Well I can truthfully say that I fell into the website building, search engine optimization, internet marketing business a bit late in the game. My educational background and 25 year work experience has been centered in the field of industrial psychology as an employee assistance consultant and counselor. My internet business began, as many small business ventures begin —as a sort of hobby.
During the last ten years or more , a sad phenomenon began taking place in many of the companies that I consult with —namely downsizing, corporate layoffs, and closings. Besides the fallout from these events for currently employed employees and their family members, there has been the personal devastation experienced by many former employees and their families. I’ve counseled many people who developed severe problems at home because of the toll these unfortunate circumstances have taken on their lives. While I try to play an encouraging role for many of them, it seems that there are few immediate answers for the financial pressures that are building all around for many.
Due to these circumstances, I became an advocate for developing small home businesses. For many people, just a few hundred dollars a month can make a huge difference.
My career in industrial psychology as well as my own finances have naturally been affected by the economic climate. I knew that it was time to do what I had been encouraging others to do—expand my territory, get more skills, reinvent myself.
A book by Robert Kiyosaki, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, greatly affected my thinking and I knew from what I had experienced as a consultant to business that he was right—America in the 90’s moved away from a manufacturing era and had now entered a service era. Gone are the days where people can work for 30 years at the same company and retire with a nice pension. It doesn’t happen anymore.
So what is a middle class citizen to do according to Kiyosaki and others? Simply this: the key premise to survival in this new world is to engage in entrepreneurship and develop multiple streams of income. Welcome to a brave new world. Creativity is the name of the game.
The advent of the internet fascinated me for it seemed to me that it might hold the answer for many. Unfortunately, some eight years ago, my first jaunts into internet marketing were absolutely abysmal and so I gave up the ship and moved on to other projects. But I still wondered about the viability of the internet for creating income streams—and wondered if I could develop a program to teach others to create income.
Then several years ago, I came back to these ideas and became part of a well known international marketing forum. I was fascinated to discover how free these people were with their lives—many were in control of their schedules and did not punch any clocks. Many were millionaires. The Warrior forum was (and is) an incredible think-tank to learn from some of the best internet marketers in the world. And I have sucked up alot of tremendous information and made some interesting friendships.
It was during this time that I actually began to have success making money online. Not tons of money by any means, but I had finally figured out some parts of the puzzle. It had taken me a long time to sort out some of the things that were essential for a marketer to know. Unfortunately, because there are so many things to know, the failure rate is exceptionally high….how do you know where to approach marketing from if you don’t know html from an rss feed?
The premise for my website development business also started about 3-4 years ago. I made a few websites for others and found that I enjoyed the process. The initial SJT Enterprises website was developed and then let go and then picked up again. My vision of what the business could be has since expanded and now includes several outsource workers (chiefly in India and the Philippines) whom I use if the projects become greater than my capacity. Obviously this is still a small enterprise–but as it is it gives me the opportunity to develop a personal connection to my customers.
The SJT Enterprises blog was put up to help encourage the entreprenerial spirit as it pertains to the world wide web. Not only do I want to encourage, website and seo skill building, but I want to provide services for those who need them and have neither time nor inclination to get their site(s) ranked at the top of the Google search engine pile.
I hope that you consider my thoughts on developing multiple streams of income for yourself and the benefits of owning a website or business blog. Please contact me if you have any questions or thoughts. I would like to be of help.
