How do you juggle the many hats of online business?

[Sandra]

Building an online business entails different activities, some of which don't seem to mix easily. We need to research, plan, write, code, interact, entertain, deal with outsources. All of the different divisions of a real business jammed together. hmy:

How you guys manage the transition from one way of thinking to the other? Do you get into trouble when the boss in you develops a project in a really profitable niche your inner writer will later on hate with passion? How do you manage to not chew more than you can bite? :beernow: ?

IM has been more than anything a self discovery process--and I'm not done yet. I would like to know how it is for others.

 

[savidge4]

When I am first developing a web property, there is a ton of research involved. Lots of reading, looking at any kind of data i can get my hands on, more reading, and most importantly writing. Once I have written for a while, I step back and start comparing MY writing to what others are writing within the target niche. Is MY voice unique? Is it different? Is there a demand for the topics I am speaking about? Once I become comfortable with MY voice, I then really layout in some detail A BUYERS Persona.

I stop at this point looking at the TOPIC and start looking at the PEOPLE I will be talking to and hopefully with. I take a bunch of data in the steps above ( Demographics overall likes colors brands etc ) and develop not only what an ideal "customer" is going to look like, but take it a step deeper and get kind of personal with it. Its not a guy that makes $100,000 a year is married and has ambition and bought a house in the last 6 months. I want to get in there and research what style of house they might buy, what kind of car they might buy. I without question look at generation labels and start to tie in some of those things. I have many times developed a collage from magazine clippings and such to visualize my "Target"

This is then the point I start really writing... I will also have bought a domain name at this point and locked in all of the social address' as well. Before I launch a site I generally have 100 articles in the bag before I even start developing the site. When you look at a "Buyers Persona" profile.. site building actually is pretty easy... You understand target colors what demographics you are shooting for.. Graphic stylings the logo etc... its kinda all right there.

So at the point of launch..I now have a complete site.. I have all of my social profiles and art complete.. I have content available to drip in for a decent amount of time,and I can focus on developing traffic. As you get in the groove, I write more... I start getting a better idea of the pains my target audience has, and I provide solutions. Be it skinny jeans for plus size woman, to the latest Team USA soccer Jersey, or a cool looking leather wallet.

What I am hoping to convey with this is that segment many aspects of business. I don't really hop from one thing to the other to the next. I have done this enough to know that I will need all of this, so lets do that now.. from there I will then need this.. I'll do that now. I am going to need time at this point later to get this done, so i'll get this and this out of the way.

Reducing BUSINESS into a PROCESS is the key to success. there are aspects of what I do i REALLY enjoy. I am a tech head..love to build and design sites.. Love SEO.. Love CRO absolutely HATE writing, but spend geeze 6+ hours a day doing it. I don't outsource a thing. If I cant do it I wont, and if its not in my developed sellers voice.. well it wont be spoken.

I really believe the success I have had over the years is in developing a process.. keeping my sanity LOL and most importantly being true to myself.

 

[Sandra]

S4... this is awesome. I'm printing it and putting it on the side of my keyboard.
Again... :yourock:

 

[Developer]

I am a tech head..love to build and design sites...

Welcome to the club, LOL.

I don't outsource a thing. If I cant do it I wont, and if its not in my developed sellers voice.. well it wont be spoken.

Whew, I am so glad to hear someone else say this. I was honestly starting to think I was the only one. I don't mind "investing" but at the end of the day, I like to be able to say "I" did it, you know. Not sure if that's me being selfish or just a pride thing, but that's the way I am, none the less.

I really believe the success I have had over the years is in developing a process.. keeping my sanity LOL and most importantly being true to myself.

ABSOLUTELY, I couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

EpicGlobalWeb

The only problem I see with not outsourcing some of your work is that you're limited to your own work capabilities which can limit expansion. I think outsourcing is good for job-creation as long as you make your best effort to keep things within your country's economy. This is the real purpose of business in my humble opinion.

However, you make a good point as well - the ability to own your work is important for your own branding and you certainly have a much higher level of control.

 

[Crystal Violet]

I manage all my different hats with systems. You have to have structure and a system for each aspect of your business. Think about when you have worked for other companies. Each person had their role, responsibilities and deadlines to meet in order to have a completed project.

It's time for the multiple personalities to come out and do what is necessary to get a project done. Progress and completion outdo perfection. You need to schedule time daily/weekly for each of your roles and these should be based on when you are your most productive. Of course your inner writer won't be onboard if you let too much time pass and the interest overall has waned.

Commit to the success of every project, plan for success by implementing your system, and each one of your "hats" will be onboard because it won't be so much guesswork at each turn.

 

[Developer]

Very well said Crystal, nice post. Thank you.

One of the reasons many fail online is simply because they have a hard time maintaining the different roles. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming, however, as you pointed out, the trick is to find a system that works and then stick with it.

The easiest way I have found is to delegate specific tasks for specific days. This enables me to easily remember what I am supposed to be doing each day. Just like when we were in school, in my schools anyways, you had certain classes on certain days. This helped maintain order, discipline and made it much easier to know exactly what was what and exactly what "tools" to have with you...

Same thing applies when you're running your own business, especially online. If you schedule certain tasks out for certain days, or certain times of each day, you'll more likely achieve and complete each task because you were well prepared.

 

[professorrosado]

it gets very difficulty when you are faking it; when it is not your area of expertise, when you are not passionate about it, when you are just doing it to make money, when you are copying someone else, when you have no idea what you are doing as a business.

I have very many hats - more than just IM ones. How do I manage? I let it flow from day to day and always keep pushing forward. I find that my creative juices flow with me and everything I do progresses along together. At this point, any new idea I get, amazingly, is yet another brick on my path.

 

[jeffhowell]

Very nice thread and some really cool insights shared. Getting in sync and switching between different work is always a tedious task and art at the same time. I try to follow my feeling - what I really want to be doing at a certain moment, but you always have to make some compromises.