You have to have the money first, right?

[Chantal]

Hello everyone,

I am new here and am excited to discuss this book with other readers.

What I understand, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is that you need to be in a position of making the money in the first place before you can outsource it all.

I am having to do all the work at the moment while I build my business because I don't have the cash. Everyone has to start like that right? You have to build your business first don't you?

I would gladly swap to be in Tim's position where he was earning 40K a month and burnt out, because I would do what he did and outsource!

He reminds me very much of me. All I want to do is have the time to learn and better myself. By the time I am 80 I want a list of all the things I achieved.

My frustration at the moment is getting my business to a position where it is in profit so I can have people run it for me and I can chill.

But like I said, we all have to put in the hours (years) initially to get to that stage? That's what Tim did didn't he?

In fact, if someone was making that much money every month why on earth would they want to stay in the office 9-5 every day?

Again, it all comes down to money.

Your thoughts please...

[kamakiri]

What I understand, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is that you need to be in a position of making the money in the first place before you can outsource it all.

I am having to do all the work at the moment while I build my business because I don't have the cash. Everyone has to start like that right? You have to build your business first don't you

Not really. The only commodity we are all dealt evenly is time. Money comes and goes. Outsourcing? You need to have stuff to outsource before you get creative there. Just look over these forums at the misguided people who hire VAs with nothing to do, or who try to practice principles in the book when they aren't necessary. Tim talks about it in his blog, the number of misguided souls who put the horse before the carriage and try to skip steps is huge, and at the same time inversely proportional to the success rate.

Taking the time and working toward your goals by building a business is far more important than having the cash to outsource it. Sure the cash would be nice (who wouldn't turn it down), but what most people lack is the discipline to make the incremental progress needed to change their lives. Many are ruled by a baseless fear of failure that years of the education system pounded into our heads. "That will go on your permanent record" garbage. I have said many times that in order to succeed, you need to increase your rate of failure.

You are clearly on the fence, like most fist posters here. At least you are asking the right questions. The next step it to not get bogged down with indecision/perfectionism. It is a curse that afflicts many people who are unsatisfied, "If I can't do it properly, I won't/shouldn't do it at all." Re-read the book (or wait until the revised version comes out), and work on some of the non-muse areas.

As you progress down the path of LD, you will find that money matters less and less and time more and more. No amount of money will can buy you time, but small gains in LD will free up your time to make more money, and the great thing is that those changes are cumulative, and pay dividends in compound interest.

[maxpr]

I'm confused...are you asking if you need money to start your muse, perhaps?

Well that would depend entirely on your skill level.

I personally know very little about web programming and design, so I pay a guy to do mine for me. It is easier and better and most importantly saves me perhaps months/years on time to pay the guy to do something than try to learn it myself. Not to mention it looks more professional. Of course outsourcing has its hooks and I am on programmer number 3 but maybe this is all part of that increase your failure thing kam was talking about.

Or maybe your skills are in a different area of your business.

I am not sure in the book if Tim started his first muse (BrainQ) on credit or through small investments from friends/family or moonlighted.

I am in full support of moonlighting to develop and test your muse, by which of course I mean don't freak out, jump the gun, quit your job without a plan...ask me why I know that...:) Steadily work at it in your free time if you are currently working, if you are not then you better be devouting as much time and energy to getting it developed while you are having this free time!

Also you may need to check yourself; your focus seems to entirely be on money, money, money...which obviously money and time are the most important aspects BUT you should also be concerned about how your business/muse (which by the way I hate that term)/or idea is going to make you SUSTAINED profit.

The best piece of advice I can give you is to look through the site and see where other users have failed. Learn from what they did. A lot of people here focus on developing "info" products that will absolutely not sustain the level of regular income required for Tim's jetset lifestyle.

Also, look at your reasons for wanting this sort of "muse" set up. Do you want to travel, free up time to live a certain lifestyle, maybe travel the world and make love to exotic women or men (as some users I think are REALLY here for, haha)...what is it? I personally have no desire to travel to India or Thailand and have an "experience" but would like to be able to spend more time with my gf sometime in the future.

Hope that helps.

[TimW]

It is a curse that afflicts many people who are unsatisfied, "If I can't do it properly, I won't/shouldn't do it at all."

A quote attributed to General George Patton, though could have been any military leader, goes "a 70 percent solution acted on immediately is always better than a perfect solution acted on later."

I found this to be very true in the study of languages. In my classes, the number of people who would mentally form perfect sentences because they didn't want to make mistakes was huge...and their ability to communicate suffered greatly for it.

I and a couple other students didn't care if we made mistakes. Our goal was communication. If we bungled a verb tense, it generally didn't matter, and when it did, the folks with whom we were talking would ask us to clarify.

Thus, I know I was able to progress MUCH faster than many of my classmates simply because I went with my 70% sentence now, keeping the flow of the conversation going, rather than stalling until I achieved perfection.

Same for me in business. Yeah, a couple of mistakes have cost me a bunch of money, but each mistake was a lesson worth more than what it cost me (so far! :) ).

At some point, you're going to need to act, since that's the only thing that will get you moving toward your goal. Thinking about getting into shape by forumlating the perfect workout plan, meal plan, diet regimen, food alternatives, etc., is far less effective than getting off your fat ass and going for a walk or hike, or getting some dumbbells and starting to lift. Figure out the program as you're working and get double the benefit, and fine-tune along the way.

[DeyIrfan]

A quote attributed to General George Patton, though could have been any military leader, goes "a 70 percent solution acted on immediately is always better than a perfect solution acted on later."


this is the perfect words for myself right now. I really do need to break from the perfectionism, because it's ticking me off. Which reminds me that I've been mistakes all along, and the worst that happened is just me is just the feeling of great discomfort. But nothing lethal.

Great post, TimW :cool:

[Dantplayer]

You have to have the money first, right?

No. But thank God people thing that. ;)

[padma]

The method I used was to become a freelancer myself until I had enough money saved up to invest in my business. I used those contacts to increase my reach when I started things for myself.

[JRL]

Perhaps I'm going against the crowd here, but I feel that some money is necessary. Even moreso than a job. Large cash reserves act as a hedge against almost any risk; it'll only fuel you in carrying out your business.

If you've got debt that's current and payable every month (ie - credit cards), you're gonna need to finance that. You're gonna need to pay your vendors. You're gonna need to pay your hosting fees. Etc., etc., etc.

Tim definitely put in the hours while he was starting. When you're pulling in $40K/month in net income, that's when you start outsourcing, not before.

Cash flow first.

[luiscongdon@msn.com]

Thanks for the message and reminder about 'ACT NOW'

Tomorrow, meaning today, a few hours from now, I will sleep, wake up and come home and BAM start my website.

Any ideas on good places to start with the website idea? I thought I would go to Wordpress to start my idea.

I would like to sell products from my site too. I have to admit though I don't want Adsense of crappy google adds on my page. Is there a way I can advertise other people's products, ones I actually endorse.

[WordPower]

I like Kamariki's post. I just want to encourage you that you really don't need a whole lot of money. The woman who started The Grocery Game rolled up quarters to start her business. Before the week was out, she realized she would have to franchise.

I've started several businesses with very little money and it cuts into my walking around and bill paying money, but I've been able to compensate with saving a ton of money on everything.

Just remember to be frugal in all that you do by getting the best quality at the lowest cost for your business. Shop at places that give you money back, shop sales, clip coupons. Buy only what you need. Give up on paper. Find low cost ways to advertise. I get my printing done by Vistaprint and they are always high quality and super inexpensive.

I would say that before you haul up and try to start a business, take the time to explore, to read. Educate yourself on all the things you need to know before you go gung ho and start spending unnecessary money. Why pay a web designer because you don't know HTML? There are plenty of cheap "what you see is what you get" WYSIWYG companies out there that already took the hard work out of building websites. And, they're super cheap. They also have free websites that allow you to design your own logo. Educate, educate, educate, before you spend, spend, spend.

Also, try to barter for the services you need. Craigslist has a ton of barter deals, although you must be wary of scams. I only barter with people I know.

Last and most importantly, ask God to run your business. As one person told me, if God gave you the vision, he will give you the provision. God is the best businessman in the universe, so why not get help from the best?

Money is the least of my worries, and yet my car has been booted and towed for tickets I didn't know I had and I don't know where the money is going to come from to get my car out the pound, let alone pay for business school. But, as I say this, I have a beautiful home, healthy children, a steady marriage, a refridgerator with food in it, and designer clothes to put on everyone's back. All without credit cards. God takes care of his own. I don't worry about the tuition or the car because I know that God knows I need my car, so he will handle it, and he knows I need to go to school, so he will handle that too. When you have no anxiety over your business, you can be free to create and make your business that more enjoyable so that you won't HAVE to outsource every little thing, because you will be enjoying what you are doing. Just my 2 cents! I wish you the best in your endeavors!

[luiscongdon@msn.com]

tonight, right after posting this I went and spoke to my neighbor, someone who has created his own website and will begin my website with him tomorrow afternoon. I made plans with him to do that.

As i watch Tim's video titled, "how to blog without kiling yourself" I think, 'DAMN he knows a lot about all this stuff, I wonder if I'll hang in long enough to learn all that stuff."

I did like what he said about blogging about what your passionate about. I am passionate about weightlifting, poetry, art, Spanish, psychology, I teach marriage education classes in English/Spanish, work one on one with couples teaching the work of Dr. John gottman-- he has studied over 3,000 couples for over 30years and has done the most scientific research on marriages and what works and doesn't--EXCITING stuff. I also enjoy learning about dating (pick up community), Spirituality- another topic I really love.

For all of you reading this any type of feedback is helpful.