Tales of a cyber-hippy running an online business from home
Salt’s Mill in Saltaire, Yorkshire
Went over to see the David Hockney Exhibition.
Each image depicts a specific day between 1st and 31st May 2011 at a place called Woldgate in East Yorkshire.
First thing that hits you is the colour when you walk in…the word ‘vibrant’ doesn’t do justice.
Best thing is they’re all done on an iPad 🙂
The logjam of fear…
Sounds like a theme park ride.
But when I’m working with clients I find a number of them have great ideas, motivation and a steller work ethic…
…but they never seem to get anything tangible out into the marketplace
Commonly this is to do with FEAR – fear of whether their product or service is ‘good enough’, fear or what others might think, or just plain old fear of….something.
This is not a ‘silly’ thing or something you can ‘man up’ (or woman up) against.
Fear is legitimate.
It’s real and while it might not be the same fear as our ancestors felt when fighting a sabre-tooth tiger, it can be just as paralysing when it comes to running your online business.
So one of the things I try to do when I’m working with a client in this position is to find out exactly WHERE the logjam of fear is, and what’s causing it.
Most times it’s simple enough to find.
It’s simply where the work STOPS.
So for example if I’m working with a client who is bringing a product to the marketplace, he might work well on creating the product, might be extremely skilled at managing the freelancers who are creating his sales page or graphics…
…but stops dead in the water when it comes to contacting JV partners or potential affiliates.
This might be because he finds it acutely embarrassing asking other marketers to promote his product, might feel like it’s ‘begging’ or quite simply might feel that his product isn’t worth it.
The solution here is quite easy.
We just hire an affiliate manager.
Either someone on a flat fee or commission who can do all the contacting on his behalf.
Logjam sorted – things begin to move again.
Another example would be someone who seems to be working well until it’s time to build a personal branding blog. The intention is to introduce them as a marketer, share their opinions and what they stand for, publish some photos and basically tie the marketer into his message.
If the flow stops here and the excuses start maybe it’s because the marketer is reluctant to put himself out there and be scrutinised. Maybe the thought of sharing photos and opinions isn’t one that sits well with this particular marketer.
Again we need to free up the logjam and in this case the solution might be  to use a pen name, maybe some stock photographs instead of his own face or use the company as the brand rather than the person.
AND find exactly WHAT the issue is
If it’s a self-confidence thing about his appearance that can be worked on.
If he has a full-time job and afraid their boss or co-workers will find the blog then work on a solution for that scenario.
If he feels he’s simply not good enough to have a valid opinion then work on the self-confidence side of things
The main idea is simple though – work through what you’ve been doing (or your client has been doing) and find out where the work STOPS.
Find out where the progress halts and that’s your logjam.
From there on finding a solution can be remarkably easy.
It’s finding the bloody thing in the first place that can be tricky because most people make excuses (me included) about why things aren’t moving forwards and they’re not always easy to see past to find the truth.
But if you find out WHERE the work stops, you can move on to finding out WHY and fixing it.
Posting every day on your blog is HARD
Life gets in the way:
Other commitments
You forget
You can’t think of what to post
You get writers block
You simply can’t be arsed
But there is a simple way, and it’s used by many bloggers including Seth Godin and me 🙂
When the writing IS flowing take a hour or two to schedule your posts. Write them in batches and use the built in feature in WordPress that let’s you set a time and date to publish them. Or even get a plugin if you want more features.
Life gets in the way and you might have writers block on one particular day right?
But if you schedule five posts when you’re NOT suffering…
…well the job’s a good ‘un as they say round my way 🙂
Yesterday I lost £300 (around $470) in
about 38 seconds.
It’s been over a year since I dabbled with
Forex trading and I fancied another go.
Last time I’d been successful but this time
I immediately recognised I needed to learn more
I placed the wrong trade and BOOM – money gone 🙂
That $470 wasn’t my only loss but it was
the biggest.
But fortune runs the other way too…
A few years back I bought a domain name
for around $9
Soon after I sold the same domain for $1500
to a boat racing team who had named their
team but forgotten to buy the domain first 🙂
It was the same domain I was planning to
use to launch some software. They approached
me with an offer of (I think) $300. I countered $1500
because I was planning to develop my software
and they agreed to the $1500
Nice afternoon’s work.
I hadn’t started ANYTHING with the software
at that point so I just bought another $9 domain
name and changed the name of my potential product
Around 2012 I realised that plugins were selling like
crazy and all you needed to launch one was
a good idea.
So with a partner we started lunching at the pub
once a week
Over three hours we’d brainstorm ideas, decide
on the good ones then get them made by a freelancer
We did this multiple times and made over a
hundred thousand dollars in the process, MORE
if you factor in flipping, teaching others how to
do the same and other deals
Can you see the connection?
It’s all about TRYING STUFF
If you don’t actually do anything or run
with your ideas you’re going to be in exactly
the same position next year as you are right now
Some of it will fail, but a lot of it won’t
I’d go as far as to say most of it will SUCCEED
the more you get used to trying out new methods.
I have an ongoing argument with some gurus
about this
They say find one thing that works for you and
focus on it – stop buying shiny new objects
But I see what they’re DOING and they’re
trying different approaches all the bloody time
Me? I buy a LOT of WSO’s, especially blueprints
and case studies and incorporate a lot of the
methods into my business as additional income
streams
Sure I have my core business which is based around
one or two sales funnels…
…but I also constantly TRY OUT other ideas and strategies
(I outsource some of them too and cream off the profit)
So all I’m saying is keep an open mind.
Try stuff out
Work around your personality.
I have a short attention span so I only ‘do’
short-term projects – maybe one or two days –
and in my business and that works for me
Listen to your inner ideas, get to know
your likes and dislikes, strengths and
weaknesses…
…because at the end of the day it’s YOUR
business and YOUR life – no one else’s
You wouldn’t let anyone try to run your
marriage or tell you how to bring up your kids?
It’s too important right?
You have your own values and views
Your business is exactly the same.
Don’t let anyone else run it for you
Like raising kids or being a marriage partner
you’ll come across information that you
can incorporate to make the process more
successful…
…but in the end it comes down to YOUR decision
making and your action
Try stuff out for yourself.
It’s a much more successful process than
being told what to do
More fun and profitable too 🙂
I’ll leave you with this thought:
Learning is good, and of course vital too.
You need knowledge if you plan to run an online biz…
…But DOING is where the money is.
Trying stuff is profitable
P.S If you want to learn the ‘stuff’ I’ll share
with my own children when they start their
online businesses…
…you might want to see this:
A version of this article first appeared in my Private Newsletter in July 2013
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As an online entrepreneur these days you can get pretty much ANYTHING done for you.
If you have an idea for some software you can get it built.
If you have an idea for a book or video, you can get it created for you.
You can buy traffic, existing mailing lists, websites, businesses and even Facebook and Twitter followers.
So it’s like being a kid in a sweetshop. All day every day.
We’re faced with total, mind-blowing OVERLOAD
Which is why most wannabe marketers struggle – too much choice.
Because when you can get any business idea created for you, the only things you really need are money, the idea and the balls to follow THROUGH with the idea.
Think about it – as internet marketers we only have a tiny FRACTION of the obstacles real world businesses face
If we’re being honest, funding is relatively easy to come by, and quite honestly most people have at least a few good ideas in them for products or services
So why do you need balls?
Because when everything else is in place it takes balls to take responsibility for the success or failure of your enterprise and that’s MUCH harder than you think it is
You might not actually recognise that the thing that is holding back your online business as fear, but the chances are that’s exactly what it is.
Even though it manifests in many different guises
Your fear might APPEAR to be one of not being able to find enough money to launch your business, but if you have credit cards, family or other means at your disposal then you probably could, IF you were serious, raise the finance needed
But what you’re really saying is you daren’t risk failure.
Finance, ideas, knowledge are really just an excuse.
But FEAR – well that’s the daddy.
To be an online entrepreneur is NOT a safe option.
There is no safety net and you’re pretty much on your own. You sink or swim according to your own abilities and determination
And in our nanny-state world that’s not an easy thing to accept
Especially if earning more money would simply ‘be nice’ rather than is essential to feed your family
That’s why so many immigrants, desperately poor people and traditionally uneducated people become extremely successful……because they don’t have the option of failure. They have nowhere else to go.
Being ‘comfy enough’ is not the best position to be in for a would-be entrepreneur, but it’s probably the most common
It was one of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome, that’s for sure
How easy is it to sit in the garden and have a cold beer because it’s a nice evening after working your 9-5 than it is to start working on a new product for you fledgling business ?
Being up against the wall is FAR more conducive to being successful, because it’s a bloody uncomfortable position to be in
So there are no easy answers here.
Being 30k in debt with credit cards but still being able to afford a huge TV and good food isn’t a massively painful situation to be in, even though it’s not ideal.
And that’s what the majority of Western entrepreneurs are up against.
We’re COMFORTABLE enough
My advice?
Well you could max out your cards to fund your business which would also have the by-product of getting yourself into a more desperate situation but that would be foolish advice to give you of course
You could quit your job with just enough money to last you three months and see if that puts your back against the wall enough…
But again I don’t recommend that unless you’re VERY sure of yourself
….OR you could recognise that we are at a unique place in history where the internet has not yet become regulated or owned by big business or banking (as it will be eventually) and that with outsourcing cheaper than it’s EVER been…
YOU have a window of opportunity that no-one else in the history of the world has ever had!
Ever.
So grab yourself an idea…beg, borrow or steal the funding…
Then give your metaphorical balls a big old squeeze and get stuck in while the time is still ripe…
So if you want to work with me and the like-minded people who also read this page and decided they wanted to REALLY change their lives, CLICK HERE
Welcome to the most exciting journey of your life….
Michael Cheney sent me through a rock god wig and an inflatable guitar as part of his affiliate package for his Fan Page Money Method. I’d have promoted it anyway because it’s a good product and teaches what no one else does when it comes to making money from Facebook.
But I couldn’t resist the wig…
…and since everyone else was rocking it up as guitar heroes I thought I’d pay a small homage to the folk rock scene (fingers in ears for harmonies and chunky sweaters) and get out me mandolin…
This is the result.
But first – if you grab Fan Page Money Method (costs around $7) through my link below, I’ll send you my next product (launches on 30th June) absolutely, 100% FREE
(Hint: It’ll cost more than $7 AND you can get two for the price of one)
Get it at the link below, and just send your receipt to support@laycocklimited.com and I’ll give you free access when we go live
Click HERE >>> –Â http://jvz4.com/c/7617/114617
Rock on…
When I speak to clients it seems that one of the main things that puts them off running an online business…
….is frustration when things don’t go to plan.
Well yes, life DOES get in the way of your plans.
And things don’t happen as they should
And unexpected events happen
It happens to everyone.
The only difference is how you deal with it.
I used to get really angry and frustrated when I’d mapped out a day to work on a certain project or activity and something else prevented me from doing that.
Once it was a burst water pipe.
Another time is was a designer not having a logo ready for when he guaranteed he would
And usually it’s little piddling off-putting things that need sorting before you can move forwards, like having to contact your hosting support because your site has gone down or needing to follow up a letter from the bank because an unexpected payment has gone out of your account.
But only half the time is it something do do with your business…the other half is just LIFE shoving a spanner in your plans.
But I don’t get frustrated any more.
I think that all changed when we had children.
I remember when we used to say ‘let’s go out for lunch’ and just put on our coats and go.
The the kids arrived.
Going out for lunch involved finding and opening the pram, finding coats, a nappy bag, wet wipes and some favourite toys to keep them occupied.
Then once ready, we’d need to stop  just as we left the house to change a nappy that had been pooped in the very SECOND we got them in the pram and so on.
And realising that I just had to go with the flow and no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t make things move any faster…I slowed down myself too to enjoy it.
And it’s the same with business. I just let it flow over me and enjoy whatever I’m currently working on
But there is one secret I’ll share that helps immensely.
I don’t set dates or deadlines
I don’t do launches which means I can be flexible when I publish something new
I don’t have to worry about things being ready on a certain date
I don’t have to co-ordinate other people or deal with screaming affiliates because something has gone wrong and we can’t launch until the day after
I don’t set myself dates or deadlines if I can possibly help it…
It probably helps 🙂
After years of playing in bands and winging my way through gigs playing (usually) piano and organ, I’m now extremely proud to find my daughter is a much better piano player than me
She’s been taking lessons for a while and I went with her for her recent exam. Couldn’t go in the exam room with her but could sit in the practise room and with the other parents while waiting for her to come out of her exam.
She loves it and she’s naturally good at it (obviously my genes in action there eh?)
So we need to buy her a piano.
Our house is pretty old so the rooms are quite small and we’re a ‘cluttered’ family rather than ‘minimalist’ with stuff everywhere. That said fitting a piano in shouldn’t be too hard with a bit of rearranging except for one thing.
I’m married.
And somehow for women, simply getting a new piano seems to involve not only moving furniture, but also retiling the kitchen floor and turning the garage into a bigger workshop.
As always her ideas are great and I totally agree…
…but last time she said ‘we need a new car’ I ended up with a vasectomy too, so stay on your guard chaps…
You only need ONE thing to create a successful online business these days.
One thing.
An idea.
Because when you have that you’re all set to rock and roll…
There are SO MANY different products and services available now that once you have your idea all you need to do is work out how you want to deliver it and then find a service that does it.
Here’s a point in case…
I HATE membership sites
The software I mean.
The sites themselves are little online goldmines if you get it right
But the delivery?
Plugins, scripts and software – I’ve tried many of these and up until very recently nothing was easy, intuitive or even plain old NICE to use.
I almost abandoned a drip-fed membership site that made me six figures over the years because I couldn’t get the technology to work or find a freelancer who could do what I wanted (which wasn’t very much)
Now I can sign up with a service like Clickfunnels, which among MANY other features has a drag and drop, drip feed membership facility that even I can work for only $97 a month.
But that’s just the tiny tip of the iceberg. There are services out there that I can subscribe to that solve the EU VAT issue, that are payment processors, tracking services, social media integrations, services that send direct mail to my list automatically, test what real visitors think to my sites, split test products, sell Kindle or physical books, issue brandable PDFs to my affiliates and a THOUSAND more things.
Basically if I have an idea and the motivation I can do pretty much anything I want to online in terms of business.
Times have changed.
When I first started online it was very much about basing your business around the few services (autoresponders, payment processors) that existed and having to adapt your model to them.
Now it’s very much about sketching out your IDEAL business model then going to find the services that provide this.
Because they’re out there.
Create the idea first. Get a picture of your ideal business in your head.
Then simply sign up to the services that allow you to provide it.
If you can come up with an idea, what’s stopping you?
Spot the grizzled old sea dog eh?
We’re currently on a working break in Scotland
Staying at a rugged, gorgeous, stark and dramatic headland right next to a working lighthouse (in fact we’re in the old light keepers cottage)
You can see it in the pic behind me.
We’re miles from anywhere and often we’re the only people up here too.
Here’s the view using the very fancy panoramic setting on my iPhone
The internet connection is practically non existant so I’ve only managed the barest of communication by using my daughters iPhone, because she has the tiniest bit of a signal whereas I (with all my fancy technology) have absolutely bugger all
In fact I can only post this at all when we’re out and about
We’ve been for meetings at local galleries (connected with offline stuff we do) and in Edinburgh meeting with a coder, and all in all it’s been very productive.
My virtual assistant has been running the business while we’re away and I scheduled some broadcasts to go out to my list ‘just in case’ there wasn’t a connection where we are (glad I did too)
So in short, I made more than enough to cover our break, expenses, spending money, staff payment and then some through just 3 emails.
Not me being a marketing genius of course – it’s just that I had the foresight to start building a list several years back, and now it’s (literally) paying off
But working as we take breaks or travel has become second nature to me now, and it’s one of the major reasons I do what I do.
I won’t apologise for repeating myself now because it’s the most important advice I can possibly give you EVER, if you want to do the same thing.
Start building a list – because that’s the basis for any solid and profitable internet marketing business.
It’ll change your life
