Need Thoughts On My IM Business Plan for 2009

[sashagilberg]

hey guys,

I'm trying to create a solid business plan that I can follow. Right now I seem to be running around in circles and not really going anywhere.

Here's my quick background: Been doing IM for about 2 years, earned a total of around $40,000 profit during this time. The majority has come from affiliate marketing, but I've also created my own crappy clickbank products which earned about $4000, had 1 client for offline consulting for $1900, and I've sold some of my affiliate websites for around $10,000 all up when my cash flow was low.

I've done courses from Mike Filsaime, Eban Pagan, Frank Kern and many other top marketers. I believe I have a pretty good understanding of the internet marketing world from a birds eye view - by that I mean I know how everything is connected and how to all the bits of the puzzle fit together. I'm ready to take action and I do so on a daily basis, but the action I'm taking is leading me in circles and I'm not really going anywhere.

Here's where I am right now: Earning an average of $50-$100/day profit through affiliate marketing + PPC.

Ok, here's the reason I'm writing this post. I sat down tonight to write down a basic business plan so that I have something to guide me over the coming months. But I keep wanting to do too many things at once. eg. I want to increase my passive income from affiliate marketing to $500/day, I want to get a few big clients from local businesses to pay of my $5k credit card debt with my doubleyourprofits.com.au business, and most importantly I want to start my own information product business with a business model similar to Eban Pagan's $20 million dollar/year DoubleYourDating business.

Now I know that creating an information business is the best option out of the 3, and I know that I should only focus on 1 business at a time. But for some reason inside I always have the urge to add more affiliate campaigns, get more local business clients and then start an information marketing business. And I know that if I go down this route (which is what I've been doing for about 5 months now , I won't make any real progress).

So my first question is: Should I just cut my losses (all the time, money and energy I've spent learning, getting software, and gaining experience) of affiliate marketing and IM for local businesses, and just focus 100% on starting my info-product business?

I'm trying to fill in my business plan and after I know its good by getting assurance from the guys earning 6 & 7 figures/year, then I'll be able to stick to it and not get side tracked. Because currently I'm always creating a new biz plan every month or two, but I just want to create 1 good one and follow it to the letter (being flexible for changes of course).

Now please don't think I want to make a huge 50 page business plan, I just want a simple 1 page plan that will guide me in the right direction to earn $100,000 in 2009.

Here's what I've got down so far:

Internet Marketing Business Plan
Ultimate goal: Have financial freedom to do what I want, when I want, and with who ever I want.
Current goal: Earn $100,000 in 2009. That’s an average of $274 a day.
-
What do I need to do to get there?

I'd really appreciate it if you could help me fill in the rest.

thanks a million!

[nick1123]

These are tough questions and in the end you will have to choose what you decide to do.

With that said I would like to make a few suggestions:

Focus on one thing at a time

Which thing are you most interested in pursuing and most passionate about? If you're doing something that you're passionate about it's a lot easier to get up in the morning and start working even when times are rough.

What gives you the greatest return on investment for your time? For each hour that is spent what pays you the most money?

[igorhelpsyousucceed]

Originally Posted by alexgilberg

hey guys,

So my first question is: Should I just cut my losses (all the time, money and energy I've spent learning, getting software, and gaining experience) of affiliate marketing and IM for local businesses, and just focus 100% on starting my info-product business?

Do It!
IF you need a specific plan for your
action, which I am surprised you haven't got
from Mike Dillard and Eben Pegan, I advise you
to read "The Answer" by John Assaraf.

Igor

[Nic Lynn]

Here's what I would do, based on the fact that you DO want to move forward on all three business models.

1. Concentrate 90% effort on building the info product business
2. Outsource the offline business. Here is a BIG TIP: Hire 1 college/graduate student to be your sales guy (they will be your feet on the street, going out, finding and closing deals). Hire another to manage the outsourcing of the work for the clients (i.e they will manage freelancers that you/they have hired via guru or getafreelancer or wherever). Never let the 2 meet or they will put the puzzle together themselves. In this economy, you can get college/grad students for almost free. They would rather work for you for near nothing than McDonalds becaus hardly anyone is hiring interns or entry level jobs and you can provide them meaninful experience on their resume. Who would rather have Server at McDonalds or Shoe Department at Sears on their resume when they can have Client Manager or Marketing Intern or Regional Sales Representative at MarketReach, LLC (or whatever the name of your IM company is)?
3. Spend 30 minutes a day on your affiliate campaigns. Treat it as your break or your hobby away from your main business.

I always advocate sticking with one thing, but you are by no means a newb at this, so you just need to learn how to scale. Doing the above, you can take a first big step in scaling your business for success.

Great job and good luck!

[sashagilberg]

thanks everyone for your opinions I really appreciate the advice.

I like your idea Ed of hiring one salesperson and one project manager, if I can get that running smoothly it'll be a good system.

In regards to affiliate marketing, I'll mostly participate in product launches so I do a bit of work but with a high pay off where I'm not struggling for scraps like my current affiliate marketing system is going.

But 95% of the time, I'll be working on my information product business. Today it finally hit me how I can work on things I'm passionate about and still make massive money!