Freedom Business: Platform, Product, Go Already

As last week zoomed by and I continued to plod along creating an online business from scratch I thought about what to share this week in my experiences. How can I give you value? Blogs and resources abound on how to start building a business throughout the interwebs, but I wasn’t interested in simply regurgitating a list and sending you on your way. I did enough list making in my last post categorizing over 100 different resources I’ve used since starting this project. You deserve the story behind the list, the things that create context and something to act on…and you’re going to get it.

I’ll keep in tune with what this project is all about, real life. We’ve established the feasibility of an idea and now we’re going to monetize it. The platform is explained below, a specific niche product has been identified, and the science of execution is at hand. The long road of business growth lies ahead, and here’s what it looks like.

Income Stage Recap (so far)

Initial niche research (blog post), and rules of entrance defined. I noted the importance of continuity and building a presence like a blog or homebase of some sort that could be molded and used to create an audience along side a single stand alone niche product. You already see this at %90 of the blogs you look at, hellooooo. Feasibility testing went into effect, Results (blog post) : I’m building an information product on backing up. A base has been formed to create followers, do what I love, and launch future products from, it’s a blog not un-similar to this called IT Arsenal. The websites and development tools used were explained along the way (blog post | resource list), and I continued to reach out to fellow lifestyle designers for advice, guest posts and side projects. Now, It’s time to become a salesman. Get over it. Build products, users, affiliates, love it and succeed with it.

Reflections

The most difficult: Executing. Staying in a zone to build something that will directly effect my wallet instead of being lost in the sea of opportunity or other people’s opportunity (twitter feeds, blogs, “research”). The struggle isn’t what to do, or where to start, it’s making the sacrifices, streamlining life, and just getting to work. I’ve taken all too long to really be in the trenches of product creation.

The most invigorating: People are incredibly willing to help. Success wants company. Seek out critiques, mentors and business opportunities to try later, remember…relationships are fuel. Thank you Jon for copywriting, Bobby for being a sounding board, Greg for filling a mentor roll, David for sharing fierce determination, and so many more!

The most unexpected: Receiving residual checks….and I haven’t launched any sort of product yet, so receiving just about $1000 since starting the LDP and moving into the creating income stage has been enthralling. Earning your first couple dollars while asleep gets you hungry for more. If you are wondering, I’ve made that income through trying out great resources along my journey and then earnestly recommending them with affiliate links scattered throughout this blog. I haven’t intended to make income until about a month ago.

The most assuring: The growing confidence that this is all too possible and real. You can’t really tell who is just pushing words around out there and who is actually living it.

Under the Hood

These may not be surprising, they may be downright boring to some. The devil is in the details though.

Platforms in Use

Web Presence – A WordPress blog, a domain name, and webspace from GoDaddy. I used a modified free theme called Primepress, and plugins you can see a list of here. I’ve learned my way around these items but they are easily outsourced or self educated. You can drop me a line anytime for advice. The context of my freedom business site is a hybrid service and blog website to solve IT problems for a targeted niche group of freelancers, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and so on, which will be a perfect playground for a majority of my niche products in addition to it being my passion. Additionally, the mock salespage expands my web presence which is just a CSS templated HTML file, it wasn’t generated by a program. I want nothing more than good feedback and presence right now, I want fans, so doing everything to love every visitor to your site is key. I’m giving away my IT advice I’d typically charge consulting rates of $50+ an hour for. Slow growth now for big things later. I’m a day or two away from settling with the structure of the site and focusing on content.

Note: Developing the web presence platform along with a product has been a challenge, but it’s fulfilling as I’m creating something that’s visibly sustainable. According to the feedback of experienced digital salesmen, having an existing audience is a massive advantage to selling anything, duh.

Marketing/Social Outreach/Conversation (or fan building as it may as well be called in this new age) – Twitter, Facebook, business contests, contacting friends who have businesses and offering cross promotions. E-mail marketing platforms like Mailchimp for your salespages and web presence newsletter. Your avenues will vary depending on niche, find your ideal users, talk to them. It’s the lifeblood of products and building an audience. It feels weird at first to push out links going back to your content. It’s not wrong, or cheap, people won’t come to you if you don’t ask. I’ve done it here, and have started to do the same with my freedom business. It’s imperative to make this your living room, it’s the new backbone of one man businesses. You need to hunt down every forum, press release, website ect. where you can respectably find people who need what you have, and talk to them. Read Crush it by Gary Vaynerchuck to hammer this point home. We’ll cover this in detail going forward. I’ve composed a list of relevant competitors, forums and an offside traffic creation workflow that I need to start acting on for IT Arsenal. The workflow will be online in a future post when I have it down.

Sales – I’m not selling anything just yet except for hourly services, which I charge with BillingBoss. We’ve already brushed up on E-Junkie during feasibility testing so when the time comes we’ll be able to sell information products rapidly.

Product in Development

Creation – Microsoft Word or the much preferred Apple Pages does a great job here. I’m sure this will be expounded on as we hit other products, but for starters we’re dealing with an information based guide in the form of an ebook with accompanying online sources. Imagery has been created via an eLance designer, including logo work or swipe files for distribution when it’s ready to sell, a majority of this was already covered in feasibility tests also. The actual product creation is much easier than the other elements of creating a freedom business. Executing is the hard part. Backup Informer is roughly half way done. I’m finding the challenge is to sit down in blocks and get this done. Creating a product, or forming the outline of one is not something that can be done in 30 minute or even 60 minute intervals, you need to grapple with it for a few hours.

Research – I’m surveying friends, creating forms with Google Docs to shoot out on Twitter, and asking for reviews along the way. Ask for help, everyone great has great people behind them.

I’m going to say that the following ideas are really nothing I should be spending time on, I should finish my current product. Ok, having said that, I find find myself spending time on an amazing potential product for distributing workflows to the small business, freelance, and entrepreneur masses, a lifestyle design timeline, and a “scheme” of sorts involving buying lots of domain names.

Focus

We all struggle with it. It may be because you’re disorganized, or maybe too ambitious and have 10 projects you’re working on right now. Life might just be handing you lemons. Staying focused is a task in it of itself and lends to be being much more personal problem to tackle. I know for myself, I’ve been sabotaging my sleep and spreading myself too thin. We’ve covered how to tackle focus, reboot your brain and get on task!

The awesome thing about lifestyle design is the stages prior to trying to tackle creating income online dutifully expounds tactics on staying focused and being efficient and effective. As much as I get sidetracked, I have the mental tools to pull myself back in and try again.

Life Logistics if You’re Interested

Hours - I typically moonlight 2-4 hours about 3 days a week after work and keep up with communication and non-block needing tasks during the work day. I say I’m going to get in a few hours every night of the week, but it just doesn’t happen. I keep weekends off-limits right now, because the toll of the workweek unfortunately still inflicts the need for recovery time. What a sucky work system we have. Otherwise I do actually have good chucks of flex time as I’ve started batching almost all the menial tasks of life like cleaning, cooking, and laundry. The day to day nonsense just isn’t there. My finances are automated but analyzed every two weeks, and most goods I buy online.

Social Invasion – I talk about my experiences to my friends now, I’ve bridged the gap and made it public. I’m a weirdo. I want to run a business that liberates me from a 9-5, to which I explain how I leverage my current job for getting out of it eventually  (isn’t is bizarre to even think of “after work” at age 25?), I spend large chunks of time online interacting with people I’ve never seen so I can one day interact with a drink waitress in a foreign country as a regular excursion. I openly offer advice or talk about my niche ideas to people who are almost always interested but will never really get it or leave their traditional mindsets. I often embellish how possible it is and exaggerate the point that people are making thousands and thousands off the most simple concepts like selling information books, or reprogramming GPS units to have MR T’s voice. I don’t like that I do it, but it almost always comes out this way for some reason. People now come to me with every business idea they think will magically earn them a million dollars, all they want is %10.

Entertainment – Thank goodness for Hulu and the new mediums of downloading and ripping content. I don’t give myself much time to “waste”, so when I want to watch Community, Galactica, Lost, and Chuck, read books or blow something up on my Wii or PS3 I do it on my own schedule, which is unfortunately sparingly as I grew up a gamer. If anyone is interested in making a media center out of a computer hooked up to a tv, I have some deep knowledge.

Giving – Its in my core being to give. It fuels me, so I often incorporate this into my week with some physical representation (I’m giving blood tonight) or my freedom business itself as it’s based on a concept of giving. Sometimes this impacts the hours I put into creating real income, sometimes it doesn’t. I try to value giving more so than creating a business, it sounds cheesy, but giving has a sustaining trait to it that marketing and building a product simply doesn’t.

GO.

I can see a hand in front of my face, obscuring my vision, life is attempting to destroy my future of freedom. The pieces are visible, but they seem blurry. All I need to do is sit down and write out my master set of documents on backing up right? The literal task of creating a business isn’t impossible, it’s rather simple actually. I’m sure there’s a call for my product, a market, the ability for me to live off this idea or open doorways to success, it’s all just a bunch of processes isn’t it?…yet…life wants to destroy this reality. There will always be something…I need to find a new roomate, buy a car, watch the latest episode of Community, manage 1000 9-5 work breakdowns (which numbs my brain afterwork), I’m concerned about my fitness, distracted by the beautiful weather, etcetera….how do you just execute? SHUT THE F UP AND GET IT DONE Robert, that’s how.

You won’t make it unless you don’t hustle. It’s not sexy. It’s the sweat, the drive, the systems, that “something” that so many entrepreneurs talk about. It can be honed and developed, but you have to choose it.

The GO part is so challenging, and yet so simple. Your excuses are blocking a better future for yourself. I, just like anyone, struggle immensely with just doing, conjuring up passion everyday…executing. Keep on keeping on, continue to go. Famous words from Joe Dirt (a horrible yet funny movie), “You can’t have no in your heart.”

Rambling aside, I’m finally building business and let me tell you, it’s exciting and it’s exhausting. I’ve never wanted to accomplish more, or been torn in more directions. Project prioritizing is so important. Avoiding information suck and chasing opportunities like a dog to cars also comes to mind. I find myself well equipped though…why? because of the journey to this point, because of each of these blog posts and previous stages of lifestyle design. The growth experience often gets glossed over or skipped to focus on tools, or case studies of others who have already hustled their way into thousands of dollars a month from online endeavors. We typically see the end product that gets reverse explained instead of the original growth path. I’ve been caught there before. Don’t focus on others end products, focus on the journey.

What’s Next

Growth! We’ll breakdown how to create an audience and I’ll bring you through the product launch as it happens over at IT Arsenal. I imagine this is going to be a long long road. I assure you we’ll get more technical with WordPress plugins, product creation, social media tactics, and distribution. I promise not to get stale here as I know other sites cover similar topics, the posts will hopefully shrink in size, but grow in value. I may skip a week here and there while creating an actual freedom business. I’ll be as available as ever through e-mail and the good old contact page.

What do you think? Where are you at? Did you like the video intro? Leave a comment.

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