Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

Recently I was the willing target of several audio interviews. The topic of course, was blogging, however as is customary, most interviews begin with a little background study of the person in question.

As a result of telling my recent business history I found myself reminiscing about some of the ventures I was involved in during the previous 8 years or so. Most of them were online enterprises, but there was one experience where I was running a start-up based in the real world, an English tutoring school called “Aussie Tutor”.

If you dig into my earlier archives you will find several posts and podcasts were I mentioned my English school. It was an interesting time in my life, which taught me many lessons about business and in particular what I want from a business and what I don’t want.

Working 9 to 5 by Choice

While in charge of my school I came to fully realize what I had always known - I do not like having to be anywhere nine-to-five, five days a week.

Before I avoided a full time job specifically because of not wanting to be anywhere for such long periods of time to work for someone else. Not surprisingly, despite working for myself, I still did not like that I had to be somewhere during working hours.

Unfortunately, as a business with a physical premises, the English school demanded my presence every day unless I was willing to forgo any possible patronage that might walk in off the street. Ironically, despite my immaculate attendance, many days my English school was empty and I spent the time working online.

It didn’t take long for me to realize, despite my passion for the idea and my entrepreneurial spirit, my tutoring service was not going to work unless I made a significant commitment to it. I would need to either shut it down, or invest money and time and treat it like a true start-up.

At the time I had a growing Internet based business demanding my attention that was profitable (BetterEdit - an online proofreading service I sold in 2007). It wasn’t too hard to decide what to do next. I closed down Aussie Tutor, broke my lease and went back to working at home.

A Web Based Life

I am very thankful that I grew up during a period where the Internet also grew up. My very first casual job was web based (crafting websites for the business school at university) and my very first self created income stream came from the Internet too.

I can’t remember what life was like before the Internet, but I know it wasn’t nearly as good as it is now.

Tomorrow I hop on a plane and fly to Fiji. I’ll be there for 5 days before I board another plane where I’ll head to Hawaii. I’ll spend a week in the land of aloha, before jumping on another flight, this time to Vancouver, where a week of fun awaits. I’ll then make a short flight to Winnipeg, visit my grandmother, before settling in Toronto for 5 months. I intend to visit the USA for conferences and other fun things during my time in Canada too.

In Fiji I will be in a hotel but during the rest of my travels I’m staying in rented apartments with kitchens, private double beds and all the usual trimmings, at two thirds the price of equivalent standard hotels (I’m practicing a little 4-Hour Work Week accommodation hunting). I’ll have ample time and funds to do what I want and it’s all thanks to the World Wide Web. There’s not many occupations today that grant you this much freedom.

Ever present during this trip will be my laptop. My computer that connects me to the online world will serve as a communication tool to keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. I’ll blog, create content, work on products, market, network and effectively live a very similar life to what I usually do at home in Brisbane.

The scenery might change, but the purpose and lifestyle doesn’t - and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Live the Stereotype - Laptop on the Beach

We all know the archetypical image of the entrepreneur sitting on the beach with their laptop, logging on to check how much money they made during the previous night and then settling back to a day full of sun, sand and sleep - a perpetual holiday.

I’ve already written about my disdain for the traditional non-working holiday, however the gist of the laptop on the beach image is definitely something I appreciate because it represents fantastic freedom. A business that can function - and even grow - despite your absence or location in the world, and the freedom to choose when to work, how to work and what to work on, is a great business.

This is a far cry from waking up at 8am to open the doors to a 3rd floor English tutoring school.

How To Build a Framework for Life Portability

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Like most people, some mornings I wake up and feel less than enthusiastic about working. Sometimes, this feeling doesn’t stem from laziness or apathy, it’s a stronger power, a sense of futility and helplessness.

I know a lot of people look to my story of success as a source of inspiration and that is one of the greatest benefits I enjoy as a blogger, but - and I’m not afraid to admit it - I don’t always feel energized to pursue business and sometimes in my darkest moments, I even consider throwing in the towel.

This feeling is not so common for me now as I have lifestyle flexibility, a more stable income and a better mindset about work, but earlier on, it definitely was a problem. I want to explain how I overcome these moments (and still do the same thing now on occasion) to stay on track and how you can even have a productive day when you are not really feeling the mojo on the inside.

I expect you have felt similar feelings of despair or a lack of motivation at different stages of your business development, especially if you are yet to establish an income stream online that is sufficient for you to live off, or if you are right at the beginning and you have not seen one cent of return for the work you have put in.

Inspired or Dejected

Depending on your world view and personality style, when you hear of the success of others you may either feel inspired or dejected, and while it’s obviously more fruitful to look at other people achieving what you desire as motivation, as a fallible human, jealousy, depression and anger may be your initial responses.

Your mind is your greatest asset for success in business, but it can be just as strong a force of hindrance, sabotaging your efforts, destroying your work ethic and leaving you with no option but to return to the soul destroying job you promised yourself that you would never go back to.

How To Work When You Don’t Feel Like It

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I’m presently sitting in a cafe called the Gelato Bar, which apparently has been here at Bondi Beach (Sydney) since 1958. If you have ever been to Bondi it’s the cafe with all the amazing cakes in the window…

Hmm…cake. This was a traditional eastern European eatery - they even had borsch (ech!)

I’m in Sydney for three days for a short holiday and of course my holidays always include some blogging, so here I am typing away.

I popped into the World Internet Summit to catch the beginning of the event, where the first few speakers were talking about forming a vision for what you want your life to be like, with a successful Internet business granting you a fantastic lifestyle that most ‘normal’ people only dream about.

I’m not staying at the summit for the full four days this time, I have another workshop on this weekend back in Brisbane and frankly I don’t think I could take four days of presentations on various methods to make money on the Internet. It’s just a bit much.

The networking at events like the summit make it worth while and that’s the only thing I feel like I am missing out on by leaving early. I was only there today for about an hour and talked to three people, including one of my blogging students (hi Corinne!). It’s amazing how good it is to be in a room full of people with shared goals and aspirations, along with various experts who are presenting on stage.

Make The Decision To Do Something

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These tips will make you a better human being in my opinion, but you have to stay on topic, so let’s focus on business.

Over the past few months I’ve experimented with some lifestyle changes. Not all of these changes were specifically about improving my business or working life, but they have enabled me to become more efficient at what I do during the day with my work. I suspect they will have a similar effect on you if you do them too.

Some of these tips, at least on the surface, might seem a bit dramatic to some people, others will laugh and say they have been doing these things for years. Either way, please read this advice with a mindset of how you could possibly implement them to help your life and your business.

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Here’s a challenging question to ask yourself - If you didn’t need money, what would you fill your days with?

I’m not saying that you imagine you are super wealthy, at least not from a financial standpoint - but you are from a time freedom standpoint.

You can do anything you want with your days and you don’t need to worry about making money.

Some people would say they would go on a never ending stream of holidays. Others might claim a desire to “do nothing”, which I always find silly - how can you do nothing?

I’ve often asked myself, would I do what I do without there being a monetary incentive? Would I keep blogging, teaching and writing?

It’s actually quite hard to answer this question because the financial reward is so tightly tied into the motivation. It’s not the only reason, but it’s a strong factor. You enjoy the process, the intrinsic rewards, the people you connect with, but given how our society is structured, money is ALWAYS a factor, it’s part of our culture and our value system.

It’s scary to think that. Money is a part of us.

What Would You Do If All You Cared About Was Money?

Here’s the opposite question. If all you cared about was earning as much money as you can, what would you do?

Blogging is definitely not the best choice if you only care about the money. Compared to other means of building wealth, blogging is slow, the points of leverage aren’t nearly as strong as other methods and let’s face it - it’s hard work to be a blogger.

If I only cared about the money, perhaps Pay Per Click marketing affiliate products is a better choice? Or as I’ve said before, I’d probably spend my time just buying and selling websites, since the return is much higher given the effort required.

I’m pretty sure I’d be doing Internet business of some kind if I was going to focus on financial wealth only, but blogging would not be the first choice.

It’s Not Black and White

Ultimately this question is challenging because at the root of it is the fundamental question about your purpose in life.

Many people have different beliefs about why they exist but I don’t know many people who would say their purpose is to accumulate as much money as they can, yet that seems to be the driving factor for most of us in Western cultures.

So…what would you do if money did not matter?

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