Create an Awesome Home Business » How to Create Success

What Can Go-Karting Teach You About Blogging?

Martin — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:11:32 +0000

I had a plan to go Karting with a friend yesterday, but a couple of hours before we left we got a text message warning us that the weather wasn’t looking good and it may be called off.

I met up with Robert as planned (I’d agreed to help him with something else prior to leaving) and, for sure, the weather didn’t look promising.

Robert was in two minds about going, since it was a long way and it did look like it could be called off. But in the end we did.

Good decision.

Just after we got there it did start to rain – but not too heavily. And, after a 20 minute weather delay, we eventually got out on the track and had a great day.

So what’s the lesson for bloggers?

If you’re going to do it, whatever ‘it’ is, take Nike’s advice and just do it.

That could be starting a new blog, overhauling your current blog, changing its direction. Anything.

It’s so easy not to start because you can’t be sure of the result, or you’ve not been able to anticipate all the problems.

And many times the result is you never get started at all.

So just get stuck in. Approach it with the mindset that you can’t possibly anticipate every problem, and resolve to deal with things as they arise.

Decide what you want to do. And get started.

You’ll almost certainly be pleased you did – just like our Go-Karting day.

Happy New Year to you all – I hope 2010 brings you all the success you deserve!

How To Build a Loyal Customer Base

Martin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:56:32 +0000

I saw a question recently where someone was asking for advice on providing an Internet Marketing consulting service.

It was apparently their first, or one of their first, consulting gigs.

The question was full of vibes about how to protect themselves by making sure their client couldn’t take anything they came up with to another consultant.

It had a protectionist feel about it (self protection, that is).

But I think that’s the wrong approach.

I’m a great believer in ‘give and ye shall receive’.

It’s an approach that’s worked for me, and it’s worked for others too.

With that in mind, I’ve copied below the answer I offered:

Speaking from my own experience, I’d suggest you help this doctor for a minimal fee and use this project (assuming the good Doctor accepts your proposal) to learn the business of providing Internet Marketing consulting.

You can’t just rattle off a few points and be concerned about preventing him from taking your suggestions to his current consultant. That’s the wrong focus.

You should focus on building the relationship.

If you build the relationship with him, so that he trusts your advice and intentions, he won’t take his business (or your ideas) anywhere.

But he may well do so if he doesn’t believe you have his best interests at heart.

My suggestion:

Charge the doctor a minimal fee and focus on winning his confidence.

Demonstrate that you truly know what you’re on about and can provide better value than his current consultant/advisor can.

Work WITH the doctor, treat it as a partnership, learn and understand his business and provide the best advice you can.

Later, when people like the doctor are singing your praises and business is flooding through the door – that’s when you can start wondering whether people are taking your ideas to competitors.

But by then it probably won’t matter that much.

I Got Laid Off Yesterday

Martin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:54:16 +0000

I got laid off yesterday and I haven’t felt this pumped up for a long time.

The world, as they say, is my oyster.

Last time I got laid off it was a nightmare.

Firstly, my then employer had gone out of business owing me a lot of money and, secondly, I didn’t have the right of abode here in Hong Kong.

This time it’s all very different.

It took me a long time to recover from those dark days in 2001 and early 2002, but the one thing that stayed fixed in my mind was the commitment that I’d never let myself get into that position again.

My first objective was to find another job so I could get control of my finances. That took a long time – I went without any income for 9 months.

Having got another job I then started looking for ways I could make myself independent of my employer.

I’ve written about that before – here.

So following my own advice (for a change), I set about learning Internet Marketing. And that opened up a whole raft of opportunities that had never occurred to me before I started.

Over the past couple of years I’ve accumulated a lot of knowledge, not only about how the Internet works and how to apply that to my own situation, but how to apply that to the corporate situation

As a result of that decision to get into IM, and what I’ve learnt since, I now:

Earn a bit of money from product sales online
Have another stream of income from building websites and blogs for others
Am a partner in a business renting out short term flats in Hong Kong – purely on the strength of being able to build effective websites.
Consult with big companies on how to make use of the web for managing their customers

I’m also marketing my own telecom consulting skills far more effectively than I was able to 8 years ago.

And now that I’ve been laid off I’m able to focus my full attention on these income streams instead of just doing them in the evenings and at weekends.

I’ve escaped the commute and the office politics, and my lifestyle is going to improve hugely.

What more could a man want..!?

Recessions And The Opportunities They Provide

Martin — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:45:04 +0000

Life’s pretty tough for a lot of people right now. If you’re not personally affected I bet you know someone who is.

If you’re feeling nervous and worried about the future, here are two things to think about that history has proven time and again to be true:

Recessions always end
Recessions always provide opportunities

Over the past 30 years or so we’ve had 4 recessions: the early 80’s, the early 90’s, the beginning of this century and now.

Previous recessions have all ended and this one will too. The question is: are you ready for the upturn?

There are some businesses that are doing very well right now, precisely because we are in a recession:

Supermarkets – because people are eating out less
Dollar Stores (or $10 stores as they’re called here)
DIY stores – because people are re-modelling/repairing things themselves

Industries that provide the necessities of life do well in recessions. Healthcare is the clearest example of that.

So what’s the opportunity?

The obvious answer is to look for a job in an industry that provides the necessities of life. That’s the quick and easy answer.

But what if your skills and experience don’t equate to what these industries are looking for?

A far better, longer term and ultimately more profitable solution would be to use your skills and experience to provide services to companies in industries that provide the necessities of life.

That’s where the real opportunity lies.

What services could you provide on a freelance basis to Supermarkets? Or DIY Stores?

Could you help them with recruitment? (They are recruiting in these times).

Could you help them with IT support? With Web design services? With Marketing support? With Administrative support?

I wrote a post here on how to assess your strengths and weakness to prepare yourself for self employment.

But the short message is: work out what services you could provide to companies on a freelance basis, assess whether it’s worth teaming up with someone you know to offer a more complete service and get going.

The other clear message (at least for me) in these times is to make it easy for your prospects to do business with you.

I recently started my own web design business and while (of course!) I’m always very happy to get work for a fixed fee, I always talk to my prospects about creative ways that I could be compensated.

I try to make it easy for my prospects. Save them the up front cost by taking payment in the form of revenue share, or a fee based on costs saved.

Or whatever works for them in their business.

Every situation is different and the arrangements will be too. But by making things as easy as possible for my clients they start to see me more as a partner than a supplier.

And while I may not get a nice big fat fee up front, I do get an ongoing stream of income. 4 or 5 deals like that and I’ll start to build up quite a respectable ongoing stream of income.

It’s easy to hunker down into survival mode in times like these. But don’t. The recession will end, but you don’t need to wait for that.

Start your own business providing services to industries that do well in recessions and make it easy for your prospects to do business with you.

Surviving The Recession

Martin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:41:24 +0000

When’s the best time to invest? When’s the best time to start a new business?

Right in the middle of a recession, because when the up-turn comes you’ll be brilliantly placed to benefit from it.

Let me say up front where I am right now: I’ve just taken a 30% cut in time and salary from my day job.

What does this do to me? It’s given me the required kick in the pants and a transition path to getting my own business going.

I’ve been making plans for my own business for a while now but, as so often happens, it was easier to continue doing my day job than to actually make the move.

Making the transition from employment to self employment calls for some major changes in thinking and lifestyle, and it’s only natural to baulk at this.

In my case I was looking for the easiest transition path possible.

I started the year hoping that my employer would set up a voluntary redundancy program, but that was not to be.

Then about 3 weeks ago they announced a reduced time and pay plan, which will be effective until at least the end of 2009.

That provided me with the perfect transition path:

7 days a month in which to concentrate on setting up my own business and getting some new customers, while at the same time having an underlying (albeit much reduced) income to enable me to eat at night.

It also provided me with the required kick in the pants: a 30% drop in income is going to knock a big hole in my lifestyle.

So all the plans I’ve been thinking about and making over the past several months are quickly falling into place.

And thank goodness for those plans. I’m all set and ready to roll almost without breaking stride:

I have my website set up, things like my charging and invoicing processes are all set up, I have business cards ready to be printed, I’ve identified my target market (I’m already getting leads) – basically, everything’s in place.

If you’re still in employment that’s great. But, before the axe falls (as it may well do in the current environment), get your plan B sorted out.

I wrote a post a while ago on how to prepare for a recession. For one of the few times in my life, I actually followed my own advice, and right now I’m more grateful than ever that I did so.

10 Steps to Success Online

Martin — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 06:49:03 +0000

I read a series of posts in a forum group yesterday which set out the steps people should take in order to achieve success in their online businesses. So I chipped in with my own views – which I’ve repeated here:

1) Take as much pressure off yourself as you can.

In my experience, if your IM business is not properly funded the pressure to start making money becomes intense – very quickly. And when that happens you usually start making bad decisions.

So minimise the pressure on yourself by making sure your IM venture is properly funded. That can mean doing it part-time along side your day job until you start to build up revenue, or using a redundancy pay off to fund your new business, or using your lottery winnings.

Whatever you do, make sure you’re properly funded.

2) Set yourself achievable short-term goals that you have full control over.

A goal that you have full control over is something like ‘Learn CSS this week’.

‘Earn $100 this week’ is not something you have control over (not total control, anyway) – so don’t set that as a goal.

Setting yourself goals over which you don’t have full control is setting yourself up for failure. Setting goals over which you do have total control, and achieving them on a regular basis, gets you into a successful mindset. And that’s the foundation for success.

Make sure that your short term goals all lead you towards your vision, or ‘why’

3) Set out your ‘why’ and stick it up where you can see it each day.

Your ‘why’ is the reason why you want a successful online business. It could be to spend more time with your family, to become financially independent, to escape the rat race – whatever.

Times will get tough. You will get frustrated. You will feel like giving up.

Having your ‘why’ stuck above your computer screen will help you get past these roadblocks.

4) Make sure you’re making measurable progress each month.

Do this by ensuring your short term goals are constantly moving you forwards. If you’ve learnt CSS make sure you’re doing new and more things with it each month, or learn something else – as long as it moves you forward in your business.

5) Trust your gut feel.

If something doesn’t feel right it’s probably not.

6) Don’t do stuff in your business that you wouldn’t want to talk to your family about.

Ultimately your online reputation is even more important than your offline one, because people are increasingly suspicious of online scams.

So create an impeccable online reputation, and keep it.

7) Don’t listen to the nay-sayers.

Let me say that again: don’t listen to the nay-sayers. There will be plenty of them.

Some people (probably including some of your family members) will try to discourage you from doing anything new. They don’t want you to succeed. They will destroy your self belief and when the going gets tough you’ll quit.

Don’t listen to them and don’t talk to them about your business. (That’s the exception to point #6!).

8) Don’t get taken in by stories of mega success.

Whatever stories you read almost certainly didn’t happen. Those that really achieve big success overnight (and they are exceptionally rare) are usually discreet and don’t talk about it – at least not publicly online.

9) Play to your strengths and strengthen your weaknesses.

Honestly evaluate your weaknesses and find ways to strengthen them. This could include finding a business partner who has complementary strengths, taking a training course, or whatever.

10) Stay focused.

Whether it’s on the niche you’ve picked for your site, or your tasks for the day, staying focused will get you to where you want to go. Losing focus will not.

Recession – And an Inspiring Example of Success

Martin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:50:53 +0000

I’ve written several times now (find them here) on why the recession provides opportunities, and how to take advantage of them.

Today, though, I read a post from Brian Clark on Copyblogger which not only takes the same line as I’ve been taking, but tells a truly remarkable and inspiring story of someone succeeding against the odds.

It also provides a heads up for what should be a truly invaluable source of information for anyone wanting to think outside the box and take full advantage of the recession.

Read the article here.

Beat the Recession: Start Your Own Business

Martin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:01:57 +0000

In the dotcom bust of 2001 the company I was working for went out of business, owing me a lot of money in unpaid salary and benefits. It was 9 months before I got another job and the combination pretty much wiped me out.

In today’s recession many people will likely have a similar experience – and it’s not fun.

Starting your own business at a time like this may seem a little rash, but that’s exactly why you should do it.

Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing – zig, while the others are zagging – and you’ll find all sorts of opportunities opening up.

Starting an Internet Marketing business has the advantage of being a lot cheaper than a traditional, bricks and mortar business. But it’s still a business and you have to put in just as much work!

Here’s what you need to do:

Do some research.

Familiarise yourself with the terms, expressions and common practices that are used by people working online. As with any business, there’s a lot of jargon and you’ll benefit from understanding what it all means from the outset.

Learn about marketing online by searching for articles. Beware, though: you’ll find a lot of articles and websites that promise you can be making a fortune by this time next week. Ignore them!

You will not be making a fortune by this time next week because this is a business and it needs the proper focus, attention and work before you start making money.

Find or develop a product.

If you don’t have a product of your own find one to promote. Think about what interests you and what you’re passionate about. Then find a product that fits in with that. Clickbank is a good place to start looking for products and there are many other companies that do the same thing. You can market these as an affiliate and earn commission when people you refer to the merchant’s site buy their product.

Build a website.

If you’ve not done this before, your best bet is to start here.

Sign in with your gmail address, or open a new account, follow their directions and you’ll be on your way in about 5 minutes – absolutely no knowledge of coding or design is required at all.

You don’t even need a website hosting company with this option. And sites set up on blogger.com usually feature in the natural search results pretty quickly.

Promote your site.

This is the most difficult part and one that will cause you the most frustration! To kick off with, you may want to check out my free Internet Marketing course and browse through the articles here on Internet Marketing.

Learn about advertising online and how to attract traffic to your site. If you start with a blogger.com site, as I’ve suggested above, you won’t need to bother with Search Engine Optimisation for now other than the need to write web friendly pages – more below. But you should learn about where and how to advertise.

Later, when you’re ready to build your own site from scratch, you’ll need to understand the basic principles of Search Engine Optimisation – for more information on that browse through the articles on SEO here.

Learn how to write web friendly articles.

Writing for the web is different than writing for the corporate or academic worlds. Very different. A great (and free) resource for coaching on how to write for the web is Copyblogger. If you subscribe to the RSS feed you’ll get emails every couple of days with copy writing tips, all for free.

Keep an open mind and a readiness to learn.

The Internet is changing so quickly that even the old hands have to keep learning new stuff!

And once you’ve done all that and learnt how to build websites and market online, you’ll have another opportunity open to you: the ability to offer website design and marketing services to other small, offline businesses.

Start your business now, in the recession, and when the good times return you’ll be in the best possible position to really capitalize.

Good luck!

More Ways To Beat The Recession

Martin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:11:52 +0000

I’ve written before on ways to protect yourself from the effects of the recession – here and here.

I’m of the belief that recessions provide you with greater opportunities than boom times do – as long as you approach them in the right way.

So this week I’ve scoured the web to see what other people are saying and I came across 3 interesting articles:

Beat a Recession with Extra Income from Online Teaching

The current economy is experiencing serious tremors, and, if you have the necessary academic credentials, it is entirely possible for extra income from online teaching to keep you from falling behind on your bills. …

How to beat the recession?

This month’s article is therefore a selection of tips to help you and your business beat the recession. Know where you are financially. Do you know the current financial position of your business and your up to date personal financial …

How to Use the Web to beat any recession

With so much gloomy economic stuff in the news about financial meltdown and recession, just what can you do to beat the credit crunch? During times like these the internet is your friend. There are many ways you can use it to save …

At times like this the best thing you can do is keep a cool head and look around for the opportunities that will arise.

Leave us a comment to let us know how you’re dealing with the recession (CommentLuv is enabled and will pull in a link to your last post) and, if you think this information may be helpful to others, then ‘Share This’ through the link below.

How to Benefit From a Recession

Martin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:00:03 +0000

I’m writing this from Dubai, where I’m on a consulting project for a new, young telephone company. The interesting thing is that no one locally is talking about a recession.

My client is planning a very aggressive expansion strategy over the next 3 years, with multiple new products and services coming online and heavy investment in its operations and systems.

What’s the lesson in that..? To me it’s the same lesson that I wrote about here.

It’s also the same lesson that Brian Clark has written about on CopyBlogger: make sure you’re zigging while everyone else is zagging.

Now is the very time to adopt an aggressive business strategy.

While the natural instinct is to hunker down and go into survival mode, those who are able to get over this and look for ways of expanding their business, or starting a new business, will find this recession to be the best thing that ever happened to them.

10 years ago, during the Asian Financial crisis, I was running a small consultancy in Hong Kong with a friend and business partner, and we did incredibly well out of it.

We were small and nimble, whereas most of our competitors in Asia had got fat and slow during the boom years of the early to mid 90’s.

Exactly the same thing happened then. As our competition began hunkering down (but not doing anything to change their business strategy) we were able to live off the crumbs.

Eventually enough of these crumbs came our way that we built up a business that was taking up all our resources. We also built a reputation for doing quality work at a sensible price.

And, within 18 months, all of our new business came from recommendations – I no longer had to go out and ‘knock on doors’.

We would never have been in that position if we’d not been able to take advantage of the Asian Financial Crisis.

So, if you’re thinking of hunkering down, don’t!

Look at ways you could expand, look at new market sectors you could address, look at your competitors and get ready to step into the gaps they leave as they hunker down.

And, of course, if you’re employed look at starting up on your own.

Here’s a good way of seeing how to start your own business with a very moderate investment.