3 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting An Online Business
I learned these things that hard way.
I got started in my online business adventure nearly 3 years ago on the sandy beaches of Mallorca and it has been a rollercoaster of challenges ever since. I have loved starting an online business and while things were difficult, it changed my life for the better.
The first year was most certainly the toughest as there were so many different things that I completely underestimated and a lot of people will probably end up in the same situation.
In this article, I want to share with you X things that I wish I knew before starting an online and I think that some of these things could really help you if you are just getting started.
1. Patience Is Key
When I first started thinking about how I was going to start my first online business, I assumed that I could make money within the first few weeks and it would be very easy to do.
There is no such thing as making money online overnight or really fast because you have to build up a relationship with people or an audience. This is not something that can happen fast because trust is your number one asset.
Think of it this way, if you are going to a new website that is talking all about how amazing a $1000 course is and why you should buy it. Are you just going to go ahead and buy it? Probably not because you have never heard of this site and you won’t know if it is a reliable site that is selling you a product that is right for you.
If you then take that same site but you have followed it for years and have built up a lot of trust with it, you are more likely to listen to their recommendations.
I found this out the hard way, I just thought that I could be making money within a couple of weeks but I was far from right. You need to understand that starting an online business will take time and a lot of effort to get started.
There are some things that talk about using paid advertising to promote affiliate links and you can start making money straight away but there are 2 problems with this. You need to have a large budget to get started and you are not going to make money fast, you have a lot of learning to do if that is the route that you want to take.
This is probably the biggest lesson that I learned because I got really put off by the fact that I wasn’t making any money. It took me nearly 2 years to start making any money online and I have learned that starting any business will take time but it is really worth it in the end.
2. Choose A Business Model And Stick To It
This is one of the things that I really wish someone had told me before I got started because I was going from one business model to the next and each time it failed, I would start a new one.
The first business model that I tried to start was a blog that I made for free with wordpress.com and it was terrible. It had ads all over it and the user experience was terrible.
I putting a lot of effort into it but for some reason, I just didn’t understand that the user experience is everything and if people don’t like what you have to offer, you won’t be successful.
So after that business had failed, I moved onto print on demand using Teespring and this was one of my biggest mistakes. I did no research on how to make shirts that people would buy and how to do any kind of marketing to make sales.
I spend a lot of money on Instagram influencers for my marketing but my designs were terrible and no one would ever buy them. I made one sale from all of that and it was a stick that sold, my revenue from that one sale was less than $1.
I then moved onto a different business model and then another until I finally settled on Medium and blogging but I had wasted so much time trying different things out.
I think that if you are going to start an online business, you should look at all your different options and choose one that you will stick to. Don’t waste your time switching between different business models, get really good at one and focus all of your time on that.
3. You Need To Spend Money To Make Money
Some people might find this a little bit controversial but from what I have found, you need to spend at least a small amount of money to get started. I have already shared my experience with my original WordPress blog and all I would have had to spend was $3 per month and that could have helped me a lot.
There are very few businesses that you can start with no upfront cost and a great example of this is Medium but with something like this, you are restricted to certain things that are out of your control.
If you start writing on Medium, you have to follow certain rules and there are so many things that you can’t control so you might not even class it as a business.
Starting a business can be so inexpensive and just spending a little amount of money you can start something that will make you a lot in the future.
Every business that I started before blogging and Medium I tried to do for free, this was a massive mistake because I was so restricted the whole way through. I was held back and if anything, there were so many things that made life more difficult.
When starting a business I recommend that you have at least a small budget as this will make the journey much easier.
Conclusion
There are many different things that I have learned over the last three years and I think can help anyone who starting an online business. I really wish I knew a lot of these things when I started because they would not only have saved me time but also money.