The biggest challenge to becoming an entrepreneur is the battle within your mind.
Fear, doubt, and laziness will limit who you really are and who you are meant to be. If you want to change, you must be able to face these handicaps head on.
These elements will keep you small and deny the life you really want for yourself.
There is no one in your way except for you
It is easy to stay the same. It is easy not to change. Most people choose to stay the same all their lives.
If you can find the strength to take on these elements, you will find the door to your passive income lifestyle.
The truth is, anyone can become an entrepreneur. This article is designed to show you how to start an online business from start to finish.
What is Your Why?
When entertaining the idea of becoming an entrepreneur many folks are compelled with the idea of striking it rich and becoming a millionaire overnight. Now, I can appreciate the ambition in this style of thinking, however, this is rarely the case. If ever.
I’m not saying that it cannot happen, I’m merely stating that the cards are stacked against you. In fact, if you were to ask any successful business person how they did it, most likely their answer would include words such as time, dedication, and purpose.
Purpose, in my opinion, is the biggest factor.
I can tell you from personal experience if you are starting a business just to make money, you will live a meaningless life.
That is why a “why statement” is important. Dig deep.
What is your purpose? Why do you do what you do?
At Digital Investor our ethos is “to create quality content and education, so that you can create a passive income lifestyle”.
It’s really that simple for us, but it has made all the difference in our existence on this earth.
Planning is Essential
Before venturing off into the market with your idea, it’s good to have a plan. I highly recommend devising a business plan, marketing plan, and strategic plan.
Let me explain.
A business plan should be the overview of your business. In this plan you want to take a look at your business from 30,000 feet and determine the overall direction.
For example, your business plan should include such things as identity. Who are you? What do you do? Why do you do it?
Next, what problem are you going to solve? This is what an entrepreneur does, right? Solve problems, for a profit, yes? Now that you have identified the problem, what will be your solution? What is your better mouse trap?
Who is your target market? Who is the competition? You will want to know who you are going after and what type of competition exists.
Revenues, expenses, break-even, etc. Budgeting is the single most important factor in business, in my opinion. If you cannot create these forecasts, I would highly recommend hiring a professional to help you with the numbers.
Stick to your budget, otherwise, you won’t be in business very long.
What does your future team look like? I suggest learning all aspects of your business intimately before hiring help or outsourcing.
A marketing plan is exactly what it sounds like. How will you market your business? Will you create digital business cards? Build a website? Attend meetups? Offer education? Host webinars?
Remember the demographic of the target market within your business plan when considering these different marketing strategies.
Finally, a strategic plan is what consists of the actions you are taking and milestones you are achieving on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
This is the plan we need to regularly visit and review to make sure our short-term actions are aligned with our long-term vision.
Create Your Online Side Hustle
Today’s business opportunities exist conveniently within a fingertips reach on a hand held device. We can literally connect with anybody in the world at any time of the day. The internet and technology have created this type of environment.
So then, doesn’t it make sense to utilize the internet and technology to build your business? There are countless opportunities in the cloud if you just take the time to engage in deep-thinking.
If you are a service based business, you can market your skills on www.upwork.com. If you are a products business you may want to consider Amazon drop-shipments.
Internet marketing can be very lucrative. That is why I’m a huge fan of finding high traffic keywords and building my marketing around this demographic.
To learn more about finding high traffic keywords Click Here
Determine your fee structure using your budget and break-even analysis. This is why I’m such a huge fan about having accurate numbers. Obviously, if your fees are too low you will slowly go bankrupt and if your fees are too high you will not get the business.
Finally, don’t forget the customer service aspect of your business. How would you like to be treated if you were making this purchase?
I can’t stress enough on the importance of doing what you say and saying what you do. I can tell you from personal experience when these two elements begin to deviate from one another, you could be in for a wild ride.
As a savvy business person it’s important to build your reputation the right way, you will be rewarded in the long-run.
Work Your Ass Off
There is really no softer way to explain this process. If you think that being your own boss means that you’ll have more time off, I would urge you to keep your day job.
The reality is that successful entrepreneurs are always working. There is no way around it.
The key is finding your passion in your business, which stems from your “why statement”. There is a lot of power in viewing your business in this way because it no longer becomes work. When you are passionate about your business you are fulfilling your “why?”. And, when you are fulfilling your “why statement” you are aligning your purpose in life.
This is the true beauty of being an entrepreneur! You’ll spend every single day doing what you love.
Scaling your business and developing a team can be scary. Of course, nobody else can do the task better than you, they will probably fail miserably.
In building a team for my businesses I’ve learned to add slowly and subtract quickly. The truth is that most people will not be tuned in the same fashion as you are and they will not have the same passion as you do.
That’s just the reality of it.
I’ve learned to start with delegating small tasks and slowly work on adding more sophisticated tasks after a potential teammate has proved themselves.
That is the only way, make them earn it. You will quickly be able to recognize talent.
On the flip side, if you notice less desirable traits, be quick to move on. There is always another, trust me.
Remain Teachable
The two most dangerous words in the English dictionary are “I know”. The truth is that most people don’t know, however, we as humans don’t want to admit the fact.
Honestly, It just doesn’t look good to the outside world.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know, in fact, I take pride in it. When I admit that I don’t know it keeps me humble. And when I am humble I remain teachable. This is a key factor to success.
I constantly use Google and YouTube to research topics.
I invest in continuing education. If you are interested in learning about high traffic keywords Click Here
I have a personal goal to read 24 books per year, that’s 2 books per month.
I attend 2 – 4 seminars per year.
And, I constantly ask questions about ideas I do not understand. That is the only way to learn and continue to learn.
Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t understand.
Lastly, I want to end this article with some sage advice. Don’t give up. Ever.
The road to success does not happen overnight and Rome was not built in a day. And, now you have a better understanding on how to start an online business from start to finish.
If you have found this article helpful, please leave comments below and/or share on social media.
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To your passive income lifestyle,
Justin Ash, Founder/ Member
Digital Investor
