Author Archives: teds
Author Archives: teds
I Can’t Keep Up with Technology or Strategies
The idea of becoming an online entrepreneur sounds very enticing until you begin to look at all of the nitty, gritty details. For many people, the constant evolution of technology - along with the strategies involved in succeeding online can be very intimidating.
You may have adopted a defeatist tone in your mind when it comes to believing in whether or not you are capable of handling such fast changes. There are some things you may try to hold onto as long as you can, against your better judgment.
For example, you may continue to use old and outdated tools or strategies just because it's easier than learning something new. But eventually, there will come a day when something either ceases to work, or works against you, forcing the change you didn't want to make.
This might be something as simple as a plugin that you relied on that has quit working properly because it isn't being updated or supported by its creator. Or, it could be a more complicated strategy - such as new search engine optimization rules that have been implemented, which force you to alter your ways of doing things immediately.
Just because you feel lost or intimidated about changes doesn't mean you are incapable of handling them. When it comes to technology, there will always be new and better products that help you achieve your goals.
Along with these items, you will usually find step-by- step, detailed instructions that are shown on YouTube to help you and all of the others who struggle with technology. There are also ways around this situation.
You can either ask the company directly for assistance, or outsource the use of the technology to someone else. There are hundreds of freelancers who will handle technologically advanced tasks for those who either don't want to learn something new, or feel as if they can't.
Strategic changes will be more difficult for you to avoid. There have been many times in the past when a method everyone was using is simply banned or no longer effective. Not only that, but someone may announce a better way of doing things.
If you hold onto your old ways, you will have to sit on the sidelines and watch as all of the competition passes you by. What's the use of even pursuing an entrepreneurial career if you're going to allow that to happen?
Instead, do away with the crippling mindset that has you believing you're not capable of keeping up with changes and prove to yourself once and for all that you are. Even if you are a bit slower than someone else when it comes to implementing these changes, knowing that you're making progress toward it is good enough.
I Don't Have Time to Start a Business
One limiting belief that can sabotage your success, but which is very easy to fix is that you don't have time to start a business. No matter how hectic your schedule currently is, there is usually a way to tighten it up and employ better time management skills so that you can achieve your goals.
Whether you have just 15 minutes a day or a full 40 hours a week to contribute to your online success, you will be able to build a business if you really want to. Most of the business building process consists of learning.
At least when it comes to building the foundation of your business. The actual action task are not that time consuming. For the learning process, you can always absorb information while multitasking.
For example, you can listen to a course about advertising, blogging, or other niche success tips while doing the dishes, taking a bath, running your kids to and from school in carpool, or even exercising.
As far as carrying out the actual action steps that you need to implement after the learning process, you can do that even if you have another full time job on your plate right now.
There are many people who wake up an hour earlier before work to build their business. There are those who give up their lunch hour in order to be able to work on entrepreneurial tasks.
And there are those who come home exhausted after a full day in the corporate world, and still manage to put in a bit of time after work to devote to their own business. It all depends on how bad you want it.
If you are determined to succeed, you will make sure that every available minute of your day is dedicated to your success. You will give up binge watching Netflix shows or getting lost in a good book if it means you can further your success.
Time alone will not guarantee that you start profiting in your business. You have to make sure that the time you free up is spent diligently working on your business. That means you aren't playing around on social media or procrastinating in any other way.
As you begin to grow your success, you'll be able to see where you can tighten up your schedule and make the most of every available minute. You will also be able to set aside funds to outsource or delegate certain tasks to others.
10 Best Habits For Professionals to Have
Being successful in the workplace doesn’t simply come from a good work ethic. There are a variety of habits that professionals have that are critical for success.
1. Schedule-Keeping
Any meeting or event pertaining to work should be diligently scheduled. This way, you always know your schedule and when you have openings for other engagements. Also, having a good schedule helps reduce the risk of procrastination.
2. Task Prioritization
A successful professional also knows how to prioritize their tasks. They can differentiate between more and less important tasks and act accordingly. Although multitasking can sometimes be beneficial, prioritizing tasks means you can take care of important tasks before others.
3. Not Taking Life Too Seriously
Being laid back and more go-with-the-flow leaves a person feeling more relaxed and loose. If you spend all your time as a perfectionist who agonizes over every little detail, you’ll miss the truly beautiful things in life. Success means nothing if you aren’t able to fully live.
4. Planning and Organization
Proper planning and organization is another way successful people combat procrastination. Making a habit to plan out activities and important work functions and write them down helps successful people feel more put together.
5. Self-Accountability
Making a commitment is easy, actually following through with it is the tricky part. Successful people are better at this because they hold themselves accountable. A successful person commits to something only if they know they can follow through.
6. Laser Focus
Beyond a regular focus on a task, successful people are laser-focused. They’re more than attentive when it’s important. If they set their mind to something, they won’t stop until they complete the task.
7. Regular Exercise
To make the most of their waking hours, a successful person will exercise both their mind and their body outside of work. Physical exercise has clear physical benefits to your general wellbeing and it does wonders for your mental health and clarity too.
8. Good Sleeping Habits
In order for the human body to function properly, it’s essential you get adequate sleep each night. The actual amount will vary depending on your age and overall health, but a successful person follows the specific guidelines for their health and lifestyle.
9. Positive Attitudes
People who are considered successful are generally positive people. They’re the friend that always makes you feel good to be around. They don’t dump their problems on you unsolicitedly and they spend much of their time lifting others up.
10. Practicing Gratefulness
Successful people always regularly practice gratefulness. They know where their success comes from and they don’t forget it. Being grateful is important because it keeps a person humble and reminds them where they came from.
Five Signs You’ll Be Successful
How successful a person is depending on a variety of factors. While each individual human being is unique, there are five key signs that signify a person’s success. The range a person is able to dream and set goals, as well as their ability to speak their mind, are some of the key components here. Let’s go over the five signs that make a person successful
1. You Use Your Voice
You’ll never be able to appropriately express your goals, wants, and needs if you don’t know how to use your voice. People who know when and how to speak up when necessary are far more likely to be successful than someone who is more reserved. After all, you can’t get what you want if you never actually try to go for it.
If you have trouble with this trait, here are some ways to help:
?Take baby steps. If you suffer from social anxiety and you find it difficult to speak in public, start small with one or two close friends or acquaintances. Once you start to feel more comfortable, you can progress to more people.
?Write things down ahead of time. This will help you feel more prepared for when the time comes.
?Practice by yourself or with someone you trust. If you have to give an important presentation at work, practice in the mirror a few times to get comfortable.
2. You Aren’t Stuck in the Past
The only way for a person to be successful is to always look ahead. If you’re stuck thinking in the past, then you’ll never be able to reach the goals you’ve set for your future. Successful people know how to appreciate where they’ve come from while also looking ahead.
3. You Like to Dream Big
Successful people are generally big dreamers. They’re always working toward a goal and once that goal is completed, they set a new one. There are no dreams or ideas too big or farfetched for someone with a mindset for success.
4. You Aren’t Afraid to Fail
Nobody is perfect and failure is imminent. There will be times where failure is inevitable and if you have the success mindset, you won’t let those failures dictate how you live your life. Our failures come with the best life lessons and successful people know how to take what they’ve learned as they move forward.
5. You Think About Others
A successful person is a selfless person. If you have the mindset for success, you’ll be mindful and courteous to those around you. Your general positive energy will rub off on others and inspire them to act the same way you do. A successful person is an inspiration to others.
I Don't Have the Money to Start a Business
Whenever you are embarking on a solo journey as an online entrepreneur, finances may be at the forefront of your concerns. Traditionally, starting your own business required you to think about things like franchise fees, rent for a space, employee overhead, and the ability to afford physical stock of a product.
But on the Internet, these issues do not exist. Depending on who you follow and who you choose to learn from, you may feel stressed about the financial aspect of launching an online business.
According to some misguided or unethical teachers, you should max out your credit cards and go into massive debt to the extent of even taking out a second mortgage in order to afford your dream.
These people prey on desperate individuals and take their hard earned money that they can't afford to lose in exchange for overly priced courses, coaching, and tools. Does this mean all high ticket items are worthless?
Of course not. There are many marketers who tout products that can truly provide a worthwhile education in your marketing journey. However, it is never wise to spend beyond your means in order to secure these things.
There are viable options that don't include spending a small fortune that you can’t afford. The truth is, you can implement a $0 to minimal spending investment to get started online as an entrepreneur.
You can invest in a domain name for as little as $12 or under - even as low as $0.99 with a coupon code. You can also get hosting for under $10 a month, sometimes even under $3 a month if you pay for several months in advance.
You can choose to use free blog themes and create the content you use on it yourself, such as product reviews that you use as an affiliate. You can also create your own info products if you want to be a vendor.
When it comes to graphics, such as eCovers and slide presentations, you can create those using free tools and images on sites like Pixabay and Canva. Can’t afford Camtasia for video editing?
Use the freeware version called CamStudio. If you find something that you need, but which is outside of your spending limit, consider providing services for someone else on the side to earn the money for it.
This could be some sort of administrative task, affiliate management, content creation, or graphic design. You can also barter with someone else if they have knowledge that you need, but can't afford.
If you still find something that you want to purchase, but you are unable to work for or barter with someone else, just save up for it over time. Give up small luxuries in your life until you have the funds to secure the item you want, but don't stop just because something has a price tag.
Four Simple Methods to Achieve Work-Life Balance
Everyone always talks about their quest to achieve the elusive work-life balance. This mysterious term seems near impossible, but it is achievable. Although it isn’t easy, there are things you can do to foster a healthy work-life balance without having to make major sacrifices. Let’s take a look at four of the simplest methods.
1. Don’t Try to Be Perfect
Nobody likes a perfectionist and a perfectionist certainly doesn’t have a healthy work-life balance. If you spend all of your time being perfect in either your home or work life, you’re going to end up sacrificing things along the way. The goal here is not to have to do that, so letting go of the idea of perfection is key.
Another downfall of perfectionism is the increased risk of burnout. It’s easy to want to agonize over tiny details, but sooner or later that’s going to catch up to you and you’ll be turned off to doing any other work.
2. Don’t Bring Work Home With You
Not bringing work home with you is kind of a given. If you want to achieve a healthy balance between the two, you can’t spend more time dedicated to one or the other. This means any physical work needs to stay at work and it can wait until your next work day. This same sentiment goes for bringing your “home stuff” into your workplace.
Although it’s fine to talk about your work day or your day off in either sector, the rest should be left in their respective fields.
3. Exercise Regularly or Meditate
Exercising releases endorphins and generally makes you feel happier. Meditation is a tool to practice mindfulness and being calm. Both of these physical activities help you deal with stress in either part of your life, which makes for a healthier balance in general. If you have a healthy outlet for stress relief, then you don’t spend precious time dumping your problems onto your spouse or coworkers.
4. Make Time For Personal Relationships
For many people, the main struggle in work-life balance is that they spend too much time working and not enough time in their personal life. To combat this, it’s important to maintain and create personal relationships. Human beings are inherently social animals and we thrive off of eachother in that way. Having good personal relationships will make you all around happier.
I Always Get Scammed By Others Marketers
For those who suffer from limiting beliefs that sabotage their success, blaming others is often at the root of their problems. With Internet marketing in particular, there are many unethical entrepreneurs who prey on the ignorance of their newbie audience.
Many newcomers to this career spend money frantically trying to find something to help them make money online. They may spend the last bit of their savings or go into debt trying to find the magic formula to help them succeed.
Many of them are in financial desperation, hoping to strike it rich before the rent is due. Others simply have a strong desire to succeed online in the least amount of time possible.
You may have found yourself the victim of a scam once or many times in the past. The first thing they have to ask yourself is whether or not the product you purchased was truly a scam, or if you simply didn't know how to use it correctly.
Many people purchase a product, fail to understand the lessons being taught, and instead of working through it, simply chalk it up to a rip off. They will often try to get a refund, and if that doesn't happen, they will simply vocalize there are accusations to others.
Part of the problem is that when you are new to this business, you don't know who to trust. You may see some big names who are idolized as gurus in the Internet marketing scene, and assume that their success must mean they are worthy of your money.
But that's not necessarily the case. There are many infamous online entrepreneurs who have earned their wealth based on the backs of those who are desperate to have what they are showcasing online.
They want the mansion, the exotic vacations, and the sports cars that cost as much as a home. If you want to avoid getting scammed by other marketers, you have to do your homework about each and every vendor and not get drawn in to the hype on the sales page.
The worst thing you can do for your own success is to constantly point the finger at others. Whether or not someone was capable of convincing you to buy their product, it is ultimately up to you to take responsibility for the purchase.
You can usually find out who is ethical by networking with others in the industry. This way, you will get a wide variety of opinions from seasoned marketers who know the history of other vendors in can advise and warn you if you are about to make an unsafe purchase.
3 Easy Steps to Build Good Working Habits
Developing good habits, in general, can be tricky. Developing work habits can be even harder. However, with hard work and dedication, good working habits will help you achieve success in your career. So how can you build good working habits? The short answer is to work hard, but the long answer will be explained in this article.
1. Practice Good Time Management
Learning to manage your time wisely while working will help you get ahead quickly. Good time management also keeps you from falling behind on any work. To practice good time management, there are a few tips you can heed:
?Utilize a planning system. Make sure all of your tasks and important events are written down or recorded somewhere so you don’t accidentally forget something important.
?Prioritize your tasks by order of importance. Obviously, important tasks should come before anything else. Prioritize and then complete tasks as they come based on how urgent each one is.
?Give yourself a time restraint. If you’re working on a project, give yourself due dates to get certain parts of it done at a time. This way you stick to a stricter schedule.
2. Use Professionalism at Work
When one thinks of professionalism, the almost immediate thought that comes to mind is well-groomed and well-dressed. However, the idea of professionalism is so much more than how you look. In fact, general hygiene is really the only physical aspect of professionalism that’s worth noting.
The way you work, act and treat other coworkers and clients/customers say more about your professionalism than any outfit ever could. A person who is professional practices empathy and is courteous to others.
3. Create a Good Work/Life Balance
Along with time management and professionalism, there needs to be a balance between your work life and your personal life. While being a good worker is important, it’s also equally as important for you to live life and enjoy yourself. Life can’t be serious all the time. There are going to be times where you need to step back and take a break and there’s nothing wrong with that.
We also know it can be hard trying to find that balance between your work life and home life. If it helps, you can follow some of these tips to make the balance come easier to you:
*Have a designated day or weekend where you can’t work, no questions asked. You don’t even need to give an explanation while you tell your workplace your availability, just say that that particular weekend is an off time for you and it’s non-negotiable.
*Try to leave for lunch if you can. Try a new local place near your office or take a packed lunch to the park down the road. Either way, make sure you see more than just your office building every day.
*Set goals and reward yourself. If you set certain goals at work, reward yourself with some kind of treat when you reach them. Maybe you take the day off and explore the city or maybe you decide now is a good time to take an impromptu trip to the ice cream shop with your family.
Using Tools and Templates to Cut Corners Effectively
One great way to utilize tools and systems within your online entrepreneurial business is to embrace the concept of tools and templates. Many newbies like to hang on to old fashioned ways of doing things because it's what they're used to.
If there is a tool that can quickly and easily help you achieve any of your goals, you may want to set aside the funds and invest in it. For example, instead of having to methodically map out your search engine optimization (SEO), you could use a plugin on your blog that has a form that you fill out to ensure everything is taken care of.
Templates are a great way to systemize elements of your business. Canva is a great example of this. This is a free tool that also has a professional paid level, that you can use to create many different things.
You can tap into readymade templates that you can use for things like eCovers, slide presentations, social marketing posts, and more. Using their free system, you can tailor these items to whatever types of fonts and colors you prefer.
If you want to, you can even create your own templates to use within their system over and over again. You can start from scratch once and then return to your own template repeatedly whenever you need to make a new object.
You can also create a template for things such as sales letters. If you sell the same types of things over and over again, it makes sense to have a template that you have tweaked to perform well for you, where you can simply update it for each new launch...
I Always Fail at Everything
Sometimes it can be very frustrating to rack up a long string of failures as you sit by and watch others succeed. Some people are capable of experiencing failure and moving past it with ease.
Unfortunately, many people wear their failures like a ball and chain around their ankle. They allow it to hold them back for an eternity. You have the power to change your mindset to one that shines a light on failure for what it really is - proof that you tried.
Not everyone can say that. Some people are too afraid to try or have never taking the time to learn what they need to know to attempt anything in this business. If you are someone who has experienced failure, it's a sign that you have taken action.
Whether or not the end result was exactly what you wanted is irrelevant. If you truly want to see success as an online entrepreneur, you will take that failure, break it down to analyze it, and turn it into a success story.
There's danger in using absolute words like always. Putting it this way, it guarantees that each time you try something in the future, you have sealed your fate before you even start.
You have labeled yourself a complete and utter failure regardless of how much you learn, how hard you try, or any other determining factors. You have to change your language so that you give yourself a chance.
For example, if you are trying to succeed at a specific goal, instead of saying you always fail at it, you might say, “I haven't figured out how to do it yet.” Giving yourself the benefit of the doubt, you free yourself from that limiting belief that sabotages your efforts.
Besides that, there are often many different reasons why someone experiences a failure. Sometimes, it's no fault of their own. You may have invested in a course that was recommended to you, but which fails to give good instructions.
Or, something else may have affected the outcome. The important thing is for you to take time to analyze what went wrong, see if there is a way you can fix it, and try again until you can move it over to the success column.
Even if you can't figure it out on your own, if you will simply allow yourself the dignity of requesting help from others, you can often change the narrative from being a constant failure to being an eventual success.