If It Isn’t Working…Stop Doing It!!

All the best to your future endeavors. I admire your attitude in still persevering with IM. Keep going and things will straighten out eventually.
 


On eBooks.

If you're (anyone) is concerned with your work being pirated, you could kind of hedge against that by throwing some affiliate links and recommendations pointing to your own landing pages for further reading. Do this, and p2p/torrents/sharing will benefit you.

On the topic: I've definitely been there, working a few jobs while trying to grow my business slowly. Breaking comfort zones is a must in order to break through anything. If you're not stressed out about meeting expectations on your own business, then you're not working hard enough on growing your business.

If its time you need, I've managed to cut my sleep down from 8-10 hours a day to less than 6 hours a day. I just take a couple 25 minute naps during the day (I don't even fall asleep during the naps sometimes, but I still feel like I just had a coffee a few minutes after I'm up), and this makes it possible for me to sleep 4 to 5 hours a night. Once I'm up, I'm up. Getting out of bed is the only hard part because I'm still fighting a really bad habit I had for years. Once that discipline is engrained I'm all set.
 
I decided to write this because I think it could help other people. Being Jan’s son, I’ve seen her struggle being successful online; however, the struggle isn’t caused by her lack of motivation, laziness, or talent. She is very motivated to getting things done. She is never lazy. She has talent! Her writing is amazing and top of the line if I could she would be my only article writer. (But that wouldn’t solve her problem, completely).

You might be wondering what the main problem is? Well… there is actually two that I’ve noticed. Focusing and money management! In a way, they go hand to hand. As a single mom, she has a lot on her plate including working hard to pay her bills. Normally she doesn’t have as much time as she needs to fully focus on her projects. As she fixes her money management problem, it will allow her to attain success with her projects.

For anyone who is working on making some changes, I truly believe a good beginning comes down to correct money management! So for my response to this thread, I’ll be mainly focusing on money management. The following has helped me and I hope can help others too. Seeing that money management starts with knowing your monthly financial statement, I will start there.

Financial Statement
Every month I write my financial statement. I believe everyone should. How can you manage your money if you don’t even know or just guessing what your income, expenses, cash flow, liabilities, and assets are?

  • Income – how much money will be entering my wallet this month?
  • Expenses – how much money will be leaving my wallet this month?
  • Cash Flow – how much money is left over after the bills?
  • Liabilities – what is the total amount I owe in credit cards, loans, etc?
  • Assets – what is the total amount of all my income streams (savings, websites, bonds, and etc.)?
What are the first steps in managing money?

  1. Write your financial statement
  2. Begin cutting expenses, like bills that are not needed.
  3. Set aside a percentage for savings and investing
  4. Start a savings account (for emergencies)
  5. Begin using your investing money on assets (domains, articles, designs, link development)
I know it is easier said than done but those simple steps have helped my money management immensely. It took some time to get to the point where I am now but it started with this. At the beginning, I was just investing $50 to $100 a month into my websites because that was all I had. Even a small amount is better than nothing.

Okay. That was longer than I expected. My main point is to get your money management inline first so you can be focused on your assets.
 
Well, I can certainly relate to this very much. I have a feeling I need to take a bit of time every week or if I could every day and reflect, maybe do a bit of inner search myself. Thanks for posting Jan, I like reading about other people that I can relate with as I am single myself with two kids, work out of home, and work online. I just really need to focus and learn to have my tasks in order. Looking forward to hearing more from you for sure.
 
vortex said:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

-Mark Twain-
Click to expand...

ha, nice. i have one fridge magnet, and thats what it says.
 
Jan,

some advice about transitioning.

i was in a similar situation as you are years ago. you know you are in a dead end situation, but you need money to keep your life together.

there are MANY jobs out there that will allow you to make the transition you need to make. most of them are graveyard shifts.

hotel desk, valet desk, parking garage attendant, security desk, etc.

change from wal-mart to something with lots of down time. bring your laptop and work two jobs at once until you don't need your real job anymore. you will probably even get a better wage than wal-mart.

i did this in college. it was hard as hell. but then one day i landed a huge freelance job and i quit my job and my post-grad program and never looked back.

good luck.
 
bobschmuck said:
That was longer than I expected. My main point is to get your money management inline first so you can be focused on your assets.
Click to expand...

This +1

I can not tell you how much my finances improved once my wife and I started getting serious about budgeting.

We use the "bucket" system, often also found under the name of "envelope" system, using different accounts for our money.

The basic system is this:
A7kQe.png


I can not stress enough how important those spending accounts are.
This is money each of us can spend freely, without ever having to discuss it. Also, we can spend it ALL and still food, electricity, etc.. is provided for.

Once a month I sit down and do the budget, transfer the money to the savings and spending accounts. Done.

Easy as it seems, this has made us financially healthy.

::emp::
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom