Making Money With An Online Business
Posted 14th April 2010 at 04:56 AM by ForwardSteps
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Online business is not different to managing and growing a physical business, and more often than not, you need to bring similar structures into your online business.
In any business, you would firstly want to establish your own business name and have it registered so that at the end of the road, you have something to sell that is a real asset.
You want attached to that asset, a customer base i.e. a list that adds value to the unit you are selling. For example, I have four separate entities that I could sell at various future stages - my Forward Steps domain name forwardsteps.com.au, the My Forward Steps member site and its distinct mailing list, the 179 Forward Steps publications and its own mailing list, the timeformylife.com domain and the associated book, the ask-thea-about.com domain and users of that service (though others may not wish to purchase a domain that has my name attached to it. Something I ought to have been aware of at the time of creation.
In addition, there will be future products that I create such as e-books, questionnaires or audios, and their landing pages with their own domains. Each will be able to be sold as separate entities should I want lump sum cash in the distant future, without having to sell my entire business in one piece.
I see many, many thousands of online travellers who join businesses as an affiliate and pump out their links at communities and directories, plus send spam emails to hundreds. This is a very scattered approach and not highly leveraged, effective business building. The internet appears to be the gold field of the modern age. Guess who made the most money in the gold fields? Those who sold the pick, shovels and wheelbarrows!
In a physical business, do you see people jumping from one business to the next in a matter of weeks or months? Most times business owners commit to laser focused action in one specialty for years to producing a successful end result. Later, they employ staff to enable them to move away from spending so much time in their business after a few years of doing much of the activity themselves.
Similarly online, it is important to make that level of commitment and do the hard yards in the early days: establishing credibility, a client base and automated structures that will eventually lead to less personal time input.
In setting up any business you really want to have an exit strategy in mind before embarking. Know what it is that you want to accomplish, as an end result. Then you create a solid plan to produce that result, taking the necessary and clear actions that will bring you the outcome for which you planned.
You do not want to create "busy-ness", you want to create a "business: a commercial enterprise or establishment". Rather than building yourself a 'job', you want to build a structure that develops passive income flow, and preferably one that you personally own rather than being attached to someone else's business and holding your breath that they stay in business, for your personal income security.
Avoid hanging "your hat and good name" on fly-by-night ventures that come and go.
"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." ~Warren Buffett - Investment Entrepreneur~
Get to work, and build your own enterprise, of which you can be proud. Get to know what it takes to grow a profitable, self-sustaining business and have a plan that you will follow, for clear direction.
Know the specific daily actions that will move you toward or away from your desired end result. Measure as much as you can, such as the results of advertising, get to know what works and what doesn't. Then do more of what works, and over time eliminating the non-productive activities in your days.
You can stay where you are right now or you can take Napoleon Hill's advice and learn how to concentrate.
© Thea Westra lives in Perth, Australia. She publishes a wealth of material for increased life power, self improvement, inspiration, personal success, online business, and internet know-how. Enjoy her many self-improvement resources at My Forward Steps and her latest book at Time For My Life
Online business is not different to managing and growing a physical business, and more often than not, you need to bring similar structures into your online business.
In any business, you would firstly want to establish your own business name and have it registered so that at the end of the road, you have something to sell that is a real asset.
You want attached to that asset, a customer base i.e. a list that adds value to the unit you are selling. For example, I have four separate entities that I could sell at various future stages - my Forward Steps domain name forwardsteps.com.au, the My Forward Steps member site and its distinct mailing list, the 179 Forward Steps publications and its own mailing list, the timeformylife.com domain and the associated book, the ask-thea-about.com domain and users of that service (though others may not wish to purchase a domain that has my name attached to it. Something I ought to have been aware of at the time of creation.
In addition, there will be future products that I create such as e-books, questionnaires or audios, and their landing pages with their own domains. Each will be able to be sold as separate entities should I want lump sum cash in the distant future, without having to sell my entire business in one piece.
I see many, many thousands of online travellers who join businesses as an affiliate and pump out their links at communities and directories, plus send spam emails to hundreds. This is a very scattered approach and not highly leveraged, effective business building. The internet appears to be the gold field of the modern age. Guess who made the most money in the gold fields? Those who sold the pick, shovels and wheelbarrows!
In a physical business, do you see people jumping from one business to the next in a matter of weeks or months? Most times business owners commit to laser focused action in one specialty for years to producing a successful end result. Later, they employ staff to enable them to move away from spending so much time in their business after a few years of doing much of the activity themselves.
Similarly online, it is important to make that level of commitment and do the hard yards in the early days: establishing credibility, a client base and automated structures that will eventually lead to less personal time input.
In setting up any business you really want to have an exit strategy in mind before embarking. Know what it is that you want to accomplish, as an end result. Then you create a solid plan to produce that result, taking the necessary and clear actions that will bring you the outcome for which you planned.
You do not want to create "busy-ness", you want to create a "business: a commercial enterprise or establishment". Rather than building yourself a 'job', you want to build a structure that develops passive income flow, and preferably one that you personally own rather than being attached to someone else's business and holding your breath that they stay in business, for your personal income security.
Avoid hanging "your hat and good name" on fly-by-night ventures that come and go.
"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." ~Warren Buffett - Investment Entrepreneur~
Get to work, and build your own enterprise, of which you can be proud. Get to know what it takes to grow a profitable, self-sustaining business and have a plan that you will follow, for clear direction.
Know the specific daily actions that will move you toward or away from your desired end result. Measure as much as you can, such as the results of advertising, get to know what works and what doesn't. Then do more of what works, and over time eliminating the non-productive activities in your days.
You can stay where you are right now or you can take Napoleon Hill's advice and learn how to concentrate.
© Thea Westra lives in Perth, Australia. She publishes a wealth of material for increased life power, self improvement, inspiration, personal success, online business, and internet know-how. Enjoy her many self-improvement resources at My Forward Steps and her latest book at Time For My Life
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