Most people think of ROI in terms of how much money they receive as a result of how much money they invest. When you're talking about stocks and mutual fun ds, that's fine. If you invest $10,000 in Google stock and your stake goes up to $15,000, congratu lations. Your ROI is 50%. That's pretty
simple.

But, entrepreneurs invest other finite resources. Namely, their time and effort. That is, when you "invest" in a project in the hopes of a return, your investment is a collection of three different components...

1.  your time
2.  your effort
3.  your money

You must consider all three components to figure out your ROI. That's going to take some work. You can no longer simply look at a couple of numbers and judge how good an investment is.
When it comes to the actions you take to build your online business and income, you must look at ROI differently.

And I'm going to tell you how to look at it.  
First, understand this key point... 
Everything you do has an ROI. 

Let's say that you spend three hours creating a free Special Report for the prospects of your information product. The time and effort you spend will ultimately yield an ROI. 

Or let's say you spend ten minutes changing the headline on your sales letter. That time and effort spent will also yield an ROI.

Now, here's where it gets murky...

You must define ROI as either "acceptable" or "unacceptable." Every action... every project will deliver an ROI. Your decision to spend additional resources on the same actions for the same return is based entirely upon how you define what is an "acceptable" or "unacceptable" ROI. 

And you cannot merely consider the money you're bringing in wh en you make your decision.

For example, let's say your free Report (the Report that you spent 3 hours creating) brings in 30 sales of your $20 ebook. The numbers are easy enough to figure out. The three hours you spent creating your Special Report yielded $600. (It's not usually that simple since sales will continue to stream in and you'll be building your customer list, but let's keep it simple for this example).

Your ROI is $600 for 3 hours of work. Now, you'll need to refer to your personal definition of "acceptable" and "unacceptable" ROI to figure out if you should spend your time creating another Special Report in the future,
given the same return (i.e. profit).

Again, pretty easy. Money tends to clear the cobwebs.   

But, let's say you created your Special Report to entice people to opt-in to your mini-course. Let's assume that your Special Report persuaded 1,000 people to opt-in. 

Now, you haven't made a red cent yet. There's no money involved here. So, you have spent 3 hours of your time creating a Special Report that did not directly result in any money in your pocket.

How do you figure out whether the time you spent creating your Report was invested well?

You must once again rely upon your defin ition of "acceptable" and "unacceptable" ROI. 

For example, if you had decided prior to creating your Report that the Report must result in at least 500 subscribers to your mini-course... congratulations. Your ROI on the 3 hours spent creating your Report is "acceptable". And unless you can spend your time on a task that yields a higher ROI, you should be willing to create another Report in the future for this same purpose.

Bottom line... you and I have limited resources. Our time, effort and money available for us to use to grow our businesses and income is limited. We must constantly push those finite resources in pursuit of the highest
possible ROI. 

Last Thoughts
 
You're building your business to ultimately grow your income. Maybe you're not making as much as you want to make. You want more. Maybe you're not making as much as you NEED to make and you're confused about how to fix the problem.

In the end, creating and growing online businesses that result in huge, sustainable incomes is within reach of nearly anyone. But, you must commit yourself to five critical elements. You have to...

1.  Get Focused
2.  Create Goals
3.  Take Action
4.  Outsource Everything
5.  Track ROI

These are the components of every successful business. 

Focus on making these five elements a part of your process. Think about how to apply them to your business every day. 

Get focused on the project that you're working on right now without getting distracted by other opportunities. 
Create goals that will make you accountable to your success and will spur you toward growing your business and income.

Take action on implementing whatever task is necessary to accomplish those goals.

Outsource every task that you don't want to do, dread doing, isn't profitable for you to do, or you're simply horrible at.

Track the ROI of every single task and process that you employ to grow your business and determine if it is "acceptable" or "unacceptable." Success is largely a matter of pushing finite resources in pursuit of the h ighest possible ROI. 


I would be willing to bet that you already have the tools you need to create and grow a successful online business that gives you a sustainable 6-figure income. You already have the knowledge you need.

Don't be distracted by opportunities. Focus, dig in and succeed!

Thanks for reading this web. Even though it takes time and effort to create, I've enjoyed writing it. And I hope you've enjoyed reading it.

To your growing success!