The title to this article may raise the question, “If the secrets to making money is ‘Simple’, why isn’t everyone doing it?” In one word, distractions. We are too easily distracted by day-to-day mundane activities, that we forget our main objective. For instance, how many times have you opened up your Internet browser to research a particular question or interest, got side tracked, and then forgot why you got on the Internet in the first place?

Rule #1 Don’t Get Side Tracked!
 

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
-- Stephen Covey

Outline your main objectives for starting your own business, how you plan to meet those objectives, then remind yourself each morning, after lunch, and before you knock off in the afternoon or evening, why you started your business in the first place. After you answer that question, the next question is, “Are you accomplishing your main objective?”

Rule #2 Constantly Evaluate the Process

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
-- Albert Einstein

If the answer to the last question is, “No” than change what you’re doing. Don’t expect that you are going to be able to repeat the same process over and over and achieve different results. That’s like the fly that keeps hitting the pane glass window over and over, expecting to get into the house. Be smarter than the fly!

Rule #3 Imitate Success

Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.
-- Edmund Burke

Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of thinking that your problems are unique. Someone, somewhere has, most likely, run into the same problem. The Internet is a great tool for finding the answer to our problems. Learn to research! Scan the forums, read articles (like this one), be vigilant to find out a better way of meeting your objectives.

Also, read, read, read! There are hundreds of thousands of books about how to succeed at business. There is also reader evaluations that you can read to find out how good a book is before you buy it. I am in the process of building a reference on this site, to helpful books on running a successful business. If you have any suggestions, contact me.

Rule #4 Keep Track of Two Things: Time & Money

Time is money.
-- Benjamin Franklin

Two of your most valuable resources is time and money. We generally think we have more than we do. If you don’t keep track of the time you spend on each project, than you will run into two problems:

1.    You will come to the end of each day wondering, “where did the time go?”
2.    You will not know what to properly charge for your product & services because you do not know the time (cost) involved to produce them.

Make a habit of writing down when you start and end each project. Divide what you are making off the project by the time involved in creating the project and you will have your hourly income. You may find that, with all of your hard work, you could make more as a Wal-Mart greeter.

Don’t give your business away, charge for your services. Many small business owners don’t place much value in their services. Again this is where research is important. Search the Internet to find out what others in similar situations and businesses are charging. Also, don't be afraid to ask your clients what they have paid for similar services. I have received valuable information from my clients who were dissatisfied with the service they received from the competition. When I politely asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, what were they charging you?” they didn’t mind revealing what they were being charged.

Also, keep a record of your expenses. Yes, I know, none of us have time to  keep constant track of all of our expenses, but you must make the time. Otherwise, you will never know that the product that you are charging $100.00 for is actually costing you $120.00! Your company is an investment of time and money. Would you invest in someone else’s company or expect others to invest in your company if you were not able to provide them with an outlay of net income which is the profit you make AFTER expenses? What is your ROI (Return On Investment)? Why should you continue to invest your time and money when you don’t even know if you are generating a profit?

Rule #5 Automate (Residual Income)

The one thing that shot  the US ahead of the other countries was the Industrial Revolution and the invention of the assembly line. The key is Factories Make Money!

Years ago, I remember watching the cartoon, Rumpelstiltskin, where an elf teaches a cobbler to create a shoe factory rather than make each shoe, one-by-one, by hand. By creating a factory, the cobbler can produce more shoes in less time and make more money. In turn the cobbler hires helpers to run the factory. The helpers take the money they make from the cobbler and buy shoes, thus generating more money and stimulating the economy. The town grows from the growth in the economy bringing in more people who also buy more shoes. The cobber soon has to build more and bigger factories to make more shoes and also hires more workers, etc.

You will never make a fortune building one pair of shoes at a time, you need to learn to automate.  Don’t work in your business, work on your business. Consider hiring employees that you can train to build your shoes or come up with ways to automate the shoe making business. Maybe there is a way you can resell a current product or service. Take a service you created for one client, get them to agree to let you resell it, and market it to others that might be in the same industry but different locations that do not compete with your current client.

Two areas that you can automate is billing and customer support. If you are still creating paper invoices each month find a quicker way to bill your clients. Hire a billing service or use something like PayPal to automatically send out bills each month. PayPal is relatively cheap and fairly easy to setup.  They continue to add services for small businesses and have complete how-to documentation for setting up services.

Also, if you are spending your day answering the phone with customer problems and questions, you are robbing yourself of the valuable time you could be spending making money. Use a help desk service or create a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your website. Document every problem/question you deal with along with the solution. Put the common questions and solutions on your FAQ website with a possible search engine to search for answers (for a large FAQ page).  Mention your FAQ page in your newsletters or on your answering machine message. Get your clients in the habit of checking your FAQ page before calling you by making it easy and quick to use. Contact us if you need help with creating an FAQ page.

Rule #6 Don’t Forget Your Clients!

There are two kinds of people in the world, those that are your clients and those that aren’t.  Make sure you don’t neglect the one for the other. Don’t pull all your resources into getting new clients and neglect the ones you have. STAY IN CONTANT CONTACT WITH YOUR EXISTING CLIENTS. One of the main reasons someone leaves a service provider is that they feel the person no longer cares about them because they never hear from them.  Send a monthly newsletter, a thank you card, etc. to stay in contact with your clients. Also, let your clients know about add-on services or products that can enhance current services or products. Your current clients, many times, can provide a great source of additional income. If you are already in constant contact with your clients, they generally will not be offended by an offer of additional goods and services.

You might have heard the adage that it cost ten times a much to acquire new clients as it does to keep existing ones. Make a constant effort to keep the clients you have. Also, if your current clients are elated with your service and products, they will bring you the best kind of prospects, referrals!

Rule # 7 Work Smart but also Work Hard!

Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.
-- Ecclesiastes 11:6

Read enough about successful entrepreneurs and you will soon come to realize that there is a lot that is attributed to luck and chance. Bill Gates sold his DOS operating system to IBM because the first guy they went to was out of town. Bill Gross of GoTo.com was the first to come up with paid search but Google was the company that made millions with AdWords. Xerox was actually the first company to develop the common computer desktop but it was Apple that (former employers of Xerox) ran with it and made millions.

We can plan and plan but we are never sure when and where that big break will come. The more opportunities we take advantage of the greater the chance of success.

To Do List:

1.    Develop a clear and simple business plan that states your objectives and how you plan to meet those objectives
2.    Buy and read a book on running a successful business
3.    Make a daily project time sheet
4.    Buy Quicken or some other software to track your income and expenses
5.    Set up a PayPal account or Quicken account to automatically or easily bill your clients
6.    Create a FAQ page on your website and let your clients know about it
7.    Start a monthly/weekly newsletter

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