Well, what do you think? If you’re starting an online business, do you have any days off?

Is life a living hell once you start your own business?  How do you ever have time to have fun and relax?

I’m in Door County, Wisconsin today working on one of my family vacation destination websites while at the same time attending a wedding of my wife’s best friend from high school. Although the “work” I’m doing is a bit stressful right now - sales, sales, sales - I’ve realized one thing, if you do something you really love and you’re passionate about, your business becomes more a lifestyle than a job.

If you’re doing what you love to do for your business, what does time off really mean then?

I was reading an article about entrepreneurship and success and thought you all might want to hear this:

…I’ve seen a lot of entrepreneurs profiled and interviewed. And countless times I’ve seen entrepreneurs express this sentiment: “I don’t remember the last time I had a vacation.” “I don’t have time to take any time off.” “I hope I make a boatload of money someday so I can ‘make up’ all the time my family has sacrificed.” To all of that, I say: BS. Entrepreneurship doesn’t have to mean the elimination of any other priorities in your life. I used to think that way. But now I make sure I take time for the things in my life that matter (family, community, personal time)…So my advice: If you’re an entrepreneur, for Pete’s Sake, take some time off!

My question to you all is the following:

If your primary reason for starting your own business was to get away from the 9 to 5 grind of working for someone else and to become financially free, how do you manage to keep all the priorities in order (family, community, personal time, etc.)?

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I’ve talked about StumbleUpon strategy lately - hope that helped you “get it”. Facebook is another great source for socializing online. Twitter is another great tool to get the low-down on what others are doing.

However, with ALL these tools out there, how can any normal person find the time to use the social media networks…?

I’ve found an answer!

Ping.fm is a simple service

that makes updating your

social networks a snap.

Here’s why:

1. All your social friends are now connected: one of the hardest things for me in dealing with all these social networking tools and social networking followers is that they all take tons - logging on to each site, updating your status, submitting new content and links, following your favorites - this can take forever. Since each community I’m a part of has different friends and people I follow, not all of them will see what I’m doing or know of updates unless I visit each website. Ping.fm aggregates all your status updates so you submit one time and all your friends in the different communities see what’s happening! This is such a time-saver!
2. Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, Mashable, and more are now all together: here’s my list of must use social networks that are available on Ping.fm:
   • Moller Marketing on Twitter
   • Moller Marketing on Plurk
   • Moller Marketing on Facebook
   • Nate Moller on Mashable
   • Nate Moller on LinkedIn
     
   • Moller Marketing on FriendFeed
     
   • Moller Marketing on Delicious
   • Moller Marketing on Pownce
   • I do use others too, especially StumbleUpon, but it was not available with Ping.fm.
   • Ping.fm also has other networks that I can add but I haven’t yet - any recommendations on ones I should add that I haven’t?
3. Functional with Google Chat and direct email: yet another great way to save time with Ping.fm. I currently tie all my instant messaging together with Meebo.com. That way I get all my direct messages in one easy place. With Ping.fm, you can send instant messages to a chat box and it will blast all the updates to the different networks! Email is also an option but I’ve only tested it! Chat is so easy!

If you need help getting all this set up, check out this tutorial on Ping.fm that was created by Trevor. Just beware, some of the “triggers” are things I haven’t really tested yet - I’m sure they’re cool too though!

Let me know what you thinkabout Ping.fm!

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Gary Vaynerchuk was one of the highlights at #bwe08! What a passionate, high-energy work horse. One of my favorite quotes from the event:

If you want to build a business you have to work your face off…

Other great tips:

This guy emulates the power of persistence, passion and hard work!

Here’s a video clip of what he shared (beware of language - about 60 minutes of great stuff)

Gary Vaynerchuk Blog World Expo Keynote Speech from David Peralty.

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This is a guest post by Brooke Peterson, owner of MyBestFurryFriend.com.

The American dream is to be your own boss and own your own business.  Anyone who has thought about starting a business finds that there are so many things to think about and so many things to do.  There are many publications on the steps to create your business entity from filing the legal documents, getting your tax id and determining the type of entity you need to set-up.  But, some of us, who have little or no creativity, need help in determining the product or service our business will provide.

This article is targeting those of us who wants ideas.  What do we need to think about when trying to decide the type of business we can run, afford and stay interested in?  There are several questions to consider:

1. What is my passion in life?  Can I find a service or product that relates to that passion?
2. Is my passion something someone else will purchase?
3. Do I want to produce a product for my business or market a product for another company?
4. What are my skills?  Can I be a manager, a creator, a marketer or all if I need to be?
5. Can I afford the costs of starting a business?
6. Will I have employees or do I want employees?
7. Do I want a small business to supplement my income or do I want to make this a business that I hope to grow and grow?

To get started, get a paper and pen.  You must write everything down.  Then look over your notes, something in those notes will strike a cord.  List all of the things you love to do in your life. Think of things that keep your attention, things that make you happy, things that are in your life every day.  If you are creative and are good with your hands think of things you can make.  If you have a good eye for decorating, good math skills, or are talented  in technology, think about all of your skills a build a business upon those skills.

Once you have found something you believe is a good idea you must verify that it is something that is marketable.

Your test market will be with your family and friends.  If it is a good product or service your ideas will be easily passed by word of mouth and the interest will translate into new sales.  If it is not, the reverse will be true and you will not have sales.

You must consider a few things now: Do I have the ability to mass produce my own product?  Do I have the space to store items I purchase to sell?  Or will I be able to have the product I sell stored by the company I purchase from?

Depending on the size and type of business you decide on, you may need to consider hiring employees.   If you have a baby blanket business you may want to have others do the sewing and you do the selling and managing.  If you have a technology consulting business you may need extra people to manage several clients.  If you’ve decided to sell another company’s product you may want others to box and ship the items for you.  Of course, you will have costs associated with your business.

Be sure to determine the dollars you want to spend on this new business.  The start up costs can surprise you,  from the legal filings for your business name to the new business bank account costs.  And, of course, the costs of any materials needed if you are the manufacturer or if you plan to purchase the products you will then sell.  Do your homework.

If your dream is to build a big business or to have a small operation out of your home, it is your dream.  It all takes work, big or small.  Don’t limit yourself, think positively and work, work, work. This will be the most rewarding adventure you have ever taken.  Take it from me, I did it!!

Brooke Peterson, owner of BIP Enterprises, LLC dba My Best Furry Friend, the maker of the most precious baby blankets on the planet.

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Not sure what I can say about this, except that it was all in good Moller family fun!

No, my kids are not weird; no, this isn’t how it is in Utah :); and no, my wife and I don’t teach our kids to do this; but, it is pretty funny!

So, how can you relate this picture to starting an online business?

1. What you see isn’t always what you get? This picture didn’t happen accidentally - it took our photographer quite a few M&Ms to coerce my little boy to actually do this (thank goodness). Nor will starting an online business just happen overnight by coincidence.  It may look really simple - a turn key, get-rich-quick!  However, it’s takes time, effort and lots of energy to create a profitable business, both on and offline.
2. You have to have a niche and be passionate about it. Imitating what someone else is doing may “look” ok, but once you hit a few road blocks, the “rookies” that aren’t passionate about what they are doing will give up and quit!
3. Success breeds Success! If you really love what you’re doing (as my wife and I do), others will follow.  The more you associate with the right people who are positive and successful, the better chance you have to succeed with your endeavor.  This is one of the main reasons I still work at Prosper Learning- it’s an entrepreneur’s dream job where we all get to help others while at the same time learning from one another and networking.

I look forward to some creative comments about how this picture relates to starting an online business!

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StumbleUpon.com just doesn’t get me any traffic.  StumbleUpon.com is a waste of time.

If you’ve heard these complaints or have made them yourself, this article is definitely for you.  I’ve been a “Member since Aug 06, 2007“and StumbleUpon.com (SU) has treated me really well. Here are a five specific keys to getting traffic with SU:

1. Make friends with SU users who aren’t new to the SU scene.  Find top stumblers who like things you like and add them to your subscriber list.  Don’t just add all the top stumblers - see what they have in their favorites, compare it to what you plan to favorite, and make sure it’s a fairly reasonable “good fit”.
2. Next Step: Get to know these people! How? - stumble posts they create, discover their stuff.  BUT, don’t SPAM them.  If I was a top stumbler and I got a ton of friend requests from newbies, I’d probably just ignore them until they got their feet wet a bit.  StumbleUpon recently added this new function too, which makes it even easier to see how close you “match up” with other Stumblers:



3. Socialize! This is what SU and all the other “social networks” are all about - socializing! Once you add friends with common interests, don’t be afraid to chat with them, send them a message via the SU message box, (here’s a quick view of the “Send a message” box)

   

   ask them to Thumb Up and review something, etc.  You’ll get no’s, ignored, and once in a great while one of them will actually do something to help you.  This will probably happen more than you expect if you’re persistent and personalize your message.

4. Don’t just book mark your own stuff! I know, to most of you this is a “no-brainer” but come on - if you just add your own stuff you will be tagged as a first class SPAMMER! Besides that, the “important” SUers will ignore everything you do and you may get banned from SU.  To avoid this beginners mistake, find stuff you like that’s related to your website and add it to your favorites: become a part of your industries community!  If you don’t know where to look, go to the SU search bar in the top right corner of the SU screen and type in one of the keywords that relates to your industry.

   

   Don’t be too specific in your keyword search, and you’ll find other sites that will actually provide you with great stuff you can write about for your own blog.

5. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!” Yep, that’s right, if you don’t have a social media marketing plan of attack, you’ll waste a lot of time and, just as the complaints at the top of this post say, SU (or any other social media site) won’t do anything for you.

If, after you implement this advice, you are still echoing the same sentiments found at the top of this post, you probably haven’t put each step in to practice fully :)  Happy Stumbling!

UPDATE!The Power of stumbleupon links.  Out of curiosity, I decided to check on my placement for the keyword phrase “Stumbleupon strategies”.  To my surprise, out of 1,430,000 websites, this article is number 7.  Here’s the proof!

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MollerMarketing.com is coming up on it’s 2 year anniversary.  I actually started on Blogger.com and then transferred everything over to the blessed Wordpress!  It’s been a fun ride so far, I’ve learned a lot, and have appreciated all the comments, questions, and “Success Stories” I’ve seen.

One of my favorite blogs talks about taking your blog traffic to the next level.  I want MollerMarketing.com to be a source people talk about with their friends and a source people refer others to for information about starting an online business.  As I read other blogs, one of the recommendations I’ve received is to ask readers what they’d like to read more about and then “deliver plus one”!

I’ve decided to put that suggestion in to practice! Please fill out the new survey, brought to you by this cool wp polls plugin:

(You can select up to three topics)

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Thanks for your feedback.  If you are interested in doing a guest blog post, contact Moller Marketing today at mollermarketing @ gmail dot com!

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