Struggling to Grow My Small Biz Online -- Any Tips for a Total Beginner?

Firstly, Know exactly who you are selling to and what problem you are solving, most beginners skip this part and jump into ads or social media without understanding their audience deeply.

Thank you. Great advice. For what it's worth, here is another perspective: WHY?

A friend had me dive down the rabbit holes of Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins as used by online casinos. He was excited that you could get FREE Sweeps coins to use, until he found out they were illegal in his state.

Now this hot money maker (supposedly) is making the rounds on Facebook Ads and other social media. You have to hand write a card, mail it in, have the casino get around to seeing it and then issuing you the coins, then you can GAMBLE and hopefully win.

It has so much slop and mess and I only use it as an example. But many of you are starting your online businesses with just as much slop, mess and TIME wasting as these new "hot" money makers.

On a scale of 1 to 10, one being the simplest and fastest to a 10 being TIME, ENERGY and resouces consuming, or in my opinion, BAD IDEAS to even start.

A 1 is: Me putting my TV on front porch with cardboard sign and a dollar amount, and having someone buy that in 15 minutes at the asking price (a true event as I sold a new smart TV for less than half of what I paid).

That is TRANSACTION one. Or a simple two step (3 parts) process. Part one, selling something. Parrt 2, letting potential buyers know it is for sale. Step 3 exchanging money for it.

The 10, or very bad transaction is found in the real life time waster, with one Facebook group having over 17,000 members is the so called "Sweepstakes" scams (MY opinion).

The casinos have to give the more valuable Sweeps Coins away, thus they have sweepstakes. So many hoops to hurdle with no guarantee of any return.

I liken this to how many Warriors tell us: I just started my own small business and I'm trying to get more people to notice me online.


Impossible to give this person any actionable advice, thus they get this.

So, here is one to THINK ABOUT starting a business, online or off, to get yourself to a faster to profits starting point.

How many steps happen, what action is needed by YOU, before their money lands in your bank account?

The fewer steps, stages, or needs, the FASTER you will get to profits. If you need to build any sort of a web site, or establish your social media, or involve third parties of any kind, these all take time...and then you need traffic, or targeted ads to get the traffic. So much slop and mess right from the get go.

So, how many steps are there between you and the MONEY? Your choice of a business model often determines your success, and it need not take years and years.

GordonJ

That's such a solid breakdown -- seriously, thank you!

Right now? Honestly, just testing the waters. I'm posting a bit on Instagram and trying to stay active in niche FB groups, but it's been kind of inconsistent. I'm also building a basic site with Wix (not live yet), and starting to collect a few testimonials from early customers.