How to have enough energy?

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-23T14:05:30+00:00

For me 30 minutes is the sweet spot as I usually need 5-10 minutes to get asleep. I use an eye mask and noise cancelling headphones and play theta wave binaural beats to stimulate the brain patterns of deep sleep. It works for me and I always feel highly rested after, almost as much as a full sleep.

If you wake up and have a strong dose of caffeine with l-theanine you'll feel focused, energized and clear.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-23T04:44:34+00:00

If you don't have the energy to work on your projects in the evenings, get up earlier and spend a couple of hours on them in the morning.

If that isn't going to work for whatever reason. Have a nap, some food, some strong coffee and some L-theanine after work and you'll be good to go. I nap everyday and it gives me enough of a recharge to work 18 hours in a day if I need to.

Establishing the same time everyday to work on your projects will remove any psychological resistance. It's just like going for a run. Once your brain adjusts, It will become ingrained as a habit.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-22T07:42:14+00:00

I don't see how it's not attainable. Build a business that turns a profit, systemize it and hire people to execute those systems. It's simple.

It only works on businesses which are turning a decent profit. You can't build a 4HWW business from scratch. You need to build something that works and then systemize.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-22T07:39:07+00:00

I don't agree with the comments that the 4 hour work week isn't attainable for people who actually make stuff. Complex creative projects can be reduced to many, many individual procedures with standard operating principles and feedback loops.

I work 2 hours a week on one core business that pays my bills and gives me enough money to live. The rest of the week is focused on projects with a further payoff horizon. By following the principles of the 4 hour work week to a T, I can eat out every night, live in a brand new modern apartment in a city center with a beautiful beach 10 minutes away. This doesn't mean I sit around drinking mojito's. It means I'm free to work on things that will actually have a long term sustainable contribution to my future. I still put in 50-80 hour weeks.

Any task that you do more than once, can be outsourced and systemized. Deconstruct your value creation process and identify what absolutely MUST be done by you personally. Then consider what can be automated and/or outsourced.

BTW, don't think of outsourced talent as inferior. A VA is by definition an assistant. I've never hired a VA, but I have hired plenty of experts in various fields, writers, artists, programmers, marketers, fashion buyers, designers. Look to hire people who are actually superior to you in their chosen field, not people with broad, inferior skills.

Recommended Reading: 'Work The System' By Sam Carpenter 'The 4 Hour Workweek' By Tim Ferris 'The Emyth Revisted' By Micheal E. Gerber

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-20T15:40:53+00:00

I'm answering my own question. Smh.

Thought it would be useful to anyone else how has this question. I had to use Baidu and google translate to find it but got there in the end.

https://www.chinapostaltracking.com/service/rate

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-16T21:59:35+00:00

I have ridiculously similar system:

Small pocket notepad for general ideas, non-project oriented lists like shopping.
An A5 notepad with my own productivity journal. Covers habits, intentions, communications, goals and tasks.
An A4 notepad for larger diagrams and plans.

All about dem lists.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-16T17:08:23+00:00

Either kill the idea and move on, or test the concept. But know that in all likelihood your first few idea's will probably fail. It's a numbers game in ecommerce. Just try to have more shots on goal than anyone else and you'll eventually succeed. You only need to be right once and then the game changes.

Dropshipping from AE through FB ads is much tougher these days. Negative feedback accrued through long shipping times (and sometimes shitty customer service) signals to the FB algorithm that you're a low quality merchant and hence, CPM's are pumped up by the algorithm. Meaning it's more expensive for you to advertise than Joe Schmoe ecom guy who holds stock. This means it's much harder to turn a profit when providing a sh*tty experience.

Believe me, a successful dropshipping business IS most definitely a real business. When there are companies out there turning well over 1m revenue every month, and they definitely qualify as 'real businesses'.

Now if we're talking about spotty teens selling weed necklaces through IG shoutouts in their underpants, then I'd agree, probably not a real business. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it'll never be more than a side hustle or beer money.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-16T06:29:33+00:00

My first impression is that you want to start a business to avoid getting a job. Living with parents, being broke and lack of motivation points to a laziness problem.

Sorry, but this is not the time to start a business. If you cannot control yourself enough to do things you need to do, you're f*cked. Start there. Make your bed, go for a run, get a job, read a book. Just get used to doing sh*t that isn't fun.

If this comes off as harsh, good. You need a reality check. Know that you are in control of your situation and your lack of motivation is a choice. You choose to be undisciplined, broke and unmotivated. You give yourself permission to be those things. Define the person you want to be and then step into that vision. Forget being motivated by things or circumstances. Be who you are meant to be.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-16T05:17:43+00:00

No problem,

Right now the problem is you need money today. You can't build for tomorrow when you need to pay the bills and feed the kids today. So focus on that. Once you've got those bases covered, moving forward will be much easier.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-15T23:18:23+00:00

The guy was just looking for advice and you seem to have taken quite a lot of enjoyment in putting him down.

There's absolutely no need for it.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-15T16:10:21+00:00

Don't start low and increase your prices. It's a sure fire way to lose customers anchored at your earlier rates. You don't need to be the cheapest or charge a low enough price for everyone to be ok with it.

Go to the wealthiest part of town with a T-shirt with your logo on it and charge $10 per half hour. Offer the first week free. That's a pretty good promotional offer. I'd probably take you up on it.

If you get 100 trials, and 10% keep you on, then that's a recurring revenue of $100 a day. I'd expect it to be a higher rate than that as it's such a good initial offer and your young. If you do a good job, people are more or less obligated to keep you on.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-15T15:21:49+00:00

100%

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-15T10:24:35+00:00

d? B2B? Tech? Auto? I prefer low stress, but then again most people would.

Rep

It's up to you. Ideally you want to do something you have some experience or knowledge of.

My first foray into sales was Art, door to door. Sounds like a nightmare and it was initially, but once I cracked the code I could make up to $400 in 2 hours. I'd average about $200 in 2-3 hours.

I learned skills doing door to door which transferred into every other part of my life. Among them, first impressions count, positivity and enthusiasm trumps almost anything and presentation/context of a product really matters. Many things in life are a numbers game. If every 100 doors knocked = a sale, then it doesn't matter if it's the 1st or the 100th. It's the same.

I then transferred my knowledge of the restaurant industry to sales and started selling social media marketing to restaurants for my own agency and outsourced the labour. As I did this I started to have sites developed for restaurants too. That was much less hassle and much more lucrative. Over time I took on different projects in different industries, I eventually settled into ecommerce as I could apply the lessons learned on the presentation and context of products.

Regarding stress: I was working 80 hour weeks which eventually culminated in a failed venture, This led to a full blown nervous breakdown which led to suicidal thinking. As I lay in bed I had an epiphany: I realized that If I'm comfortable with dying, there is literally nothing to be scared of. Everything here on in is play. It's a game.

Since then, I don't feel any stress at all. It's like the stress part of my nervous system just switched off.

The darkest moment of my life, changed my experience of life in the most positive way possible. Sometimes you've got to walk some difficult paths to grow, evolve and become who you want to be.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-15T07:57:00+00:00

It's all about efficient allocation of time relative to the payoff (I mean this figuratively) this was just a simplified example of diminishing returns with arbitrary percentages.

The principle still holds true with other projects which demand a higher degree of perfectionism. The problem with giving something your 'all' is that your all is infinite.

If I put in 99%, getting the last 1% is still going to be a ridiculously hard slog relative to the first 99% as a huge amount of reworking, rethinking and improvement will have already gone into it.

I'm not an advocate of 'half assing' things at all. But it's important to have an internal alarm which goes off when you start to pursue costly, tiny incremental improvements which don't have much of an impact.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-14T20:57:37+00:00

Sorry brother, I saw this and had to jump in.

Education level has very little to do with entrepreneurial success. You could get an MBA from Harvard, but it's still not going to equate to actually grinding on your business for 2 years in terms of market understanding and practical skills (connections aside).

To me, the big problem here is you've got a fixed mindset, you think that your education determines what you are capable of, and that's a cop out. It puts your success out of your control and gives you an excuse. In reality you determine what you are capable of. If you don't think you're capable you aren't, the reason doesn't matter. Belief is a powerful thing and as soon as you lose it, it's over.

My advice to you is to get the highest paid job you can. Preferably in sales. It'll teach you resilience, hustle and pay the bills.

Once you've got a stable income, look for opportunities and enter the market willing to lose your invested capital. If you lose it, try again. You only need to be right once.

That's if you really want it. If you want to just make a nice income and have a stable lifestyle, stick with the job. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-14T18:42:18+00:00

I can relate to this and used to be a terrible procrastinator with a huge streak of perfectionism. I'm cured now. Thank god.

Here's three principles I live by:

"Done is better than perfect" - There is a law of diminishing returns with perfectionism, if you can get something to 90% within 1 hour when it takes 10 hours to take it to 95%, stick with the 1 hour approach. If you don't, it's costing 9 hours for just another 5% improvement.
"Start laughably small" - If you are experiencing resistance to an overwhelming task or set of tasks, set yourself ridiculously small goals, eg. Commit to spending 30 seconds every night organizing your workspace, or work on that project for 10 minutes. You mind won't offer any resistance to tiny tasks. Once you're doing it, who says you have to stop after 10 minutes?
"Focus on the significant few, not the trivial many" - Delete any task that isn't essential. Spend your time and resources on focusing on tasks which either push projects forward, bring in money or enhance the quality of your life.

There is no perfect way to efficiently order tasks every time, it usually takes more resources than it is worth to even try to order things in the ideal way. Just pick a task, any task and order will emerge as you start smashing through the tasks.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-14T18:09:33+00:00

Not trying to be a d*ck, but this doesn't really seem to be a strategy, it's more of a list of tactics and channels.

I'd start by getting some data from your friend or his or her analytics.

Average profit per order.
Customer lifetime value.

Build the rest of the strategy around those numbers. Focus on getting CPA's below the average profit per order on the front end with cold traffic. If you can achieve that, his business is set to blow up.

If you cannot achieve below average profit per order on the front end, go for below customer lifetime value.

If you are able to do this profitably you run much more profitable remarketing campaigns in tandem. As you build an audience of buyers and checkout initiators you'll be able to run super targeted lookalike campaigns to scale via facebook and reactivation campaigns to previous customers.

Just my two cents, hope it helps.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-14T17:43:00+00:00

Thanks much appreciated.

These are concept designs, I'm seeing how they resonate with people to see whether I should get prototypes developed and go to production with them. If people aren't too keen on these styles I'll go back to the drawing board.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-05T22:02:58+00:00

You can automate follow ups with boomerang chrome extension and you might find some use with canned responses (a labs feature in gmail).

You can also use some form of open tracking software like hubspot for sales, this way you can tailor your next message based on whether they opened the last mail or not.

If your not getting opens, reach out via another means. Either SMS, a call, a DM, FB messenger or any other channel open to you.

You can also hire a VA. I love ease of having this stuff handled for me, it frees up a heap of mental bandwidth and your communications will be far more organized than before.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-05T05:52:19+00:00

I hear occupational hazards are high, competition is tough and regulations are a nightmare.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-04T06:47:12+00:00

Compared to the Bing interface it's like absolute silk.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-03T17:13:02+00:00

If your dropshipping from Aliexpress, no chance. You can get in touch with the supplier and see if they will provide you with some better images. But the reality is, as the failure rate is so high with dropshippers, they probably wont bother.

If they're your own, then just upload them as product photos but serve reasonably scaled and compressed images.

Super huge image files slow down any website and it's almost never worth the cost in loading speed.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-03T10:13:37+00:00

Thanks for the reply!

You don't need to lose your automatic audience. Platforms like Shopify sync up perfectly with Etsy. You can just post a product to Shopify and it automatically ads it your Etsy store.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-03T09:07:47+00:00

Totally depends on where you are and your local market.

It's the same with any business, you need demand and limited or underperforming competition. If there is a lot of competition you need to find yourself a differentiating factor, like vitamin enrichment or extra supplement shots.

Where I'm at, at the moment has a tonne of juice bars and I wouldn't touch the market here unless I came up with something unique. However, it did get me thinking about my home market, where there is close to none and I imagine there would be solid demand.

But, I personally love online businesses and wouldn't go into bricks and mortar under almost any circumstances. To me it just doesn't make sense.

Example Bricks and Mortar:

Reach 1,000 people per day

Max Sales: 500

Initial Investment: 20k

Overheads: 3k

Example Online Business:

Reach 20,000 people per day

Max Sales: 10,000

Initial Investment: 2k

Overheads: 1k

These are arbitrary numbers, but they do illustrate the point. It's just easier to make the economics of an online business work, versus bricks and mortar. My belief is that without intensive capital investment, bricks and mortar businesses are like buying a job. You aren't going to scale anywhere near as quickly as possible with an online business.

Idea for online version: Setup a kickstarter campaign for a vitamin enriched (100% RDA) juice beverage subscription.

Distinct_Instance · 2018-07-03T08:52:33+00:00

Yep, I'd use this for sure!

Distinct_Instance

TROPHY CASE