Cube Escape

Self Employment - Entrepreneur Lifestyle - Business Tips and Tricks

Pursing the Entrepreneurial Dream

A couple of years ago, I decide that my pursuit of climbing the corporate ladder was fruitless. It wasn't for me...not what I wanted. I craved freedom. I've learned a lot about becoming an entrepreneur, and I'll share what I've learned with you. Getting control of your life again isn't a pipe dream. Financial, professional, and creative freedom can be yours.

Having a Bad Day? Focus on Your Goal

We all have bad days, for any number of reasons. I was having a bad day this morning. Things were just going rough. No worries, though, because after I caught myself wallowing in my bad day, I focused on my goal and the stress just went away.

Whenever you feel stressed about your job, or your business, or even the balance of your checking account, just focus on your goal. Put an image in your head of your perfect day and focus on it. Stop what you’re doing and center yourself on that mental image. Focus on your goal — on where you’re going — and the stress will just melt away.

Bad days happen. Don’t let them ruin your day. When you catch yourself having a bad day, take a moment to center yourself and you’ll be fine.

. 08 May 08 | Business, Goals, Entrepreneur | Read on | Comments (0)

Cube Escape Episode 2: What is Your Calling?

In this episode, I discuss the concept of vocation. I wrote about this in my last post. I ask the following question:

  • What is your calling?

You get to learn about my calling, and get some practical advice for figuring out what your calling might be. Download the link, listen to it here, or head over to iTunes and subscribe.

Download MP3

 
icon for podpress  Cube Escape Episode 2: What is Your Calling? [16:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (17)

. 05 May 08 | Goals, Podcast, Show Notes | Read on | Comments (0)

Stop Reading and Start Doing

“Just one more book, and I’m ready.” Do you say that to yourself? I used to. I didn’t get tired of reading, and I still feel like I don’t have enough information or ideas. But I was ready to start.

Are you ready to start? There comes a time when you need to start. This is no time in particular, but you’re going to have to start sometime soon, so why not now? Action produces results. Reading does not. I’m not saying that reading is bad. I love to read and write, and it’s one of my favorite methods for learning new things.

What you need to do is take a look at the reading you are doing now, and the next few books you have on your must-read list. How much time is all that reading taking out of your schedule? Could you be using that time to start your business or grow an existing venture? Is reading and learning theory really the best use of your time, or are you ready to apply some of that theory to yourself?

I say it’s time for you to start. It’s time to move from theory to application. You can read and learn along the way.

. 04 May 08 | Business, Goals, Entrepreneur | Read on | Comments (0)

The Rich Jerk Reviewed

As promised, I have reviewed The Rich Jerk’s ebook and audio commentary. Get it because it’s inexpensive (cheaper than most business books, but actually capable of helping you produce results), and good. It’s not the most informative ebook I’ve ever read on internet business and marketing, but it’s not meant to be an all-inclusive how to do everything book.

The Rich Jerk states as such in the book. Basically, it’s a short, quick guide to making money online, without all the fluff. It’s short enough to read in one sitting, so, theoretically, you could download it, read it, and start implementing it’s advice all in one evening. The audio commentary (an optional upgrade) is quite beneficial. Areas of the book are explained and examples given to clear up any confusion or head off potential questions about an area of the book.

This book isn’t for everyone, and it’s not meant to be. Nor will everyone want to use all of the techniques The Rich Jerk talks about in his book. But that’s OK. Pick and choose a couple of items / techniques from the book and get started right away.

This ebook is cheap, and if you upgrade to get the audio commentary (which he may discontinue at any time), it still costs less than most new-release DVDs. So, buy a new DVD or buy a book that could change your financial outlook for years to come? Two hours of fun, or what could amount to years of constant cashflow. Which one do you think I would pick?

The bottom line is that the book is inexpensive and packed with some easy-to-implement ideas for making money online. Buy it, read it, and then do it. The worst that will happen is that you hate it and get your money back. The best that can happen…?

Click here to order.

. 18 Apr 08 | Business, Goals, Business Opportunity | Read on | Comments (0)

Check out The Rich Jerk

If for no other reason, you need to go to this site for it’s interesting approach to marketing. The “Rich Jerk” claims right at the top of the page that he’s “better than you,” a claim that made me smile.

He says that he’s going to show you how to make money, in simple, easy steps, unlike other work at home packages. I haven’t looked into his system yet, but I want to encourage you to follow the link and read the page. It’s pretty good stuff. And if he can show you how to make money, then consider it a bonus to the entertainment you’ll get from the site.

Click Here to view the page.

. 14 Apr 08 | Business, Goals, Business Opportunity | Read on | Comments (0)

I’ve been working hard, and need a rest

I haven’t written anything here for a while because I’ve been working hard on a project. Too hard, any observer would say, but it had to be done.

I’ve finished the first development milestone (which was also the biggest) of the redesign of my career education directory. All other projects went on hold until that milestone was reached. Now that I’ve reached it, I’m taking a well-earned break before doing any other work on anything else.

It’s taken me a couple of weeks of near-constant work, but I’ve managed to make some really good improvements to the site. On the back-end, I’ve made it really easy to get schools up and active. Now the directory will grow at a much faster pace than before. On the front-end I’ve made some cosmetic changes that were needed. The layout is wider so each page can handle more content with less scrolling. I’ve also introduced some better SEO practices. The pretty flash header is also gone, but that’s OK. Naturally, my current search engine rankings will get bumped a little here and there, but that’s OK, too. It seems every time you touch a site your rankings change. Of course, if you leave your site alone, the same thing will happen.

I’ve also improved the user experience. More details of each school will become known earlier in the search and browse process. This way, the user will have to read less to learn more. A handy thing for those people who prefer to read less. I also introduced some more search functionality and paved the way for a couple more to be added later.

There’s plenty more to do, and I’m tempted to just do it and get it out of the way. But…that would not be a healthy decision. I’m tired, over-worked, and need to spend some time with my kids! So I’m taking a break, and then setting a work schedule for myself that will be much more relaxing. I had to work extra-hard and really fast, and now it’s time to calm down and relax.

Go check out the new Education Finder, bookmark it, and tell all your friends about it.

. 06 Feb 08 | Business, Education, Goals | Read on | Comments (0)

2008 - The Year I Retire at 31

I’m 31 and I’m going to retire this year. Bold claim, isn’t it? Well, it’s true. But let me back up just a moment so you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. In general, the American work force is completely lame. Now, I’m not talking about any individual workers or groups of workers or anything like that. I’m talking about how we work in this country. It’s not natural, and I’ve just had enough of it. I’ve been in the workforce long enough. This year, I’m going to leave it.

I’ll be working until I die, but this year I’m leaving the “work world” behind. My business will make enough money so that I will leave the workforce forever and do what I want to do. Sure, I’ll still have to work, but to me, one can work and be retired at the same time. To me, being retired simply means you’ve left the silly American way of work behind and moved on to something wiser and more natural.

Enough of that…to my ventures! I’ve got my company set up to run its fiscal year along with the calendar year. So, with the new year comes new things. Here are some things I’ve got in store for 2008 (I’ve already begun, by the way): Music, writing, and teaching.

Chaoscube Music: An independent music shop for purchasing DRM-Free and Royalty-Free digital music, sound effects, and ring tones. The main purpose of this site is to provide royalty-free music for independent game developers and small shops. Sure, I’ll sell to the big guys, too, but my focus will be the little guys trying to turn out great games that also happen to have soundtracks. And ring tones are just added in as a bonus. Everyone likes them and they are fast and cheap.

Cynical Tutor: Web programming video training. This site will sell training videos geared to the newbie web programmer. The new programmer will purchase the videos, download them, and learn various tricks of the trade, from simple database interfacing to building fully-functioning Content Management Systems. Plenty of freebies, too.

Education Finder: This one isn’t new, but I’ll be making some improvements to it. It’s a decent site, but I’ve got to make it better. The informational and revenue potential for that site is huge, and I’m not going to let it fall shy of it’s potential.

Caleb Rogers Copywriting Services: Copywriting, ghostwriting, blogging, ad writing, web copy, and just about anything else that can be written shall be written. Well, maybe not The Great American Novel, but stuff that will help others make money will be written. The site is still in development, but look for it to go live in two to three weeks.

There are also some other ideas I’m toying around with. I’ll bring those up as they move from “toying around” to “going to do.”

. 03 Jan 08 | Information, Business, Goals, Employment, Freelance | Read on | Comments (0)

Making New Plans for the Coming Year

I’ve been quite busy lately, working, Christmas shopping, and whining about how much I need a vacation. The vacation is coming soon, but it’s only a week, which is 1/600 of the actual vacation I need.

Let’s see what that actually is, since the number 600 just popped into my head while typing. Well, that’s 11.54 years, which is a mighty fine vacation if you ask me!

I digress. I’ve got some plans for the coming year… Money-making plans. Business ventures — maybe adventures is a better choice of word. I won’t tell you all about them right now. Instead, I’ll tell you about them as I implement them. Let’s just say that my current ventures are making money, but could be making more, and I’ve got some ideas to tap into other markets as well.

Some may say that if I do too many things, nothing will be good. Whereas that might have been true in the dark ages, we have the internet now. My plans will work out something like this: Create machine, plug machine into internet, let internet do the actual work while I maintain machine. Maintaining a few machines isn’t really much work, and will add some variety to what could be an otherwise bland week. So you see, it’s not really spreading my focus out thin, so that nothing gets enough attention. It’s just creating machines that make money while I rest. Sure, I’ve got to maintain them, but that’s no big deal. I’ll keep my machine count down to a manageable level and everything will be fine.

Making money on the internet isn’t really hard, but it’s not easy either. I would say that it’s somewhere in the middle. I’ve definitely had some false starts and bad ideas, but I’m getting the hang of this now.

. 10 Dec 07 | Business, Marketing, Goals, Internet Marketing | Read on | Comments (0)

Boy, did I miss my deadline…

I had set a deadline for myself to have the first draft of my current copywriting project done by the end of this week. Well, that was officially yesterday. It’s not done. Nothing is done on it. I did absolutely no work on this project the entire week. No worries, as it’s purely academic. Real money would have meant real work would have really taken place.

I just started back on it tonight, but I didn’t do any actual work. I’ve been reading through the project specs and thinking of research possibilities. I could only come up with four sources off the top of my head, so I’ll have to do some more digging around to find more usable data.

On top of that, I really need to get a base site together for my copywriting services. I have a site, but it’s little more than a placeholder. I need to get some actual content and real information up there. I suppose that even though I’m technically still learning, I should go ahead and offer my services for the world to use. I do have some cashflow generating copy out there on the internet right now. So maybe I’m not really learning, but just learning more, and how to write more better. See what I did there?

Yeah, that’s it. I’m just furthering my training. Time to sell!

. 14 Oct 07 | Business, Marketing, Goals | Read on | Comments (0)

I’m getting farther and farther behind…

In my last post, I said that I had planned on getting my current sales letter project to at least 1st draft stage. But, here it is, Wednesday night, and I haven’t done any real concrete work on it. And…it’s getting close to quitting time for the day.

You see, I work to much. Even though I have some lofty goals, I am making myself get some rest and relaxation every day. Gotta stay healthy after all! I just looked at the clock. It’s quitting time.

I think I’ll go relax with some video games and my little one.

. 10 Oct 07 | Business, Marketing, Goals, Freelance | Read on | Comments (0)
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