I am always amazed by the volume of groups who are now moving toward the Internet to make a living. I manage a number of diverse web based concerns which in their entirety give me a better monthly income than it was possible to earn working for someone else. My working day is about the same but I don’t have go to an office any more, which is a big relief. As a result I am now financially independent and my quality of life is considerably improved.

Looking after a handful of firms is enjoyable, but I have had to pursue new ways of being more efficient and working smarter. To track people who buy what I have to sell and the financial performance of my businesses, I use a group of online services - you should buy high quality small business management software to stay on top of the numbers and let you focus finding and attending to customers. I have a Quickbooks login and a NetSuite login. I can operate these internet properties from just about any location and they easily let me to monitor all of the businesses activities in real time.

Using my NetSuite login I am able to track all of the sales on my e-stores and see the outcomes of the Google Adwords marketing activities that bring prospects to my shopping carts. I have thrown out Microsoft Office which substituted with a Google Account containing all of the software I regularly use, including e-mail, document creation and spreadsheets. I can log into these packages from wherever I want to work.

I have significantly improved my skills, I have discovered an amazing amount of free and low cost online education which I have quickly studied. One of the most important lessons I have got to know is how to identify and sub contract dreary work, to people who can do this quicker and cost effectively. I can exactly attribute the time at which I broke through my income level to my discovery of the benefits of farming out some of the tasks draining most of my time, to me increasing my cashflow to beyond that of my salary whilst in permanent employment.

In Part 2, I get into detail about how I leverage my time.