Years ago, I started noticing I was in significant physical pain when I used the computer for more than a few hours at a time. I used to spend 10+ hours a day in front of a computer. Figuring it was probably just time I invested in some better chairs, I bought myself an Aeron chair (and later, a better desk.)

Except the pain didn’t stop. If anything, it got worse.

I took more action. I started seeing a chiropractor. Later, I would add a weekly massage to my list. Today, I don’t do the weekly massage (actually, upon writing this, I realize I should probably add that back in!) but I do see a personal trainer three times a week to do workouts that stretch and build muscles I barely knew I had.

If there’s one thing that is a constant in my life, though, it’s pain.

“Supposed to”

That’s what makes me indescribably angry. I was raised to believe I could do anything I set my mind to. My mental faculties are strong–I get upset with my body when it doesn’t work like it’s “supposed to”–”supposed to”, meaning, of course, spending hours in front of a computer. (I am slowly starting to understand that that is definitely not what our bodies are “supposed to” be doing all day.)

After long talks with chiropractors, physical therapists, personal trainers, and massage therapists, there’s no real conclusion as to why this happened. My own theory: In high school, and growing up, I was ashamed of my body.

I was happy to show off my intellect, but scared of being treated like an “object”, so to this day I wear virtually no makeup and don’t like dressing up in anything that would show off my body. That same reflex caused me to slouch, as I was overly wary of “showing anything off” or being looked at by boys.

The slouching–that’s what I think caused this issue. It actually caused most of my muscles to develop in strange ways. I went to a myopractor recently, and he said, “Well, you’re an interesting case.” “Interesting” in this case meaning “messed up.” My hips were so far off that it basically seemed like one of my legs was longer than the other. And my neck bones were so out of place that I actually had one set of overdeveloped muscles, on one side, and one set of underdeveloped muscles on the other side of the bone.

“This stuff has been here for years,” he told me. Then he touched my left shoulder–like you would do if you’re tapping someone on the shoulder–and I screamed in pain. “Whoa,” he said. “That’s not right.”

He rotated my arm, with me fighting back tears and biting my lip as I tried to do anything to get my mind off the pain. He touched underneath my armpit and that set me off again in a red delirium of pain.

He reset my shoulder bones as he asked “How long has your shoulder been like this?”

“I don’t know,” was all I could manage. “My entire adult life.”

Pain and Anger

I live through pain every day, but it was only recently that I finally realized that most people don’t go through what I go through…that my pain level is several notches more intense than average. That what most people go through when they have an injury is what I go through on a daily basis.

It’s not something I’ve had an easy time accepting. It makes me angry when pain keeps me away from doing something I want to do. My pain level is, fortunately, matched by my determination level. Right now, for instance, I’m working through the same left shoulder pain I described above as I write this, and I can feel that I have a rib out of place. But I’m still here–writing–because I feel that getting this out there is more important than dealing with the pain. (As soon as I’m done writing this, I’ll go home and lie down on an ice pack for the next few hours.)

I recently had the realization that I had to stop fighting the pain–that fighting it was just making it worse. Being at war with the pain was just making me angry–and angry me meant more tense muscles.

The Most Difficult Lesson

Instead, I’ve had to learn probably the most difficult lesson of my life: Acceptance.

Every part of my body–both physical and mental–does not want to accept that I am in pain. It does not want to accept, in particular, that I am in chronic pain. “I can do anything!” it says. In fact, it’s difficult to even write these words, but I know now: Acceptance of a difficult situation is the only way you can get through it. You have to accept it, and see it for what it is, before you can begin finding your way out.

For me, acceptance is the first step in a journey of figuring out not only why I am this way, but how to get through it. It will involve detangling many emotional “knots”, and admitting that I can’t do everything. That I am stuck in this human body that doesn’t always like to cooperate with my dreams of being among the stars.

But then I look back at what I’ve already accomplished, and I am amazed. I draw strength from that. I didn’t make perfect decisions in my last business. In fact, one could argue that I sacrificed a lot of my physical and emotional health in building my last company.

And that makes me more determined than ever to not do that this time around. I see so many people slouched over laptops, and I just want to go over to them and say “Don’t do that! You’ll end up like I did!” But that is their journey, not mine, and I have to focus on myself. (Another lesson I’ve neglected for far too long.)

So, I can only work 4 hours a day or so. (Sometimes less, sometimes more.) I can’t hit every party (even though my brain is screaming “YES YOU CAN” right now–my body doesn’t always cooperate.) Sometimes I just have to just lie on the floor with an ice pack for 20 or 30 minutes. Sometimes I can’t sleep because everything hurts so much, and I get exhausted and just cry it out.

But you know what? It’s been this way for years, and I’ve still managed to get so many things done in this short number of years I’ve lived so far. I have to stop fighting it. I have to show people my “weakness” and still prove to them that I can do anything. The first step is accepting myself for who I am.

So, here I am, world. An imperfect being. Maybe I can’t pull the hours others can. (I can’t spend more than an hour on a laptop in a coffee shop without being in agony.) Maybe I can’t hit every party, or write 34 blog posts a week. That doesn’t make me a bad person. I have goals, and I’m moving toward those. I’ve built an amazing support network, and I’m proud to say that everyone at Whoosh Traffic has become an amazing friend to me.

In short, perhaps I can do anything…and I just need to cut myself some slack. I’m not perfect. I’m just little ol’ imperfect “me”. But maybe that’s enough to still have a huge impact on the world.

Maybe that’s just perfect–in its own way.

(I can feel the anger slowly fading away.)

Recommended Reading:

• Hitting the jackpot doesn’t mean instantly becoming happy. I wrote this post in late 2007, after I sold my business. It’s when I first started to realize that selling my business wasn’t an instant panacea.
• What Money Can’t Fix. “You can hire the housekeeper, but you’re not fixing the underlying issue. It doesn’t fix the workaholism or the need to prove yourself…”
• They’re All Going To Laugh At You. “They will leave anonymous comments on the Internet about how awful your company is, and, by extension, how awful you must be as a person.” What do you do when it happens? Read this post for my solution.

There are arguments both ways. In the software industry, developers are expensive, and it may take 12-24 months to come up with a viable product. Also, software companies are typically popular with acquirers, as the perception is that there is less work involved and they are more “scalable” than a service-oriented business. (Instagram had just 13 employees and was acquired for $1 billion.)

The flip side is that you can give up a lot of your company (and, perhaps more importantly, control of your company) to investors, and it may take you some months or years to find the right combination of code that customers will actually pay for. (At least in our market–business-to-business–we actually want people to pay for our software. I know, novel concept!)

To Raise or Not to Raise?

I’ve been on the fence about raising money for Whoosh Traffic. On the one hand, we are doing well–we have a Fortune 500 company using our rank tracker, as well as many other customers. Our business isn’t currently immensely profitable, but it is making enough to pay the bills.

If we don’t need the money, should we raise anyway while the climate for funding is exceptionally good (as it is now)? Or should we focus on product development and grow our way into strong profitability?

With these questions still unanswered in my mind, I decided to set a meeting with an investor. I started with Josh Baer–a well-known angel investor here in Austin, and one I have pretty close ties with, since I recently came out of a 3-month part-time consulting stint with WP Engine, which his close friend Jason Cohen owns.

Josh does “office hours” for entrepreneurs here in Austin, so I signed up. I had 20 minutes of his time, and I was completely honest with where we were. I told him the whole story–Whoosh Traffic builds SEO tools. We’re not insanely profitable, but we’re paying the bills. We can probably grow our way into profitability. But should we take on investment?

What About New Business Ideas?

We also have a business idea and some customers who have already expressed interest in paying for it, but it’s a service business. By our projections, we could grow our way into profitability with that business in 90 days or less.

“Service businesses aren’t ‘scalable’, because you have to hire people every time you get more customers,” Josh pointed out. “They are great for cash flow, but most investors don’t want to invest in them because they are less likely to get sold at a higher multiple.” Fair advice.

Josh pointed out that our software side had more valuable customers, since software customers would be acquired at a much higher multiple when/if we decided to sell the business. A software customer paying $1000/year might be worth as much as 8x more than a service business customer paying the same amount in an acquisition. That was a side of things I hadn’t thought of.

Josh said, “I hope I’m not being too harsh here.” To me, though, that’s the brilliance of getting an outside opinion even though we aren’t raising money. I had to make a decision–did we really want to have a service side of the business? It would help our cash flow, but it wouldn’t be as great in an acquisition.

I left the meeting with Josh with my head spinning with ideas. Ultimately, I realized, I had to do what would make me (and our team of 4 people) the happiest. I know Parnell, my co-founder, is happiest when he’s building software tools. Brian Bigelow, our other employee/shareholder, loves to build software, too, and also enjoys doing financial models and learning the business side of the business. And finally, Brian Fryer, our UI designer and my fiance, is happiest when he’s just able to focus on design 100% of the time.

Knowing both what my team wanted (since we’re all close friends) and what I personally wanted really helped solidify the decision. I decided I wanted to go ahead with our service business and give it a shot–while realizing that I didn’t want the service business to take up too much of our developers’ time. Since our service business is also SEO-focused, I think it’s a good fit–it will attract a similar customer segment to our SEO tools (or at least that’s my current thinking!) And, thanks to Brian Bigelow’s amazing models, we also know that it will be greatly profitable.

The key takeaway from my meeting with Josh was to not focus too much of our developers’ time on the service side of things, and to use the service business as a “cash cow” to feed ourselves while we iterated on our software tools.

Mark Suster Makes A Surprise Entrance

That was Sunday. Yesterday was Monday, and Mark Suster made a surprise entrance to our office here in Austin, TX! I bailed on my personal training appointment to give him a demo of our SEO tools. I started out, again, with 100% honesty: “We’re not pitching you. I just want your opinion on our software.”

Mark’s a well-known blogger as well as venture capitalist, and I know he’s seen thousands of software product demos. I also really respect his opinion, having read his blog for a while. I was surprised to find out that not only did he read erica.biz, but he knew who I was. (Okay, I really don’t know why that surprises me any more, given the number of celebrities and other famous folks I’ve met through this blog. But it still does give me a little jolt of surprise when someone says “I feel like I know you already!”)

I demo’ed our product, showing Mark in real-time where his site, bothsidesofthetable.com, ranked for popular terms like “venture capitalist” and “venture capital”. (Our software goes out and actually crawls the Google index in real-time to help you find out where your site ranks for popular key terms, then keeps track of those key terms and where you rank for them over time.) Fortunately, everything went smoothly, and in a couple minutes, our crawler had finished, and had dug up a couple blog posts of his ranking for those terms.

“Wow,” Mark commented, and he was visibly impressed. “I love it.”

He continued: “SEO is like a black box to me. I don’t know how it works, and when I see my stats, the terms people are typing in to find me are mostly my name, or my blog’s name.”

The Other 95%

It hit me like a bolt of lightning: Mark is just like 95% of website owners out there. (And as a side note, that’s why the whole argument of “Just build great content and Google will send people your way” is complete bullshit. Mark is walking proof that great content isn’t enough–unless you understand how Google works.)

I mentioned I’m now getting over 73,000 visitors a month to erica.biz directly from people clicking on my blog in Google’s search results. (Nearly 90% of those people have never heard of erica.biz before.) It’s a whopper number, but most people really have no idea how SEO works, and so they wouldn’t have any idea how to achieve what I’ve achieved.

Then something snapped together in my head like puzzle pieces finally fitting together: A frustration I’d been having since we first launched our rank tracker was finally solved!

Appealing to a Wider Audience

The question I’d had stuck in my mind since we began this was: How do we make this appeal to a wider audience? Sure, there’s a great niche out there of SEO professionals and agencies who need tools. And that’s a damn lucrative niche–I should know; we’re in it. You could spend the rest of your life building tools and never satisfy that niche; they’re insatiable. And they love trying every tool that comes out.

That’s a great niche to start out in and validate your product–but that’s the 5%, not the 95%. (It’s probably even less than 5% of website owners, since a lot of the customers are agencies who manage hundreds or thousands of websites each.) How do we get to the 95%? The Mark Susters of the world, to whom SEO is a “black box”?

As soon as Mark left, I tore through the office. I grabbed my cell phone and had Brian shoot a video of me while I had the whole concept in my head. I’m posting it here completely unedited so you can see a real brain dump–what really happens when I’m in the office and have an idea. (I’m not even wearing any makeup! Yikes!)

I scrapped most of the content we had in development for our next iteration of the Whoosh Traffic website. I’m completely rewriting it. I heart you, agencies and SEO professionals. And we’ll have awesome reports that you can generate so you will love us. But we’re taking this to the next level. To the 95%. We’re going after the market for whom SEO is a “black box.”

Now, that market requires more training and hand-holding. They require more friendly tools that are easier to use. But that’s what I want to build: A mass-market product. One that I can show to any doctor, massage therapist, or business owner–and instead of their eyes glazing over, they instantly get it. “Oh, I need to go after these keywords, because that’s what people are typing in. And this is what I need to do to do that. And here’s a checklist I can send to my web developer to help me do this.” Yes. That’s the product!

That’s the harder part of the market, but that’s what I want to take on. And honestly, I think we were headed there anyway. But I wouldn’t have put those puzzle pieces together so quickly without my meeting with Mark.

They Can Change Your Life

That’s why investor meetings–and I don’t think I’m overstating this here–can change your life. They can help you quickly clarify what’s working and what’s not. They help you get valuable feedback.

For them to really work, you have to swallow your pride and listen to what they’re saying. If Simon Cowell tells you you can’t sing, your immediate response can’t be a derisive, ego-based “Yes I can–you don’t know what you’re talking about.” It has to be a form of “Why do you say that?” or “Tell me more.” That’s where the most valuable insights come in.

Fortunately for us, the insights have mostly been positive. I will say, these two meetings have moved us along faster than anything I’ve seen yet–including meeting with customers and potential customers. (Both of which are also important!)

In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say: If you are the CEO of a small company, it’s probably wise to spend 50% or more of your time “getting out of the building” and talking to current customers, potential customers, and yes–investors. Even if you’re not raising money.

» Try Whoosh Traffic today and instantly see where your website ranks in Google for key terms–then get an email every day with your current rankings!

Recommended Reading:

• Austin, TX vs. Silicon Valley: Can You Really Build A Successful Company “Outside the Bubble”? My story of my move from Silicon Valley, to San Diego, to Austin, and why I chose Austin to build my next 7-figure business.
• One Million Dollars, The Hard Way. My journey through the Valley and how I created my first 7-figure business.
• Are You Thinking Big Enough with Your Business? This is a common problem that you may run into in the course of building your business…

My Unique Perspective

I actually haven’t met many people who have spent significant time in the Bay Area, absorbed in the startup/tech culture there, and then moved to Austin. I expect they’re out there, but since I haven’t been able to find a chronicle of that, I’m writing this one.

I moved to the Bay Area in 1999, at the peak of the complete dot-com insanity. I attended the lavish parties (mostly snuck in, since I was under 21 at the time), then watched the bottom fall out. I worked for Sun Microsystems, and then founded my own hosting company. By 2007, I had made over $2 million (first making a million dollars with my company, then selling it for $1.1 million to a competitor.) I completely bootstrapped my business and never took on investors.

I knew pretty much all the “cool kids” in San Francisco, got invited to all sorts of interesting parties, and met many of the famous names who were there at the time. My company sponsored the first BarCamp (and I was in the IRC channel where they originally planned it), I was at the first SuperHappyDevHouse (and 19 out of the first 20 of them!), and I was at the first meeting in San Francisco where about 20 of us put our heads together to figure out this “coworking” thing. That eventually culminated in Tara Hunt, Chris Messina, and others setting up Citizen Space.

I say all of this not to brag, but to give you an idea of what was happening in the Bay Area while I was there. My hosting company hosted many of the popular startups at the time, since everyone knew who I was. There’s no doubt about it–being in the Bay Area did give my company an advantage.

Having said all that, and now knowing how deep my roots were in the Bay Area, why move?

Why Move?

Certainly, if I was building a consumer startup that all the “cool kids” would use (like Foursquare or Twitter), I’d have wanted to stay in San Francisco. (Foursquare seems to be doing quite well in NYC, though!) The problem I have with those types of startups is that I like to make money. (Just call me Kevin O’Leary.) Those startups focus on “eyeballs” and “stickiness”, and I focus on the bottom line. I knew I wanted to create something that businesses would pay a recurring monthly fee for. “Sticky” is great–as long as I can make money doing it.

I knew I wanted to bootstrap–though I am not ruling out taking an investment or two in the future, I want to own the majority of my company, give generous equity to my employees, and be profitable quickly. (Yeah, I know! Totally weird, right?!)

There were several reasons I left the Bay Area, but what it basically boiled down to was the idolization of “consumer Internet” companies, and a pervasive attitude of “it’s who you know that matters.” I always can pinpoint a “Bay Area” resume–it’s filled with name-dropping. Look, no one should give a crap that you had lunch with [insert big-name VC or angel investor here.] It really shouldn’t even matter if the big wig handed you a check after lunch.

Yet the tech blogs are choked with this sort of “news”. Look, yet another startup you’ve never heard of raised another insane round and is valued at nearly a billion dollars! Yet they haven’t made a dime. It’s nuts.

I wanted to escape the bubble. I’m not interested in my “valuation”. I’m interested in working my butt off (heck, I’m writing this in the office on a Sunday afternoon!), making money, delivering awesome value to my customers, and eventually selling my company and moving on to something even bigger. I love building businesses. I love our customers. I go above and beyond to make sure they have an amazing experience. But I got frustrated with the Bay Area, because that’s not what seems to count there.

So–what about Austin? What’s it like vs. the Bay Area?

Austin vs. the Bay Area

The first thing I’ll say here is that the startup folks here are different. They party less–although the dinner/house parties here are awesome! They tend to be more serious about their businesses. Here, it is less about who you know and more about what you are doing. This fits perfectly in line with my beliefs, and is one of the things that attracted me to this city.

That’s not to say that there’s not partying going on–walk down 6th Street on any Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night and the streets are packed! But you’ll typically find a younger, college-aged crowd there.

People here are more conservative than people in San Francisco, and less image-conscious. There’s a general attitude of “use what works” vs. using a certain brand of product. I see plenty of people bagging lunches, or just buying 5 pounds of BBQ to share! And the cars (or trucks!) are generally the “workhorse” type, vs. the luxury cars you see a lot of in the Bay Area.

There’s plenty of talk here about guns. Shooting is a hobby, but underlying that is a passionate belief that we have the right to bear arms and defend ourselves.

The thing that surprised me most about Austin is how many people go to church here. I grew up in an agnostic, non-religious household, and then moved to the Bay Area, where no one my age went to church. I had assumed that meant that church was “dead” for people my age. Turns out it’s just dead there–here, people go to church. But I haven’t met any crazy “Accept Jesus as your savior or you are going to hell!” sort of folks here. Actually, the church-goers, by and large, are respectful and don’t push their beliefs on you. It’s just part of their lives.

The startup culture here is like a microcosm of San Francisco. It’s definitely smaller, but there are angel investors around, and even an incubator program. The community is just starting to figure out how to band together and work with each other. So far, from what I’ve seen, the community is extremely supportive and friendly. There are enough tech meetups here for you to go to a different one every day of the week–if that’s what floats your boat.

The thing I keep coming back to is how darn nice everyone is here. People you barely know will offer you a guest room to crash in, share a beer & BBQ with you, or will invite you over to watch movies with them and their friends. And the people who work at the restaurants and bars here are the friendliest people I’ve ever met–Brian and I went to a pizza place where the cashier offered 10% off if Brian beat him at “rock, paper, scissors”, for instance. (Brian won, and we got 10% off!) And that’s what makes me genuinely love Austin–the fact that the people here are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Austin vs. San Diego

What about Austin vs. San Diego? San Diego’s startup scene is very small. I helped out there, starting the first SuperHappyDevHouse there and hosting two of them at my house. We had a nice turnout. The Hacker News meetup there, run by two of my good friends, is definitely worth attending.

The main problem I had with San Diego is that we kept losing people to the Bay Area. People would go to college at UCSD and then head up to San Francisco. Bay Area companies would frequently drop in on San Diego to try to poach talent. San Diego suffered from a ton of “brain drain”–the perception was that once you wanted to get serious about running your tech company, you’d have to move to SF. I was really disappointed in this. I eventually decided it wasn’t a battle worth fighting–and left for Austin.

Recently, I closed on my first house here in Austin. I picked an older, established area (just south of the 183, off of Burnet, if you know Austin.) I put 20% down and financed the rest, and my mortgage payment is $1789 per month on a 30-year fixed. This is for a 3-bedroom, 2-bath house about 15 minutes from downtown by car (45 minutes by bus, with a direct bus route to a block away from my office downtown.) That payment includes principal, interest, taxes, and insurance.

Now interestingly, that’s what usually sells people in the Bay Area on moving to Austin. (Not to mention that you can save $20,000+ a year on taxes here if you have a decent income, as there is no state income tax!) But what I’d like to emphasize is not just the cost of living, but the opportunities here. It seems to me that a lot of people are scared of making a change. But if you feel like the Bay Area is a bit of an echo chamber, your company doesn’t need the “cool kids” to endorse it, and you’d really rather attend more dinner parties and hang out with some genuinely awesome people, and be a bigger part of a smaller startup community, consider Austin.

What About the Weather?

I always find it puzzling that so many people are concerned about the hot summer weather in Austin. (And yes, though I haven’t lived through an entire summer here yet, I’ve been here during the summer multiple times, and I grew up in Indiana, where it’s also hot in the summer.)

I look at it like this: You are running a business. You are probably indoors most of the time. Air conditioning was invented a long time ago. And when you are not indoors, it’s a short trip to your car or bus. You will survive!

And just in case even that isn’t acceptable, you can always do what we’re planning to do with Whoosh Traffic next year–take the whole business somewhere else for a few months. Three months of heat shouldn’t be a dealbreaker for what is otherwise an awesome change of pace.

I love Austin, and plan to make it my home for the next several years. With the tax money I’ve saved, I can afford to fly back to the Bay Area and rub shoulders with all the name-droppers. (I expect I’ll fly back there at least once or twice a year.)

If you’re running a startup or consultancy, and don’t really feel like you’d fit in the “who you know” bubble, I highly recommend Austin. As a bonus, Austin has the best pizza and best BBQ I’ve ever tasted, and you’ll never hunger for a good craft brew. Give Austin a shot.

Recommended Reading:

• The End of an Era. My recall of my complete journey through Silicon Valley, including building and selling my web hosting company.
• One Million Dollars, The Hard Way. Another detailed recount of how I built and sold my first business.
• Dear California: I’m Leaving You. Here’s Why. Why virtually no one who wants to build a 7-figure or 8-figure business should do it in California.

So what is there to be sad about?

I don’t know, but I find I get sad anyway sometimes. There doesn’t seem to be a reason for it–it just happens. (Well–I can tell you that it happens more often when I eat bad food and spend too much time at the computer.)

But no one posts about that on Facebook. On Facebook, we all have perfect lives. We only post the good stuff.

I believe there’s a lesson to be learned here. It’s a tough one when everyone on Facebook is bright and cheery and all you want to do is stab something. That’s the worst time to learn it. But here it is anyway: Stop comparing yourself to everyone else.

Do you know that impulse doesn’t go away no matter how wealthy, successful, in love, or otherwise amazing you are? That you still compare yourself to others?

The issue is that Facebook posting (and other “life posting” outlets–even blogging!) tends to happen when we are happiest. Because after all, who wants to be the person on Facebook saying “Last night I cried myself to sleep”, or “Yesterday I was so depressed that I’m glad I don’t own a gun, because I probably wouldn’t be here any more if I did”?

Yeah. Not me! And probably not you either.

You Can’t “Success” Your Way Out

But here’s the thing I had to learn: You can’t “success” your way out of comparing yourself to others. It doesn’t matter how many speaking engagements you get if someone else has one you really covet. (Or even one you didn’t know about, but now covet because that person has it.) It doesn’t matter how many Twitter followers you have if someone else you admire has more (actually, I’m going to go out on a limb here and just say–it doesn’t matter how many Twitter followers you have, period.)

It doesn’t matter how many billions of dollars you have, because it’s likely that someone else still has more billions. And if you haven’t learned this lesson, and you are the richest person in the world, you will still be unhappy.

I was in a mastermind with a bunch of other popular bloggers. And most weeks, I’d hang up the phone and be so upset how one of those bloggers, Pat Flynn, was so successful. Finally I just emailed him and said, “How do you do this?” And I found out he’s a short sleeper–he only sleeps a few hours every night.

“Oh,” I thought. “I like my sleep.” Heck, I sleep 9+ hours every night. I will skip everything else, but my sleep time is sacred. And voila–my insecurities vanished. He’s more successful at blogging than I am not because I am a bad person, but because he has different values than I do. (Or because he’s Superman when it comes to sleep.) Either way–I was no longer sad about my inadequacy when it came to blogging.

Then I went to work for WP Engine. And got to work side by side with Jason Cohen, their CEO, who is also a great blogger. WP Engine is killing it right now. They’re growing faster than my hosting company did. “Damn,” I thought, “I must have really sucked at growing my business.” And the downward spiral arrived, ready for me to step on.

But then I really watched how Jason worked. And I realized I didn’t want that, at all. The guy is so driven that I often see him writing emails in the middle of the night. I’m not sure what sleep schedule he has, but I’d be willing to place bets that it’s worse than Pat Flynn’s. And I don’t think Jason is a short sleeper. He’s just motivated.

Making Your Own Choices

I remember doing that with my hosting company–getting phone calls at 3AM. My friends and family used to marvel that, with military precision, I could wake myself up and sound completely coherent within seconds on the phone. (After hiring an ex-military guy at my hosting company, I found out they actually train people in the military to do that!) I remember having to get up and drive to the datacenter in the middle of the night…sleeping on the couch in our office…and even switching to a 4+4 sleep schedule for a while. (More recently I found out that “early + late sleep” thing used to be common!)

I sold my hosting company, though, because after years of doing that, I was just burned out and exhausted. I still acutely remember how I felt when I sold my company. Mostly, I just wanted to go home and sleep. I’ve never told anyone this, I don’t think, but the night after I sold my business I woke up in a complete panic in the middle of the night. I had dreamed that someone had called and their server was down and I had to go in and fix it.

I checked my phone just to make sure. Nothing. Then I remembered that I had sold my business. “Whew!”, I thought, and then I can’t describe the feeling that happened next. It was like every emotion simultaneously. Relief that I had sold my business. But also a lot of guilt for wrecking my body during that time. I didn’t put myself first when I ran that company. I put my customers first, which meant happy customers, but I lived in a cage of stress and fear.

That’s why I decided to never run a hosting company again. I couldn’t trust myself to not end up that way. It’s my nature to put everyone else before myself, and that’s not always a healthy instinct. I will literally push myself to the point of complete exhaustion and mental breakdown to help someone else whom I care about. Probably not a great idea, but I’ve done it many times. My customers always rank up there on that list.

“So what,” I finally thought, “if Jason is doing better?” Remember, I didn’t want to do that! And good for him. They have a good niche–WordPress hosting. I love their team and have huge respect for Jason. But now, when I see him sending emails in the middle of the night, I remember: I chose not to do that. And somewhere, from deep within, I feel strength.

I Hate This Saying

I hate this saying: “No matter who you are, there’s always someone more successful than you.” I know I said it in so many words above, but it’s the kind of saying that makes me want to punch the person who said it in the face, and then prove that I can be more successful than whoever that “someone” is. (By the way, if there’s one trait you should look for in a successful entrepreneur, it’s that one.)

So–screw that saying. You can be the most successful person in the world–but the way to do it is to show your beautiful middle finger to Facebook postings or blog subscriber counts or whatever it is that is getting you down–and then just have the guts to ask those people how they got to be so damn successful. Chances are, you’re making a choice not to do whatever they did.

And you’ll find out one of two things–either you’ve been making bad choices, which are now within your power to change, or you’ve been making sane choices and they are insane. Either way is a better experience than stepping on the downward spiral. I know–I’ve been there.

Try it next time. Your instincts about how they got there are probably wrong…and you’ll be surprised at what you learn!

Recommended Reading:

• One Million Dollars, The Hard Way. The story of how I sold my business for over $1 million–with all of the nitty-gritty details.
• Hitting the Jackpot Doesn’t Mean Instantly Becoming Happy. This is the post I’m most thankful I wrote–I wrote it right after I sold my business, about the depression that ensues once you’ve sold your company.
• Finding the Path Toward Your Perfect Day. Try these action steps to make every day a little bit better than the last.

Jaime writes:

I’ve interviewed over 50 millionaires in the past year, and three big mistakes keep coming up. Here’s how successful millionaires found out how to get through them:

Mistake #1: “But I don’t have any time!”

“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time’ is like saying ‘I don’t want to.” — Lao Tzu

I was talking with a millionaire the other day about how entrepreneurs want the newest tips and tricks to give them more time. In reality, though, it’s the fundamental elements that matter. The word focus has come up over one hundred times in the 50 interviews. We all have the same amount of time. Imagine if you removed everything from of your schedule tomorrow. No work, no driving, no eating, no Facebook, no TV. Just sitting. How long would tomorrow feel? In business, we dilute our efforts by adding so much to our plate. Len Schwartz, founder of Pro2Pro Network, said:

“It became incredibly obvious to me that I was diluting myself and my efforts and my focus and my energy so much so that I was just spinning plates and getting nowhere. So, for all of you listening that are like that and/or have experienced that, please embrace the value of extreme focus.”

Many successful businesses were built in just a few hours a week. Take David Heinemeier Hansson from 37Signals. He said, “So on the programming side of things, for about six calendar months that we worked on BaseCamp, I spent ten hours per week. That’s it.”

In a job, it’s about how many hours you work. But for an entrepreneur that’s not it at all. It doesn’t matter how many hours you work. It matters what you produce in those hours. Michael Burcham, serial entrepreneur who runs the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, said:

“Entrepreneurs aren’t rewarded necessarily by effort or hours. We’re rewarded when the outcome, the product or service we’re producing, actually does something that people care about. I see all the time individuals who are totally putting in crazy hours.

The things they are spending their time on are so unimportant. They’re refining Page 21 of a business plan describing an operating model in an area form that no one is ever going to read. That’s a complete waste of energy. So I would submit to you that it’s much more about what constructively you are doing every day and less about how long you are doing it for.

My own personal philosophy is I give everything a really good six to ten hours in a day.”

Action Item: Are the items you have on your to-do list today driving forward your business? Are you making an active effort every day to both 1) acquire new customers and 2) serve your existing customers better? To really grow your business, you have to do the tough work of prospecting for leads and closing sales.

Mistake #2 – “I Don’t Have Enough Money!”

“You can make excuses or you can make money but you can’t do both.” — Pat Mesiti

Money is always an issue for a newer entrepreneur, whether you have some or you don’t. This is one of the most common excuses I hear from prospects and clients. Money is not your issue. Your creativity and pushing through boundaries is the issue. Don’t get me wrong–it might be true that you have very little money to spend. But many of the millionaires have had the same issues. MJ Demarco, author of the Millionaire Fastlane, said:

“For someone to say ‘Oh, I don’t have any money. How am I going to start a business?’ That’s an excuse. It really is. I started my business with $900. All the capital that came into my business was human capital. Hard work, sweat, and the other thing I want to mention is that it was all self taught. I took the time to learn. Everything I learned insofar as my company, I had to teach myself. I was on the Internet, learning and buying books; I was at the library all the time.”

Joy Gendusa from PostcardMania.com said:

“When I started doing postcard marketing for my company I had no money. So it was literally my paycheck that was going into postage and I started out sending 1,000 pieces every single week.”

They find a way. I’ve heard stories of going to SCORE, figuring out how to get people to work for you for free or for trades, or learning how to do things yourself. In fact the time we live in now is probably the cheapest to start a business. We no longer have to have a brick and morter store. We no longer have to pay for expensive printed brochures, or yellow page advertisements. Now we have WordPress, social media sites like Fiverr.com. Instead of thinking how little you have, start to think about how much you have. You are so lucky. David Heinemeier Hansson also said:

“It has never been easier to create something in software with no capital on hand as it is today. If you can do it self-funded, you can do it on your schedule, on your own time and with you being in control of the entire process the entire way.”

And a side note about funding: You don’t need to get funding. In fact most of the millionaires I asked discouraged it. Most of them didn’t even take loans, especially in online businesses. They started small, and just kept working and reinvesting.

Action Item: Is there a way you can barter your services and trade your expertise for someone else’s? Can you learn how to create a website, program the software you want to create, etc.?

Erica’s note: When I first started my hosting company, I traded my HTML and CSS skills to a web design company in exchange for my first Cisco switch. I dug servers out of Dumpsters and fixed the hardware myself. I bought parts on eBay. One of my employees, later in my business, said, “Wow, this entire business was built on eBay.” Yeah, pretty much!

I built my own website, and figured out PHP to learn how to accept credit cards online. (These days it’s a lot easier!) Stop telling yourself you can’t do this stuff. Instead, buy the books, sit down and learn what you need to learn, and ask questions. I had no schooling in this area, and I had no “mentors” who taught me everything. I learned via IRC channels and people at work who knew this stuff.

Don’t know anyone who knows what you want to learn? Look up local meetups in your area. They may be even worth driving a few hours each way to, or camping out in your car for a day or two. Do what you have to do to make your business succeed. The worst thing you can do is sit around waiting for someone to finish your website.

Do you know–I knew a guy personally who had a hosting business that pulled in over $350,000 a year, and he had no website. He had a domain name, with a page on it that said “Sorry, we are still building our website, but email us if you need help.” followed by an email address. He signed up some huge customers. If he can build a 6-figure business that way, you really don’t have any excuses.

(end Erica’s note)

Mistake #3 – “I don’t know how!”

You may not know, but other people have been there before and succeeded. Just because you don’t know how right now, does not mean you can’t learn. Sometimes you even paralyze yourself because you don’t want to make a wrong move, or you think we need to learn the “right” way (of course there isn’t a “right” way, so you keep looking continously). This excuse is usually based in fear: fear of the unknown and fear of failure. Fear is normal though — for you and for millionaires. They feel the fear and do it anyway.

Amos Winbush III started a company called CyberSynchs. He was a songwriter and wanted to start a tech company.

“There was nothing on the marketplace to fix my issue and I thought that if I had this same problem there had to be millions of other people who had this exact same issue, so I said, “Let’s start a company.” I called my business manager and said, “How do I start this company?” He said you need to find some software engineers, so I did a lot of research to find out what software engineers actually were and what their function was.”

When he was starting a tech company, he didn’t know what software engineers actually were, let alone how to start a business! He started the business with only $250, too. (He found a CTO on Craigslist for free!) He had a million dollar company in only 18 months. Amos leaned on his mentor and just kept taking action. He didn’t let his excuses get to him. He didn’t have a plan or money, but that didn’t matter.

Frank McKinney didn’t know how to do real estate before he started, just like Craig Wolfe didn’t know how to make rubber ducks that look like celebrities (Celebriducks). If we already knew how to do every step it probably wouldn’t even be that interesting to us. The only thing you need to know is the next step. Figure out what that next step is. If you don’t know, ask someone who does.

Action Item: The real truth is that most of us, even those who have made a lot of money, don’t feel like we know what we are doing. Millionaires aren’t necessarily smarter than you–or more talented than you are. They do know, however, how to push through their fears and make the tough decisions. Today, work on one thing you previously feared. It probably won’t hurt as badly as you think it will, even if you fail. Just give it a shot!

Bio: Jaime is a business coach and speaker who has been featured on CNN Newsroom, MSN Money, Success Magazine, Fortune, Yahoo’s homepage and more. She interviews millionaires every week to get advice from them on how you can become a self made millionaire.

If you are in the beginning stages or just starting business in 2012 and have thought to yourself, “I don’t know how to even start!” or “I don’t know what to do!”–register for Jaime’s free webinar series now. Hurry–the webinar is on Tuesday!

Erica’s note: I’m now accepting guest posts on erica.biz again–check out my contact page if you’re interested in guest posting on erica.biz.

Scott McNealy, former Sun Microsystems CEO, and
Larry Ellison of Oracle announce a closer partnership
in 2006, which led to Oracle acquiring Sun in 2009.

Back in 2000, the company that I worked for, Cobalt Networks, was acquired by Sun Microsystems. I interviewed, and was accepted for, a position in Sun’s marketing department, working on Sun.com. As part of Sun’s marketing department, I got to see some of the advertisements Sun created to sell products to potential customers.

Sun’s potential customers were mainly large government agencies and giant corporations. These government agencies and corporations were used to buying products from IBM, Oracle, and the like. (Imagine a customer so large that your billion-dollar company is still considered a “startup”!)

The Tactic

Sun’s main tactic was to go negative in its advertising. One ad I remember them being so proud of (they actually photographed it in the San Francisco office I worked out of) was a shot of a man in a suit. He had dollar bills in his pockets, and the ad made it appear as if they were being “vacuumed” out of his pockets. The tagline was, essentially, “This is what IBM does to your company.”

The request for a negative campaign like this came straight from the top–from Scott McNealy, who was CEO at the time. Sun was negative toward everyone else in the industry. IBM? Hated ‘em. Microsoft? The devil! Apple? A joke! Oracle? Pfft!

At the same time I was working there, I was studying sales psychology. The books verified something I had already suspected: When you go negative in your advertising, the net effect is that the potential customer thinks more about the thing you’re being so negative about. (That explains why the “War on Drugs” actually increased usage of many drugs during its lifespan.)

I also made a friend in the sales department. Over lunch at In-N-Out Burger one day, he told me something interesting. He said, “I hear this over and over again–a large organization requests Sun, IBM, and others to make a presentation about their products. IBM is first. They show a great presentation about their product line. Then comes another vendor. They show up and do another fantastic presentation about how amazing their products are. Then it’s Sun’s turn. Sun does a presentation–about how awful everyone else’s products are!”

He continued, “The net effect is this. Most of these people have bought products from the company Sun’s presentation is bashing. So they get to thinking, ‘Well, IBM’s product isn’t as bad as Sun makes it out to be.’ And then, they go buy from IBM. We lose the sale, again and again and again.”

I was stunned. “Haven’t you taken this up with Sun’s management?” I asked. (Scott McNealy in particular practiced an “open door strategy” where he appeared to be responsive to suggestions.)

“Oh, yes,” he said. “But they don’t care. They like this sales strategy.”

Leading from the Ego

It was then that I realized two things: One, Sun was leading from an egotistical perspective of “we’re better than everyone else, and we’re going to prove it by bashing everyone else.” And it wasn’t making them many sales. Two, if they didn’t change, they weren’t going to survive as a company. Not only was the sales culture bad, but it created rot within the company as well. The company culture was oppressively negative, and it attracted people who enjoyed complaining and bashing others.

More importantly, though, I realized I had to take this to heart. When I ran my hosting company, I remembered this clearly. People loved to ask me, “Why are you better than [a competitor's name]?”

In response, I would always ask who they were hosting with now. If it was the same competitor they just named, I was careful to not bash the competitor–because that would be bashing the choice that they made. Instead of indulging my ego, I said, “I completely understand why you’ve made the choice you have. You wanted a good deal.”

Then I would find out what had happened that made them want to change hosting providers. If they were just shopping around for a better deal, I’d tell them honestly that we probably weren’t the best fit. But if something had happened–they’d had an outage recently, or they needed room to grow–that’s when I’d be able to go into my preferred sales strategy, which was showing them why we were a much better choice for them. I’d point out our redundant power, have them meet our employees, and do a datacenter tour. By the end of the tour, 90% of the time, they were ready to sign up with us. Then I wouldn’t hesitate to collect their credit card information and get them set up!

Despite its questionable company culture, working at Sun taught me a valuable lesson. You can’t serve your customers effectively when you’re busy bashing your competitors. And you can’t survive as a business (or as an ideal) if your main issue is “We’re not this other thing.”

What are you saying to your customers? Are you presenting your business in the best possible light–or inadvertently turning your customers toward a potential competitor?

Recommended Reading:

• One Million Dollars, The Hard Way. Ever wonder how I sold a business for $1.1 million? This post gives all the details.
• Are You Making This Common Mistake (That Could Ruin Your Business)? Here’s another big mistake (and a true story) that could really kill your business.
• How Writing a Story Could Strangle Your Business. What is “writing the story”? Are you doing it? If so, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table…

And here’s the (shocking) story of how I almost gave it up entirely.

Earlier this year, I could feel things were coming to a head with erica.biz and me. My relationship with this blog wasn’t healthy. I have a fantastic audience full of fans and supporters, and the time had come to figure out how to turn my blog into a full-time income.

“How to make money with your blog!”

I didn’t like my options. There are those people who treat their email lists as if they are not real people. Those marketers (most of whom view blogs as “a waste of time”) constantly email their lists with the latest “make money online” product of the day. “Buy this!” they say. Then next week: “What you bought last week didn’t work? Try this week’s special!”

I know several of those people, and they encouraged me to send more product offers to my email list. But I couldn’t do it. It felt…so yucky to me. And, despite my huge background in sales and being a personally huge advocate of learning sales…it still didn’t sit right with me.

It didn’t help matters when my then-boyfriend, now-fiance Brian tried to help me with it. “Okay,” I told him one day. “Go to Clickbank and find the top-selling products in the make money online niche. Surely there has to be something good there. Watch all their sales videos. Here is my business credit card. Buy whatever you want under $100. If something’s good and will actually help people, I’ll email my list about it.”

He spent 30 minutes on the task and then resigned. “I can’t watch these sales videos,” he told me. “I looked at two or three different products–and they’re just awful. They feel dishonest to me.”

“I know,” I sighed. “I understand.”

And so that route (with the exception of a handful of products that are actually worth it) closed to me.

“Help! Help!”

In the meantime, my email inbox was bursting with people requesting help. Stories poured through the digital wire. The grandmother who just wanted to retire. A guy from Nigeria who wanted to show people in his country that there was a real way to make money–rather than trying to scam people via email or Facebook. A disabled woman who felt that working on the Internet was her ticket to getting off of disability for good. An enlisted officer who wanted a better life for his family. The stories went on, and on, and on. I wanted to help. But what could I do? This blog wasn’t making much money–but not because it couldn’t, given my traffic numbers and awesome fans. It wasn’t making money because I couldn’t bring myself to promote utter crap at the expense of my audience.

And sure, I could have taken the easy way out and sent the disabled woman and the military guy and the Nigerian dude and the grandmother some get-rich-quick product link. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. But I didn’t know what to do. These were real people. They needed my help. And I didn’t have any solutions that wouldn’t involve working for free for them, when I could not afford to work for free.

So I did one of the things I do best: I sat down and cried. I just lost it. Here were real people who needed my help. Not faceless “traffic” or “email list members”. Actual individuals. And I had nothing for them.

Then I decided to give up on email for 30 days. I needed a break. I needed clarity. I needed to retreat from the stories from a bit and focus on a solution.

Digging myself out of the email hole allowed me the clarity I sought–but I fear it might have come at the expense of some people, who got upset that they couldn’t reach me. Still, in that 30 days, interesting things happened.

My “No Email” Trial Turns Interesting

A famous author of a best-selling book that has sold more than 500,000 copies (if I tell you his name and the name of one of his books, chances are you will have read it) contacted me. And when he found out I wasn’t checking email, he had his assistant freakin’ track me down. His assistant contacted me via Twitter, Facebook, and Skype.

He wanted to meet me in person. Surprised, I obliged. And it was then that he said something that rocked my world. He said, “I’ve written one of the most famous books on running a business. I found out about your blog, and read every word. I read your article on how to hire an employee, and I was stunned. It’s some of the best advice I’ve ever read.”

Then: “I know this may seem out of left field, but can you help me hire a new assistant? I could really use your help. I loved your step-by-step process. I’ve never seen anything like it, even having read basically every business book that’s been out in the past 30+ years.”

“What If…?”

That encounter started some thoughts bubbling in my head. I didn’t want to bombard you with advertisements (and we both know those aren’t really the path to a full-time income via blogging, anyway.) I didn’t want to bombard you with affiliate links for products that suck (yuck!) A grain of thought planted itself in my head. What if I wrote something myself? Something that would really help an individual who didn’t necessarily have technical experience start an Internet business? Some step-by-step videos?

I mind-mapped. I charted. Then I started recording videos. I named the course Step by Step Business. I figured once it was done, I’d figure out how to find the people who needed it and get it to them/you at a reasonable price. I knew the content was worth $1000, or more. But I wanted to find a way where the average person would afford it.

I spent the entire month of July recording videos. I did a small speaking gig then, and sold the first few “beta” copies. (Two people out of the tiny group who took the first course have already started making money online.) It was a breakthrough. I finally knew how I was going to make money with my blog–by actually helping people. (It seems so obvious in retrospect!)

Meanwhile, I had quietly ended my 30-day no email trial (which had stretched on past 60 days) and was receiving and replying to email again. Several people asked me what had happened with that, so I decided that would make a good blog post. There was a voice in my head that said “Don’t post it!”, but I didn’t understand why it would say that, so I posted it anyway.

The comments were immediate, and negative. I had set up a (pretty harsh) autoresponder. I was sick of getting bombarded with PR requests and basically, a bunch of crap. That was 90% of my incoming email. The other 10% was people who actually wanted help. I wrote the autoresponder for the PR jerks, not realizing it would hurt the people who sent me real emails.

Called out on my blog, I saw the autoresponder for what it was and quickly realized my commenters had a point. Looked at from the lens of someone who wanted help, it sounded cold and distant. I changed it immediately, then dropped it entirely a week or so later.

Yet one commenter wouldn’t let up. “Make no mistake, Erica is in it to make money. There’s nothing wrong with that, I do the same, but there is no need for her to be so superior and rude,” he wrote. (That was after I changed my autoresponder and admitted I’d made a mistake.)

What made it more devastating was that this comment was from someone who’d actually purchased products from me in the past–someone I’d talked to personally, 1-on-1, who I thought would know me better than that.

I Considered Shutting Down My Blog Entirely

Shaken, I reconsidered everything. I’m still not sure why that comment dug so deep. Maybe it was because I thought he knew me, but mostly it was because I really wasn’t “in it to make money.” Heck, I’d gone to great lengths to treat you as a real person, not just as someone to be marketed to. All the people out there who just spam their lists with crap–and he couldn’t see the difference between me and those other people?

That day, I couldn’t see myself ever blogging again. I seriously considered pulling down erica.biz entirely. Why waste my time blogging for free here when I could just run a business and be free from the hateful personal attacks? What was I even doing here? Whatever I was doing, I was apparently doing it all wrong.

I threw myself into Whoosh Traffic, and here we are. Four months later, and I’ve only written two blog posts since that fateful day. It took me four months to get over that comment.

This blog post is me closing the door on that and looking forward. I’m still angry about it, but I’ve decided I don’t want to give up blogging. Besides, who would I be to let one asshole get in the way of helping people? That’s not really how I want to present myself to the world. So I’m shaking it off…slowly.

I switched over to Disqus comments after that, although it wouldn’t have made any difference with that comment, as that commenter used his real name. But I figured it might help some other anonymous attacks I’ve gotten in my comments. Instead, my blog filled up with spam comments. Apparently the spammers exploit Disqus. I am looking for a better solution.

And Now, For my Most Surprising News of 2011…

I wanted to make this a separate blog post, but it seems fitting to add this here. It’s going to surprise the heck out of you, I think!

A few of my personal friends know the hassle I’ve gone through trying to get a mortgage over the past year. The banks just do not want to give mortgages to self-employed people. I moved to Austin, Texas, and am ready to buy a house here (especially given that a mortgage here would actually be cheaper than the rent on an equivalent place–the way it should be!)

In case you’re self-employed and haven’t tried to get a mortgage lately, first, the banks will only count W-2 income (salary) from your business, not dividends you pay yourself. I pay myself in dividends as well as salary, so that reduced my income dramatically. Secondly, they want 24 months of W-2 salary from your own business, and then they take the average of those 24 months. If you’re like me, and just learned that you have to have W-2 income, sorry, it’ll be 24 months before you can qualify for a mortgage.

I even had one bank pull all my tax returns directly from the IRS, which showed that I made plenty of money to afford the mortgage, and had for years. (We’re talking a $200,000 mortgage here.) No go. Since over half of it was dividends, I didn’t get to count that income. And they didn’t like that I had seed-funded Whoosh Traffic out of my personal savings, instead of getting investors.

Tired of fighting, I raised the white flag and decided to beat the banks at their own game. So I went out and got a job.

Yep, you read that right! I’ve had a whole lot of job offers over the past few years, but I knew what I wanted to do–make a real difference at a startup company. So the first person I called was Jason Cohen over at WP Engine, which does WordPress hosting. I told him I was on the market because I needed a mortgage and W-2 income, and I’d help them get more customers for their hosting business. They’re located here in Austin, and Jason had been after me for a while about doing some consulting with them.

So now I have a job. A real W-2 pay stub with a boss and everything! (I called my dad and told him, and he almost dropped the phone: “That’s something I never thought I’d hear you say!”) I’m having a blast designing landing pages, helping them set up ad campaigns, and tweaking their website for maximum conversions.

And now I can get a mortgage! And I have health insurance.

I announced this on Facebook recently, and the questions poured in: “Does that mean you’re no longer doing Whoosh Traffic? Is Whoosh Traffic okay?” The answers are: Whoosh Traffic is doing great, and I’m still working on it! I’m happy about how this turned out anyway, because now we can use Whoosh Traffic’s income to hire more people and do some marketing, instead of having some of its income diverted to my salary.

I’m stoked because we may be able to hire another programmer even sooner than I originally thought! We are really rocking it out with our rank tracker, and even had a Fortune 500 company sign up recently for it. (And they love us!) We plan to go deeper into the SEO tools niche in 2012. But I suspect I’ll have another, goals-related blog post to talk about that in!

As we close out the year, I’d just like to say thank you for your support. 2011 wasn’t the easiest year for me. But coming into 2012, my resolve to help you get started making money online has only deepened.

Oh yeah–and about that Step by Step Business product? Stay tuned. It’ll be here very soon, in an extremely affordable fashion. I’m ready to start 2012 with a bang. I’ll be busier than ever, but I feel more energized and motivated than ever!

Me, when Cobalt got bought out by Sun
in 2000, with my employee number and a
fake bar code marked on my arm.

I grew up in a small farm town in Indiana. I first got online in 1995. My parents had given me a computer, but everything else I had to buy on my own. I got an allowance, but my parents refused to pay my burgeoning Internet connection bill (which was dialup, and since it wasn’t a local number, billed me by the minute!), so I took jobs to get by.

I worked Internet jobs all through high school, starting in 1997, when I took a job at an SEO firm, working from home, submitting sites to search engines. (Back then, SEO was all about how many search engines you could submit your site to…how things have changed!) I got paid pretty well, and learned how to fly through copy-and-paste.

My First Job and Bounced Checks

When the first check arrived in the mail from the SEO company, my mom took me to the bank to deposit it, and then gave me a lecture on bad checks and bounced checks. She had a tough time believing that I had a real job online–but I did. I continued to work for that company through high school.

All this time, I was learning how to build and fix computers. Living in a small town, we didn’t really have a computer repair shop, so I did repairs myself. Later I found I could also repair my neighbors’ and friends’ computers–which I did in exchange for small amounts of money, or sometimes just for a good home-cooked meal.

In 1998, I got a job at a web design firm for the summer. I found the job by hitting up the local Yahoo directory (for Cincinnati, Ohio–the nearest city to where I lived!) and emailing every web design firm in that directory. I had a showcase of various websites I had built.

From those “cold emails”, I got two interviews. One of the interviewers laughed at me when I came in and he found out I was a 16-year-old kid. The other firm saw potential. They gave me just above minimum wage and hired me out to their clients at $75/hour. I was their staff HTML “programmer.” I also taught myself Perl using the books they had around their office (and various websites) and built things like contact forms for their customers. I was just happy to have a job doing what I loved, which was building websites. I continued to work for other web companies throughout high school.

Off to Silicon Valley

In 1999, I graduated high school and moved to Silicon Valley. I knew Silicon Valley was where I wanted to be. I only applied to two schools–San Jose State and Santa Clara University. I was accepted to both, but Santa Clara University wouldn’t let freshman choose their course times, and I wanted a stable part-time job as well, so I went to San Jose State.

I went on craigslist and hit up companies in the Valley, looking for a job as a web designer. I didn’t find much–until I got a phone interview. I closed the deal, getting hired on as their “Marketing Manager” for the whopping sum of $15/hour, part-time. (With promises to increase that salary in the future!)

When I walked in to their office in Silicon Valley to meet them for my first day at work, they found out I was an 18-year-old college kid. They fired me pretty shortly thereafter.

I tried again, hitting up craigslist and looking for web design jobs. I didn’t find any, but I did find a job doing desktop support at a startup company called Cobalt Networks. That has, so far, been my all-time favorite job. Even though I didn’t get paid much, I thrived. I was able to use my hardware and software troubleshooting skills to help people, and I got along well with everyone in the office.

Cobalt was a shop that made Linux-based servers. I had some familiarity with Linux, but begged the engineers at the company to teach me more. I remember going up to one of the engineers after work and asking “What’s a ‘for loop’?” The engineers, most of whom were only a few years older than me, thought it was pretty neat that a young, cute girl was trying to learn bash shell programming. They brought me piles of books and gave me advice on how to code well. I spent many late nights at the company, absorbed in books and websites on programming and system administration.

At Cobalt, I learned an up-and-coming language called PHP. Cobalt engineers were fans of PHP (back then, it was either PHP or Perl, and PHP was a lot easier and more friendly to program in.) My boss, seeing my interest in programming, asked me to make an intranet for the company. I wrote it in Perl and then switched to PHP.

Cobalt Halloween party, 1999. I’m the cheerleader on the left.

Up until then, I’d never considered myself a “programmer”. Programming was uninteresting to me–the only programming class I’d ever had, in high school, taught useless, out-of-context things like how to build a fake cash register. But when I was introduced to web programming, I thrived. Now I could build interactive websites that people would actually use! I launched our intranet proudly. I’d built the whole thing myself, with self-taught knowledge.

The End of College

In 2000, Cobalt was acquired by Sun Microsystems, and I learned that Sun would only accept employees who had full-time jobs. At the time, I was still working part-time. I realized that to jump into Sun, I’d have to be a full-time employee. So I made the decision–not an easy one–to drop out of college.

My boss at Cobalt said it was the worst idea he’d ever heard.

My mom, when I told her, started crying and said it was the worst decision I’d ever made.

I went ahead with the decision, and my parents cut off all financial support. (They’d been paying for my classes, monthly cell phone bill, and dormitory housing. I was responsible for everything else.) After 1.5 years of college, I was done–and truly on my own.

Sun did hire me–because I was again aggressive about getting my foot in the door. I hit up their internal job portal, found all open jobs that had anything to do with web development, and called people until I got interviews. I got 2, and, impressed with my initiative in building the intranet, both teams offered to hire me. I took the full-time job that I felt had better resume potential (as I felt I would need a great resume with no college degree) — as one of the 6 core developers behind Sun.com.

Then, my grand plans hit a snag. I had a low salary at Cobalt because my main job was still doing desktop support. I had consistently asked for raises, and I’d gotten up to just above $22/hour. Sun inherited that salary of mine, and then–so my boss claimed–they couldn’t raise me more than 10% above my existing salary.

I was devastated. $22/hour was fine when my parents were paying my dorm rent, but now I was done with that. I had to pay my own way. This was in Silicon Valley, during the dot-com bubble. To give you a sense of how crazy rents were, I watched a new apartment complex get built near our office. I drove by it every day, and one day a sign popped up: “Waiting list now available.” I found out that not only were rents $1800+/month for a tiny apartment, but that they had an 8-week waiting list at that price.

One of our summer interns (older than me) at Cobalt moved to the Valley to take a job for the summer and ended up literally living under his desk because he couldn’t find a place to live. We had showers in the building, and he ate a lot of take-out. That’s how insane things were.

I eventually found a place–a shared bedroom in an old lady’s house–for $950/month. Even today, that number seems crazy to me. I had no kitchen privileges, but the area did have its own entrance. I set up a toaster oven and ate out a lot. My boyfriend ended up paying for a lot of my meals because he felt bad.

My friends urged me to quit and find a better job, but right around the time I got drafted on to Sun, the bottom fell out of the Valley economy. Now rents were starting to drop–but there were no jobs to be had. I clung to my Sun job for dear life.

My job moved to San Francisco, where I couldn’t afford to live. I found a tiny 1BR apartment 35 miles east of San Francisco. I took the BART (train) in to work every day. My rent went from $950/month to $1475/month. The train was about $9/day. Buying a sandwich for lunch in San Francisco was $9. (Most people have no idea how expensive San Francisco is until they live there.) I was starting to have massive credit card debt.

There was another girl, a couple years older than me, doing pretty much the same job I had. When I found out her salary was $72,000/year for the same job I was doing for $22,000/year less, I threw a fit. I took it all the way to HR, who basically said “Take it or leave it.”

I cried one day on the way home when I read the paper and realized that the person driving the BART train had a higher salary than I did.

There were pros to my job at Sun. I took a week-long Solaris system administration course, which gave me a deep insight into how UNIX servers worked. I helped build a Linux-based intranet at Sun, after one of the directors there saw what I had done at Cobalt. But mostly, for an entire year, I was miserable.

I did not stop taking action, however. Every day, I used Sun’s fax machine to fax resumes to companies that were looking for web developers. I had heard somewhere that faxes got read more than emails, so I faxed nonstop. My boss told me to stop abusing the fax machine. I didn’t. I wasn’t making ends meet, and every month I was getting deeper into debt. I didn’t have a choice. I needed a better job, and I knew Sun wasn’t going to be able to provide it.

The Big Job Interview

Finally, a breakthrough came. A friend of mine saw my PHP skills and was suitably impressed. His company (in a cheaper area of the Valley) was hiring. He invited me in for an interview.

The interview was with his boss. The guy scowled at me when I came in. “You know, from your resume alone, I would never have even given you a second look,” were the first words out of his mouth to me. “But Mike said you’re good, so I did him a favor and called you in.”

I just sat there, not really knowing what to say.

The boss ushered me into a conference room with a white board. A couple other men were sitting around a table. “Okay, show us in PHP how to make a database connection to MySQL and select rows from a table,” he said, gesturing to the pens in the whiteboard tray.

This was not an open-book test. There were no books or websites. I had to have it memorized.

Little did he know that, besides faxing resumes all over the place, I’d also been working every night on my own website–for my fledgling hosting company. And just last night, I’d written that exact code. So it was fresh in my mind.

Without hesitation, I picked up the marker and began to write. On the right side of the white board, I drew out a MySQL “users” table. And on the left side, I began to write, perfect flowing lines of PHP code.

“Do you want me to select everything from the ‘users’ table?” I asked as I wrote. I was met with shocked silence. Taking that as an affirmative, I continued to write. When I was done, I turned around. Their expressions were a mixture of grief and amusement.

It was then that it hit me–they’d set me up to fail. (I found out later that they had interviewed 12 people for that position, and every single one had completely failed that task.)

I had passed their setup with flying colors–and now they had no idea what to do with me.

The rest of the interview was a lot of paper-pushing, mumbles, and “We’ll call you.” I left with high hopes. I had aced their test!

I prayed so hard for that job. It paid $74,000/year, which might as well have been $1,000,000/year from where I was sitting. I prayed nonstop. I knew I wanted to start my own business, but wouldn’t it be so much easier with no debt hanging over my head? Without sweating how I was going to pay bills?

They called me back a few days later. Would I–the only one who had passed their test out of so many candidates–get my “dream job”?

No.

They chose not to hire me, because, as the boss man said, I had stated in the interview that I wanted to start my own business, and he didn’t think I was going to stick around the company very long. “We want someone who’s going to be here at least 4 years,” he told me.

Of course, you and I know that he never wanted to hire me to begin with. Whether it was because the company was almost entirely male, and I would have been the only female in the department, or because he just didn’t like some young kid showing him up–we’ll never know that.

(Ironically, he left to start his own business less than four years after that. Yeah, I kept tabs on him.)

I was devastated. I felt like the world was stacked against me.

Back to Sun

Sun finally got wind that I didn’t want to be there, and put me on a “performance improvement plan.” That meant I was on a 90-day watch. I had to do better, or I was out of there.

While signing the plan, I noticed a loophole. A paragraph in the long document said that if I chose not to take part in the plan, I could get paid severance to leave. Immediately, I knew that was my “out”. Total pay, including vacation time, would be about $8,000. That was enough to live on for about three months. I could make it.

I told my boss I wanted out. He said that wasn’t the intent of the plan. I told him I didn’t care; that I was done. We conferenced with HR. The HR person said I didn’t have to leave. I told HR I wanted out immediately. (They ended up paying me for 2 weeks’ severance and then asking me to hand over my keys right away, it was so clear that I didn’t want to be there any more.)

On my way out the door, my boss said the #1 most insulting thing anyone’s ever said to me: “Well, I guess when you’re gone, we’ll just replace you with an intern.”

I shut out all the noise and continued building my hosting company website. I launched my business a few months after I left Sun, in July 2001. Of course, it didn’t end up paying my bills for years. I did contract PHP programming for years, mostly finding gigs on craigslist. I built shopping carts, merchant account integrations, and even entire content management systems for my clients. (This was long before the days of WordPress.) And mostly, I scraped by, still with credit card debt, but most months coming out about even.

I took any extra money I had and and poured it into buying servers for my hosting company. And it grew, slowly but surely. (The rest of my story running my business can be found at Sharing My Journey to One Million Dollars, which was written just after I sold my business, but while I was still “embargoed” from talking about the sale, and The End of An Era, where I speak candidly about my 10-year journey through Silicon Valley.)

The Moral of the Story

The moral of this long-winded story is this: Everyone talks about (and remembers) the big moments. Like the day when I signed those papers to sell my business, on September 7, 2007, for $1,104,000. Or the day when I quit my job in 2001 and walked out of the door into the blustery winds of San Francisco, and almost cried, because for the first time in a year, I felt free.

But it’s easy to forget what it takes to make those moments. I never stopped fighting…not even for a second. And I never stopped learning. I was self-taught in everything I do. I am a graduate of the school of “Everyone said I couldn’t do it, and look, here I am.”

After my parents cut me off, I was determined to prove to them that dropping out of college wasn’t a mistake–that I could be successful anyway. And I blew them away. But I still haven’t stopped fighting. Now I’m passionate about helping others–whether that’s by hiring people or whether that’s doing cat fostering and rescue (which is one of my hobbies.) And writing this blog, which I do because I’m passionate about helping you succeed.

I said back in December 2007, when I turned my personal blog into “erica.biz”, that I started this to help figure out why I was successful when so many others aren’t. And, as the years have passed (I’ve been blogging here nearly 4 years now), I realize there’s another, deeper purpose: To give you the strength, determination, and grit you need to succeed.

This world does not hand you success. It certainly doesn’t hand you a job. I’ve had to fight for everything I’ve had in this life. I’ve taught myself what I need to know to be successful. And, if you see yourself in any of this, my message to you is: You can do it, too. Just don’t expect it to be easy.

I’ve avoided many of the “easy” routes to making money on my blog, too. I could have sold a bunch of cheap, crappy “make money now!” programs–and probably made some money. But I didn’t feel right in doing that. (If you’ve been around a while, you’re probably surprised at how few affiliate promotions I run on this blog, whereas the predominant theme in Internet marketing is to email your list a new promotion every day. Garbage, I say, garbage.)

Changes I’m Making Today

Lately, I’ve thought a lot about how to help you even more. My 30-day “no email” trial was a success in many ways, but also a failure in an important way: it cut me off from communication with you, my readers. I know many of you are looking for an honest way to succeed. And in cutting off email, I cut off your questions and a way for you to share your successes with me. That was my mistake, and I apologize.

So today, two things are happening:
One–I’m opening email back up. If you receive emails from me (as part of my email list), you can just hit “Reply”, type your response, and I’ll read it. (Note: If you’re planning to write me vitriolic hate mail, save your breath and just unsubscribe instead. That will make both of our lives better.)
Two–I’m introducing an exclusive, limited program for those of you who would like more personal access to me. Now, I’ll be upfront about this: This won’t be cheap. I’m looking for a small group of people I can help mentor.

You probably know how many people are out there teaching this “how to make money online” stuff. Chances are, you’ve even bought a program or two, and perhaps you haven’t been so happy with it. (That’s another big reason why I don’t promote that stuff much any more.) And if you know that, you know how rare it is when someone who’s actually made over $1 million online, in a legitimate business (not hawking “how to make money” crap products), opens up mentoring spots. In fact, in all the four years I’ve run this blog, I haven’t done it, either.

But I feel that now is the right time, especially with the economy the way it is. I started working from home online in 1997. I have a lot of knowledge I’d like to distill–everything from figuring out the right niche to go into to in-depth business strategy and growing your business to new heights. I even have some “ready to go” business ideas that I think can make a mint, in the hands of the right person. So if you’re not sure what you want to do online, this may very well be your chance to really “go big” with a business idea that’s already been vetted and tested by someone who’s made millions online.

As I said, this won’t be cheap. But if you think you might be interested, and want more information, just put your name and primary email address in the box below, and I’ll let you know more details. (And if you’re struggling with money, I will likely offer a scholarship to at least one person, so put your name and best email address in there as well, and I’ll let you know about that, as well.)

There’s no obligation, so go ahead now:

Building an online business isn’t easy, but it’s worthwhile. I’m ready to work with you to achieve similar heights to what I achieved. I believe you can do it. And just like I had people to ask about programming, you may just need someone to help you get clear on what to do and how to get there. I’m happy to be that person for you.

Put your name and primary email address in the box below, and I’ll follow up with you with more information about my mentoring program within the next few days (remember, there’s no obligation, so if you’re interested in finding out what I have to offer, go ahead!)

(If that form above doesn’t load, click here to subscribe.)

Let’s talk about current events. There’s a lot going on in the news right now. The 99% (aka Occupy Wall Street) movement. A backlash against big corporations, government bailouts, politicians who promise to change things and then don’t do anything, and a lack of jobs in our country.

Listen to the protests, and you will be instantly sucked in. It seems everyone has a side; a story to tell. Now, you must make choices. Are you a “liberal” or a “conservative”? A 99%er, a 53%er, or a 1%er? (No one will own up to the latter.)

I’m here to tell you: Not only does this stuff not matter, but it’s a distraction preventing you from changing the world.

In the rush to label ourselves and prove that we are “different” (or the same as!) others, we’ve forgotten one thing: We all stand here together. And if there are problems with this world–our society–then it’s up to us to go out and fix them.

Oh yes, there were things the government did wrong. And big corporations. I’m not saying to ignore it–I’m saying stop getting caught up in it.

What would happen if, instead of engaging in a debate where no one’s mind gets changed and enemy lines get drawn between your friends and you, you simply opted out?

What if, instead of watching TV and getting furious about those damn liberals or those hopeless conservatives, you spent an hour working on your business?

Jobs

Let’s talk about the lack of jobs–since that seems to be a sticking point. There are 50,000 monthly readers of this blog. What if half of you went out and said, “Today I am going to make a difference in the world by hiring someone who needs money.” And then you went out and hired someone to mow your lawn. Once. Or clean your house. Just once!

“But Erica, I don’t have the money to do that.” Then I suggest you start by ending your cable TV subscription and selling your TV. That will get you the money to hire someone. And it’s a thousand times better than a handout.

Together, just from you and others reading this post, we could create 25,000 jobs. Oh sure, they’d be temporary jobs. But instead of taking your money and handing it to a big corporation like a cable company, you’d be handing it to a real, live person–your neighbor, or someone who lives in your city. And that person would be eternally grateful for a hand up, instead of a handout.

And who knows how many of those jobs will stick around? Hey, it’d be nice to have a few extra hours a week to work on your business. So hire a babysitter for the kids and do it. Hire a house cleaner. Do you understand how grateful your babysitter or house cleaner will be for that job? Marilyn, our housekeeper, looked at me recently with almost-tears in her eyes, and told Brian and I that she loved us. That she was so grateful to be saved from a terrible desk job where she had a boss who constantly yelled at her.

You and I…we’re better bosses than that. We’re the entrepreneurs. We’re the job creators. And if there are no jobs, we’re the ones who need to step up and make those jobs happen.

So ignore the news. Ignore people posting protest photos on Facebook. Instead of getting sucked in to endless drama, and debating back and forth, go out there and figure out how to create a job instead. Get that fire in your belly. You deserve better. You need to learn how to start that business, not just for you, but for your family and your community.

The world is counting on you. And right now, we need you. We need your help to make America what we want it to be. We need your help to lower the unemployment rate, to help good, deserving people get jobs, and to make this world a better place.

Turn off the noise and start creating.

Recommended Reading:

• How To Hire An Employee. My epic step-by-step guide to finding an amazing person to help you. No more excuses.
• Find the Path Toward Your Perfect Day. What do you really want to do with your life? Follow these steps to help get clear…
• What Money Can’t Fix. It’s really eye-opening what problems money makes go away…and what problems remain, or get worse…

When I started the trial, I felt completely overwhelmed by email, and I just wanted a way out. I was waking up every morning to an incessant barrage of PR people, sales letters, chain emails, people wanting me to write about their product, companies wanting me to promote them without compensation, and–generally–a bunch of junk. Not “spam”, really, because it was sent by real people (sadly.) But a ridiculous pile of useless crap that wasn’t easily filtered.

Since my email address is public, and my blog is popular, it seemed like every day I’d end up on some list that I didn’t ask to be on. People would sign my email address up for everything from political updates to PR posts about seemingly random companies sent from a “do not reply” address.

In short, my email inbox was a micro-Hell waiting for me every morning.

The First Seven Days: Transition

I woke up the day after I wrote my “I’m done with email for 30 days!” blog post, and realized I needed to have systems to handle my inbox. Email filters weren’t cutting it–I needed a real person’s help.

In Google Apps (Google’s Gmail solution when you have your own domain name), you can “delegate” access to your email account to another person. So I set Susan, my virtual assistant, up with an @erica.biz email account so I could delegate my inbox to her.

Now came the tricky part: Actually distancing myself from email.

Getting Rid of the Crap

I set up a brand-new email account that only Susan, Parnell (my co-founder), and Brian (my boyfriend) had access to. I disconnected my erica.biz email from my phone and set it up so that my phone only had my private email account on it.

Whew! What a relief! Finally, I had disconnected from what seemed like an endless stream of email. I set up a mind map so that Susan, with her new access to my email, could do routine tasks like automatically deleting PR junk and unsubscribing me from lists. She also sends me a summary email every morning. Here’s one summary email she sent me (names and sensitive data have been blurred out):

You can see how much time this saves me every day. Instead of having to go into my inbox and wade through a pile of junk, filtering messages one by one, Susan does it for me. Based on her daily emails, I tailor my mind map and give Susan further instructions on how to reply and/or filter specific types of email I receive.

The Next Step: An Autoresponder

I then implemented an email autoresponder that would respond to anyone who emailed me. If you’ve emailed me since June, this will look familiar. Here’s what it said:

Hello, and thank you for emailing me! Please read this carefully…what I’m about to say is important.

I’ve made a radical change in my life, and I’m taking a sabbatical from email. (Note: I’m still around and working–just not replying to email!) This means that the email you just sent to me will likely NOT be read.

Please read this blog post for more details about why I am doing this:
http://www.erica.biz/2011/30-day-trial/

What should you do now?

1) If you are a Whoosh Traffic customer, please email [redacted] for assistance with your account, and our staff will get back to you quickly. (Always email [redacted] instead of me directly in the future.)

Please note that [redacted] is for Whoosh Traffic customers only. Any non-Whoosh Traffic-related email that is sent there will not only not get read by me, but will likely get you permanently banned from emailing that address again.

2) If you and I have corresponded in the past and you need to get in touch again, feel free to call me or find me on Skype ([redacted]). (Note: If you are a Whoosh Traffic customer and need help with your account, please email [redacted] instead.)

2) If neither of the above situations apply, please find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ericabiz and send me an @ reply there. (I will be checking once a day.) Alternatively, you can find me on Facebook at http://facebook.com/ericadotbiz . I will also be checking this once a day.

Thank you for your understanding.

-Erica

I wondered if putting our Whoosh Traffic support email address would cause people to email us with all kinds of junk, but during the entire 30+ days, I only received one out-of-context email there (and promptly banned the sender, as promised in the email.)

As I implemented these solutions, the noise died down. I get just 2-3 pitches a day now (and I quickly reply asking them to remove me from their email lists.) Susan handles my inbox with aplomb.

In short, my 30-day trial was successful. The only drawbacks were few compared to the hours I gained back. The biggest negative was a few Whoosh Traffic potential customers who weren’t sure whether it was okay to email our support email address. I fixed that by updating my autoresponder. This is what I use currently:

Hello, and thank you for emailing me! Please read this carefully.

I am not currently accepting guest posts on erica.biz.

If you are a PR company emailing me about your product or service, I ask that you please remove me from your list.

I read all emails, but I may not have time to respond to you. My assistant, Susan, also reads my emails and may respond where appropriate. If she responds, you will see her name in the From field and also in her signature. If it says it’s from me, it’s from me.

If I do respond, it may take a week or more. For Whoosh Traffic-related issues (sales *or* support), please email support@whooshtraffic.com, use the live chat feature on http://whooshtraffic.com, or use the contact form on our site. Please do not send Whoosh Traffic-related issues directly to me, as I can’t respond as quickly as our support team can.

Thank you for understanding and for helping to keep my inbox clean.

-Erica

(Note: This was different than the autoresponder I had previously…you may notice a few comments on this post referring to my old one.)

This cleared up those issues, and that’s what I plan to stick with in the future.

How Much Time Did It Save/How Much Did It Cost?

Susan spends about an hour a week on my email, so that’s a bit over $60/month in direct costs to me.

I use RescueTime to show me exactly how much time I spent on email then and now. RescueTime measures how much time you spend on each website and in each application on the computer you’re running it on, and is now my “gold standard” to see where I’m wasting time. If you want to know where all that time goes when you’re on the computer, RescueTime is your solution.

I went from spending 1-2 hours a day on email to 3-5 hours a week. That’s a savings of approximately 5 hours a week. At my consulting rate of $500/hour, that’s a $10,000/month savings.

Of course, not every hour I saved could be billed out at $500. But even if every hour I save is worth $50 (and I think that’s a fair assumption), I saved $1,000/month.

In other words, unchaining myself from email massively benefited me in terms of both having more time and having a better emotional state (which is, frankly, priceless.) I don’t hate waking up and getting on the computer any more. That’s huge.

Apply This to Your Business

As business owners, there are a lot of little things we do that are total time-sinks. I don’t even think we’re aware of them.

If you claim you don’t have time to do something, it’s time for you to get better delegation skills. If outsourcing your email scares the bejeezus out of you (like it did me until I reached my breaking point), that’s reason enough to try it. You may be pleasantly surprised with the extra time you receive back in return for having the courage to make a tough choice.

Recommended Reading:

• RescueTime. Sign up for a free account and start seeing where you’re wasting your time. I am a huge fan.
• How to Hire an Employee. My complete step-by-step guide to hiring an amazing employee.
• How to Make Money on the Internet. There are three things you need in order to make money on the Internet…