Work Less, Earn More: Step 1 – Commitment

*Note: Okay, my simple post wound up being multiple pages in MS Word, so I’ve turned my process into a series of posts so you don’t have to sit here reading all day

The other day I brought up the idea of working less and earning more, and how at one time I didn’t believe it could really be done. I’ve always understood the concept of outsourcing, and started using a VA off and on quite a few years ago. While the concept was clear, I didn’t really get it in the sense that I wasn’t letting go, and because of that I was still chained to my computer and weighed down with work.

It also didn’t help that my short-sighted thinking made me believe that I couldn’t afford to hire help, and that’s the roadblock a lot of people struggle with. Well that, and a desire to stay in control of every aspect of their business.

I may feel like the queen of outsourcing now, but believe it or not, until recently I wasn’t using the power of outsourcing to its full potential. So over the next few days I want to share with you how I’m working less than ever before, and how I manage to maintain and actually grow my income. It’s not some big secret or anything cool like that, it’s more of a shift in the way you think and approach your business, with a healthy dose of focus and action thrown in too.

So without further ado…

Step 1: Commitment

The first thing you have to do is make the decision to do it. A lot of times, we nod our heads in agreement at the importance of outsourcing, yet in the back of our minds we know we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to keep on doing what we’re doing now, even though we know we should make a change.

So until you’re 100% ready to take that leap and make a commitment to seriously working less, it’s going to be tough to make it happen because of your need to cling on to everything.

In truth, I’m not sure I would be working less now if I hadn’t made a change out of necessity. We always think, “it’s not going to happen to me, I don’t have to worry about it,” so when something does happen, we feel like we’re “up the creek without a paddle”.

Working less not only means you have more free time to enjoy life, it also means you have a business that can run without you. Again, you have to be committed to making a change, for change to happen.

What’s next?

Tomorrow we’ll talk about one of the biggest roadblocks people face when it comes to outsourcing – MONEY!

Work Less, Earn More…Too Good to be True?

It sounds so good doesn’t it? To work way less than you do right now and actually earn more money doing it.

I believe it to be true now, but I didn’t always think so. I guess I just couldn’t connect making money with not, or barely, working because that’s all I’d ever done. Trading hours for dollars. Besides, at the time I was only making enough to pay my own bills; I couldn’t afford to hire anyone to help me.

If only I had thought differently. Or at least knew how to do then what I do now to spend minimal time working, while continuing to grow my business.

Now I have to admit, I’m not a serial planner, but rather a planner out of necessity. Like you, my life outside of my business is busy, and when there’s downtime I like to spend it reading or watching movies. I can’t work around the clock like I used to, I just don’t want to do it. There are more important things in life, and I intend to get out of it all I can.

For me, I think the major shift in how I run my business today happened when my 21 month old son was diagnosed with Neuronopathic Gaucher Disease Type 3 when he was 10 months old. So much was, and still is, unknown. There is no set path for his disease to follow, every child progresses differently, and because it’s so rare they don’t have many children who have gone before to say it’s going to go down like this.

So I have to be prepared for the unexpected, and I can’t do that by being so attached to my business that it can’t run without me.

A few years ago when I was so sure I couldn’t afford to hire help, I was merely looking at the dollar cost, and not what it was costing me not to outsource:

- There’s no one to take over for you should the unexpected happen, which means your business comes to a screeching halt while you’re attending to personal things

- You spend too much time working, and not enough time enjoying life because you’re too busy attending to all the little details

- You actually make less money because while you’re attending to all those little details, you’re not able to focus that time on money making activities – like taking on an extra client, or working on your next product

- Your business loses value, because if you ever want to sell it will be really hard to hand the reins over to someone else when your business is you

- You get stressed and burnt out working so much, that you inadvertently take your frustrations out on your innocent children

To have all of those things gone, is it not worth $75 to $250 a month?

Of course it is.

Unfortunately, we tend to look at the bottom line instead of what it’s costing us in our life to keep going on without help. We just can’t imagine paying someone to do the things we can do ourselves.

But how do you make the change that will allow you to work less and earn more?

Well, that’s for Wednesday’s post where I’ll outline how I’m able to work less than ever before, and earn more doing it.

Adjust Slightly: Find Your
BUYING Target Market

Have you ever started online business or website and found yourself saying, “This market just doesn’t buy anything!”

You are most certainly not alone.

In this information age, full of free free free, sometimes we get all caught up in the hoopla and we forget we’re trying to turn a profit from our online venture. Of course, it’s all well and good to help people and give stuff for free, but we all gotta eat some time. The good news is, sometimes all it takes is a slight adjustment to your target market. Because realistically speaking, if you’re positioning yourself to attract people who just want free stuff…you’re going to have a heck of a time to get them to buy something.

Here are some common adjustments that might fit your own business

Disclaimer: These are not one-size-fits-all ideas. They may work or they may not for your market. You need to evaluate your own business and measure the results of any adjustments you make.

• Go from providing how-to information to actually DOING it for them (ex. software, services, ready-made projects). You can sell how to information, but there may just be more money in giving people the tools or already-done-for-you products and services.

• Go from the desperate portion of your market to the proactive. In some cases, the desperate buyer may be your target. Other times, you may find the more pro-active person who is always looking ahead, trying to prevent problems and ensure success may be a better target.

• Go from giving everything for free to showing your audience how to invest in themselves. You can give free information, recommend free tools and resources…but what’s that going to get you? Perhaps some very thankful readers/fans, but unfortunately, an empty bank account.

Take a good long look at your website, your subscribers, readers and your entire business? Who is naturally attracted to your offerings? Are they buyers? Are they their for a free ride? If it’s the latter…a target market adjustment may be in order and a lot of that has to do with the way we communicate with our readers.

Start by changing the way you speak to your readers – everything from your sales copy to your newsletter opt-in copy to your content. When you change the way you talk, you change those who are attracted to your marketing.

Here are some tips for changing the way you talk:

• Stop thinking you always have to offer a free resource.
• Make no apologies for recommending products.
• Make offers and recommendations regularly – they’ll get used to it or they’ll ship out (And guess what? It’s OKAY if a non-buyer ships out)
• Educate your readers about why they should purchase products.

You work hard in your online business. You painstakingly create content and products. But if you aren’t getting the results you’d hoped for…maybe it’s time to adjust.

“Making Money is Easy. It’s All in the Marketing”

The other day I was standing in line at Wal-Mart waiting to check out, when a headline on this month’s Reader’s Digest magazine caught my eye.

In big yellow letters it said, “We Can All Be Rich.”

Interesting, yes, but that claim alone wasn’t enough to make me pick up the magazine, eager to find out how. Instead, it was the two tiny, barely readable sentences below that headline that piqued my curiosity.

“So says innovator Austin Hill. But reputation, not cash, will make the world go round.”

Definitely a fascinating concept. So I picked up the magazine and flipped to the article to check it out.

Basically it was saying that who we are will replace cash, and then it went on to talk about Austin Hill’s early days as a young entrepreneur. In high school, I think it was 1984, he found a way to get into the school computer and edit report card grades. He knew how to fix it, so he approached the school, told them about their flaw, and said he would fix it for $400 an hour. I think he wound up with $10,000 for his work.

The next story was when he approached (the school again I think), about teaching employees how to keep their computer information secure. They said, no we don’t need that we have passwords to protect data.

Austin told them that he could get the password out of anyone, and that they could pick someone for him to call and get the info from. They chose some lady high up on the ladder who was tight-lipped, and on speaker phone for everyone to hear, she gave him her computer password when he told her he was a tech guy.

Well, needless to say, they hired him to train their employees and I think he earned something like $50,000 for that job.

Interesting stories, but it was the last thing I read before I put the magazine back on the rack to deal with my 8 and 5 year old who were fooling around; that stuck with me.

Austin said something like (can’t remember the exact wording), “Making money is easy. It’s all in the marketing.”

It wasn’t an “ah ha” moment, since I already know the important role marketing plays in business. Instead, it was more of a reminder.

In Austin’s case, he found a problem, told his market they had problem, and then told them how he could solve their problem. After that, money wasn’t an issue. His market knew they had to fix the problem, and they were willing to pay whatever it took.

The same goes for an online business. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t take the time to find out what problems their market has before coming out with a new product.

That’s the key….

- Know what the problem is

- Tell your market the problem (sometimes they don’t realize they have a problem until someone points it out)

- Offer them a solution to their problem

I believe that a lot of products fail simply because they don’t solve a problem of a particular market. Besides, how would you go about marketing something if you didn’t know that the product was even needed by your market?

Sounds silly, I know. But it happens every day. People create products just because they want to, not because their market wants them to.

You market a product by connecting with your prospects on an emotional level. And you do that by telling them that you share their pain, you understand their problem, and you have a way to help them. Well, making money is easier.

On the other hand, if you try to market your product without that connection it’s going to be a lot harder to make a sale; especially if you don’t understand their problems.

Top 10 Reasons to Use Resell Rights Products

1. Save Time – Writing all your own products takes time. Buying resell rights products allows you to skip right over that. Instead of spending all that time in production mode you’re free to do the money-making activities. Now you have time to be marketing those products you’ve got ready to sell.

2. Save Money – If you don’t have time to create products yourself, another option is to hire this process out to a team. If you do you’ll need to pay a writer, a graphic designer, a copywriter and a website designer. That can be a very pricy proposition! By using resell rights you are saving yourself a large chunk of change and getting a high quality product at the same time.

3. Keep All The Profits – As an affiliate you might get 30-50% in commissions from the sale of any products you promote. When you purchase resell rights products 100% of the profits are yours. The only thing it costs you is your initial investment in the rights and the rest is pure profit.

4. Skip The Research – Market research can be difficult, especially if you are new at it. Buying resell rights products means you get to avoid the initial research part.

5. Professionally Written Content – Maybe you don’t feel you’re writing is up to the professional quality you’d like in a product. With resell rights products you will be getting the advantage of having a professional write you a product without paying the high cost of hiring one yourself. All the editing, revising and formatting is already done for you.

6. Earn Credibility By Association – It takes time and effort to establish a respected and trusted brand, online or offline. When you buy resell rights products from a brand that has worked hard to build that reputation you can earn credibility simply by being associated with them. That’s why celebrity endorsements work so well (and are so costly for companies to get!).

7. Profit From Experience – When you serve a specific target market for a certain amount of time, you start to get an intuitive idea of what they need and want. That kind of experience takes time to build. Reselling products created by an experienced business allows you to benefit from the time they’ve spent ‘in the trenches’ learning the needs and wants of YOUR target market. That’s very valuable stuff.

8. Gain New Customers – Again if we talk about affiliate marketing you are sending customers to the company you are an affiliate for. By selling resell rights under your own company you are keeping those customers with you. You can build a loyal and profitable relationship with those customers in a way you couldn’t possibly do if they bought through someone else and became their customer.

9. No Worries About Making It Unique – One of the advantages of using private label rights products is that you can edit it. Did you know that’s also one of the disadvantages? You see, according to many marketers the majority of people who buy PLR never use it because they never get past the customizing and rewriting stage. With resell rights products there is no worry of that. You can’t edit these products so you can’t get held up by this step and never sell a thing. Resell rights are ready to go. That means you get to make money faster.

10. Expand Your Expertise – Maybe your customers are asking you for a product on a topic you’re just not comfortable writing on yet. This is where resell products would be very useful. While you may not be an expert in everything you can still offer a quality product that fits their needs.

Physical Products?

A customer recently asked me about getting physical versions of Internet Marketing Sweetie products, because they liked having something in their hands to work with.

So I’m putting the question to you…

Business Finances: How well do you manage?

I have to admit, I wasn’t always a great money manager when it came to my business, and I know I’m not alone in that admission.

In truth, I used to spend the money as fast as it came in, and then scramble later to pay my business expenses. Not an ideal situation to put myself in, especially when I had to dip into my husband’s pay or use a credit card to pay them.

But it wasn’t just me. My husband would ask for money, and I’d give it to him, and eventually he just took for granted that I always seemed to have money. I didn’t, not really, because I was spending my profits and then giving him money that was allocated for expenses.

Sometimes that money was spent foolishly, but in most cases, it merely bought groceries, gas, and paid other essential living expenses. Still, it was a very unwise thing to do because it meant I was living beyond my means.

Perhaps this really isn’t that big of a deal when you’re just getting started, but as your business grows you have to have discipline. You can’t be burning through your PayPal account when you have affiliates and contractors to pay, refunds to process, and monthly business tools/services to pay for. Not to mention contributing to the household bills.

So there comes a time when you have to manage your business finances like a real business instead of a hobby. Everything needs to be tracked, expenses paid first, and your profits taken last.

Now that doesn’t mean you have to be so strict that you never have fun with the money you’re making, because you should. In fact, my business profits pay for our frequent weekends away in the summer, as well as luxury items like a fancy digital camera, a video camera, computer, etc. Or it may be just a simple dinner out and a trip to the movie theatre.

Don’t deny yourself the fun of doing things with your hard-earned money, just be wise about it.

Here are a few things you can do to get a better grip on your business finances:

- Put away that PayPal debit card: This little sucker makes accessing your money incredibly easy, so until you have the discipline to use it wisely, get it out of your wallet and tuck it away for emergencies only. Instead, make bi-weekly or monthly withdrawals of your profits from your PayPal account to your bank account.

End of the month withdrawals are ideal because then all of your income for that month has come in, and all of your expenses have gone out. So you can clearly see what your “take home pay” is.

I’d really love it if PayPal would let you set up accounts within your account, so you could separate your money…one designated for expenses and one for income. So all of your income from the previous month would stay separated from your expenses in the coming month.

- Track: Get diligent about tracking where your money’s coming from and where it’s going, and then cut out all the extras you don’t need. If you don’t have a clear idea of what your income and expenses are, then you’ll just end up overspending.

For instance, I have various team members who are on retainer, so I know exactly what their services are going to cost me each month. I can check my records at any given time and know how much is owing to affiliates, what subscriptions I have and how much they cost, etc.

This type of tracking also allows me to budget for new projects, or allocate funds to current projects, like adding new tools to my affiliate center. It also enables me to me know how much marketing I can do in a given month, like outsourcing press release writing & submission, article writing & submission, PPC, creating viral tools, etc.

- Save & Invest: Instead of spending your profits as fast as they come in, take only what you need and leave the rest. If you need money to pay the hydro bill and buy groceries, make a withdrawal for the exact amount you need.

Then you can take a portion of those savings and invest in your business. Go to that seminar you’ve be dying to go to, or hire the people you need to get that new project completed, so you can make more money.

It’s not easy to change the way you manage your finances, but it’s so worth it. It’s nice to see the money add up in your PayPal account, and know that you have more than enough to sustain your business and cut yourself a good pay check too!

Free Download: Resell Rights Video Tutorial & Blueprint

The other day I talked about resell rights products being “old school” in most people’s minds, and how I thought differently.

So I’ve put together a 4 part video tutorial that takes you step-by-step through one of the many ways you can use resell rights products in your business, to plug those profit leaks. I’ve also included a 16-page blueprint that provides you with additional tips, strategies, and ideas.

First, watch me on video talking about resell rights products, and then if you’d like to learn more, you can pick up a copy of my video tutorial and blueprint. Go here: http://www.resellrightsproductshowto.com