Building a bold online business isn't a piece of cake. There are 3 simple things you can do immediately to get your (online) income off the ground in the next 30 days. If you have something going already, that is nice! Do these 3 things anyway and ASAP to grow your business even bigger and get back a whole lot of free time.
By the way, most people will never act on these things. They will think it is either too simple, or they will lack the discipline to do them for long enough to see any results, or who knows. It is good news for you, because therein lies your competitive advantage! Let’s get going growing your business online.
3 Ways To Grow An Online Business Bigger And Better
1. Pay Yourself First
I think originally this idea comes from the personal finance world, where you’re told, basically, "before you do anything else with your money, put aside 10% somewhere". I don’t know. What I do know is that there’s something way more valuable than money because there’s a finite supply of it. It is time. Each and every one of us, rich or poor, healthy or sick, young or old, only get 24 hours every day - and a lot of that time is spoken for already. Sleep, work, family commitments, and so on. It is no wonder, then, that most people’s biggest problem when it comes to starting and running a successful online business isn’t inspiration or even motivation. It is spending actual time to do things you need to do as an entrepreneur. There are a ton of them in any business model, and they all need to get done. This is why you have to treat your time just like money.
1. Pay Yourself First
I think originally this idea comes from the personal finance world, where you’re told, basically, "before you do anything else with your money, put aside 10% somewhere". I don’t know. What I do know is that there’s something way more valuable than money because there’s a finite supply of it. It is time. Each and every one of us, rich or poor, healthy or sick, young or old, only get 24 hours every day - and a lot of that time is spoken for already. Sleep, work, family commitments, and so on. It is no wonder, then, that most people’s biggest problem when it comes to starting and running a successful online business isn’t inspiration or even motivation. It is spending actual time to do things you need to do as an entrepreneur. There are a ton of them in any business model, and they all need to get done. This is why you have to treat your time just like money.
Here is what you do. Pay yourself in time and money will take care of itself. There are 24 hours in a day, and sleep is non-negotiable. You have to protect the asset, which is your physical body - without it, none of this will matter. That leaves us with 16 hours every day. Invest 10% of those 16 hours in your online business. That is 96 minutes every day, and if you can’t swing that right away, do 5% or even 2%, but make it a habit. That’s the most important part. I don’t mean consuming YouTube videos or podcasts, either. I mean sitting down and doing the necessary deep work that produces actual outcomes that move your business forward, including meaningful social media marketing.
Where do you find an extra 96 minutes (or less) every day? My favorite time of the day is the early morning. If it means having to skip a Netflix marathon before bed in order for me to get up on time to work on my business, that is the trade-off I am willing to make - because I am definitely paying myself first before Netflix! For you, this might be different. You might be someone who does their best work at 2 in the morning and then sleeps until 11 am. If your lifestyle allows it, who am I to judge? Find what works for you. But start paying yourself in time before everything and everyone else. It is your life we are talking about and you deserve to spend it the way you want. Now, what do you work on during that time?
2. Focus On One Thing
There’s this brilliant book by Gary Keller named The ONE Thing, which takes the well-known idea that you should focus on something and get it done (and, it better be something that moves you closer to your goals)… And explains it brilliantly in a way that sticks. (By the way, that’s a lesson well worth learning - if you take a simple insight that everyone kind of knows and are able to explain it in a way that sticks, you are going to do very well.)
2. Focus On One Thing
There’s this brilliant book by Gary Keller named The ONE Thing, which takes the well-known idea that you should focus on something and get it done (and, it better be something that moves you closer to your goals)… And explains it brilliantly in a way that sticks. (By the way, that’s a lesson well worth learning - if you take a simple insight that everyone kind of knows and are able to explain it in a way that sticks, you are going to do very well.)
What trips most people up is not that they don’t instinctively know that they need to focus and create outcomes. It is the what exactly, specifically should you be doing? You determine that by asking the following question: "What is the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” It is the Pareto principle in action - since 80% of your outcomes are determined by 20% of your actions, take it one step further and determine what’s the 20% of the 20%?
What is the ONE thing you should do NOW to move forward in your business? To me, right now, it is writing this email. Later today that one thing that I absolutely need to get done will be laying out a page where customers can buy things. For you this might be different. But notice how it doesn’t say anywhere that I should distract myself by checking Facebook, SMS messages, or email? Speaking of emails, keep reading below.
3. Build Your Email List Immediately
No matter what your specific business model is, if you don’t have an audience of people that you can reach whenever you want - and who love hearing from you - I would go as far as say you don’t have a business. For me, the best possible audience a business can have comes in a form of an email list. I treat it like gold and never compromise on the quality of my emails or anything. (Notice how most of what I send is WAY longer than what most people are sending?)
3. Build Your Email List Immediately
No matter what your specific business model is, if you don’t have an audience of people that you can reach whenever you want - and who love hearing from you - I would go as far as say you don’t have a business. For me, the best possible audience a business can have comes in a form of an email list. I treat it like gold and never compromise on the quality of my emails or anything. (Notice how most of what I send is WAY longer than what most people are sending?)
If you have a list, you have leverage and security. Keep nurturing it, email your audience frequently, and send them good stuff. There is nothing wrong with promotions, either - if you are genuinely excited about a product and genuinely believe it will help their lives. If you don’t have a list, start building one now. It is not even that difficult… it is that most people just won’t do what it takes.
What you are going to need is a lead magnet (and it doesn’t have to be a long, elaborate PDF - a checklist of things you shouldn’t do when starting your day as an entrepreneur will do just fine, for example), a way for people to sign up and get that lead magnet (any autoresponder will do just fine) and some traffic to a page where people can sign up. That is it business builders! That is how you build the most powerful asset your business will have: your email marketing list.
Keep Going And Growing Your Online Business
In summary, to grow your business online you must make sure to:
1) you have to pay yourself first,
2) do one thing that matters, and
3) build your email marketing list now!
You now have your work cut out for you. We hope this will help your online business growth!
Keep Going And Growing Your Online Business
In summary, to grow your business online you must make sure to:
1) you have to pay yourself first,
2) do one thing that matters, and
3) build your email marketing list now!
You now have your work cut out for you. We hope this will help your online business growth!
