God bless, Mike

I am in focus mode.  I need to focus on making my new business a success.  I need to focus on my farm.  Most of all, I need to keep focused on my family and God. As part of this, I am getting rid of some of my websites and online distractions so I can better focus.

God bless, Mike

First and foremost was my immediate family. Second, was getting my farm under control.  Third, was catching up from being behind for so many years. Have I accomplished it all?  Not quite.  However, things are going much better and I can sense that I have some breathing room.

It looks like serious work can start in September. It takes much more discipline to make progress when you are working at home to start a business. There are so many distractions beyond the daily work of a family and farm. I have a schedule laid out, but it takes some work to keep to it.

Needless to say, I am excited to get started in a meaningful way. I’ll keep you updated!

What led to this? It was a change in my heart, brought about by God.

Three years ago I moved to a farm that is 80 miles from where I worked. Thankfully, my employer allowed me to work from home two days each week. This helped me make the situation work, for a time. In reality, it just became too much to handle a full-time job, 12 hours a week commuting, a farm, and most importantly my family.

God spoke to my heart through this verse:

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. — Proverbs 13:7 (KJV)

I had a great job that paid very well, yet things weren’t going right with God and my family. I won’t go into details here, except to say that I found myself always saying that I was too tired, too busy, or too short on time for my wife and children.

I had spent the prior 40 days seeking God’s will about this and some other things that will remain between me and God. Between commuting and the time away from home, I was finding it hard, if not impossible, to be the husband and father that God wants me to be. While I was successful in a material sense, I was not from a relationship sense.

The only real riches are “treasures in heaven” not material wealth here on earth.  These treasures start with my wife and children, extend through my family, then neighbors, acquaintances, and other people I come in contact with. I was not doing a good job with my wife and children, much less anyone else. God woke me up to this.

I had looked at leaving my job before, but the timing wasn’t right.  This time, God gave me the assurance that he will provide for me and my family. I have the skills and ability to develop an on-line business with God’s help.

I will trust God to provide for my family. I will be diligent in building a business from my home on the farm to support us. Whatever comes in the future, I am at peace with this new chapter in my life. I will never regret leaving my job to spend more time with my children while they are still home with my wife and me.

I am looking forward to my new life. It is a blessing from God to take this first step.

Mike

Enter our web hosting company. I have a reseller account and my son has a hosting account with me. My reseller account is hosted through HostGator. While everything has gone well so far with my reseller account, you really don’t know how well until you have a problem.

With this problem, I found their service to be excellent.  I opened a ticket and they responded within a few hours (on Sunday) with instructions on how to request a restore.  The cost of the restore was $15 which my son was happy to pay. I entered the restore request last night and woke up this morning to find it done.

His website is up and working again like nothing ever happened.  My son has learned a valuable lesson. I have learned that HostGator truly does have good service.

Disclaimer: This blog post contains affiliate links that will provide compensation to our company if a purchase is made.

2010 offers a fresh start and I believe it can work.

Here are my goals:

1. Set aside time each week to work on my business.
2. Limit the time I spend on things that distract.
3. Liquidate the remaining physical inventory from my e-commerce site.
4. Read the latest edition of The 4-Hour Workweek and apply the principles to my business.
5. Re-start one of the courses I subscribed to last year.
6. Start earning some income from affiliate marketing.

Now that I have written down my goals, it is time to start working!

One other thing that has changed is the project I wanted to start.  I am putting that on hold to focus on something that will generate some quicker cash flow.  I still want to do that project, but my online business has bills to pay, now!

As an exercise in accountability, I am posting here my plans for the upcoming weeks and months.

1. This website needs a facelift.  I am going to update the look and better integrate with social media.
2. I am launching my first affiliate marketing site.
3. Create more affiliate marketing sites.
4. More consistent posting on all of my blogs.
5. Profit!!

As this is a blog about my journey to work from home, I will keep updating you on my progress and what I learn along the way.

1. It has a looming, non-negotiable, deadline.
2. It is not a quick thing.
3. I tried to outsource it but that didn’t work out.
4. It’s not the most fun thing to do.

Everyone hits these kind of roadblocks from time to time.  Here is how I am planning to break through it.

1. Make it a priority.
2. Break it into smaller pieces.
3. Set a schedule to complete the pieces.
4. Block out big chunks of time to get it done.
5. Set an earlier deadline than the real deadline.

Will I get it done?  I think so. YES!  Once it is out of the way, I can do that project that I am really looking forward to.  I guess that is point #6.  Reward myself for getting through this roadblock!

One last thing.  If you think this roadblock will come up again, plan for it next time.

I have always been interested in managing virtual teams, since I went to a ProjectWorld conference in the late ’90s. At that conference I went to a workshop on managing distributed teams. My reason for attending was that I was beginning to manage a team of programmers in India to help with system maintenance and Y2K work. Now, I am the one who is a virtual/distributed (40% of the time) team member!

Two books I read, this past year, gave me encouragement to step out in this way: The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss and Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke–the Simple Change That Can Make Your Job Terrific by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson. The 4-Hour Workweek gave me some strategies for changing my work schedule to allow me to work remotely. Why Work Sucks gave me solid strategies for focusing the evaluation of my work on results (ROWE) and for dealing with negative comments that the authors termed “sludge.”

If you are looking to have more freedom in your work life – the freedom to get results, then I recommend that you read both books. My life now has better margin and control. It is intensely liberating, less stressful, and now has some margin. Most of all, it is already having a positive impact on my family life.

Beginning immediately, I will be shutting down my physical products operations. I will be selling out my inventory. The stuff that sells well will be sold at regular retail. Everything else will be discounted to move quickly. I plan to have most of my inventory liquidated by the end of January. What’s left will go on eBay. By the end of December, the present incarnation of Ten Foot Table will be gone.

What will I do? I plan to write – both e-books and blogging. I also plan to do affiliate marketing. This kind of work can happen in the fringe hours after God, family, and my regular job. I think I will have a lot to offer by going in this new direction. Mostly for my wife and children.

I am not down about this decision. In fact, I am at peace with it. It is the right thing to do. I will have better focus. It is in God’s will for my life.

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. – Proverbs 13:7 (KJV)