Passive income my ass! Sure the orders for the rate-setting toolkit pop up in my email. Hurray! But man-oh-man, it is a lot of work. And money. Let’s see. I paid a lot just to edit the original workbook. My husband created the cover. Now that it is selling, I’m sinking money into a professional cover. A set of ISBN numbers costs a couple hundred. The CD’s were professionally recorded and edited. (I think I’ve found a cheaper way for the future.) The marketing consultant costs money. The postage, the web development for www.ratesettingtoolit.com. And my assistant is a virtual assistant, so last week I was schlepping packages to the post office. How is it that I have this awesome assistant and I’m standing in line at the post office?
Well, at least I got this intellectual product thing started. Yeah for me! I will improve it and expand it. But at least I’m started. I give myself a lot of credit for that. What about you? What great ideas do you have that you are sitting on? Are you waiting until you have it all figured out? You’ll be waiting a long time…
Mmmm…standing at the PO? You could either ship some to your VA to handle from there, OR, depending on the number of orders, start thinking about a small fulfillment house! I have a recommendation: http://www.productfulfillmentservices.com Shane Bowlin, a VA herself, and her husband run it, and it’s for the small business owner.
Warmly, Anne Ferguson
I hear you Mikelann. Those under the misguided notion that the creation of information products is the equivalent of an “easy” button for passive income are in for a real surprise. But here is the thing. Once you set up the systems and find an audience for your fabulous information, it gets a whole lot easier. And then even more abundance flows. I was speaking with Publicity Hound Joan Stewart about being a bit impatient about the magnitude of results I was experiencing with my line of information products. She asked how long I had been offering information products. My answer? 18 months. She said I was doing all the right things and to keep on doing what I was doing. Good things are flowing. Lots of good things. But, it isn’t easy by any means. Thanks for telling the truth. And good for you for getting your products out of your head and into people’s hands so they can benefit in such powerful ways. You are a super star in my book.
Mikelann,
I hope I can be of assistance for your future post office run avoidance!
Take a look at
http://www.usps.com/pickup/welcome.htm?from=global&page=schedulepickup
to see options for getting things picked up by your regular carrier and also scheduling a home or office pickup from USPS. This site also has links for printing out your own postage labels and calculating postage needed.
Granted it still requires some of your time, not as tidy as having an assistant do it all, but hopefully might save you that standing in line at the PO experience in the future!
Hope it helps.
Nancy
ps I’m now into the 2nd month of my new rates and things are going well.