Internet Marketing + Family + Day Job = ?

Hey Nathan,

If you've gotten "too motivated", you should use that to the max and build even faster. And the ones that work TOO hard, are the most successful. Because they understand that if you invest more time now, you'll get more time later.

Of course we will always have resistance and the worst being from the ones we love. I've always had people oppose what I want to do even if they are my primary motivation for even succeeding.

It's super hard to make everyone happy, but I ask myself:

How will life be different if after all this hard work, dedication, and commitment pays off?

Would the hours spent working on my business be worth it?

In my opinion, the balance I am looking for is early retirement. Time Freedom.

Hope I helped a bit,

And look forward to working with you sometime.

Equation has changed now :-).
You need to find new balance.

Just remember the simple rule:

1. Find something that works
2. Keep doing it
3. Find someone else to do it for you (outsourcing etc)
4. Find something else that works... etc...

Don't spend too long on work that's not giving you the results you need. It's very easy in IM to waste a massive amount of time and money. Test out a lot of things and see what works.

That's my problem also, working around 12-14 hours/day and would work even more if my family/girl would not make so much noise about...

It's just passion.

I know all about: Internet Marketing + Family + Day Job. Actually, I no longer work a day job but did the aforementioned formula for years. It is not easy but it is doable. One of the biggest keys for me was to not sacrifice my family for riches. If I was to point out the most important practical advice to employ it would be this: Wake up VERY early and do not go to bed too late.

Hi Nathan,

I go by the old saying " you work to live not live to work", i have a big family one of the reasons i want to get into internet marketing is so that i can spend more quality time with my family and get to a point were i can finally give up my day job.

I tend to work all day, come home spend so time with the kids, get them to bed talk to my wife for an hour about her day then gat on with what i need to do. i give my weekends to my family so i dont even go online till everyone is in bed. This works for me and everyone is happy.......or so they tell me.

Kind Regards

I work and have a family as well. I've done this for close to 5 years with some long nights. Here's what my tips are personally....I run a business that does $1M in revenues and I do on a strict schedule.

1) Definitely don't cut into family time too much. I just go about my day and either squeeze some basic stuff in at work or I save it until after my wife/kids go to sleep.

2) Get REALLY good at outsourcing. This is what john reese referred to as "sacrificing early profits". It's hard to let go of your hard-earned first dollars, but you need to do it early. My outsourcing budget was 110% of revenues early on and it consistently shrunk as time went on. Now I spend more than ever on my outsourcing, but it's a small % of revenue.

3) Be laser-focused. Have a list of a handful of things to accomplish, work on those, and then go to bed. You can't be walking around like a zombie all day....

Hey Nathan,
I understand. I got those comments too!
I just do my own thing no matter what.
But it's definitely important to spend time with your family too.
How about scheduling your IM work for three times a week?

Nathan, just bring in the Big Checks and everyone will support what your doing.

This thread should be a sticky, I was literally just thinking the same thing. Thanks to the Op for asking the question, and to the Warriors who answered. I'm still a newb, who has lurked and read, now it's time to move. The Network at my day job blocks all blogs, and just about every other site I'd need to get to work on IM stuff, during slow times, and on my lunch.

I'm hoping my forays into IM allow me to buy a laptop so I can tether thru my cell phone and have unrestricted Net access to work on my business!

Congrats on being "too" passionate, Nathan! Most people aren't like that!

Until you start making "real" money, take the time to explain to your family what you're up to. If they're not getting the details, and they don't see checks rolling in, they may become skeptical (especially if they don't totally understand how the business works!)

Internet marketing can become a crash course on time management - alot to do, and not enough time to do it. I agree with some of the other posters that outsourcing could really help you. No one can do everything - no matter how much you love what you do!

You have to sacrifice something to succeed in internet marketing. It's either your time or your money. Time that you want to spend with friends and family or money that you would rather spend on relaxation.

Let's face it, most people's lives are too full with other things to succeed in a business. You can't succeed unless you make the space to do the things that need to be done.

And the reality is most are not willing to make that sacrifice.

Hey Nathan alot of people are just doing IM part-time, so even 1 hour a day doing high leverage work (email marketing, blogging and sending traffic to your list) is good.

One thing I recently have done this year is -- un-subscribing to all the blogs, not reading emails, or going on facebook. I went cold turkey on all those time waster on the Internet, and I just focus on IM, family, friends etc.

IMO, you don't need to sacrifice alot of things for IM, better to cut back on the trivial stuff like facebook/twitter and focus on the critial money making activities (JV, sending emails to list, finding new offers etc)

Outsource the most time consuming tasks and focus on the important once that actually expands your business otherwise these repetitive time consuming daily tasks never let you go though.

Jamian.

Hey Nathan,

That is a large part of the hardship that starting your own online business has on people. I was in a similar situation for 2 years before I started seeing good results that have led me to my current point.

The main thing you need to learn is how to prioritize your time correctly. I'm sure you're already aware of this, but mastering it is the key to your success.

You're going to get ahead by focusing the small amount of time available to your most important task on hand. I would advise to make a list of everything that needs to be done with your business. Rate these tasks in importance or more importantly rate them by which task will have the greatest positive impact.

Then each day do the task on the top of your list. Shoot for getting the top 3 done. Do this everyday and you will soon get to the point where you can quit that day job. Then time is used at your discretion. It's a great goal to shoot for.

Good luck man. I know you can do it.

Travis

You will never make everyone happy, but having a good balance is key. You need the time with the family, but make it quality time so it is not frowned upon when you need to stay up late and take care of stuff. This keeps you sane as well. You can become so absorbed that you don't focus on anything else.

I agree with making a list of what needs to be done, and choose what can and cannot be outsourced. Choose the things that take you the most time to do, or they give you the most trouble, and that's what you outsource.

Good luck with everything!

Hi Nathan. I know that you are excited about making money online and it is very important to you to be successful. But no matter what Family always comes first. Please do not neglect them under any circumstances. I know that it's hard to do. But try to set aside some Family time. Good Luck!!!

Well Nathan,

When things didn't take off like a rocket right away everyone and their dogs turned on me. That was until success began to come my way.

I wholeheartedly believe that we Internet Marketers have to go through the struggles so that we can weed out the people that are really on our sides from the people that are just there in order to get something that they want from us and not because they really care about us. It's sad but that was my experience.

So do what you have to in order to keep your immediate family taken care of and keep on rolling my friend. If you don't quit I believe anyone can find success.

Here's some tips I have:

1. Try and get your wife involved in the business if possible. Tell her what your goals are and how much you plan to make. If she can see why you are working so hard she will be more understanding about it all.

2. Work out the number of hours in the day you are going to work on your business and stick to it. If you work all day then maybe a couple of hours at night and on the weekend maybe 5 hours on Saturday. Take the Sunday off to spend the whole time with your family. That's just an example so you can work it out according to your current schedule. Then sit down with your wife and discuss it with her to see what she thinks. If she has it in her mind that those times are for your work then she may be more understanding.

3. Outsource - if you can afford to, then outsource as much of the work as possible.

My recommendation is always have a plan when you sit at your computer. Do not aimlessly wander cyberspace. Before I go to bed each evening, I have a plan for the following day.

Allow "X" hours per day to accomplish your daily goals. When I hear complaints from students or others struggling with internet marketing, many times they are aimlessly go about their online business. This is a business and must be treated as such.

Some people will spend hours in their email accounts, hours wandering the forums, they will check their clickbank account every 15 minutes, and check their google analytics every 15 minutes.

Know what is important and productive each day. Have various email accounts set up and only give your main email for the means of making money. All other email accounts should be on the back burner. I have all of my email accounts on my iphone and I will check them during "down time". I do not waste my quality time, doing non-productive activities.

And ultimately you will want to re-invest in your business via outsourcing the trivial tasks, so your time can be laser-focused on your business, and building your business.

Wishing you the best

The way I was able to avoid resistance from my fiancee and others was working normal business hours. I work online Mon.-Fri. from 8-6, and then I shut it off. Sometimes I will come to the Warriorforum in the evenings and read if my fiancee is watching a chic flick, but that is pretty much all that I do after 5.

You have to separate your business from your life. I have had a few days where I was literally in front of my computer almost non-stop for over 18 hours; not healthy.

My advice would be to keep normal business hours, and to also make sure that you explain internet marketing (in simple terms) to your family members.

I'll tell you something I saw a few years back that made me think.

This guy in the UK is making a good and decent living with selling courses and other interesting things on DVD format and has a good list of subscribers. The first intro DVD I saw, he basically said working ruined his marriage and he doesn't have a great relationship with his kids... I think the problem was he was obsessed with trying out one thing after the other for about 10-15 years and his wife had enough eventually. She left him.

2 years after she left, he made it big in the industry. Anyway to cut a long story short... he actually had his ex-wife saying on video what it was like for them etc. She was almost crying near the end because you can see it really destroyed them his habits. Now he has a great BMW, nice house, good money and new wife (looks a bit too young for him) but in the end... I will say this.

He persevered and did what he always wanted to do. His habits did destroy his marriage. He was okay with it though since his obsession was making money.

If you are happy with that in life then feel free to follow the same path.

If your happiness comes from the heart and you love your wife and kids, you may want to reconsider your steps. There are sacrifices and people do understand it, but if it comes at the cost of hapiness then sadly it mght end badly for you as well. I know personally that I love working and making money, but my happiness is real important to me. There is no point having all the money in the world when I am unhappy and lost the person dearest to me in the process.

Relationships are made of both husband and wife. Not just one. If you feel that you work a lot then make extra effort to be nice to your wife when you do spend time with her. If you bring work to the table when you are spending quality time with her, she will resent it a lot.

Sorry, but there's no other way around: Internet Marketing is a business, and starting off a business DOES require a lot of time, effort and sacrifice. Do not listen to anyone who says you can kick off a successful online business working one or two hours a day, because it's not going to happen.

Like any other venture worth its salt, you'll have to work your butt off to lift it off the ground at the beginning. Later on, once it's rolling, it'll be easier to manage, but at the beginning it's going to take up A LOT of your time.

Been Full Time Internet Marketing since 2007 !!! It was hard on the girlfriend in the beginning, she was complaining I was always on my laptop. Once the big money started coming in, her song changed and now she asks me why I am not on my lap top as much...haha.

Hey Nathan,

Your in a tough situation and I totally understand. I was there at one point as well. Even with just internet marketing and a family it can be tough balance, there is always stuff to do.

What I recommend is trying to prioritize everything with internet marketing, figure out what NEEDS to get done, figure out what you want to get done and figure out what's not as important. CLOSE AIM, Respond to e-mails and other correspondence based on priority. If you can, get your wife to help with you certain things, this will not only lighten your load, but also make her feel more involved.

Best Wishes Nathan!


Chris

Oh and by the way, on my first year on IM I was working ALL day on the computer because everything would take double the time to get ready (since I was a newbie). That cost me my girlfriend back then. Pursuing your dreams and challenges does require some sacrifices along the way.

Hi Nathan. I guess I'm about a year or two behind you in that I'm just leaving the learning phase and moving into the research and creation phase. I saw you on the Instant Internet Lifestyle seminars. A couple of tips about time management which I have found useful and will allow you more time is to go on a low information diet - unsubscribe from as many blogs and lists as you can and concentrate on the two or three which have been most valuable to you. It will probably save you an hour a day. I'm thinking of cutting myself off completely when creating products by turning the modem off and doing as much offline as possible. I can't have "just five minutes" on Facebook until I'm ready to upload my stuff.

I think you also need a big enough "why", Money itself isn't enough as when we're starting out we don't truly believe we can earn enough to retire form our day jobs: the rewards are just a pipe dream and not real to us. For me it's the fact that at forty five I don't have a pension (or indeed a job any more) and my wife has been diagnosed with a scary illness which means I'll probably have to take care of her much of the time. My why is making sure money isn't a worry, and time is available.

I found a time management course by Jason Fladlien which was included as a bonus in a coaching course which helped me separate "work" from "life". I'm not an affiliate for it but I certainly recommend it.

I'm a Londoner too. I hope your plan to "retire" on April 26th was successful. It gives hope to us all.

Dave

PS I think this is my first post to the WF!

One suggestion: Five Hour Energy Drink! Seriously! When I have a day job, it saves my life.I have 4 kids and a disabled husband, so I am almost never still for too long. As far as getting more sleep, I don't know what to tell you. You have to set some boundaries with your business. Don't feel like you have to spend every waking moment on your business otherwise you'll crash. Decide on a set amount of time each day to work your business. Instead of trying to do everything at once, pick one or two things to get done that day. Hang in there, you will see the rewards for your efforts if you stick with your plan.

You're always going to find resistance. Your closest friends and family are usually the hardest to deal with, LOL
Then when money starts rolling in, they'll be the first to say they always knew you'd make it!, LOL