If you’ve not been hit by the credit crunch yourself I’ll bet you a tenner that you certainly know someone who has.

Repossessions, unemployment, banks getting frightened and trying to squeeze every last cent out of customers in exaggerated charges and pensions disappearing faster than you can say ‘Granny’s here I’ll open another can of dog food’

You’ve got to make light of it because these are seriously hard times and they’ve not even started properly yet.

People have a ‘I’ll worry about the bills after Christmas’ attitude, which is absolutely OK with me – January’s going to come around whether you worry about it or not so why not have fun until you NEED to worry?

So with all this going on you’d be forgiven for feeling that your government, your financial system and your employer have quietly edged away from you to save their own skins and now it’s actually happened……you’re on your own!

And you are- we all are – completely alone when it comes to making a living in the world.

And that’s the way it should be. It’s not healthy to look to other people to provide your living for you, nor is it right that you should support anyone you don’t want to.

No big lecture coming about politics or taking responsibility because it’s bloody scary when you realise that you are in fact a grown up and stand or fall in life by your own efforts.

And just as I said worrying is a fruitless activity until the poop actually hits the fan (and I don’t mean bury your head in the sand, I mean just don’t turn worrying into a hobby), there is also something that’s an even bigger waste of time – and that’s blame.

Sure, your boss might have cut your overtime so he can take his secretary to Bali for a dirty weekend but that’s life. Rather than blaming him, have a think about what you can do to make sure it doesn’t happen again (and I don’t mean sending an anonymous letter to his wife although that probably would cheer you up an awful lot)

And that’s what this post is about – embracing the fact that when it comes to making a living you are standing naked in the middle of a football pitch with a sign up your ass that says ‘please employ me’. Not a great position to be in.

 If you have been hit by the economic recession then you’ve been chucked into the deep end without a lifebelt, and you need to do some serious doggy paddling if you’re going to stay afloat. If you’re currently still employed then it’s maybe prudent to consider each week you remain in employment as a bonus and potentially your last employed week.

What I’m saying is my same old boring message – get your online business started before it’s too late.

If you’ve already started then a HUGE congratulations because you really are one of the chosen few – those rare souls who are aware that they can improve their lives hugely through online business. Most people aren’t even aware of what we do guys, let alone know where to start.

Use your advantage to pull ahead of the crowd because in the coming few years it is going to make a difference.

And I might have lied a bit when I said you’re on your own, because none of us are in IM – every single one of us in internet marketing, whether full time, part time or just starting has a support group. Like it or not we ARE a community – a niche – and their are a huge shedful of forums, newsletters and blogs designed to help in many ways – information, freebies or just moral support.

So don’t be worried about signing up to newsletters or mailing lists. You WILL get sold to – sometimes viciously and sometimes gently. The secret is to take what YOU NEED from it and forget the rest.

So if you need a verbal kick up the jacksy to get yourself motivated read my blog, if you need information then jump into tyhe Warrior forum. The secret (again) is to take what you need and ignore what you don’t, without getting offended if someone tries to sell you something.

 I’m on loads of mailing lists and sometimes find myself getting bugged when I receive no less than two emails a DAY from some marketers. Then I calm down, read the emails and think ‘oooh that’s a nice bit of copy – I’ll have that for my swipe file’ or ‘look how he buggered up that {firstname fix} thing in the subject header – that looked awful – I’ll have to be careful when I send out a broadcast’

Cherry pick. Dump the rest.

We’ve been quiet this month because Christmas is a wonderful time and I stop work and crack open the wine at the start of December and come up smiling some time mid January, but I really wanted to write this post because I honesty genuinely know that times are hard for some people.

I’m not going to pretend that I’m having to sell the furniture but I do know from the emails that you send (via the helpdesk now 🙂 ) that there are some good people taking a few knocks from all this economic mismanagement dumped on us.

So I’m posting in the only way I know how – and that’s to say PLEASE don’t lose your dreams of an online business – you might have to work harder if the money isn’t there to pay for outsourcing or get creative if you can’t afford that new software but an online business is the best – most accessible too –  way I know of making a huge difference to your income and therefore your life.

 It’s open to anyone – it doesn’t take a degree, experience or any sort of special ability except sticking at it.

Enjoy your Christmas and New Year if you celebrate it, and don’t worry about all the crap that might happen next year – at least until next year comes.

And while you’re enjoying it try to keep the buzz and excitement alive that you felt when you first realised the huge possibilities that were available to you online – your OWN BUSINESS – it’s an opportunity that your grandparents, and even your parents didn’t have.

Instead of that horrible sinking feeling that comes after Christmas, try and replace it with a feeling of excitement and anticipation, because it’ll be a new year, and you can make a new start.

Look at how far you’ve come.

‘Not bloody far enough!’ you might think.

I would argue with you.

You’ve come a LONG way, because there was a time when you didn’t even know what internet marketing was and had no idea of the earning possibilities.

NOW you DO. You know about mailing lists, websites, affiliate marketing, online payment systems, domain names etc and even if you’re not an expert you NOW know they exist – you know what amazing rewards can be generated by using them.

You’re a rare breed – you’re AWAKE, you’re not sleeping like the majority of society are when it comes to knowing about the potential of your online business.

Use that info – you deserve it for getting this far.

A wonderful Christmas and New Year to yourself and your family, and we’ll speak next year.

Tony

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Life is short.

Far too short to give yourself a hard time about anything.

So if I have one glass of wine too many with dinner or find I’ve put a couple of extra pounds on after raiding the biscuit tin (cookie jar) for three nights in a row then that’s fine with me.

I think life is for enjoying not worrying about. Discipline is for the army and guilt is for Catholics.

LIFE is for doing things your own way, making sure you laugh more than you cry and if it feels good do it more often and this time with strawberry flavoured yoghurt or a set of handcuffs.

But human nature being what it is, people do judge themselves far more harshly than anyone else ever would, and rather than dwelling on their successes seem to focus on failures, bad luck and honest judgement errors.

Today I was in a supermarket. I needed a few things for my office and ASDA was handy.

As I packed up my purchases I struck up a conversation with the girl at the checkout and as probably happens to most of you when you’re making smalltalk, the conversation got around to the global recession.

It turns out that her boyfriend had just lost his job, and their finances were decidely shaky.

Put simply, apart from looking for a new job they didn’t have a clue what to do.

I tenatively asked if she’d every considered setting up an online business – Initially I mentioned Ebay and told her about a few things I used to sell on Ebay and said there was a lot of scope for earning online.

I wasn’t in any way attempting to sell her anything and didn’t mention any of our sites.

I stopped in my tracks when I realised she was looking at me as though I was speaking Martian.

She paused then spent the next 30 seconds telling me why she could never do anything like that and wasn’t much good at ‘ideas’ or very good with computers. She also reckoned that everything she tried turned to sh*t and she didn’t do very well at school. And anyhow ‘you don’t get something for nothing’

The thing is, if I’D said that to her she’d have floored me with a shopping trolley, but because she was saying it about herself it was OK to rip apart her own confidence and abilities. Crazy!

And the stats tell us that 95% of all people think that way. They can’t see possibilities.

So my esteemed readers, the next time you find yourself ripping in to your own skills and self-confidence, and telling yourself that you can’t do something or you’ll probably make a mess of something, take a firm grip of yourself, preferably somewhere that makes your eyes water, and squeeze.

Because YOU are reading this blog – YOU are looking into the possibilities of online business, which means that YOU are one of the visionary 5%

And while you might not yet be where you want to be, you’re a bloody sight further on than most people.

You might be only halfway up the mountain, but at least you realise there’s a mountain there in the first place.

And I take my hat off to you for it!

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