When doing a short interview for the Entrepreneur Exchange section of our blog, I often find myself asking more about the person, their qualities, what makes them tick and ultimately what makes them a success.  The interview with Rodney Appleton took on a life of its own.
I learned a lot just from his favorite quote you can read at the end. Rodney has made millions. Find out a bit about Rodney and make sure to check out his site too.
Q. What do you think is the greatest challenge facing business owners today and why? Any suggestions for how to address those challenges?

A. Doing a new business online has a completely different set of rules than doing business face to face. The end result is the same, but the path to get there is different. Online business owners only need one thing to succeed. Effective Tools.  And a second thing, the willingness to learn what to do with those tools.  The challenge for most online business owners is the willingness to learn. It can be painful at times. It comes at a cost, both in time and money. But, if you’re willing to stay the course with an unshakable resolve that stems from the depths of your soul, you’ll master your craft.

Q. What do you mean by online business being different?

When we deal with people face to face, a connection is made, or not, in a very short period of time. You get a sense for the type of person you are dealing with pretty quick. Online, we are all just people like me behind this interview. And you on the other side reading it. We don’t know each other, yet.

When we do business online, there is a different process for getting to know someone and learning about their products and opportunities. And that is where having effective tools comes into play.

Q. What are effective tools?

A. When I talk about tools, I’m referring to sales funnels. Sales funnels consist of lead capture pages with compelling offers and ethical bribes. Presentation pages that present their products and opportunities in ways that converts those leads into sales. And having follow up sequences in place that continues to follow up and connect with their prospects and customers without their input. When you have effective sales funnels in place, the end result is that you are only spending time with the people who have already bought from you and the people who are most likely to buy from you in the future. It’s the tools that are spending all the time finding those customers and future customers for you.

Q. That sounds complicated. How can someone who is brand new to doing business online create all these capture pages, presentation pages, email Autoresponder messages etc…?

A. If someone is willing to go through a little pain to learn, they will save themselves a lot of pain if they don’t. The good news is that the learning curve isn’t that steep. I know it might sound that way. But, you gotta love technology. There are tools out there that make it simple. This is a complete sales funnel already done for you and anyone can use it to build any business they choose. And if they decide to change businesses in the future or add more businesses, they can take it with them and apply it to whatever they want. The best part is that it creates a buyers list. It brings people through a small funnel that monetizes the same leads it creates. Then, you start building a relationship with those people. That is where you make the majority of your money

Q. What is the single strongest piece of advice you would have for someone just starting out in business for themselves?

A. Just one word: Learn. Now let me elaborate a little bit; don’t stop learning. Hunger for the information that will make a difference in your life and keep on keeping on.

Q. If you own more than one business, how have you integrated your businesses to juggle it all successfully? Any suggestions?

A. Again, it’s all about effective tools and sales funnels. When you have effective sales funnels, you can sell anything. And it’s not time consuming because you are leveraging technology to do a lot of the work for you. Once you learn the basics of sales funnels, you can go into several businesses without spreading yourself too thin.

Q. What on-line, software or other resources have helped you the most in managing all aspects of your company? Why and how have they been helpful?

The back end platform of that sales funnel is where I learned most of what I know about online business today. Not only does it provide all the tools, but it provides all the training too. As a matter of fact, I recently learned how to sell products and generate leads on Facebook Newsfeed ads, which has brought in 10’s of thousands of dollars so far. That training is in the same system. It is literally everything anyone would ever need, training and tools, to build any business online and it’s all in one house.

Q. Any final words of encouragement and/or inspiration for the budding entrepreneur, and do you have a favorite quote that you can share with us?

A. Begin and don’t stop. Go through the pain because it’s worth it. And once you break though, share it with others.

And my favorite quote is “Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of ones values.”  – Ayn Rand

Thank you for allowing me to share! Rodney Appleton