You may already be thinking to yourself "I haven't started earning yet, but I have to invest..........". Yes, all business needs some investment and this investment is very insignificant compared to an investment in a physical business where you have to invest in rental, employees' salaries, electricity, etc.
I will share with you about the opportunity cost concept. Every $ has an opportunity cost, what this means is that for every $ you spend on item A, you may be giving up item B.
- For example, for every small amount of money that you spend on a gourmet food item (such as coffee, chocolates, cakes, etc), you are giving up purchasing your shop name because you can even purchase a domain at a price of about USD2.
- For every bill that you pay at a fancy restaurant, you may be giving up your shop space because you may have been able to already purchase a hosting package.
- For those of you who are intending to invest a lot in purchasing a luxury item using your hard-earned money, think twice. You may be giving up a business that can earn you unlimited passive income (an income that can help you achieve FINANCIAL FREEDOM), even when you are sleeping.
I am not saying that you should not purchase luxury items or spend to enjoy yourself. If you are doing it once in a while, that's pretty ok. However, think of how great the feeling is if you actually manage to purchase luxury items using your passive income instead of your hard-earned income.
I don't feel the pain in spending more on my internet business now, because I have already started earning income online (income that I earned even when I am sleeping or watching tv). I use the income that I earned online to buy more things that I need to develop my internet business, so that I can be in a better position to earn more for a better future.
After I say all these, please don't start spending a lot in your internet business. You can get started with a domain (shop name) and hosting account (shop space) and maybe a training program with useful videos, if you do not already have one. You can also try to get free hosting from some sites, but I am not sure about the support that you can get.
Tracking Your Income & Expenses
Start to budget, use an Excel worksheet to keep track of all the expenses that you spend. Remember you are running a business and budgeting is a must. Your Excel worksheet can include fields like:
1. Date - eg. today's date
2. Name of seller - e.g. GoDaddy or Hostgator
3. Description of item purchased - e.g. domain name or hosting package
4. Amount spent - e.g. $X
5. Project name/cost centre - e.g. "Fitness Project" in the case of domain name purchase; "All" in the case of hosting package as the hosting package can be used for all projects
6. Income - e.g. Income from Clickbank (Project A). This is the field I like best. I record this field in negative sign using a different colour, so that when I add up all the amounts, I can determine whether I have already recover my costs.
That's pretty much what I did for managing my finance for my internet business.
To end, I will just like to share with all of you:
Time + Money + Action = More $ (or achieving your goal)
(Provided you invest them in the correct manner)
That's all for today!
