Time management is a buzzword designed to sell books and create a market, but the fact of the matter is that it is NOT time you need to manage, it is YOU that you need to manage. So really, we should call it “Self Management“.

If you can control and manage yourself properly, then your time will be managed correctly as well.

So now that I have shattered that myth for you, let’s move on to the big question:

What is the key to self management?

Myself and Barry Dunlop were recently invited to speak at a marketing and business seminar, and we were joined on stage by Eban Pagan. Eban has a technique for self management that I personally have also used, and it is, in my opinion, one of the easiest yet most powerful self and time management techniques available.

it goes a little something like this:

You get a stopwatch or timer, and load it to 50 minutes, drink some water before hand, and first thing in the morning, find the single most important and valuable task that you can do, and try and do it during those 50 minutes.

Note: Mobile phones, emails, IM etc should be turned off.

After the 50 minutes, do 10 mins exercise/rest. This is very important, so don’t skip this vital 10 minutes.

Then, do the second of the 50 mins, again, with no distractions.

Take another 10 minute break, and then follow this with 20-30 mins with a light snack and a short rest (close your eyes if needed)

Here is the thing, if you do this first thing, you will have achieved the single most important tasks of your day, so you will be on a high for the rest of the day. For the rest of the day, you can work in your usual manner.

So there we have it, the myth of time management has been destroyed.

See you in 50 minutes.

Dean

Post from: ]]> http://streetlessons.com/537-time-management-does-not-exist.html/feed/ http://streetlessons.com/535-the-internet-does-not-make-you-a-better-entrepreneur.html http://streetlessons.com/535-the-internet-does-not-make-you-a-better-entrepreneur.html#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:37:16 +0000 DeanHunt http://streetlessons.com/535-the-internet-does-not-make-you-a-better-entrepreneur.html The Internet does not make you a better entrepreneur

Post from: ]]> http://streetlessons.com/535-the-internet-does-not-make-you-a-better-entrepreneur.html/feed/ http://streetlessons.com/534-do-not-read-this-if-you-are-a-7-figure-guru.html http://streetlessons.com/534-do-not-read-this-if-you-are-a-7-figure-guru.html#comments Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:09:13 +0000 DeanHunt http://streetlessons.com/534-do-not-read-this-if-you-are-a-7-figure-guru.html

Hi there. Do you fancy meeting for a chat and a beer with myself (Dean Hunt) & my superstar, highly successful business partner Barry Dunlop? If so, SIGNUP HERE

“No?“

How rude!

Well what if I told you that world famous business superstar Eban Pagen would be there?

“Perhaps..”

Ok, well what if the biggest name in Marketing: Yanik Silver was going to be there?

“Yes, count me in!“

I thought so. But unfortunately, this fantasy scenario is not possible. I mean, how on earth am I expected to arrange that?

It is Impossible!!!

Well, to be honest, such events do happen, but they are always done behind closed doors, they are invite only for the elite entrepreneurs, hugely expensive, and closely guarded.

In fact, both myself and the superstar biz partner (Barry Dunlop) have been part of a group called ‘Yanik Silver’s Millionaire Mastermind Group’ for some time. But this is an elite group and it is done behind closed doors. No cameras, no video allowed, the waiting list is longer than the great wall of China, and all members have to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

This doesn’t seem fair does it?

In such an environment it only leads to one thing: The rich get richer, the successful get more successful, and the big names get even bigger.

It reminds me of Hollywood: Once an actor becomes rich and famous, people start giving them stuff for free. But when they are a struggling actor, they get treated like trash.

It is crazy! David Beckham gets given cars all the time, yet he earns over $1 million every single week, why on earth does he need to be given stuff for free?

Well the same thing happens in the world of business: the biggest names all connect with each other, and they share their best techniques ONLY with other big name gurus.

But what about the other 99.999999% of website and business owners?

Where does this leave the non-gurus?

They are left fending for the scraps of good information that are often hidden under the piles of utter crap that this industry can spew out on a regular basis.

No wonder such a high percentage of web business owners LOSE money on a monthly basis.

Yanik Silver spotted this problem a few years ago, and he created a public event called: ‘Yanik Silver’s Underground Seminar’. It is essentially an event where the experts share their best secrets, and it is the only major event of its type that is not sealed off from the none-gurus.

• You don’t need to be making 7 or 8 figures per year for an invite,
• You don’t need to be an Internet celebrity,
• You don’t need to have written a New York best seller,
• And you don’t need to own a blog with 6 billion feed subscribers.

Yanik asked us earlier in the year to do a public event with him, we declined. But persistence has paid off, and for the first, and perhaps the last time ever, we have agreed to share the tips and secrets of how we have become the most successful buzz marketers on the planet, and how we get literally millions of unique visitors to our sites for FREE.

Here are the juicy details

:

We will be presenting our ‘From LAME to FAME in 11 Buzz-tastic Steps‘ presentation LIVE at the ‘Yanik Silver’s Underground Seminar 4′ from March 28th to March 3oth.

This really is the ONLY opportunity where you can learn from myself, Barry, Yanik, Eban Pagen and more…

That’s right, the impossible fantasy scenario I discussed earlier, has just become a reality.

Check out a tiny sample of who will be there (please do not share this information):

Oh, and check out these two mystery expert speakers:

Mr X number 1 is clearly a young guy… I wonder who that could be?!?

Mr X number two is a little older… but let’s look at a further clue that is taken from the Underground Website:
Many of my Underground® events have featured a “Mr. X”… Someone SO Underground that they simply refuse to allow their identity to be made public. And the same thing is going to happen for Underground® 4.
But this time, there will be two major changes. First, instead of having only ONE Mr. X… there’ll be two. Actually, they’re business partners, which means: You’re gonna get double value for you money.

Here is the big news:

We can exclusively announce that Dean Hunt and Barry Dunlop are going to be speaking at this event. Are we Mr X 1 & 2? Well, we will be speaking at the event as guest-expert speakers, but to be honest, there may be more than two mystery speakers, we would be shot if we revealed the details.

So I will ask you the question one final time: Do you fancy meeting for a chat and a beer later in March with myself (Dean Hunt) & my superstar business partner Barry Dunlop?

The offer is suddenly a lot more tempting isn’t it?!?

If you want to see the biggest names in the industry reveal their secrets and techniques, then simply signup here: Underground Seminar Signup and book your place. As expected, there are not many seats left. So please, please be quick.

See you there, and don’t forget about the beer.

Dean Hunt & Barry Dunlop

PS: Seriously, it is the action takers that succeed in life. Don’t bookmark this page whilst you go and watch YouTube videos or check your inbox, Signup now

Post from: ]]> http://streetlessons.com/534-do-not-read-this-if-you-are-a-7-figure-guru.html/feed/ http://streetlessons.com/532-are-you-on-a-mission.html http://streetlessons.com/532-are-you-on-a-mission.html#comments Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:41:06 +0000 DeanHunt http://streetlessons.com/532-are-you-on-a-mission.html Are you on a Mission?

The reason I bring this up is because I just created (and by created, I mean wrote down) a new “Mission Statement” (http://deanhunt.com/success-should-be-fun/) for my personal website:

“Dean Hunt.com – Making Success Fun”

Do you think it could be any clearer what my mission is? What I really believe in?

Compare this to the nonsense that you would get from a random S&P 500 company:

“We are a market-focused, process-centered organization that develops and delivers innovative solutions to our customers, consistently outperforms our peers, produces predictable earnings for our shareholders, and provides a dynamic and challenging environment for our employees.”

Wow! Now that’s a mission I can really get excited about…

If your business has a mission that you really believe in, that isn’t focused solely on earning wheelbarrows full of money, then you will find success beyond your wildest dreams.

StreetLessons.com

Post from: ]]> http://streetlessons.com/532-are-you-on-a-mission.html/feed/ http://streetlessons.com/519-spigler-the-shark-5-min-business-negotation-video.html http://streetlessons.com/519-spigler-the-shark-5-min-business-negotation-video.html#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:07:05 +0000 DeanHunt http://streetlessons.com/519-spigler-the-shark-5-min-business-negotation-video.html Spigler the Shark - 5 min Business Negotation Video

Post from: ]]> http://streetlessons.com/519-spigler-the-shark-5-min-business-negotation-video.html/feed/ http://streetlessons.com/517-5-step-guide-to-never-getting-a-raise.html http://streetlessons.com/517-5-step-guide-to-never-getting-a-raise.html#comments Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:04:04 +0000 DeanHunt http://streetlessons.com/517-5-step-guide-to-never-getting-a-raise.html So you want to stay on the same crappy salary for the rest of your life? Does the thought of being well respected and well paid make you feel sick?

Post from: ]]> http://streetlessons.com/517-5-step-guide-to-never-getting-a-raise.html/feed/ http://streetlessons.com/512-how-to-grow-your-company-at-warp-speed.html http://streetlessons.com/512-how-to-grow-your-company-at-warp-speed.html#comments Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:30:47 +0000 DeanHunt http://streetlessons.com/512-how-to-grow-your-company-at-warp-speed.html Would you like to grow your company without hiring extra staff?

Post from: ]]> http://streetlessons.com/512-how-to-grow-your-company-at-warp-speed.html/feed/ http://streetlessons.com/509-how-to-not-look-like-an-online-idiot-webmaster.html http://streetlessons.com/509-how-to-not-look-like-an-online-idiot-webmaster.html#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:32:41 +0000 DeanHunt http://streetlessons.com/509-how-to-not-look-like-an-online-idiot-webmaster.html Today we are going to look at the top 5 ways you can look like an online idiot webmaster.

Post from: ]]> http://streetlessons.com/509-how-to-not-look-like-an-online-idiot-webmaster.html/feed/ http://streetlessons.com/503-blog-selling-discussion.html http://streetlessons.com/503-blog-selling-discussion.html#comments Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:45:17 +0000 DeanHunt http://streetlessons.com/503-why-courtney-tuttle-is-wrong-about-blog-selling.html There have been a lot of high profile blogs sold in the past few weeks. One of the biggest was CashQuests.com which sold recently at Sitepoint for $15,000.

This lead Courtney to write a blog post entitled before you sell your blog.

As someone who has bought and sold many blogs, and is part of a team that spends 6 figures per year buying sites, I thought I may as well add my 2c to the frame.

Now, despite the headline of this article, there are some very valid points that Courtney makes, and he states that: “Kumiko sold CashQuests because she didn’t have the time to dedicate anymore. I’m ok with that. If she had sold it just for the money, I would have been upset.”

However, I believe there are a few areas that Courtney has missed out on:

Earnings of x2 - x5 years are pretty much a fantasy in “blog” sales.

Sure, we would all like to think our blog will fetch x5 years revenue, and perhaps Courtney won’t settle for less than x5 years, but that doesn’t mean it is worth it. I wouldn’t accept less than $1 million for my DeanHunt.com site, but it is not worth that much, and I doubt there is anyone mad enough to pay that for it.

From my experience of having negotiations with over 860 blog and website owners in 2007, anything above x18 months for a blog is very much the exception. You only need to go through Sitepoint to see this for yourself.

Again, I must stress, this refers only to blogs.

I actually feel $20,000 would have been achievable for CashQuests, and I would personally have offered that amount if I had seen the auction in time, but there are a few reasons that blogs are NOT and have never been valued at x5 years.

The value is in the blogger

When a blog is sold, so is it’s soul and character. I have seen cases where a blog has lost 10% of it’s RSS readers on the day the new owner introduced himself. You have to account for this when valuing a blog.

Blogs are VERY high maintenance

I should know, I write for 10 of them. 9 times out of 10 the blog seller is selling because they don’t have the time anymore. This HAS to be factored into the valuation.

For example, Courtney finished his article by saying: “Time is your friend. Starting over is your enemy.”, yet he forgets to factor time into her calculations/argument.

For example, he believes that CashQuests could be sold for $35,000 in two years time. Whilst I don’t doubt this is a possibility, he forgot to factor in the time and effort of achieving this figure.

For a start you are going to have to fill some VERY big shoes, so it will be an uphill climb from day one. Secondly, you are going to have to work very hard in what is such a competitive industry. We all know that “make money” blogs are a dime a dozen. There are thousands being created each month, and it only takes a personal incident or brief lack of focus to wipe out 6 months of hard work.

So let’s presume that the new owner would have to put in an average of 3 hours per day, 5 days a week. This includes emails, list building, joint ventures, checking stats, reading other blogs for research, writing blog posts, editing, finding images, dealing with advertisers etc…

All of the above is vital in such an industry, and getting to a $35,000 valuation in two years means we will probably have to work EVEN HARDER than the previous owner, so 15 hours a week is pretty accurate in my opinion.

Now, we are not clones, so this is 15 hours where we could be doing something else.

Personally I have an exact figure that I use to value my time, but if someone is being successful in this industry, then I think $50 per hour should be the absolute minimum value of our hourly time. Mine is a lot higher, I am sure yours is as well, but let’s use it for the sake of accuracy.

* So, each hour of our time is $50 that we could be making elsewhere.
* We do 3 hours per day.
* We do 5 days a week (most bloggers do 6 or 7, especially in such a cut throat industry, but again, let’s keep it simple).
* $50 x 3 x 5 = $750 per week
* If we multiply this by a 52 week year, we have a grand total of $39,000

So in other words, we are losing $39,000 that we could/should be making from our time, and investing this $39,000 into our new blog. If we use Courtney’s two year timescale we get $78,000 of our own personal time invested into the project.

So if we do manage to hit our goal, and we do make the $35,000 blog sale after two years, then we would be at a two year loss of $43,000

However, the site was making $1400 per month (revenue, not profit), and we should include this into our calculation as well.

In fact, let’s go as far as to say that after hosting, ads, and any other expenses, we are able to raise the monthly average over a two year period to a whopping $1700 PROFIT per month. We multiply by two years = $40,800 in profit.

So,

$40,800 profit
+
$35,000 blog sale
= $75,800

Now we deduct our own investment of $78,000 and we make a LOSS of $2,200 for the two years.

This is why revenue figures of x2 and x5 years simply don’t stack up for blogs. People are using multiples from brick and mortar businesses from the 90’s and applying them to what is essentially an online diary without an author. The numbers just don’t stack up!

Unfortunately most blog owners feel the same as Courtney, and 9 times out of 10 I get given the x2 or x5 year multiples as “industry standards”, when the reality is that x10 - x12 months are a lot closer to the actual industry standards.

It was a little ironic that Courtney closed his blog post by reminding us that time is our friend, yet he forgot to include it in her argument. All entrepreneurs know that time is the single most important thing we posses, and if you are going to value your own time at zero, then you are simply not going to succeed in business.

Disclaimer: I really like Courtney, and many of the points he made were very accurate, but as long as articles and multiples of x2 and x5 are spread around the net, it will continue to make blog buying and selling a very frustrating process for all involved.

I would welcome Courtney’s feedback on this.

Post from: ]]> http://streetlessons.com/503-blog-selling-discussion.html/feed/ http://streetlessons.com/486-linkfest-weekly-links.html http://streetlessons.com/486-linkfest-weekly-links.html#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:34:20 +0000 DeanHunt http://streetlessons.com/486-linkfest-weekly-links.html Welcome to this week’s look at the fascinating world of the good old Internet. I will be showing you the links and stories that have tickled my interest recently:

The Perfect SEO CMS - Want to create the perfect content management solution for your web content? In an ideal world, your CMS should have all of the features in this list.

The Basics of SEO - We often get asked to share SEO tip, and in particular people seem to want to know the basics. This is a great post that shows the basics of SEO.

TLA Text Link Selling Latest - Carl is a good friend of ours, and we like this latest update on the sinking ship that is TLA.

Post from: ]]> http://streetlessons.com/486-linkfest-weekly-links.html/feed/