Selling Lounge | Moderation: A key to online business

Moderation: A key to online business

Date Added: February 18, 2009 06:34:52 AM

Article

While I don't consider myself to be a lot of things, like a complete expert on online business or a prolific web author, I can share my expertise in moderation.

I have operated a full time online business, as well as a part time online business, and have found the only way to survive the challenge in either situation is to set priorities. As a full time business owner, my priority had to be the success of the sites and stores I operated since everything around me depended on the profits from that business. Our customer satisfaction, my salary, employee's salary, operating expenses, supplier charges, and investment capital, in this order, were my priorities operating a full time business. I handled it just like a full time job, except I decided to work whenever my wife was at her job. If she was off, sure, I would work some, but the majority of those days were spent with her. Today though, life is much different. The full time business is in the past, she and I both work full time, and I still run the business full time. From browsing the Selling Lounge directory, it appears that many sites listed are run by members in the same situation, which makes this hopefully very resourceful for everyone. This whole article is going to be about moderation. While I don't consider myself to be a lot of things, like a complete expert on online business or a prolific web author, I can share my expertise in moderation. It's a necessity of life. I am the type of person, who even though I work just 3 miles from home, I still leave 20 minutes before I need to be there. The drive is about 10 minutes, and I relax listening to talk radio a few minutes outside before I go in. At the end of the day, I walk in, kiss my wife if she is there, and relax at the computer for about 15 minutes to check my sites and email. That's how I do it, and it works for me. Your routine is probably a little different, but we all follow a daily pattern of activity. I juggle my family responsibilities, everyday life, and online business fairly well for one reason: I moderate the part that isn't necessary to exist. My priorities are very simple: 1. Family - This includes my wife, parents, brothers, her parents, and making sure everything with them is well. To take care of us, I have to work, so that makes the top of the "Family" priority. If a bill needs to be paid to make sure we have electricity and 4 walls, then I pay it. If I come home and she is dead tired from work, and I'm not, I cook dinner and do the laundry, or vice-versa. Once I have honored this priority in my life, I begin to look to the others. 2. Everyday life includes going somewhere, anywhere, that isn't paying me to be there. I don't care if we just walk around Target for an hour sipping on a coke I bought outside, having a cookout at her parent's house, or we go out and spend $100 walking and shopping around the mall.I know it's not fiscally responsible for us to spend $100 at the mall every day, and we just don't feel like doing anything other days. Anywhere that isn't paying me to be there is necessary to unwind, but in moderation. 3. I had someone ask me, "Since your online business is last on your priorities, you don't take it seriously?" Wrong, it wouldn't be a priority if I didn't take it seriously. Some things aren't priorities: Watching my favorite TV show, playing a game online, and reading a book would be a few of them. None of those benefit the ones around me at all, so they aren't priorities. Sure, I can't make enough money working online part time to provide for us anymore, but I can do some good things working online. I have met people whose experiences are phenomenal, and met total jerks who think they are better than everyone else in business online, and was able to gain amazing amounts of business wisdom from both types. I have had some terrific relationships with customers, even developed close friendships with some. Even when I was a mainstay and other small auction venues, I made many steady friends to discuss our businesses to this day. And, we can't forget the fact that I like making extra money each month. The difference is, I moderate this priority more than the first two. This one is not necessary for us to exist, so if I have to go a few days just checking emails and packing up a few orders, then that's all I do. I don't get angry because I can't spend more time on my stores, with my first day off in 11 days, because my wife wants us to do something together. I moderate the priority that, if that day ever comes, I can live without and be content if necessary. Moderation took several years to master once I started selling online in 2002, and by the time I mastered it I was doing it full time. I have seen people lose everything, family, business, hope, dreams, because they don't moderate their online activities. Whether it's eCommerce, Social Networks, Chatrooms, or even blogging, it should always be seen as expendable when there are bigger priorities.

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