![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/John-Reese.jpg\" "\\"John")
<\/a><\/p>\nHere are 12 valuable mini-lessons that I\u2019ve learned so far as an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n
These range from mistakes to avoid, to making strategic decisions, of how to get cash flow to come in the fastest, etc.<\/p>\n
They are in no particular order\u2026<\/p>\n
1. ALWAYS DO MORE THAN IS EXPECTED OF YOU<\/strong><\/p>\n I learned this at an early age from my Dad. He had a very successful career as a business executive and engineer, and this the core principle that created his success.<\/p>\n You can apply this to your business in many ways\u2026 over-delivering to your customers, giving unexpected bonuses to your employees or outsourced workers, and more.<\/p>\n Most people do just the bare minimum. Do more than is expected of you and it will do amazing things for your business.<\/p>\n 2. STOP DREAMING AND START DOING<\/strong><\/p>\n Too many entrepreneurs get caught up in the big dreams of how they will one day be rich and how their life will be amazing\u2026 but they never end up doing anything.<\/p>\n They buy courses, read all they can, jot down little notes and ideas in a notebook, but nothing ever actually gets created. A web site doesn\u2019t get made. Advertising isn\u2019t run. Markets aren\u2019t tested. Nothing.<\/p>\n If you want to make a lot of money the only way that happens is getting stuff done. Period.<\/p>\n 3. DON\u2019T LET LEARNING DELAY ACTIVITY<\/strong><\/p>\n Most people that have studied Internet Marketing much already have the basic skills that are That\u2019s worth REPEATING\u2026<\/p>\n Most people that have studied IM much ALREADY HAVE the basic skills that are needed to build a million-dollar business.<\/p>\n You can get stuck learning new stuff FOREVER.<\/p>\n There will always be new methods and techniques that get discovered. The Internet changes on a DAILY BASIS. This is a given. Don\u2019t get caught in the trap of \u201cI\u2019m going to start building my business right after I go through this next course\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n You can start building your business TODAY while you are studying and learning new things that you can easily apply TOMORROW.<\/p>\n Things will NEVER perfectly align for you and your business. There\u2019s no such thing. So don\u2019t wait. Get started NOW and take action. Get some stuff going and go from there.<\/p>\n 4. MULTIPLE IDEAS CAN BE THE KISS OF DEATH<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s okay to work on multiple projects and ideas. It\u2019s almost impossible to stop entrepreneurs from having tons of new ideas at the same time.<\/p>\n BUT\u2026<\/p>\n No new money comes in the door until you get ONE project launched and making money. Something has to be launched FIRST.<\/p>\n 5. MAKE JUST ONE DOLLAR FIRST<\/strong><\/p>\n No one has ever made a million dollars in sales without generating $1 first. ALL successful businesses start with that first sale and then grow from there.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter what your income goals are. The faster you make your first dollar, the faster 6. DO THE IMMEDIATE CASH PROJECT FIRST<\/strong><\/p>\n What should you work on next? Whatever will bring in cash the fastest for your business \u2014 and of course, I mean that in a moral\/legal\/ethical way.<\/p>\n If you analyze all the great ideas you are probably sitting on, I bet you can realistically prioritize them in the order of which ones would actually make money come in the fastest (if it succeeds.)<\/p>\n THAT is the project you need to focus on.<\/p>\n Cash is the lifeblood of your business (and your life.) Save some of those \u201cbig\u201d ideas for the future. Focus on the ones that stand the best chance of getting new money to come in right away. Once you have some stable ongoing cash flow in your business, then you can take a chance on that project that may take longer to pay off.<\/p>\n 7. EMAIL MARKETING KICKS THE CRAP OUT OF EVERYTHING ELSE<\/strong><\/p>\n When it comes to growing a business online, nothing generates long-term cash flow like an email list of engaged subscribers & customers.<\/p>\n Email marketing is the best way to generate traffic. It\u2019s the best way to \u2018recycle\u2019 the same visitors again and again to any of your projects. It\u2019s also the best way to convert prospects into buyers.<\/p>\n RSS, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, BLAH BLAH BLAH Yes, those methods can generate leads. Yes, those methods can generate some sales. But time and time again little old email marketing kicks their butts \u2014 by a long shot.<\/p>\n So make building a list, and a solid relationship with it, a top priority in your business.<\/p>\n 8. RUN A LEAN OVERHEAD MACHINE<\/strong><\/p>\n I can\u2019t stress this one enough. When you start growing a successful business\u00a0 it\u2019s really easy for your overhead to get out of hand. It\u2019s easy to start hiring a bunch of people and committing to a bunch of expenses.<\/p>\n Take it from me, when you have months where your fixed expenses (doesn\u2019t include advertising, etc.) are well over $100,000\/MONTH (and growing) it can put you in a tough position to make healthy profits.<\/p>\n I used to have fixed overhead that high but never again. I realized there were smarter ways to do things. What you need to realize is that REVENUE doesn\u2019t mean jack squat. It\u2019s your profit (income) that matters.<\/p>\n So while running a $10,000,000\/year business (sales) is impressive, I know people running a $1,000,000\/year business that nets MORE than the person that owns the $10MM\/year business.<\/p>\n It all comes down to your expenses.<\/p>\n Sometimes it certainly DOES take heavy expenses in order to make a lot of money. But that\u2019s not my point\u2026<\/p>\n My point is, your overhead can really get away from you. If your sales experience some dips, and it\u2019s almost guaranteed they will at some point, then you can LOSE YOUR BUTT very quickly.<\/p>\n So add to your overhead as a last resort.<\/p>\n 9. MAKE ACCOUNTING A PRIORITY<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a big mistake that most entrepreneurs make \u2014 and I\u2019ve been guilty of it as well. Keeping the books and doing accounting work is the LAST thing that most entrepreneurs want to mess with.<\/p>\n We have more fun by coming up with new ideas and trying to make them grow \u2013 not spending hours of our time inputting receipts and figures into QuickBooks.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t like accounting, immediately pay someone a few bucks to handle it for you. Just make sure your accounting is always up to date. It\u2019s very important.<\/p>\n As an extension of this, make paying your taxes a priority \u2014 even if you pay them in advance. I have paid a small fortune in tax penalties because of being lazy and filing late. And it\u2019s too easy to let one delay turn into another and for the problem to get worse. So make it a priority.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t \u201crob Peter to pay Paul.\u201d This is a trap most entrepreneurs fall into \u2014 again, I\u2019ve been guilty of it in the past myself.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to start making a bunch of money and think \u201cI\u2019ll just use this money to make more money instead of paying my taxes on it now and I\u2019ll just pay the taxes later after I\u2019ve made even more money.\u201d<\/p>\n Or the same thinking is applied towards delaying payments to a vendor, or some other expense that needs to get paid.<\/p>\n This is probably the #1 mistake entrepreneurs make that can create problems and a lot of wasted money in paying penalties and interest.<\/p>\n So make sure your accounting is taken care of and your taxes get paid on-time for you.<\/p>\n 10. DON\u2019T LEASE OFFICE SPACE<\/strong><\/p>\n (If possible.)<\/p>\n As tempting as this might become if your business starts to grow, avoid it at all costs.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re like me, what will happen is that you will eventually stop going to the office and just work from home where you always were more comfortable anyway. And\/or you will end up realizing you really didn\u2019t need it.<\/p>\n Having an \u201coffice\u201d is not required to have a successful business. We live in a Digital World now and it\u2019s just not important anymore.<\/p>\n Even if your business grows and you need employees, you still don\u2019t necessarily need an office. There are people out there running $20MM+\/year businesses with no office; the employees all just work virtually. This is becoming more and more common.<\/p>\n * There certainly are exceptions to this. My team in the Philippines works out of an office I leased. But they are collaborating on software projects and NEED to work in the same location.<\/p>\n And, of course, it\u2019s also very inexpensive. Most office leases are thousands of dollars per month and usually don\u2019t turn out to be a good use of cash.<\/p>\n 11. ALMOST EVERYTHING TAKES LONGER<\/strong><\/p>\n When creating new projects, or having some software made for you, or having an ebook ghostwritten, or anything else, know that things almost always take more time than originally expected.<\/p>\n This is the #1 reason why you need to act TODAY to start putting things in motion to grow your business. The longer you wait, the more into the future you push your potential of getting money to come in the door.<\/p>\n 12. THE MONEY IS IN THE MARKETING<\/strong><\/p>\n Don\u2019t get caught up in trying to make Web pages and learn HTML, or studying how to create javascript, or learning to master Linux so you can administer your own server, or how to use Photoshop to create little logos, etc.<\/p>\n You can certainly do that stuff if you want, but know that it will most likely just be a HOBBY.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no surprise that some of the most successful entrepreneurs I know are also some of the LEAST TECHNICAL people I know. The main thing they do right is to simply pay others to do all the \u201cnuts & bolts\u201d stuff that makes online business work.<\/p>\n It allows them to spend all their time on the marketing \u2014 which is where the money comes from.<\/p>\n *** BONUS LESSON ***<\/strong><\/p>\n See how I\u2019m over-delivering as mentioned in the first lesson?<\/p>\n SPENDING TIME ONLINE ISN\u2019T NECESSARILY WORKING ON YOUR BUSINESS<\/p>\n Just because you spend hours a day online doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re working on your business. You can do \u2018research\u2019 forever and never make a cent.<\/p>\n You need to be spending most of your time on:<\/p>\n – Generating Traffic Don\u2019t fall into the trap of reading blogs & forums, chatting on Facebook or Twitter, checking stats, reading news, etc. for hours upon hours.<\/p>\n Just know that almost all of that stuff (with rare exception) is LOSING YOU MONEY more than making you money. I hope you enjoyed these mini-lessons. Hopefully, you can apply them to your business and be a lot more successful!<\/p>\n Yours For Online Profits,<\/p>\n John Reese<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n Did you like this blog post? Click the Facebook \u201clike\u201d button below and share it with your friends! <\/em><\/p>\n Related Blog Posts:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n The Life Success Secret NO ONE Talks About<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n A Revealing Look Into My Online Income Portfolio<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n 7 Secrets of Self-Made Multimillionaires<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
\nneeded to build a million-dollar business.<\/p>\n
\nyou will reach your goals. PERIOD.<\/p>\n
\n– Communicating With Your Customers (i.e. blog, list, etc.)
\n– Creating Content<\/p>\n