Start Your Online Business the Right Way!

What does car washing have to do with and Internet Marketing Business?  Well, it is easy to see the errors of your ways once you are past the event and wise to them!  For me I realized what one of my biggest mistakes was as I drove past a local car wash.  This mistake is probably the one that had held me back the longest…and so I felt I would share this with you.

As I drove past the car wash, for some reason, I had a flashback to when I first saw the premises.  At that time it was a closed down petrol garage… a bit run down and derelict.  I am sure this will be a familiar story to you if you live in the UK.  Some bright business mind took ownership and started a car washing business.

This business started on a shoe string.  Every day one or two people would be there to wash cars.  Needless to say that this must have been a success, as the business grew from strength to strength.  The car washing team grew – now about ten strong.  The advertising improved with professional branding and advertising signs spring up around the town.  The place was improved with first temporary gazebos, which gave way to permanent awning.

Then came the diversification.  First car washing, then changing tires, followed by car services and MOTs (assessments for road-worthiness).  Now the place is a fully fledged garage.  There is a fully kitted out service center with two four-poster hydraulic car ramps.  Every possible service is now offered – even an air conditioning re-charge!

So, how does this relate to me and my mistake?  Well this business started small and grew.  The most important thing is to start.  My mistake was taking on too much information from all the guru’s… you must do this, you must do that.  Well actually, when I tried to do all of these things… which all take time, I spent so long trying to set up my business “the right way”…. literally months and months (about 5 if you must know) that I didn’t actually ever start!

What I should have done, is start.  Get a small, simple model of a business and start.  I was so worried that a “simple” model wouldn’t work and would not be optimized and would not make me any money, that I over complicated everything trying to get it “perfect” before I started.  So, with hind sight… don’t do this.  The most important thing is to just start.  And then build up from there…just like the car wash company.  Start with something small that works – then improve upon it!

I heard a great phrase to capture this exact learning point on the “Internet Business Mastery” podcast….they said “PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION“… and I think that is spot on… having found out for myself the hard way!

There are many other things we can learn from my simple example of the car wash company, but that will have to wait for another day.  So I hope that you have found this article thought provoking… I know it won’t apply to everybody –as we are all different – but if you have recognized any of these thoughts, or these situations, then please give serious consideration to whether you are making the same mistake that I made?

Are you costing yourself undue time and money by trying to start with a completely kitted out garage, when a bucket, a bar of soap and a cloth would do?  The most important thing is to start building your list and to send out emails to your subscribers.

What I eventually realized… is that every day that goes by before you “start”….every day whilst you try to set up your perfect “garage” is a day that you are not building your list of subscribers and that you are not sending emails and making money by helping connect your subscribers to great products.  The most important thing is to build your list and send emails.

Please let me know your thoughts, I would love to know if this sounds familiar to anybody else…and I hope that if you have been over completing things, that this has helped.  Now it is time for me to take my car to the car wash!

If you liked this info, and you think it is time for you to start your own online business… you might like to check out the IMC Quickstart Video Guide Series… where the challenge is to get your online business tool up and running in less than two days!

Cheers for now

Chris.

Nine reasons why you should consider starting an internet business

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started” – Mark Twain

Work from anywhere… right now I’m enjoying the beautiful English country side as I sit on the top of a hill, waiting for a rain shower to pass so that I can continue hang gliding.  But seriously, it is a great way to work your way around the world, or simply to spend more time with family abroad.  The internet is a wonderful place – and it really is what you make of it, so don’t delay – get started!

Reduced working hours…the potential is there, certainly.  I have met a guy who has made $1.8M from eBooks… and most of that was on autopilot! If you think about it, once the eBook is set up, the benefits of internet automation kick in.  Yes I know it is not that easy at first, but there are plenty of examples of people applying this business model successfully, why should you not be one of them?  The philosophy is to “do the work once, get paid many times”, and once you have set up the system you can either sit back and relax or just move on to the next project.

Only to the fun bits…Hate graphics? Or coding? Hate copywriting? No problem. The modern world affords an unprecedented level of outsourcing.  So once you get a bit of money coming in you can ditch the bits of the job you don’t like.  How good is that?

Easily Scalable… Boom!  Here we have it.  With the internet if you can achieve a business model that works, with sales processes that convert, you can scale up more easily than any other business I know.  If you are using paid advertising… and you are making money.  Then 10x the advertising makes 10x the profit.  It is not quite that perfect because there are a few factors that increase cost with increased traffic, such as the need for dedicated hosting servers instead of shared, but these are really minimal.  So, Boom!  Make a small profit, optimize that, then scale up and automate.

Low start-up costs and low overhead costs… Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pintrest, Clickbank…. The list goes on and on.  All Free services that let you get a web presence and start making money online with zero start-up cost.  As always there is a trade of time vs. money, but even if you just have a small budget, you can get web hosting and an email auto-responder for about $10/month.   Internet income beats bricks-and-mortar businesses hands down for low risk, low cost start-ups.  So, take up the challenge, get out there and try something.

“The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow” – Bill Gates

Making your Hobby pay the bills… It has never been so easy to turn your hobby into you income source.  It doesn’t matter if you are into making wine, or laying paving slabs.  The internet has an unrivalled ability to bring people together.  So if you happen to enjoy rearing lazy-eyed-frogs, then I’m sure you’ll find some like-minded people to form a community, and then a customer base.  What better way to generate an income than be doing immersing yourself in the subjects you love.

Become part of a global community… this will helps you stay young! If you haven’t already, isn’t it time you got a grip on IT developments?  When I started I couldn’t set up a website, I couldn’t fathom one end of an email system from the other – but now I’m quite conversant with all this “techy” stuff – and I’m learning faster all the time.  However, if the “techy” stuff is not for you – that is not an issue, some of the most successful people online are non-techies… and they outsource all the techy stuff, which eventually will be your aim as-well.  Beach? Html code a webpage?  Beach?  Not difficult is it?

Think outside the box… This making money online-thing offers the perfect opportunity for those of us, myself included, who have been conditioned to think that you earn money by working for someone else to break free.  You’ll start to see the world in a different light, you’ll start to see value and opportunity.  This will enhance your business skills and you will, as I have, get huge personal satisfaction from testing things and seeing if they have worked.  I remember staying with my grandparents when I was young and every morning waking eager to see if the chicken had laid another egg.  Well internet marketing is the same for an adult.  Not always, but usually there is a golden egg waiting.

Ever growing income streams…. Once you have set up one income stream simply move on to set up another.  Initiate, Moderate and Automate!  This is the beauty of the internet.  It might seem like a pipe dream – but many people are achieving it.  And on the plus side, it gets easier and easier.  As the learning curve flattens off… your pace and output ramps up.  You can pay more outsourcers and really accelerate your progress.

Why I started Internet Marketing

I started Internet Marketing to generate more free time for me to go on more adventures! This is me in the Arctic.

About a year ago I was working for a company and I was struggling to manage a project which had it’s problems, but by far the biggest problem was that there weren’t enough people on the team.  So we had far too much work for the number of people available to do it… it was a nightmare.

I loved the work I was doing and I didn’t want to let the customer or the team down and so I was drawn deeper and deeper into working harder and harder.  This continued until the point that I was working 70 hour weeks routinely, plus I had a 1 hour commute each way to get to work and back home.

I didn’t mind the commute, in fact I had been riding a motorbike for 10 years, and actually loved the commute through the wide open countryside.  But, because I was often returning home, late at night, exhausted and sometimes running low on sleep reserves… I felt that it was only a matter of time until I had an accident and did myself some damage.  So I sold the bike and switched to using a car.  Now those that know me… will tell you that this was a very hard thing for me to do (although secretly I do quite like having a radio and a heater… but don’t tell anyone else that!).

So, I got to the point of realizing that I had no life.  All I did was work!  I had a whole heap of adventures planned (to see my previous adventures please visit www.chrisgtodd.com) that I was just not able to plan for or undertake because I spent all my time working….

I needed a change, and in the airport returning from a family visit, I picked up a book about making money using the internet.  I read it cover to cover on the flight home and decided to make a change.  So this is it, I have been engrossed in the world of internet marketing (online business) ever since.

The possibilities are endless….