Taking the Plunge…Part I

What do I mean by taking the plunge?

The plunge is the point where you stop treating this business like a part time hobby and make a decision, that this is it, this is what you’re going to do. You’re not going to use your job OR your spouse’s job as a fall back.

Taking the plunge is crossing that bridge and BURNING it behind you. The plunge usually happens when you quit your job and go full time as an affiliate marketer, it could also be before you quit your job, if you’ve mentally made the decision to burn your bridges.

If you want to make it big in this industry there will come a time where you will have to take the plunge, and I won’t lie to you, it’s going to be painful before you take the plunge...the doubt, the indecision, the paralyzing fear.

I gotta tell you, taking the plunge and leaving my day job was one of the TOUGHEST things I’ve ever done.

Here’s the story, and listen up, there’s an important lesson in this :

It was around May 2006, thanks to my affiliate efforts I had paid off all of my consumer debt, all $20k of it! Plus I had about $700-$800/day profit coming in from my affiliate campaigns, which was more than double my job income, which was $250/day.

Needless to say, at this point I was on top of the world. For years I had dreamed of being financially free, to leave the rat race and enter the land of the living.

Real Freedom!

It was especially rewarding since I had struggled financially for years, and failed in several previous business I had started.

So I handed in my resignation to my boss, my last day was June 15th, 2006.

Everything was rosy, but then reality hit HARD…

Around the end of May, my affiliate manager (for the ONE niche I was in) had to make a change to their conversion model otherwise clickbank would shut down their site. Needless to say after this change my conversion rate plummeted!

And so did my profits!

I was stilling going to work, but I had handed in my resignation and now my affiliate income had dropped so low that it no longer covered my living expenses. Plus keep in mind, my wife is a student, so I was the sole source of income.

Now I had a decision to make, a decision that would probably determine where I would end up 1 year from now, 5 years from now, and even 10 years from now :

PLAN B (what most people would do) :

Come to my senses and realize this whole affiliate marketing thing was a dream. Revoke my resignation and plan on working for the next 40 years!?! Still continue my affiliate campaigns, but forget about ever becoming financially free.

PLAN A (what a “crazy” person would do, by most people’s standard) :

I had already taken the plunge, I had make a COMMITMENT TO MYSELF, that NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, I’M GOING TO MAKE IT WORK.

And this is exactly what I did, I stuck to my guns and scrabbled to optimize my campaign and improve my landing page conversion to adjust for the new changes. I cut back my personal expenses, and within a few weeks was able to get my profits up to the point where my living expenses were covered.

I’ve never looked back and my business has absolutely exploded to new levels since.

Now a lot of you may ask: “Amit, how were you so sure that everything was going to be OKAY?”

“Amit, what if things didn’t work out, what if you couldn’t get your profits back up? What would you have done then?”

Here’s my answer to those questions :

WHEN YOU KNOW YOU’VE ALREADY WON, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS!

This is what separates job people from entrepreneurs, it’s called faith, it’s called the entrepreneurial spirit. I had burnt my bridges and absolutely made a mental decision that this was it, there’s no looking back or turning back.

Would YOU have chosen Plan A or Plan B??

Next time I’ll talk about why my drop in profits in May 2005 was the best thing that has EVER happened to my business, and two quality you absolutely must have, before you take the plunge yourself. These two quality are essential to becoming a highly successful entrepreneur.