I’ve seen far too many new entrepreneurs spend weeks working on an internet business plan. It should only take you 2-3 hours tops. What’s important is that you start taking action FAST and get to your first paycheck quickly.

I thought it would be useful to share with you the same plan that I use when starting a new internet business. It’s simple. It’s fast. It’s proven.

All you need is the following five questions.

1. What do you want from your business?
2. Who is your target audience?
3. What channel will you use to communicate with your audience?
4. How will you get the attention of your audience?
5. What product or solution will you offer to your audience?

We also call this outline the Online Business Freedom Formula. Notice there’s no mention of executive summaries, legal structures, capital needs or any jargon best left in MBA school.  Let’s take a look at answering each of these five questions.

What Do You Want from Your Business?

Your business needs to fit who you are and provide for the goals you have in life. Otherwise, your motivation will disappear over time. The last thing you want is to create another job. Your business should be fulfilling. Here are additional questions to help you with this section.

• What are your strengths?
• What activities fulfill you most?
• What are you and aren’t you willing to do in your business (e.g. wear a tie, hire employees, etc.)?
• What kind of lifestyle do you want your business to provide for?
• Do you want to be the face of the business or do you prefer to remain in the background?
• If you look forward three years, what needs to have happened in your business for you to feel happy?

If you know what you want first, your chances of success increase greatly.

When I started my business, I knew I needed it to be flexible enough to let me set my own hours, work from home and live wherever I wanted in the world. I also wanted to take advantage of my love (and talent) for teaching. Another important factor was to work with new technologies that would keep things exciting.

Teaching business skills to new entrepreneurs through the Internet allow for all of those things.

Who is Your Target Audience?

Most business plans will have you start out by describing your product. Sadly, this is a backwards approach. The surefire way to make money is to find a hungry crowd of potential buyers, find out what they want most and then sell it to them.

This is why you have to define your audience before you even consider what you’re going to sell. Here are some questions to guide you.

• Who do you enjoy associating with most?
• What kind of people often ask you for help?
• Who do you like to serve?
• Who do you do your best work with?
• If you could change the lives of a specific group of people for the better, who would it be?
• Do they have an urgent pain or an irrational passion? What is it?

For me, it was most fulfilling to work with people who felt stuck in their current employement (or self-employment) and wanted to find something that allowed for more freedom and fulfillment.

Essentially, I wanted to work with people that were in the same position I was in 2002 when I hated my job and was looking for a way out. Seeing the profound changes in the lives of those kinds of people is thrilling to me.

What Channel will You Use to Communicate with Your Audience?

Once you have chosen your audience, the key to making money is to build up a loyal following of those people. You need to develop a strong relationship of trust. The more you get to know their pains, passions and needs the better you can serve them. The better you serve them, the more money you will make.

In order to build a following and your relationship with them, you need a channel to communicate with regularly. The exciting thing about doing business on the internet is that easy-to-use, fun and inexpensive channels are everywhere.

What do I mean by a channel? Examples include blogs, Twitter, Facebook, podcast, e-mail list, YouTube, Facebook Ads, etc. With time you should use a combination of as many of them as you can. To start you should choose one or two.

We recommend starting an internet marketing site with a blog and building an e-mail list from the people that visit it.

How Will You Get the Attention of Your Audience?

Of course, to build an loyal following for your blog and e-mail list, you have to get the attention of your ideal audience. The easiest, most powerful and most inexpensive way to do this on the Internet is by consistently creating useful content that your target audience can’t live without.

This is easy to do by posting articles to your blog. By posting valuable articles regularly, you will show up in the search engines, get shared on social media sites, be referred by word-of-mouth and attract an audience of loyal readers. The first question is:

• How often will you post?

This depends on your time, your audience and the type of content that you chose. A good rule of thumb is 2-3 times a week.

• What should you post about?

The quickest way to gain the attention and trust of your target audience is to solve their most burning questions. Here is an easy formula for writing your first ten posts.

• What are the top five things you get asked all the time by your audience?
• What are five things you wish your audience would, but they don’t know to ask it?

The answers to those ten items make up your first ten blog posts.

What Product or Solution will You Offer to Your Audience?

Being an entrepreneur is one of the best things in the world. It’s almost like magic. You get to create new value where it didn’t exist before. This is where you make money. You get paid for the value that you create.

You do this by creating a solution (a course, e-book, video series, webinar, etc.) that solves the most pressing problem or fulfills the most important goal of your audience.

How do you know what it is? You ask them. Post the question to your blog. Send it out to your e-mail list. Ask them…

• What are your two most pressing questions about ______ ?

You can also look to see what is already selling in the market. You don’t need to break new ground. In fact, it is easier not to. If something is already selling, that means that people want it and it’s profitable. Create your own version of what is hot in the market. Put your own spin on it.

Take Fast Massive Action

Once you complete the plan above (and remember it should only take 2-3 hours) you are ready to get started. Don’t stop to design a logo. Don’t worry about whether you have chosen the right audience. Don’t stall by thinking you need a more complex plan.

There is only one thing you need next…

Your first sale!

With this plan in hand, you are ready to take action.

1. Launch a site
2. Create consistent content
3. Attract a following
4. Ask them what they want
5. Make a sale

Get into the market and test the idea out. Make big things happen! Our Academy training walks you through this process step-by-step.

Have I missed anything? What suggestions or questions do you have about creating an internet business plan? Share in the comments below.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

D. Post your job.

Signup for the http://www.onlinejobs.ph/ which is $49 a month last time I checked. They pre-qualify employees at this site. You can also find good people at http://manila.craigslist.com.ph/ which is free  but you will need to be cautious of your interviewing. You can track your VA using Google Groups and Google Docs. If you use onlinejobs.ph then I recommend gathering emails from each VA candidate and sending out a Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) email to all of them with your job posting. If you use Craig’s List just post the job and people will email you. Be sure to only except resumes from the Philippines because you want hire people directly and not through an outsourcing company from another country.

E. Items to consider during the interview process.

1. Remember the VA you’re interviewing is a normal person like you looking to make a decent living. Treat them with the same respect you expect people to treat you with.

2. Develop a time line for steps A through E. This will ensure you get through the hiringprocess faster.  The VA Hiring Checklist will help you through this process.

3. Full time VAs will give you a 100% of their attention. The part time VAs will take much longer to implement your tasks because they have multiple employers. If you hire a part time VA be flexible with the delivery dates.

4. If you cannot afford a full time experienced VA consider sharing the VA with someone else who you know or even a group of people. You can use Google Excel Docs with tabs to define what the tasks the VA will work on for each person in the group.

5. If you want your technology requirements fulfilled in the shortest time frame then you will need to hire a VA with three or more years of experience. You can expect the starting pay to begin at $500 per month. Junior VA starting salaries are around $250 to $300 per month. Junior VA will not implement your technology requirements as fast as someone with three years experience.

6. If your VA’s salary requirements seem a bit too high. Ask them to start at a lower rate and as they prove their abilities you can increase their pay in the following months.

7. Create an email rule that funnels all your correspondence to one folder for easier organization. This way you can keep track of who you are speaking with in one area. You can do this by telling your email client to route all emails with the initial subject line of the job post you sent out.

8. You may want to create an Excel sheet with the VA candidates that you are interested in. This way you will have all your notes for each VA in one place.

9. If a potential candidate has every technology under the sun listed in their skills set do not interview them. Look at the Job experience and ask them what technologies they used at each of their employment listings. Ask the VA to rate the skill set for the technology you are looking for on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is the best. If the candidate rates them self highly for the skills set you are looking for ask them if they are will to prove it. The test will be contingent upon their hiring.

10. During your initial email correspondence with your VA candidate see how quickly they respond and how clear their writing is. If you think the VA’s email response times are slow during the interview process then you may want to move on to the next candidate because it will not be any better after you hire them.

11. If you have trouble understanding their writing then you may also want to move to the

12. Consider having a Skype interview to speed up the process. Then you can get a good feel for the potential candidate.

13. Do not waste time interviewing. If you see any red flags in your opinion move on to the

14. After you have decided on the VA you are going to hire. Ask them what holidays they will be taking off. I would expect at least 5 to 7 per year.

15. After you hire a VA send an email out the other VA candidates telling them that the position has been filled. Tell them you appreciate them taking the time to speak with you.  Then ask them to stay in touch.

16. Typically you will go through 3 to 4 people for every permanent hire. Clearly define your expectations, define your hiring funnel and set a timeline for hiring completion. Don’t waste time in any step of the process. Move quickly through it and you will end up having an excellent VA working for you.

VA Hiring Checklist:

Now that you have defined your expectations, created your job post, setup your test environment and read through hiring considerations you’re ready to begin looking for a VA. Now post your employment opportunity and follow the VA Hiring Checklist.

1. Do they have the experience I’m looking for on their resume?

2. How quick is their email correspondence?

3. Is their writing clear?

4. On scale of 1 to 10 how strong are their skills for each technology?

5. Are they willing to take a test that is contingent on their hiring? If so give them your test that you have already setup.

6. Are you satisfied with the results of the test project?

7. Are you happy with the time frame in which the project was completed?

8. Do their salary requirements fit the scope of what you are willing to pay.

9. If you are happy with the results of questions 1 through 8 then you have found yourself a VA that fits your needs.

Tom Sasnauskas, Understand-IT-Now.com

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Success Factor One: Begin with the end in mind.

Success Factor Two: Avoid bright shiny objects.

Success Factor Three: Understand the lifestyle that you’re trying to design.

Now, let’s move on to the next and final two;

Success Factor Four: Outsource early and often.

If you want to feel great about your internet business, try this (works best with a resource in another time zone):

* Write some great instructions to someone who is working for you. Ask them to do something that you have been meaning to do, but you have not gotten done.
* Send those instructions to your trusted virtual assistant resource before you go to bed.
* Get up the next morning and find that while you’ve been sleeping something wonderful happened — a website that you wanted put up, or some sales copy that you needed written, or some blog post that you needed transcribed was done while you were sleeping.

This is an amazingly powerful feeling, because it lets you achieve productivity in situations where you’re not actually able to devote as much time as you would like to a project.

Success Factor Five: Establish and maintain a work routine.

The most critical thing you can do to ensure the success of your part time internet business is work on it regularly. It’s very important that you establish a routine schedule for working on your business and maintain that schedule. For me, the magic number is 2 hours per night. That may seem like a lot, but this is no different than working out or dieting or any of the other things that you try to do. You’ve got to have discipline and do it every day.

Well, these are my five critical tips for being successful running a part time internet business. Know that it is very possible to have a successful internet business part time. Pay attention to these five recommendations, and you will greatly increase your chances of building a valuable internet enterprise.

My name is Mark Mason from MasonWorld.com and I hope you have a fantastic day.

Mark Mason is a successful part time internet entrepreneur who helps people learn how to make money online with his Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast and Blog at MasonWorld.com.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Success Factor One: Begin with the end in mind.

As Stephen Covey has written, you need to really understand what it is that you’re trying to do. Otherwise, it’s going to be very hard for you to obtain and maintain the focus that you need to be successful. You need to find a program or plan and stick to that program until you’re successful. In that process you need to have a clear vision of what success means and what it is that you’re trying to do. Know what you are building.

Success Factor Two: Avoid bright shiny objects.

One of the big problems that I had when I first started in internet marketing was the fact that I didn’t know exactly what I was doing or why I was doing it. (See number one above.) So, every time a new offer would come into my inbox I’d go check it out. For months and months I was bouncing around between this offer and that offer; this guru and that guru. That unfocused approach is a recipe for disaster for the part-time entrepreneur. It is absolutely critical as a part time internet business person with limited time resources available that you maintain focus and turn off those messages in your inbox.

Success Factor Three: Understand the lifestyle that you’re trying to design.

On the Internet Business Mastery Podcast and in the Internet Business Mastery Academy, Jay and Sterling spend a lot of time talking about lifestyle design. Lifestyle design is even more critical for a part time internet business person because it means that you must build a business that’s sustainable part time. If you end up building a business that requires a lot of manual labor activity, customer service or consulting, you’ll quickly outstrip your ability to handle that business.

Of course, you’ll want to modify this thinking in the event that you plan to leave your day job, but until you’re able to do that you need to make that the lifestyle you’re designing for your business is compatible with a part-time business plan.

We will continue with Part 2 next week!

My name is Mark Mason from MasonWorld.com and I hope you have a fantastic day.

Mark Mason is a successful part time internet entrepreneur who helps people learn how to make money online with his Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast and Blog at MasonWorld.com.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

As I think back on the experience, there are several great lessons that I’ve learned. The biggest lesson relates to having a Definite Major Purpose, not only in life but even in our daily activities.

I had no idea how much work it would be to create a 10-minute short film. Sterling warned me, but I still didn’t fathom the extent of work the project was going to take. Still, looking back it was totally worth it. I would do it again.

Before I committed to creating this film, I listed as many reasons as I could for why I wanted to do it.

I knew all the ways that it would fulfill me. I knew the meaning it would have for me and others involved in the project.

By carefully choosing a purpose (or even several) for creating the film, I stayed  motivated even when I spent 30 straight hours editing, without sleep.

Here are a few of the pre-defined purposes that motivated me through the project.

1. I wanted to learn a number of new skills including how to be a better storyteller and media creator and how to use Final Cut
2. Next time I have an idea for a film, I wanted to be more likely to just do it rather than getting overwhelmed by an unfamiliar process.
3. I wanted to make new friends by working with other filmmakers and with the dancers that my film is about.
4. I wanted to collaborate with very passionate and creative people.
5. I needed to exercise the creative part of my personality — something that has always fulfilled me in life.
6. I knew the finished product would have meaning and purpose beyond just being watched a couple times by local audiences. The subject of  my film is a non-profit dance company that can use the film to promote their mission for years to come.
7. I hoped the film will inspire others to pursue their passion.

The idea of having a Definite Major Purpose and knowing your Fulfillment Factors is something that we teach in our courses.

It can (and should) be applied to choosing what you’ll do this weekend just as much as the big picture plans of your life. Without thinking about the reasons why I wanted to undertake the film, I would have likely given up half way through when the going got tough.

The better you know what motivates you and what you want in life, the better you get at quickly making decision that lead to more happiness each step of the way.

Can you think of a time when know your purpose helped you get through a difficult task?

I’d love to hear your stories. Please share them in the comments below.

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First thing to say is that I don’t call them goals anymore, I call them Fulfillment Targets.

Fulfillment Targets – an objective that will further your Definite Major Purpose and/or something that will bring more fulfillment to your life.

I believe that actually making your dreams appear in reality comes down to 4 steps.  Here is the strategy to designing your Ultimate Life to date:

1. Design your Definite Major Purpose

2. Set your Fulfillment Targets

Now, I want to discuss step 3 and 4.

Step 3 is to create a system that will allow you to do the one thing that most people don’t do with the ‘goals’ they have, which is TAKE ACTION.

In the following Video I’m going to show you the system I use to make sure I have my ACTION planned, so it doesn’t just get pushed aside by other daily, pressing needs.

VIDEO:

Click to play

So, now that you have the system in place to make taking action simple and easy, all that is left is TAKING ACTION!

Strategy for Designing Your Ultimate Life:

1. Design your Definite Major Purpose

2. Set your Fulfillment Targets

3. Implement the Action Plan System

4. Take Action & follow the system

So, there you go.  That is the way I make sure that my dreams become a reality.  It will take some time to set up, but now you have what you need to make sure you never waste time setting a worthless goal.

What do you think?

• What have you done to make sure you actually achieve your goals?

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Here’s a quick video I took. I share a spectacular 15th floor view of some of the most expensive real estate in the world in Buenos Aires. You’ll be surprised at what it is.

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I want to say thank you to the dozens of people who emailed me with well-wishes for this new adventure in our life. It’s cool to feel connected to so many people through social media. In addition, I’ve had several people from Buenos Aires who listen to my podcasts who emailed me to meet up. That is a pretty amazing phenomenon to me.

I’ve had a number of people express interest as to why we chose to move abroad and specifically to Buenos Aires. So I wanted to post some information about our decision and how podcasting and internet business helped get us here.

Ever since Melanie and I got married we’ve wanted to live abroad. Employment, our previous rock band or school have always determined where we’ve lived until now (Salt Lake City followed by Manhattan).

When Melanie finished grad school last Spring, the possibilities were wide open to us. We had nothing tying us to NYC (other than friends and a bit of family of course). Even though we love NYC, now is the ideal time to live abroad since we still don’t have kids.

The main reason I got into internet business is because I can do it from anywhere. As long as I have an internet connection, I can create and publish online content. I can can connect with my community and work with my students/clients. This kind of freedom is a key element for me to have to feel fulfilled in life.

On Internet Business Mastery we encourage people to decide what they need for fulfillment in life and then to pursue it. One of my life pursuits is to provide information and encouragement to help others achieve the lifestyle of their choosing.

In the spirit of freedom of location, we started looking for a place to live abroad. Our first choice was Paris since I have lived their before and Melanie wants to learn French. Unfortunately the current conversion rates for the euro put a damper on that. We wanted to live in a country where the US dollar would go a long ways allowing us to really enjoy the experience there.

Reading the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss planted the bug in my ear about Buenos Aires, Argentina. We started our research and quickly realized why Tim likes it so much. In the end we chose Buenos Aires for several reasons.

1. We have a brother-in-law from Buenos Aires whose parents still live here.
2. We have a few Spanish speakers in our extended families now and thought it would be useful to learn the language.
3. Argentina is just a great country with lots of interesting things: plains, mountain, a city much like Paris, rain forests, huge waterfalls, etc.
4. Buenos Aires fits the urban lifestyle that we prefer right now.
5. The USD goes a long way here. Last weekend I had the best steak I’ve ever had for $8 USD. The subway is 30 cents USD per ride! Granted, this kind of currency leveraging requires that you have a means of making money in US dollars or something of equal or greater value. Internet business and my podcasts allow for that.
6. It has only snowed here once in the last 90 years.

We’ll see where things take us next. We plan to be here for the next several months.

Have you lived abroad? Where did you live? Where should Melanie and I live next?

Photo Credit: Crisfer

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We live in Manhattan with no washer and dryer in our apartment (a common thing here). So doing laundry is always an ordeal. We probably spend at least five hours a month doing our laundry (total between the two of us).

For the first time today, we decided to check into pickup/delivery laundry services. To our surprise it wasn’t that expensive. We had it done for $22. It was beautiful. They picked it up in the morning, a few hours later it was done and everything folded and on hangers.

We figure all in all it will cost us $60/mo to have our laundry done for us. And here’s the kicker. That is only about $25 more than what we spend per month when we do it ourselves!

DUH! For only $25/month, I’ve reclaimed five hours. That’s only $5/hour. Just goes to show how we get tunnel vision and adopt the status quo overlooking simples improvement we could make to our lifestyle and business.

If someone offered to give you five more hours a month at a cost of only $5 per hour, wouldn’t you take it!? I’ll take that deal any day. Especially when I can make many, many times more than that with that time.

At least I was smart enough to have groceries delivered for the past two years.

Has anyone else come up with any ingenious improvements to save them time and improve their lifestyle?

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In this episode we go over six tips to help you create a business that is a system so that you control the business and it doesn’t control you. We also talk more about how you must work on your business and not in your business if you want to be a true entrepreneur and acheive financial freedom. We also introduce a new segment called the Internet business quick tip.

Also…

Sterling talks about his commitment to constant and neverending improvement in both life and internet business. Jay talks about taking advantage of industry trade shows and presents an idea about using an advisory board to help you progress in your internet based business.

The internet business quick tip reveals a great tool for conducting keyword research in your internet marketing.

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

The E-Myth

The New PsychoCybernetics

Think and Grow Rich

Nichebot

Promoting Your Podcast (Jay’s Book)

Podcamp

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.