If you are serious about achieving success as a Direct
Marketer or Product Developer, start by answering these
questions.
Thirteen Questions
1. What is my goal this year? Be specific. Instead of
answering, "Make a lot of money," come up with an answer
based on your personal reality. For example, your answer
might be, "Learn enough about running a subscription
website that I can generate at least £2000 a month
income from membership fee's alone."
2. What are the 'models of success' of others who have
reached this goal? It helps a great deal to identify other
product developers or companies that have attained the goal
you are trying to achieve. Look at what they are doing, and
how they are doing it. See what works for them, and what
hasn't worked. Try to find a 'model' you can use as your
guideline.
3. What is my strategy for reaching my goal? After you have
identified your goal and a few models of success, it's time
to start formulating your own strategy. Avoid the mistake
of trying to 'over complicate' your strategy. Keep it
simple, with as few steps as needed. Adapt your strategy to
meet your own skills, schedule, and budget.
4. What tools or skills will I need to acquire to reach my
goal? With most projects, you'll need to acquire some
additional skills, equipment and tools. You'll want to
identify most of these before you start - as doing so will
help you understand the budgetary needs and time
requirements. With some goals, you may find the skills and
equipment needed are beyond your budget or learning level -
a good time to find out is before you start the project.
5. What is my timetable? Before starting a project is is a
good idea to develop a long term and short term timetable.
The long term timetable should have specific 'accomplish
by' dates leading to the final goal. The short term
timetable should be more detailed and cover the acquisition
of tools, learning of skills, development of test projects,
etc.
6. Is this within my budget/where do I get funding? Almost
all projects have costs, some quite considerable. Before
starting the project, ask yourself how will you fund the
project until it becomes self-sustaining. In some cases,
the costs will be low or spread out enough that funding
won't be a problem. In other situations, funding
requirements are immediate and you will need a certain
amount of cash before you can start. Determine your needs
early on, and find a source of funding (perhaps income from
other projects) before you start.
7. Will working toward this goal have a negative impact on
my health, family relationships, or economic condition? In
some cases, you can choose a goal so ambitious that trying
to achieve it will have a negative impact on your health or
family relationships. I can think of no instance where it
would be wise to endanger your health or the relationship
with your spouse or children to achieve a business related
goal.
8. What will I do if this fails? It is always a good idea
to have a backup plan. In my case, I generally take on
projects where even if the project fails, what I learn
while doing the project is usually worth the effort. For
example, if I decide to produce a DVD on a specific topic,
and the DVD fails to generate revenue, the experience of
acquiring the tools and learning to produce a DVD gives me
a huge head start on the next DVD I decide to produce.
On the other hand, if I have invested all my time and
resources to producing a single product and have 'bet my
house' on its success, I better have a backup plan should
it fail. The same goes with all projects or goals. Have a
backup plan if it fails (because 70% of projects do fail).
9. Is this a realistic goal for me? Is the goal you set for
yourself so ambitious that you have no chance of reaching
it? Does it fit in with your skills and interests? Does the
goal reflect long term desires, or is it coloured by
immediate problems in your life not related to long term
realities? Are there more obvious goals which you should be
trying to achieve first? Keep in mind that it usually takes
time and strategy to achieve desirable goals. So don't feel
pressured to accomplish everything at once.
10. Where do I start? If you get this far, the next
question should be 'where do I start?' In most cases, the
place to start is to try to get first hand experience in
doing what you want to achieve. If possible, attend a
workshop where you can learn the basics from someone who
has already done what you want to do. Or get a part time
job at a business that does what you want to do. Getting
first hand experience (either a workshop or job) can give
you a huge jump toward learning what you need to know, what
tools you need to acquire, and what skills you'll need.
11. What do I do next? This is a question you will repeat
often throughout the project. As you complete each phase,
you'll have to ask yourself, 'What do I do next?' In most
cases, projects are a sequential learning process. What you
learn in the previous phase, you apply in the next phase,
where you learn more. But as each phase ends, you need to
have a good idea of what you need to do next. (Check out
your model of success . . . what steps did they follow?)
12. Where do I need to make changes? The further you get
into a project, the more you learn about what can and can't
be done (within your budget and skills). As you learn more,
you'll discover ways to improve the project by eliminating
some steps and adding others. This 'Where do I need to make
changes?' question is one you'll ask often, and allows you
to adapt your project to changes in your environment.
One Final Question
13. When will I know I'm done? The product development
business is one of stepping stones. Each project you take
on generally leads to another project using skills and
tools you acquired with earlier projects. Often before you
complete one project, you'll have a good idea what your
next project should be. While individual projects do reach
an end point, rarely will your product development
endeavour be 'complete'. You'll almost always have a number
of projects in mind - just waiting for you to free up some
time.
I know I have ;-)
----------------------------------------------------
Nick James is a UK based direct marketer and product
developer. During the last 5 years Nick has sold in excess
of £1.6 Million Pounds worth of products and sevices
online. Subscribe to his Free Tip Of The Week email at:
http://www.Nick-James.com
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