Continuing on the 'things happening in a straight line' theme from yesterday. (Actually never intended to get on the computer service tanget in the first place, but sometimes these things over power your train of thought.) In February of 2005, I added a merchant account and changed my shopping cart from PayPal's to one that came with the website bundle I purchased. That was the most dramatic one month increase in sales I had ever had. I expected that to continue through March and beyond. When March was busy, not the 2.5 times busier than the month before. I somewhat expected that though. But I then expected the March increase to continue through April. It did not, in fact until March of this year, March 2005 was the single busiest month I had ever experienced.

Fast forward to January 2006, it was up 2.5 times from the previous January and dramatically up from December 2005. Ten days later, I was done with the corporate world. Not only were sales up website traffic was up dramatically. It still is the biggest single month traffic wise I have had. February was good, and while March was the biggest sales month I had ever experienced, it was disappointing, based on my expectations. And now here is April, traffic is way up so far this month and so are sales. Sales are close to where I have estimated they need to be for this whole thing to work. I figure I have until November to make the transfer complete, that is when all my pay from the corporate world will expire, although it might continue longer, as my earlier projections of August proved to be wrong.

So will April continue its torrid pace? I do not know, I would wager though at this rate it will beat March as the busiest month ever. A change form last year, and once again disproving that whole things happen in a straight line theory. So my point is while projecting sales, or anything is necessary and worthwhile, just remember your projections will be wrong, and for whatever reason things will happen slower or faster, better or worse, than you had anticipated.

It is always nice when things happen faster and better than you anticipated. But when they don't I have found it is these times that produce the most creative ways of forcing them to happen faster. In other words when the chips are down the tough get going, or something like that. So when things are going against you, dislodge those back of the brain ideas, and put some into motion. Do all the little things you have wanted to do, but haven't had time. I have found these little investments are what keep both the personal engine, and the commercial engine chugging along.

It could be said the art of 'letting things unfold' is a hard lesson learned. Coming from the corporate strait jacket where things follow a line so straight it is the envy of geometricians. Your pay, your duties, your life, is all so predictable. Predictability is nice for doing such things as budgeting, paying your bills, planning a vacation, planning your retirement, planning your entire life for that matter. And coming from that you want your entrepreneurial endeavors to mature to a point where there is a straight line, so you can do all the things above. It is the way we are conditioned isn't it?

But it is not going to happen that, your business, your days will surge and retreat. Things will not go on like a scheduled regiment. You will have peaks, valleys, plateaus, and bogs. You will have in short, the full swing of emotions that life has to offer, and in the end, it will either work or not, but you will have done one thing, you will have lived.

Since my entrepreneurial bent has taken over my life, become my life, I have tried to support others, like me, who are in business for themselves, small business. Which brings me to my new computer geek. I had purchased a laptop from him, through a friend who also was purchasing one. Never did meet him. Well the laptop has issues, and I need a new desktop as well. So I met him two weeks ago, ordered a desktop, and told him to use his pull to see if my laptop issue could be covered under warranty. He was somewhat doubtful but said he would look into it. He had made some comments during the transaction that he should make some money on this, and that his rep hated when he sold units like the one I had just purchased. Comments that I thought did not need to be said, and since I am a new business, really who knows what my future needs might be. Sell me a $600 unit today, and next year I might need custom programming etc. But he is young, and I do want someone local to call when computer poo hits the fan.

Well, here we are two weeks later, and I have left two messages on his cell, gotten lambasted by his younger immature sister when I called his 'office line', who told me I was interrupting her program and called her entrepreneurial brother 'the nerd', and still have no computer. This is one of those valleys, from which I am sure will be fixed. Will I do business with this guy again? I do not know, I do know he told me he would be out of town for awhile, I do not remember the dates. But here is what I would have done differently.

I would have updated my cell phone message with the dates I was to be out of town. He could have and should have returned my call the first time, and explained he was out of town. He should not have his sister answer his office phone, if it just rings the phone in the house, then for pete's sake splurge and get your own business line.

As for me, I just sit back and look at this moment as one more incident on the journey called life. And enjoy the fact that at least now I am cognitive enough to handle it with grace, confidence, and patience.

Comparing Google Ads and Yahoo Ads, the pay per click variety. I have had a love/hate relationship with PPC for a couple of years now. Fraud is just too easy, and if you don't watch they can be very expensive. I had dropped Yahoo for quite a while as their rates are about double that of Google. Earlier in my e-business career, I had dropped Google, because Yahoo delivered more conversions.

That is the best thing they both have to offer is cost per conversion. If you do not have this feature turned on, figure out at once. You have no clue the effectiveness of your ads if you do not have this turned on. At one time I was just so focused on traffic that I did not really care if they bought anything or not. I was listed on several of those silly Top 100 sites for my category, and dammit, I wanted to rank higher. Figuring the higher I ranked, the more leads they would supply, to a certain extent that is true. But still if you average sale is $30, do you really think paying $20 per conversion makes sense? If you do, you will not be in business long, unless you have unlimited capital.

I have figured I could afford around $4 per conversion. With Google ads I managed to keep that fairly close. Right now it is down around $1.17/conversion, so I have upped the bids on the keywords that have produced most efficiently. Likewise it is easy to edit and drop ads on Google. And the nice thing is Google is more sophisticated than Yahoo, and if your ads get clicked on more frequently than your competitors' than you get better placement, because Google is in the business of generating clicks, even if yours is a few pennies less than your competitors.

Google also makes it easy to manage your daily budget. I place mine higher than I will ever reach, because I do not want my ads to shut down for the day. Mine is at $4/day, and yet I think I only spent $39 last month. Right now is the hot time for my business, so I have the clicks rather high, but the conversion rate is higher this time of year, as people are shopping and not just surfing. If I spend all $4 per day and get one conversion per day that turns $120 in advertising into $1200 revenue, and just a as importantly I have a new customer, one I can hopefully turn into a regular, one I can send a mailer to, an email newsletter too, one that will tell their friends etc. If just 10% of those 30 new customers do those things my business will build exponentially, just like multi level marketing.

Yahoo in my opinion is not as good as Google, because they do not reward you for higher clicks, ad placement is all based upon bidding. Their website in clunky, and their method of payment is confusing. I tend to run the same ads over again, as editing is cumbersome. But if I find something that works well on Google I will place it on Yahoo. And Vice Versa of course. You can run longer ads, although their partners in search ad placement won't run the whole thing so make you best points first. Always do that anyway.

You will still be you

Perhaps I was naive, perhaps you are too. For those of you wanting to leave the rat race for self-employment, and expecting all your problems to disappear, or at least expecting those that you attribute to work to disappear, I am here to tell you this; you will still be you. If you are prone to melancholy, to fatigue, to disilliusionment, to the blues, and you think they are all because of work, be prepared.

I hated my job, and I mean hated it more than anyone I know. I blamed my bouts of the blues, my defeatist attitude, my fatigue, my not wanting to be here on that lone fact. I knew I would have all the time in the world, when I left, I knew my aches and pains would disappear. I knew I would create a world that would be interesting, evolving, fulfilling, all I needed was to get away from work.

It has been two months now, the honeymoon is over, and I am still me. Business actually has been overwhelming the last 6 days. A far cry from two weeks ago. Will it be enogh to support me? I cannot tell yet. My trading has been in the sewer though, and in the last week I dented a car, broke my laptop and had to buy a new desktop. Is that hte reason for my mood? Nope.

My aches and pains are still here as well. And sometimes just for an instant there are people I miss from my old job. Perhaps I need to contact them.

Your business will become your NEW life, and while it is yours, and let me tell you I am not wanting to go back for one instant. Life is not a tropical beach either. I am at it a lot, it can over take your life, if you let it. Sales are up that is good, orders are behind, website needs to be updated, products ordered, emails returned. Suddenly you find yourself feeling the way you did before.

But that is human, my humanness. I still am self-employed and wouldn't trade it for the world.

I was contacted via phone the other day, well it was about a month ago now, buy a gentleman from India wanting to sell me some products. After I said I was interested he faxed me a blurb on his company. He called me again to see that I received the fax, and then emailed me. I checked his products, his pricing, his terms, and I placed an order.

In the end it was refreshing to do business with a company that actually WANTS to do business with you. That requests your business. He has just e-mailed me that my order is complete and will be shipping it. Whether you are a wholesaler or a retailer how can you show your customers you want to do business with them?

Obviously if you are a retailer you cannot cold call the entire planet, but you can exceed your customer's expectations, you can let them know you are happy to have them as a customer. Doing business online it is difficult to add that personal touch. You do not know your customers as they walk in the door. You do not know the level of service they would like, you do not know if they like you to call them by name, or just treat them with calculated courtesy. In short, you do not know their personal needs. But I do not know anyone that does not like to be thanked, that does not like to be told you appreciate their patronage, that really hates to be asked if they want to join the e-mail sign up, that hates to be notified when their package is shipped, or confirmed that their order was received. All these things I do any every order, their first or their fiftieth.

And the customers that want that extra attention? Well they will let it be known. And I give it to them, willingly. Even if they want their money back. You can not like my pricing, you can not like my products, you can not like my shipping, but you are to going to respect my customer service even if I have to beat you over the head with it.

To say this month's sales have been disappointing is an under statement. At this rate I'll be back punching a time clock by November. Last year March was my biggest month, it would have to be twice as big as this month to support me. There are signs of slow steady improvement, though, keeping optimistic and flexible is important.

I am back in Yahoo ads, at a very low budget. Traffic to my site is low, lower than January, although sales are better than January. So I am running very targeted ads at a very affordable budget. I am also pursuing advertising on a well-known website in my field, it is $135 per month, can give it a try and see what happens.

I am also ramping up my mailers, as more orders are coming via mail than ever. By this I mean five or so a month. The toll free number also is picking up its pace.

Some of my disappointment stems from lofty expectations, some of it comes from budget reality. You have two choices work harder or become dejected. This morning I was dejected, this afternoon I was working harder.

Re-creating your life, re-inventing your self. It is the biggest fear of most people. The thing most people hate about themselves is this fear, and/or lack of desire. Look at TV ads, aren't they filled with messages getting at your inner most fears and/or desires? Weight loss, dating, new careers, life insurance, hell even beer ads are almost all aimed at your inner fears and desires.

Some of these desires go unfulfilled from sheer lack of dedication. Almost nobody is afraid of losing weight if they need to, however they may be afraid to join the gym, or weight watchers or going to see a diet specialists.

However, the fear of recreating the way you make your living is a fear monumental in proportions compared to most other fears. Not only are you doing something very risky from a financial point of view, you are taking away one of your main identities. Perhaps one of your main security blankets in life, perhaps your escape from an unhappy home life. Perhaps your spouse or your family and friends are negative on just such a move. It does seem the world has a vested interest in keeping you in your place most of the time. Finding even a little support can be a very difficult thing to do.

T revolutionize your life. To do this right, you can't just willy nilly do it, it does take a certain amount of planning, a certain amount of dedication, a certain amount of putting off gratification. You just can't wake up one morning and say 'ah to hell with it', you have to start from ground zero. You have to allow yourself to fail, but to learn from that failure and you have to stay focused.

In the book 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' he says that nine out of ten small businesses fail. So all that means is you better start ten small businesses. There is a certain truth in that, and a certain impracticality as well. You can't very well invest in nine failed businesses in a row. But you can research nine in a row, or nineteen in a row. You can talk to people, you can bounce off ideas off of them, you can sell Amway, all these things you can do, to learn. To get your feet wet, to change your current mode of thinking, to stop thinking like only an employee.

And then you have started to reduce the fear in recreating your life, in fact you have begun the process of doing just that.