“The 7 Biggest Most Costly Mistakes Made When Starting Your Online Business!”
First step is in knowing the end result and understanding the thought process and drives of a lifestyle business model…
Would you identify and call yourself an entrepreneur?
The road to success is paved with tests…
So you’ve got to believe in yourself above the rest.
Dream big, and let your passion shine…
If you don’t, you won’t end up with a dime.
Challenge the status quo, disrupt the market and say YES!
And remember that innovation is an endless quest.
Don’t forget to change business for good…
If you want to change the world then you should.
If you think with your head and listen to your heart…
I promise you’ll get off to a flying start.
Make bold moves, but always play fair…
Always say please and thank you – it’s cool to care.
Do what you love and love what you do…
This advice is nothing new.
Now, stop worrying about whether your business will be a hit…
Rise to the challenge and say ‘screw it, let’s do it!’
By Richard Branson
A lifestyle business is typically set-up and run primarily with the aim of sustaining a particular level of comfortable income and no more…
This is the foundation from which to enjoy a particular lifestyle.
A lifestyle entrepreneur focuses more on the life rewards provided to people that enjoy and have a passion for what they are doing.
Not doing enough market research…
As lifestyle business entrepreneurs we fall in love with an idea…
And fantasize about how great our products are going to sell.
They say, just build a better mousetrap and they will come.
In the online world it’s like waiting all night to catch a tooth fairy.
It’s just not going to happen…
Most entrepreneurs start an online business with the belief that their idea is going to be worth millions right out of the gate.
What if you do the market research?
What if you look at the facts…
You might discover your idea is not going to work.
In this case it may be better to ditch the idea in the planning phase than to waste time and money trying to make it work.
When you are doing market research…
You want to make sure your find competition.
Multiple people already selling something similar to your product.
Why?
Because it’s proof others have made it work and you can too.
Next step is you need to visit their site…
That way you’ll sign up for their email list.
You may want to buy their product.
This gives you direct access to their emails and follow ups.
You get to see what’s happening in their marketing process.
You can take note of the many different products…
How they’re offering products for sale in their funnel.
Once you have this research from other competitors, you get a much better and deeper understanding of the market dynamics….
And what you’ll need to get in place to compete successfully.
Not focusing on 1 task until it gets done…
Now you have your market research done and have proof of concept there is a healthy demand for your product…
You need to focus on creating the product until it’s done.
That means 100% done, not 99% done.
As online entrepreneurs it’s easy to get distracted.
You can quickly get sidetracked by all those bright shiny objects.
Designed to make you part with your hard earned money….fast.
You can’t sell anything until you get it done.
Don’t try to do multiple projects at once. Why?
Because it will just slow you down.
In fact, you only need to have one front-‐end product completed to build your business.
Not using your own branded domain…
You can’t judge a book by it’s cover, right?
Yet you can judge an online business by its domain name.
Look, so many entrepreneurs foolishly use free hosting account or shared domain name.
That’s a sure sign of an amateur…
Your domain is your storefront.
Make sure you have a self-‐hosted domain which reflects your business.
This means you choose the right domain name…
A name that inspires trust and confidence in your buyers.
Not building your email list from day 1…
The lifeblood of your business is your email list.
Think of your email list as your own tribe.
And you are their fearless leader.
It’s up to you to lead them to whatever results you or your products deliver.
Never be afraid to email your list because you know you are providing value.
Make email list building your first priority as soon as your site is live.
May I suggest you use Aweber for your email marketing.
They have a crazy deal where you can get 30 days free.
Even if you don’t have your products ready for sale, still get an email form to capture emails on your blog.
Not building out your funnel…
Now you have your email capture set-up and running…
It’s time to review your market research to see what and how your competitors are selling their products.
You need to really look at how they’re positioning their products to the market.
What is the angle and hook they’re using to stand out?
Are they positioned as the Cadillacs of the niche?
Maybe they have the Wal-Mart approach and mentality?
You have to figure out your positioning first…
Yes, before you create a product.
You also need to look at what types of funnels your competitors are using.
You don’t want to be modeling their funnel if they’re losing money on the front-end to acquire a customer, right?
What if they’re promoting high‐ticket items the next week?
Do they make enough money from the front-end sales?
What if they don’t have a back-end funnel?
Listen, these are important details you need to consider.
And understand…
Not focusing on recurring income…
Even if you’re only selling ONE item…
Look at how you can take that one time sale and turn it into repeat sales.
Better yet…
Offer some kind of continuity program to create recurring income.
Often this is done with a product of the month, membership sites, newsletters, or product refills.
This will be the source of the bulk of your long-‐term income.
What if you consider selling your business?
Yep, your recurring income and email list will be assets.
Valuable assets that buyers want the most…
Not wanting to spend money on advertising…
This is where most entrepreneurs trip themselves up.
You have to get over this fear and be willing to spend money.
There is no other faster or more scalable way to get your offer in front of your target audience.
It is just like in real estate…
You’ve heard the saying…location, location, location.
You can’t make sales if buyers never see your site.
Paid traffic should be a line item on your cost of doing business.
The entire internet is based on the model of using paid traffic.
Trying to do the techie stuff yourself…
Funny thing is I’m a victim of this myself.
Listen, I can’t count the times I should have spent time growing the business instead of tweaking some code …
Messing with useless plugins on the site or in the shopping cart.
Don’t spend your valuable time doing techie stuff.
Technology is always changing and updating the codes…
It’s time consuming and difficult to learn and keep up.
The worst part is often you’ll only use it once or twice.
Yes, and by the time to learn it, it’s probably already obsolete.
Best part of technology, it is easy and cheap to outsource.
Thanks for reading, appreciate you…
John Mignano
Lifestyle Business
