Treat your online presence, however, like the proverbial "red haired step child", and you might as well not waste your time, money or man power on it. After all, whether generated on the world wide web or on main street from leads generated by your website, your web's only purpose is to increase name recognition and loyalty and generate and increase revenue.
From your planning stages and business model, to the design of your virtual office, to the selection of key words and ad words, to the selection of an internet host, to your branding, to your promotion strategies, to your monitoring and tracking techniques, to follow up and deal closing - detail, brain storming, and professionalism are key. Your creation must be an entity that makes money, not cost you precious resources.
You need to stop listening to the self declared gurus, and ask yourself the same tough questions you do about your main business. And, if your primary business is going to be the internet based business this factual examination becomes even more crucial.
First, know success is never final. Without proper drive and commitment, he who is on top today will be eclipsed tomorrow. Make sure you have a dream and not a night mare. Assure you have a sufficiently tough skin to pursue your idea and have enough heart to see it through the bad times not just skim off the cream of the crop. If all you have is heart burn from the rich dinner you ate last night rather than an unquenchable fire in your gut, don't toss your cash in the furnace for it will surely be consumed.
Second, never buy into the pie in the sky schemes of the wild blue yonder hucksters who sell everything for nothing and over valued and over priced half truths and for hard earned dollars. They market visions of grandeur purportedly coming true with untold bundles of cash flowing into your bank account while you sleep through the night and golf away the days. Experience shows that virtual life does not work that way any more than real life does.
Get rich quick schemes are the same as and do not work any better than the alcoholic or addict looking for a softer easier way to recover. Lazy people will find they fail and fall faster, harder, and further playing with a new enterprise whether corporate, partnership, or sole proprietorship than punching a time clock.
In your own venture you will soon be painfully aware you cannot pass the buck. There is no lead man, no foreman, no HR department, no big bad boss to keep you honest, to keep you focused, or to keep you working. When you make bad decisions there is no one to bail you out. When you fail to pro
duce there is no payroll clerk from which to draw advance cash. There is no blame game to play because when things are not going your way there is no one else to blame. There is no one about whom to gossip except your customers and that is suicide. There is no one to gossip with except your clients, and that is even worse.
Friendships get relegated to the back burner. You are not here to make friends. A few will come with your success over time as you prove yourself to be a no nonsense professional in your field, a competent business person, and worthy of trust and friendship. But initially you will be consumed with making a living, supporting a business and maybe a staff (if you have one). Don't let it steal family time and relationships.
Don't become pompous! Think of yourself as you think of your dentist... a necessary evil with whom you are cordial and professional. You will be the dentist from this day forward. Don't let it steal your positive spiritual walk.
You will find you now have more legal and social obligations and responsibilities than ever before. People will start to demand more and more of your personal time and attention. Some are simply trying to use you for their own purposes. Don't become a recluse! Faithfully fulfill your obligations to your community and your fellow man, and good things will happen for you.
Now if you have what it takes to run your own business, if you are a self starter and driven you can make money (good money) on the internet or anywhere else. If you understand it is not about luck, not about others, not necessarily about how much money you have today and not necessarily about your education level, and if you are willing to make the commitments, invest the time and do what it takes you are probably ready to become an entrepreneur.
Little will get you more than informed persistence without spamming and without becoming obnoxious.
Part time indeed! What are you waiting for? Go make something happen!
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