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No
3: You
MUST OWN your own business
Why
you must own your own business and why many people don't make money
on the Internet:
In
this short section I am going to explain:
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Why
you must not build Someone
Else’s Business (but most people do)
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Why
a downline has no value
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Why
most on-line business people don’t
own anything
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Why
they are completely at
the mercy of the business owner
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Why
it is not only Web sites that go
down with all hands screaming
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Why
you must be different, and how to add
value with your own perceived unique selling proposition (USP)
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Why
Affiliates MUST have their own web site
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The
Biggest Reason People
Don’t Make Sales
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The
single
most important reason why Internet
businesses succeed or fail
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Why
you make sales or
why you don’t
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How
to build credibility
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Why
you MUST
Own Your Real Estate
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Which
people will never make any money on the Internet
and certainly will never build a worthwhile business.
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Pulling
it all together
The
Internet today is awash with get-rich, MLM and money schemes all
promising a life of wealth and richness for you. Most
don’t work.
They
don’t work because they ignore the basic principles of business,
particularly the principles of doing business on the Internet.
You
will never achieve financial independence with these schemes.
What
I hope to do here is to explain why I believe this and why I believe
you
must own your own business
if financial independence is your goal.
I
will be covering:
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Why
the primary purpose of owning your own business is to achieve
financial independence.
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That
to acquire wealth today, you must be in your own business.
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Why
you must not build someone else’s business
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Why
you must add value
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The
biggest reason people don’t make sales
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Why
you must own your own Internet real estate
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And
finally where to find the resources to get started
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What
is the purpose of owning a business?
A
business has to give you an income, but it should also give you more
than that. You can get an income working for someone.
So
what is special about owning a business? I’ve heard it said that
starting a business is just “buying yourself a job”. Well that
attitude is missing the point.
The
Primary purpose of owning your own business is to achieve
financial independence.
The
Primary purpose of owning your own business is to grow it until it
reaches a size that you can either let other people run it and you
retire, or you can sell it for enough money to retire on.
To
obtain any kind of benefit from building a business you MUST build
it into something tangible with a value that you can sell. Otherwise
it is just a job.
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"Rule
No. 1: To
acquire wealth today, you must be in your own business.
"
"You
may think that the corporate executive with a $100,000
salary is better off than the small shop owner, but the
executive will be hard-pressed to double his income and
taxes will eat up most of any increase.
The
simplest peanut vendor has unlimited opportunity to expand
his business and his income. Even salesmen, who in most
cases are able to write their own paychecks, can control his
sale increases himself.
"
J.
Paul Getty
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Don’t Build Someone Else’s Business
Note
that Paul Getty said you
must be in your own business. He
did not say you must be in someone else’s business.
But
that is what most people “in business for themselves” are really
doing – building someone else’s business!
This
is particularly true on the Internet. There are thousands of
“business opportunities” that con people into thinking they have
their own business.
All
network marketing (MLM) schemes fall into this category.
In a network marketing scheme you are part of a downline. Who owns
the downline?
Not
You! If you disappear, your downline rolls up to your sponsor. Your
downline belongs to your upline! In reality the complete downline
and the complete business itself belongs to the original creators of
the scheme. Nothing
belongs to you!
Why
a downline has no value. . .
You
can’t sell a downline.
Now
don’t get me wrong; you can make a lot of money in MLM. But few
people do. There are plenty of reports on the %age of people who
make it and those who fail in MLM. Only around 5% make it! (If you
want to see some reports just email me.)
But
whether they make it or fail, it’s still just a job. Even
the top diamonds in MLM have to keep doing it. They can’t sell up
and get out. Their collateral is the relationships they have with
their downline. You can’t sell that. So they have to keep
maintaining the downline. Churn is very high in MLM schemes so the
dream of “retiring” is a bit far-fetched. All top MLMers have to
work hard to make up the churn losses.
It’s
even worse on the Internet.
There are many schemes where you are required to pay a monthly
“subscription” to remain in the scheme. If you miss your payment
you’re out. What kind of chance do you have of selling a business
like that?
Here
is a typical one http://www.mysiteinc.com/.
They charge $19.95 a month to rent an Affiliate web site. This is
just a page on their site with your name on it. You can never own
it, change it or sell it! You are just renting their space and
throwing money away.
There
are even more scams and cons on the Internet that take money from
people under the pretext that they will become rich, but they never
do. They will never own a business.
Even
Affiliates, and I love affiliate programs, are often not building a
business. If they operate primarily by sending out emails or posting
banners they may make a decent living, if they are very good at it.
But what are they building? Nothing. At the end of the year, they
may have made a decent income, but that is all they have. They have
nothing tangible to show for all their hard work.
Free
Websites
is another area where people think they have their own business. They
don’t own anything. They are completely at the mercy of the
business owner.
Don't
let yourself be at the mercy of someone else's business
Over
the last year I have seen several “businesses” disappear.
Some are web sites in which gullible people will have
invested a lot of time and money ‘building a business’ only to
have it snatched away when the real business owner decides to close
shop.
Here
are some of them:
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Site 1: http://www.newagearena.com/
A 150 page web site. You can make a profit by selling the
site. There are various entry levels. The cost of the site
when we last checked:
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Level
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Setup
Fee
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Hosting
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Total
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Starter
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$199.99
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$147
(3 months) **
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$346.99
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Supervisor
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$349.99
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$147
(3 months) **
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$496.99
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Minimaster
*
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$1,749
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$200
(2 months) **
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$1,949
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Webmaster
*
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$2,450
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$338
(3 months) **
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$2,788
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Now
defunct
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Site
2: Ron Holland’s World Wide Wealth Club
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http://www.wealth.co.uk/
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Ron
Holland is a millionaire who is famous for his best selling
book “Talk and Grow Rich”. This site used to be his MLM
business home page.
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When
we checked a few days ago all we got was “Sorry
the website you have requested is currently not available
“
What
happened to all those people who built downlines?
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But it is not only Web sites that go down with all hands screaming
A
few years ago I built a sizable MLM downline with a company called
TELINCO. The product was a five in one package including discounted
telephone calls, free Internet access, freephone number, voice-mail
and personal number. At the time it was revolutionary and I was
enjoying the commission checks each month.
Then
along came Freeserve (a UK free-internet access company) and TELINCO
pulled the plug on our network.
All
that work and effort down the drain! Even if it had continued, and I
had built a huge downline and income, I still could never sell up
and retire.
That’s
when I decided to build The Affiliate Website Company websites.
You
Must Add Value
To
build any kind of business you must add value.
Most
of the Free sites, MLM and money schemes don’t add value.
If
you join one of these and do what everyone else is doing, sending
emails (and very often spamming) with the same ad copy over and over
what happens?
People
get fed up with it.
The
whole world knows about the ‘Sxx’ program. What is the point of
sending me another email telling me how to get rich with the
‘Sxx’ program? Where is the added value? Zero.
(‘Sxx’
is a fictitious name, but I’m sure you can think of the kind of
scheme I mean.)
What
does adding value mean?
It
means taking a product or service and making it more valuable than
before. A piece of stone is just that, a piece of stone. Take a
chisel and carve a shape into it and you have a statue. You have
created added value.
To
be different, to add value, you must have a perceived unique selling
proposition (USP).
In
Internet terms, where the product is mostly information there are
many ways to add value. Here are some of them:
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Make
it easy for people to access the information they want (search
engines, web sites)
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Bring
together valuable information into an easily accessible format
(eBooks)
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Make
services available to a wide audience (hosting)
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Create
a product that people want. (computer software)
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Teach
people certain skills and techniques (manuals and how-to guides)
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The
list is endless.
But
you can’t add value if you don’t have your own unique selling
proposition (USP). Without a USP you will just be another ‘me
too’ emailer. So I suggest you don’t follow the crowd but find
your own product and develop your USP.
Why
Affiliates Must have their own web site
In
most cases, the applicant for an Affiliate program is required by
the affiliate company to have an acceptable web site. If you want to
be an Affiliate and you don't have a web site that is up to the
standards demanded - tough.
But
that is not the only reason. The most important job of an
Affiliate is to build an opt-in email list.
Even
if you can run an Affiliate program without a site you are wasting
time and money if you don't process clients through your site and
gather their permission to send them information via email. If
you do not do this you are committing suicide!
I
cannot emphasize this strongly enough. If you join our newsletter, I
will explain why this is so important in more detail. But believe me
if you want to become an Affiliate you must have your own site.
Banners.
Free advertising by banner exchanges is well known as a sure-fire
and FREE way to generate masses of traffic to your site. It works
very simply. You put someone else's banner on your site, they put
one on theirs. But it's also more sophisticated - you can easily get
your banners on 1000s of sites - all free! But you can't join a
banner exchange if you don't have a real website. No website - no
free advertising.
The
Biggest Reason People Don’t Make Sales
This
is true in a conventional business as well as an on-line business.
But with an on-line business it is a thousand times more important.
I
will let you into a secret that is worth thousands of dollars to
those who take note.
It
is the single most important reason why Internet businesses succeed
or fail. Why you make sales or why you
don’t.
It
boils down to one word:
Credibility
Why
should people believe your claims? They don’t know you, they
can’t see your store, and they have no idea what kind of business
you run. And they couldn’t care less about you.
If
I receive an email sent by a spammer that doesn’t even disclose
his email address, never mind his name and telephone number but
claims to ‘make me $10,000 In 30 days without doing anything’,
am I going to believe him?
Of
course not. That email goes straight in the trash without even
opening it.
But
this is what thousands of people are doing every day and they think
they are ‘building a business’. What a waste of time and effort.
How
to build credibility
You
must give people the impression that you are trustworthy and that
your business is here to stay. You can’t make outlandish claims
that you can’t meet and you must present your USP. You must give
the appearance of being a solid and respected person and company.
One
of the easiest ways to do this and one that most people don’t
do is . . .
You
Must Own Your Real Estate
If
you’re in ‘bricks-and-mortar’ business is it likely you would
have a business base? Of course you would. Would that base be a
factory, an office, a spare room, a touring caravan or a tent?
It’s
unlikely you will build a business that will give you financial
independence or any level of security if you’re operating from a
tent.
So
why operate from a tent on the Internet? That is what most people
do.
Building
a business from a lap-top sitting on the beach is fine if you
have your on-line Real Estate that people can see.
Would
you buy an insurance policy from a street vendor? No. Would you buy
it from a run-down corner shop? No. Would you buy it from a
top-quality high-street shop with granite floors and
air-conditioning? Yes, of course you would.
Why?
Credibility.
So
why do most people try to pretend they are in a business when they
quite clearly are just cowboys?
Here
are the signs and I’m sure you’ll recognize them:
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Sending
unsolicited emails (spam)
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Making
outlandish claims
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Not
revealing their true email address
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Not
revealing their name or contact details, telephone number etc
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Using
a free email service
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Operating
from a free ISP
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Operating
with a free web page
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Using
sub-domains
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Having
no web site
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Offering
a money-making scheme that requires a monthly payment
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These
people will never make any money on the Internet and
certainly will never build a worthwhile business.
Remember
credibility?
If
you’re serious about building a business on the Internet you must
not do all the things listed above.
Instead
you must show people that you have your own Internet real estate.
You
must:
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Have
your own first level domain
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Own
your own real web site (not a page on someone else’s site)
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Have
a real email address
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Build
your own email list
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Run
your own newsletter
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If
you put all these things together and build a business on this solid
foundation, you can create a business to last. You can create a
business to sell and you can create financial independence.
How
to go to the next step and build your business I will cover in other
newsletters. In the meantime, get started with your own domain and
web site.
Summary
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The
Primary purpose of owning your own business is to achieve
financial independence.
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To
acquire wealth today, you must be in your own business.
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Don’t
build someone else’s business
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You
Must Add Value
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Build
Credibility – Lack of it is the biggest reason people don’t
make sales
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You
Must Own Your Real Estate
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If
the whole of this article could be summarized in a sentence it would
be:
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“If
you want to build a lasting on-line business that can give
you financial independence you must own your own business
and website.”
(Alan
Brown, CEO The Affiliate Website Company)
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