Is it me or is the Internet making potential entrepreneurs lazy?
Copyright 2006 Richard Grady
We all know that it is possible for an online business to
generate significant income that, ultimately, can be earned with
minimal input from the business owner. This is due to the fact
that so many processes can be automated on the Internet thus
saving the need for an individual to carry out these tasks.
BUT no online business is going to generate a worthwhile income
without at least some hard work - usually several months worth
at the bare minimum.
I often refer to myself as a lazy Internet marketer because I
know that there are many things I could be doing to further
improve my businesses but often prefer not to. My problem is
that I can always find something better to be doing than
working! But it wasn't always this way and in the early years of
my online career I worked some serious hours to get things up
and running - certainly a lot more than I had ever worked in any
job.
As many of you know, my offline career had been spent in the
banking industry which meant that I was no computer expert and I
had no particular Internet skills or abilities. I therefore
spent days reading and learning how to do the tasks that I
wanted to do - how to build a web page, how to integrate payment
facilities, how to send customers emails after they had
purchased etc. Whilst now there seems to be an online video or
eBook about pretty much all Internet marketing topics, going
back a few years, this wasn't the case and I often only
discovered how to do something by trial and error.
So why am I telling you this?
Well quite simply because of an email exchange that I had with
someone this week which made me realize how lazy some people can
be and how they genuinely expect to have an online business
handed to them on a plate.
In a nutshell, this person purchased a product from me that came
with resale rights - nothing unusual there. I then got an email
from them asking how to get the sales page for the product
online. Again, nothing unusual in that, it happens quite a lot.
I answered the question and there then followed what can only be
described as a barrage of further questions asking how to set up
a payment processor, how to deliver the product, how to
integrate an autoresponder system into the processor (the buyer
even asked what messages he should put in the autoresponder!),
how to market the sales page and how to get the page into Google!
I have had similar requests in the past and obviously it is
simply impossible to answer all of these questions in a single
email (quite apart from the fact that it would take me an age).
I therefore answered some of the questions and referred the
buyer to my forum and some other resources which I knew had the
answers to the remaining questions (as well as a lot more free
information).
So imagine my surprise when the response that I got back was
basically along the lines of 'You aren't helping me here - I
step by step instructions as to how to do everything that I have
asked you.'
The fact that I had proved links to resources that answered his
questions was not enough. Apparently he didn't have the time to
read through those resources and wanted me to summarize
everything for him!!
Now, bear in mind that this guy spent less than $50 with me and
you might begin to see where I am coming from. Does anyone
really think that $50 buys several hours of one to one
consulting with ANYONE? Why do people think that they shouldn't
have to put any effort into building a business?
How can someone expect to generate a living online when they
can't even be bothered to spend a few hours learning how to do
some of the most basic tasks?
You might think that you don't need to know how to do some of
the things involved with running an online business if you can
get someone else to do them (even if you have to pay them) but
there is no substitute for knowing exactly how your business
works from the ground up. If you follow step by step
instructions from someone else, the chances are that you won't
really be taking note of what is happening, you won't make
mistakes and therefore you won't LEARN.
I have recently hired a web designer to build a new site for me.
This is the first time that I have ever done this and it did
feel very weird at first. The site in question is quite
technically complicated - not so much the actual pages but the
scripting behind the scenes that make it work. Now, whilst my
new web designer is very knowledgeable and capable of doing
exactly what I want, the fact that I have a good understanding
of how scripts/databases etc work and how it is possible to get
things to happen on a website means that both of our jobs have
been a lot easier than they might have been. I was able to go to
him and say, 'I want it to do this and I think the best way of
doing it is .......'. Now, I can't write the scripts or software
required but I do have a pretty good idea of the best way for
someone else to write them. How did I build up this knowledge?
Simple. By sitting in front of my computer for hours working
things out for myself and LEARNING. Remember, your online
business is more important to you than anyone else. Regardless
of how much someone tries to help you, if you want it to
succeed, YOU are the one that needs to put the effort in.