Ray Edwards Small Business Marketing Podcast Episode 2: Time For Dollars?

Hi Ray,
I agree with you about the whole time for dollars speel. I believe that the marketers who spew that are less than top drawer, or they wouldn't be trying to reel in people by using that tact to get their products sold. Like you said, people who "don't mind the store", virtual or otherwise, are just asking for someone to come along and take it all away. However...
that's the whole dream picture that is laid out to people when they start looking to build a business online.
Enjoyed your podcast once again, thank you for the information.

I don't see a login below, so I guess I post as guest...

The problem is religious in nature, and rooted in the "natural man" who is an enemy to God. By nature, we're lazy, want something for nothing, and anything that sounds like a free lunch has to be good. That's how scoundrels get elected to office, and Internet goo-roos (a term I got from Ben Settle) make tons of money off of suckers by selling over-priced product that assures them of instant success with no effort.

You are quite correct in your arguments because there is no such reality as a free lunch here -- or in Eternity.

We're on this earth to be tested and see what we're made of -- and to find out if we have integrity.

The Parable of the Talents is about accountability for our life at some future time. God told Adam that he'd eat bread by the sweat of his face all the days of his life (no retirement at 65 clause in there). True, we have a lot of advantages that enable us to prosper a lot more with less effort, but...

That also carries with it a responsibility to be of service to others, even when we've "got it made".

But here's where people blow it:

Your income (assuming you came by it through ligitimate means) is a reflection of the value others put on the service you rendered to them to make their life better. If you do something that's a lot more valuable, then you can make more per unit of work or effort. Someone makes 8 dollars per hour because they're employed by someone who decided what they do is worth $8. It has nothing to do with their value as a human being.

Yet people persist in equating their value with their income because we've been conditioned to think that way by companies who view employees as a liability to be minimized instead of an asset to be appreciated and properly compensated. That gives rise to labor unions who are equally abusive against employers, and politicians who exploit the ignorant and non-thinking.

The safe way to prosper and stay out of jail: Plan to earn what you get, and quit looking for riches in excess of what you've done to deserve them.

The laborer is worthy of his hire, provided his labor is worthy of his pay.

Clarke Echols

Hey Ray,

Yes, everything involves an investment of time, and it's okay to trade time for dollars... My business partner and I refer to this as "schlepping hours."

What's not okay is to trade time for dollars "even up." In other words, much of what we do as entrepreneurs has to be about leveraging our time to make more money in less time.

For example: You put out an audio podcast, rather than calling each of us on the phone and telling us this infomation personally, because you leverage your time. You don't trade time for dollars even up. You record a half hour podcast, and if 100 people listen to it, you get 3,000 minutes (or 50 hours) of presentation time to prospective clients. If 1,000 people listen to it, it's ten times that.

So yes, maybe it's okay to schlep hours for dollars, but just like you, I want to make sure the hours I'm schlepping produce a significantly high return on investment, so I'm not trading hours for dollars "even up."

Thanks for the excellent podcast and the lively, provocative discussion!

David Blaise
http://www.imforsmallbiz.com