Is It Really All About the Money?

I just read this great report by Jason Fladlian about  8 mistakes that prevent people–maybe you–from making money on the Internet.  Number one on the list is not realizing its all about the money.  So, I ask you, is it really all about the money?  In a word yes.  I'm not even going to say, "in my opinion."  Yes.  The answer is just bloody "yes" if we are talking about business.   If we are talking about making money online, then yes, our website or sites and offline acitivities are all about the money.  Not understanding that is a crucial mistake.

If you admit this, does that mean you are a cold, heartless bastard?  Mmm, maybe, but probably not.  Consider, even if you are building sites as a fund raising effort to feed starving children in the Sudan, if you don't understand that your sites are all about the money, how successful do you think those sites will be?  If you do understand the money issue, just think how many more children you'll feed because of it.  My point, here, is that hard nosed business logistics are not necessarily in conflict with ethical/moral standards.  The bigger point, though, is that if you and I are really in business, then we need to cut loose all the baggage that isn't about making the site as effective a money maker as it can be.

Understanding that your business, or website, is about making money can be liberating.  People who come to online business, Internet marketing, or ecommerce with a business background already know this.  Those of us who come to online business fresh, without any real business knowledge often take ages to have that epiphanal moment that what we are doing is business.  And business is business whether or not you are doing Internet marketing, ecommerce, or running an online site to promote your brick and morter retail store.

Along with understanding that it's all about the money, it is crucial to know what your business is.  I know this sound simplistic, but you'd be shocked to discover how many people supposedly in business don't really know what their business is.  As a result, they focus time and energy of directions that don't keep them solvent.  I'll say it again, you must know what your business is.  If you understand that, then you'll be able to align and target the many activities necessary to remaining solvent and making a profit.  In other words, you'll be able to focus and better ignore the many distractions that present themselves day in and day out.

Sticking to your business does not mean that you must do only one thing or that you must not diservisify your income streams.  Far from it. You can have as many business models and streams of income as you have time to manage and money to develop.   However, without a business plan to unify your diversified efforts, you'll remain a piker, an amateur.  Now matter what your success, you'll need a business plan to sustain and grow your income. 

Now, its possible that you might be one of those rare individuals who has a complete intuitive grasp of business logistics and planning.  However, if you've never seen a business plan before, you might want to check out examples at the Fed Small Business Administration website. This has great information.  And its free.  My advice, before you spend big bucks on lots of Internet marketing products, learn something about business. 

Many people coming to this site will be arriving after having been exposed to Internet marketing sales letters about how to make money online.  No matter how good those courses or people behind them, the one thing you can be sure of is that the successful people behind the sales letters understand business.  The one thing that most Internet and online home business products don't tell you about is business or the importance of understanding business basics.  With an understanding of business basics, you will be in much better position to know how to use the wealth of information that is particular to Internet marketing and making money online.

Making Money Online, Home Business, and Personal Movitation

Setting up a home business is a little like  taking a flying leap off the tenth floor of a ten story building, crashing into the pavement below, and then getting up to repeat the process.  Again and again and again.  Until, hopefully, it comes out right.  Just what is  personal motivation where home business and making money is concerned?  How motivated are you, and how do you know you are motivated?  Let me ask you this–have you given up yet?  If the answer is no, then you have motivation.  If nothing else, you have motivation.  People may not love you, you may be short on personal aphorisms, and you may even simply be an irritable fat bastard who gets on people’s nerves, but you’ve got motivation.  You’ve got that and in the meantime, you can work on the rest.

As for making money, if we leave money making gimmicks aside and focus on predictable income, then we are talking about following through on some sort of a business plan.  Anyone with the most basic concept of their business has a basic notion of marketing and the necessity of marketing whatever good or service you are selling.  And if you’ve done the research and determined that your goods and services really are in demand by a particular niche, then you know that it is only a matter of putting your goods/services in front of the target niche to make money.  Easy, right?  Well,  my point, here, is that this is a little like saying, that flying is easy.  All you have to do is get a cape and then fly.  So, you’ve got your products or services, and now all you have to do is market and then make money.

It is easy IF you already know how to do it.  Just as in flying after you get the cape, there is a missing ingredient needed in order to make it happen.  I think this is the spark of knowingness that occurs somewhere down the line after you have hurtled yourself off of the building top and crashed into the pavement the requisite number of times.  Unfortunately, there is no formulaic set number of times you have to hit the pavement before the spark ignites.

Now, I know that many of the people taking the time to read this blog–you, perhaps–are absolutely new and may not immediately grasp the importance of conducting your money making endeavors, whether they be online or off–as a business.  Keep in mind that behind every successful money making offer is business know-how.  The offer is merely the tip of the iceberg.  Beneath the tip is a significant amount of what might be termed "trade-craft" to make that offer successful.  This is why personal motivation is so important, because once you try to reel your fantasies of luxurious cruises and pina coladas on remote, pristine white sand beaches into the here and now, you hit the wall of self-doubt and the inertia of dealing with the "real" world of objects, people, and finances.  Lawyers, guns, and money, to borrow from Warren Zevon.

In my view, the purpose of personal business planning is to help you predict and soften your encounter with the so-called real world when you start taking action.  Very generally, and I mean really, really generally speaking, business planning comprises the research needed to determine what your business is and its relative chance for success, financial analysis, and the methods, procedures and techniques needed to pull it off.  If you are completely new, I can’t say strongly enough how important it is to take action.  However, don’t take action blindly.  You can take chances and even plan on losing a little money here and there in your research and development efforts.  But generally speaking (again), the more money at stake, the more important it is that you know what you are buying, that you do your research and planning to determine if the expenditure will be productive.

I suspect that many of you are also coming to this blog and to Internet business by way of Internet Marketing.  You have been reading sexy sales pages about courses and software designed to make you bundles of money right this instant.  Don’t get lost in the forest by fixating on a few trees.  No matter how good some of these products may be, none of them will do you or anyone else a bit of good without solid business planning behind them.  One very successful Internet marketer who has written extensively and articulately about this is Michael Campell.  I recommend two books that he used to sell and now gives away freely, Nothing but Net, and Clickin’ it Rich.  Of the two, read Nothing but Net first.  That is the one that lays out the importance of running your online activities as a business and outlines some of the fundamentals you need to have in place and what you need to do in order to get started.  It is also tantalizing motivation.

Time for me to hit the sack.  To your success!

 

NEW! Easy Elite Scheduling Software

Just released!  Very easy, very intuitive low cost personal scheduling software.  This software practically runs itself, and that is not exaggeration.  The software ships with instruction videos, and if it doesn’t do what I promise, then your money back immediately. 

Schedule Master Elite consists of three modules, or applications, as you’ll see in the demo video below.  It includes the,

• Person Minder

• Organization Minder

• Schedule Master

 

This simple scheduling program allows you to use the Person Minder and Organization minder independantly, but both applications are included in the Schedule Master and can be accessed from within the Schedule Master.  The software also allows you share files between the applications.  This will all be much easier to understand when you view the Preview and Intro videos.

The full instructional series is included in the download when you purchase.  However, the Preview and Intro will show you the software and you’ll see how the applications can be accessed from the the Schedule Master module. 

 

 

The Introduction will expand on the Preview, and give you a better idea of what it can do for you.

 

Introduction

As you’ve seen, some of the overall basic features include data entry for:

• Name

• Business name

• Location

• Appointment subject

• Start Date and End Date

• Recurrence pattern indicater

• Home address

• Work address

• Alternate address

• Home phone

• Work phone

• Cell phone

• Email address

• Website

• Facebook info

• Linkedin info

• Twitter info

• Description field for extended entries and other relevant information

• Event field to describe event

• Results field to record any notes as a follow-up to the event

 

 

 

 

The Person Minder includes data entry for,

• contact type

• key organization

• first, middle, and last name

• address

• phone

• fax

• email

• marital status

• gender info

• birthday

• family information

• notes and observations

• photo

• online info

 

The Person Minder also includes a,

• picture file gallery

• documents and files library

 

The Organization Minder includes the following features:

• Kind of organization

• organization status

• organization name

• address

• phone

• fax

• email

• organization profile

• products and services

• photo

• online info

• access to Person Minder

• access to picture file saver

• access to documents file saver

• files sharing between the Person Minder and Schedule Master

 

The Schedule Master application allows plenty of space to enter the following:

• Event Subject

• Event Type

• Event Address

• Phone

• Fax

• Recurrence Pattern

• Start date/time

• End date/time

• Notes and observations

• Person Minder

• Organization Minder

• Picture files

• Document files

• the scheduling of multiple events within the same time frame

Please be aware that this software works only with PCs.  This will work on Windows, Vista, and XP and requires installation of the current .NET, which is a free download from Microsoft.  If you are running Vista or XP, this should already be integrated into the operating system.  The download is about 36 MB.  Because the video(s) shows you in detail all aspects of the software, all sales are final.  However, if for some reason the software does not work or there should be some conflict with your currect system, I will refund your purchase immediately.  Your download will include our support email address and a toll free number to call in case of difficulties.

After payment, you will be immediately transferred to a secure download page for immediate download of the product.  You will also receive an email giving you the download link.  In the event that you are not immediately transferred to the download area, you will be presented with a button to click that will take you to the secure download area.

 

Only $7.95