciated the recnt outage explanation, by the way.
Congrats, Erica, on your success with your firm, and the new man in your life. Sounds like you’re having a grand old time.
The obvious question is:
his company manufactures a line of all-natural deodorants
Does he smell good???
Its good to love yourself!! You can’t be happpy until you love yourself fist. Some people won’t allow you to, then you have got to go!
Does he have a brother??
Sorry, I am an only child. I got plenty of friends that i could introduce you to.
Hi there Erica,
Mr. “N” has a company that produces all-natural deodorants, you say?
Would you mind sharing what that company is?
Been vegan since 2006 and am pretty health conscious. All-natural deodorant is hard to find (at least, in Australia), so I’d appreciate it if you shared the link (or somewhere I can reasonably find it).
I’ll be sure to share such info with others I know who’d be interested in such things.
Cheers,
- Bruce