@Dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
Exactly - getting people to use something new is challenging at best, impossible at worst.
My mom only calls, texting would blow her mind (and make my phone explode, so I'll never teach her).
I had the opposite. If she called I would be stuck for 45 minutes and my ear would have 1st degree burns.
She learned how to text and then I can casually deal with her over time. The only problem, she texted small books and autocorrect ruined everything.
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
LOL fine print - do you read every bit of fine print you ever come across for things you buy use? I don't, I seriously doubt your customer will either - but if they find out later that you got a kick back - come on, let's stop calling it affiliate money and call it what it is.. it's kick back money. .that's exactly how the vendor thinks of it.. it's a kick back for you leading someone to buying their product. thinking of it as a kickback might also make it easier to understand why a PAID consultant shouldn't be getting kick backs on products they are recommending, it taints your recommendation, at least from the outside.
You are applying false motive here. It's assuming that the only reason I pick a product is BECAUSE I get kickback. This is simply false motive.
I pick a product because it's a good solution. THEN I accept the kickback because it's there for the taking.
Cart before the horse.
Since motives are nearly impossible beasts to reveal, I can agree if you want to hire a contractor for purely unbiased, objective recommendations, by all means avoid affiliates and make sure the person you hire won't be implementing. If such pure objective work is so important. If so, enjoy paying your $200/hr fee to basically end up with recommendations for Dell and Microsoft anyway.
In the small-fry world I traffic in, almost nobody wants this. They call me for the actual solution, the implementation, the fix. They call with a budget of $5 dollars and cry when it goes higher. They don't ask for pure, objective, bias-free "recommendations" that they want to bring somewhere else. Especially since "consultants" charge the most, $150/hr, $200/hr and yet don't actually do any work to solve problems, they just recommend things.
People who contact me, they aren't thinking at this level, they just want it done, fast, cheap, now.
Like others, email is my "check it sometimes" medium. Text is sort of more-immediate-but-annoying-sometimes.
I personally am digging Telegram. You sign up via phone number which texts you an MMS which then registers your account.
At that point you can create a channel, add people, invite people, create ad-hoc groups, search conversations. You get all the MMS abilities, emoji, inline images, videos, you can record quick audio notes, snap pictures. It reports when the message has been read, you can adjust notifications, etc etc.
There is the web app as well as desktop apps so I have it wherever I am. Messages are encrypted and secure, no prying eyes.
The problem is that Telegram is a 3rd party service, and I have to fight people to get them to sign up and try it because they are so bent on their built-in phone texting.
Rather than describe how things "should be" I'll just describe how they ARE.
Almost nobody texts me, and those who do I will only describe as less computer-literate. Texting is probably the easiest thing for them to figure out how to do on a smart phone. Email might be 100 fold more difficult for them to master.
My most frequent contacts I've got on Telegram now, which I use 90% of the time from the Windows app.
I have like 6 email accounts so I don't use notifications. I check it when I check it. I get almost no personal messages. I get either work stuff, client stuff, marketing, or newsletters and other info. Sometimes family members will send a group message or something but email is barely personal in my world.
If I had my way, Telegram probably beats out email. This mainly due to the way email still sucks at group conversations. There is a lot of "email etiquette" people need to learn to make email effective. You give Bob from church your email and suddenly he's forwarding every political activist meme he's ever seen to you. You give your email to Sally and now you're suddenly on some city-wide MLM group sales newsletter which is impossible to ever escape from.
These things don't seem to happen with texting because there is something about texting that is less, shall we say "automated". You don't get text "newsletters" and spam doesn't seem to be a huge issue. You don't typically "forward" texts so a lot of email etiquette issues are resolved.
I don't see email replacing what texting does, but neither text nor email do very well with group conversations either, which is where the next network comes into play. Most everybody else who isn't my core Telegram group or email connect, does their thing on Facebook. Ad-hoc "group" conversations start there when family posts something. And the odd message comes in too.
I don't know what is the ideal system to use. We kind of have to use whatever everybody else uses who we want to stay connected with.
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said
and Scott has said that this is what NTG struggles with all the time. A huge difference there is that they have consultant, Scott, and they implementors, Gene, etc. Keeping these roles separate enables the consult to remain a bit more unbiased as long as he doesn't know who or what is an affiliate with the company.
But that is ridiculous from the sales side. (If there IS a sales side.) If you were running the sales department, and 4 out of 5 recommendation is from Company ABC, why wouldn't you want to become a reseller?
For that matter, why not get kickbacks from every possible vendor possible?
If sales is completely removed from the consulting process and recommendations, why shouldn't the implementers who are told "do this stuff" use all the kickbacks they can get? Now that the bias part is removed?
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said
Then do the even better thing - tell that customer - hey as an FYI, if you buy this chevy, chevy is sending me $20 - just an FYI. Why don't you want to do that?
Because then the client would want that.
Is the argument here just to charge more up front for consulting, and ditch the reseller fees?
If you need that money, then yes! and see - we are right back to what motivates you? Money does, because you want that $20 bucks.
No, the $20 is simply FREE for the taking, so why pass it up?
The only reason to pass it up is for some sense of objective purity only or to appear from the outside as completely unbiased.
How many of us when presented with "buy one get one free!" refuse to take the second because we don't want to think the freebe altered our decision? I mean, free is free, it's just there.
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
Probably the best idea really. But then again, if they can also hire me to implement, and one of my recommended solutions happens to be affiliate
and Scott has said that this is what NTG struggles with all the time. A huge difference there is that they have consultant, Scott, and they implementors, Gene, etc. Keeping these roles separate enables the consult to remain a bit more unbiased as long as he doesn't know who or what is an affiliate with the company.
So Gene can use all the affiliates he wants from the list?
Are we saying that people who DO the work and have to buy the solutions can do this but it's only the consultants we have to worry about?
I have another direction to go here. Since we all pretty much have stated that full disclosure to the client makes it all ok. As long as they know you might use "partners" or earn commissions, it's cool.
I'm wondering how does this conversation even happen? Where is this information disclosed? How is it stated and yet still appease doubts about bias? Is it from the first minute?
Client: "Hi, I need some consulting, do you do that?"
Me: "Yes, I can help you out, but be aware I might make a finders fee on solutions I recommend, should you use me to implement them."
This seems quite....intense.
Or throw it in some fine print at the bottom of an agreement on an estimate or something?
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
Considering almost the entire "free" internet works off the affiliate/ad model, people are more and more getting used to the idea that "if I give you this link, it's probably an affiliate". Everybody trying to make money online is hooked up to Amazon, Clickbank, Ratuken, et al.
Absolutely, but I also know you're not non bias.
I think this is your belief only. Not absolute. But justified.
Nope, not corrupt - you are just a VAR. Remember a VAR is a Value Added Reseller... the value you bring in this case is that you offer installation/setup services as well. that's what makes you different from a pure reseller.
But I don't see myself as the "reseller" part. I don't resell, I just throw out a link and tell them this is my partner link, if you want to give an extra tip. No pressure.
I think of "reselling" as like white-label products, buying products "for" the customer and them buying back through me on the invoice for product line items.
I think of my brother as a reseller, he's an electrician. He extimates the job + labor + materials. He buys all the materials and charges for them at the end, I don't know if he adds markup or not, but he should!
I don't do that, it's just a link. And it's not necessary. They don't "have" to click a link to use my services or recommendations. Nor do they have obligations to.
Can you list consulting as a list of items on your website - sure... just remember when you do a consulting job, you should not include any affiliate links to anything... as they say, only the facts and just the facts ma'am.
Probably the best idea really. But then again, if they can also hire me to implement, and one of my recommended solutions happens to be affiliate 
@IRJ said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
They have zero say in the final analysis. I don't send them the estimates and invoices, they don't send me anything. If their product happens to be the right solution, then a bonus is there.
Here's a question - Why do you deserve the bonus? You did a job, you were paid for that job - consulting fee. Why do you deserve a bonus for doing that job? Why doesn't the client deserve a discount instead?
Excellent question.
In previous jobs for some residential clients or non-profits I literally gave them extra discount for using the affiliates.
Don't misunderstand me, I literally have 3 affiliates to my name. Amazon, InMotion, and I think VULTR. I signed up BECAUSE I love them, not because of wanting the most kickbacks. I only think of it as free money. But obviously this raises a lot of ethical questions for people.
Again, this isn't about you - this is more - would some stranger think you're taking advantage of them... if they paid you $50 for an opinion, and if they buy a product on your opinion list you get affiliate kickback money - will they be OK with that? it's about what the other guy thinks.. not what you think.
Hell I think the "for Dummy's" series is a horrible name the first time I saw those I thought it would tank.. what the hell do I know? Look around today, there are dozens of 'for Dummy's' books, clearly other people thought the name was catchy, and it worked.
If somebody says my service is $250, but if you buy from Amazon, I will only charge $235 sounds really sketchy to me.
Haha yeah, but surprisingly, not for some people whose eyes glaze over at the thought of saving $15 bucks. Especially a non-profit. They still use Win XP on computers taken from Good Will.
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
They have zero say in the final analysis. I don't send them the estimates and invoices, they don't send me anything. If their product happens to be the right solution, then a bonus is there.
Here's a question - Why do you deserve the bonus? You did a job, you were paid for that job - consulting fee. Why do you deserve a bonus for doing that job? Why doesn't the client deserve a discount instead?
Excellent question.
In previous jobs for some residential clients or non-profits I literally gave them extra discount for using the affiliates.
Don't misunderstand me, I literally have 3 affiliates to my name. Amazon, InMotion, and I think VULTR. I signed up BECAUSE I love them, not because of wanting the most kickbacks. I only think of it as free money. But obviously this raises a lot of ethical questions for people.
Again, this isn't about you - this is more - would some stranger think you're taking advantage of them... if they paid you $50 for an opinion, and if they buy a product on your opinion list you get affiliate kickback money - will they be OK with that? it's about what the other guy thinks.. not what you think.
Hell I think the "for Dummy's" series is a horrible name the first time I saw those I thought it would tank.. what the hell do I know? Look around today, there are dozens of 'for Dummy's' books, clearly other people thought the name was catchy, and it worked.
Considering almost the entire "free" internet works off the affiliate/ad model, people are more and more getting used to the idea that "if I give you this link, it's probably an affiliate". Everybody trying to make money online is hooked up to Amazon, Clickbank, Ratuken, et al.
Some people hold the absolute idea that affiliate means bias and scam. Advice cannot be pure, it cannot be unbiased or objective.
Some people have moved on and just find it part of normal life. Most people actually provide their advice and knowledge for free, so using affiliates for everything is their only form of payment.
So is the horse before the cart? Or not? Are people corrupt and unavoidably biased when they use affiliates, or can be be pure and objective but still use the affiliate as a means of extra payment or bonus?
It is correct, we don't know each other, you don't really "know" the consultant you just hired. So do you ask them before any work is done, "if you are on commissions or use affiliates, I can't work with you?"
It's the same thing, you don't know them, so find out. Or DON'T find out, and put blind trust that they are objective.
Scott suggested that there is a legal issue involved. If a client "finds out" they had purchased something which came from the consultant and happened to be affiliate, what law is being broken? The consultant didn't reveal it, but the client didn't ask.
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
They have zero say in the final analysis. I don't send them the estimates and invoices, they don't send me anything. If their product happens to be the right solution, then a bonus is there.
Here's a question - Why do you deserve the bonus? You did a job, you were paid for that job - consulting fee. Why do you deserve a bonus for doing that job? Why doesn't the client deserve a discount instead?
Excellent question.
In previous jobs for some residential clients or non-profits I literally gave them extra discount for using the affiliates.
Don't misunderstand me, I literally have 3 affiliates to my name. Amazon, InMotion, and I think VULTR. I signed up BECAUSE I love them, not because of wanting the most kickbacks. I only think of it as free money. But obviously this raises a lot of ethical questions for people.
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
It's a car salesmen JOB to earn commission, it's their bread and butter, it's what they DO.
Exactly, just like you. They are Chevy affiliates. They don't "have" to sell a car, but they only get paid when they do.
Wrong. It's NOT my "job" to sell affiliate things. It's my job to do what a client wants. Period.
If you cannot get past this concept, we're done. Affiliates links don't make me beholden to a company in the least, not whatsoever. Why in the living hell would I bend over backwards for the $20 affiliate and screw over the $500 from the client by giving them twisted advice?
My only goal is do good for the client. I want their business, I want their repeat business, I want their recommendations and word of mouth, I want their good testimonial, and I want my solutions to work over and above their expectations.Then do the even better thing - tell that customer - hey as an FYI, if you buy this chevy, chevy is sending me $20 - just an FYI. Why don't you want to do that?
You assume I don't?
I'm fighting the idea that BECAUSE Chevy has a $20 kickback, I'm therefore utterly blinded by, controlled by and mindlessly obsessed with promoting, pushing their vehicles ONLY above everything else. Chasing pennies, in other words. And further that I should literally change my entire business model to be the "Chevy VAR" company who comes to your business to push only Chevys.
It's fine if you want to have that view of human nature, I'm just saying it's not me.
@IRJ said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
AH!! This summarizes the entire objection. You guys think the use of affiliates means a person is "chasing", perhaps obsessively, for pennies to screw over clients where the actual money is.
I've been fighting this whole time against this idea. The affiliate thing changes NOTHING. I and probably no one else whose though about this have any intention of screwing their clients and their "pounds$$" over pennies.
Your assumption is that this is exactly what we do. I don't know what else to say. The pennies are literally bonus money on the sidewalk. Just bend over. It's really not hard.
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
It's a car salesmen JOB to earn commission, it's their bread and butter, it's what they DO.
Exactly, just like you. They are Chevy affiliates. They don't "have" to sell a car, but they only get paid when they do.
Wrong. It's NOT my "job" to sell affiliate things. It's my job to do what a client wants. Period.
If you cannot get past this concept, we're done. Affiliates links don't make me beholden to a company in the least, not whatsoever. Why in the living hell would I bend over backwards for the $20 affiliate and screw over the $500 from the client by giving them twisted advice?
My only goal is do good for the client. I want their business, I want their repeat business, I want their recommendations and word of mouth, I want their good testimonial, and I want my solutions to work over and above their expectations.
I don't give a two-bit rats behind what an affiliate thinks about anything. So no, I don't work for them.
You keep suggesting that "making money" from a client is the exact same thing as "making money from affiliate" and therefore I have to be working for two people. Wrong again. Affiliates don't direct me, hire me, tell me what they want, have budget restrictions, goals about what it means for the job to be completed correctly. I don't consult them when someone hires me, I don't go download brochures about how best to up-sell them, they don't hold my hand in trying to convince customers to buy their stuff. They literally have zero to do with anything in my client relations.
They have zero say in the final analysis. I don't send them the estimates and invoices, they don't send me anything. If their product happens to be the right solution, then a bonus is there.
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
I think that you answered the issue yourself, if you really step back and look at the thread. I had asked if you felt that your customers would feel that you acted unethically towards them if they found out. Do you feel that you can treat it as ethical in a case where you are hiding something that your customers would find (you think) is a breach of ethics if they had known the business model ahead of time?
Bottom line, that means that you are not providing to them what they think that they are paying you to do. I think that that is where the question of ethics ends. If you tell them up front, we know it is ethical. If you don't tell them up front, I think everyone involved from the customer to you knows, deep down, that it is not ethical. Not like murderous unethical, but not clear conscious ethical, for sure.
This conversation is partially about ethics but it's also about business models. Having an affiliate link to one product does NOT necessarily turn my entire business into the "THAT THING VAR COMPANY" where I go around trying to force everybody to use that product only because that tiny payout is just so alluring I can't help myself.
As mentioned earlier, people like me who are generalists kind of have to do everything. So for sure I don't call myself purely a consultant, nor purely a VAR. The very word "solutions" is in my company name in face. But AS a generalist, I do offer "consulting" as a line-item offering. Perhaps you would argue this is impossible??
What if, in the event I am hired as a consultant, I simply go into it with no thought of affiliates? In other words don't use them, if it's pure consulting they want? My suggestions can't be biased if I know there won't be bonuses.
One thing I never thought to call myself is a reseller or VAR. In fact I don't think "resell" is the same as affiliate at all. I used to work for an IT shop who did reselling, they just quoted people products from Newegg with a 20% markup, kind of pathetic really.
If I truly wanted to be a VAR I would go all-in with any number of vendors with their maximum payout programs as well as become an expert on their stuff.
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv do you have some reason why you want to call yourself a consultant instead of a VAR?
That's the right idea. This is where I think we are all confused. No one is saying what you want to do is bad, only that it makes you a VAR. What's wrong with using the accepted correct term and calling it a day?
Because to me it sounds like telling the landscaper that he must now be called a plumber because he fixes dryer vent caps.
It's the assumption that something trivial like Amazon links changes one's entire business model and reason to exist from "helping the customer find the best solution" to "making the most money from my affiliates as possible and up-selling everything".
That isn't just a semantic, it's changing the entire business model.
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv do you have some reason why you want to call yourself a consultant instead of a VAR? If not, just call yourself a VAR, and collect those affiliate fees all day long.
If a landscapper creates wonderful landscapes all day every day but deep down in their list of services they also replace clothes dryer vent caps, should people on the Internet tell him he should just call himself a plumber and be done with it? Install dryer caps all day? Just don't call yourself a landscaper because you do that one dryer vent thing, you're actually a plumber.
If your real goal is to be a solution provider, you're not really a consultant at all - you're a solution provider. Because from the sound of this thread, you're desire isn't to just consult and make recommendations, instead it's to make recommendations then implement them - that is what sounds like your non stated goal is.
This is what most mom-n-pop operations do, yes. First consult/recommend/estimate, then implement. If it's beyond my abilities, they hire elsewhere. Structured wiring, phones, etc.
Why I'm hesitant about the VAR definition is because it seems to suggest rather absolutely that I'm completely in bed with simple affiliates. Like they own me. Like whoa there, you have an Amazon link, you're totally a VAR, you can't possibly consult any more, you're mind is warped, your business is twisted, you will only ever push products on Amazon, in fact you have an obligation and responsibility to! Your entire business is now "Amazon VAR"!!!
I reject that kind of definition of VAR that says I MUST be utterly controlled by and biased toward anything I happen to have an affiliate with. And should anyone want to hire me, they should just assume I won't be objective and will simply do the car-salesmen routine to up-sell them to my highest paying affiliates.
These sorts of things are offensive to my work ethic. I can have an affiliate link at Amazon for recommending the odd $80 inkjet or whatever. The $1.18 I might make has little influence over me, and I wouldn't want to be called an "Amazon VAR" as if that is what I'm all about and ONLY about and my entire business and income depends on dollars and pennies from Amazon.
Scott's argument is, why have it at all then? My response is that I think of the $1.18 as free money. I'm sending the Amazon link anyway, $1.18 almost buys a coffee at the corner store.
On the other hand, he's right that if I wanted a pure-as-snow consulting-only business, I'd just drop all that. But in a small town as a mom-n-pop, generalist, I have to consult and implement. Send the bid, estimate, and do the thing. Most people don't care about specifics, they want their problem solved as cheaply as possible and they want you to do it.
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
Please define your job and your responsibilities for us. With this new company of course.
I work full time for a retail/manufacturing/ecommerce business.
My side business is general IT. However I do list "consulting" as a line item. For example:
I see consulting as something a business "can do" as a service. Not as something the business "is" in its entirety. Hense, general IT services.
You kind of have to be a generalist if you want to find any work in a small town. I can't be that one specialist guy who only does consulting and only consulting about edge routing. I'd never get a job.
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv do you have some reason why you want to call yourself a consultant instead of a VAR? If not, just call yourself a VAR, and collect those affiliate fees all day long.
If a landscapper creates wonderful landscapes all day every day but deep down in their list of services they also replace clothes dryer vent caps, should people on the Internet tell him he should just call himself a plumber and be done with it? Install dryer caps all day? Just don't call yourself a landscaper because you do that one dryer vent thing, you're actually a plumber.
Got a question for you - you go to a car dealership looking for a mode of transportation to get you from your home to work and back daily. Assuming the normal city life a smallish sized sedan should probably suit you just fine. Do you think the sales person wants to sell you the lowest profit vehicle on the lot? Of course not. They will steer you towards the most expensive (think of all of those little ol' ladies in Cadillacs). As a VAR you should be doing the same thing. If you aren't then you aren't doing the best thing for your company. This is not considered unethical - why not you ask, because you as a customer are not doing your part to make sure you only get the car you need, while the sales person is doing his job, making the most amount of money from a sale as possible (that's his contract spoken or not with his company).
So are you mad at the sales person for trying to sell you an expensive car?
Because it's NOT "my job" to sell the item I have an affiliate with. I DON'T "work for" that company. I have ZERO responsibility to push their product whatsoever. And my primary business income is NOT commission sales and so I don't have to exert any effort at all to get those sales.
It's a car salesmen JOB to earn commission, it's their bread and butter, it's what they DO. If I get an Amazon affiliate, it does not magically become my "job" to work for Amazon, upsell people, and do everything for the commission. This is not just an argument of semantics, it's changing the ENTIRE business plan and reason for existing.
An affiliate link doesn't change my entire reason to exist.
Well, I rejected the "two masters" idea based on obligations. A person is my "master" when they have the power to tell me what to do or I somehow give myself to serving them.
One of the other people in here (don't want to scroll back up) had said that a VAR has a "responsibility" to the vendor to push their stuff for those commissions.
I say, simply being an affiliate does not create responsibility at all. I'm not obliged, obligated, required, responsible; there are no quotas, requirements, contracts to stay in the program. Therefore I actually have ZERO responsibility to the vendor whatsoever. Heck I don't even have to sell/recommend their product even once, ever. Therefore I have a hard time describing them as a "master" when they have zero control over me and how I run my business.
Once again, the only thing on the table is a potential for a bonus should I happen to choose them in a scenario. This then begs the question, how much does the bonus have to be to create a real dilemma of bias?
I reject some of the "absolute" terms and definitions used. I reject the idea that having just one affiliate in my entire toolbox makes me some kind of complete sellout, serving a new master, corrupt and biased, unable to be objective, unwilling to ever research alternative solutions, and thrown out entirely from the consulting space.
Yes, words have meaning, definitions are important, but only a Sith deals in absolutes.
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
Who gets the money?
The business of course
Seems odd that anyone else would even be in the running in a real business. Of course, Scott tells us that most small businesses aren't really real - I can't recall if he calls them more hobbies or not though
I generally use the term hobby. I've had people call their own businesses hobbies, actually. When @Minion-Queen and I used to do door to door sales, we actually found tons and tons of true hobby businesses (not just me calling them that.) An extremely common business that you don't think about, but that makes up one of the larger percentage groups of American businesses, is a bored housewife running a "business" that her husband pays for and is never intended to make money but is used as a tax shelter and hobby. So, example, a knick knack store in an old house by the side of the highway. They buy the house or rent it for next to nothing, do the work themselves to decorate it and fill it with, um.. junk, and she sells that all day. Almost no one comes in to buy anything, it's all her friends coming in to drink coffee and hang out. Once in a while someone actually buys something, but never enough to cover 10% of the rent and she makes zero salary as there is no money for that. It's just something to keep her busy or to make it sound good when she says that she runs a business.
That's an extreme, but super common, example. But lots and lots of SMBs are shades of gray with this. Maybe it is a full time business with an employee or two, but it is still just a joke business "for fun" and no one is intentionally running it to make money and very often, they don't. When the owner gets bored, they can't sell it as it is worth literally nothing. So these pop up and down all the time and they truly are hobbies.
THen there are people who "think" that they are running a business but do it at a hobby level and never take it seriously at all. I call these hobbies too, because it is important to make their owners understand that that's how they are treating it, even if they don't admit it.
So a "real" business has to be in it for the money? But making more money with commissions and affiliates is "unethical". Therefore, to be a "real" business, you must become unethical!
LOL sorry I had to go there!
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
My view is that some affiliate programs are like picking up money on the sidewalk, it's just there, take it. Then you say, no, because you must take action before the money appears. Yes of course, I have to be walking down that particular sidewalk!
So my challenge is, I'm walking down that sidewalk anyway, I don't feel particularly righteous by stepping over the money and walking on my way.
If I find myself walking down that same sidewalk 80% of the time, some extra cash is a nice bonus.But the other 20% of the time.... what? You truly believe there is zero influence?
No, what I believe is that I can STILL come up with the best solution. Just because bias might exist, it doesn't mean it actually WILL change the outcome.
The 20% of the time the other sidewalk is a better fit, so be it.Now THAT might be true. There IS bias, but is it enough to influence the final decision? Only you can determine that. Only you know how much you will charge, how much you will get a commission and how much it will affect you. You can't argue that there isn't bias, you can only argue how much it biases you. Only you know that amount.
$30k from VMAX sounds pretty tasty!
