MaryEllen Tribby: Are You Being Duped by These 3 Pervasive Business Lies? (Part I)

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“I was so inspired by your presentation! Now I finally understand what I need to do to start my own business,” Cynthia said.

This was just one of many comments I heard after delivering my presentation at the Glazer/Kennedy Info Summit a while back.

My presentation was called “Perception vs. Reality: Year One in Business.” My goal was to share with the audience the reality of starting (and running) your own information publishing business while eliminating the pervasive business lies that set fledgling entrepreneurs off on the wrong track… and even put their success in jeopardy.

Let’s start with the biggest falsehood of all.

Critical Business Lie #1: You can make millions instantly.

Have you ever heard the following?

“I just made $5 million this week on my killer launch. So now I am going to hop in my Lamborghini, drive down to the pier, board my yacht, cruise down to the Island, and bury my money.”
~ Infamous Internet Marketer

This is not real life or real business. This example, unfortunately, is from one Internet Marketer who took his results from the first 10 minutes of a launch and extrapolated them over 12 months. Most of these numbers are exaggerated in order to get inexperienced entrepreneurs excited… and ready to spend money.

In fact, most of these numbers are distorted… or they’re straight-out untruths. This is simply irresponsible behavior.

I call this IMM or Internet Marketer Math.

Reality #1: You can NOT run your business with IMM. You must run your business with real math. Real dollars in the door minus expenses/items like:

• Refunds
• Affiliate payouts
• Copywriting advances and royalties
• Product hard costs
• Content development
• Employees’ salaries
• Health benefits
• Travel expenses
• Consulting fees
• Office rent and utilities
• Etc.

Bottom line: You do not put IMM in the bank. You do not even put gross revenue in the bank. You put profits in the bank and invest them back into your business. And when planning and launching your business, this is more important than ever.

The Planning Stage of Business

Critical Business Lie #2: Planning a business begins the second you decide to start a business.

Most of the entrepreneurs I know didn’t get their start in Internet marketing. I sure didn’t! But if you think that the planning stage begins with simply waking up one day and saying, “Well, I guess I’ll start a business today!”… you’re dead wrong.

Check back next week for Business Reality #2 and the third business lie.