Before starting online business

[lokrum]

By Gregg Hall

You may have heard some people saying that starting your
own business is difficult. Guess what? They're not kidding.

Starting a business, in many ways, is a lot like having a
child and before you get started there are lots of things
you need to think about and discuss with anyone you can.

Can You Afford to Fail?

You might have heard the old saying 'only gamble what you
can afford to lose'. Well a large percentage of online
businesses fail in their first year, so if your financial
situation is such that you will agonise over every small
amount you spend, starting a business is probably a bad idea.

Put it this way: Expect that you will not to make any
money in the first few months as very few people achieve
success immediately. Most often it takes anyware from 3 to
6 months before you start to see a return for your efforts.

Note that this doesn't mean that you shouldn't believe in
yourself and your business - simply that you have to
realize the kind of odds you're up against and stay
realistic.

Will You Stick at It?

You can't get halfway through all this and have a sudden
change of heart, or feel like you're doomed to fail. All
successful business spend plenty of time doing badly before
they start to pick up. You need to prepare yourself for a
steady stream of failure being slowly replaced by success.
Don't expect the world all at once.

Could You Take the Stress?

Starting a business is one of the most stressful things
you can do. It will affect you mentally, physically and
emotionally. You need to be strong to deal with this kind
of stress, and you need to have someone to turn to for
support.

Are You a Survivor?

There are some people who always seem to make it in the
end, regardless of what life throws at them. You need to be
the kind of person whose response to things going wrong is
to work harder and get it fixed, not someone who cries and
goes into hiding.

Many entrepreneurs say that this, more than anything, is
the secret of success. You need to be a 'never say die'
kind of person. You need to be always ready to try again,
no matter what gets thrown at you. Remember that it's not
when things start to go wrong that you fail - you haven't
failed until you've given up.

Be Prepared to Work Hard.

If you've been doing a standard nine-to-five job, you're
probably used to a world where it's someone else's
responsibility if the work doesn't get done - you work as
fast as you can for the hours you're told to, and if it's
not done on time then it's the manager's fault for not
hiring enough people.

When you work on your own, though, there's no-one to blame
- the buck stops where it starts, with you.

You Need to Satisfy Every Customer.

When you run an online business, you can't afford to lose
your customers. You need to always be nice to them, trying
to meet their needs. You have to remember that you're the
most senior person they can talk to in your organisation,
so you have to act like it.

When there's no-one other than you to handle complaints,
you have to either give in to customers at every
opportunity or watch them take their business elsewhere.

Do You Really Love What You Do?

If you don't love what you do, then sooner or later you're
going to want to stop doing it - and when you run an online
business, that's difficult. Besides, you can't run a
business if you're always sitting and thinking about how
great it'll be when it's the weekend.

Think of it this way:

Could you run up to someone on the street with a leaflet
about your business and tell them all about it in a way
that would really leave an impression?

It doesn't matter whether you actually could or not - if
you think everyone will be interested, then, believe me,
they will be.

Gregg Hall is a consultant for online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida. Get reviews on executive business books at Executive Business Book Summaries

[Linda Buquet]

Nice article lokrum, thanks for sharing. You made some good points!

[AnaB]

You have a great article there. Definately something newbies should be reading. I come across a lot of people who just want to make some quick dollars the next day, people who have given up cuz they've only made $10 in a month, I am sure we can all relate to this..I personally think easy success is quite invaluable because it doesn't teach you much (and I know people will hate me for saying this but really...its great to make mistakes when you are new)

[Linda Buquet]

Good points Ana!

[Meg]

Thank you so much, Lokrum for such an informative article. It's very true that the newbie always thrive for easy and quick money. Most of them don't have the patience to wait for some time to get their business started. And I completely agree with you Ana, it's good to make mistakes, because the things which we learn from our own mistakes, is remembered lifelong.

[Byron Darensburg]

Thanks a lot!I really needed that! You have to really stick with it if you want to succeed in this business.Your article is very informative,and encouraging.

[ace5548]

lokrum,

Absolutely great article. Many points made that very few people really think about when they start. Persistance and learning from your mistakes work.

[scorpion68a]

I heard this request every single working morning for about one year. My colleague was eager to work, but she needed precision. My precision. And my precision tasks for her were there, day after day.

Then, there was the afternoon time, when a second line was breaking the silence: “Done! Let’s go!”

I was never able to comment on her “Done! Let’s go!”, although I always felt that something was missing there. It was unbelievable how she got me to tell her what to do, then she did all the tasks sharp and careful; briefly, she barely did any mistakes, yet I was not happy with her, nor I was able to express that in words. I figured out what I should have been unconsciously thinking of my robo-colleague today, when reading in Seth Godin’s blog a post named Done, from which here you are a small excerpt:

“The challenge is NOT to empty your inbox. The challenge is not to get your boss to tell you what to do.

The challenge is to ask a two part question: What next? What now?

Asking is the hard part.”

People like my colleague are definitely not entrepreneur type. Actually, she started her own business, then after two months she found herself a nine-to-five job again, because she could not make money with her business and she did not feel secure.

[yanbiz]

Being my own boss is something I have discovered through my experience in this business. When I started last year, it was just for a couple of hundreds per month to make my pocket a little heavier :-)

Now, the 8 to 5 job is not convenient for me because I have discovered this industry and all the advantages they come with, despire the inconvenients. My plan is to leave the corporate world in 2008. Being a home business owner is something really interesting for tax breaks.

Before to quit your job, we must be sure we are well grounded with our business and we make at least 3x your actual wages (in my opinion), you have regular traffic to your website and you grow every month.

Thanks for sharing!

[sagbee]

Awesome... reading your article am getting too much confidence on myself.. and am already ready to do Fail in my first business so i can learn + experience in my early ages.. and know about where mostly people failed...