You might be confused by the title of this chapter. You might be
saying: “Hey, I value my time. That’s why I am doing this whole
entrepreneurial thing.” What you probably mean however, is that you value
your leisure time, and this chapter is more about valuing the extra time
that you have when you’re not doing something that you absolutely have to
do, such as
going to the doctor or going to work, so that you can have the time
you need to be successful.
“I just don’t have time,” is the common battle cry among those who
never actually make a success of themselves in any field. You have time
during the day or evening or when you should be sleeping that you can use
to be successful. You just have to find it. 
Jealously Guard Your Time from Others
Do not let other people monopolize or even have any part of your
precious success time. If you’ve committed to working on your business
from 7AM to 8AM every single weekday, then don’t agree to run an errand
for a friend during this period. You don’t want to be a “yes man.” Your
time – at least the time that you’re spending working on your business –
is your most precious commodity, and you should jealously guard it from
others and not let anyone take you away from spending that time working on
your business.
If you’re getting into the entrepreneur business because you don’t like
to work hard, you are definitely in the wrong occupation. While there are
many entrepreneurs out who have achieved a great deal of success and
now have free time that they can spend doing what they want, they either worked
very hard to get to that point or are still working hard. In
fact, successful people can’t seem to stop working.
Even if they’re retired, there is always something that they are doing
to achieve goals or to better themselves. Is your business really
your number one priority? Are you willing to make some sacrifices to
achieve your goals? The answer to both of these questions needs to be yes
because if you don’t make your business your number one priority it will
slip further and further down on your ranking list of priorities until you
almost never work on it and you need to be willing to make sacrifices to
achieve your goals; some of the sacrifices are going to be painful. Just
like a man or woman who is going on a diet, you might have to sacrifice
the chocolate cake and Rocky Road ice cream of your life in order to
achieve success.
Price Your Products What You’re Going to Be Worth
If you are entering the marketplace with a product or service, don’t do
more than a basic, cursory examination of the going prices. Once you know
what the going prices are, consider how much you think your services are
worth, which also goes for products. Some people start their business off
on the wrong foot by lowering their prices drastically in trying to
undercut the competition. This is a bad idea for many reasons.
First, you’re not going to be able to out price the biggest retailers
out there like Amazon, Konga and Walmart. Second, people are more apt to
buy something that costs what they think is a fair price than something
dirt cheap. Cheap stuff isn’t good and good stuff isn’t cheap, as the
saying goes. Have you ever wondered how some people charge what seems
like exorbitant prices for the same services that you’re providing? It’s
like the story about the fruit merchant who met another fruit merchant on
the road.
The second merchant asked the first how much he charged for apples
and the man replied that he sold them two-for-a-dollar. The second
merchant was aghast, and asked him how he could get people to pay
two-for-a-dollar for his apples when everyone else was charging
two-for-a-quarter. The man replied that he didn’t know what everyone else
was charging, he just charged with he thought they were worth. If you
think you’re worth a certain amount, then charge that amount. You’d be
surprised how willing people are to pay a competitive price if you’re
confident and good at what you do.
Manage Your Time Effectively
If you want to be successful, you’re going to have to start managing
your time differently than you have in the past. In the past, you may have
flirted with the idea of starting an online business but spent most of the
time looking around, seeing what other people have done and watching
videos on YouTube – business-related or not. From now on, you have to be
more serious. You’re going to have to start devising a schedule and
sticking to it religiously.
Make sure that you set aside enough time during the day to actually
make a significant amount of progress with your business. If you have
allotted 15 minutes per day to grow your e-commerce website, you’re going
to grow at a very, very slow rate We live in a distraction filled society.
When you get on the Internet there are 4 billion things vying for your
attention. Someone just got on Facebook that you’ve been wanting to talk
to; there is a tweet from your favorite celebrity that you really want to
read; there’s a video on YouTube that literally everyone is watching. If
this is how your Internet experience usually is and you are starting an
online company you’re going to want to take active steps to remove the
distractions.
What used to be effective was a tool called Freedom which allowed you
to irrevocably and completely block the Internet for a period of time.
However, now that we have mobile devices at our disposal and multiple
methods for accessing the web, you’re just going to have to exercise some
good, old-fashioned self-control, buckle down and get done what you need
to do make your business successful.
