Jun 16, 2010
By Jim Straw.
“What is the major difference between people making an extra $1,000 per month on the Internet and the ones that make big money?”
The answer is simple. — Well, maybe not so simple – but – over the years, I have observed that one of the greatest differences between those who achieve mediocre results … or no results … and those who start a small business and build an empire is that they have developed a …
“Tunnel Vision Approach”
Although “tunnel vision” … represented by a closed-in and very narrow view of the objectives of the company; like looking through a tunnel … is one of the curses of big, bureaucratic businesses, it is an absolute necessity for the beginning entrepreneur.
Too many people who want to become rich and successful never reach their goals simply because they do not develop a tunnel vision approach to their goal. Instead, they are constantly searching for that one perfect business; that one BIG deal, that will put them on Easy Street … overnight … for the rest of their life.
One week they are trying to get into the export business. The week after they want to own a franchise, or buy an apartment building, or start a mailorder business. Each new book they read creates a greener pasture for them to explore. They don’t miss out on trying any, and every, new opportunity. They may eke out an existence, or even achieve a modicum of success – but – they never make any real money.
Most of them keep their “day-job” while they explore opportunity after opportunity … never making a true commitment to any business … just dabbling in the business world; looking for that one big deal to give them “overnight success.” — If it wasn’t for their “day-job,” they … and their family … would starve to death.
The beginning entrepreneur who, on the other hand, develops a tunnel vision approach to making money usually makes it.
As an illustration, let me tell you a true story about my first successful full-time business … the business upon which I began building my empire.
Since the age of nine, I have been an avid reader of “how to make money” books. — Each time I read a new book, I discovered a new opportunity and chased around trying for a time to make my fortune in that field. The grass was always greener in this new pasture. After all, I had been trying my current business for a couple months and hadn’t yet made my fortune.
Back in the mid-1960s, as a result of some of my reading, and with my wife’s urging, I had opened a small retail Women’s Wig Shop. — There was supposed to be a real fortune to be made in that field.
In a few months, I had read another book and was ready to get started on yet another quick fortune. After all, I had opened the Wig Shop, like the “book writer” told me, and the world had not beaten a path to my door.
While I was explaining my proposed plans to my wife, she nearly floored me when she said, “Why don’t you just give up and let’s try to at least make a living from this Wig Shop.” (By the way, nobody ever becomes rich and successful until they “give up” and quit chasing non-existent rainbows.)
Her comment cut deep into my male ego. It intimated that I was less than a good provider and hadn’t really earned a living for us. It made me mad … mad enough that I told her, “All right, if that’s what you want, I’ll do nothing but run the Wig Shop. If it fails, we can starve together.”
In other words, I was going to show her that we couldn’t make it in the wig business. I would be right, and she would have to agree that we should have gone ahead with my latest plans.
Since I was no longer spending my time developing or investigating new plans, I had plenty of time to get involved directly in the sale of wigs in the shop.
In no time at all, I learned that I couldn’t answer the questions the customers were asking about the wigs. This led me to start reading everything I could about wigs. How they were made. Where they came from. The differences in construction. The tests of quality … what made one wig worth more than another. — All so I could answer the customers’ questions.
While I was learning these things, I also discovered that I was buying from third and fourth party dealers, and was paying entirely too much for my inventory … only allowing me a gross profit of from 25% to 40%. I found purchasing directly from the importers and manufacturers … importing the wigs myself … reduced my costs, and increased my profits.
Every time I got side-tracked and started working on a “new” project (outside the wig business), my wife would put it down by saying, “Look, we’re making money in the wig business. Let’s stay with it.” — Slowly but surely, with my wife’s urging, I developed that all-important tunnel vision.
To make a long story short, in less than three years I was one of the largest wig dealers in the southeastern U.S. My fortune was made. — I had bought a new Cadillac, a 14-room mansion with five bathrooms and a 20′ x 60′ swimming pool.
If you are now, like I was then, I can just about hear the comments running through your mind. — Hey, I’ve been there. I know what I was thinking at the time. — If your reasoning process follows what mine was back then, your thoughts are most likely something like this …
“If I put all my eggs in one basket, I could lose everything.”
Or …
“What if I get so involved in only one business that I miss that really big, one-time break that might come along?”
Or …
“What if the business only pays me a living wage? I’ll be trapped. I want to make a fortune, not just a living.”
What I did was to take the techniques and ideas I had learned about in other businesses in which I had been involved and applied them, while staying within the scope of my tunnel vision … the wig business.
If you’ve been reading “how to make money” materials for any time at all … whether you realize it or not … you have soaked-up literally hundreds, upon hundreds, of business ideas, techniques and applications you can use in your business (no matter what that business may be).
As an example: At one time, I had thought about getting started in a “Party Plan” business. It didn’t pan out, but I applied the party plan idea to the wig business by going back to the party plan book and adjusting everything to fit my wig business.
It wasn’t unusual for one of my “wig parties” to produce from $300 to $500 in one evening. — More that a month’s salary back then.
Another book I had read told how a restaurant had increased its business by painting its building bright colors, adding banners and hand-painted signs.
So, I had the outside of one of my wig shops painted yellow, orange and red … using “Day-Glo” paint. The windows were painted red, green, blue and yellow in a carousel pattern. Hand-painted, brightly colored signs were everywhere … inside and out. — The business doubled overnight.
Reading about a novelty shop franchise, I had learned that they used a “loss leader” … an item they offered at cost; or less … to bring customers into the store.
Beauty salons in our area, at that time, were charging from $7.50 to $15 to style women’s wigs. So, wig styling became my “loss leader.” We did wig styling for $2 … if the woman bought at least one wig from our shop.
When a woman left a wig for styling, or picked one up, we could show them new styles. They just kept buying. One lady bought over 50 wigs from us in less than 2 years. — We did all of her wig styling at $2 each … saving her a fortune in styling charges alone – plus – she was a walking advertisement for our wig shop and referred countless new customers to us.
Once I learned, developed and used a tunnel vision approach in my wig business, I made my fortune through a logical progression of accumulation, leverage and natural diversification.
If you’re interested in learning the “natural diversification” that catapulted me from a successful business as a wig merchant to world-renown as a writer, publisher, mailorder marketer, buy a copy of my Mailorder Marketing course … “Own Your Own Mailorder Business” — http://www.businesslyceum.com/mailorder.html … turn to page #64 and read the story starting with the last paragraph on the page.
Throughout the years, I have observed that all successful business people … especially my most productive dealers … have developed that all-important tunnel vision approach in their businesses.
My all-time best, most productive dealer … may he rest in peace (he died in 1995) … became a dealer for one of my products in 1978. — I remember it well because his first check bounced and he had to pay for his future orders with Money Orders … after he made his check good.
At first, his efforts were sporadic. — Some months, he would make a couple thousand dollars. Then, he might go 2 or 3 months without producing an order … followed by a couple months when he would pick-up a few hundred dollars per month.
In mid-1983, his orders leveled-out at about $3,000 per month … by the end of the year, his monthly order volume was just over $5,000.
Five years later, he was earning over $20,000 per month … selling over $40,000 worth of my products each month. I met the man for the first time when I attended a seminar in Chicago.
After we laughed about his first check to us bouncing, I learned that he had retired … with a reasonable pension … a couple years before he became a dealer for my products. At that time, he was dabbling in a number of small businesses and thought mailorder might be a money-maker for him. He chose one of my products to start – but – kept looking for other … better … opportunities.
At the end of 1982, he had looked back over what he had been doing and … to his amazement … discovered that he had made more money … dollar for dollar … selling my products, than from any other opportunity he had pursued. So, he decided to put all of his efforts into selling my products.
In 1991 … his last year in business with me … he was earning over $100,000 per month from my products – plus – however much he made beyond that on the other, related, products he sold for other drop shippers.
So, the major difference between people making an extra $1,000 per month on the Internet and the ones that make big money, is the same as the difference between beginning entrepreneurs who just eke out a living in business and those who build empires. Those who succeed are those who develop and use a tunnel vision approach. The others keep thinking there has to be something else … better, more profitable … that they could be doing, so they keep looking-for it, instead of using what they have to achieve the success they want.
Give up on finding a better, more profitable opportunity. Apply yourself to the opportunity at hand … whatever it may be. — Give-up spending your time developing or investigating new plans. — Make what you have work for you. Accumulate, leverage and diversify logically. — You won’t succeed in anything until you develop and use a tunnel vision approach in your business endeavors … as all successful business people have.
Now, here’s a trick you can use to …
Organize Your Time & Efforts
At least once a month, I get something from “Day Timers” … they’re the people who produce all of those appointment and scheduling books you see Real Estate agents carrying around with them.
In one of their offerings, they included this “Success Tip.”
“Start Each Day by Making a List! Jot down everything you need to do that day. Then go back and number each item by priority. Work on your #1 priority first and try to stay with it until you’re done. Then start on #2 and so on.”
Very good advice – but – about 25 years ago, I found a better way … for me, anyway.
Every time I have an idea, or learn of a job I need to do, or think of a topic for this e-Letter, I print it … in red … on a 3″x5″ yellow Post-It note and stick it on the top of my desk. Then, when I have some time, I do the jobs that need to be done; move the “idea” notes to my BIG Idea Notebook; and move the “topic” notes to my e-Letter Notebook.
When a job has been done, or an idea has been implemented, or a topic has been covered, I simply throw the note away. That way, I don’t have to continually move jobs, ideas or topics ahead in a diary … besides, I don’t need a daily record of everything I do, or think. — Once it’s done, the note is gone.
Hey, it works for me. — Try it. It might work for you.
