Resources and Summary: WordPress styled websites…and a lot of reflection on the grind of working on your business and/vs. in your business.
jan 24th night
created a contacts group in Gmail of people i’ve reached out to and who have showed interest in my relaunch and helping. they’ve all replied and given me good feedback. gotta use that as fuel and pump everything out now…make sure to give my work to them free, and follow up so can return the favor…
capture who interacts with you, treat them well.
feb 3rd
still recovering from a horrible flu and can’t remember when i last had a good work rhythm. time to get back on the horse.
i’ve realized the despite my best efforts, after looking at my e-mail i’m actually still carrying on many more mini projects or requests than i thought i was while “tricking” myself into thinking i was working mostly on IT Arsenal.
in reality…
- i just fixed the paypal shopping cart for city2gourmet
- made several small changes to wellsreversemortgagesite
- updated memoryphotoblocks.com
- made notes for hdtestvideo.com
- answered several questions and done database dump.sql reloads for touchhomeent.com
- made a few revisions of price changes for jaiyoga.net
- answered e-mails and made tweaks to braziliantechnicaltraining.com
…this is anything but focused on one project. i hope the weight of writing those out made it obviousness i’m still trading too much time for money and while these things aren’t bad in of themselves, come at the cost of building business brand and assets.
as i get back into the swing of work, i’ll bring a closer scrutinization of how my time is spent. i’m killing myself with too much work, and not enough ground on any one thing.
don’t follow my lead, learn from it.
feb 4th
spending business time clearing out e-mail help requests that have piled up today. instead of seeing these as a burden, i really enjoy helping people make sense of the technical hurdles in front of them. that’s the whole point behind IT Arsenal, but doing so from the distinction of a business and not an individual, and that’s the point i need to drive into my head repeatedly.
i mean, this is getting ridiculous, i need to finish the main staples and foundations of the service products i want to offer so i don’t always feel like i’m waiting for something or i’m just hawking my skills.
one of the biggest hurdles i face in developing this solo business is moving beyond getting paid immediately for service, which i do well and have always done, and which IT work is naturally inclined to be and instead work on tangible materials to sell or use, or train and so on. solitary product businesses won’t have this hurdle. it’s for this reason why i’d probably recommend against starting your business as a blog in retrospect, or only doing so with deliberate product focus.
in order to feel like i can move forward (and have some sense of accomplishment), while having assets to rely on for new and current customers, i have to get through this, it was the whole point of making a big deal out of the relaunch.
the friction comes in the time and mental requirements of building, marketing, managing a business entity vs just saying sure i can do that, showing up, doing X, and getting paid.
this has been a lesson in everything i already know, and need to continue to drive home.
what a mess of a week with this flu, busy weekend with the fiance wedding planning ahead. somewhere in there e-mail will be cleared out, and some time locked away for a bit more progress on the relaunch.
Progress, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step. – Samuel Smiles
feb 7th
still dragging from this flu, sucks to be hit hard by a cold. internal work progress has slowed while outside clients seem to be banging in the door.
i’ve had to push off 2 offers for work until March sometime, and had to take 2 jobs for current/follow up work. work isn’t bad, it’s good…but it’s not building the internet system any quicker. starting these action reports have brought this to blinding light.
i’m simply stunned at how difficult it has been to get something up and running to sell and display my own wares in a scaleable professional manner.
i see the blogs and social networks barreling ahead without me and i’ve noticed a few things.
- i’m not being penalized for not reading everything
- the people that are active (commenting, posting, ect) who don’t have a sellable “item” of some sort are the ones engaging with the ones who do. which end do you want to be on? buying or selling?
- i can jump back in at anytime, and for the most part the relationships are not hurt with those i communicate with.
you can take on some purposeful silence from time to time in online circles and as long as you’re not neglecting people, the impact will be minimal. that’s a valuable aspect of online business and life.
i’m catching my breath and will make another stab this week at IT Arsenal developments
venture statuses
- hdtestvideo.com is still holding for more information to really be deemed useful, it’s not pressing but i have a growing document of potential affiliates to look for their programs and sign up.
- it’s pretty amazing how easy it is to become an affiliate for a product, usually all it takes is googling the product name + affiliate program. keeping an excel sheet with all my affiliate links is proving to be profitable. another clickbank check rolled in this month, for $93…they are small amounts, but truly passive, or front loaded and a testament to making money online.
- memoryphotoblocks.com has a site in progress building slowly. the next item is to draw up and mock a checkout process, and to test some advertising for how the product will sell.
reflection
the largest consistent hurdle with online business has been the coordination of large blocks of time for the items that need it. there are several systems and small communications that can be in motion while at coffee shops and in small talk, but the actual “buyable” elements and processes that make a business function require 4 hour chunks of focus and intent…and the cold fact is that it’s hard to “muster” these times unless you have entire days to give. cheers to the career renegades out there who are taking that path without moonlighting, but as you know i’m holding onto the dayjob for extra income and it’s convenience for life at hand right now.
on weather
a somewhat unrelated comment, but the flu, plus weeks and weeks of the cold, ice and snow here in philadelphia are absolutely mood effecting.
it was a bit easier in california, where it’s always sunny (and the atmosphere seems to bleed new ideas) to get motivated and into “create mode”. it could have been that i only worked for myself then, and could run outside whenever i wanted, but it’s been harder than usual to make progress lately. a fact that simply writing about, helps bury and move on.
keep soldering, here’s to future progress for everyone.
Photo by vramak