Attention fellow Internet Marketer, do you:
- Take on more projects than you can reasonably handle?
- Have no problem starting a new project every day, but counting completed projects, you don’t go beyond the five fingers on one hand?
- Receive an email or a phone call for a JV (joint venture) opportunity and 30 seconds into the call, your first questions are: “what’re the payouts like?”, followed 2 seconds later with an “I’m in” before the guy finishes his pitch?
If you’re answered “yes” to at least one of these questions, you might be suffering from “Internet Marketing ADD”…seek professional help immediately.
A common refrain heard on the forums is that experienced Internet Marketers have difficulty focusing on a single project and are constantly “project flipping” as often as switching stations with the TV remote.
Here’s a realization:
To be an entrepreneur, you need to be able to multitask pretty effectively. I don’t mean only being able to work on a couple of things at the same time… You will also need to take on a couple of roles at the same time – CEO, COO, CFO, CTO, CMO, etc. You need a broadbase of skills, or at least an elementary understanding of sales, finance, marketing, product development, technology, as well as keep an eye on the strategic direction of your business.
In contrast, I know a number of professionals (lawyers, bankers, engineers) who are experts at what they do, they’re the archetypical “inch wide, mile deep” specialists, but their lack of a broadbase means they have great difficulty managing a business, given its myriad requirements. But give them a single task and they can chug away at it for weeks or months on end.
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If you’re reading this, you’re probably an Internet Marketer. What can you do to deal with this problem?
Here’s my take:
- Go with the flow: You know you’re not cut out to do one thing for weeks on end, so don’t fight it. Break your day up into several pieces. Focus on product development in the morning (or whenever your peak periods might be), talk to joint venture partners or strategic partners as you feel you’re moving out of your zone. Answer email and tackle customer support issues during your downtime.
- Focus, focus, focus: This was a major problem for me initially when I was doing consulting. You can take on 20 projects, and deliver below your optimal performance on all of them. OR you could charge a premium and work with your preferred 3-5 clients. If you work in performance incentives and revenue share, you might end up doing better with a select few, rather than attempt to take on the market.
- Recalibrate, reorient and refocus: Take time out to audit your efforts. Is what you’re doing helping you move toward where you want to be? Evalute and do the equivalent of “testing and tracking” in your business. Jettison projects that are stumbling or backsliding. Declutter experts say there is limited space in your life. If you cut and clear away stuff that isn’t helping you (people, projects and places), you’ll free up more “space” for new things to come in.
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