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Are you SURE you can't afford it?

by R Hagel
14 replies
It's Friday afternoon. You whip out your mobile phone, hit up Facebook and see if any of your friends want to go out. You decide to do dinner, then see the Hunger Games and maybe top off the night with a couple drinks.

Let's see:

Your share for the dinner bill: $25

Movie, popcorn and a drink: $15

Couple drinks later: $10

Of course to arrange all of this, you used your $300 phone (with it's $70/month plan) to connect with friends. And if you're not tired when you get home, you may watch cable (let's say $70 a month) on your $1000 TV.

If that sounds like you, or even close to, that's cool. No problem!

But if you're also the SAME person telling us you can't afford $20 month for an autoresponder, $5 for hosting, $1 for stock images, $9 for a domain name or any number of other tax-deductible business expenses and investments, then you need a good swift kick in the rear.

Yes, there are people who're genuinely struggling to pay their business expenses. I have no problem with these folks either (I was there once myself). This spotlight is going down on those who're saying they can't afford necessary business expenses, yet their lifestyle tells a different story.

If you recognize yourself in this, maybe it's time to think about shifting priorities. Or at the very least, stop making excuses as to why you can't get your business off the ground.

Becky
#afford
  • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
    Strange, that so many people want to start a business,
    but refuse to invest in it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Cataclysm1987
    Fortunately I can honestly say I've never made these excuses, but I know just who you are talking about.

    These people don't deserve to be successful. Get your priorities straight. I haven't been going out at all to try and keep my funds strong for my next IM venture and you can't even afford a 19 dollar a month autoresponder that could generate you an extra 500-1000 dollars a month?

    (Yes I've done this with a basic AWeber plan. It's possible. AWeber pays me back ten fold every month regardless of how many people I've had on the list)

    Get your minds straight.
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  • Profile picture of the author Des Lau
    There are just some people who are not the right 'fit' to be business people.

    They want everything free, cheap or given to them on a silver platter + some.

    Natural selection prevails in most cases..
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  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    I'd say a part of the problem is that these kinds of people legitimately think that the luxuries you mention are in fact necessities in life. So they honestly believe that they don't have the money, and cannot wrap their heads around the fact that there are easy sacrifices that can be made to generate the extra start up capital they would need for these expenses.
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    • Profile picture of the author R Hagel
      Originally Posted by Joe Robinson View Post

      I'd say a part of the problem is that these kinds of people legitimately think that the luxuries you mention are in fact necessities in life. So they honestly believe that they don't have the money, and cannot wrap their heads around the fact that there are easy sacrifices that can be made to generate the extra start up capital they would need for these expenses.
      That's an excellent point.

      And actually, it's also a wonderful bit of marketing if you can create a luxury and then convince your customers and prospects that it's a necessity. (Or have your customers convince themselves.)

      Becky
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  • Profile picture of the author kursat
    It was actually one of the turning points for my business when I stopped spending money on Guru Promises and use that money for quality software - like autoresponders.

    The automated softwares indeed cost money but saves a lot of time.

    I like the way you put it - nice read, thanks
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    Web Design and Development - Landing Page Design - Custom Sales Funnel Creation and Installation
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  • Profile picture of the author blueclcl
    So true for many people.

    Good post!
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  • Profile picture of the author Bill Farnham
    Originally Posted by R Hagel View Post

    You decide to do dinner, then see the Hunger Games and maybe top off the night with a couple drinks.
    Becky,

    You came "this close" to having an evergreen thread. Now when people read this thread in two weeks they'll be going "What is she talking about?"

    Back on topic...that $1000 TV is also a huge time suck if allowed to be. If one were to add up all the hours spent watching TV for a 7 day period in many cases they would be shocked at the hours they invested in watching.

    In fact, you could literally build an online business using the time the average TV watcher spends in front of the box. And given an average of 19 minutes per hour are nothing but commercials it really becomes a time suck unless you can fool yourself into believing you like to watch commercials as a form of market research.

    And if you didn't have that $70+ a month going out...

    ~Bill
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    • Profile picture of the author R Hagel
      Originally Posted by Bill Farnham View Post

      Becky,

      You came "this close" to having an evergreen thread. Now when people read this thread in two weeks they'll be going "What is she talking about?"
      Pffft. The Hunger Games are going to happen. So in 100 years when someone reads this thread, they'll assume I'm talking about going to see the REAL Hunger Games, not the movie as we know it.




      In fact, you could literally build an online business using the time the average TV watcher spends in front of the box. And given an average of 19 minutes per hour are nothing but commercials it really becomes a time suck unless you can fool yourself into believing you like to watch commercials as a form of market research.
      Yep. Which is another excuse ("I don't have time") that we can often just toss right out the window.

      Becky
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  • Profile picture of the author Kelly Verge
    Before I started doing any IM, I played WoW. My justification was that I didn't spend any more time with it than most people spend watching TV.

    But then one day, in the game console I typed the command, "/played," which shows how much time you've spent playing your current character. I was stunned.

    I then typed the same command for each of my other characters and totalled it. Sad, really.

    My brother was just starting to try to get me started in IM, so I decided that I'd start doing IM with the time that I'd been wasting on that game.

    It's been a MUCH more productive and rewarding use of my time over the past several years.

    Of course, it's a little strange that my niche pen name persona is a Night Elf Mohawk...

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    • Profile picture of the author WebPen
      Originally Posted by Kelly Verge View Post

      Before I started doing any IM, I played WoW. My justification was that I didn't spend any more time with it than most people spend watching TV.

      But then one day, in the game console I typed the command, "/played," which shows how much time you've spent playing your current character. I was stunned.

      I then typed the same command for each of my other characters and totalled it. Sad, really.
      I think thousands of people can relate my friend.

      WoW, Skyrim, LoL, CoD.... it's scary how addicting these freaking games are!
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
      There's nothing more unbelievable than everyone assuming that they need a smartphone.

      An indoctrinated race we are...


      Daniel
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  • Profile picture of the author Eduard Stinga
    Ohhhh snaaap!

    Well, it takes something to realize that you need money to make money
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  • Profile picture of the author owenlee
    some of them prefer to enjoy first and work later..that might be the difference between success and failure?
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