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As an entrepreneur who ventures in an online business, you will want to hire virtual staff. The process is called outsourcing where entrepreneurs look for staff in several online recruitment websites like timetoreplacemyself.com. Did you know that about 90% of problems encountered in a business are staff-related? Rick, who has been outsourcing for many years, attests that 90% of problems in a business are staff-related. While issues among customers and supply happen, problems among your employees are inevitable. “People are not robots that you can control. They make their own decisions and right or wrong you as the business owner with the decisions that they’ve made,” Rick explained in a podcast. People are people. – Rick For Employers: 3 Tips when working with virtual staff 1. Let some issues slide. As a boss, you want to be lenient, a bit, towards your virtual staff. This is a little different than when handling people or employees who are actually working in a real office. “There comes a point where you can’t sweat the petty things…” 2. Talk with tact and good direction. Handling your staff can be like raising kids, there is a proper way of saying things like, “you know the way you phrased x is maybe not how I would have phrased it. I probably would have phrased it this way” rather than saying “you know what that was wrong. You should do it this way.” Dealing with tact and direction helps keeps your staff happy enough that they don’t easily quit on you. “No one likes to be told that they’re wrong. Ever. Everyone always does what they think is right at the time and that’s just how life works.” 3. Employ a system that will help accelerate things and move ahead. Advantages of hiring virtual staff 1. Hiring staff is a great help. While entrepreneurs are busy generating more revenues, they just don’t have enough hours in a day to do the job physically unless they hire people. For example, Rick hires staff to develop a website so he can focus on customer service and sales. 2. Having reliable staff around helps get the job done 3. Pay skills are different than local pay skills. You can save a fraction of the cost when hiring virtual workers than local workers with the same skill set that you need. 4. Employer does not need to pay for tax 5. Employer does not need to provide office equipmemt The Bane: On firing virtual staff Bosses do not like to fire anybody but what if there is no more work to do? “I think the way one needs to approach a firing is by looking at it and saying people fire themselves. – Rick” Based on Rick’s experience with staff, he believes that workers make the decision for the boss and the boss is just the one who pulls the trigger on it. Rick said that it’s been easier to let a few things slide but the problem of that is these can lead into larger things. They become an issue. “Oh yes sir, I’m sorry, I’ll get rid on that, I’ll fix that, I shouldn’t have done that..Blah…blah blah blah and it’s good for a couple of weeks and then they slide back in the old habits. So I can’t have that,” Rick said. “This person is putting in a good solid eight hours worth of work in a 30-day month that they’re being paid for. Yes I’m not paying them nearly what I would pay someone physically working here but you know what I’m not getting even the little bit that I’m paying for.” To put it simply, a boss might just need to let go after a staff “makes that decision for him.” Bosses can’t pay for people who just sit around do nothing. It will mean that there is nothing to feel bad about “letting go” because that worker himself made that decision for the boss to fire him. “They made that choice for me,” Rick strongly asserted. Time management is another factor that makes firing happen. Daily reports, when asked by your boss, should be complied. It gives employers a heads-up that things are actually being done, otherwise it is time to let go. Running a business is about managin[...]

This podcast is about Rick who takes us into the depths of building and running an internet business. Ben, who is a software and website developer, interviews Rick who owns an online retail store that sells police type equipment, tactical gear , parts and firearms. Let’s take a peek at how Rick shares his experiences as an online retailer to Ben. On Having An Online Business An online business has its highs and lows. It takes a great deal of effort and passion to make money online, but the same goes when you have an offline business too. It is inevitable to encounter staff issues, taxes and tracking inventory. Rick discloses that his online retail store relies on seasonal sales. Sales tend to pick up in the summer when a lot of outdoor activities happen and the products sold are utilized. “Everything went well until December when sales begin to drop,” Rick said. Selling Online Selling online means more than just selling. For Rick, selling online it is mainly about addressing the needs of customers. It is like taking away that “ache” in what you are doing and making things easier to do in an effective manner. However, the reality of selling stuff online is that you can’t please all customers all the time. But this does not stuck Rick to this harsh reality. Owning and managing an online business has it perks. It gives you a number of benefits and one of that is giving the entrepreneur the chance of living a “dream”. “Living the dream” does not happen to everybody. But most people who own an online business take pleasure in living the dream. Here are 5 benefits of having an online business: You work as your own boss You have the freedom to do what you want and when you want to You do not to construct a physical store in a certain location You get to work on flexible hours since a 9am-5pm shift is unnecessary You can gain financial freedom with a sustainable income even on off-peak months Just like any other business owner, Rick hopes for the best. The hard work continues as the business grows. It is his desire to boost his profits and get a steady increase of sales overtime. In order to achieve that is to come up with an effective marketing plan and a good upgrade of his products and services that will suite his customers best. Customer satisfaction is also part of his goals this year and that means providing them their needs to the best of his ability at all times. Making a point that he gets more sales by covering customer’s needs without having to sacrifice some sales for focusing on others is another plan. And, just as Rick’s business grows, he is looking to hire more staff and expand in full blast.

The last podcast with Derek, we talked about creating content. We were talking about using Audacity to create a recording to place on the website. Then Overwhelm hit… Overwhelm Derek was completely overwhelmed and locked right up His brain froze and he left his website on ice for a while Derek decided that since he wasn’t sure what to do, he’d take a break He called Ben and asked for some help He was concerned about doing what he “should” do Instead, he decided to do what he wanted to do Ways to deal with overwhelm Don’t try to go it alone. Find a person to talk with to encourage each other Take a break – don’t continue to stare at the blank page – Step back and regroup Make small tweaks – make something bold, reword something, move an image, etc… The break allowed Derek to process some ideas and get excited about the site once again. He made a few small tweaks to help him get excited. He found a video on the product’s main site, asked for permission to use it, and placed it on his site. He created a basic squeeze page to begin creating a list. CREATING A LIST IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL Recommended List Creation Systems Aweber – Ben uses this Mail Chimp – Derek uses this Mail Chimp has a “Forever free” product that is absolutely perfect for creating that first list. Derek wanted to get a weekly golf tip out to his list, he didn’t mind doing this manually, so the free product works really well for him. The free system does not allow for an “Autoresponder series”. Ben uses Aweber to send out the 7-day beginning Internet business course. That way, he doesn’t need to send messages manually. Derek, using the free system, does. Note: use a professional system – don’t use a script on your webserver – penetrating spam filters is VOODOO. Leave it to the pros. Reports and Statistics Using stats lets you gauge how productive your marketing efforts are. Professional systems give spectacular reports. What gets measured, improves. If you measure your deliverability, customer engagement and conversions, each of those things will improve. If you can make it through the first bit of overwhelm, you can really launch your business. Make your site, your business – your very own. It’s yours, take ownership. Take it where you want it to go. Quick Tip: Get a list building system: AWEBER or MAIL CHIMP

Today’s podcast is a little bit more in-depth than the last ones have been. Derek and I talk with Rick Inkster (my brother) from Praetorian Tactical all about starting and building an online business.  He’s special – we love him. Rick has been running an online business for just about 2 years.  For the last year, it has supported him with a full time income. Happy, Successful and Independent In this episode, we talk about: Outsourcing staff Legal details about setting up a business Creating a mailing list Security vs. Freedom Dealing with fears and frustrations Running a business with a family How long it actually takes to make money Building a following using forums and much, much more… Do you have the gumption to be self motivated, get your butt out of bed and work at this?  You CANNOT run a business without being self motivated.

Automation can save time and money.

Content is something that every new Internet Marketer struggles with. In this episode, we talk about creative ways to create effective, relavent and regular content.

In this episode of Internet Business Beginners we talk about picking a market, picking a domain, picking a niche and ultimately figuring out which product it is that we want to sell.