I’ve had clients ask why technology has to be so difficult. I guess that’s subjective. To me, technology is a challenge — yes, but not difficult.
This gig has only been around for a little longer than a decade. You are literally participating in history here. Things won’t stay the same and as a matter of fact the online business arena is still evolving at an exhilarating (frightening for some) rate.
Today I thought I would share with you a blurb about Thomas Edison. Hopefully this can help to inspire you to stick with it and keep on plugging:
Edison Failed 10,000 Times Before Perfecting the incandescent Light Bulb.
Don’t worry if you fail once.
Arguably America’s greatest inventor, Thomas Edison had an extraordinarily positive perception of life that greatly enhanced his ability as an inventor. When others might have been hopelessly discouraged after failing thousands of times in an attempt to develop an electric light, the great Edison simply viewed each unsuccessful experiment as the elimination of a solution that wouldn’t work, thereby moving him that much closer to a successful solution. We could all take a lesson from Edison. Stories abound about inventors who quit trying and gave up too soon or miners who struck gold just a few feet beyond where someone else quit digging. There are few obstacles in life that will not succumb to consistent, sustained, intelligent, positive action. When you are discouraged after you’ve failed at something, remember Edison’s 10,000 failures before he arrived at the solution that forever changed the world.
This positive message is brought to you by the Napoleon Hill Foundation.
I subscribe to this site’s Thought for the Day service. Maybe you should too to help you keep things in perspective.
HTH!
At your service,
Judith
As with anything to do with starting a new business or keeping an established business healthy, how you approach important issues is critical.
With Web sites, all too often I see site owners approach the cost of having a Web site as an expense when they should be viewing these expenditures as an investment.
When advice is given a healthy portion cut corners or disregard experienced and proven recommendations to save $50 here or a couple hundred there. This tells me they have the wrong point of view and that most likely their site will not reach any tangible goals.
If a couple hundred dollars that when spent can have long term gain is declined, we simply are not making our decisions for all the right reasons. If only a couple hundred bucks is something you cannot afford, you may want to consider shutting down.
Online business as with any off-line enterprise has costs that are upfront and ongoing. If one doesn’t want to spend that kind of money and prefers to do it on a budget, success can still be attained, but then you darned well better be prepared to work harder at the things that have no cost other than your time. Ah…. there’s the rub!
Those who don’t want to incur a monthly fee that ensures ongoing success are typically also those who don’t want to spend their time doing all the things that couple hundred could automate or that are necessary to gaining exposure online.
It’s crystal clear folks. Spend the money and spend the time and you have a chance. To disregard the billions of Web pages currently online and the hundreds of thousands going online daily is naive. There are a healthy group of those sites willing to invest both time and money — because they want to be found, they want to be taken seriously — they want to succeed!
At your service,
Judith
As I have for the past 12, at this time of year I always review my business and think about what I would like to accomplish in the year ahead. This is when I make changes to my policies, my operations — my methodology on how I choose to run my business. Here’s my top 5 moving into 2008:
- Redesign my site. Done.
- Revamp my voice to site visitors. Done.
- Identify potential clients truly up to the challenge an online business requires. Work in progress…
- Not work with those who are demanding, rude or do not pay their bills on time. Work in progress…
- Create a personal project list and make that a priority. Work in progress…
Many of my clients, new and old alike, have e-mailed with positive comments about my new relaunched site and tone. Many commenting that my new site is more “me.” My old site was well, old. Although a good site based on being effective and the contacts it generated, one day, I woke up and didn’t like it anymore.
This epiphany was inevitable. I was no longer comfortable with the approach my site portrayed to those who didn’t know me. Something that had been eating away at me for sometime because I realized that to actually make the magnitude of changes I wanted would take time — lots of it. As it turns out 5 weeks of every free moment (on weekends too) to create this new site before my target date of the end of this year.
For years I thought it best to give the “corporate feel” to my site. This included all the blah-blah-blah and pages that simply did not represent my current modus operandi.
Now, my tone is a more relaxed reality based approach that comes naturally to me. I am just a one-woman-shop, that gives personal attention and service to an elite group of folks who when they read my words my approach rings true for them.
If while at my site and a light bulb goes off — then we probably can work together. However, if you feel online business sounds like too much work, commitment, expense, learning and doing — it is probably best you skip my contact form.
For those that appreciate a consultant that treats them with respect (and returns the courtesy) and doesn’t sugar-coat the truth or hide the reality of what they need to know; it’s going to be a sweet 2008!
At your service,
Judith
