We're reading: Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, by Gary Vaynerchuk.

We selected this book during the last meetup for The Power of Habit. By all accounts, The Power of Habit was a fantastic first choice. I expect that our next choice will be as enlightening.

I have read Crush It! and The Thank You Economy, also by Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary is on his 4th book now: #AskGaryVee, but we're starting with Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, his 3rd book because it is very relevant to our business. Most of the people involved in the Dot Com Lifestyle group have or want to have an online business.

We seek the kind of business that frees up our time and resources so we can do whatever we want. Social media has risen to be a very disruptive force in today's world. We've seen complete industries turned upside down because of Facebook, and Twitter. Instagram and Flickr changed the photography landscape forever.

We've seen regimes collapse under the pressure created by social media users. We have seen businesses explode because of a good Youtube commercial. This is why we want to read this book. How can we as entrepreneurs tap into the power of social media?

The title is descriptive of the philosophy that Gary preaches. Jab, Jab, Jab means to deliver the small but solid hits that pave the way for a knockout --the Right Hook-- punch in a fight. My buddy John Chow pointed out that it's a strange analogy to use when you're trying to build a business and generate sales.

Like do you want to "punch" your customer? He asked during our first meeting last week. And I can see that the principle could have been better illustrated with a more friendly analogy. But at the same time, in business we often say " go knock them out!" when talking about delivering a presentation, or business proposal.

Either way I'm really looking forward to reading this book. The questions that come to mind as of the writing of this book are:

• What exactly does Gary mean by Jab, Jab, Jab?
• When and how do you deliver the Right Hook?
• How do we translate our business goals, intentions and sincerity into social media activities?

The book Breakdown is as follows:

• Week 1 - Start the book. You should have read up to the "Kit Kat: Timed Out" section (page 75) before meeting for week #2.
• Week 2 -  Read up to Comedy Central: Bringing Community Together (page - 148), before meeting for week #3.
• Week 3 - Read from 149 to finish. before meeting for week #4
• Week 4 - Let's wrap up the book, commentary, lessons learned, questions pending and selecting the next book.

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Eureka Building is home to Eureka Hub and Eureka Events. They are a co-working and event space in Irvine and they (Eureka Events) host events like this all the time. This was my first time attending one of the Eureka events and I had a blast. The food was great, the companies there were pretty awesome. Some were very innovative and inspiring. I also made some great connections.

I met Alex Sewell and Kina De Santis from Motormood along with other great entrepreneurs. In fact Alex Sewell will be a speaker at our next event.

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The word system is really just a way to describe a whole process; A to Z that helps you get something done. In this case, the purpose of the system is to make you money.

The reason most businesses fail in the first year or two after they open is because they don't have a system. They don't have a way to repeat success and they're usually shooting blind hoping to hit their target.

That's just the harsh reality. The idea behind your business may be great, but it's hard to duplicate and scale. The product may be the best out there but only one person knows how to make it so the business stalls. The customer service component is not there so customers don't return. Maybe the product and service is great, but there is nobody marketing and calling up or following up to close sales.

As entrepreneurs, the options are nearly endless. We can start a business, we can buy a business, we can buy a franchise, or we can license a business. You can do all these offline or online. I prefer running my business online. Less overhead, better hours, more profitability potential.

You could start a business and have every component of the business planned out and have staff to help you get it all done. You'll need accounting, human resources, production, quality assurance, fulfillment, returns or complains, and much more.

Using the traditional business model, you'll need capital and you'll need quite a bit of it. You'll likely make money after 18 to 24 months. You'll be in a good spot if you can pay your bills and have a little spending cash, but profits could take a while.

That is if you survive that long. This is more or less the traditional path of most small businesses.

If you have money or a big loan, you can buy an existing business. You'll need to do research, find an owner willing to sell for a good price. Then if you get all that done, you'll need to figure out how to run the business so it doesn't go broke.

This is another option that is quite expensive and not necessarily lucrative. Maybe you'll make money in a year or two, maybe in five years. But you can at least see if the business is good on paper, if it strikes an emotional cord with you to the point where you know you can keep it profitable and grow it.

Ask  yourself, what am I going to bring to the table to earn more money with this business?

There is also the idea of a franchise. Franchises are really good systems sometimes. At least the good ones are, but the good franchises come at a price. Many times, a franchise is worse than a job in terms of financial burden, time commitment and quality of life for the owner, in other words, not very good.

But the best thing you can do for your business is to create a system. Start developing documentation, eliminate roadblocks to getting things done, and start creating a step by step guide on how to run your business.

This is the first step towards creating a system. The process of creating a system varies on every instance, but it is something similar to this:

Analysis > Documentation > Process Improvement > Testing > Design > Training > Deployment > Profit

Follow that short little chart above. Analyze the business to understand all the components that generate revenue and also those that produce losses. Document this information and create guides to explain how each component works with each other. Based on this initial analysis and documentation, try to eliminate those things that can't be automated or delegated and do a round of process flow improvement.

At this time you can test the changes you've made and correct any incongruencies along the way. Once you have a process, tested and documented, you can train others to do the work for you and thus allowing you to add new products or continue fine-tuning the margins on the current products. Training is necessary if you want to delegate your tasks.

Ideally you're doing many of these steps in a sequence but you are doing this on a staging or training environment. This way you're getting live feedback from live data and experience, but only in a small test environment that won't affect regular operations mode.

If you're changing a cash register system for example, don't just change it in all your stores all at once. Do a pilot test with a small group of cashiers and  to make sure all the kinks have been ironed out. Keep Testing and improving and designing.

This way, when people are ready to deploy the changes, everyone involved is familiar with the changes and how to handle them.

Finally, you put things into action when you deploy this and hopefully you will make a profit. You may need to loop through the entire process several times or loop through a few steps over and over until they're smooth and efficient.

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That's why I go to Affiliate Summit, to learn, meet people and partner up. This is the premier event to talk affiliate stuff. But here are some things I wish I knew the first time around.

Affiliate summit is teeming with people looking for new business and partnerships. Bring your A game, be prepared and most importantly, be open to meeting potential clients, vendors or partners. These people are unlike any other group of people I've ever met or hung out with.

Tip #1

Never, ever, judge a book by its cover. Unlike other professional events I've been to, people here are comfortable with who they are. To you and me, they may appear to be something completely different than they are. One moment  you could be sitting next to a regular Joe like you, and the next minute you could have a millionaire blogger or a super affiliate on the seat next to you. During one of the parties you could be having a drink with the owner of a multi-million dollar company. I can't emphasize this enough, do. not. judge. Get to know everyone you can, and listen before you are listened to.

Tip #2

Take pictures. This may sound trivial, but if you are at Affiliate Summit, you most certainly have a website or a blog that will need content. Pictures are excellent source of material for blogposts and articles. Do not miss this chance to take pictures of, and with some really interesting people. Don't worry about your outfit, your hair, or the background too much. Take the picture and seize the moment!

Tip #3

Start listening and researching now. Start doing some google searches and finding out who is going to be there, who they are and what they do. Look for companies that may provide a product or service or potential clients or partners, but don't forget to just make friends. A good place to start is Google+ and Twitter by using the hashtag #ASW14. Here are a few good links to help you get more involved:

• Missy Ward is co-founder of Affiliate Summit. I highly recommend you check out her blog.
• Shawn Collins is the other founder for Affiliate Summit and you should also keep an eye on his blog.
• List of exhibitors coming to Affiliate Summit West 2014.
•  Tricia Meyer is a blogger and affiliate marketer very much in tune with the industry.
• #ASW14 on Twitter listen to what's going on Twitter about the event.
• #ASW14 on Google + If Google+ is your cup of tea then check this out.
• Shareasale, one of the big players at the event. They host a great party and you'll see their booth in the meet market.

Tip #4

Leave a little extra room in your luggage. If you like schwag, leave some room in your suitcase for it. Lots of vendors will have little giveaways or gifts for you. Some of these are actually useful or just plain cool. In some cases you could even win prizes and stuff.

Tip #5

Bring a backpack. If you're a girl, you may want something different but I would still recommend a backpack over anything else. You can put your laptop or ipad in there along with a bottle or two of water, some snacks and other stuff. You'll have room to put swag away too until you go back to your room to unload the loot! There is wifi connectivity for attendees and you should find a place to plug in your laptop & phone charger so bring those with you as well.

Tip #6

Must wear comfortable shoes! Whether you go from one session to the next or prefer to spend your time networking and meeting vendors at the meet market, you'll be doing a lot of walking. Just like any other big conference, the hallways are spread out throughout the convention center... but don't forget, this is Las Vegas. Everything is more in Vegas, including walking.

There are other tips that you can find throughout the internet, and here is a little video I asked my friend John to do for you. He's the first person that invited me to ASW back in 2013, and so I thought it would be fitting for him to give you some of his tips as he has attended every event since it started.

Tips from John Chow

So, are you ready?

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I got a chance to meet some great new people, had great conversations and we really enjoyed each other's company over some wine and hors d'oeuvres.

I hope you can make the next event. We're planning the next 2 months and we will be announcing them all at our meetup page so join and stay tunned.

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But, really, why should you attend? (as if that wasn't enough).

First, because we'll have meetups that range from an informational overview type of meetup, to hands-on workshops and also social events like dot com lunches. The lessons learned will be powerful, the networking and support will be unparalleled. The value you will derive from being a member will be priceless. I guarantee you that much.

Second, because we are more than well qualified to lead you in this path. John Chow basically pioneered this lifestyle when he propelled his blog to making $40,000/month with just 2 hours of work each day, although he won't admit it in public, or officially, I can guarantee you he makes way more than that now.

Mark Berkowitz is a marketing genius. Mark prefers to keep a low profile online, but Mark has led a company named Aptivo to be one of the top companies in their space and one of the highest rated apps in the Google Apps marketplace. His understanding of marketing, implementation and deployments is unparalleled.

And me, Oscar Gonzalez, I am the technical and social guy behind this. Having worked for startups and well established companies has given me an amazing breadth of experience in collaboration, team building, courseware design and delivery, design and implementation. And over the past few years my focus has been in marketing through social media and other online channels. After coaching and advising countless entrepreneurs and small business owners, I've decided to break this lose for everyone to benefit from what I've learned.

If the company you will be with isn't enough to convince you that this is the place where you should be on Tuesday or Thursday evenings, perhaps the cost will be interesting to you. The cost will vary between free and your own cost to pay for lunch. Provided that our venue is hosted, we will host you for free. We want to share with you our knowledge and advice, and give you an opportunity to join us in this journey.

So what are you waiting for? RSVP here, our first event is next week on Thursday evening. Kick-off meetup. Living the Dot Com Lifestyle.

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Of course, you'll also find some commentary about Pho Bac, our favorite Pho place in Irvine. And the highlight of the video is John showcasing what he calls The Booby Mic. Debra wasn't thrilled about this but she was a good sport!

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