Hello Hugo,
First off, why would you be busy with orders, yet have no
sales? How exactly does that work???
In any case, in my opinion, if you are no longer having fun
with your business, then it is no longer a business, it is a
J.O.B., and if you're not having fun at your J.O.B., why would
you stay and continue doing it, especially for NO MOULAH?!?
Again, in my opinion, in order to be as successful as possible,
you have to really love what you are doing, whether or not you
are getting paid ATM. What you need to be doing, however, is to
make sure that you're having fun while building something that
WILL make money, even if in the future.
For example, there are many months where my business will be in
a lull. Now, it's not that it's in a lull for months, but if it gets to a
point where there is a lull in paid jobs or clients, I'll take that time
to start on a new software, or a new web app, which typically
leads me to spending ALL my time focusing on the project at hand.
Now, even though I am not making any money because I am not
actively promoting or looking for clients because I'm too enthralled
with the software I am working on, I know that once I am done,
and get back to marketing and promoting, etc... eventually, that
software or app WILL end up making me money, so, I never get
bored with what I am doing...
To me, online success is not JUST about the money. YES, the
money IS important, after all, the excitement and thrill I receive
from programming is NOT going to keep the lights on or food in
the fridge for the kids to eat, however, REAL success is being
able to make enough money doing what I love and what I have
fun doing. Otherwise, as a professionally trained chef, I could
be cooking in someone else's kitchen making THEM rich off of
my skills...
One of the easiest ways to have fun while you're working is to
socialize.
I read somewhere, that one of the biggest hurdles to get over
when starting your own business is the lack of socialization.
The lack of being around others, the lack of interaction with
others.
So, to overcome that, I have built up a large network of
programming friends who I chat with ALL DAY long, be it on
Skype, IM, text, email, forum messages, social media, and yes,
even telephone and house visits. A few programming buddies and
I even meet up a few times a month at a local coffee shop and
share "war stories", code snippets, ideas, etc...
Another way to have some fun is to be yourself with your
customers.
When I first start out online, I didn't really enjoy it. That was when
the internet was new and no one trusted it, so you had to act like
a Fortune 500 company, even if YOU were EVERYTHING (the coder,
the support guy, the scheduler, the appointment setter, the cold
caller, the supervisor, the... you get the point) so you really couldn't
just "be yourself'.
As the internet aged, so did the "do all, be all" attitude of
everything. Now, you are perfectly able, and quite expected to,
be yourself...
I am a very big joker, I am always joking about something, and
being able to be that way with customers is important because
it let's them get to know the real me, while enabling me to
continue loving what I am doing...
One final thing... My trade, I am a professional chef. Love to
cook and create, which is why I also love to design websites
and software... So, one way to make sure I am always having
fun is to combine my hobbies...
Now, one may say "how would you combine cooking and web
design and programming and others will already know how...
Most of my paid jobs are for restaurants, bakeries, food trucks
and anything else related to the culinary field. 90% of the sites
in my portfolio are for restaurants. Many of the software I have
created are some form of custom P.O.S. systems, online order
scripts, catering scheduling scripts, etc...
My joining my TRADE skills with the skills I have now, I am able
to enjoy the best of both worlds, which in turn, makes it all that
much more fun for me...
The bottom line is this...
To me, if you're not having fun doing what you're doing, it's
time to move on to something else... Skills without thrills
just equals a disaster waiting to happen...
Again, these are just my opinions, others may think otherwise,
but to each his/her own...
