Small Business Start-Up Basics: Work Smarter, Not Harder - The 4 Keys to a Lower Maintenance and More Productive Online Business

As an Internet marketing mother, I can’t afford to be sitting at my computer 24/7. I chose to run an online business because I want to be home with my kids, but at home glued to a computer screen isn’t like being at home.

Even if you don’t have a kid or a spouse, a business should not become your entire life.

It’s a recipe for burn out and a dismal life that revolves around a computer. At first, building your business and working really may seem exciting, but then you look up and realize there’s nothing else in your life.

So, how do you work smarter and not harder? In other words, how do you make more money with less personal time invested in your business.

1. Value your time
2. Leverage the strengths and time of others
3. Implement Passive Income Models into your Business
4. Don’t be afraid of technology

You need to set and limit your working hours. You probably run your business, so you can stay home with your family&/or have more freedom. Well, being a prisoner to your computer doesn’t do either of those things for you.

In addition, when you limit your work time, you are more productive. If you have only 3 hours to get work done, you’re more likely to stay focused and do what you need to do. If you have set aside the whole day to work, you’ll probably slack off and hang out at forums, check your stats endlessly or find other distractions. Sorry to say - that’s NOT working.

Don’t think of yourself as a solo entrepreneur...think of yourself as a team. You can leverage the strength and time of others by:

-- Partnering with others reaching the same target market as you: Your competition doesn’t need to be your enemy. Make them your partners instead!

-- Recruiting and training an affiliate force: Just setting up the script for your affiliate program isn’t enough...set up a stellar program instead.

-- Being part of mastermind group that shares business strategies and experiences.

Outsourcing and having your own well-managed affiliate program are ways to generate passive income. Other ways to add more passive income to your online business are:

-- Join affiliate programs: You don’t have to fulfill all the orders and provide customer support.

-- Learn search engine optimization (SEO): Search engine optimization is an excellent source of highly-targeted traffic for your website. Just think, people enter a keyword phrase for something they want and voila, they find you.

-- Implement pay-per-click strategies: Just like with search engines, you can get highly-targeted traffic to your website, but you have to pay for it. But setting up a cost-effective and profitable campaign can do wonders for your business. Try Adwords of Yahoo Search Marketing.

-- Use autoresponders: Effectively automate your follow-up process with our prospect and customers.

-- Backend Sales & Upsells: When someone is already going to buy from you once, they’re more likely to buy more. Make sure you make extra offers.

This one might be tough for some non-technical people. Honestly, I’m not very technical and I get intimidated by technology...but I do know that if I can automate something in my business, it saves me time and money. That’s why I have a programmer on hand to help me with stuff like this. I don’t have to implement the technology myself. I just use it to my advantage in my business.

* Autoresponders
* Shopping carts
* Membership sites
* Automating content addition to your sites
* Making customer/prospect management easier and more profitable
* Customer feedback, comments, reviews
* Affiliate program
* Tracking advertising and split testing

So please, stop doing so much work! Your business, family and friends will thank you for it!

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Alice Seba is a solo entrepreneur that thrives on helping people get ahead in their Internet businesses. Learn how you can make more money by building your network of Internet business friends at Direct Sales Directories.

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The opinions, suggestions, instructions expressed in these pages are those of the author, not of AlbertaRose.org. All answers are intended to be general in nature, without regard to specific geographical areas or circumstances, and should only be relied upon after consulting an appropriate expert, such as an attorney or accountant. Article and Information Sources include but are not limited to: IRS.gov; BusinessTown.com; Entrepreneur.com; Inc.com; StartupJournal.com