Ass Off the Fence Has Moved

Hey guys, thanks for following my blog--Ass Off the Fence has defected to typepad. I'm still blogging but it's now Off The Fence at http://www.offthefence.typepad.com

You can look it up and follow me from there--it should be much easier to find now.

Thanks guys,
Ken

Move @!*&$, Get Out da Way!

We finally decided to get bicycles this summer and, like thousands of fellow Montrealers, drive the car less. Before I became an avid biker I'd listen to my partner and good friend Eric Audet tell stories of altercations, some minor and some not so minor, that he'd gotten into with drivers and pedestrians concerning bike, car and pedestrian etiquette.

I use to tell him "Eric you're F@$*'in insane, riding is suppose to be fun, relaxing", but now I know exactly what he's talking about. I can't tell you how many times I've been riding, and in the bike lane to boot, and have some idiot pedestrian with their head up their ass step right into bike lane with no regard for their safety or mine and I have perform evasive manouvres to save both of our lives-- it happens every day.

What are they thinking when they see the bike lane?--"Wow there's so much room to walk now I love it, I can bring my whole family!" No you F@&! that's for bikes, that's why there's a big picture of a BIKE asshole.

I have a little something now for people who wander aimlessly into the bike lanes of Montreal. It's called scaring the SHIT out of them. This one prick was walking in the middle of the bike lane, plenty of room on the sidewalk but no, he prefered our lane so I rode right up beside him and yelled "BIKE LANE!" You should have seen the F2$%er jump! Hey, every action has a consequence.

Listen, I don't want you to think I'm hiding behind bushes looking to ambush poor, unsuspecting pedestrians, all I want is to enjoy my bike and to be safe, so please, if you're one of those people or know of one that just can't get enough of walking in the bike lane in the summer, well you get what you get.

Another One Bites The Dust

Dana White and the UFC demonstrate once again that they have the mixed martial arts world by the balls. Affliction, which was the UFC's main rival, if you can call it that, had to cancel their latest promotion due to the positive steroid test of Josh Barnett.

Barnett was slated to fight Fedor Emelianenko, whom many believe to be the best mixed martial artist on the planet. Not only did Affliction cancel the whole card, but they also announced that they would no longer be in the business of promoting fights. Affliction will instead work with the UFC. No one is quite sure what this means, but you can bet the terms of the deal will be controlled by Dana White.

White always said that "Affliction made great T-shirts but they're not in the fight business, we are". The collaboration between the companies probably means that UFC fighters can now expect sponsorship deals from Affliction and who knows, maybe it means that Fedor will one day fight for the UFC.

This a great example of 'if you can't beat them join them'. Affliction definitely had the money to compete with UFC but their fight promotion IQ was too low. The only other orginization in North America that has been able to survive outside of the UFC has been Strikeforce, based in San Jose California.

Strikeforce never set out to compete with the UFC. Instead, they went after smaller, local markets and created a niche and are thriving in their own way.

So after being at odds for a little over a year I think this re-kindled partnership between the UFC and Affliction will good for both the fans and the fighters.

UFC 100

UFC 100 came and went without any real surprises, except for Brock Lesnar yelling at Frank Mir after opening a can of whoop ass on him then in the same sentence snubbing one of the UFC's main sponsors, Bud Light, by choosing to drink Coors Light instead, and then having to apologize for his behavior in the post-fight press conference.

Oh ya, what about Dan Henderson laying out Michael Bisbing with the right hand that Bisbing was circling into all night. To talk all that trash and to then be laid out like that, I thought Henderson killed him. It's kind of ironic, Bisbing looked exactly like his countryman Ricky Hatton when he was sent crashing to canvas courtesy of Manny Pacquiao's right hand. They both fell flat on their backs and looked quite peaceful as their corners tried to revive them after the referee counted them out at 30.

What can you say about GSP. He gets better with every fight and continues to put pressure on Anderson Silva for the pound for pound title. St.Pierre was never in any real trouble during the fight and again was able to take his opponent down at will. St Pierre is methodically cleaning out the welterweight division and in my opinion has already surpassed Matt Hughs as the greatest welterweight of all time.

Who's up next for GSP? Does it really matter, St Pierre is one of those rare athletes that it doesn't matter who he's competing against you'll want to witness every masterful performance.

Rags to Riches

With UFC 100 coming up the Spike network has a special called 'UFC's 100 Greatest Fights'. Watching it, I realize how far mixed martial arts has come from it's beginning as a side show with no weight divisions or gloves into a legitimate sport with some of the greatest athletes the world of athletics has seen.

Owning my own business, I look at the UFC a little differently. What really fascinates me is how the UFC went from near bankruptcy in 2004 to what it is today. How close was the UFC to just closing shop? Owner Lorenzo Fertitta called Dana White, president of the UFC, in 2004 and said "I can't do this anymore. I am blowing all my money."
He told White to get out on the street and and see how much he could get if they sold it. White was able to raise about $6 million, the bad news being that they were $38 million in the hole. Lorenzo and his brother Frank decided at the last minute not to sell, to figure out how to make it work instead.

Dana White has always said that one of the best moves in turning everything around was getting the Ultimate Fighter series on Spike TV. It was a huge gamble. The first season cost them $10 million with no guarantee that it would even work but before the show aired the company started building some momentum. Tickets where starting to sell and pay-per-view numbers showed some improvement, not to the point where they were making money, but enough to know that something was changing.

When The Ultimate Fighter finally aired everything took off, but it had taken $45 million before the business started to sustain itself.

So personally, when I look at the UFC I'd almost rather listen to how White and the Fertitta's brothers were able to dig out of the hole that they got themselves into than focus on who's on the next card.

Entrepreneurship: Taking the Plunge

With the recession in full swing, major corporations showing huge losses, and people from all sectors losing their jobs, folks are looking for other ways to make a living. The idea of becoming your own boss and becoming an entrepreneur seems to cross peoples mind more often during trying times such as these. In fact, throughout history huge fortunes have been made in down-times.

Deciding to become an entrepreneur can be an overwhelming and exciting endeavor. When I bought my first business I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I thought passion for what I was doing would carry me through and I would figure out the rest on my own. WOW. Although passion is a crucial part, passion on its own won't put money in your pocket.

The first thing you need to be is smart enough to realize that you don't know anything and that your going to need help. The first thing I did when I came to that realization was to start reading. I read books on how to be successful in business. The first book I read was one that was recommended to me: E-Myth by Michael.E.Gerber, which radically changed the way I looked at business, how a business should be run, and that I was going to be out of business very soon if I didn't get a handle on things.

I went from a guy who hated reading to reading at least one book a month on my new profession of being an entrepreneur. So my first piece of advice would be to educate yourself before you do something stupid.

Surviving Renovations

Renovating your business can be a stressful affair. Unless you're a multinational corporation or have loads of money and are able to hand over the project to a firm that specializes in this sort of thing, chances are you're overseeing the project yourself.

We started renovating our training center a week ago and we were naive enough to believe that we would only have to close for a couple of days, when in reality we should have closed for two weeks. Fortunately, we had the foresight perform the the work during our slow season.

Our business is dependent on memberships so for every day that we were closed we added a day to our members membership; just because you're stressed out doesn't mean your clients have to be as well.

Choosing the right contractor is crucial--not only do you want to get the work done at a fair price but you want to make sure that they really know their craft. If you don't know anyone off-hand ask friends, family, other business associates, and if you can, try to see some of the their finished projects.

It's also important to note that a residential contractor is different from a commercial contractor, so know the difference. Check to see if you need any permits, make sure you get those in order, and get an estimate in writing. We were lucky that I went to school with my contractor, although my memories of Robert when we were in college consisted of him drinking himself into a stupor, putting a garbage can on his head and asking, "who turned out the lights?", but god bless him, he's a great contractor.

When trying to figure out how much this will cost you believe me, no matter how much you sit and rack your brain about all the possible expenses that will arise it's going to cost you more, so whatever number you come up with add a cushion of about 20%--and that doesn't include lost revenue from having to close down operations.

So when performing renovations a little planning and research will help you to sleep better while your business is undergoing a make over.