My Criteria...

I've set up, run and sold (or kept) a lot of different businesses in the last 10 years.

I've been noticing in the last year or so that more and more people who I've been running into are asking me about my internet company Dogproblems.com and my marketing site that sells to Martial Arts owners, MartialArtsMarketing.com.

I think this is because of the biz. model criteria which I set up, from the start. (More on this, later.)

I've been toying with the idea of putting together a marketing info. product that reveals how I do what I do.

Not a "I'm the guru" product, but rather a "This is how I turned my hobby into an info-product empire and how you can, too" CD set. If I get the impression that people would be interested in my story.

Well... maybe "empire" is too bold of a word.

Whatever.

Anyway, the point that I wanted to make (the original point that got me started on this ramble) is that there is one criteria that I think is VERY IMPORTANT that needs to be hammered on. And that is:

MAKING SURE YOU'RE STRUCTURING YOUR BUSINESS SO THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO CONSTANTLY *** WORK *** TO GET THE CASHFLOW.

In other words, if you're going to hassle with setting up a new company, make sure that you can automate the product creation and delivery.

I got married in Las Vegas, last week. I remember sitting around in the side room off the chapel, waiting for my bride, thinking to myself, "It's really amazing times we're living in that I can be exchanging vows, and at the very same moment, have cash flowing into my bank account."

During the entire honeymoon, I only spent 10 minutes a day checking on the sites, and I still averaged $450 a day. (Of course, I had 1,600 e-mails that took me 20 minutes to download when I finally returned home!) Pretty cool.

Anyway... my point is: If I were running a news site... or a content/subscription site... or something that required my personal superivision... then the cash flow would have ground to a halt when I was on vacation.

Make sure you have built in mechanisms for automating your business, that you incorporate from the start of your business plan.

Just somethin' to chew on.

- Adam.

P.S. I'm on pain killers for a migraine right now, so if there is any way I can go back and edit this post in the morning when I'm sober and realize how ridiculous I probably sound, please Dien.... let me know.