Starting your own business
Starting your own business takes work, but more importantly…determination. Back in the early 90′s I had opened, operated and owned my own photography studio. I worked for myself for four years before going back to the 9 to 5 scene. I was simply exhausted. I worked day and night to keep up with both the work and the bills. Opening my studio had cost me roughly $20,000, which was a small amount for a professional studio. It literally took up every minute of my day, every day, every week. One day my wife hugged me and told me she missed me. The sad thing is…we lived under the same roof. That was it, I had it and went back to punching a time clock.
Something I learned form the experience of owning my own shop is that it took a focused determination to get there. I didn’t just wake up one day and find myself owning my own business. I had to work up to it. I began taking photographs, on sight. After saving up for about six months, I had enough for a down payment for a small house. My wife and I fixed it up and moved into the second floor, while running the business on the ground floor. My hours were by appointment, so I was open during odd evening hours from time to time. But the point is, I made it happen.
At this point you may be asking, “Ok Rick, what does this have to do with starting an affiliate marketing business”. Well, everything. Keep reading.
I know where each and every one of you are right now. Let me ask you a question, how many “make money online” products have you spent your money on since you began searching for the solution to your financial problems? Honestly, I lost count. I know I have quite a collection. At one point, I began to notice that most of them had similar information in them. All of them offered something unique, but for the most part they all explained the same formula for success. So I began wondering why I wasn’t making any money at this.
I had one problem…ME. I was the reason I wasn’t making any money online. I was so busy collecting “The next big secret”, and never gave myself the opportunity to actually begin working my business.
How does this relate to my portrait studio? The reality was that I went to college, worked as a freelancer for a couple of years on the side to gain experience, bought equipment, came up with a list of services and their prices, went out and “got the word out” about my services, began taking pictures for people. All of this occurred over a three year period after graduating from college.
So what would this look like if I were to relate it to being an information collector of affiliate marketing plans but never taking action? The scenario would probably be…Graduate from college, read and study about being a freelance photographer, research prices for various photography equipment but don’t actually buy anything, list services and prices that I could possibly use, create advertisements and brochures without allowing any of them to be seen by the public, and finally, look through photography magazines and dream about what it would be like to actually execute a photo shoot.
This is a good example of being a professional dreamer. The moral of my story…don’t just be a dreamer, act upon your dream and make it happen. Don’t just buy the next best affiliate marketing product and the next, and the next…etc. Take action and start your business. Once you do, your fears will melt. You may be afraid of success, or failure, or whatever. Ok, that’s fine, but you still need to do something. Push your fears aside and initiate something. You won’t know what the outcome will be until you try it. You may be pleasantly surprised and make enough to make a house payment…or more. One thing I can tell you, it certainly doesn’t take three years to make money through affiliate marketing. If handled correctly and you stick to your guns, you should have sales coming in within less than 90 days. What could be better? It may only be $50, but what would you have if you didn’t do anything?…not even $50.
So right now, I want everyone to just stop procrastinating and JUST DO IT! You won’t be sorry, trust me.