subject: 5 Reasons People Fail at Online Businesses and You Could Too [print this page] 5 Reasons People Fail at Online Businesses and You Could Too
Why is it that so many people fail at online businesses (and brick and mortar businesses)? And no, scams did not make the list. Most people who want to be entrepreneurs decide in the middle of the night that when they wake up in the morning that they are going to be the next leader of the market place. The great news is that people don't have get overwhelmed with these reasons and can avoid the minefields that are associated with them.
A person signs up with the first offer that they come upon thinking that because it is the internet it is easy money. This normally happens to the person who remembers 1997 and has forgotten about 1999. Making money online and with brick and mortar businesses is hard work. There are no lottery winners when you are a business owner. It takes a passion for what you are doing to be able to spend the hard work that is going to be required to succeed. Find something you are passionate about and then find a business model around that passion.
A person spends all their time researching and never doing anything toward marketing. Putting up a sign or building the "perfect" website will not make a business succeed. It is all about "shaking hands and kissing babies" and a lot of people are fearful of putting themselves out there for that. Online businesses require a level of trust for someone to give you their credit card information no matter how secure the processing is. Somehow you have to get credibility in the market place. Following a system and not straying off of it is the best way to succeed.
A person finds the business that they want and they sign up for it. They have a passion and they are ready to start. They start getting a ton of other helpful email in their in-boxes or mail boxes. Everyone has that one little thing that will help your business succeed. In most if not all cases they have no idea what your business is. You start subscribing to every newsletter that is available. Before you know it you have 1000 pieces of mail a day. It takes you all day to look at it and you are too exhausted to work your business saying that you will catch up tomorrow. But tomorrow brings the same thing. Un-subscribe and throw away the postal mail. Do something that gets you a customer right now. Doing that will teach you how to get more customers. After you find one "Rinse and Repeat" until you melt down your internet connection.
A person is so excited and they run and tell everyone they know that they are going to be the next internet millionaire. Almost all of these people will tell you that you are crazy. And they are right. To be an entrepreneur you have to be a little bit crazy because if you have done it right you have just ventured into the unknown. In this economy the successful entrepreneur is still making money and the people telling the entrepreneur that he was crazy are the ones who are unemployed. Find a like-minded group of people to talk to each day but for only a very limited time each day. Remember it is all about finding a customer and then "Rinse and Repeat."
Every business owner who has ever failed has failed for this reason. They gave up. Even the founder of Wal-Mart had a bad day and literally had to shovel horse manure and clean up the street (literally horse manure). He lost the lease on his first store. He had to borrow money from his wife's parents. He was told by the fourth largest retailer in the world at the time that there was no way you could do the Wal-Mart concept and they refused to supply him and go into partnership with him. (They are out of business by the way). As long as you have not given up you have not failed.
I know I said 5, but to succeed you must under-promise and over-perform. Watch how much money you spend. The internet provides us with billions of shiny new buttons every day that will make us rich. Trouble is it boils down to; find a customer and then "Rinse and Repeat." When you are looking for your passion find a system that is a complete system and then follow it. There is a reason why the numbers are reversed for someone who buys a franchise and the guy who opens up "Sam's Burger Barn." If you spend a million dollars and buy a franchise then you can only do what they say to do. Count the pickles on a Big Mac the next 5 times you buy one. Why should you not do the same thing with the $495 business in a box that you bought?
Being a successful business owner is easy. Find what works and do it over and over. In most cases you do not need to reinvent the process. And never, ever, never give up
