Guide to Internet Entrepreneurship

Invest In Yourself

Investment Rule No. 1:  Invest in yourself. Notice that the first rule of investment isn’t “invest in your business” or anything else other than yourself. While investing and re-investing into your Internet Business is important, investing in yourself is your first priority of investing. 

What to Invest In Yourself

When he said, “invest in yourself”, he really meant that you should invest in your education, making yourself a better you than yesterday. By reading this book, you are already making an investment in your education.

Getting the essential education you need to get started online and on the right track is considered an education. The good news is that unlike investing in anything else other than yourself, you have full control over yourself because YOU are the investment.

The other good news is that it does not cost much, if any, to acquire the essential information you need to start and build a successful Internet Business.

The Price of Investing

When starting your Internet Entrepreneurship journey, you must be prepared to invest the following on your part:

1.     Money. Like any other business, you still need money to start somewhere. However, compared to Conventional Businesses, you do not need to invest much money into starting an Internet Business. Your start-up fee can be less than a hundred dollars and I am sure you can afford at least a dinner for two every month, right?

2.     Time. Investing money alone is never enough. Like any other businesses, your Internet Business needs time to grow. Very often, the Internet is perceived as a place where “get rich quick” dreams come true. While there are success stories of Internet Entrepreneurs who make hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars simply overnight simply by sending an E-mail to their mailing list, the truth is that they have invested their time to harness such a responsive, quality mailing list before the final touch.

3.     Effort. This is yet another entity required on your part like any other forms of businesses. You cannot grow your business in its infancy stages without any effort on your part. It is like planting the seeds but never watering it yet you expect the seeds to grow into a tree by itself.

Without any of the above investments made on your part, you CANNOT build a successful Internet Business.

When it comes to investing in educational E-books, seminars and courses that can teach anyone on how to start an Internet Business, most people are terrified of spending their hard-earned money. And then there are also people who think that starting an Internet Business is costly.

I think that those are ironic excuses, because:

1.     It takes little money to start an Internet Business relative to Conventional Businesses. You can start your Internet Business from home without having to leave the house for work or even rent an expensive office lot. And since there is no need to hire a team of staff on salary, your overheads are significantly reduced.

Which one is more expensive? Spend less than a hundred dollars to get a domain name, web hosting and other tools necessary and pay less than a dinner for two a month in maintenance? Or spend tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars in setting up your Conventional Business and pay 4 to 5 figures in monthly expenses, renting office space, hiring staff and funding your business ventures?

2.     Getting the essential education you need for your Internet Business ventures is cheap. I often hear complains about why E-books can be priced as high as $97 and seminars as high as $2,000.

While I do agree that these commodities may be pricey especially if you are from a country where the local currency is less strong than that of the US Dollars, but again, which one is more expensive? Would you prefer to spend $97 on getting the essential information you need from an E-book and use the information as soon as next day and make all the money you want?

Or would you prefer to spend $20,000 in getting a college education and graduate 4 years from now just to apply for a job that pays you $50,000 a year? On top of that, your pay and financial life is decided by someone else whom you just would not like. Is that the kind of life you really want?

I think that working at a job or staying broke is more costly than investing the little money you have to get your profits back manifold. I also think that saying broke, struggling to save the little money you have, robs you of your financial independence, and to me, my financial independence is something money cannot buy.

Why allow the excuse of not having money steal your financial freedom from you?

I have also seen and met budding Internet Entrepreneurs who have the “instant gratification” and “get rich quick” mentality when the Internet is no more than a means of leverage.

And then I have also encountered other beginning Internet Business owners who are not putting in the effort they should be putting in the initial stages of their business.

All in all, it takes all of money, time and effort on your part to build a successful Online Business.

You Can Still Succeed Online Even If You Don’t Have Much Money

With what the leverage and free to low-cost alternatives the Internet has to offer, you can still succeed and make your wealth online even if you do not have much money to begin with.

All it takes is a willingness to invest in yourself. If you cannot invest much money, you will have to make up your investment more in effort and time.

It is also interesting to note that most beginning Internet Entrepreneurs did not come from rich or professional backgrounds before they start their Internet Business. Some came from as humble a background as a pizza delivery boy, working for a few dollars an hour. Some were even school drop-outs!

Why Invest In Yourself?

Only you can answer that. But here’s food for thought: if you are not willing to invest in yourself, why would anyone else want to invest in you, too?