using internet marketing to grow your business
Many (lucky) entrepreneurs like myself need to work a day job while trying to start their business. A start-up doesn’t usually rake in the money immediately, so the bills need to be paid somehow.
I’ve made a few observations lately about where I’ve gone wrong in balancing my priorities over the past few years and how I want to adjust the course. I need to get this thing going!
One of the most influential business books of all time, The E-Myth Revisited, extols the virtues of documenting your business extensively. If your business doesn’t have an operations manual, then it’s not really a business. A business without documentation depends on the owner’s presence in order to run. That means no vacation, no sick days, and no retirement for the founder. The business owner basically becomes a slave to his customers.
At first glance, I am intimidated by the idea of documentation of this type. Web design and development changes rapidly. It’s insanely hard to keep up. Sometimes it feels like once I’ve finally mastered a technique, a new tool or technique comes along to replace it. But then again, this very problem makes me a slave to those very things.
Up until I was about 27, this mantra was all that I needed:
Life is all about showing up.
This statement is true, but it’s only half-true in some situations. There’s more to it than that.
I’ve always gotten a bad vibe from people at networking events. Most people are there to be the smartest kid in the room, puff out their chests and prove why they’re great, or feign interest in hopes of finding talent to exploit. I suppose that none of this is surprising because most people are average and need to hide that fact.
John Sumser describes this problem and provides worthwhile solutions to counter it in his post, Networking Is Not Working. SURPRISE! The solutions all involve hard work, which most people are unwilling to do. Instead of spending time working hard on shipping a great idea, people schmooze to feel like they’re getting things done.
I like the idea of doing this monthly round-up. It makes me feel terrible that I only wrote 4 posts, even though I committed myself to writing 3 times a week. I’ll need to work on that. A little accountability never hurt anyone, did it?
Here’s what happened on this here internet marketing blog in September, in case you missed any of it:
Read on to see what happened in my web development blog too.
If you don’t have the aspirations to become a true HTML ninja, then you’re going to need to hire a rock star to do the hard stuff. But unless you want to invest a ridiculous amount of money for that rock star’s time, you’re going to need to learn a little about how it works. [...]
“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people He gave it to.”
- Dorothy Parker
(Shout out to Reality Check, a book by Guy Kawasaki.)
This is a story that I want to believe about where business is headed in the next few decades.
Umair Haque @ Daytona Sessions vol. 2 – Constructive Capitalism from Daytona Sessions on Vimeo.
I like the idea that idealists will lead the real innovation/revolution. We’re already seeing it out of companies like 37signals and Google.
Spare 50 minutes and give this one a watch.
Did any of these internet marketing blog posts slip through the cracks? Or maybe you wanted to take another look at one later on? Now’s the time!
Click through to also see what happened on Polymorphism, my sister technology blog.
A piece of advice I gleaned from my Creativing Writing professor in college: be a big spender. When he was teaching us how to write creative works, he encouraged us to work hard on every piece that we wrote.
If you have a big idea, do it now. Don’t feel like you have to save your best stuff for later. And don’t put it off. If you get in the practice of coming up with great ideas, then you will find ways to outdo yourself later.
It’s funny how some lessons can stick with you years later.
About MeI'm Chris Peters, and I'm an addict. I want to make this marketing and technology stuff less of a burden. I hope I can help you out with that.
You are currently browsing the archives for the General category.