I cant find ANY time to do my IM'ing. I have a 9-5 along with 2 kids (6 years and 9 months), and I try so hard to set aside time to do IM, but its almost impossible. There has not been a time where I can sit infront of the computer for more than 45 minutes. How do you guys with kids make time for this?
Now tell us honestly... Do you sleep? Do you sleep more than 5 hours per night? If yes, then you have some hidden time reserves. Sleeping is overrated.
I have kids that are 4 and 5. I also work 9-5, plus I have my own IT business on the side which involves a few hours work per week (at $120/hour). I also have time for IM. I just do it while watching TV - easy to get in 30 minutes to 3 hours a night. I take a few nights off a week, but never do IM until the kids are in bed, they come first without doubt. When I do send time IM'ing, I have a plan - I know what it is I want to achieve that night or that week which allows me to ensure I am moving forward, but not spending too much time doing it. The bottom line for me is that all extra work I'm doing outside of my 9-5 MUST pay at least double my hourly rate at my day job (so $100/hr plus).
Seriously that's the worst advice you could give someone! IM will not put food on your table at the start (unless you're VERY lucky!) Keep the job mate and take it slowly! You'll get there! Once you make at least 2x you make on your day job then quit!
I have a young family, full time work as a network admin for a company that rules a billion dollar niche, do one paper at university a semester on campus during work hours and am heavily involved with church responsibilities. I feel your pain. Besides my family, I also enjoy working out at the gym and doing IM in my spare time. One thing that I've found super handy lately is really becoming targeted on what it is that I need to do for the day. I try to boil it down to the one most important task for the day and just make sure that after the kids are in bed I get that one thing done. If your business model requires that you do multiple mundane tasks that take up lots of time, consider training up an outsourcer at easyoutsource.com or somewhere similar. Record short videos on what needs doing using jing if you can't find time to show them one on one. I have a girl from there that does work for me part time and man she gets some boring monotonous work done for me that would drive me up the wall if I had to do it myself, all for $2/hour. Outsourcing will be your friend. 1. Take some time on your lunch break at work to be alone and write out your system on paper (if you can't do this, you're already wasting your time doing anything at all in the 45 minute blocks you mentioned). 2. Shorten each step down into single line actionable steps. 3. Figure out which steps need to be done by you and which ones you can pay someone $2/hour to do for you and make short videos on each of those tasks. 4. Try a few outsourcers out for a day or two letting them know it's a trial and more work will come based on their performance. 5. Give them the outsourceable tasks and you do your tasks and ONLY your tasks during those 45 minute sessions. Don't check your emails, don't read methods, don't stir you coffee, don't surf facebook, don't click on ads, don't check yourself out in the mirror, just stick to the task until it's done. 6. Evaluate your performance during 20 minutes on a day off once a week and find room for improvement. Ask yourself what worked, and what could work better. Change your task list accordingly for the next week. Be hard, and be hard for your own sake but don't make a martyr of yourself. If you have to make up 45 minutes somewhere get up 20 minutes early and stay up 25 minutes later. The main lesson from this is know what it is that needs to be done right now and either do it yourself or get it done. I had this discussion a while back with my dad who is a compulsive WSO buyer. I asked him if he would like to go halves on a new outsourcer because I didn't have enough work for them full time back then. He said he would and then pulled out at the last minute because he didn't know what to ask them to do. Until you know WHAT it is that you will do to make money and break that down into TASKS 1,2,3,4.... you're wasting your time doing anything online. You probably make more than $2/hour, so even if you budget is small, save up until you can afford to pay someone for two days work and then trial them. If they suck, dump them and move on. One final tip is to use travel time wisely. If you use public transport to go to work, then you can use pen and paper to plan. If you drive to work, a voice recorder works well, or a voice recording app on your phone even. Hope that helps man, one father to another.
What I am doing is focusing on SEO, and outsourcing the backlinks, then when it ranks, it earns money passively. Then on to the next. SEO is a waiting game anyways, so its not like you have to look after it. Buy the backlinks, wait for the site to rank. Keep your 9-5
Try to put aside some money each week or month for outsourcing. I'm making more than I used to when I did it all my self. At this point I do the keyword research and assemble the site. Content and link building is outsourced which I would guess used to take up about 90% of my IM time. I just direct things for the most part and reap the rewards. You could probably do it if you spent 45 minutes or an hour each day.
@op your avatar is for you ? if yes do you remember this what you doing here ? , if no why to choose it as your avatar :mad2:
It 's not advice, it 's a fact. He asked: How do you do it? Just cause you 're not making it, doesn't mean no one does make $$ at start. Obviously he should not give up a steady income before he has a proven plan. Then he will lose that 8+hour hog to scale it and become happier.
As much as some people may not agree with Jazzc's post...it's correct. I quit my job prematurely back in Nov. 15th thinking I was going to do well with wholesale. I didn't. If you're forced to grind to pay living expenses, then you'll do it. These last 2 months have been the scariest months of my entire life. I never knew it would be so much work. I literally started Nov. 15th without knowing anything about IM. Now I'm doing ok. Most people take longer I hear...but when you have fallback income, you obviously wouldn't have to work as hard unless you wanted to. If you want to make it, you can. It's not a cakewalk like some people seem to think it is. I'm on the computer 18-20+ hours a day. Yeah, sleep is not something I do much of anymore. Basically what I'm saying is, if you want something bad enough, you'll make time to put the effort in.
Thanks for all the replies. as for the avatar, I used that image as a joke. Its always one of the first results when I seach up bhw in google (thats how I visit this site each time). Anyways, I got some great advice in here that I believe will greatly help me out. Mainly, laying out a plan that I want to accomplish that night (after the kids are in bed). Also looking more into outsourcing the SEO work more aggressively. Much respect to those who have a family, a job and do IM on top of all that. You never really know how hard it is until you are in that situation yourself
I've got 3 kids and two jobs, when I was doing well with IM, I did not spend a lot of quality time with my kids, but I bought them things to try and make up for that. I did not get a lot of sleep either. That's what is necessary. I breastfed newborns while typing with the other hand. I fell asleep on my laptop. I worked on holidays. I'd lock myself in the laundry room so I could get enough quiet to make business calls. I did chores very, very fast. What helps the most is having a jv partner of some sort. I lucked out and found someone early on that was the absolute best in the niche that respected my non fucking stop work ethic and willingness to innovate and gave me a hand up. I'd recommend this if you can manage to find someone with some clout to take you under their wing.
I'm assuming you're married or have a live in "baby mama". That's gonna have to be your first client, bud. She's gotta see your vision and be willing to sacrifice with you to make it work. Come up with a plan or program you want to implement and sit down with her and tell her how you want to do it. When you get extra money, send her out for a mani/pedi or a massage as a "thank you" to her. You can do it bro. Just make it happen.
Think of ideas away from the computer, and implement them when you get on the computer. There's always room. You're just not allocating your time efficiently.
I'm going to go out on a limb here is state that I think your younger than my oldest child(30). A little background on me: 58 year old man 43 wife's age 12 son's age I find time to work a 9-5 around 50 hours a week. I spend time with the family EVERY day. I take my son to Boy Scouts once a month. I cook the evening meal EVERY day. I still find time for this in the wee hours of the morning when everyone else is asleep. I get up at 0400 hrs. Some days I have at home and don't do the 9-5 however I still do the other things. I firmly believe that one can be effective at this with as little as a couple of hours a day. However the more you put into it the more you will get out of it. Life is tough/hard. Grow up into the real world and make the best of whatever situation your thrown into...
