Article Presented by:
Willie Crawford
"Will 2007 really be different for your online business?" That's a question that I asked myself, and that I had many of my clients honestly evaluate at the end of 2006.
The answer has to be that unless you do something differently in 2007 than you did in 2006, then 2007 is very likely to be a repeat of 2006.
That reality should horrify many people!
For many "Internet marketers," which is the category that most of my clients put themselves in, having 2007 be drastically different means focusing on making five major changes. Here they are:
1) Better Time Management
We all have only 24 hours in a day, yet some of us get 100 times more done in those 24 hours than others. There are a number of secrets to getting more done in less time. One of those secrets is to actually calculate the value of your time. Simply take your income goal and divide it by the number of hours that you are willing to invest to reach that goal. That will give you a crude dollar figure to use for the "value of your time." It will also make it easier for you to end "time-wasters" such as calls from tele-marketers.
Once you have a dollar value for your time, then you only need to DO those things that you can't afford to get someone else to do cheaper (provided it's something that merits doing). For example, if you value your time at $100 per hour, then you should not spend 2 hours designing a web graphic that you can hire someone else to do for $25. Although that makes perfect sense, many people worth $1000 per hour spend a lot of time doing $5 per hour work.
Don't you fall into that trap.
To learn to properly value your time, I recommend getting, reading, and implementing things taught in Dan Kennedy's time management book. It's called "No BS Time Management For Entrepreneurs - The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take NO Prisoners Guide To Time Productivity & Sanity. It's a great book that you can order through online bookstores.
2) Focusing On Things That Provide The Best Return On Investment
This is closely related to number one, but it means that you need to decide which of the hundreds of possible business models and methodologies you should be using as your business model.
Everyday, you'll be exposed to dozens of proven ways to grow your business, your website and your income. You can only realistically learn and implement a few of them!
Choose one or two methods,or tactics, to grow your business, and then IGNORE the rest. My friend Russell Brunson does this brilliantly. For example, when he looks at website traffic generation, he works on just the things that does best. He actually has staff members who each specialize in different methods of traffic generation. This is something Russell recently shared with my subscribers on a teleseminar.
Russell is a master at doing the things that provide him with the best return-on-investment. He is also a master at outsourcing the rest. You should check out this brilliant young marketers system! You'll find it at: http://DotComSecrets.com/willie/
3) Stop Jumping From Project To Project
Inability to focus on one project, and see it through to completion, "kills" more Internet marketers than anything that I've observed. We all have dozens of brilliant idea, and we don't know which one to focus on. We're afraid that if we focus on one, we'll miss out on another.
By failing to select ONE of our ideas/projects and focusing on implementing it, we end up not seeing anything through to profitability. That tells you that the very simple solution is to "just choose one." It's a little more complicated than that, in that you should choose the one that means the most to you, and that fits in most with your long-term objectives. However, you DO at some point have to simply choose.
Don't worry about making the wrong choice. We live in a universe with millions of choices, and any of them can take you down a different path. Being too paralyzed by fear to choose, is making the decision to make no changes.
If it helps, allow me to share with you several of my choices that I made while transitioning to 2007.
One choice was to spend less time in the minutia, and to spend more time on high value transactions. To do that I turned to a friend who has earned 8-figures online in the past two years. I figured that he could teach me a thing or two, so I'm learning from him. I'm so committed to the projects, that he's leading me to, that I registered a domain just for that purpose... http://8FiguresIn2007.com
The domain name above shows you why I focused on that choice. I saw the level of potential and committed to making it a reality.
A second choice that I made was to revamp my coaching and mentoring program. I coach and mentor aspiring online marketers primarily because I enjoy seeing struggling individuals with dreams make those dreams a reality.
Where I revamped my coaching program was to change my pricing structure, and the application process, so that only those willing to put in the necessary effort are inducted into my coaching program. That way, my new clients and I don't waste a lot of time dealing with people whom we shouldn't be dealing with. This frees up more time for me to work with very focused people who have "a burning desire," a willingness to put in the effort, and simply the right personality that enables us to work together.
With coaching and mentoring in particular, it is a one-on-one venture, and you should only work with those that are appropriate for you to work with. Doing otherwise merely cheats you, and those that you should be working with instead.
4) Get A Manager/Mentor or Accountability Partner
Back in 2002, one of my "heroes" told me that I needed "a manager." That shocked me at first, but then he explained that, left to our own devices, most of us will spend most of our time doing things that aren't the highest and best use of our time.
He went on to explain that this is why top athletes, politician, celebrities, and savvy executives have "managers."
Reflecting upon my career in the military, I once served as an "executive office" to a commander. My job was to plan and control his schedule. He would come to work and I'd tell him who he was meeting with that day or that week... and why. I even told him when he had lunch appointments with family :-)
Not all of us are so in-demand that we need someone to help decide what we should be spending our time on. Some of us just need an "accountability partner"... someone that we can tell our plans to and then ask them to hold us accountable for accomplishing them. This would be a person that we give permission to push us a little. We give them permission to tell us when we're doing ourselves a disservice.
An accountability partner can be someone you meet at a seminar, or even on an online discussion forum. It can also be a formal coach or mentor. I serve as an accountability partner for several dozen people. They ALL have to go through an application process (set up on my website) first. You can see the process at: http://WillieCrawford.com/mentoring.html
A coach, mentor, or accountability partner can help you to get more done is many areas of your life. For example, many people make resolutions this time of the year to exercise more. The secret is to have a workout partner (an accountability partner) that you jointly make that commitment with. Then, on those mornings when you'd really rather sleep late, it's knowing that you have someone at the track or gym waiting for you that will get you motivated.
5) Form Strategic Partnerships and Joint Ventures
We all learned long ago that "no man is an Island unto himself." If you're trying to do everything yourself, you're not going to get very much done. In the online world "lone wolves" never succeed massively ... that I've seen.
You need to partner and form joint ventures with others who compliment your skills and interests. For example, if you are great a starting projects, but never finish them, then you need to partner with "a finisher" (generally someone who pays close attention to the details).
Over the past 2 months I've interviewed DOZENS of the top online marketers. I often asked them how they got to where they are. Our conversations also often drifted to other online marketers and those marketers' secrets to success.
Without exception, all of the top marketers that we discussed, and that I've studied, did NOT get their all by themselves. They had mentors, they formed alliances, and they sometimes had people who gave them a big break.
Going back to my career as a military office, the single biggest identifiable factor that I saw that enabled an office to rise from "Second Lieutenant" to "General" was having a "sponsor." This was someone at the top who took an interest in them and guided them.
When I look at Internet marketing, I DO see a similar system. When someone already near the top reaches out and guides you, and introduces you to their influential friends, it does increase your chances of moving up the ladder. This is only common sense.
I'll close this article by sharing with you that the online community set up to facilitate many of the things outlined above is called "The Internet Marketing Inner Circle."
Yes, there is such a creature. You'll find it at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com
Now back to the original question...
"Will 2007 Really Be Different For Your Online Business?"
It can't be different unless you do things differently.
Just food for thought as we transition into a new year.
About the Author:
Willie Crawford has taught thousands how to build successful online businesses since late-1996. His membership site contains dozens of interviews featuring leading online marketers sharing their views on "How To Break Into The Internet Marketing Inner Circle." Access those powerful interview at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com
