Where Will You Be In 6 Months?

Working on my new mini-site, this nearly slipped by me and I forgot to post it. It happens every other year and this was one of those years.

Ken Evoy at SiteSell is doing it again. This ends when May Day ends...At the stroke of midnight, May 1, 2006 so if you've been thinking of getting your internet business going this year, now is the best time to do it and at a discount.

NOTE: This is mainly for people who don't have a web site, offline business owners or those of you wanting to start a home-based internet business. But, if you have a website and looking to add more, you'll love this sale!

It's a fact that having a real business presence online - you know you are going to need a website eventually.

Actually, I bet I know a couple things that are holding you back.

You're worried that you will get buried in all the techie stuff

You'll wait until you get more information

or it's just too dang hard.

If you're reading The Solo Gazette, you're probably the type that just wants to get a site up and start selling, right?

Then for you, I recommend you click on this link and go see what it's all about: No Heavy Lifting Required!

For those of you sitting on the fence when it comes to starting a real internet home business and have been using 'I don't know how to.....'(fill in the blank) - Ken has many tested & proven solutions that completely get rid of the 'heavy lifting' techie stuff - so you can get your online business customer ready today that include:

* domain registration and hosting
* search engine optimization
* form building
* autoresponders
* link tracking
* design templates
* extensive telephone support and much more.

It's really impressive and I have 2 new domains ready to make serious money this coming holiday buying season.

Listen, I know it's hard when you are excited to get started yet every where you look there's someone telling you what you don't know - and for $97.99 they have the answer. From my experience and those of other small business owners, you learn by doing - not by waiting until you have all the answers!

It makes far more sense to spend your time improving your traffic generating & selling skills, not learning how to configure cgi scripts.

Trying to learn all the tech stuff (none of which brings qualified traffic or paying customers to your business), on top of how to get customers you'll need to succeed with your business is hard.

If you've got unlimited time and a desire to learn the techie end, good for you. But if your time or desire is to get moving now today not next year or six months from today - then go Look at this!

Don't take my word for it - Go See For Yourself! Poke around in the corners, kick the tires and take this baby for a test drive - RIGHT NOW!

Six months from now you can be a day away from walking out of your full time job for the rest of your life making a lot more money in your own busines or telling yourself the same story you've been telling yourself for the past six months. Your choice.

That's it for today and I'll leave you with this

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents. - Andrew S. Carnegie

Get Your BOOTSTRAPPERS BIBLE Today!

Have you ever had a great idea and instead of 'thinking on it' just dived right in? That's exactly where I am this week.

To make a long story short - I'm working a job (full-time), creating a new website (parked at Godaddy), updating this blog (no wise comments allowed), starting a blog for the new website on high paying affiliate programs, getting some 'techie help' putting the resources I promised you folks back in December on this blog and in the process relocating to another state. Yeah, it gets interesting in my world - How's it going in yours?

Maybe you are feeling a bit over-whelmed too by all the information it seems you need to know to get your business started. Let me share a secret with you: One thing at a time.

Believe it or don't, you can only do one-thing-at-a-time. You can not breathe and not breathe at the same time, cry or don't cry at the same time nor anything else. So cut yourself a break. Do this one thing, then do that other thing, then do the next thing. It will all get done when it's done.

Here's something I picked-up in 2003 and dig out every time I start thinking I have to get it all right! Seth says this book is for: "...entrepreneurs who are working their butts off to start a great business from scratch with no (or almost no) money." Sounds like quite a few of us and still feels like it when I'm over-whelmed.

GET it NOW! FREE.
Bootstrappers Bible or from Seth Godin

That's it for today and I'll leave you with this

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have.~ Eckhart Tolle

Scared Witless - Burn the Boats!

When I made the decision to toss my career some really big 'fear dragons' started stomping through my comfort zone! What made my situation even worse? I've owned 2 small businesses in the past. It doesn't matter how many ventures you start - all of them are NEW in the beginning.

Fear comes with taking a risk of any kind, especially when you are brand new & have never owned a business

What if I don't make any money?

What if someone sues me?

What if I make a mistake?

What if I can't pay my rent/mortgage/car note?

What if, What if, What if.......you get the idea.

Here's my suggestion for handling What If - Accept the truth that IT IS NOT Real. It's a story we make up as we go along!

When you (I'm included in this) start living with what if - you have just started the first chapter in the worst piece of fiction never written.

I am not telling you to quit your job & not worry about where you next coin-of-the-realm is coming from. What I want to impress upon you is: Feeling anxious is a natural part of growth & you can expect your comfort zone to act-up. Take a deep breath and take the next step. They do get easier.

Ok, free coaching is over and I leave you with this

There is a sense of exhilaration that comes from facing head-on the hard truths and saying, "We will never give up. We will never capitulate. It might take a long time, but we will find a way to prevail."-- Jim Collins, author of Good to Great

Are You Planning or Floating?

The first quarter of a New Year is nearly over - have you completed plans to increase your business the rest of the year? You do have some kind of plan right?

Like-----Create a new product? Beat the bushes for new clients? Start planning for the buying season that starts in August and ends on December 31st? Whatever your plans are for increasing your revenues this year -- it's high time you get moving on them!

Some of you have started posting comments - Thank you! It tells me to keep doing what works. The hard part about blogging for business owners is writing what others may want to read.

Now for something a little different that may hit a nerve for those of you who have had careers the past 20, 30 or more years. What event will let you know it's time to let it go?

When you make enough money? When your part-time business makes the same income as your full-time career? Maybe you plan to stay on until they find your cold, dead body sitting at your desk! Whenever that event or defining moment is, plan now for it. Mine came today.

As some of you may know, my training and 'career' was/is as an accountant. Over the years the industry has changed - more for the worse than the better. Enron was only the tip of a very big iceberg in accounting. Technology makes some of the work easier & faster but the bottom line is 1 + 1 still equals 2. Then there's the other side of the coin - incompetence, fraud & sloppy training at the college level makes for an industry that needs tighter standards.

My defining moment came today when someone told me 'You're too methodical. No one cares about the details.' Unfortunately most of the time - it's true. The trend over the past 10 years or so has been for more businesses to hire employees based solely upon having a college degree rather than what the applicant brings to the table in the way of real skills.

This is the year I leave the profession. It's been a fun ride - now it's time to go. What those of you still working a day job may want to do is ask yourself some hard questions:

A. What have you given up for your career?

B. How much more are you willing to give up?

C. What will be your defining moment?

D. When will you know it's time to go?

That's it for today and I'll leave you with this

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo

Follower or Leader - Which Are You?

As you probably do, I subscribe to a ton of online newsletters, some better than others. Today I want to share this one with you because it hits on a subject that I've been thinking about for a while.

When you look around online, there will be people you just feel 'in your gut' are telling you the truth. How and when I got on Fred's list isn't important. What I want to share with you is what he has to say about being a 'Follower or Leader'. As a Solo Entrepreneur, you may be thinking that you're a leader, but are you really? Read this article and tell the truth -- to yourself if no one else.

Who You Emulate Is Who You Become
After attending a recent seminar I started thinking about
the various gurus that most people seem so enamored
with. I'll leave out the names, but you can fill in the blanks.

Many of these gurus are brilliant in their fields and are
clever and creative individuals. Many of them are also
very flawed human beings (like most of us). I know for
a fact that some are tremendously unhappy. Others are
extremely unethical. Still others are deceitful and
malicious to their spouses and even clients.

If you accept my premise as being true, then here is
what I believe follows. In many cases the cult of people
who follow these gurus are similar to the people in
Rush Limbaugh's brigade who call themselves "ditto
heads".

I always found it interesting that seemingly intelligent
people would like to call themselves CLONES of their
chosen "leader." BUT, I think the term is an interesting
one.

In the information marketing fields there are a lot of
the same "ditto heads" when it comes to various gurus.
The various leaders have spawned armies of individuals
who worship at their feet.

Without knowing it, many of these are FOLLOWERS. And
please note that as a FOLLOWER, as your primary mission
in life, it is very difficult to be a LEADER. Anyway, these
followers often tend to start to exhibit the same emotional
and moral traits of their leaders.

Not only have they "dittoed" their philosophies, many of
the followers have carbon copied their HERO'S moral
traits.

This is dangerous.

I don't care how brilliant a mind someone has, I would
not want to worship (and I use the term worship in the
almost religious sense) someone whose CHARACTER
was in question.

If the character of your leaders is questionable, how can
you ever be sure of anything that follows? I know I can't
be certain.

What about you?

Keep Thinking!
Fred

Fred Gleeck Productions
209 Horizon Peak Drive
Henderson, NV 89012
1-800-FGLEECK (345-3325)
Fred Gleeck


That's it for today and I leave you with this article to think about.

Are You A 'Get Rich Quick' Junkie?

It amazes me how many ads I see online that are out and out scams -- yet people still fall for them. Some of these things were old 50 years ago and yet they keep turning up in one form or another.

Take this one:

Easy money! Pay $5 (or up to $500 in some cases) to the person above, who is your 'sponsor'. After that, anyone you bring into this 'opportunity', you will make $5 (or $500 if you're lucky) and in 2 weeks - HOT DAMN! You will be a millionaire!

If you have been reading my posts for any length of time, you know I don't go in for hype, lies or thinking the world is ruled by stupid lazy people. When it comes to ads like the example above - Would you really want to be involved with these people? I don't!

There's something inside all of us that refuses to take crap and pay for the privilege. Atleast in my case.

Building a successful, real business is hard work! Sometimes it's hard enough to make you want to quit and go find a job picking peas, cleaning toilets -- any damn thing except spend one more day trying to find customers who will buy your product or service.

Hang in there - it will get better! Most of the time what it will take to make your business succeed comes down to Persistance & Guts! That means not expecting to make a gazillion dollars next week.

My suggestion is - First try to make back the money you invested to get started. For some of you, especially if you bought a business or franchise, it may take you a year to break even. So what! Be willing to get your money out the deal!

Is your business online only? You spent money to either buy pay-per-click ads or paid for hosting a website or maybe you just bought a course on internet marketing. Whatever you spent - That's the amount you want to make in your business first!

Ok Georjina, who will get the most from this blog?
The short answer is: if you're still reading - you are probably in the right place.

The long answer (for those of you who have been reading entirely too many target marketing ebooks lately:

The Solo Gazette is about and for

Women and men who understand English (or my version of it anyway)

Are serious about being self employed in a small enterprise they can operate without employees (you know what it's like to be scared of losing your next paycheck - why do that to someone else?)

Refuse to allow minor set backs or hold-ups stop them from living their dream

Willing to think for themselves.

Know that they will have to give up something - whether it be time or money to make it happen.

Does this sound like you? Then post a comment, tell me I'm full of it or if you want to 'get rich quick', go find another blog to read.

That's it for today and I'll leave you with this

"And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, You risk even more - Erica Jong

Welcome to Spring! Don't forget to reset those clocks!

Last week's project was moving all the posts here to my hard-drive. It's best to have a back-up plan just in case.

Then I found out Blog Explosion rejected this blog because they do not accept 'business opportunity' sites. My response after deleting them from my email subscription list: E.S. and die! They aren't that important to my life or my business to sweat it.

Blogger sleeps with Google - if it doesn't bother Blogger and Google that small business owners come here to learn about new business ideas or find tools that can help them build their small business using information they find on the internet, then as far as I'm concerned - Blog Explosion can go suck eggs!

Now to more interesting things. For those of you who remember a $24 membership site I told you about a couple weeks ago? It was not worth $24. Nearly everything in the 'members area' was old junk I picked up online for free over the past 2 years.

I am looking at another site that shows promise, a bit steeper at $67 a month and appears to be worth the investment! Just the software they have is something I can use over the next month or so in my business. Of course I became an affiliate too! My primary business model for 2006 is affiliate marketing.

Some of you are going to get your drawers in a bunch over my telling you about a site, product or service that I've joined as an affiliate and say "That's so not fair."

Let me give you a reality check: When was the last time you went to a store or bought anything for that matter and the sales staff didn't get paid? Ask your ISP for free high-speed internet service and see how far you get! Trust me, they are not into the poverty thing. That's why it's called commerce and not welfare.

That's it for today and I'll leave you with this

You have to take action; you can't hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure. - Andrew Grove