Blog Stuck On You

The “reflection” phase is probably the most important component of your internet business automation process. It is where you ask the “BIG” questions … the most important questions you will ever ask about your business and about your life, like “why” is it that you want to build an automated online business, “what” having a fully automated online business means to you, “how” much time, effort and money you will commit to achieving your goals, “where” you will conduct your business and “who” you will do business with, and so on.

Let’s use an example, so you can understand how important this phase really is …

Let’s start with the end result in mind. Imagine that you now own a fully automated online business … a completely orchestrated “vending machine” that can run 24 hours a day and 7 days a week without you … automatically prospecting for new leads, finding you new customers, guiding them through the sales process, addressing their concerns and objections, delivering their purchases securely and on time, collecting and depositing money from the sales it makes directly into your bank account, and providing not only excellent after sales services, but also making “backend sales” to your existing customers.

Maybe you can’t, or don’t want to see yourself developing a fully automated online business. Maybe you would be happy just to reach the stage where you have a profitable online business with efficient systems that DOES require you to be present. If that idea feels more comfortable to you, then that’s ok. Most people cannot imagine themselves making money without being actively involved in the creation of their own income.

In fact, most people I’ve come across who have thought about creating a passive, or residual income stream, only have a distorted idea of what residual income really means. They may have picked up the idea from a network marketing presentation or a real estate investment seminar that residual income is “doing the work once, and getting paid over and over again for their one-time effort.”

While this is a compelling and seductive way to present the concept of passive income - and getting people to sign up to a network marketing company or real estate investing course — it doesn’t get people thinking about what the “whole” concept really means, or the challenges that lay ahead for anyone who decides to actually go ahead and create a passive income stream.

Let me present to you the concept of residual income in a more challenging way.

Residual income, or passive income, is the process of making yourself redundant to the creation of your own income.

Read the above statement again, and let what it implies to sink in. You will see that there is nothing “easy” or “simple” about the process of making yourself redundant to the creation of your own income. In fact, it is probably one of the hardest tasks you can undertake. When it comes to making money, it is far easier to “step in” to the picture and use your ego, knowledge, skills, charisma, power of persuasion, sales ability, resources and personal experience to “make it happen”, than it is to “step out” of the picture and have systems run everything for you … and do the same or a better job without you!

So, the first question you should ask yourself if you are attracted to the idea of owning an automated online business that can create an ongoing stream of passive income for you is … “why” do you want to do this?

Why do you want to own an automated online business? Why not work in a job where you can get paid well and not have to take home the pressures or responsibilities of ownership? Or, if being your own boss is important, why not just own a traditional business that doesn’t require automation? Like being a doctor, or a plumber, or a professional of some kind?

My guess is that “freedom” is your main motivator. In fact, if you are as obsessed as I am about the idea of owning automated online businesses that can generate an ongoing stream of residual income for you, then your motivation may be a combination of wanting to have both “time freedom” AND “money freedom” in your life.

To have these freedoms be manifested in your life, requires first that you spend a serious amount of time engaged in deep, active, reflection …

To continue reading the rest of this article, go here: Automating Your Business Online

Tags: Business, Management & Administration