The holy grail.
It sounds pretty great to start an online business…something that generates sales and money while you sleep. Something that let’s you work whenever you want, wherever you want! An engine that is constantly growing your audience.
And good news! If you want to start your online business, you can just buy this course/webinar/event etc. etc. etc.
You an spend literally every minute of the rest of your life watching video after video, listening to podcast after podcast, and reading article after article about how to start an online business.
Lewis Howes will say you just need this video series, and Tai Lopez will say you just need KNOWLEDGE. Dan Henry will say you can just get started with Facebook ads. Bryan Harris can teach you how to build an email list.
And honestly, there is some merit to all of these things. And if practically applied, they may help you get on your way.
But they all gloss over the most important part, and so does this Entrepreneur article listed as the first organic answer on Google.
But almost no one gets past Step 1. They gloss over it and focus on the red herrings of selling: websites, email lists, social media accounts, t-shirts, stickers…
And if you get stuck on this advice, or looking forward at steps 2-6 as shown here, you really aren’t any closer to starting than where you started.
To start an online business, start an offline business. Find something people are willing to pay you for, and try to sell it. When they tell you, “Oh I don’t really want this.” then find out why not. Find out what they want.
Try again.
When people start buying what you’re selling, now create an online marketing/selling engine. Use the web to scale or grow what you found to work.
Or, you can sit here and get the endorphins of “learning” how to start your online business. And while you’re doing that, you can watch your money fly away! 💸
– A letter written to myself.