So yesterday, a few things that we're working on in the office, and I was working on yesterday evening, didn't quite go to plan. And so I actually ended up working at the office last night until around about 12:30 am.

Then got home, chilled out for half an hour or so and then went to bed. Then got up this morning - so I only had about five / six hours sleep, something like that.  Obviously it's taking me a bit of time to wake up this morning. But the sun is shining! And really I guess we can take something from last night, y'know.

It Actually Took Me Back To When I Was First Starting My Business...

...when I was in those earlier stages. Nowadays to be honest, where my business and company's at now, I don't generally have to work that late.

I put in a lot of work because I'm very passionate I love what I do. Probably I don't have to work as many hours as I do, but I'm very passionate about the mission we're on to help 100,000 entrepreneurs to start and grow their business using the internet. And that drives me.

The success of my clients and partners and affiliates - that drives me! But generally speaking, I don't have to do these really late nights anymore. There was a time when I did. And the reason that I did used to have to, is because I had to utilise the time I had, and I really want to just talk about this, this morning on today's Drive.

Because there's a chance that you're listening to this or watching this, and...

Perhaps You're In The Early Stages Of Your Business Right Now

Perhaps you don't yet see too much happening. Perhaps the results aren't yet there and you feel like you're putting in all the work.

Well I could take you back to a time where that was exactly the same for me. And the bottom line is, that really in terms of growing our businesses, we generally have two things, and we generally have to utilise both of them. One is time, and one is money.

Now money can be leveraged to reduce the time, but you only have so much time available. So let's just take you back to when I was in the early stages of my business and (stopping at a train line again, my daily train line that seems to catch me every day, but anyway at least we get to kind of just stop here and talk).

So let me take you back to, I won't go as far back as 2004, 2005, 2006 - those of the years when I was really stuck and struggling, and I was losing tens of thousands of dollars - I ended up in a horrific amount of debt. But let me take you back to 2008 -towards the end of 2008.

That's When I Actually Joined A Coaching Program, Got A Mentor And Started To Actually See Results

...towards the end of that year. And then eight months later in June/July of the following year, I was able to quit my job.

Now before I quit my job though, my routine was kind of like this: I would get up around about 6:00 am or 5:30 am. I had a labrador dog at that stage, so I used to walk him. Then obviously put him back in the house, get in the car and commute to work.

Now it was around about 25 miles away which at that time of day would take me almost an hour. So I leave about 6:30 am, I'd arrive there in time to start at 7:30 am. Then I'd work all day till 5:00 pm.

But during the day, when I'd have my lunch, I would get on the computer in my office, because I actually had a computer in my like warehouse thing that I was working in at this construction company to place orders of stock.

And so I go online and I check my emails, and I'd do what I could. I'd get on the warrior forum and, y'know, and towards the end of 2008, I also started my blog, which we recently revamped.

And then basically, I do what I could in the day in the spare bits of time that I had to help take my business forwards. Then I'd finish work at 5 pm, get home for about 6 pm, walk my dog. Have some dinner. It'd probably be around about 8/8:30 pm by about this time in the evening.

And then I'd get on the computer again, which was actually in my bedroom. And so you'd often find me literally like five nights a week sat at the computer from around about 8:30 in the evening, often till about 1/2/3 am. Then get like three four or five hours sleep, depending on what time I'd finish there, and repeat that cycle every single day.

Then at the weekend, I'd spend even more time at the computer. There's a reason for that. The reason is that I was serious about getting the results, I was serious about starting to grow a business online.

So the only thing that I really had then, because of all the debt I was in - I didn't have money. Yes I had a job, but my money was going towards paying my debts. I had nothing left every month. And so I only had time.

Time Was The Only Investment I Could Put In

So the more investment that I could put in of my time, that was my only currency, the sooner I would move my business forwards, the faster I would move my business forwards. Because I was now working on the right things.

And this just reminded me of that last night - having to hustle late, having to put in those late nights. Because it was needed.

In your business, no matter where you're at, there's going to be times where you need to put in more time, more effort; invest more of whatever currency you have.

As I said, money can be used and leveraged to shorten that time scale down, to shorten that path.

Money can be used in ways, like getting a mentor...

A Mentor Is One Of The Biggest Shortcut You Could Ever Have

Money can be used to buy traffic, therefore shortening the curve of generating leads, generating sales, compared to going the free path. Money can be leveraged in a whole manner of ways to further, to speed up the growth of your business; to shorten that path from where you are, to where you want to be.

And so I really want to leave you with that thought today. That at times, are you willing to do what it takes? At times are you willing to put in extra, even when you're exhausted, even when you're shattered, even when all you really want to do is go home and have a meal you see your husband, your wife, your spouse whoever it may be?

Now that's what it takes sometimes. But it won't always be that way. As I say, right now it's on the odd occasion that it's required. Back then, every night was a requirement to make that happen and do that.

So be under no illusions, building a business - it takes work. Building a business - it takes your investment. As I say, you want to...

Use The Currency You Have At Your Disposal; Money And/Or Time

If it's only time, you put in as much of that as you can.

If you've got money or you can be resourceful to get it, that can be the biggest currency to shortcut your path there. You only have so many hours in a day. You've got to invest whatever currency you have; time, money, both.

Alright and I'll leave you with that thought. Near the office now, obviously we stopped at the train line for a while.

I hope that message comes at a good time for you. It's 8:30 in the morning here. Back to the office - back on it.

We're actually finishing up, well yesterday we actually recorded a front-end sales video for our new funnel for The Perfect Offer. Not entirely sure I'm 100% happy with what we've done, so I'm waiting for Adam to work his magic on it and see what it looks like. But I think I'm going to create a second version, and then we'll split test them.

Then we've also got two upsells and one downside video to record as well, which I'll probably do those today. Yes, no doubt I'll do those today. So we should have by tomorrow, the sales videos done for the funnel.

I'm also sending off all the materials to actually be put on...

The USB Stick For The Perfect Offer

It's actually going on a physical product, it's going on a four gig USB stick. So we've designed a cover - it's actually going in like a DVD style case, a plastic case. So we've designed the cover.

We're designing some inserts to go into it like flyers, leaflets, postcards, to go inside. So we're just finishing all that up today. So should see huge progress over the next 24 hours for The Perfect Offer sales funnel.

So no doubt I'll update you on that tomorrow in the next edition of The Drive, Making Maximum Use Of Your Free Plus Shipping Product. Until then, take care, have a great day, and I'll talk to you soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9WQW3cqL6k