Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up

One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.

However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.

Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.

But why?

In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!

So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)

The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.

Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.

Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.

By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.

You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.

Responsible Education Reform

Still, for the millions of students, billions of dollars, and countless hours of effort devoted, there is no shortage of criticism for our American educational system. Students are maligned for poor communication, math and decision making skills, the inability to creatively solve problems, and a host of other inadequacies. Teachers and administrators alike are criticized for failing to impart the knowledge, know-how, and wisdom students need to not only survive, but to flourish in modern society. Uniformly expectations for education are high and the demands are great, but unfortunately the results do not always measure up.

The culture and political system of the United States act increasingly to concentrate power, particularly in the hands of government. The unstated, but irresistibly attractive advantage to relying on government for any task is that we get to divorce ourselves from the bane of human existence: personal responsibility, and the work such responsibility demands.

Given to contrivance and convenience we convince ourselves education can be reduced to an equation of inputs and outputs – dollars committed to productivity achieved. Taxpayers need only contribute their apportioned tolls and they can then make performance demands. Every rational assessment of our system however, identifies a bankrupt enterprise. We search for superman and race to nowhere, but now it is time we focus on the only viable solution to our educational dilemma: personal responsibility.

In our immaturity, we loath the very notion of taking on responsibility. The reality is, however, every human life is a unique journey of self-discovery – our educational system should advance, not inhibit, the voyage. Each individual is responsible for the quality, intensity and depth of their experience. Until an individual accepts full responsibility for developing his or her talents, exploring this world and contributing to society, that individual will never be fully free or fully alive. We ignore this truth at our own peril.

We cling to the promise of “industrialized education” when instead we should transform the system to promote two ends: establish a base level of intellectual (communication, calculating, reasoning) and social skills; and help each individual uncover and develop his or her unique gifts and talents. Assuming personal responsibility must be at the forefront of any effort to revise the education equation.

While students and parents still bear the lion’s share of responsibility for outcomes, teachers can and do play a critical role in formal educational. To begin the transformation here is one idea, amongst literally hundreds, to raise the bar on responsibility for teachers: Make a part of every teacher’s compensation the future earnings of his or her students. Allocate a portion of every working individual’s taxes (a few percent) amongst his or her teachers from grades one through twelve as deferred compensation. Students and parents could refine apportionment through performance criteria established over the course of the student’s formal educational career – better teachers would warrant greater consideration.

This proposal would not require additional taxation; just a reallocation of taxes with priority given to teachers. In the long run, a teacher’s economic viability would depend on the working contributions of their students. A teacher would have a vested interest in the long-term physical and intellectual well-being of every student.

This idea is just one example of measures that could be implemented to instill a sense of personal responsibility for everyone involved in education. Education and learning, growth and socialization are intrinsically human (not industrial) endeavors. The tragedies and triumphs inherent in the American educational system are microcosms of society at large. To effectively reform our system we must make personal responsibility the focal point for sound education policy. We all have a stake in education, let’s begin responsible reform.

Copyright (c) 2011 Scott F Paradis

Business Building Tips – 5 Ways To Start Your Home Based Business Off Right This Year

If you’re anything like me chances are good that you look forward to a new year just as much as I do. This is especially true when it comes to making sure your start your home based business off on the right foot.With each new year a renewed interest lights a spark in my entrepreneurial spirit motivating me to make it my best work at home business year ever.In this article I’m going to provide 5 tips to making sure you start your business off the right way for the new year. Stick with me and let’s make this the best year for your home based business.Successful Business Builder Tip Number 1 – Learn From Past Failures And Then Let Them GoLet’s be real for a quick second. There is nothing more devastating to the future success of your business then dwelling on mistakes you have made in the past. Even if the last 12 months represent the worst times for your business don’t despair, things can and will get better. Instead focus your efforts on identifying what mistakes you made and what you can learn from them and what you can do to prevent them from happening again.Successful Business Builder Tip Number 2 – Set Realistic and Achievable GoalsIf you start the new year off with a goal to have 5000 new downline members under you or to make a million dollars within 6 months you might not see the success you deserve. I say might because the reality is, anything can happen.However, I have found that setting realistic goals such as adding a new consultant to your team every week or every two weeks to be a much more realistic goal and easily achievable. This prevents you from setting your objectives up to high thus avoiding the feeling of failure if you don’t achieve or realize those outlandish goals.Successful Business Builder Tip Number 3 – Outline Your Blueprint For SuccessIn tip number 2 I talked about setting goals. This tip enhances and improves upon that objective and it involves developing and creating a bona fide blueprint for business success.You’ll want to identify how many hours a week you can spend working on your business, how you are going to generate leads for your downline, how you are going to generate new customers, how you intend to train your new consultants and when you plan to incorporate rest cycles into your busy business day. You will need to focus on items like this and more if you plan to make this year your best ever as a business owner.Successful Business Builder Tip Number 4 – Don’t Make Excuses For Not SucceedingHere is one main difference that I have noticed between the successful consultants in my downline and the consultants that struggle. The fact is, my most successful downline members don’t make excuses for not getting something done.Instead they follow the success blueprint they designed to grow their home based business. Additionally, when they stumble (trust me, we all stumble every now and then) they quickly regroup and refocus their energy and determination to succeed back into their job.Successful Business Builder Tip Number 5 – Celebrate The Victories No Matter How Small They May BeThis is one of my favorite motivational tools and it focuses on celebrating every victory no matter how small it may seem. This could range anywhere from generating your first sale, receiving your first $1000 check from your company or signing up your first downline member. It’s OK to get excited and celebrate these milestones as you continue your journey to creating a life changing business.