Internet Business Guide » deadlines

Answer Email Communication FAST

Marcus Hochstadt — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 07:53:20 +0000

Working online entails a lot of email communication, whether directly to your email address or via your website. No matter where your email messages come from, they are a top priority to answer fast and effectively.

Of course, I’m not talking about your personal emails from friends and relatives. I’m talking about business emails from your potential customers, or from loyal and repeat customers and clients that come to you again and again, giving you their business.

Today’s world has developed into one where people seem to want instant gratification in their demands. The Internet has, in a way, created a monster in this respect.

The Internet! Where else can you send a message to someone in India and get a response within minutes? Where else can you order a music CD from your living room and get a response that your order was received and is being processed, almost instantly?

The general online population has become used to having speedy responses, fast shipping times and rapid answers to questions. All this without the expense of overnighting letters, paying phone bills or driving downtown to buy a blanket.

Email messages between businesses and their customers are a key aspect to handling your business activities. You may send out email blasts to past or potential customers, reminding them to send in heir orders. You may send out newsletters or place banner ads.

However you choose to advertise, it is sure to elicit response, and this normally comes in the way of an email message. The person may want a quote. He or she may have some question about the product. The best way to handle your email messages is to answer everyone within an hour of receipt. I know this may seem impossible, but it isn’t. I have a friend who does this, and because of her fast response to customers, has more than 50% repeat business! This speaks for itself!

The absolute maximum time you should let an unanswered email sit in your in-box is 24 hours. People seem to be able to tolerate this much of a delay in hearing back. However, to create the best
impression, it’s better to answer much sooner. (Within three hours if at all possible.)

Today, with smart phone use being on the rise, it is simple to answer emails from customers or clients. You just have to remember to carry your phone everywhere you go. Easy. Many people do. You may need to carry some business papers with you in order to provide some of the details they ask for.

There’s nothing worse than emailing a company who you are interested in doing business with and getting a response a week later. Even worse, never receiving a response at all. We have to wonder, do these people even want to have a business? Are they still there?

Answering emails promptly impresses your customers. They know you are there and willing to help them. Chances are they will purchase your product or service, because you have already built their trust.

And answering promptly doesn’t mean you gotta do it yourself. Outsource it by finding a skilled Virtual Assistant who does it just as good — if not better — than you.

—Marcus Hochstadt

Discipline For The Work-At-Home Business Person

Marcus Hochstadt — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 19:53:13 +0000

If you are one of the lucky ones who have been able to quit their day jobs and work out of their home, you might find you are spending too much time spinning your wheels. Does this sound familiar? :-)

It’s great that you are moving forward and getting out of the grind. It’s really good that you work from home, since you’ll find the doors are open to more income and being more in control of your time.

But that’s the point here. Are you really in control of your time? Or is it in control of you still?

Does the broken garage door call out to be fixed? Is the movie on television more interesting that the AutoResponder sequence that you’d promised yourself to set up by last night? Do you prefer to spend a couple hours on Facebook to connect with friends over writing up & publishing a few Web pages? Is watching other people’s YouTube videos more attractive than creating and sharing your own (and have others watch yours)?

You have to be careful not to heed those destructive calls.

Now that you don’t have to commute to that nine-to-five work place, and you don’t have to listen to your former top dog anymore, well… you might think that sleeping in is a true luxury now.

You might think you can take a break whenever you want, get outside and maybe go for a run. But then, when the end of the day comes, do you have everything done that needs to be done?

Those hours go by really fast. The next thing you know… it’s time for bed! And you have to finish some work obligation by early tomorrow. Can you do it in the morning? Maybe. But maybe not. What have you gotten yourself into?

Of course, you are no stranger to hard work. You’ve been doing it for years. But you had a shotgun to your head, so to speak, and had to be there at a certain time and get certain things done in certain time frames.

The point?

Discipline and Deadlines.

Yours has to be of the highest quality if you want to maintain your home based business. You can’t let those hours slip away.

The best thing to do in these circumstances is to make yourself a schedule. What will you get done in the morning? What will you get done in the afternoon? Do you have time in the evening to work on a project if you don’t get it done earlier? You have to figure these things out.

But it isn’t just making a schedule, it’s KEEPING one. You have to stick with what you laid out to get things done in time.

And if you allow for some personal time in there (like a reward for finishing everything), you will find yourself really sticking to it. You’ll fly through your work and feel like a success when you achieve what you planned to for the day.

Watch those distractions. Sure, the plants need watering, the refrigerator needs to be cleaned out, and then all those time consuming researches on the Net… But these minor, unproductive tasks are going to have to wait until you make your targeted actions for the day.

You have a unique opportunity to get more done, work smart and achieve great things when you are self-employed. Don’t blow it by wasting your time doing non-income related, unproductive actions.

Work smart. Stick to a schedule. Prosper.

—Marcus Hochstadt

Internet Business — Implementation Comes After Planning

Marcus Hochstadt — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:02:09 +0000

Yes, planning and fine-tuning the “who, what, where, why and how” of your Internet business is vital to its success. But success is unlikely to come knocking on your door anytime soon if you don’t get your feet off the ground and execute that plan of yours.

There are many people out there who are extremely meticulous planners. You know the kind. They’ll draw up a plan so intricate, that it covers every possible detail imaginable, and probably even contains several best and worst-case scenarios plus an odd back-up plan or two. That’s all swell, until they wake up one day a year later and realize they’re still planning while others who started out with them have an up-and-running Internet business—a few of them even a profitable one.

So what’s the catch? The catch is a 15-letter word that we are all very familiar with: procrastination. It’s that torturous battle to get things done on time, or done at all. That e-mail you never get down to answering, that e-book you simply “haven’t had time” to write, that potential client you’ve been meaning to contact. It’s that Internet business plan you still haven’t implemented.

Why do people procrastinate? Is it because they’re lazy or because they lack the will power? Surprisingly, in most cases, it’s neither of those. Procrastination is usually a symptom of being a perfectionist.

Take our meticulous planner for instance: he gets a brilliant idea, he puts incredible effort into outlining his execution plan, but somehow, the plan just never seems good enough. So he puts his thinking cap back on and continues to plan, hoping to do so until the outcome is perfect. By definition, the perfectionist never achieves perfection.

The result is, as I call it, a vicious circle of planning-thinking-planning. He rarely actually executes the plan for fear of not doing it right, or for fear of rejection. He’s afraid of feeling helpless, powerless or disappointed if things don’t go smoothly or straight up. He might even be afraid of getting negative feedback from other people.

To err is human and nobody is perfect. And so, we must learn to forgive ourselves more for our mistakes and learn from them. Get started no matter what—despite those fears. You can always fine-tune at later stages.

Stand up before everyone else. Jump over a hurdle in lightning speed so a thought of “should I or not” doesn’t have a chance to occur. Kick butt fear of rejection by having confidence front and center in your mind. Confidence beats every fear.

One beauty of the Internet is that it is an ever-evolving and versatile environment, where many issues can quickly be resolved. It’s learning curve is steep and you will master many obstacles in a short period of time. Every expert started out as a novice at one point in time.

A good technique to curb procrastination is making a list of your goals and then utilizing The Power Of Deadlines. Also, have a look at Brian Tracy’s short yet powerful video I posted the other Sunday. Giving yourself a pat on the shoulder once in a while would be beneficial too (instead of damaging words and thoughts about yourself.)

But most of all, be brave, understand your fears, and get over them. If you do that, you’re well on your way to starting your very own successful Internet business. Or…

How often do you postpone?

How do you handle perfectionism?

How about fear?

What are your plans for overcoming daily hurdles?

—Marcus Hochstadt

First Class Progress, Or The Power Of Deadlines

Marcus Hochstadt — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 02:59:37 +0000

Many of us, me included, have encountered times in our life where we became slow in getting something done. We are working on a project every day and it seems, somehow, we do not proceed in the way we intended to. What’s the cause? Why is that so?

There are various reasons. One of them is the lack of a deadline.

When you are (or were) an employee your boss usually gives you deadlines (or s/he asks you to give him/her one; pretty much the same.) Miss them and you get into trouble.

In the Internet business world, you are your own boss. Do you set yourself deadlines?

The majority says “no” here; so this issue needs to be addressed.

Do you have a Mentor? Great! Make sure s/he keeps track of your progress by, for example, using a Weekly Action Plan. In that plan, write down your last week’s accomplishments and the goals for the upcoming week. These weekly deadlines, when treated seriously (!), WILL boost your accomplishments every single week. (At least you’ll find yourself finishing the remaining tasks before you submit the report to your Mentor. ;-)

Again, you need to treat it seriously. If you start thinking you don’t have to send anyone anything, well, you’re probably right. And when you’re zealous with a strong discipline you might very well be able to write a Weekly Action Plan to yourself and follow it to a tee. Still, there exist countless people getting stuck in simple tasks. I’m confident they’d get past the hurdles when they’d use and follow such a plan thoroughly.

Been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt. :-)

Don’t have a Mentor yet? Get one! It’s not launched yet, but I’m going to start a Mentoring Program in the future. Meanwhile, either you continue your search and get one NOW, you seek someone else whom you trust and DO follow, or you become your own mentor for now.

Beware… It doesn’t help a single thing when you send this document to your mom, and then once the day arrives where you’re supposed to send the next plan to her you come up with excuses why you couldn’t do this and what kept you from doing that.

Do you get the idea?

Remember, at the end of the day, the work you do is not for someone else; you do it for you and for yourself only. The Weekly Action Plan is just an instrument to push you forward and bring your Internet business to the next level, every single week.

Another method is to increase the pain accompanied with NOT fulfilling a deadline, also known as “away-from motivation.” For instance, “If XYZ is not finished until DDD, I am going to pay $XXX to YYY.” Sound familiar? It should since something like that does happen when you miss sending in your tax return on-time. Why not apply that very powerful method in order to create a First Class Progress in your Internet business?

At least it’s a method that has been proven to work countless times! ;-)

And here’s an advanced technique you could apply to this…

– Specify an amount that would really hurt to pay; preferably that would be twice your monthly earnings.

– Write a letter to someone you’d really HATE sending this huge amount of money to. It should really make you think, “No, not to THAT person!” Exactly that person would be the right one. ;-)

– Send the letter to that person and to at least five others. This is to reinforce the power and urgency that is behind the goal you set yourself and the promise you wrote down in the letter in case you do not fulfill what you’re supposed to do.

The biggest accomplishments often lie in finishing the simplest tasks.

—Marcus Hochstadt

P.S. Wanna know what stands in MY Weekly Action Plan? Well, part of it you are going to find here on this blog next week. ;-)