Being Smarter

We’re proud to announce our next online training course with Ed Dale called Starting from Scratch, which teaches you how to start a business with no money. This article gives you our thinking behind it.

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I’ve been in this online industry full time for about two years now and let me tell you one thing – it’s certainly not easy. It takes hours and hours of effort to be successful and so much of it is completely wasted, because you never know which hours are going to pay back.

I talk to a lot of people who are really interested in going it alone either online or in the ‘real world’ and the most common question is always how do you start a business with no money? People either have time or resources available to them and more often than not, it’s just time and very little capital. But that’s OK and it’s certainly not a reason not to start a business.

One of my mentors is a guy called Ed Dale. You may have heard of him – he runs a programme called The Thirty Day Challenge, which teaches you how to make your first $1 online. He is passionate about online marketing but he’s equally as passionate about helping people to start a business with no money. He calls his methodology ‘starting from scratch and has done it himself many times. I’ve enjoyed learning from him because he talks sense.

He has given me (at least) 5 valuable pieces of advice, which I’d like to share with you when it comes to starting from scratch in the online space.

1. Don’t give up your day job – Giving up the day job with a business plan (a what?!) and a standing start is guaranteed to see your savings disappear quickly. There’s a better way.  Spend the bare minimum on your day job, bring in your salary and then spend every other waking hour preparing foryour next move.
2. Today’s economic climate can be an advantage – 10 years ago, online marketing was easy. Cost per click was cheap and few people were in the online business. Today it’s much harder to succeed, yet the tools make your life easier if you know how to use them. You just need a laser guided focus and a will to succeed.
3. You need to build a bank of cash – When you start a business with no money, accept it isn’t going to be straight forward – you need to build a small bank of cash which can then go onto fund the bare essential tools you need to invest in, such as domain names and webhosting. There are a number of strategies for doing this whilst you’re still doing #1.
4. There is no excuse not to research your market – So many people start their business, create a product and then spend months trying to sell it without ever considering if there’s a market for it. With the Google Keyword tool and other tools such as Market Samurai, there is no excuse not to find out about the market place before you start… again making it so much easier to get the business off the ground without funding.
5. It’s not for everyone - Accept that when you start a business with no money it’s a huge uphill struggle. Unless you’re passionate about what you do, have the support of your family and friends, then you’re always going to struggle…

If you want to know more about how to start a business with no money, Ed’s course with The 8.45 Club is now live and will teach you how to start from scratch in the online marketing world. Click the link to see the first module for free! It’s a tried and tested philosophy as you’ll see from the two case studies within the course.

OK, I admit it, I’m obsessed with ‘taking action’… I’m not great at prevaricating… I perhaps don’t spend enough time thinking. However – it’s the best way to be.

Having worked in and with the corporate world for many years – it’s clear to see paralysis by lack of action is rife and it’s slowly killing these organisations.

A few years ago a good friend and colleague reminded me of Newton’s 3rd Law.

For every action, there’s an equal an opposite reaction.

Now, if you subscribe to this school of thought, you probably won’t get the reaction you were expecting, however you will get a reaction… maybe even not straight away, but you will.

I’m currently sitting in an appartment in Melbourne, working with a great bunch of folks for a few days and the reason I’m here is that I sent an email about 3 months ago. I didn’t think it would get answered, but I sent it anyway. I’ve sent plenty more that haven’t been answered, but this one did.

I’m about to be part of a three day conference in which 100+ people will gather for three days, watch (I know) some fabulous speakers and be given a ton of practical advice. How many of you/them will take action as a result of attending? And by that, I mean pick just 5% of the most relevant things you were taught and implement them the following week? I’m not sure? Some will, some won’t. Some actions maybe fruitful, some maybe not – but if you’re taking action, and gaining momentum, things WILL happen. Eventually.

So there we are then. What are you not going to put off today?

Monday mornings are always good for a pep talk. I’ve been talking to a few people about the concept of not giving up over the last few weeks and wanted to share a few thoughts, being someone who’s tried hard to persevere in a big way over the last couple of years.

I had to have a few words with my 6 year old son the other day about not giving up… teaching him to ride a bike has been quite an achievement for me – trying a few different tacks to keep his morale high, but judging when it was OK to let him fall off safely. My wife suggested I shouldn’t have let him fall off, however in my opinion, it was a great way to teach him the skill of perseverance.

There’s five tips I’d offer below to help with your perseverance efforts:

1. If you listen to everyone who offers you advice, the chances are you’d be paraylsed by non-action. Take advice, sure, but also have some belief in what it is you are trying to do. This will help you to get through difficult days.
2. Accept that some days aren’t going to go your way, dust yourself off, find that belief once again and remember that tomorrow is another day. If a trend of bad days starts to kick in – then it’s time to revist where you are heading.
3. Think outside the box. Always. There’s always a different way to tackle a problem you may be having. Don’t limit yourself to ‘going what you know’. It’s hard to persevere when you don’t do things differently, as you will always get the same result.
4. Ignore your gut feelings at your peril. Listen to your heart – it will really help you make decisions and decide if something is fundamentally wrong, or you just need to try a different approach.
5. The most brilliant people have got to where they are today with a good splash of perseverance. You may be shocked at how some of them started out. Watch the video below for inspiration if you need a bit of a lift….