The quiet before the storm.
I recently left my job to pursue an online income.
I’ve detailed my vision/mission and a five point strategy for business creation and development.
I’d like to cover just how I plan to use my new found 160+ hours each month and how you can join me in this quest to create our own happiness, gain financial freedom and do the things we truly want to in life.
We’re going for a digital legacy here people; it starts here.
The elegant game of time…
The average person works forty hours a week but when we get down to the real numbers we see that there is a much larger investment toward our work than we notice (on the surface).
Consider the following:
- 30 min – 1 hour drive time each day
- Eight hours of work time
- One hour for lunch (if you’re lucky)
- Additional hours for “make up work”
By the end of the week, we actually spend well over 160+ hours at our job. We also rarely factor in the mental anguish we endure from traffic congestion, spending money at gas stations, lack of sleep from our work and missing out on many great events during the day.
In short: We’re dedicating nearly 7 total days of our lives to our work so we are able to live free the remainder of the time. What if you could flip that time you would be working for others into your own online ventures?
I’m not telling you to quit your job; I’m asking you to focus. I’ve managed to get where I’m at today by putting a lot of time in my free time after work. Even at just one or two hours a night you will inevitably be closer to your goals than dismissing it entirely.
My commitment to YOU
I previously mentioned the importance of having a Content Strategy but I never imagined the impact that having an additional 160+ hours a month would mean.
As of late, here is a screenshot of my newly revised content strategy (and workload) for Murlu:
As you can see, there is a monumental shift from having large blocks of time dedicated to “job work” and items that will create digital assets.
I’ve managed to build my online income to around $1,500 a month through the tireless work that I’ve managed to put in during the afternoons; it took a little over 8 months to reach this point.
Using similar logic (and hopefulness), having an entire week to dedicate toward online projects and ventures mean that I should (hopefully) bridge the gap to $3,000 a month in roughly 4 months time.
Possible? I don’t know – but I’m sure as hell going to try.
What all of this means for YOU
These last few posts have been created to begin a foundation of where I want to take you and Murlu over these new few months (maybe years). I know they may have come across as a bit self centered but I wanted to tell you where I want to take us all, right out in the open, so you hold me to it.
I’d like to announce that starting with the next post I will be showing you how to take your Business Beyond Blogging. If things work out correctly, I should have a great freebie for you all that explain the fundamentals and mindset you must get into to throw out the idea of “problogging” and become a “real business owner”.
Additionally, I have a fantastic series in the works that you had a glimpse upon with the business launch pad journal. I will be covering, in detail; the required steps to create your own information based online business. This course will help you identify your strongpoints and give you a clear path on finding a market, creating a product and generating sales.
We’re in this together … but you must take this 1st step
Although I will be covering every step of the way in this upcoming series – I want to give you a head-start.
The very first most valuable action (MVA) you can take, this moment, is to begin writing down all of your skills from those that you’re amazing at to the ones that are a bit flaky.
Pawel has put together a very simple SWOT analysis template that will let you discover, with ease, your skills along with interests and give you a glimpse into where you may possibly want to align for your future online business.
A few of my favorite tools for this purpose are:
- A dry-erase board ($14 on Amazon)
- FreeMind Mind-Mapping Software (Free)
- Good ol’ Pen & Paper
Spend the next hour going over the type of content you enjoy creating. Think of what skills you have that others are already paying for. Take a look at the market for the type of information you can offer and see if there are existing products. Spend this hour researching your ideal online business – one that works for you, one which is highly, highly focused.
I’ll be explaining these items in further detail with this upcoming series but go ahead and get a head-start by going through this first step.
Want to share some of your ideas? Leave a comment below and take the challenge! Share this post and get your friends on board with this challenge. We will create an online business. We will put in the time and resource. We will bust our ass but we will gain the greatest rewards.
“I’ve managed to build my online income to around $1,500 a month through the tireless work that I’ve managed to put in during the afternoons; it took a little over 8 months to reach this point.”
You’re a leader, my friend. That is an impressive feat in itself right there. The hardest part is just taking your lumps during those 8 months, wouldn’t you say? You likely knew that you were going to breakthrough; it was just a matter of time. At least, that’s what I picture someone with your DNA thinking. You’re a go-getter so you knew you’d reach your goals.
Most folks just can’t work past the time that they have to invest a lot and get back very little. Those are rough times, they play with your mind, but you have to push.
I commend you for laying everything out on a spreadsheet. What a great way to hold yourself accountable and organize your work.
By-the-way, this is going to be a powerful series. I didn’t sit down for an hour yet as you suggested (I’m currently running a business) BUT this may be a good exercise for me to create a [monetized] one-off project!
Thanks for making me think, Murray.
Jon´s last [type] ..The Dark Side of Community- Will You Help Cast Some Light
Hey Jon,
Thanks for all the kind words and inspiration man. It’s true, those 8 months were probably the roughest of them all because I had to actively shut myself away from doing a lot of things that I wanted. The good thing is that I not only developed a better sense of time management but also financial responsibility. Since I’m 23, it’s easy for me to jump on the nightly activities and blow a ton of my money but because I was working toward a larger goal it kept me grounded
I knew there had to be a tipping point. I looked at a lot of my projects and tried to figure out my failure in them at the moments that I would stop showing interest. It was usually around the 30% mark which was right before the hardest curve (and tipping point). I made it my goal to push through it and so now I think I’m reaching that “hump” in business development (and everything else).
I’m still trying to refine the spreadsheet because each day does bring up something new and it’s been quite a shock to have so much free time on my hands. In time, I think it will be a lot more refined and less work-heavy because I’d like to get things to the point where they work on themselves so I can just put in the minimal amount of work to keep them running at maximum potential.
I know it can be difficult to sit down for that hour but I also applaud that you still want to get on board with it. If you figure you cut out that one hour of entertainment or say up the one hour later it will get done and your new one-off project will already begin to pick up momentum
Can’t wait to get into the ‘meat’ of this series; things are going to be EPIC!
Just regular pen and paper? Murray, you gotta use Moleskines! If they’re good enough for Picasso, Van Gogh, Hemingway, they are good enough for me!
In all seriousness, I’m glad you’re going to be working through a business model other than problogging, or emphasizing affiliate marketing. I hope a lot of people will follow along with this course, too.
Oh, and I like how you have to include “Wind down” in your task lists. Is each line time specific or task specific (ie 30 min blocks or do-to-completion)?
[ComLuv is working for me again. Yipee!]
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I’ve always wanted to pick up a Moleskin, James, but you know me, I’m total geek here so probably 99% of all my work is done digitally unless I want to keep something in my face which, at that point, is a pent and paper so I can tack it to the wall haha. Though, I’d like to get one during my upcoming travels because I much rather have that to write down things vs. whipping out the laptop in the middle of what I’m doing.
If you think about it; there are a TON of people that want to make online businesses but they don’t want affiliate marketing as their business. I was talking to someone just the other day that wanted to do modifications to shoes; that’s not affiliate marketing – that’s physical products, ya know? Hell, look at Etsy. There’s tons of people that want to just sell their arts, crafts, music, etc. I want to open the world of online business to them rather than people that already know that they just have to sign up for CJ.com or Clickbank ya know?
Originally, it was time specific but because I try to keep the overall strategy in mind – I don’t force myself to go too quickly because I may miss out on seeing the opportunity elsewhere, ya know? Although, some things I do try to keep refined to a certain amount of time such as social media interaction and email because those are items that are important for follow up but still pose as a distraction to get work done.
Thanks for the support man; glad I’m hitting the nail on the head with the idea of the series
This is not a kick-ass reply. Sorry about that, dude. Maybe, next time.
I just wanted to say that if you keep going with this keeping-it-real, keeping-it-honest, and keeping-it-moving… I’m going to be a fan.
Stan Faryna´s last [type] ..Triberr 10- invite-only crack for the in crowd
Stan, it’s always a kick-ass reply even when it’s short. That’s some inspiration stuff right there; just what I needed for getting things rolling today
Good stuff Murray, and a great addition to your last post.
I’m creating multiple assets in my businesses – customers for life, products, continuity programs, and much more. I systematize what I learn and scale it way up.
I would add that in addition to knowing what you can do you need to know what you can’t currently do. I say “currently do” because the acquisition of knowledge – paid or free – isn’t difficult, it merely involves a commitment of time. And when you know what you don’t know, you can fill in the gaps quickly and become even better at what you do, not to mention less reliant on others for certain aspects of your business.
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One way I like to do things is by creating something based on what I know now and then look for the niche opportunities that may be a bit out of my reach but since I already have something as a foundation than I can push myself in that direction. I don’t feel like I need to learn everything when chasing the niche venture because it’s already been done (and implemented) on the main site. At that point, it becomes learning specialized knowledge which is all kinds of fun because there is usually almost no one doing that type of thing so there’s a lot of freedom to grow and make your own mark
It all reinforces one another as you go which is something I love: scalability.
I am not sure if I am up for ass-kicking at the moment, Murray,
but I did love your spreadsheet; you definitely rock with Excel!
And I definitely need to get more organized…
Look forward to seeing your digital legacy becoming a reality!
Ana
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Thanks Ana
You’re already ass-kickin’ so that’s already a given haha; no need to start what you’re already doing
Organization, by far, has helped me tremendously over these last few months. There’s still a lot of systematize but that’s stuff that I’ll learn in due time (which I definitely want to share along the way).
Thanks for all the support!
Hey Murray, it’s great to see a fellow blogger coming into the money. May I ask what makes up the $1500 per month? I assume it’s more than just adsense earnings?
As a side note I recommend that you install a subscribe to comments plugin so that commentators know when someone has replied to their comment.
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I’ve now realized the importance of having a content strategy. If you don’t have one, a writer/blogger may diminish his/her momentum when writing content.
Regularity of your posts and content is can what make people come back to your site.
I’d surely focus on this now.
p.s. nice content strategy screen shot over there.
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Hi Murray,
I love how you line up everything that you have done and want to do, and how you plan on doing it, not so that you can boast here but because you’re asking others to hold you accountable.
That right there is extremely commendable. And it’s what a leader does.
Delena
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Murray,
Nothing beats a pen and paper LOL! Seriously though I write everything down and I am not talking about on the computer I need a visual. This post is inspirational. I think when a lot of people think of an online business they think it can happen overnight, which once you start you know it takes time. Thanks for sharing I look forward to learning more
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