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Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up

One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.

However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.

Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.

But why?

In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!

So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)

The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.

Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.

Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.

By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.

You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.

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Property Managment Vs Asset Management

One of the biggest mistakes I see apartment and commercial real estate investors make is leaving their investment property in complete control of their property manager. Even the best property management companies will not look at things like the owner.

I have seen this literally cost investors thousands of dollars in lost cash flow and property value, so it is definitely a mistake you want to avoid.

In this article I want to discuss the importance of being an Asset Manager, rather than a Property Manager. First, let’s define these two terms:

Asset Manager
Focus is on maximizing return and property value for the investor(s).

Property Manager
Focus is on day-to-day management activities for a property.

“Think Like a CEO…”
If you want to maximize your returns as an investor, you must think like a CEO, and not a property manager. Your focus should be continually on how to maximize the return from a property and increase value.

I see a lot of investors that lose track of this, and leave things up to their property manager, thinking that is their job. It is not.

Here are the things you should be focused on as an Asset Manager:

1) Increasing Income
2) Reducing Expenses
3) Improving Property Value
4) In short, maximizing returns and property value.

Continually ask yourself questions, such as:

- How can we increase rents? Are all of our rents at market levels? Can we charge higher rent for preferred units, such as near a pool?
- Can we reduce our property taxes by protesting the assessed value? Can we reduce our insurance expense by changing companies? How can we reduce every single line item expense – even by a small percentage?
- How can we increase the value of the property? What improvements would maximize value?

None of these activities should be done at the cost of deferring maintenance or reducing the property value over time. As the CEO of your investment you need to see the big picture – whether it is a duplex or several hundred units.

Your property manager, on the other hand should focus on the day-to-day property operations to keep things running smoothly, such as:

1) Property Maintenance
2) Marketing and Rental of Units
3) Collecting Rents and Paying Bills
4) Enforcing Property Rules and Procedures

Good property managers will also perform activities that could be considered asset management, such as performing regular checks to verify market rents are maximized, testing marketing results, and finding ways to reduce expenses.

However, I would caution against leaving everything up to your property manager, because ultimately, it is your responsibility to increase your returns and property value.

How to Find a Home Based Business That Works – Beware – 4 Critical Things to Watch Out For

Thousands of people every day go looking for a home based business that works and can free them financially from their pay check to pay check lifestyle. The unfortunate truth is that thousands of those thousands get burned. They sink their money into something that sounded great, but turns out to be something different. Or they were promised great support, and there ended up being none. How could this happen? Is it even possible to find a home based business that works anymore? Thankfully, the answer is yes. It’s very possible – provided you know that to look for. This article is designed to help the reader understand some critical things to watch out for if a person is looking to find a home based business that works. Learn to side step these hurdles and you can find the financial freedom you deserve.

Beware – Big Money Promises – the growth of this industry has led people to make more and more outrageous promises about the amount of money that can be earned. Yes, you can find a home based business that works, and can pay you extremely well. But we hear more and more stories of people who made hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars in 24-48 hours (I personally know people who have done this). Naturally, we get excited by the thought. Wow, imagine! But the truth is that these people have spent several years building a list of hundreds of thousands of people in their industry, and then made a single offering that brought them that pay day. Overnight successes they are not. Creating a great income is certainly possible, but beware of grossly inflated numbers.
Beware – Get Rich Quick Promises – Again, some internet marketers are advertising $1,000′s in your first week, and quick and easy pay days. But let’s be realistic here. Yes, the potential of the internet is amazing. But this is still a business. If you’re serious about creating a home based business that works and is sustainable, it will likely take more than a week to begin earning thousands of dollars a day. Again, the income potential is virtually limitless, which is one of the motivating factors behind finding a home based business that works. The determining factors will always be your drive, passion, and the actions you take. But having realistic expectations will help keep you from getting disappointed and discouraged.
Beware – Compensation Plans That Create the Illusion of Support – Many companies use compensation plans that give the illusion of support. They have your sponsor help you with your first two sales (for which they collect the entire commission) and then leave you to fend for yourself, since they will no longer benefit from your being successful. This provides the illusion of support early on, but doesn’t create a dynamic team atmosphere, where new member and sponsor are mutually interested in your success. The best companies have compensation plans that create win-win, mutually profitable scenarios that help new people create quick and lasting success.
Beware – Alarm Bells in Your Gut – Above all else, when you’re trying to find a home based business that works for you, you have to trust your intuition. If something just doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t. Go with your gut.
Now it’s up to you. In your quest to find a home based business that works for you, will you be taken by slick sales people and their lofty promises? Or will you connect to something legitimate (probably also with amazing potential, but they don’t need to blow it out of proportion), a real home based business that works. Creating time and financial freedom for you and your family is more possible than most people realize. Be aware of these 4 critical factors to find a home based business that works for you. You deserve to be free.

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