Whenever I see a picture from inside the Oval Office, something always strikes me.
Yes, I'm struck by how much nicer the President's office is than mine (although I think I've got a better view). But mostly I'm struck by his desk. It's big and old and it's nicely decorated... but that's not really what I'm getting at either.
What's most striking about the President's desk - and this is true of the workspace of just about every top executive - is how empty it is. There are no piles of paper, no collections of dirty coffee cups... and apparently no computer.
There might be a few papers there, perhaps a report that he has to read or a bill he needs to sign, but there's none of the chaos that makes up many people's desks.
I don't think that's because president are particularly tidy. And I don't think it's because they have a team of people who keep their desk clean for them (now there's a service waiting to be supplied).
It's because their job, like the job of every leader, isn't to do. It's to tell other people what to do.
When you start building an Internet business, you're going to be doing everything yourself. You won't have much of a budget so you'll have to write the HTML, create the content, do the search engine optimization, track the ad results, manage the link exchanges, and wash out your own coffee cup too.
You can stay that way if you want. Many Internet marketers remain one-man or one-woman bands. But many others start to use their income to pay specialists to take on some of those tasks, freeing themselves to do the things that bring in the most revenue... or to do nothing at all but guide the site and cash the checks.
Both of these kinds of Internet businesses are perfectly legitimate. I now have an office with a fantastic team but I've run plenty of businesses from my bedroom too.
The question that every budding Internet marketer needs to ask themselves is what do they want their business to do for them eventually: give them a busy desk; or leave them with a clean desk.
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
February 22, 2009 09:59 AM
Joel,
This was a great thought. I have not always kept my physical desk clean and my virtual desk (my computer's desktop), or my homebase (my email accounts) perfectly clean. I've found that all the time I save temporarily by not being organized makes life infinitely more complicated as I try to sort through a mess. It's worth taking the time to put stuff in a spot where it's easily found later. At least the President of the U?nited States understand this!
Aloha,
Brian
P.S. You're doing a fantastic job with your new book. I'm looking forward to getting my copy :)
February 22, 2009 12:12 PM
Outsourcing the task makes you more money. If you want to take your business seriously than try to manage it yourself and get staff to help with nitty gritty. As for the coffee serving and washing the cup I got my wife to do it.
February 22, 2009 01:52 PM
Being a start up business, having a clear desk is a nice, novel idea.
However...
As you stared in a previous post ("Army of One"), we kinda need to be everything. At least, at the onset of our businesses.
I'm sure that most can agree that when we start off in internet marketing, we do not have a big budget. So we take on and perform all the tasks ourselves, like you described:
- SEO
- Marketing: Direct, e-msil, video, etc.
- Copywriting
So, yes, I think- at least in the beginning- our desks are a mess.
Heck my entire office is a disaster!
But, given time, we can afford to outsource and delegate certain (time consuming) tasks.
Again, Great post!
Best,
-K
February 22, 2009 02:14 PM
I understand and appreciate the idea behind this post, but here's my take.
For some, taking on more of a manager role in order to make more money is what floats their boat.
For others, like myself, the thrill comes in the direct creation process, no matter if my personal involvement means I have less time to make money leveraging/managing others.
Being a manager of people has no appeal to me whatsoever. I'll likely make less money with this approach, but I'm fine with that.
I work at home, by myself, in my pajamas, and I love it! It's called simple living! :)
February 22, 2009 02:21 PM
BTW Joel, I skipped a paragraph or two in your post that I should have read before posting (I do that sometimes).
You addressed the one-man-band businesses, and I thank you for it. :)
The only thing I can add here is that you can run your own business as a one-man-band AND have a clean desk. You just need to be organized and strive for simplicity in your life and business.
Gotta go...you reminded me that I have to clean my desk in order to find my to-do notebook! :)
February 22, 2009 10:24 PM
Joel, I agree with you - people don't outsource work for their online businesses! Too often I see people bogged down with different monotonous tasks to complete when they could outsource someone to do that work! They could then focus on other areas of their business to maximize their income :)
Brandon
February 22, 2009 10:35 PM
Hi Joel,
This post was perfect for me today. I spent about an hour cleaning up my desk, purging some files and creating new files. While my desk may not always look TOTALLY organized, it's pretty clean and I know where everything is. I can't work in chaos or mess...makes me a tad crabby!
I appreciate your comments about when you're starting out and have to do everything yourself, (especially with an uncertain economy). With people losing their homes and jobs, it's important to reiterate that anyone can start an online business- by themselves! It's just going to take work.
And when the time comes and you CAN outsource...at least it's your choice!
Congrats on Tweetathon & the book- both are great.
Kim
February 22, 2009 11:28 PM
Most Internet Marketers are Lone Wolves. They hunt alone. Sometime they hunt together at Internet seminars, but that's usual.
February 23, 2009 12:14 AM
Right now, Joel, my desk is two cardboard file sized boxes stacked together. The top one is covered with my notes of phone numbers and other important stuff I use regularly. My Toshipba laptop computer sits on it when it is not in my lap when I am sitting in my recliner with my feet up and a cat perched on the arm of the chair or squeezed into the seat beside me as I work.
My real desk sits upside down in one of my sheds as it was to go to a friend to use for the volunteer firefighters' room at our county's Emergency Operations Center when I moved here a couple of years ago. He decided it wasn't needed there and I have yet to undo the rest of the temporary desk set up in my computer room so that I can bring my desk back.
This is all because I have yet to reorganize my home and computer room to be a functional office. I do have all of my material and notes for my online marketing organized, though. They reside on one shelf (books and kits) of my living room bookshelf with vital DVD's and CD's in two tub basins which sit within reach of my recliner as do the three notebooks of notes and ideas from webinars et al.
My jewelry supplies and finished pieces are very organized, in a roll around cart, a suitcase (for completed items) and two steel small drawer cases filled with little plastic drawers. My jewelry desk is my dining room table and it is VERY cluttered most of the time.
My excuse for this spread out way of working has been my inability to move about and lift much with the three surgeries I have had over the past eighteen months. Truth be told, however, I find that having my computer close at hand with my telephone, notebooks and learning materials all close at hand and within reach of my recliner lets me work whenever I feel like it. The phone is on the end table and my cell is on my hip.
Making my recliner my office chair also keeps me from adding foodstuff to the end table. Keeping the TV, DVD player and Satellite control remotes by my lamp lets me mute the noise or follow along with an instructional DVD as I do something on my computer. This ease of working saved my sanity during the long weeks of being homebound for recuperation from surgery.
I used to say that if a cluttered desk was the sign of a cluttered mind, then an empty desk showed an empty mind. Now I believe that an organized desk is the sign of an organized mind and, likely, a successful person. Therefore I now strive to keep my work/business stuff organized such that I know where to find things when I need them. I don't always succeed in this endeavor, but I am getting better at it.
Currently I am a one woman show for my online sites and my jewelry. Some friends are after me to do some sales for a health supplement and cleaning supply company. The products are good, but I am hesitant to get into offline sales right now. Though I have been good at it in he past, I know just how much time it can eat up and I prefer using most of my time for my online endeavors and my jewelry. I also know that I have a couple of more surgeries to get through before I will be able to do the things necessary to succeed in any kind of offline endeavor.
As my business grow and succeeds, I know that my desk will become more empty. I will be one of those who uses others to take over the jobs I don't like to do. Like the President, I want my job to become more about directing others to perform most of the tasks necessary to keep things going while I become the idea person, creating new things which others impliment for me.
Thank you, Joel, for bringing to mind the way I now work and helping me to clarify where I want my business to go in terms of workload.
February 23, 2009 03:49 PM
There is no one who has made me think about this more than the late Timothy Ferris with his Four Hour Work Week book. In addition, I have found my life too cluttered lately, so I've started reading up on how to eliminate and automate. Brian Tracy has also written a great book on the topic of focus, which means that you focus on the 20% most important things, and delegate/outsource/eliminate the rest. Easier said than done, but essential if I want to create a better quality of life for myself, my family, and my customers.
February 24, 2009 08:43 AM
Joel, what a helpful post! Right now I have two desks. The one at my distal office, and my desk at home. My home desk is terribly cluttered, but my office desk is like the oval office desk! Right now I am trying to build my online presence with experience from the office, a wellness center and hospital based health club. How do you get to the point where you can afford to do some outsourcing? It is frustrating, since working at the club takes time from home biz work, and yet it does add to it. Twittering has brought a nice amount of unique visitors to my site, and I am considering purchasing the book Twitter Power, after deciding to follow you there. Thanks for an insightful post!
Lisa
February 25, 2009 09:41 AM
Internet business can be run from a laptop and a bedroom. That's why it attracts fairly large number of people. There is no barriers to entry. Throw up a website and figure some way to get traffic. But its pretty hard to make any money from such operations, it takes years and sometimes never. The profits are small and results meek early on unless you are blessed in some ways in talent and right information.
July 15, 2009 04:25 PM
In principle, I agree with the President: it feels so great to start each morning with a clean desk. However, he has many people who handle his administrative tasks. His Blackberry is probably meticulous - but that would be his own doing. No doubt about it: the man is totally organized (in his head, too).
Sadly, I have spent hundreds (maybe thousands) at Container Store getting Bisleys, coordinated boxes and a plethura of containers over time. Those pretty much work; but occasionally, I'll just stuff all the input for a proposal or presentation into one when it's finished...and never return to sort it. Pretty box: hides a heap of junk. Gotta try harder!
August 18, 2009 08:23 PM
But it feels like such a shift away from doing what you love to do (that's the reason the business was started isn't it?) when you only instruct people what to do instead of getting involved in the work yourself. Though it does mean feeling "up there" as the boss, but then... :)