How much easier can it get?
// In my last newsletter, I wrote about how you need to put in a fair amount of hard work before your online business becomes successful – there is no such thing as an ‘overnight success’. Despite this, setting up and running an Internet business is a hundred times easier today than it was, say, five years ago. There are just so many more services and products available to assist you and I got to wondering how much easier things could really get? This week, the UK Post Office has announced a new free service which allows people to buy their stamps online. You simply pay for the stamps you require with a credit/debit card and then print off a label to stick on your envelope. I haven’t used the service yet but as far as I can tell, the label even includes the address to which the letter is going so you don’t even need to write it out (or print off a second label)! A similar service has been in operation in the US for some time but this is fairly new technology in the UK. Just think how much time this new service could potentially save the
How much effort do you actually think you need to put in?
// Before the Internet came along, if you wanted to set up your own business it took a lot of money and an unbelievable amount of hard work. You would have to give up nearly everything and live hand-to-mouth for months and work every single waking hour. You would never get a day off and eventually if luck was on your side, you would end up with a thriving business which generated a nice healthy income for you and your family. You would still have to work most days (if not all) and when your normal working day was complete, there would always be paperwork to do in the evening. If you were fortunate enough to be able to go on holiday you would still have to ‘check in with the office’ – however good your staff were, you couldn’t possibly leave them on their own for more than a day or two without making sure everything was ok. Of course, you could close the business down while you were away but this would mean that you would be losing money everyday that you were lying by the pool (which might take the edge off the enjoyment slightly). (I could
