The world certainly has changed since I first entered the business world. I started at the ripe old age of eleven years old, helping Mom & Dad in their stores up in the Alberta North. At fourteen I had my first ‘outside’ job and I have to tell you, getting that first paycheck was quite thrilling.
Since then, I have noticed that business has changed. Customer Service is something spoken about, touted even, but rarely given. The Internet has made things even less personal, and more subject to scams and rip offs, than you can count, even with a calculator. And yet, is it because people scam, or they offer no service that is the culprit, or do we simply blame our bad luck on, well, luck?
Things have gotten a bit hectic in my household. To begin with, Mom is 92 years old, and both David & Myself take care of her, together. Well, basically I do, but he helps me, so that counts. Secondly, David worked for ten years as his own boss, more or less, in the import gift business, and his last employer, well, was a buffoon, and has taken a thriving business and thrown into the ‘once was’ bin of history. In short, he’s out of a job there, but did find another, for less pay.
So financial downturn has certainly come to our household, but unlike many, we aren’t blaming the economy. It was a person who made bad choices, that cost David his job, and then too, I start to look at my own contributions. It isn’t easy being a writer, and so the affiliate route takes hold. After all, a guy has to make a buck, right?
Bottom line is, I decided to re-organize my stuff, to keep track of things, of which time spent on projects is now something worth monitoring. And it is a shocker, at how UNPRODUCTIVE I CAN BE.
Now many THINK they are doing a bang up job, but can’t figure out why the money isn’t rolling in. In some respects, maybe I am that way too, though I have always maintained, that when things aren’t going well, my first obligation is to look inwards, at what I am doing. That is to determine whether the fault lies in how I do things, or promote things, before going off and blaming the economy or some sponsor for crappy sales tools.
Bottom line is, that despite the endless hours online, the actual work time has taken a huge dip. AND THAT IS WHY THE MONEY ISN’T ROLLING IN.
So, a quick tip, that took a few hundred words to say, is that first off, keep track of your hours or minutes, spent on individual projects. Excel ( I do like the program, don’t I? ) is a great way to simply list your sites (projects) and then put how long you spend working on each one.
The total might shock you.
Jun 02nd by Malcontent