My good-o friend Peter Day sent me an email the other day that made me realized the 14 things I wish I knew when I started my online business.
I'm going to share with these 14 things that can change your life in an instant. Please place close attention as this content is super valuable and applying these things can improve your life style.
Ok ready for this high valuable online business secrets?
Here's 14 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My Online Business
1. Build Your List (#1 Asset). No excuses. Focus on this daily.
Hire someone to setup your opt-in box if needed. Yet whatever you do, make your email subscriber list your #1 priority. This is your NUMBER 1 asset when it comes to making money online.
You dream, fantasise of making "Push Button Money" - well, sorry to burst your bubble it takes a little work to get there and be like me :-)
You gotta be building your list. DAILY. If you are part of a home business, network marketing company - do NOT build their list. You need to build yours.
(This was one of the biggest mistakes I made in my business and it's cost me at least $20,000+ in lost sales.)
If you need a shortcut to building your list without learning how to, immediately - then go request your video to jumpstart your lead generation + cashflow...
Building an audience is faster and easier than ever before.
Thanks to email marketing and social media you can broadcast your message to thousands of people with a single click.
Anyone with an internet connection can now build an audience and grow their business faster than ever before.
Start building your audience, i have an amazing group - YOU of subscribers that i can communicate to daily, i add value to their lives, and I direct them to whatever i want them to.
Imagine that power, control and influence at the tiips of your fingertips.
You build an audience by adding value - I spend 30mins to 90 mins each day thinking, reflecting then pouring my heart out to write to YOU.
2. Seek Business Advise or Mentorship While Building Your Online Business
Lets face it, when you build an online business with the advise or mentorship of someone that already have created success, you pretty much shorten the your learning curve. Meaning, you will get faster results.
Trying to do everything your own can slow your growth and cause you wasted time.
3. Start outsourcing early on. Delegate. Delegate. Delegate.
Don't worry. I'm not talking about hiring a full-time VA. Not yet anyway.
But I want you to STOP doing all the stuff that you can outsource affordably on sites like Fiverr, oDesk, Microlancer, and PeoplePerHour.
Graphic Design. Ebook Covers. Audio Editing. Video Editing. Tech Stuff.
Setting up Your Membership Site. Setting up Aweber. You name it. Someone online can do it a LOT more affordably than you might think.
Don't waste time on the stuff that doesn't grow your business.
Hire people who are smarter than you, that are more efficient and have more expertise and can get things done faster.
Speed is important.
I practically DELEGATE every single thing, except of emailing my newsletter readers. I write to you PERSONALLY each and every day.
4. Spend 20% of your time learning. 80% of your time DOING.
Become a PRODUCER.
Not just a CONSUMER.
OK ?
The doing part is what grows your business. And what you'll find is that the best way to learn about business is just doing it.
Action trumps all. Action trumps you sitting there wasting time on silly facebook and twitter.
5. Growth ALWAYS lies OUTSIDE your comfort zone.
I used to dislike making videos - then i realized that the more videos i make the more money i make - to the tune of $10's of thousands of dollars per video...
Crazy - huh ? Well imagine I never did that - then look at how much money I would have lost...
6. Invest In Yourself More
Even when I had no money, I still begged and borrowed to get there...
I love investing in myself - to attend conferences, seminars, on average I invest around $7,000 PER year into my mind to make sure I am at the top of my game, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually in my business and in my personal life....
7. Stop worrying about what other people think.
The only people who are 'liked' by everyone are those who do nothing,
say nothing, and ultimately accomplish nothing. I'm at the point in my life where I really couldn't give about what anyone thinks of me...
I do - say - create - think whatever I want.
Don't let those that have no results dictate you and your future... I used to let my friends / uncles/ parents affect my bahaviour cos they would always make fun of me when I was trying to get rich on the internet...
If you feel like people aren't supporting you - cut them out of your life.
Love your family, choose your friends. I am your friend. :-)
Find / Create YOUR tribe of raving fans and serve them with massive value.
8. The easiest way to sell, make money, build a lucrative business is through email marketing.
Email kicks the crap out of everything else, I've now built a solid online Business and my foundation is email marketing.
It's a major shortcut that will allow you to build a six-figure online business WITHOUT becoming a world-class copywriter.
In fact - i've never even gone thru a complete e-mail copy course, thru daily writing to YOU i've honed certain formulas...
When you email your subscribers consistently each day with fun,personalized emails packed with value, lessons that you have learned,your own life challenges, successes, your students success...
...you become the real friend, a trusted authority, the expert, the guru that they follow, stalk, and buy stuff you recommend.
They will happily buy from you based on the RELATIONSHIP that you've built with them. The money is not in the list, the money is in the RELATIONSHIP you have with them...
The value that you've provided, how you make em feel is the asset.
EACH and every day i ask myself - what is the MOST Valuable thing i can share with you, then i write it. It takes 30-90 mins to write each day. Then I hit send.
Each e-mail broadcast, i send out to my list is worth around $1,000 + per day - to me...
And guess what ? My list is actually way smaller than most of the biggest "names" in the marketplace...
9. Provide 10-20x More Value than you charge.
My buddies Mike Dillard and Daegan Smith have taught me this well and constantly remind me that you have to provide 10-20x more value than you price your products and services.
I've done that and created "6-Figure Offers" on the "fly".... One of my last businesses i took from ZERO to $100,000 in less than 18 months and it's because i always ask myself ---
How can i make the person who is buying my product or service feel like this is the best offer they ever got! Master creating irresistible Offers and you will write your own paycheck for LIFE!
Even when a new subscriber or member joins my team - I have my Marketing Coach who is a 6 Figure Earner - success story to help new members get started the correct & profitable way.
10. Email your subscribers 1-3-5 times per week. I email daily.
You open them, read them, take action and buy stuff i recommend.
I teach you, to email daily. I write daily, so you can get into the habit of writing daily.
Think about this, you have a BEST FRIEND or a FAMILY member - do you like talking to them for few mins each day ?
Of course you do, i certainly do - i may know hundreds of people, but there's a handful of people i like communicating, emailing, texting, skyping, fb-ing, each day...
Email is like talk radio. People will tune in each day if you educate, inspire, and entertain. This is how you build your fan base / your following / your tribe.
I know my e-mail is super-uber-responsive because I talk in a way which adds value, I am their friend, trusted advisor and teacher.
This proves my e-mails work, on top of that - the daily revenue that my business produces EMPHASISES how I write - my emails turn into money...
Each day I keep a close eye on the numbers and at the time of writing this you can see - these are daily numbers - sales - profits that i get notified DAILY on my emails...
When you can create money out of thin air like this.
It's all possible - don't quit. Don't stop.
Turning one-off visitors into leads who become RAVING fans and then loyal, raving BUYERS.
Because of this - one of my highest paid clients has spent over $26,000 with me. Think about how powerful and effective that is....
My Strategy : Build Your List Daily. Email Your List Daily.
(I sometimes email 6-7 times per week~) mostly it's 5-6 days per week, people unsubscribe and that's ok too - I rather have less people that are more higher quality than just mass numbers.
And i view it as their loss when they unsubscribe - you shouldn't let unsubscribes or complaints hold you back - build your biz, build your tribe. Get that money. it's there. So DO IT :-)
11. Paid Advertising is the FASTEST way to grow your business.
When I started out and didn't have much money I wasted a lot of time on twitter and facebook, i should have found the resources to invest and master paid traffic...
Ultimately Paid Traffic - helped me make my first $100,000 in sales at 21 years old.
Paid traffic is the fastest-scalable-most-predictable for you to ca$h in.
If I were to start all over today, I would use SoloAds & PPC & maybe another 1-2 to rapidly grow my subscriber list, amplify my content, and sell more products and services..
Right now - my business is built on paid traffic which means each and every month i make consistent income - just last 6 months i've averaged over $5,000 per month in revenue - ..
It's NOT relied on Google, Facebook, Calling Cold Leads or Blogging, or SEO - simply me and my e-mail list.
12. The Power Of Simplification.
Simply everything. Your business model. Your products. Your home-biz.
Your blog. Your payment system. Everything.
I used to want to do local marketing, then niche sites, then software creation, and a whole bunch of other stuff...
Now i stick to what I've mastered.
Home Business, Driving Traffic and High-End Workshops.
The more simple something is - the more easily you can scale it, granted it does get complicated, now i want to build a $1.5 million company in the next 3-5 years and now i have to become "corporate" xyz lol.
Sounds icky-sucky - but i'm gonna embrace it.
A lifestyle business can get you to a few million dollars - so simplify.
13. Focus.
Then FOCUS. FOCUS.
This is the secret sauce behind every successful entrepreneur. When i stopped chasing 10 different ways to make money, and focused on 1-3 - that's when i really hit it off..
Some people join 5-10 different home businesses rather than joining one or two and ACTUALLY making them work.
Focus in chunks of 20mins - 45 mins. Use a timer. Close the door.
Go to starbucks. Get some quiet time. OR listen to some YouTube calm music with headphones and ZONE OUT.
If you are all over the place - then focus. And tell yourself :
I AM A GENIUS - I FOCUS AT WILL.
That's another one of my sayings :-)
14. And most importantly... HAVE FUN.
As much as i want to make $1.5 million and yada yada yada, i know deep down the real success is embracing the journey - going thru the challenges, going thru the ups and downs, learning, growing, adding value, stretching yourself to go to the next level....
That's why even now - i don't always take things seriously lol. You gotta smile, enjoy, live life as it's meant to be lived.
Life is NOT about being overwhlmed and stuck and working for someone you hate, really - it's not.
Yes - you want to make a fortune - but remember the journey makes you who you are.
Be grateful.
Intention is key, maybe another topic for another day.
From the heart,
Michael De La Cruz
P.S. If you are completely lost as how to make money online - then you need this if you don't have it: http://www.incomejumpstartapply.com