Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Day 5 of 14-Day Challenge
As I feared, the other responsibilities I had scheduled for today ate up the whole thing. Sunday looks bleak for progress, too, with yet another day scheduled to the brim with other responsibilities.

The only consolation I can take with these past two days of little progress is that by the time I clear up all these things by end of day Sunday, I'll have a week's schedule with very few slots filled. That bodes well for putting on a big push in the final week.

The nearly completed info product will easily be done by then. Setting up the marketing mechanisms will be the main challenge.

I'm learning, so far, how many things I would have been handy to have in place, marketingwise, before heading into this challenge. Well, this next week should give time to start reversing that.

Until tomorrow!
Jeff

Labels: start business

Day 4 of 14-Day Challenge
Momentum slowed today. Processing a sale from my eBay store took longer than expected. A "quick" change on a client's site took longer than expected. My wife's doctor visit took longer than expected. A "quick" signup for LinkedIN at my daughter's invitation took longer than expected.

Not that I'm making excuses...

Actually, that's exactly what I'm doing.

Pure and simple, I tried to pack too great of a variety of things into today and I fell short on making progress toward my goal. About all I accomplished today toward my goal was some organizing I was able to do in the doctor's waiting room.

I organized the assets I had inventoried on previous days into different categories and arranged them to give a clear picture of how the various assets could be used through the various distribution channels I control.

It will be a very handy chart for future projects, but future is not what this challenge is all about. I'll have to reassess my schedule for tomorrow. I've already scheduled it full of client work and I fear a repeat of today. I have to get the client work done (even if some of the work is pro bono for nonprofits I work with). At least some of the work is PAYING client work.

But I have to get the momentum moving forward again on the challenge. I guess today just shows the delicate balancing act involved in a challenge such as this: other responsibilities versus a major goal.

Tune in tomorrow to see how I resolve Saturday's dilemma.
Jeff

Labels: start business

Day 3 of the 14-Day Challenge
For today, I promised to start formulating a strategy in and around the other tasks that were already on my plate. I guess the word "start" is the operative word here.

I'm starting to see connections between various unrelated assets I have and the ways I can put them together to reach my goal of creating a new, ready-to-launch income stream by December 15.

A domain name I have from a website that never panned out for me would work well with an infoproduct I came close to finishing, but never tied up the last loose ends of it. That's the leading candidate right now, and has the potential to lead to more.

Other ideas are still in contention, including a live seminar I have materials ready to roll out, but chickened out on putting the final planning (namely, trying to find paying participants for it) into it.

(Hmm... Anyone see a trend here? Infoproduct I never got around to finishing... Live seminar I chickened out on trying to produce... Smells like a fear of putting my work out there where the market can actually judge it yea or nay, doesn't it.)

I suspect that this two-week challenge will result in me finding that I have a lot more marketable options ready to roll out with a minimum of effort. The key, though, is finding and rolling out that first one to fulfill my challenge of having one ready by the 15th.

If I was lazy, I suppose I could claim success right now. I did, technically, obtain a new income source today as I added a new site that is paying for hosting on my hosting server. But that would eliminate all the fun I'm having trying to meet the deadline with something totally new.

And since the new paying site is owned by an existing client, it doesn't really feel like something new enough to answer the challenge. Plus, I'd like this new income stream to be a little more substantial than a single monthly hosting fee!

One thing I've found with this challenge is that it has me moving in higher gear. Like I mentioned last night, I'm pushing myself beyond my usual take-everything-very-deliberately, work style. I feel rushed, but it's an exciting rush rather than an unpleasant one. And I'm covering a lot of ground in a fraction of the time.

I'm noticing that my schedule gradually is clearing of nonbusiness tasks, too, as I cut through them more quickly. Some of them remain, but they feel like less of a blockage to my business efforts.

All in all, it's largely a matter of change in mindset. It's amazing what a deadline can do!

Tomorrow, the outside responsibilities are fewer than they were today. My goal is for the challenge is to take all the candidates, assess what needs to be done on each and decide my main objective and action plan for my remaining 10 days of the challenge.

Tune in tomorrow to see if I achieve it. And feel free to chime in with your thoughts as I pursue this challenge!
Jeff

Labels: start business

Day 2 of the 14-Day Challenge
Well, here I am at the end of day 2 of my challenge to create a new income stream, and I'm starting to feel the pressure.

I knew this would be a tough day to make much progress. My time today had been pretty well eaten up even before I took up the challenge. It's not like that's unusual, though. Anyone who has a job and a life will have commitments outside the realm of income creation that they have to deal with. It's just part of life.

I managed to get a fairly thorough inventory done of the assets I have at my disposal, in and around my other responsibilities today. Now I need to sit down and assess how to use those assets to create a new income stream.

I feel pressured by the deadline, but I also feel energized by it. I probably would have approached both my tasks and the inventory at the much more deliberate pace that is characteristic for me if I wasn't pushed by this 14-day deadline. Even now, I feel a pull to put more time into inventorying things even deeper.

But I can't afford to lose another day to preparing. Time is flying!

Tomorrow is another day already filled with its share of commitments that will eat into time for my challenge. Right now, it's time to take a little time before bed to start going over my inventories.

So I'm off for tonight. Tune in tomorrow and see whether I've succeeded at starting to put the pieces together!
Jeff

Labels: start business

Accepting the Challenge
The gauntlet has been tossed and I picked it up!

Last night I was on a teleconference with my mastermind group. They are some very dear friends and fellow business owners. We get together every two weeks for mutual support, brainstorming, and encouragement.

I expressed my relief that a big project that had weighed very heavily on me was finished and I suddenly had some time that wasn't all focused on that client.

One mastermind member piped up, "So what are you going to do with all that open time?"

I started babbling about various projects organizing, cleaning up, or researching the feasibility of potential future projects.

She interrupted me. "Yeah, but what are you going to do to bring in income?"

She was right, everything I had mentioned were low- or no-income preparation-type tasks. And this is at a time when I'm hurting badly for money. That big project I finished had been a nightmare that came nowhere close to reimbursing me for the months I put into it.

So my mastermind members challenged me. In the two weeks before our next meeting, I was to put together something that would stop the flow of red ink and get revenues flowing back in.

Not only that, but I have to do it without spending a cent. I can use anything I already have -- I can pull together content I've already created for an infoproduct, use tools I already have -- but I can't use an additional cent of new spending.

Neither can I just devise an idea that could would needs weeks more work after I present it. I have to come up with something that I can put into action right after the meeting to bring in immediate cash.

So I invite you to join me in this challenge. Each day I'll post what I do toward fulfilling that challenge. (At least that should get me posting a bit more regularly!) Can Jeff pull something profitable together in two weeks using only what he already has and nothing more?

Check in and see! I'll add what I learn from the experience along the way, so hopefully you can pick up some useful insights for your business -- or whatever else you want to accomplish -- too.

Right now, it's back to my task for the day -- rummaging through my virtual attic of projects for the quickest and most promising path to my goal. I've got to get a lot done today because tomorrow already is pretty booked with prior commitments.
Jeff

Labels: start business