The Travel

This year has been unusually but deliberately quiet for us on the travel front. We’ve only been out of the country once – to Italy – and instead have made shorter, more focused trips around our own country.

We’ve been to some of the best places in the UK such as Bath, York, Edinburgh, London and more with one goal in mind…to find somewhere we might consider calling home.

While in the long term, we very much want to establish at least one base overseas, our current focus on “family first” means we’re content to stay closer to home in the short to medium term.

The Business

Our word for 2011 was “foundation”. It might seem strange that, 5 years after we first established our location independent business, we have a theme which hints at something an early stage business should be focusing on but we’ve never hidden our penchant for experimenting, changing what we do and generally having fun playing with various different ventures.

We decided however at the beginning of this year, that 2011 would signal an end to quite as much experimentation and that we’d use the experiences of the past to begin to focus on the projects and ventures with real, long term potential which form the foundations of the kind of business we want to run.

The results of the year can perhaps best be interpreted through the numbers:

• We tripled our income and, more importantly doubled and almost tripled our profits across all key ventures.
• We reduced the number of hours we actually “work” in front of our laptops to an average of 20 hours a week each.
• We reduced the number of websites we were actively managing and updating (for our own projects) from a maximum of 22 to our current stable of 8.
• My domain registration account went from 80+ domains to its current total of 18.

We went through a re-brand – to Inspiring Ventures – and we’ve got a solid plan in place for 2012 to focus on the projects we ‘re moving forward with in the longer term.

The Site

The Location Independent site has undergone a number of revamps and restructures in its time – about 6 of them in 4 years. The latest has created the foundation for what has always been our mission – to provide the “go to” platform for all things location independent.

The difference of course is that we also now provide a directory of all other resources which talk, blog, write and service the location independent community. The number of online resources available to help people create and live a location independent lifestyle has grown phenomenally since we first coined the phrase and started the site back in 2007 and it feels right that we can point people in the direction of the resource that most suits them.

We have had a number of offers to buy the site and domain name over the past year – but we’re not going anywhere soon. While it’s much more of a passive project for me these days, it’s still my baby and is very much an asset in our portfolio of projects, in all senses of the word.

All that remains for me to say is: Have a magical 2012 and here’s to location independence!

P.S. Our 12 Days of Christmas extravaganza is still running until 1st January 2012.

If you’re looking to give your business a foundation or a boost for the new year, you might like to check out what’s behind each of the baubles – there are logos, websites, startup training and the “Pay What You Can” Location Independent Christmas Hamper on offer.

“I’ve got my business set up, my website’s ready to go and now I just need to get started with social media. How do I make a big splash?

This is another common question I receive in my inbox from Odyssey subscribers responding to the question I ask when you sign up. I wrote a brief response in part 2 of this month’s Odyssey but I wanted more space to give a more comprehensive and useful answer.

After 6 years online full time, much of those spent feeling my way around and getting to grips with social media and the never-ending stream of new tools, I have learned a thing or two about how best to use it to market a location independent business or online venture. There is one thing you should know, before we get into the nitty gritty, and it’s this:

There is no automated, secret magic bullet to make a big splash. Social media is simply another channel to enable you to build relationships. It functions in the same way building relationships does with any other channel…slowly, steadily, and with mutual respect and patience.

The main difference with social media as a channel is that it allows these relationships to be from anywhere in the world, unconstrained by location which makes the pool you fish in just that little bit larger.

With that caveat out of the way, here is the advice I impart whenever I’m asked by clients or subscribers about how they can get started with social media, launch their new thing with a big splash there and make an instant impact…

There’s an important concept I’d like to start with which I call “Circles of Influence”. We all have them – they are the groups of people who influence you and who you may have varying degrees of influence over too. Consider your existing network. You may have…

• Close family
• Extended family
• Close friends
• Work colleagues
• Old uni friends
• Old school friends
• Sports team mates
• Pub mates
• Facebook “friends” or acquaintances

Note: With the exception of that the last point, all of the above are offline. If you’re on Facebook and/or Twitter, then some of these may also be online contacts too.

Step 1: Start With What You’ve Got

When you’re getting started, you can only start with what you’ve got – and you’ve already got existing circles of influence. So start there.

It’s easy to think that all you need to do is get one of the A listers to tweet your link or write about you – back in the day when we started, that’s how we got many a big boost – but the signal to noise ratio is now so great online, and the A listers get so many similar requests that you’d be lucky to get anything more than a polite “Thanks, but no” response from many of them.

So strike that off your list for the moment…it’s just not likely to happen. Instead tell the people in your existing circles of influence what you’re up to, how you can help and who you can help and encourage them to spread the word for you. Instead of a big wave, start with a little ripple.

While they may not be the right fit for what you’re doing, they could well know someone who is. If they never know, there is ZERO chance of passing it on to people who may just be interested.

And make sure you ask them directly to connect you with connections of theirs who they think may be interested. You have to be clear, direct and specific when asking for connections and contacts – people aren’t mind readers so make it easy for them to connect you.

Remember, all big waves started with a little ripple. So that’s step 1. Step 2 is somewhat more complex because it involves strategy and planning.

Step 2: Put Relationships First

Build relationship-building into your social media strategy from the start.

The key to social media is consistency and persistence. If you dip in and out you’ll get less noticeable, if any, results. If you expect things to happen quickly, you’ll be sorely disappointed; if you only use social media tools as a one-way announcement megaphone, don’t expect it to do much for you either.

None of the above are effective strategies for building solid, two-way relationships built on trust or integrity – whether you’re doing it online or off. Social media tools can be great for spreading something like wildfire – but only the right things get spread like this. Unless your idea is one of these things, be in it for the long haul.

You must be prepared to put in the time and effort to build relationships online, using tools like Twitter and Facebook to better connect with and communicate with people. This is the key to making a big splash; it’s also the key to getting an A-lister to support your venture.

Build up the relationships long before you might want or need to call on them to help – and if that’s your primary reason for building that relationship, don’t be surprised if that person susses out your intention long before you even get a chance to get cozy with them.

Step 3: Get creative and create win-wins

If you want to even be in with a chance to create a big splash with your new thing, it must satisfy 2 requirements before it’s even got a sniff of a chance…

1. It must be different, unique, creative, inspiring and move people to want to do something.
2. It must be a win-win (or even a win-win-win).

If you’re launching yet another blog about lifestyle design or how you quit your job to do something different, you better make damn sure you’ve got a truly unique spin on it which offers something people haven’t already seen or felt before.

If you’re launching a new product and you want others to help you promote it, an affiliate programme might be fine but they’re so over-used today and – this is my latest theory – less and less of an effective motivator to encourage support from others. So you need to be creative to get people on board. What win-win scenarios can you create and offer and why should people care?

You’ve hopefully got the idea by now. There is no magic bullet to get started and make an instant splash on social media.

Despite the real-time, super speedy nature of all social media tools, the reality is that relationships take time to build. Sure, the tools can help break down some barriers but time cannot be sped up unfortunately. As the parable goes, even though fast and instant is what people want and expect, slow and steady wins the race.

It’s a no brainer that when you’re not generating a ton of income, you need to keep your running costs and expenses as low as possible.

We’ve shared a lot of resources to help you bootstrap, set up a streamlined, minimal cost business using tools that are – often more than – good enough but there (hopefully) comes a time in your business when it’s time to take the next step up. This next step could mean:

• Outsourcing some of your tasks
• Hiring other people
• Using (and paying for) the best tools for the job

Unfortunately, many businesses are stuck in a pattern of never quite knowing or being able to guarantee their income from one month to the next so it becomes hard to know when exactly is the right time to take that next step up and invest in your growth.

Here are a few pointers to help you decide – gleaned from painful experience and the benefit of hindsight…

When to Outsource

Outsourcing is a good place to start because there are so many affordable, flexible options available these days. Whether you plan to outsource personal or business tasks, there’s bound to be a service available to fit your budget so how do you know when to outsource and what to outsource?

Here is a useful litmus test for any type of situation…Ask yourself:

Is this worth the time it takes me to do it or can I be earning more/doing more/benefitting more from doing something else?

If the answer is “Yes”, outsource it. If the answer is “No”, don’t. If completing a task is going to take more away from you (time, energy, focus, attention) than it will give, pay someone else to do it for you. It’s very simple, don’t think too much about it, just outsource it.

And then use that time to generate twice what it cost you to outsource it. That’s the best way to justify your decision, if ever there was one.

When to Hire

Hiring is obviously a much bigger commitment and it may not be right for you. In the past few years, we’ve hired a number of people in different part time positions across Kinetiva. At one point, we had 8-10 part-time people on our team.

What this experience revealed to us however, is that we don’t want to run and grow our business in that way – by growing in personnel – we’re happy keeping it in the family and keeping it small; but we do want to grow the revenue, influence and impact.

Understanding this obviously has implications on our strategy and the approach we need to take to achieve our growth plans but at least we now have this clarity. So the first thing to ask yourself is this:

Do you want to become a manager of other people?

It requires a good, honest look at yourself and the answer may surprise you. When you’ve answered that, then try this question next:

Am I in it for the long term?

Hiring people is not a short term strategy; if you want people to invest in you and your business, you’re going to need to invest in them too. This is most definitely a long term approach, not a short term fix to being over-worked and in need of some support.

If the answer to both is affirmative, hiring may well be the right approach for you. It then becomes a question of finances.

If you can’t guarantee being able to pay staff right now, consider drafting up a more flexible work agreement or some sort of performance incentive scheme where salary is tied to income generated or performance delivered.

When to Invest in the Right Tools

You can start your online business for less than $200 or more than $2,000. We have certainly always used the most affordable tools that do the core things we need to do. Part of running a streamlined business means NOT using tools which have extra bells and whistles that you pay for but don’t need and never use.

There comes a point however at which you realise that investing in the right tools not only saves you time and hassle, it makes you more money.

A good example for us recently has been investing in a Vimeo Pro account & a monthly GoToWebinar subscription. Until now, we’ve made do with YouTube, a Vimeo Plus account and a range of other services, cobbled together to provide a video hosting & online webinar/collaboration platform.

For Startup Training School, the video tutorials & webinars are a core offering. Investing in the right tools saves us time, stress and hassle which means we can focus more on marketing and filling the classes and growing the school instead of fighting to make the cheaper tools work for us. It’s a no brainer.

If figuring out how to make the tools work for you takes an inordinate amount of time out of your regular schedule, then that’s a good sign it’s time to upgrade.

The bottom line is that it all comes down to time: What is an hour of your time worth?

Is it really worth saving a $50 per month subscription, when you end up spending 4-5 hours every month fighting with less-than-ideal tools just to make them work?  In those 4-5 hours you could make 4-5 times more than the $50 you’d have spent on the subscription.

Could you be spending that time earning the money to pay for the support and more? Could you spend that time with your family? Could you be spend that time on creating something new? Or some time out for yourself?

Are those savings you’re making really savings? Or is it time you and your business took the next step up?