What’s the Number One Way to be Successful Online?
If you’re attempting to get an online business up and running, but you’re revving in first gear, it’s time to find the answer to this question. I’ll get right to the point.
Build a Virtual Team And Outsource Almost Everything
In my quest to help others create time and location freedom (and to thrive myself) I have been on a mission to really understand what is vital to making money online and to show others how to do it. The most effective way I could think of? Actually doing it by example.
This has presented me with a MASSIVE challenge – bigger than anything I have done in the past. My problem stems from the fact that I have huge dreams…. let me explain.
Some Background
Before I started this Blog I already had two websites, Jobaroo and Workgateways, which both receive a few thousand visitors per day – one of which has earned well over seven figures. Jobaroo and Workgateways are businesses in their own right. These sites can be pretty passive day-to-day but in order for them to grow and thrive they needed my love – lots of love – and time.
Along came this blog – Cubicle Free. This is my passion project where I do what I love – which is helping others make money online. I quickly found out that blogging is a serious time commitment and that I was crappy at writing quickly and well; it was taking me 8 hours to do one post – but I am committed.
To make Cubicle Free do well as a business I embarked on building new websites – RSACoursesOnline.com was the first, with the goal of paying me $72/hour – passively.
I have since built another site that I expect to earn in excess of $100/hour.
I also have plans for more websites, but only once I am satisfied that my existing ones are working well and growing in income. One of my new sites is a huge project – I think it can be a big business in its own right.
OK so enough about me and my time commitments. What about how YOU can make money?
Most people work full-time while trying to get their first online endeavor up and running. Or maybe they have been trying for a while and find themselves stuck in first gear – and revving hard.
What’s the Problem?
At the beginning of the year I went to the New Media Expo (NMX) in Las Vegas. At this Expo my main mission was to try to really understand what other people were struggling with – so I could work out what people needed.
I spoke with MANY, MANY people. It was so awesome meeting so many great people but it was hard to understand the main thing that I could help them with.
Then I started thinking about all the people I met at the NMX who inspire me in many ways. What did they get right?
There were others, but these guys spring to mind. They make me jump out of bed and think “if they can do it so can I – yipppeeee!”
So, what’s the difference between these guys and the thousands that struggle every day?
Is it drive? Goals? Ambition? Yep, partially. But I have seen heaps of people with bags of Rock N Roll and no music. I too have heaps of drive, ambition and even proven business success to some degree – and let me assure you that this alone was not my answer. I need something more tangible, and working my Arse off 24/7 for the next 10 years is not and never was my answer either.
Then It Struck Me. What made me successful in the past? What was happening or happened to make it work? What do I need to do NOW to do it all again, but BIGGER?
BINGO – Holy Crap – almost everyone I know who is successful (including the names above) does it,
“The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I.’ And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I.’ They don’t think ‘I.’ They think ‘we’; they think ‘team.’ They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.” –Peter Drucker
This leads me to what I have been doing over the past month. This is where I DO what I SAY.
Building Awesome Teams
Team building in general is something that I am good at and love. Before starting my online business I was a recruitment consultant but I hated making cold sales calls. For a while I really struggled to make any money. Eventually I end up doing well in the highly sales driven world of recruitment without making cold sales calls.
How did I do this?
I focused on building teams. I spoke to clients I knew and tried to understand their business challenges and how another person – the right person – a person that I was going to charge them to find – could really help them.
I discovered, if you start solving your clients’ problems and they start doing a lot better as a result, it does not take long before the green stuff starts flowing.
Then in my online business – way before awesome services like Elance and Virtual Staff Finder the guys who built my website played a massive and super-important role – Kaj, Nicki and James from CityofCairns.com built the original version of Workgateways and Jobaroo, and are active to this day. But they didn’t just build a website – they got in the trenches with me and made the site work as a business. When things went wrong I called them at all hours of the day – even when they were sleeping.
After a few years of struggling to do everything myself and with the business stuck in first gear, I met Pru through my own forum. She was an Aussie traveler who really wanted to help the people who were coming to my website.
Pru helped me with so many things – she is a rock star. I love her like a sister to this day. Pru not only went the extra mile for me, she introduced her friends to me as well. I think I employed about 5 or 6 in total.
I had drive and ambition AND I had a great team. My success came from both.
Build Awesome Virtual Teams
I have always known that if you want to do anything significant in life, you will need the help of others – you simply can’t do it all yourself.
As Drucker said above – Teams are the key to a successful online business.
Here is how Workgateways looked in its prime, and it made me well over seven figures.
- Website Build – outsourced
- SEO – virtual assistant
- Inbound Emails – virtual assistant
- Social Media – virtual assistant
- Newsletter Creation – virtual assistant
- Customer Care – virtual assistant
So what did I actually do? Just sit back and collect the cash?
Well no, but I did travel a lot. I had free time whenever I wanted it, but I actually worked pretty hard – focusing on the things that made the business money and I enjoyed. These things included meeting the virtual assistants who worked with me and clients who worked with me. Part of my role included traveling to London and Australia every year and having coffees and beers.
Basically I worked ON the business not IN the business. The E-Myth Revisited book coined this phrase, and it’s a great primer for any business owner who is working hard and not able to grow.
The Situation
I see a lot of people struggling to get their businesses out of first gear or even getting their businesses off the ground.
The Solution
Get a VA and start outsourcing.
It’s not Hiring, it’s Team Building
Right now I am gearing up again. A few months ago I had scaled the business back to be basically just me again. At that time I was getting refocused on what I need to do online. Now I know what I want to do and I also know how I am going to achieve it.
I am building a Virtual Team;
Specialist VAs
Generalist VAs
Bloggers, Writers and Editors
Technical Support
So far I have hired two bloggers, a writer, an editor, bookkeeper, new accountant and a VA. I still need a WordPress website builder, coder, graphic designer and others, but for now I will have my hands full.
The difference between success and failure with VAs is your ability to engage them and get them working toward your goals.
All these people will become part of my team – not just people doing random tasks. They will be integrated into my company culture – my way of doing things – and they will be awesome. They will enjoy working with me. I will help them grow as individuals and we will thrive.
Now on to the real reason you are here.
Income for January 2013
Workgateways.com
This Month Income = $ 3994 Last Month Income = $3314
Difference = +20%
Jobaroo.com
This Month Income = $374 Last Month Income = $1475
Difference = -75%
RSACoursesOnline.com
This Month Affiliate Income = $50 Last month = $20
Difference = %-60%
New Website Launched 15 December 2012
This Month Affiliate Income = $0
Grand Total Income = $4503 Last Month = $4809
Difference = -6.3%
In future months I will start including expenses, but for now they are pretty minimal, although I expect that will change as I invest in outsourcing again and include items like the course I have started.
It is a long way from $400k but as I described above, my efforts have been focused on a much bigger long-term picture. This has meant that my direct income hasn’t increased significantly.
It’s fun to see how others are going and based on Matt Woodward’s Income Report Roundup I am middle of the pack.
RSA Courses Online – My Useful Niche Website
Traffic has remained low and stagnant, and there is a very good reason for this – very few awesome backlinks pointing to the site.
I find this a little frustrating as I have tried a few things, but then I remember I have not really got any great results. As I’ve discussed in the past, I believe that quality organic links will win.
However, initially I thought that based on the backlink profiles of my competitors in this space I could own this niche very easily. I know that I have much more to offer than anyone else on this subject and I add a lot of value, but traffic growth has been non-existent so far. Basically Google knows I exist but doesn’t care too much – yet. Admittedly it is still a young site, but the fact remains I thought it should be doing better – even just slightly better by now. The main problem has been my lack of action to get organic links which takes time and dedicated focus.
Positive Actions to Rectify This
Getting great backlinks so you can show up in the top results for Google is going to take some work.
The very first task I gave my brand new generalist VA was to research for high quality guest post opportunities on travel blogs. As I hit publish for this post she has found 51 awesome blogs, now it is time to hand this information over to the bloggers I have hired.
I also hired backpacker bloggers in Australia who can write awesome content including information about getting an RSA certificate.
Again, part of my team.
Conclusion
Here’s the bottom line: if you want to start changing gears in your business, it’s time to rely on more than passion and hard work.
Your business should not be your life.
If all that you have is passion and hard work eventually the passion dies and your lifestyle becomes just hard work. The passion dies because eventually you end up doing everything the business demands – including many things you hate doing and many things that are better done by someone else.
The sooner you start outsourcing the quicker you can start building a team.
- Hire your first VA and you start taking your foot of the brake.
- Start building a team and you start pressing the accelerator pedal.
I am currently writing a guide on how to work out what to give your first VA. If you are interested in receiving an advanced copy, email me at Quinn @ cubiclefree.com with the subject “free guide”. Anyone who emails me before I publish will get it free. I will also be offering it to anyone already subscribed to my “latest blog updates” so if you have ever got an email from me you have nothing to do.
P.S. Bethany who I found on eLance edited this blog post. As I said, blog posts were taking me on average about 8 hours to write and edit and loading them onto WordPress – formatting, finding pictures and making sure I had a good point was sucking the life out of me. NOW they take me 2 to 3 hours and I have more time to do what I enjoy. Thanks Bethany – You Are Awesome!
If you want to work out what to outsource first – email me now for an advanced copy of that guide or simply put your email into the opt-in box below.
Thank you so much for reading.