Today I’m way off the Amazon FBA topic… but I have to get this off my chest – It’s that important.
First – I want to explain where I got the “idea” that I needed to share:
I read two things – back to back – just a few minutes ago. Each of them separately wouldn’t have made an impact – but together they are something powerful. Hit you in the gut and smack you on the head Powerful!
I want you to look at both of them – they won’t take but a few minutes of your time.
1. Tiffany Dow blog post today is fairly long – but right at the bottom (and in the video) she says this:
One thing I did want to mention – I saw a lot of OVERachiever posts rather than lightweight posts for the 2012 commitment. Some people making 1 blog per day, and they didn’t say they were selling them, so I wonder how you manage 365 blogs with a personal touch. Others had so many tasks I got tired myself just reading them! So make sure you’re not overdoing it. Only YOU know what you can do and perhaps that WAS the minimum for you, but I just want you to do the basics and everything else will be gravy on top!
2. DIY Themes blog post: What’s Your “Reason Why?” (If you don’t have one, you’re toast):
Take a hard look at your blog or business.
Why should people do business with you instead of your competitor?
What do you offer that your competitors don’t?
What can people get from you that they can’t get anywhere else? What’s your “reason why?”
If you don’t have one, you’re doomed.
Think about the BIG picture
When you are reading the above… think about the BIG picture of your business. Don’t think about just ONE part. Then – think about each part of your business (down to the tiny details).
I had a huge case of Overwhelm – I’m just Done – this past year. Too many blogs, income streams, to-do lists etc. After so many years of being “latched” to my computer – I found myself loosing ground on the “Why” I was working for myself instead of having a J.O.B.
The reason I am self-employed is – NOT just because I want/need to make money (why else are we working?). It’s to help provide an income so my hubby can stop working so hard and we can enjoy our “senior” years together. I know – it’s still about making money, but I want you to think about WHY you need the money.
I’m not talking about the idea that you NEED to put food on the table, pay the light bill or get out of debt. Those are “anxious” reasons and you could do a ton of things to make money for those reasons.
I’m talking about WHY do you want to be self-employed and work from home? Why? What is it deep inside that drives you?
Now – Think About The Parts
You know that every year (usually twice a year) I “think” about my business “Parts”… and do a clean up / clean out of income streams that don’t make sense.
In short – In the past I looked at every single “Part” and analyzed it to death. Picked at it like a scab.
This year I just didn’t have the energy to do that… so I just sat back and looked at all the parts “emotionally”. Was I excited about something within those parts? Did they make me proud or happy? etc.
I know – this is not a “real” business plan… It’s just life talking to me.
I had to take the emotional part – AND – look at it as a “cold hard facts”. Not easy to do!
I talked about this in length here: Dump The Bath Water and Keep The Babies
I’m still in the process of the Big Cuts. Today I started thinking (again) about the WHY of each of those parts of my business I want to keep or slash.
Do You Have Too Much On Your Plate?
Do you have 10 – 20 – or over 100 blogs you are trying to juggle? Why? Many of us wanted to “capture” our piece of internet real estate and earn money from each of them.
Do you have an Amazon FBA business that is filled with “so-so” inventory – are you going after the quick nickle instead of the slow dime?
Do you have Information Products that you sell – and those products are outdated or just not that “good”?
Do you have a PLR income stream that is all set up (on several blogs) and yet you can’t “make” yourself market it or add new packs on a regular basis?
You may have several (many several) other income streams that are not making enough money to keep them – and yet if you could just find the time you know they would be little gold mines?
You guessed it… these are all on my plate – and more. I’m still working on “dumping” the stuff I do that is “working harder – not smarter”… or at least working on “the good stuff”.
Not to Big And Not to Small
Everyone and every business is different. I want mine to be filled with the things I love to do… and am happy to work on – Often. I want a business that is Big enough (in all it’s parts and pieces) to fulfill my “Why”… and not one bit more.
I “Need” to feel that I can “get ‘er all done” without working like a dog every day for hours and hours.
I want my “to-do” list to be as short/sweet as possible.
How about you… do you have your “Why” figured out?
“The money is made in the sourcing, not the shipping”… Always Be Sourcing!
Click on the Magnifying Glass==>>
Yes, so true Debra! Once you get under that feeling of overwhelm, it seems the joy gets sucked out of the things you once enjoyed doing.
This is definitely time to remember that old cliche and stop to take time to smell the daisies so you can refocus and rededicate yourself to doing the things that truly matter and make the difference.
Hey Stew….
It would be great to smell the daisies more often… right now it’s just great to feel like I have control!
Confirmed!
The question is, are you confirming what I (and other) have come to realize? Or I am (and others) confirming what you have come to realize. As a person very much into Law of Attraction, this is just further proof for me that ‘birds of a feather really DO flock together.’
I’ve done a MAJOR decluttering of my business/work routine. So far in the first couple of weeks I’ve got more done than in the last 6 months of 2011 COMBINED! I am out of the proverbial ‘mud’; no longer spinning my wheels; revving up the engine until it burns out but getting NOWHERE!
I’ve identified 5 parts of my weekly process and I’ve assigned one day per week to DO that ONE PART, sort of like a production line. One day I’ll write articles; the next day I’ll post them to my blog and article sites; the next day I record for podcasts; the 4th day I make slides; the 5th day I create videos. Now I’ve got MULTIPLE PRODUCTS!
WHY do I work for myself? I’ve been self-employed for 33 years – recently I started working from home. I CAN NOT, WILL NOT work any other way. It’s called FREEDOM.
Hey, I’ll work (I have to do SOMETHING) until the day I die. Currently I can get all my work done in about 4 hours, 5 days a week. That’s PLENTY of time to ‘smell the roses’.
I think people are just waking up and realizing the insanity they’ve got themselves into. It’s 2012 people… wake up and shake up! 🙂
All the best from Toronto,
Russ
http://www.myfunonlinebusiness.com/blog
one more thing… I recently found a new wallpaper for my computer desktop which says, “I can do ANYTHING; I just can’t do EVERYTHING” How appropriate is that?
Russ… I love love love the wallpaper quote!
I was reading your comment and nodding my head… until I got to the part “I can get all my work done in about 4 hours, 5 days a week.” LOL… If only I could do that! That’s a new goal I’ll have to work on.
Thanks for sharing…
Debra,
WOW! Such a simple question, Why? Every child asks it daily, yet we adults seem to avoid asking it. I really can identify with your “why”. I want the same for my spouse. I am retired and will be gone long before she is even able to retire. My “why” is to do what is necessary to change our current picture to one where we are both retired NOW!
Ken… get her retired NOW! It will be the biggest blessing in both your lives.
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Debra,
You made one of the mistakes described in ezinearticles’ “2 Minute Approval Tips” series in your title. I don’t know if reading your article hasn’t a bad influence on my writing, that’s why.
Just try to change that if you want to keep me as your subscriber.
Bye.
Hi Monique…
I’m sorry if my spelling or punctuation or anything else bothers you…
One of things you must remember about blogs is that punctuation in titles is often not friendly with the search engines or RSS feeds or emails. Over the years I’ve found
that if I exclude punctuation in titles more people can find my helpful articles in the search engines (like Google).
Hope you will stick with me and not let a little bit (or a bunch in my case) of grammatical errors stop you from learning.
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No it doesn’t bother me. I remarked that only because I hazardly saw ezinearticles’ video about this stuff recently. Go ahead with adapting your posts to the search engines as long as you believe in it.
I think I could have written your post today! Why am I doing this? Several reasons. My hubby is a disabled vet, and we mostly live on his disability payment. The problem for me is that if something happens to him, I will only get about a third of it, not enough to live on. He’s has so many health issues that we can’t get life insurance for him (unless we want to pay $300 a month for a term policy!).
The second reason is that I want my freedom. I worked for years at jobs where people told me when to come in, when to leave, when to eat, when to go to the bathroom. I’m done with that.
The third reason is that there just aren’t that many jobs around here, unless you want a rewarding career as a line cook or server or bundle hauler for the newspaper.
Having already worked through one burnout where I walked away from IM for a couple of years, I’m finally learning to pace myself. The beauty of it was that I still had my passive income even though I wasn’t doing much online. Not a huge amount, mind you, but enough for us to do stuff we couldn’t have afforded otherwise.
I follow Tiffany Dow, too, and she rocks. Thanks to her, I’ve started a new blog. I’m also going to work on my poor neglected plr site this year, and I want to write some kindle ebooks too. I still need to set up a schedule so I know when I’ll be working on what, but it’s coming. Avoiding that feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it in is really important! Thanks for this post.
Darlene… thank you so much for sharing! Isn’t that passive income great? I have sites I didn’t update for over a year that are still earning income…go figure. lol
I started (just last week) to schedule just one day a week for working on specific tasks. Of course I have stuff scheduled every day of the week – Ha! But so far it’s been
great to take my to-do list and schedule it on a specific day and then not look at those tasks until that day. If the next day rolls around and I didn’t get yesterdays “stuff”
done – I just move it to the next scheduled day (unless it’s vital to get done asap).
For years I’ve had this weight on my shoulders that “everything” has to get done NOW! This year I’m taking a different approach – It get’s done when it get’s done.
This is not normal for most internet marketers (or any business) – so it might not work for everyone.
I’m happy to see you back in the saddle and working on new (and old) projects – and that you are re-energized and having fun!
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hi Debra
Yet more good common sense it seems to me that your thinking applies to all of us trying to take on to much ,or trying to get your product jusy perfect (it never gets finished thats me ) or getting to greedy and so ans so on??
Thanks for injecting a dose of realism into the internet marking game
why are me doing it ?? a million reasons
good luck this year
regards peter mcgrath
Hey Peter… yes, we all can have a million reasons for having a business, yet their is usually ONE big one that bubbles to the top. Keeping that ONE big reason “top of mind” is
what motivates me when I need a quick “boot in the seat” to get back in the game.
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