Start Your Own Business

Posted on 16 February 2026 by Wayne Cook
Author: Wayne Cook

I hope you are doing well in your career. Enjoying what you do makes the work go by quickly. There are many advantages to owning your own side-business. Choosing the proper one takes some planning.

Evaluating Business Opportunities

To evaluate a business, develop your own criteria. I listed a few criteria I have:

  1. What would you like to do to serve others? The only way to create income is to provide something that other people want. Be a servant leader in what you do.
  2. Are you going to create your products to sell or do you want to work with an established company?
  3. Are you more interested in providing a service and/or providing products?
  4. What is the cost of entry?
  5. What is the potential return on investment?
  6. You should look at existing companies and ask: How long have they been in existence? Are they a growing company in a growing industry with a large potential market? Are they in multiple countries?
  7. Do they have products or services you want to use?
  8. Does it have residual income? Monthly/yearly? Having something that creates passive income is ideal. Is there an auto-order feature? Is the product consumable?
  9. Will you be working with other people or working by yourself? Leveraging other people’s efforts is very beneficial to your business.
  10. Will your friends and acquaintances benefit from these products?
  11. Are the products and business opportunities shareable?
  12. Know your passion, and choose a business based on that passion. Are you going to use these products to help fund your passion and help others.

Choose Your Product or Service Wisely

The products or services you represent have to be of the highest quality. It is best that they have some consumable piece. Are they effective and something you want to use? To earn consistent income, consistent purchases are necessary.

For orally consumed products, make sure the manufacturing facility meets Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) standards. For supplements to be effective, their content must match their label. This requires Pharmaceutical GMP. Food grade requires a clean facility and no contamination. Pharmaceutical grade requires a clean room environment. Consumers expect a match between what is on the label and what is in the product. Go with Pharmaceutical GMP where possible.

All businesses have an entry cost (both time and money) and renewal costs. Can you afford the cost? Are these straight fees or do you receive products or a service for that fee. Reputable companies supply products for both costs. The renewal costs, which should be minimal, keep your business in good standing. Are the fees low enough that you can easily cover them with your sales?

Mentors

There are two main types of mentors. Some people understand the general principals of running a business and being motivated to do your best. The second type are those who understand your business and have done well. If you are in network marketing, work with the person who brought you into the company. One of the primary ways they earn money is to help you succeed. If that person is fairly new, ask who they go to for help and guidance.

Tax Considerations

Choose a company based on how it will help you and help those around you. Explore the advantages of owning your own business.

Xero has a great description on what to claim and how to claim. You can claim the portion of all your office expenses you use for your home business. This includes the office space, furniture, equipment, and supplies (like paper and printer ink). Talk with a tax consultant about your purchases for the product you represent. A good account knows which required expenses to stay in good standing with the company are tax deductible. Always look at what the IRS says on deducting business expenses.

  1. Restaurants: Fifty percent of a business meal is deductible.
  2. Travel: The biggest deduction is travel. Travel costs for your business are deductible. All travel expenses in and outside the United States are deductible. The trip should be planned in advance. lt is important to know your itinerary and the people you plan to visit.

The company I work with has markets in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, India, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Columbia, and more for a total of 24 markets. Visiting relatives or friends can be tax deductible. A business meeting must be set up first. Use your own business to your advantage. Set up a meeting where you want to go. The appointment is the key. Do not push, keep the friendship. Lead by example, let them choose what they want to do. Not everyone will choose to join your business. Those who do join, be as supportive as you can be and help them be successful. Be supportive in all ways possible.

Time

Owning your own business should provide time for what you want to do outside of work. It requires work to get yourself established. One key is to enjoy what you are doing. That shows potential and current customers the business is rewarding. Listen to people, help people meet their needs and dreams. Be involved with something you love to do. For travel, find a company that encourages travel to where you would like to visit (or live). I have a good friend who is living in Indonesia and is managing her business from there. I have other friends who moved their business inside the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

What is wanted is satisfied customers who use and reorder your products. Your time is limited to 24 hours per day. You need to train others to do what you are doing. You need to have time outside of work to lead a fulfilling life. That way you earn the income from the work of several people. Be enthusiastic about what you are doing and take the time to enjoy yourself and your family. Use your time wisely. Spend the most time with those people you love. Spending more time with my two young sons was important to all of us. User your time wisely.

My Passions

I am passionate about Computer Science and Education. I see too many former students struggling to find good paying jobs. Currently, many first-level positions are being filled by Artificial Intelligence. I am forming a group to talk about the future of computing with the influences of AI. Gathering a group of like-minded people can make a business grow rapidly.

Whatever you choose, you need to Do Until You Become what you want to be. Sometimes it takes true Grit to accomplish what needs to be done.

Conclusion

I like owning my own business and use my products daily. I believe they are helping me maintain my health at the cellular level. Investigate different business opportunities. Please reply to the person who referred you to this article about their business. I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment and I will get back in touch with you.

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Knowing My Personal Identity

Posted on 31 January 2026 by Wayne Cook

I am writing this article as much to me as to everyuone else. An Identity is very personal. For you to relate to what I am writing, reading “I” and “my” should make it more personal. We each have a developed identity. It comes in three parts:

  1. My Identity to strangers
  2. My Identity to those close to me, usually family and co-workers, and close friends.
  3. My Identity to myself.

I can have influence on the first two, but I only have control over my personal identity. “I am” starts most identifications of myself. I need to be careful with how that sentence is completed. I Am refers to deity, so I need to be careful on how I refer to myself in that sentence.

My subconscious will go with whatever I say to myself. Unfortunately, it knows when I am lying to myself. I need to believe what I say to myself. For example, I I say “I will succeed in my business and help many people with their health.” If I truly believe this statement, I will reach my goal. If I have any doubt, I will not meet my goal. It is up to me to personalize this belif until it comes true. I am my own worst saboteur. It is like the final scene in
Somewhere in Time” where a simple coin brings back an unwanted “reality.”

The way to succeed is to be consistently in motion doing what is needed to achieve my goals. I must never stop believing I will succeed. The trap is when I start saying “Why me” and start feeling sorry for myself. I need to change that to “What now.” When I do feel sorry for myself, I look how others overcame obstacles in life. I am the author of my own life and do something to move myself closer to my goal. That is easiest when I have created a road map to where I want to be. I need to plan, do, and then reevaluate before I revise my plans and “do” again. This requires Grit, but it can be done.

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When is Good Enough Not Good Enough?

Posted on 29 September 2025 by Wayne Cook

In our project team at Hewlett Packard, there was one question that often arose: “When is good enough not good enough? on any project, you can optimize two of the three parameters: Features, Defects, and Schedule. Defects always had to be driven as close to zero as possible. The debate always came down to what features will be in the next release, given a tight schedule. We could stretch out the schedule a bit, but customers expected clean releases on a known schedule. Engineers would push for as many features as possible. Managers would push for a known release date. Toward the end of SoftBench, I was Project Lead and had to come up with solutions that would make both sides not too upset. There was no way to make both sides thrilled by any final compromise.

It was a good team that worked well together. I sometimes think about the work that went into our products and then the reviews. Some were quite good, and some left a bit to be desired. We appreciated the good reviews and learned from the “not-so-good” reviews.

Those who do the Work

Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech in 1940 concerning “The Man in the Arena” 

It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again.
Because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause
Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.....

Those who succeed at work were so who tried, those were courageous enough to propose bold ideas and do it with great hear.

Daring Greatly by Brene Brown

Brene Brown is a researcher/storyteller, as she calls herself. As a side note, storytelling is huge in the Scrum approach to software development. In order to succeed greatly, we must dare greatly. This means accepting ourselves to realize we have our vulnerabilities. There is a good TED talk vulnerability, of love and belonging.

Conclusion

We need to decide our own future. completing a task “good enough” will probably be a successful venture. But it is not satisfying. We need to Dare Greatly and reach for something a little more.

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controlled flight 1905 Santa Clara

Posted on 31 May 2025 by Wayne Cook

There is recorded evidence that controlled flight is in Santa Clara, California. More will be added to this article later.

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Dance in the Rain

Posted on 31 March 2025 by Wayne Cook

I must write my monthly article before 11:00 PM on the last day fo the month. There are so many great ideas, but it takes time to organize each idea and create a post about that topic. What inspired my thoughts for this article was a quote from Vivian Greene: “Life isn'[t about waiting for the storm to pass. It is about learning to dance in the rain.” We all go through tough times and sometimes feel isolated. I count my blessings when I feel this way and look for positive events that are happening in my life.

We all have opportunities to grow. We also have wonderfully blessed times in our lives. It is nice when those are the same occasions. Too often the learning experiences happen the most in the tough times. This is when I write down what I am learning and figure out a way to apply those lessons.

Another way I getr out of a “funk” is to serve others. Being a “professor” there are always students who could use a little extra help. That is always rewarding.

There is a story about people trying to move a piano a hosrt distance. The only way they found to do it was for everyone to stand in their place and then lift together. Life is a loot like this, we may be “stuck” in a place or situation. What can we do in the place that could help us and help others? Often a solution will appear if we dwell on positive options and avoid pitying ourselves or others. The question I try to ask myself is: “What can I do to make a difference?” That is a question I need to ask myself more often.

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Be Kind To Yourself

Posted on 28 February 2025 by Wayne Cook

This is my February placeholder until I have time to write something. I need to be kind to myself and develop a good message about this subject. We all have self-worth, and no one can take away from us. Do you have any suggestions?

A good article to read is with The Kindness Diaries – Cook Health Alliance. Great author. Go out and do something that makes you happy, whether it be something to help others or help yourself.

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Women Coders

Posted on 31 January 2025 by Wayne Cook

Women are important in the history of coding. Recently, fewer are starting down this path. Besides teaching at Front Range Community College, my goal is to help more women become better coders. With the development of artificial intelligence, the need for better coders and software developers is increasing. We need more men and women of all backgrounds to understand how to design and implement software. Women have influenced coding throughout history, we need more right now. Some examples follow.

Ada Lovelace

Charles Babbage created a mechanical computer, considered the first “modern” computer. But without someone to program the instrument, it would be a “boat anchor.” Ada Lovelace described the basics of programming design. A lot of her work was lost until Alan Turing started using Ada’s material in his research and designs. Here is an interesting story about how they worked together: The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage – Wikipedia.

Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace, the inventor of programming calculating machines

BBC created a video about the life of Ada Lovelace and the vision she had for computing. See BBC DOCUMENTARY : Calculating Ada – The Countess of Computing 2015 – YouTube.

Joan Clarke

Joan Clarke’s work was vital to the British success in breaking the Enigma code.

Joan Clarke mathematician on Alan Turing's code breaking
Joan Clarke – mathematician who worked with Alan Turing to break Enigma Code

Joan Clarke was “just a mathematician.” Still, her cryptography work with Alan Turing helped break Germany’s Enigma Code. Joan Clarke, woman who cracked Enigma cyphers with Alan Turing – BBC News. Alan Turing depended on her intuition for a lot of his concept developments. Joan Clarke calculated complex equations quickly and intuitive, as shown in this movie clip.

Admiral Grace Hopper

Admiral Grace Hopper

Responsible for the invention of Cobol and many of the aspects of modern compilers. See Grace Hopper – Computer Coder, Education & Achievements for a good overview of her career.

Hidden Figures – Annie Easley, Group Lead

Annie Easley

Much of the orbit computing work for NASA started as women doing hand calculations for best launch and re-entry trajectories. When the first IBM computer was delivered to NASA. Annie Easley was the head of this group. Her goal was to guarantee her team’s members were trained to program the new IBM system. Her groups continued their orbit calculation work on the new NASA IBM computers. Much of the early NASA programming was designed and implemented by Annie Easley’s team. At this time, hardware was for men and programming was for women.

Margaret Hamilton

The Saturn V programming was exceptional. It flew men to the moon safely without any control of the people on the command module. When the Saturn V started orbiting the moon, the pilots were given control. The lunar lander also had control so the pilot would choose a safe place to land. The development of these computers was broken into two teams, hardware and software. Margaret Hamilton led the software development team. An excellent TED talk on her work explains the quality of the work.

There was not much room for error at this time. The hardware was more robust than what was on the Saturn V rocket. But the limitations were just as great. Margaret had to allow the pilot to fly the lunar lander and make decisions. It did have checks that warned the pilot of potential problems. If a check occurred, all auxiliary programs were stopped. This allowed the mission critical programs (like the landing controls) to execute.

Most Influential Women in Computer Science

These are but a few of the women that influenced Computer Science. For another person’s view of the women who have had the most influence, see the SCI Journal’s 18 Famous Female Computer Scientists That You Should Know 2025

Modern Opportunities

There are so many opportunities for good engineers. See some stories of modern men and women developing software together. Watch CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap (2015) Online for Free | The Roku Channel | Roku

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Start Walking

Posted on 31 August 2024 by Wayne Cook

Have you ever woken up and feel overwhelmed by all there is to do that day? I have. For me to accomplish something, and to do it well. I have to choose one task to complete and do it well. To accomplish something important, I choose a direction and just start walking. This morning, there were errands to run with Diana. This afternoon, I want to translate some notes I took at a Church conference to this blog.

We are all blessed with challenges. Some may be more difficult than others, but we are presented with challenges to help us grow. I personally would be bored not having opportunities to grow. In life, we have joyous times, challenging times, and growth times. It is great when joyous and growth come together. Too often it is the challenging times that bring about the growth.

“Wrong” choices lead to better choices

Early in his career, Kenny Rogers’ mother told him: “Always be happy where you are, but never be content to remain there.” Start walking. I know that God will never give up on us, if we do the same then there will always be a bright spot ahead. If you start walking, is there really a wrong decision? We may realize that we need to walk in a different direction, but if we had not started our journey, we would not know that. It is from our choices that we learn to make better choices.

Inspiration comes from Asking

We all come to roadblocks reaching our chosen destination. This may be in our studies as well as in our lives. Find trusted sources. Read and ask lots of questions. The only dumb question is the one that is not asked. I teach and I guarantee each of us will be thinking about a question we have and looking for the answer. We will not pay attention to what is happening around us and we may miss the answer. We can read textbooks, internet articles, scriptures, or a combination. Studying diligently helps us come up with our best ideas. Then we need to take those ideas to a trusted source, Family, teacher, God? It may not happen instantly, but a different perspective will help us develop a far better plan.

Start Dancing in the Rain

Many victories may come when you least expect it. As Vivian Greene said: “Lif isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It is about learning to dance in the rain.” Challenges come to all of us. Even in those trying times, we can choose out path and walk with the joy that grace will give us.

Develop Grit

Everything will not be easy. We need to develop our own grit to get through tough times. It is really nice when everything falls in place. I believe this will happen more often if we just start walking when we have choices to make. The more we make decisions, the better decisions we make. It is like hitting a fastball in baseball. The more you start walking the easier it is to choose the correct direction. Start walking. The baseball fastball video emphasizes the importance to reduce the number of decisions we make, hopefully down to only one. When we only have one decision to make, it is so much easier to start walking.

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Letters from the Past

Posted on 4 August 2024 by Wayne Cook

Introduction

Have you ever come across a box of letters saved by your parents? I just did. I am not sure what to do with these letters. Do you have suggestions. This is only the start of what I need to go through for my parents. This does not cover everything I have saved. Moving often has its benefits. But we have moved here since 1988 and added to our “stash” when my parents passed away in 2002. I do not look at these items too often, but they bring back many memories when I do. First of all, the first box with letters:

The letters are divided into various categories.

Government Envelopes

These envelopes are from United States Government sources. Notice the values of the stamps. Most government envelopes have preprinted stamps.

My father retired as a Captain in the Army at the end of World War II. He was also a lead scientist at the Naval Las Vegas Nuclear test site, so he had correspondence with the Department of the Army after the tests were completed.

Members of Congress receiving franking privileges. This envelope was sent to my father by Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. All the envelope needed was Lloyd Bentsen’s name to be stamped on the envelope for it to be delivered to the specified address.

This is the third type of government envelop sold by the United States Post Office. For thirteen cents, the purchaser received the envelope and the postage to send it (assuming the weight was one ounce or less).

Aerogrammes (Via Airmail or Par Avion)

Sending letters via airmail used to be relatively more expensive than it is today. Most countries provided 0.5 ounce envelops that could be easily used, then folded and mailed. To have one language for postal services throughout the world, French was the chosen language. Par Avion was required to be printed on every air mail envelope. Most countries usually had their language also. France thought that the same should be done for all aviation, but Boeing, Lockhead, and McDonald-Douglas refused to put all of their instrumentation in French. Thus, English became the default language for flight training and instrumentation. The envelop has two sides.

The envelope is designed to be processed quickly. The “second fold” is the top of the back of the envelope when folded. The last section is folded inside the other two sections. Some people write on this last section, since it is inside the envelope. You can see the three flaps folded onto the first section so that the letter can be more easily processed without part of it catching on the machinery and being torn. The message is written on the inside of the envelope, thus keeping it a bit more private than our emails are today. I used to enjoy writing and receiving letters. Living on Guam for four years, I used these envelopes quite a bit. Most people on the island did not have phones, and phoning the “states” was really expensive. I will include the message part of this letter. Everyone wrote cursive then. You may or may not have the content interesting. It is messages between friends.

It was hard putting everything within such a small format. I think most people have been “Twitter-sized” and would probably have a hard time filling up this much space.

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Give up Something Good for Something Better

Posted on 23 June 2024 by Wayne Cook

We each have a given number of years on earth. It is hard to know how many that will be. There are many choices we have in how to spend our time. There are many good choices, but what are the best choices? We all need to choose wisely!

What I am Starting

I enjoy playing Solitaire each day. Articles say solitaire is good for “older” people. But there are better uses of my time. I decided to relearn Danish, even though I do not know where I will ever use it. It may be confusing, but I am also learning Spanish at the same time. Hopefully, it will not be too confusing, but after 23 days, it is going well. Also, one son is also learning a language, so we can compare how we are doing. Maybe there will be opportunities to use these languages in the future. We need to make sure we are ready, as much as possible, when these opportunities arrive.

What Started this Thought Process

In church today, we heard a beautiful song, His Eye Is On The Sparrow Lyric Video • Keith & Kristyn Getty • Heather Headley – YouTube. We all have challenges in our lives. It is what we do with those challenges that really matters.

Work

There are so many important tasks I what to accomplish. At work this includes getting ready for two classes I am teaching this fall semester, relearning LISP with one student, and organizing a seminar in July. The seminar is to introduce Front Range Community Colleges Computer Science students to the Computer Science Department at Colorado State University.

Family

I also want to spend more time with Diana, Matthew, Aaron, and Aaron’s family. It is hard to eliminate activities that are fun but do not contribute to this goal. If you are old enough to have grandchildren, what activities would you like to do with them. How about time with your own siblings? When you live in two different states, or even two different parts of the same state, that can be difficult.

The House and Yard

Then there is the house. After living in a place for over 30 years, it is hard to get rid of items. This is especially true about items that my parents gave to me. I am trying to scan several of my father’s articles so that I can share them on his Facebook page. I have posted several to the Dr. C. Sharp Cook Facebook page. I plan to post several more.

Then I have my slides from my trips around the world. Digitizing those slides, three slides at a time, would also be a good use of time. Fortunately, they are mostly Kodachrome slides, which do not fade over time. I also have my father’s slides from his trips. How will I decide what is to be digitally or physically preserved? What do I not need to preserve for my family? I am getting old enough that some of those items I do not want may be worth some money. What should I do with those items?

Conclusion

The final thing to prioritize is ensuring I have enough income to sustain our lifestyle for a few more years. Everything is getting more expensive. Having a good side business can bring in extra money, but it takes time. I really enjoy my business and value the products. But all businesses are not for everyone. If you do want to hear more, leave a comment and I I will send more information.

There are enough tasks for me to do. How do I prioritize all of them? What are your top priorities? How do you organize them? How do you decide which good activities you are doing that need to be replaced with something better? Good luck. If you have ideas, I would love to hear from you.

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