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Starting An Online Business At Home (The Two Things You Must Have Before You Do Anything)
Starting An Online Business At Home (The Two Things You Must Have Before You Do Anything)
Did you know you can outsource pretty much everything you need to start an online business? If you don’t like doing it, don’t fret; just pay someone else to do it for you and this frees you up to work on your business and not in your business.
But there are a couple of things that can’t be outsourced and need to come from you and they are crucial to your success or failure. So, what are those 2 things you may be asking?
Well the first one are your ideas.
Your BIG Idea
Your big idea has got to be yours and it should underpin your entire business and should be incorporated throughout your sales processes.
So let’s say you come to me, wanting to start an online business. You’re a blank slate, in that you don’t have a clue where to start or what to do.
You may think that you are at a disadvantage but in fact this is not the case, because someone who is a blank slate actually holds a tremendous advantage over someone who already thinks they know it all, when in fact they don’t really have a clue. A little knowledge can be dangerous!
So you come to me and ask what you should do. And I stuff a pad of paper and a pen in your hand, and I tell you to go somewhere quiet and think because you’re going to brainstorm like you’ve never brainstormed before. You’re going to write down every idea you get. Good ones, bad ones, stupid ones – even the ones you KNOW for a FACT you cannot possibly pull off.
You’re going to write them all down.
“I want to teach a cooking course to people who currently can’t boil water.”
“I want to build an app that tells people where the vacant parking spots are in New York City.”
“I want to build a community gardening site for people who live in southern Florida.”
And so forth. Be vague or get specific. The key is to just brainstorm your heart out and get all these ideas out of your head. Speaking of which, watch for those items that feel especially near and dear to you, and put a little star by those. And then keep writing.
You’re going to start your business on YOUR idea – not on what’s necessarily gone before or what other people are doing. Lose all preconception of what will and what won’t work for now. That comes later.
By generating your own business model without worrying about what anyone else is doing, you’re freeing yourself up from comparisons, crappy advice and self-doubts. Let your imagination run wild and remember that your business model can be anything you can imagine.
Naturally once you’ve narrowed your choices down to a handful, you’re going to do some research to make sure there is indeed a market for what you’re proposing. But I’m going to discourage you from spending a lot of time looking at any potential competitors. Ignore what they’re marketing, how they’re marketing it, how they’re advertising and so forth.
And this leads us into the second thing that you must have and that is overcoming fear. Only you can do that.
Fearlessness
Because what tends to happen when people over analyse is that they learn to fear their own idea.
“This is already being done, so I’m too late!”
“This company is already doing a good job of covering this market, there’s no room for me.”
“Their idea is different from mine, so theirs must be the right one and mine must be wrong.”
And so forth. So, by not over analysing things you’re eliminating one type of fear that plagues all new marketers. But you’re not done yet as there is a second fear you’ll need to overcome – the one that creeps up on you when your friends say, “What, YOU’RE going to start a business? HAHAHA!”
Or maybe your friends are supportive, but you lack confidence. “What if people hate my product?”
Yup. There’s a real heart stopper. And you cannot outsource overcoming those fears. So how do you deal with them?
For me, I just acknowledge them rather than fight them. Yes, I’m afraid. No, I’m not going to let it stop me. So Mr. Fear, you go sit in that chair over there while I work. And if you get bored, feel free to fly out the window.
Believe it or not, this attitude works. When you stop letting fear take a hold of you, when you stop feeling like you’re trapped in its icy grip, when you just acknowledge it and do the work anyway, then fear tends to get real quiet. It takes a seat and watches for an opening. And if you don’t give it one, eventually it just leaves the way it came.
Ignore what’s going on around you. Put blinders on, manage your fear and above all else, stick to your idea.
And remember these acronyms for F.E.A.R.
False Evidence Appearing Real and Face Everything And Rise
And in the immortal words of Susan Jeffers Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway. This is a great book by the way and you really should check it out here for US readers or here for UK readers.
If you are ready to get started on your online business you may feel a little confused with all the technical jargon around setting up domains, hosting etc. Well, I have a report which can help with that so don’t let this stop you.
Lead Magnet Ideas (5 Steps To Double Your Opt-in Rate And Make Some Sales In The Process)
Lead Magnet Ideas (5 Steps To Double Your Opt-in Rate And Make Some Sales In The Process)
If you’ve been around the internet and internet marketing in particular, I am sure that you’re familiar with how lead magnets usually work – you offer your website visitors a free report or some other incentive in exchange for their name and email address and joining your list. Depending on your traffic source and the relevancy and strength of your offer, your opt-in rate could be anything from almost non-existent to 30% or more.
BUT unfortunately, there’s a problem with this approach – EVERYONE and their uncle is offering some type of incentive to get people to join their lists. And because of this, visitors have become more and more cautious about giving away their email address. Think about it; when you come across a squeeze page, do you instantly fill in your details or do you take a few seconds to weigh up the benefits that the report is offering as outweighing the loss of privacy (and signing up to receive more emails/offers) that entering your email address will bring?
So, what can you do to increase and possibly even DOUBLE your opt-in rate?
Well you need to change things up a bit and here are 5 steps to do just that:
Step 1:
Create a dynamite lead magnet with great information on how to do something. For example, maybe it’s a case study: “How Janis Smythe made $4,294 in 12 days using XXX technique.”
If you’re just starting out and you need a case study to use, start by using good old Google. Don’t forget to let the person know you’re doing a case study on them, if appropriate, because in this case you really should get permission first.
Or you could omit any names and fictionalize the personal details. That works, too as long as it is a legitimate case study and not made up!
Or if you can find a case study that has already been published in an article on the web, then you can use that to back up what your lead magnet is teaching (don’t forget to add a link back to the original article/case study to attribute the author if doing this).
Step 2:
Write an excellent squeeze page. Yes, you’re giving the report away, but you still need to entice people into wanting it. Focus on the benefits that the report will give to the reader and make it a no-brainer.
Step 3:
At the bottom of the page, and perhaps to the right as well, put a download button. That’s right – no opt-in form at this point, just a ‘download it now’ button.
Step 4:
Split your report into two sections. The first section is the introduction and overview. What they’ll need to do this, how much money they can make and the success they can have, and so forth. Don’t make direct promises, of course. Make sure that you follow FTC guidelines at all times and also include an earnings disclaimer on your page.
This is the “sneaky” part. The second half of the report is the payoff, the actual technique and how to do it step by step.
On the bottom of the first section, tell the readers that the step by step blueprint is in Part 2.
That is sneaky, right?
But it gets even better!
I love this part; place TWO links on the last page of the first section – one where they pay $17 to buy the second half of the report…
And a second link where they get the report for FREE in exchange for their email address.
Both links go to the same webpage.
Step 5:
Create the webpage for the second half of the report. Give them the option to pay $17 and the option to get it in exchange for their email address.
You should get extremely high opt-ins using this method and having the payment button there makes it look like they are getting an extremely good deal by giving you their email address. Psychology in action!
And oddly enough, once in a while someone will actually pay for the second half of the report. Don’t ask me why, but they do. And that’s okay too. Any revenue generated is a tidy bonus for you.
Try these 5 steps when creating your next lead magnet and see what this can do for your opt-in rate and please let me know how it goes.
The Single Biggest Mistake Many Email Marketers Make And Don’t Even Realise It!
The Single Biggest Mistake Many Email Marketers Make And Don’t Even Realise It!
Hi Jason here and in this post you are going to learn the single biggest mistake email marketers make!
Are you making this same mistake? I know I have been guilty of it so don’t be embarrassed if you have too!
And I know how difficult email marketing can be if not done right; I’ve been there!
But this post will highlight the single biggest mistake many marketers make so you can avoid it! And when you discover it, it may appear to be so obvious but don’t discount it because of that!
OK without further ado, let’s talk email marketing!
If you asked a group of marketers this question:
“When you send an email to your list, what’s your #1 goal?”
What answer do you think you’d get?
Here are a few that come to my mind:
- To get readers to open it
- To get readers to READ it
- To give some useful info
- To build rapport
- To sell a product
Those are all good answers…
But they’re also all WRONG answers
Of course, you want them to open the email, read the email, build some rapport, maybe give some useful info, but none of these are your primary objective
So what is?
The primary goal of email marketing is to get the CLICK; That’s it!
Everything else is simply in support of that #1 goal
Ideally, you want to train your list to click your links like mind-numb robots! You want them to click automatically – without thinking – because it’s what they always do when they open your emails
You don’t need to sell the product – the sales page or video you send them to should do that for you.
You don’t need to tell them everything about the blog post you’re sending them to – the post will do that for you.
So how can you improve your click-through rate?
Give great information.
People will like you and TRUST you if you give them great info that helps them. Clicking the link is just a natural extension of that.
Show them the ‘what’ but not the ‘how.’
You might give them a really useful tip on what drives super targeted traffic, but to learn how to do it they need to click the link.
Don’t always send them to sales letters;
send them to fun stuff, too. Show them your blogposts, your videos and even other people’s stuff now and then.
Now and then surprise them with a free product. For example your email tells them a method to list build using Facebook. Then you send them to a link that will give them 5 more list building methods and when they click the link, they see a very short sales page offering the product for FREE.
How much do you think they love you right now?
And what are the odds they will click more of your links in the future just in case there’s another free product on the other side?
Of course, your list and your niche may call for slightly different methods but bottom line, your primary goal of email marketing is ALWAYS to get the click because the more trained your list is to click, the more money you will make in the long run.
I hope you found this post useful. Please leave a comment about whether you agree or disagree about the importance of the click and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog for more posts helping you to grow your online business.
How To Build Your Business Quickly
How To Build Your Business Quickly
So, you want to know the quickest way to build and grow your business quickly! Well the answer is actually pretty simple and common sense if you think about it!
Drumroll please!
The quickest way to build your business is:
Cloning!
No, not cloning sheep or mice, but cloning yourself through outsourcing.
Hiring other people to do various tasks in your business will grow the business like nothing else.
Most people think of outsourcing as an expense that eats away at the bottom line. They avoid jumping on outsourcing because they see it as an expensive luxury instead of a unique way to solve problems and grow fast.
Make no mistake: Outsourcing is no luxury!
It is the KEY to transforming what you do from a J.O.B. to a viable, scalable business. Systematizing your business so that other people can do the work without you being involved in the details does two things for you:
- Systems help you create business assets that can be sold because the business doesn’t rely solely on you!
- It frees up your time so that you can enjoy more of life…
And that’s why you’re in business, isn’t it, enjoying life?
Unfortunately, most small business owners never experience the power of outsourcing. They never experience a team that’s fully invested in the business’s success and they don’t build the business with systems in mind.
Outsourcing comes with benefits…
Your goal as a business owner is to earn more and work less I hope. Scaling your business with outsourcing leads to:
- More time
- More money
- Getting more done
But you have to do it right. If you continue to run your business as a solopreneur doing everything yourself, eventually you’ll discover that you’ve created a really difficult job and work for a really bad boss.
The alternative is creating a scalable and sustainable business which means you must do the things that bring the best financial return. Those things are important.
When you start paying attention to all of your Urgent vs Important tasks, you soon discover that the Important tasks are usually the ones left undone.
Urgent always wins…
Unless you put a plan with a team in place to minimize the urgent tasks, and handle them when they do come up, it’s nearly impossible to focus on the important…
Let’s be clear on what Urgent AND Important means…
This is an emergency.
In the consulting world, clients often called this “Crisis Management”. The people working the late nights because a manager deemed it Urgent and Important called these events “Hair-on-Fire Management”.
That kills a staff’s morale.
When you build systems and put people in charge of those systems, they become accountable. And they work to ensure less urgent activities. Your freedom and success live in the Important But NOT Urgent quadrant. So should you.
Unless you have systems, and people working those systems, most of your activities are the same that you’ve done many times before needlessly. Our businesses are full of processes and tasks that create revenue and expenses. The goal is to control the expenses and create more revenue.
Scaling your business is the best way to grow your revenue. Making more money requires leverage – cloning yourself. Unless you start leveraging other people, your business will stay small and revenues more than likely will be thin.
When you start scaling and expanding, you’ll find outsourcing makes that happen.
How do you get started outsourcing?
The FIRST thing you need to do is find a profitable niche because if your niche isn’t profitable you are wasting your time!
If you want to know more about discovering hot, profitable niches, take a look here: https://warr.us/NAMSNiches👌.
To get started with outsourcing/scaling you need to discover how to…
- Start small
- Identify repetitive tasks
- Find good help
Example: Start Small
Find a task that needs to be done but is not urgent or important to your business. (This is something that can’t hurt your business if it’s messed up.)
For example, imagine that you have a PDF document with 200 resource links that you’d like to transfer to a spreadsheet. That’s a perfect task for outsourcing.
You’re looking for someone that you can build a long-term relationship with, so you want to see how they handle the project.
- Do they turn it around before the deadline?
- Do they require a lot of hand-holding from you?
- Do they find a better way to do the task?
- Is their price reasonable?
- Is the communication top notch?
If that experience was positive, try them on something else.
Example: Repetitive Tasks
Look at your calendar. Is there something you have to do each month, week, or day that can’t be done by automation (computer), but is done the same way every time?
Here are some examples:
- Product download
- Indexing your forum
- Managing Facebook group memberships
- Bookkeeping
- Transcription of your monthly call
- Support desk responses
And more.
Create a process document, or make a video of the task activities. You’re beginning to build a business operations manual. And that’s one of the keys to building a real business asset that adds value.
Example: Find Good People
What is more important to you? Cost, Quality or Speed? As the saying goes, you can have two of those. Never all three.
When you’re looking for good help, make sure you understand:
- Does this require outstanding quality?
- Does it have to be done fast?
- Can you pay top dollar?
Compromise and can still get what you need for the price you need it when you need it. But you must understand your need. Finding outsourcing resources can be tough, especially good ones. Word of mouth is the best source to find good people, but satisfied business owners seldom share their best resources. But you can ask. And you can ask them to make a referral.
If you can’t get a good referral, go to a site like UpWork.com and look for people with high ratings and skill sets that you need. Pay close attention to the reviews. The people you recruit will be an important part of your profit center.
Remember, every task or process outsourced should be creating more revenue for you. Think of outsourcing as a profit center, not an expense. If you’re doing it right, you should be creating more revenue with every process you outsource.
That’s why outsourcing is NOT a luxury, but necessary to grow your revenue. Don’t hesitate, but remember that when you do decide to get started, that you do it with the right skills and plan in place.
outsource.
The Secret To Making Money Online
The Secret To Making Money Online
If someone were to ask you what the #1 ‘secret’ to making money online was, what would you say?
Any guesses? I’m sure that you can think of many answers to this question, I know I can!
Maybe you’d start by saying it’s to find a starving crowd. Or perhaps the best way is to build and nurture a list. Or to get in on the beginning of a hot new trend.
All of these are good answers.
And all of these are wrong. That’s a rather sweeping statement I know, but please bear with me for a minute!
THE big secret to making money online is one that crosses all niches, applies to all markets and marketers, and works just about every single time to make REAL money.
It’s how six and seven figure incomes are almost always earned and it’s also how YOU can begin earning 6 figures in the next 12 months.
Now then – before I reveal this ‘secret,’ let me warn you that you might have heard it before; in fact I can virtually guarantee it.
In fact, some online marketers have to hear this a dozen times or more before it really starts to sink in and that’s because the most powerful techniques often masquerade as something a bit boring. Or tedious. Or uninteresting; after all, taking a wheelbarrow full of cash to the bank is exciting but earning it is often something altogether different. And people also hear it so often that it becomes rather blase and it doesn’t get taken seriously which is a BIG mistake!
OK are you ready for the big reveal?
Here’s the ‘secret…’
“Find a profitable formula – and then SCALE it up.”
Yup. That’s it. Pretty simple, I know.
Yet 98% of marketers will never do it. And 97% of marketers will stay broke because of it.
Let’s say you spend time making the perfect product for a super hungry niche. You tweak the offer to get it converting sky high. You bring on affiliates to help you promote. Everything is in place. You launch, you have an extremely profitable week…
…and then what?
For most marketers, they will turn their attention to creating the next product and doing the entire process again. And because of that, they will leave a tremendous amount of money on the table.
If your offer sells for $19 and you’re converting at 5%, then you’re making $95 for every 100 people you send to your site. This doesn’t even include the list you’re building and will market to over and over again.
Now then, if you can buy those 100 visitors for $40, you’ve just make a profit of $55.
Buy 1,000 visitors and you’ve made $550.
Buy 10,000 visitors and you’ve made $5,500.
But wait, there’s more!
What if you add a backend product? Just one sale per 100 visitors of a $100 product increases your profit from $55 to $155.
10,000 visitors? $15,500 profit.
You can also add coaching, continuity (membership) programs, etc. for even more profit.
Are you following me here?
Let’s use an analogy: Someone invests 3 months to open a hair salon. They have a big grand opening with lots of customers. And when that dies down, they close shop, move across town and do it all over again.
Yeah, that would be pretty crazy. Yet that’s what 98% of online marketers do; they create a product, launch it, have a great week and then start all over again, and they wonder why they are still struggling.
So what’s the takeaway?
- Invest time in building a profitable, high-converting funnel.
- Test it out and do the math – how much can you spend on advertising and still make money?
- Start by investing small and ramp your way up.
- Don’t forget to build your list – your funnel is your upfront money, and your list is your “go to” money. That is, whenever you need funds or simply want to boost your income, you can go to your list and make them an offer.
What will derail you in this process:
- Getting lured away by the glamour of creating another new product funnel when you should be scaling up the one you already have.
- Fear of spending money to make money. Yes, spending $1000 or more to make sales is scary. That’s why you want to start small, make sure your entire funnel is working, and then scale up. And up. And Up.
Your biggest mistake – would be brushing this advice off. Don’t be that person who thinks, “Yeah, yeah, heard it all before!” You may have heard this information/advice before but have you actually implemented it?!?
Fortunes have been made simply by creating a profitable funnel and then scaling it up.
FORTUNES.
As in nearly 7 figures made from one Clickbank product…
Per MONTH.
That’s right – 6 Pack Abs at the pinnacle of its success was earning over $11 million per year. So, it works plain and simple!
Now, your results will vary; there is never any guarantee but isn’t it nice to have this information and now you (hopefully) understand the power of it, you can actually take action on it!