“Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless.”
~Mary Kay Ash

What separates the people who actually get out there and transform their ideas into profitable Internet businesses from those who don’t?

The answer is simple: “sloppy success.”

When I first started out in Internet marketing years ago, I landed what I can still say was one of my favorite jobs of all time – interviewing six-figure Internet entrepreneurs for a popular online magazine called “The Secrets to Their Success.”

What made this job an epicly awesome experience for me was that I got the change to chat with people who were doing precisely what I dreamed of doing…

The people I got to interview were mostly “homepreneurs” – one or two person operations selling everything from ebooks to handmade soaps to gadgets, jewelry and almost anything else you can think of online.

Their offices were often their kitchen tables, spare bedrooms or garages.

And they were banking the equivalent of a full-time executive salary working just a few hours per day.

My job was to interview these entrepreneurs, find out how they got started and some of the main strategies they were using to bank $100,000+ per year online.

What was it that lit the fire under their butts to start their own Internet businesses? How did they laser in on their winning business ideas? How did they establish their online following? Who was their target market? And what were the secrets they were using to drive swarms of visitors to their websites?

I’d ask them these types of things, then I’d write up their answers into an article for our 50,000 paid newsletter subscribers.

What I learned from talking to these people completely shattered a lot of the preconceptions (more like misconceptions) I had about what it takes to be a successful Internet entrepreneur.

One of the things that struck me almost immediately was that these entrepreneurs weren’t sophisticated marketers at all. Far from it.

Most of the people I interviewed had never completed high school or gone to college. Some of the products they sold were really bizarre (bacon flavoured salt, anyone?). And most of their crazy profitable websites were far from professional-looking. Some of them were downright ugly!

But despite all of this, these people were enjoying the kind of income and lifestyle freedom that I’d always wanted, and it was my job to find out exactly how they were doing it.

Up until then, I’d been a walking evangelist of one of the most widely circulated success myths on the planet: “If you don’t plan to succeed, you plan to fail.”

In other words, you need a detailed business plan and step-by-step marketing strategy FIRST before you can build a solid business.

Makes sense, right?

But then, staring me right in the face were these homepreneurs who were flying by the seat of their pants, selling gadgets and knick knacks online on simple slapped-together websites that were BANKING big time.

And here’s the clincher: Most of them didn’t even know how they were doing it.

In response to questions like, “What are the exact strategies you are using to drive 120,000 people to your website each month?” Or “What steps did you take to double your sales inside of just three months?”…

9 times out of 10 I got an answer that went something like this:

“Hmmm…. that’s a great question. I’m not exactly sure.”

What? How is it that you can be that successful without really knowing how you are doing it or having a plan in place that took you there?

For a chronic list maker and planner like me, it just didn’t compute.

I thought of all of the super intelligent would-be entrepreneurs and marketing whizzes I knew who had the most incredible business ideas paired with clearly articulated business plans and marketing strategies. People who it seems had the blueprint to success laid out like a fool-proof trail of breadcrumbs, but who were struggling to get up and running, let alone generate revenue.

I began to realize what separated them from the homepreneurs who were actually out there seeing the results (i.e. serious income AND serious time freedom) – and it’s a phenomenon I call “sloppy success.”

Many would-be entrepreneurs pour all of their energy into creating step-by-step business and marketing plans that they want to tweak to perfection before taking any actual action in their business.

Often, planning and goal setting feels like action in and of itself, but the truth is they aren’t. Creative geniuses, marketing mavens and other “ideas” people often fall prey to this temptation.

Others, like the homepreneurs I interviewed, opt for a less sophisticated but highly effective method.

Instead of overthinking and indulging in relentless planning, goal setting, and strategizing, they simply identify the next action to take and then take it.

What they end up with is a business, website or marketing campaign that isn’t exactly perfect, but hey – it’s up and running. Then they course correct after the fact if necessary, and use the forward momentum they gained from taking that first action to propel them on to the next.

And you know what? Speaking to you as someone who switched over to this method, I can tell you that it WORKS.

So the next time you feel stopped in your business venture, I invite you to consider this:

Are you letting overthinking or excessive planning to hold you back from just taking the next action? Try on for size that it may be time to ACT NOW, and correct course later if you have to. Your future is waiting for you…

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