Dodging The Busy Fool Bullet

July 30, 2014

How To Avoid the Busy Fool Syndrome.

The busy fool syndrome is a phrase i heard and became familiar with when I was working in the AV industry. It really came into play when the recession started to really bite into that and most other industries. Stuart Ross, Co-founder of the Six Figure Mentors and Digital Experts Academy reminded me of it again over the weekend.

In 2008/2009 being the busy fool meant that everyone was chasing business that was hardly worth doing. Loyalty and quality of service suddenly meant nothing compared to the great god bottom line – the business went to the cheapest bidder.

The result was that companies took jobs on at rock bottom prices just to keep the work away from the competition. This is how the busy fool mentality shows up in traditional business: Rushing around and doing freebies or giving massive discounts on the promise of future business.

Dangling Carrots For The Busy Fool

Everyone wanted to pay for your services with sponsorship deals rather than hard cash. In other words – the good old fashioned dangled carrot. Do this one for nothing and we’ll give you advertising and future work. Very often the future work didn’t show up.

The other result of this was the loss of jobs, a halt on investment in new equipment and a stripped to the bare bones operating style. This created a vicious circle: Less people to do the same amount of work for less profit. The busy fool became the busier fool. But what was the option? If you didn’t do it the competition would.

In the world of running an online business being the busy fool has a similar effect on your income. It’s more about spending the resources you have as an entrepreneur badly. These resources are basically time and money. Being the busy fool in this world means that you are spending the first – time – on the wrong things.

During some conversations with some of the SFM’s elite members, Stuart Ross had discovered that the busy fool syndrome was stopping some of them from getting results. True to form, he decided to step in with a 30 day challenge designed to get them doing the right things and forming the right business habits.

The Busy Fool Syndrome In An Online Business

As he pointed out, Online businesses are all about traffic. The primary focus should be lead generation. Although it’s the main focus it actually takes the least time – or at least it should. Placing adverts, the busy fool writing blogs, shooting videos (the money making activities) doesn’t actually take very long. The rest of the time should be spent on developing everything else.

The “everything else” is often what leads Internet marketers down the busy fool rabbit hole. With an industry that changes so fast marketers have a tsunami of information bombarding them on a daily basis. This can lead to a lot of wasted hours reading about new methods, new techniques, tweaking websites and a million other things. These are all important but they come in second place to generating the traffic – the lifeblood of an online business.

Getting the sort of guidance that members of SFM are provided with by it’s founders is of huge value. Without it the rabbit holes are soooo tempting. A quick log in to Facebook or a day started by checking email can literally make hours disappear. You may think you’ve had a busy day but you’ve just been the busy fool – again.

So Stuart’s challenge, which he is leading with his usual hands-on passion, is basically to spend 30 days focussing first and foremost on money-making activities. When you do that first you create the time to spend on all the rest.

No More Busy Fool Syndrome

Some time ago I shot a video on the reasons why people fail with an online business. I said that the main reason is that they give up. I’m sticking with that opinion but I would add that a big reason for giving up is definitely the busy fool trap – the overwhelm.

If you are interested in starting an online business you will find having expert guidance of huge benefit. Aside from the nuts and bolts – the systems and tools – you need to learn how to avoid becoming the busy fool. I’ve yet to see a better way than getting involved with SFM and DEA.

To find out more about them sign up for their complimentary video series on the link below.