
I know that the billions of people who are alive on the revolving globe that is our world can be categorized in millions of different ways. To mention a few there are religious beliefs, skin color, sporting enthusiasts or not, and so many more. But the one category I want to concentrate on in this blog post is entrepreneurship. Using entrepreneurship to divide the world’s population, there are three groups into which a person of any religious belief, or skin color can fall. They are born entrepreneurs, born employees, and those who start their working life as employees, but due to an inner desire or necessity, they try to become entrepreneurs. A few of the readers of this blog post may fall into the first category, as they are born entrepreneurs. The vast majority of the world’s population fall into the second category, being born employees. However, I believe that the majority of the people reading this blog post will be current or ex-employees who want or need to become entrepreneurs. It is mainly at those who fall into this third group that I want to aim the advice contained in this blog post.
There are many mindset changes anybody who is planning to try his or her hand as an Affiliate or Internet Marketer must undergo, far too many to list here. But I’d like to mention three of the most important ones. Even then I can’t go into them in any depth, but I will in later blog posts.
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EDUCATION. Despite probably having studied for many years before starting their old or current day job, most potential entrepreneurs think that they can step into a new way of making a living and start earning from day one. Nothing could be further from the truth. Budding online marketers should adjust their mindset and plan for at least a year before their income, if any, will come anywhere near what they are or were earning as an employee. This time will be spent learning the many skills that they will have to acquire before they become proficient and profitable Affiliate Marketers.
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INVESTMENT. Spending money falls into two categories. There’s spending money for day-to-day expenses, and there’s spending money for investment purposes. People who invest money, expect to receive some kind of return on the money spent in the medium to long term.
Employees may have to spend money on, say, commuting to and from work, which is an expense. But, on day one in a new job, they are not going to be asked to pay a large one-time sum for the privilege of working for their new employer. If they were asked to pay such a sum, it would be considered to be an investment.
Entrepreneurs, although they too will have expenses to pay, WILL need to spend sums, which could be considerable, to get their business off the ground. These costs constitute the entrepreneur’s investment in their business and budding entrepreneurs must understand (ie change their mindset) to encompass this fact. In the case of Affiliate or Internet Marketers, the main costs will be setting up a website, and, as discussed in the previous blog post, acquiring a mentor.
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NOT HAVING A BOSS. Most employees have a boss seemingly “looking over their shoulder” while they are at work, checking to ensure that the employee is working to their full potential so that they achieve their full objectives as quickly as possible. The requirement to work to their maximum potential is usually enforced on employees by the existence of their ever-present boss.
On the other hand, a budding entrepreneur has nobody but him or herself ensuring that they are making the best use of their time while working on their business. It takes a massive change in mindset to ensure that they don’t waste a lot of their time at the computer like they did when it was a pastime rather than a business. Unless it is an essential part of their chosen strategy scrolling aimlessly through Facebook, watching YouTube videos, or playing games like Wordle, must be kept to an absolute minimum.
Let’s compare the changes to their mindset that employees must make when they become entrepreneurs, to the changes to my mindset I had to make at the age of four and a half years old when I started elementary school.
Schoolwork in those early days was a doddle for me, as before I started school, I could count to 1,000, read simple words, and tell the time. But there were more than a few changes I had to make to my mindset. Obviously, I was too young to be aware of the changes I had to make, but, like learning my native language, everything came naturally to me. It was the first time that I had to interact with people, be it teachers or fellow pupils, who were not aware of my unique situation. However, I adapted to the situation quite easily and it wasn’t long before other kids stopped looking at me as if I was some kind of a freak, and started to accept me as being one of them. It was a skill that I picked up subconsciously and one that would help me through all of my exciting life.
After my fifth birthday, I moved up to primary school, which was a little further from the house than the elementary school, and involved crossing a fairly busy road. After Mum took me on the first day, she decided that I should be able to walk there on my own, from then on. I had to teach myself how to look out for traffic when crossing the road, which was a change of mindset, as previously I had only had to concentrate on my walking on the few times I walked with Mum after I had mastered the tricycle. Before that, she had always held my hand when crossing roads.
Many other changes in my mindset took place at this time, but, as stated before, I was young, and was not aware of them taking place. I suppose they were just a natural result of growing up. However, there was one other change of mindset that I went through that I still distinctly remember, and I would like to mention it here. One day, very shortly after moving to my primary school, I was walking home after school, a boy from my new class threw a stone at me and it grazed my cheek. The boy ran off, laughing. Several things could have entered my mind after that happened, but my first thought was, “Not everybody I meet in my life is going to like me, never mind love me.” Up until then everybody I had met had, at least liked me, if they didn’t love me. Now, here was somebody who clearly didn’t like me at all. This came as a bit of a shock to me, and my mindset about relationships changed forever in that fleeting moment when a stone grazed my cheek.
So, what can we marketers learn from today’s chapter?
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In the vast majority of cases, the mindset of a child changes subconsciously. It’s simply a process of growing up. It’s like learning to talk. I have personal experience with a Thai-speaking 6-year-old who went to a primary school where they only spoke English. Within eighteen months, without going to any language classes, he could speak English as fluently as any of his classmates. On the other hand, I’ve now lived in Thailand for thirteen years, and apart from streaming a British radio station and listening to my Thai wife’s broken English, I’ve only heard Thai spoken, and yet, apart from numbers, I only know about twenty words in Thai.
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Similarly, mindset changes come naturally to children, but not to adults. Therefore, the mindset changes that must occur when an employee attempts to become an entrepreneur, three of which are explained in detail above, must make these mindset changes consciously rather than unconsciously.
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Not everybody who opts in to your email list is going to grow to know, like, and trust you. Some will grow to think that you’re wasting their time and will unsubscribe from your list. Professional Marketers accept this as part of the job and treat such occurrences like water off a duck’s back.
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Apart from the mindset changes everybody who becomes an entrepreneur must make, the most important other consideration is Can I afford it?” I will go into this question in more detail in a future blog post, but if you re-read the sections headed “EDUCATION” and “INVESTMENT” above, you will realize that everybody who is considering leaving their nine-to-five job to become a full-time Affiliate or Internet Marketer may face a year at least of zero or reduced income, together with facing much Investment expenditure, which may require seeking a loan from a bank or similar institution. If this proves not to be possible, you may have to rely on your credit card, if it has enough credit on it. So, before you hand in your resignation letter, MAKE SURE THAT YOU’VE DONE YOUR SUMS.
Cheers
Phil
You mentioned a great point about having zero or reduced income for at least one year.
I think more people need to hear this message so that they will not jump from opportunity to opportunity every few weeks. I used to be one of them.
In fact, if someone ask me whether they should start an online business, I will ask them whether they are prepared to stick to one proven method for at least the next 5 years.
If not, they probably shouldn’t get started in the first place. Of course, this is just my opinion, based on my past experiences.
Alan Lim recently posted…This Ad Generated 500+ Sales
Yes, Alan, I agree entirely. I’m worried that too many people will quit their job too early. Then give up on their strategy and end up having to look for a new 9 to 5 job, with the disadvantage of having to explain to a potential future employee at an interview, why they quit their previous job.
Cheers
Phil
I agree that you should expect to spend about a year without seeing any money results (there will be other wins along the way though!). I believe that one of the main reasons so many aspiring affiliate marketers give up is because they go into it expecting to make lots of many fairly quickly. This makes me sad, they could have built a great business had they had the right expectations from the beginning.
Cheers, Katrin
Exactly right, Katrin,
People must have the right mindset about this before they consider giving up their day job. As Dean says; It’s not “Get rich quick, it’s get rich forever.
Cheers
Phil
Phil, really great post and lots that I can resonate with regarding when I was younger and my mindset when working. I do have a bit of a cynical view of the education system and the governments around the world. I don’t believe they want children to be entrepreneurs and grow up doing amazing things and starting their own businesses. They want to produce workers not thinkers. And my reasoning is is they want all of us to collect tax money for them. By putting us in this controlled panic, we will just spend a whole lives working and raising taxes. Having said that when you do break free from that system and start your own business and start reaping their rewards you have to be very careful, we don’t get overexcited that everything is okay now. Running your existing job and your business in parallel for at least a year maybe longer until your established would be my advice. Thank you for this very thought provoking blog well done until next time. Thanks, Atif
Atif Perwiz recently posted…I’m no good at this – no value to offer you!
Thanks, Atif for your appreciative words about my blog post.
You may be right about the education systems in countries around the world. However, with the advent of more and more AI coming into everyday working life, it might force more people to consider entrepreneurship, and in the end, that might force the education systems throughout the world to include entrepreneurship as a subject in secondary schools, and to suggest to more people to consider that avenue at the end of their school days. If many jobs get replaced by robots and computer programs, who is going to generate the tax revenue currently generated by employees who currently do the jobs that AI will undoubtedly replace in the near to medium future?
Cheers
Phil
I had to retire due to sudden bodily signals urging me to heed its warning. I believe more serious health concerns would’ve arisen had I not listened! Thirty days later, my health is restored.
Money is energy. Very important to assess all false beliefs about money. I notice movies I’ve watched recently highlight the rich and famous whom are all miserable people.
Money doesn’t make you happy. A mindset of happiness supercedes all outer conditions.
Kate,
I agree, as long as I can feed and keep a roof over my wife’s and daughter’s heads, not forgetting 4 dogs and a cat, I’m happy. My only selfish use of money that puts the icing on the cake, is to be able to afford 3 bottles of beer after dinner every evening as I play board games with my daughter, as long as she has finished her studies for the day.
Cheers
Phil
Hey Phil, This was great! You highlight some very important points.
I agree you do need to know your numbers and if you are working a 9 to 5 job that you intend to leave then it is very important you know where your financial situation needs to be sitting before handing your notice in. Handing it in on a wing and a prayer is madness.
It does all come down to mindset and setting our minds, I agree. Embarking on your journey knowing your why, knowing your numbers, and having the right mindset and expectations of your first year will see any new Affiliate Marketer off to the best start.
I am pleased to tell you Phil….I know my numbers 😁 💯 👍🏻
Have a great week! I Look forward to reading your future posts
Thanks, Kate,
Am I right in thinking that you have the desire to quit when the correct time comes? If so. I wish you all the best for the future.
Cheers
Phil
Hi Phil,
It is difficult to move from employee to entrepreneur and the main reason is that for the most part, Education teaches us to be employees rather than entrepreneurs. this is why I think it is difficult as it is a different mindset.
It would be a different world if, from an early age, we learned how to value money, how to use, invest etc.
Eleanor Hope recently posted…Affiliate Marketing2. Build Community
Yes, Eleanor,
I agree. Have a look at Atif’s comment on this blog and my reply to it.
Cheers
Phil
This presents a very realistic view of what it takes to honestly do business. The transition struggle is real. It’s a full life transition, I believe which included the mind, routines, and impacts our family also.
Great post Phil!
Denny
Thanks, Denny,
Don’t forget this post. May you have good luck and good judgment with your business in the future.
Cheers
Phil
Thanks, Denny,
Don’t forget this post. May you have good luck and good judgment with your business in the future.
Cheers
Phil