I don’t know about you, but I love the internet. It’s so powerful, whether for business, for fun, for finding old friends, but most importantly, for making money. There are opportunities for all, from home workers, to moms and pops, micro-businesses and the vast corporations of this world.

I fit into the first category, being an independent marketer based in London, England. Rather than writing in detail about this blog - which is basically about internet and small business marketing, blogging, web 2.0, and of course making money - I thought I’d tell you about me and my career journey so far. This way, you might get a flavour of why I’m writing this blog and what my motivations are. I will credit the idea to Gobala Krishan of easywordpress.com who’s been an inspiration, among many, in the world of Internet Marketing.

So here goes. I’ve had quite a varied work history, as you’ll see below. I’ve learnt some very valuable lessons along the way. Of course my experience is growing with each new client and project I take on. I’ll skip my very first businesses, selling conkers on the school play ground.

(if you just want to head straight into the blog, why not start at the popular posts page)

Waiter at a local restaurant

A great start to my working career and essential for keeping my teenage social life going. This was my first real job after spending several years getting up ridiculously early for various paper delivery rounds. It seemed like most of my school was working at this restaurant at the time which made it great fun. I learned three important lessons from this job: chefs are extremely hot tempered, good customer service is vital, the need to look after your staff.

Checkout Operator and Shelf Stacker at Tesco

I moved on after a couple of years to the local supermarket, mostly because it paid better. This was around 1994/95 and I stuck around until I finished my A’Levels, the equivalent of graduating high school in the US. Lessons here, really to keep your costs in control and make sure you continually reward and develop your team, otherwise they lose interest quickly.

University Work

At university I had a variety of jobs, from being a market research guinea pig, to a nightclub bar supervisor, to various factory jobs like packing hot cross buns. The most interesting was a door-to-door sales job which I took for three months during the summer.

Working on 100% commission I was selling restaurant promotions door to door - extremely hard hard work I can tell you. I learned a few sales tricks on this one, but most importantly the value of hard work, not pre-judging prospects and keeping a smile on your face. I couldn’t say I overly enjoyed the work, but I also started to understand the value of a good salesman.

Sales and Marketing Assistant, Compaq Computer

My first office job was working for Compaq, the computer company which has since been swallowed up by HP. Actually, I started with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) which was acquired by Compaq - lets just say there were a lot of mergers in the tech industry at the time. I worked in a marketing and sales support role for the British Telecom Global Sales account team.

It was a year of working hard and drinking a lot.

This is where I learned to love the technology industry, in particular the speed it changes and the money you can make from that. I also learned the value of working with good people and damage that can be done with bad people. There was a lot of money made in this sales team and it changed my views on the sales profession - it takes talent and hard work to make it in that world. The politics and large corporate environment also led me to want to head into the small business world, but not before I worked for another large corporate though.

Operations Assistant, Walkers Snack Foods, part of PepsiCo

I joined Walkers as a temporary role and ended up staying for 6 months. It was an internal communications position, helping factory workers to understand how to operate the crisp / chip bag making machines. The challenge was to make technical instructions accessible to all of Walkers’ staff. I learned the value of clear communications and also good project management.

General Manager & Account Director, WPR

I finally made it to a small company, joining this London based PR agency when it was only a three man team. I worked hard to make an impression and quickly grasped that there’s no hiding in a small business - you simply have to get the job done. I also quickly picked up responsibility for several tech based clients who at the time were flying and demanding results. I learned the value of getting the job done, paying close attention to detail and that team working requires honesty and hard work.

It was at this time I tried a new venture as a nightclub promoter in London. For a year some friends and I promoted a monthly house music party at a well known nightclub in central London, but we jumped in at the wrong time. The market was really struggling and we hadn’t done our homework. The value of good research is priceless, I can tell you I lost a couple of thousand dollars on that one.

Marketing & PR Consultant, London

After four years on that job, it was time for a change and my entrepreneurial side persuaded me to set up on my own. Running similar campaigns to my time at WPR, I started out in January 2006 as a freelance consultant. To this day I’ve grown my portfolio of services from PR, to internet marketing, web design, branding, strategy consultancy and more. My clients range from a global technology provider, a telecoms company, a PADI scuba school, an architects practice and more. I have an office in South London, England.

After about nine months it soon became apparent my earning potential was limited by the number of hours I could work in a day. I needed something else, something that could earn money whilst I was sleeping, or on the beach, or taking a much needed rest. After some research I stumbled into blogging and internet marketing and I’ve steadily been growing my skills in both areas ever since. So much so that I have a new affiliate product coming out soon and various other projects starting as I strive to make money on the net.

The main lessons I’ve learnt so far: making money on the net is not for the feint hearted. It takes a lot of work and dedication.

Well anyway, there’s my journey so far, if you’re still reading I hope you found it interesting. In the next three years I plan for this to become even more colourful with internet marketing providing me with a full time income…. keep watching to see how I get on.

Cheers,

Andy Bargery