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Destressing
Techniques for the Full-Time Netrepreneur
Do
You Have the Right Stuff To Build An Internet Business
The
Three Words Your Web Site Can’t Live Without
Cracking
the whip: 4 Free Tips for Effective Time-Taming
Developing
the Right Attitude For Making Money Online
Destressing
Techniques for the Full-Time Netrepreneur
©2000,
by Harmony Major
once
of the top three reasons for running an online business is usually to have
more free time. However, it seldom works out that way. Running any
business full-time can be stressful and time- consuming. So, here are a
few distressing tips to help keep your business from consuming YOU:
- TAKE
THE WEEKENDS OFF:
Running a business full-time doesn’t mean that you have to (or NEED
to) work 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Take off weekends, holidays,
AND random vacation time to avoid home business burn-out. Rest your
brain.
Keep a tight focus when you work, and automate your business as much
as possible. As a matter of fact, work ONLY as much as you have to.
That’s why you quit your day job, (or plan to), right?
Being able to work when you want and play when you want is one of the
greatest advantages of running your own business – and it’s also
one of the most quickly forgotten.
- HIRE
AN ASSISTANT WHEN YOUR BUSINESS PICKS UP.
You can’t do everything yourself, and you shouldn’t try. When
business picks up, the “hired help” can relieve a lot of your
stress. But how do you know when you need to hire a helping hand?
a) When you can’t comfortably handle
answering your daily email in less than 48 hours.
Taking a week or more to answer emails,
(or not answering it at all,) can put you out of business FAST. On the
Internet, negative word of mouth can spread like wildfire. Why risk
it?
b) When you can’t take a day off without losing a
lot of the progress you’ve made in your business thus far.
Admittedly, there ARE a few things that can’t be put off until
later. In these cases, your assistant can either help with the task
itself, or run the basics of the business while you focus all your
energy on meeting that killer deadline.
c) When you have more than five on-going projects
to maintain at any one time.
By “on-going” projects, I mean things that you need to work on
constantly, like publishing an ezine, maintaining a website, updating
a membership site, or creating a new product. If you publish three
ezines, have two website, and are writing two new books, here is where
your assistant can help out with the average load.
- WHAT
TO DO WHEN YOU JUST CAN’T AFFORD A FULL-TIME ASSISTANT.
An assistant doesn’t necessarily have to be a full-time employee.
And, instead of paying your hired help by the hour, you can pay them
on a “per assignment” basis. This can save money that would
otherwise go to an employee benefits package, and can elimiate the
need for extra tax time paperwork that the full-time employee would
create.
To go a step farther, you can have several part-time assistants, with
each one specializing in a different area of your field. This will be
much better than having one “Jack of all trades” that doesn’t
know a heck of a lot about anything specific to your niche.
For example, if you’re a Web design consultant, you can have an
assistant to do each of the following specialized tasks
a) Handle return email and phone calls
b) Create logos for your client websites
c) Find resources and articles for your website and/or ezine
d)Install and create CGI Scripts for you and/or your client’s
sites
e) Edit and spell check both you and your client’s website
f) Schedule new client website evaluations, and follow up on
past client’s result
- FIND
AT LEAST ONE PERSON WHO CAN HANLDE YOUR BUSINESS IN CASE OF ILLNESS,
EVERGENCIES, OR VACATIONS.
You’ll need to train someone you trust to make intelligent
business decisions in the event of your absence or illness. This
step will take longer than t he others, simply because you can’t
just pick anyone off the street for this job.
You need to be confident that this person can and WILL run your
business as smoothly and efficiently as if you’d never left the
scene.
Not only will this person be able to act as a temporary “owner,”
they’ll also be able to:
a) Recruit, train, and “interview” part-time assistants.
They’ll know all the ins and outs of your business, right? Then
they should be just as capable when it comes time to find more
“hired help.” Even though the final hiring decision will be
yours to make, this person can act as a “preliminary
Interviewer,” screen applicants, or scout new help that will
reliable, skillful, and completent.
b) Help you with important business decisions.
This depends on the depth of knowledge that you allow them (or
require them) to have.
c) Help keep your costs low.
Although this assistant will have an in-depth knowledge of the
workings of your business, you won’t have to pay them as a
full-time employee unless you specifically hire them as such. This
way, you’ll still have all the benefits of “temporary
ownership” in case of emergency, and also be able to save money by
not paying them an hourly wage.
- WHEN
YOU TAKE BREAKS, REALLY TAKE BREAKS!
When
you fix lunch, don’t come back to the computer, Fix it, and turn on the
T.V. to watch your favorite sitcom. Or, grab a book and curl up by the
fireplace (or the air conditioner in the Summer!), to read a few chapters
of that great novel you got from Amazon.com.
Whatever you do, just get away from your work! If you don’t feel
“productive” during work hours, unless you’re exercising your brain,
go to the supermarket for one of those great variety puzzle books and go
for the gold. In short, make sure breaks are Really for resting --- not
just for getting out of the physical vicinity of your work area.
6.ELIMINATE
CONSTANT TELEPHONE DISTRACTIONS.
I know how annoying it is to be in the middle of an important project,
stop to take a phone call – then totally forget what you were doing when
you stopped to take the call. And, not only is it frustrating, it can also
be time consuming.
Eliminate distractions, (and the embarrassment of jumping out of your skin
in fright when the phone rings), by using an automated messaging service
or live operator. Instead of listing your home office phone number on your
website, list the number of the 24 hour service to answer all your calls.
7.LEARN
WHEN IT’S BEST TO SAY “NO.”
You
can’t be all things to all people, and it’s foolhardy to try. Enjoying
helping people is one thing, but stressing yourself out by taking on too
many responsibilities is another. Any reasonable person will understand
that running a business is stressful, and will also understand that you
just can’t do it all.
If the person gets upset or bad-mouths you to other marketers because
declined their offer, that’s the kind of person you wouldn’t have
wanted to have any dealings with anyway. And in both cases, you still come
out on top, and life goes on.
8.TAKE AT LEAST ONE VACATION PER YEAR.
If
you were working any other full-time job, you’d be entitled to vacation
time after working “x” amount of hours. So, when you own your own
business, this should be even more applicable as it’s generally harder
work.
Where
you’re alone or with friends or family, make sure that your vacation
STAYS a vacation by not taking ANY work with you on the trip. Don’t take
any work-related “Reading material,” Don’t take your lap-to with you
to “work on that new website,” Don’t do newsletter issues, and
don’t make any business calls!
Even
if your vacantion is nothing but a relocation to another area of the house
for a week, it’s one of the only times you’re able to take time out
that’s exclusively for YOU. Don’t ruin that or interfere with it by
working through your break.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR.
Harmony
Major is the author of Yahoo! Secrets, where she reveals how you can drive
HUNDREDS more visitors to your site each day, by getting a #1 listing on
Yahoo. Don’t just settle for “getting listed.” Use her instantly –
effective tactics to boost your site traffic with a TOP yahoo
listing! Visit:
http://yahoosecrets.com
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Do
You Have the Right Stuff To Build An Internet Business
By
Terry Dean
Today,
I want to cover a subject that people online just don’t talk about that
often. We cover the technical aspect of marketing online, but we never
seem to talk about the inner aspects of being in business for yourself.
The
internet has been good to me. For the last two years, I have made my
full-time living off of it and will continue to do so in the coming years.
Constantly
people ask me exactly what should they do to create a full-time income
through online marketing.
Well,
I end up covering product creation, web site design, search engines, free
advertising avenues, and off-line advertising. One thing that never seems
to come up though is, “Do you really have the “Right Stuff” to build
a successful Internet Business?”
Let
me ask you, “Do you have the right stuff?”
Just
knowing these principles about online marketing won’t do you any good if
you don’t have the patience and persistence to put them to use in your
business. It doesn’t matter if you can tell me step-by-step in detail
exactly how to get top positions in the search engines if you never make
an effort to actually do it.
It
doesn’t really matter what you know.. It only matters what information
you use!
Here
are three questions that I really need to ask every reader out there who
desire to be successful in their own business.
1)
Are you consistent in your Business?
Many internet marketing techniques strongly rely on you consistently
following them. If you want to build a large ezine list, that means you
have to spend time on it every day or every week. If you want to receive
traffic at your site, you have to get out there and make deals every
day…. Trade links, participate in online discussions, work on search
engines, etc.
Are you really willing to put forth the necessary effort to build a
successful business? Some people aren’t.
Are you?
Let’s just break down the notion once and for all that it is easy to
just jump online and make a ton of money. It isn’t. It takes planning.
It takes work. It takes doing the right thing day after day. The internet
is NOT “Get Rich Quick.” If you are not willing to put forth some
effort, then you don’t need to be in this business.
2)
Are you Persistent in your Business?
Do you have the patience it takes to build an internet business? Too many
people have heard some of the wonder storied about almost instant success
online and expected it to be like that for everyone.
Let me put that notion to rest right here and now. Yes, some people have
come online with just the right product at the right time and made it big
rather quickly, but that in no way means they didn’t take a lot of
preparation to get to that point. AND it doesn’t mean that this happens
for everyone.
Most internet marketers start out online with a little traffic and a few
sales, then they aggressively and constantly apply the necessary
techniques to build their business every week. Most start out part-time
and build their incomes up until they make more money from the Internet
than from their regular jobs.
Most marketers actually fail at first in their business. You don’t have
to be upset if you have failed (In your opinion) at your business online
so far… You are in good company. Most of us have .. I know I did! You
are only a failure if you give up and quit after you fail.
3)
Are You Willing to Learn in your Business?
Do you know it all already? Way too many people I have spoken with
blamed their failures online on the market. They Went away saying the
Internet just doesn’t work. I am here to tell you it does work, if you
know how to work with it.
I sought out everything I could find on how to build a successful
business online.. You should see my shelves in my home office. You will
see row after row of marketing information and Internet information.
Every step forward in my business has taken place because I learned
another key that I could apply in my business. It didn’t come all at
one time. It came little by little.
If you already know it all then you are going to keep your business from
growing. If you aren’t willing to learn… then you will stay right
where you are now!
If you are not willing to be persistent, consistent, and learn in your
business, then you DON’T have the “Right Stuff” to build a
business. Many people don’t, but I expect that since you are reading
this, you are one of the people who does…
If so, I want you to understand that Rome Wasn’t built in a day,
and your web site probably won’t be either. Apply these
characteristics to your business and step-by-step you will start moving
to the top.
Do YOU have the “Right Stuff” to build your Internet Business?
Terry
Dean, a 27 Year Old Indiana Farm Boy, Reveals His Secret Formula for
Generating New Automatic Streams of Internet Income For Any Business In 72
Hours Or less.. Free Report: mailto:formula@bizpromo.com
http://www.bizpromo.com
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The
Three Words Your Web Site Can’t Live Without
By
Terry Dean
There
are three words which are major keys to success of any web site.
Understand these three words and you will find yourself halfway to success
on the Internet. Disregard them, and you will always be struggling to find
any type of financial success through online marketing.
- Free
The key word that the entire Internet is built on is the simple word
“Free.” It is a word that you will need to get to know if you want
to create a successful Internet business.
The easiest way to get people to visit your site and to keep coming
back is to offer something for free there. It can be a free report or
a free service such as a free-for-all links page or a free search
engine submission program.
Although everyone out there is trying to tell you exactly how to get
traffic, the secret to getting traffic is contained in that one
word… Free.
You have to come up with something interesting that is full of
benefits for your targeted market and give it away for free on your
site. This will be your hook for fishing out the right prospects
continually 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Here are some “hooks” I have used very successfully to constantly
get traffic to come to my site and to keep coming back: Free Reports,
Free Electronic Books, Free-For-All Links Page, Free
classifieds, Free discussion Group, Free Newsletter, Free Real
Audio Or Real Video, Free Recommend a Friend Script, Free Postcard
Site, and Free Search Engine Submissions.
The best free thing that you can provide though for most markets is a
free report that leads into your product. For example, create a free
report on 11 Traffic Generating Tips if you sell a Internet Traffic
Generation report. Or create a report on how to get dogs to stop
chewing up your stuff if you sell dog training courses.
If you create a free report which is a natural lead-in for your main
product, you can use one of the automated follow-up systems and create
an automated follow-up system for your sales letters to follow-up on
those who requested your free report.
So, you would put your free report on the Multi-responder as the
autoresponder’s first message. Then, you would have it programmed to
automatically deliver your sales letter the next day to anyone who
requests your free report. Each of your next 8 or so follow-up
messages would then be programmed to complete the sales process.
The Free Report which is on the first autoresponder message will be
the key to getting the hits on the autoresponder. The follow-up sales
messages will be the keys to getting automated sales for your site.
- Lead
Product
A key to any successful site is that they have one main product as a
lead product. You DO NOT want to focus on all of your products to each
new visitor to your site.
Too many choices will confuse the average prospect. Give them one main
choice that you focus on continually throughout your site and all of
your materials.
I have tested both methods … offering one product mainly and having
a web site which resembles a catalog approach. The one product
approach actually outsold the catalog approach by around 2 to 1.
Too many products only caused confusion for my visitors, and confused
prospects that can’t decide what they want usually don’t buy
anything. Although a few major companies have been able to get away
with the catalog approach, it is just too difficult for the average
small business.
Use your other products as backends for multiple streams of income.
- Backend
The principle of the backend sale is so neglected by most businesses
that many people don’t even realize how powerful understanding it
can be.
If you develop a good backend product which many of your first time
customers go on to purchase, you almost have an unlimited money
machine for your business.
For example:
Let’s say you are in an information business selling a low cost
audio tape set and a larger video package. The first product you
have sales for $ 50.00 (and costs $25.00 for dropshipping for the
owner) while your second package sales for $300.00 (and costs
$150.00 dropshipping from the owner).
If the first product you sell to customers salls for $50.00 and
costs you $25.00 to fulfill, you have $ 25.00 potential earnings
from it where you have to pay advertising expenses from. If it costs
you on average $20.00 advertising expense for each new customer, you
would only be earning a $5.00 profit on every new customer.
What would happen though if included a sales letter for your $300.00
course in every $50.00 package people bought?
If 1 out of every 5 customers you brought in on the first product
would also buy your second product for $300.00, you would be earning
an extra $150.00 off of every 5 customers. Your front end profits
would have been $25.00 for these 5 customers and your backend
profits would have been $ 150.00 without spending more than a couple
of cents extra for the sales letter included in the packages.
The money is in the backend sale. Don’t forget about it.
Successful Internet Marketing can be accomplished by just
understanding these three words: Free, Lead, and Backend. It may
sound a little too simple, but these words are the three major
keys to creating a profitable Internet business.
The more you understand about each of them, the closer you will come
to the dream business you are continually creating online...
Terry
Dean, a 27 Year Old Indiana Farm Boy, Reveals His Secret Formula for
Generating New Automatic Streams of Internet Income For Any Business In 72
Hours or Less … Free Report: mailto:formula@bizpromo.com
http://www.bizpromo.com
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Cracking
the whip: 4 Free Tips for Effective Time-Taming
Ever
get the “bogged down” blues? Running a successful home business will
definitely take its toll on your lifestyle if you let it. Marketing and
promoting your business and website can be daunting tasks when you’re burnt
out. Keep the pace with your day-to-day routine and you’re headed
straight for success! But, let your business overrun you and you’ll never make
it off the ground.
All
you need to do is perform your daily tasks with a twist ---an unconventional way
of trackling your to-do’s. Take these quick and easy steps to start reigning
in your home business!
1)
Keep a TIME-SCHEDUALED, Four-Column TO-DO List
write out a list of daily activites, just like you would any other to-do list.
Only this time, create one column for the activity, one column for the check
mark (to show you’ve completed a task), one column for the time you estimate
the task will take, and the last column to write in the time the task actually
took.
It should look something like this:
|
Done?
|
Name
of Task
|
Time
Allotted
|
Time
Taken
|
|
X
|
Check
e-mail
|
30
minutes
|
45
minutes
|
|
|
Update
website
|
60
minutes
|
50
minutes
|
And, so on. The “Done field will contain a penciled-in check mark instead of
an “x,” but there’s no “check-mark” key on my keyboardk, ;-) The
purpose of this column is so that you’re able to remember tasks that haven’t
yet been completed, and transfer them to your to-do list for the next day (or
week).
The
“name of Task” column is obvious, except you’ll probably need to make it a
“Description of Task” field so you’ll know EXACTLY what needs to be done.
I used the title above for lack of space.
The
“Time Allotted” column is how much time you anticipate the task will take,
More important details on this column later.
The
“Time Taken” column is so you’ll be able to contrast how much time you
estimated a task would take, versus how much time it actually took. This is one
of the most important aspects of effective time-taming.
2)
oh, puleez …. Let’s be realistic, here! Can you REALLY check your email in
four minutes flat?
Don’t set unrealistic goals or time increments for the “Time
Allotted” column. Although you think you can finished with a task item in
three minutes, NEVER put anything under five minutes. You’ll have a greater
sense of accomplishment when you finish your list with time to spare! And, a
strong sense of accomplishment is important to stay motivated in maintaining
your home business.
And, likewise, NEVER set a time over two hours for any task – this sets too
leisurely of a pace. Plus, if you need more than two hours to complete a job, it
needs to be put on your weekly to-do list. Don’t try to finish it in only one
day! When you do things for longer than two hours, most people become very
unproductive and even more easily distracted.
3)
Done! Now, to maximize your efficiency….
After you’ve done all of the things on your list, you’ll then want to
compare the “Time Taken” and “Time Allotted” columns to eliminate any
discrepancies, and to tighten your schedule. If this is your first time working
by a time scheduled to-do list, you’ve more than likely taken more time for
each activity than you’d planned.
That’s Okay!
The point of evaluating your time is to gain a more accurate sense of the time
it takes to do certain activities, and to eventually DECREASE that time. If you
took longer than you expected for a certain task, make sure you understand why.
Was it more work than you thought it would be? Were you interrupted? Were your
time standards just a little too strict?
Remember, don’t be hard on yourself, and give yourself time enough to finish
an activity completely AND effectively. If you completed a task with time to
spare, why was that? Were you just faster than you thought? Did you get help
from an outside source? Did you allow too much time for that activity?
The best way to judge whether or not your time estimations were accurate is to
put the actual time that it took you to complete a task one day, in your “Time
Allotted” column for the very Next day.
4)
Why the heck should I care Exactly how much time I take per activity?
Well, that’s an easy one. Your main goal when working on a time-scheduled
to-do list is to DECREASE the time it takes you to complete your daily routine.
The less time it takes you to complete scheduled tasks, the more time you have
to build your business… or spend time with family!
The
key to effective time management is to recognize where you need improvement, and
build on that. By keeping track of how long it takes to complete each individual
activity, you’ll soon be able to use your time more efficiently, and become
much faster finishing your daily duties.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Excerpted
from ‘Simply, eBusiness’, Harmony Major’s online business and marketing
startup guide. Learn how to start an online business, acquire money-making
online marketing techniques, and profit like never before! Get the Guide at
http://simplyeBusiness.NET
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Developing
the Right Attitude For Making Money Online
By
Terry Dean
Do
you really want to make money online? Do you want to develop a business which
can make money for you 24 hours a day 7 days a week almost automatically?
I
am sure you do… Or else you wouldn’t be reading this ezine right this
minute. I have good news… and bad news for those of you desire this for
yourself.
The
Good News is … YES, you can do it. Many others have created full-time incomes
while only working part-time online. It is within your grasp. Plus, many of them
have started with little or no money!
The
Bad News is …Many of you will need a change of attitude before you will be
able to reach your goals.
That’s
right… Even with the right information and the right foundation, many people
have still failed in their online ventures just because they did not develop the
right attitude. An old statement that comes to mind right now for me is “Your
Attitude determines your Altitude.”
Your
success in life cannot bypass your attitude about life. If your mindset is that
you are poor and always will be poor, it will show itself in anything you do. No
matter what you do, your results will be poor in your business.
Having
a positive mentality about yourself and about your business is a part of this
right attitude, but that is not what I want to focus on in this section. I want
to focus on your reasons and vision for your business.
If
your vision for your business is to just make enough money for a little extra
income of to just produce a full-time income for yourself, you will be severely
limiting your results. If that is you, you need a change of attitude.
Those
who are the most successful people in business are the ones who LOOK for
problems and develop solutions to them. They have a vision which is bigger than
just to make a little money. They have a vision to solve problems for others.
Yes,
you need to learn about Internet Marketing Techniques and about how to write
killer ad copy. Yes, you need to know how to produce sales, BUT what is it
that you are selling?
Are
you selling just another product OR are you selling a SOLUTION to people’s
problems. Are you just in business to make a little money or do you honestly
care about helping other people? The ones who become the most successful in
their business are the ones who find a NEED and fill it. They develop the answer
that people need.
This
factor is true and can be applied no matter what type of business you are in.
For Example, if you run a network marketing site, are you just trying to hype
people up in your program OR are you becoming a source for information on how
they can succeed through this method of distribution.
LOOK
for problems…
People
are frustrated with learning how to submit to search engines!
People
are frustrated with learning how to use certain software!
People
are frustrated with not being able to produce sales!
People
are frustrated with health problems!
LOOK
for these type of problems and frustrations and develop or find products which
have the answers. In other words, Don’t just try to think of new ways to make
money….Think of ways to solve more problems for more people! Then, the money
will come once you learn the marketing side of the equation.
Too
often we want someone to just hand us a completely developed business or a
business-in-a-box. The truth of the matter though is that most of the time,
these types of plans just don’t exist. Any type of business you get involved
in will require you to begin thinking of new ways to advance it if you want to
be as successful as possible.
The
Good News is that all you have to do is start changing your attitude over to
being a problem solver. What problems are still out there in your specific
market? What problems do people have when they order from your competition? What
can you do to make your product or service a better answer to people’s needs?
When
you ask yourself these types of questions you are often taking the first
step to success. You are recognizing the problem. Now, with the right
attitude, you can start looking for the solution. You have the question. Now,
Apply the thinking, brainstorming, research, and work to find the answer.
Terry
Dean, a 27 Year Old Indiana Farm Boy, Reveals His Secret Formula for Generating
New Automatic Streams of Internet Income For Any Business In 72 Hours Or Less
… Free Report: mailto:formula@bizpromo.com
http://www.bizpromo.com
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