One Stop Web Support Newsletter #70

August 24, 2008

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One Stop Web Support Newsletter #70

Jeff Baas - One Stop Web Support

http://www.OneStopWebSupport.com/

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One of the biggest killers of online businesses are when their owners come into the online business world with unrealistic expectations.

So this week we'll start a four-part series on the realities of starting an online business and what to expect. The first one is about planning the time you need to work at starting your business and getting it where you want it to be.

The Reality of Starting a Business Online -- Part I -- expect to work

Sipping mai-tais on your own tropical island while your internet business pours thousands of dollars a day into your bank account. Is that the vision that led you into online business?

Sorry to disappoint you, but online business doesn't work that way. Granted, some online business owners have achieved that lifestyle. But it doesn't come automatically the instant you press the button to publish your first website.

Those results came from lots of hard work.

When you start an online business, you need to expect to work and work hard at it.

Balancing your business with your life

Adding a new business to what is probably already an overstuffed schedule will be challenging. Some people choose to replace most of their TV time or Internet-surfing time with working on their business. Others create additional time for themselves by finding ways to work more efficiently.

Look for ways to carve out uninterrupted time for yourself. Let your time working on your business be just as focused and productive as your time at your regular job.

Wait, cancel that. Make your starting-your-own-business time be even MORE productive than your job time!

Overcome your bad habits instead of hiding them

When you work for somebody else, it's easy to hide your bad habits. Your work is only a single piece of a much larger puzzle. If your work isn't quite up to par, somebody else's work likely will cover up what you could have done better.

When you're working for yourself. YOUR WORK IS THE WHOLE PUZZLE.

Nobody else's work will cover for the places where you have learned you can get away with bad habits. Your work stands alone.

If you drift along without a clear focus on what it takes to build your business, no one will carry the ball for you. You will simply wander aimlessly and your business will get nowhere.

If you procrastinate when faced with unfamiliar challenges, nobody checks up on you and pushes you along. The work doesn't get done and your business doesn't grow.

If you try to get away with mediocre work, nobody points it out to you. You simply don't get paid.

In short, you sabotage your own dreams.

Embrace the new challenges you face. Strive always to do what you do the best you can do it. Making your dreams reality depends on you being as much of a taskmaster to yourself as any boss you've ever had has been to you.

Doing more work instead of less

I congratulate the business owners who flaunt their tropical lifestyle as they try to sell you their business system. Be aware, though, that they EARNED that lifestyle with hard work and perseverence on the front end.

It will mean doing more work instead of less while you ramp up your business to replace your regular income. It will mean using some of your precious free time right now with the goal of opening up more free time in the future. It will mean becoming MORE driven instead of less.

But the work you do now is a necessary step in reaching your goal—whether that goal is a private island, or being your own boss, or simply doing work every day that you really enjoy.

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Q and A with Jeff

In this section, Jeff answers your questions about starting a business online. Here's this week's question.

Can I build a business completely for free?

You know that old saying, "You get what you pay for?" When it comes to building a business, I guess that means that if you pay nothing to build your business, you get...

Well, you get my point.

I've known a number of people who were determined to build a business without paying a cent for anything—free hosting, free site-builder, nothing but free promotion in free search engines and free directories.

I've seen these people eventually go in different directions:

• Some continue to pay nothing and sit around griping about how they're not making any sales
• Others discard their goal of paying nothing and invest in their business to make it successful

Why free tools ultimately disappoint

It SEEMS like you should be able to make a go of it for free. After all, plenty of information about building a business exists online. Plenty of free tools exist, as well. Usually, though, those free tools are designed to be intentionally lacking.

Companies design free tools to attract the hordes of people who search specifically for a free way to build a business. They hope to get searchers using those tools so they can sort out the dreamers from those who want to build a real business.

The dreamers stick with the free tools, get poor results, and eventually wander off in search of the next get-rich-quick scheme. Those who are serious about building a business eventually recognize the inadequacy of the free tools and pay for a more professional—and more expensive—upgrade.

Planning a small investment for big results

That's not to say you have to put yourself in massive debt to start a business. Some pretty comprehensive options are available to help you research, build, and promote a website for only a couple hundred dollars. Anyone who is serious about building a business can recoup that amount pretty quickly.

SiteBuildIt!, for example, walks you through all the steps of building a SUCCESSFUL business as you research, build, and promote your site on their tools. And I stress the word SUCCESSFUL because they have a long history of users who were complete beginners at online business creating sites that rank in the top 1% of most popular sites on the web.

Another promising new arrival on the site-building/business-training tools scene also is available. BeBiz provides a little less training than SiteBuildIt!, but it, too, walks you through how to set up a successful business online with a more simple interface. And if you're strapped for cash, it lets you pay on a monthly basis instead of paying a whole year up front.

What you lose by always opting for free

Yes, both of them cost. But consider what you lose by stumbling around, trying to put together the tools and the training both of them give you. You can invest a bit of money and get your site up and earning you money in as little as a week. Or you can stumble around for months or years and make no money whatsoever while you struggle to gather everything for free that either tool puts right at your fingertips.

I look at trying to put together an online business without investing a little money in it as nothing more than a hobby, an attempt to pass a little time by taking on an interesting challenge.

There's nothing wrong with taking on a challenge like this. You certainly will learn. But if you goal is something more than just an interesting pastime and a little bit of learning, you'll eventually want to work with some tools that enable you to get your business going down a successful road instead of always spinning your wheels.

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HOTTEST OFFERS

Each issue, I feature what I consider the best offers available each week on worthwhile business-building tools. Check here to see what's hot this week.

http://www.OneStopWebSupport.com/hot-offers.htm

Or check to see my growing selection of ebooks and training tools that you can use for free to build your Internet business.

Free Ebooks:

http://www.OneStopWebSupport.com/dir-ebooks.htm

Free Training tools:

http://www.OneStopWebSupport.com/ongoing-bargains.htm

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Success quote

'The gold is not in the pot at the end of the rainbow, it is scattered along the path along the way. The pot is only there to lure you down the path…'

Mike Kemski

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This newsletter is published by One Stop Web Support, where our business is helping your business succeed.

http://www.OneStopWebSupport.com/

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