5 Lessons I Learnt Building My Successful Business Online
The decision to start my own successful business online has been one of the most life changing one for me.
Although the process makes me feel like a turtle in the rabbit and turtle race, my heart knows that I will reach my greatest dream just by being consistent on my path.
Getting out of my comfort zone has challenged me in a positive way. It means letting go of old belief and accepting new ideas to help me to grow through my journey as an online business entrepreneur.
Instead of been caught up in a rat race of a 9-5 job, having my own business allows me the flexibility to have better control over my life and time.
There are many lessons I learnt during this journey and here are 5 lessons I learnt building my successful business online.
LESSON 1: MOST OF MY WORRIES ARE NEEDLESS
Before I tried to run a successful online business, I had this thinking that it was going to be high cost and risky to get started.
What I discovered was running an online business was low in cost compared to a physical shop.
On the other hand, I also feared the technical aspects of building an online business as I am not tech savvy. I thought the process of building a website was too complicated for a newbie like me to understand.
But soon, I realized most of my worries was redundant. My learning journey turned out easier than what I had imagined it to be.
What matters most is to find the right program that suits me. With the right program, I was guided the right way to get things set up. As the training program was newbie friendly and easy to understand, it was easy for me to overcome my fear for learning.
As soon as I get started , everything seemed easier. Soon, I found myself getting a hang of everything .
I learnt the best way to overcome any fear is to take actions.
LESSON 2: IF I DON’T GIVE UP, THERE IS ALWAYS CHANCE
Before anyone can see their business turns into a successful business online, it is always easy to throw in the white flag when things are not going right.
Giving up means you will have less burden and responsibilities to shoulder and more free time in your hands.
However, the founder of Alibaba Jack Ma thinks otherwise. He is quoted saying, “If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure.”
One of the reasons why people quit is because they have a weak reason to start an online business. Many people start an online business because they want to have a passive income online. However, this alone is not a strong reason to keep you grounded when things do not go your way.
This is why when starting a successful business online, your business must come with a strong purpose. The more powerful your why , the stronger your business will grow.
LESSON 3: YOU HAVE TO STOP TRYING TO DO IT ALL
To be honest, I am someone who hates to work extremely work for money. Even though I don’t mind working hard, I just disliked the idea having to slog for money.
Many years ago, I tried to run an online business on my own. I thought I could figure out how to make money online just like the gurus. I spent a lot of time learning how to install wordpress blog , how search engine optimization works and what social media marketing is all about.
Although I got a glimpse of what was going on in each aspect of online marketing, I did not achieve anything because I was a master of none.
I wasted too much time trying to figure things out because I thought I could do it myself. In fact I was all wrong.
Things began to make a change for the better when I found a system that taught me how to create a successful business online. By following the step by step training system inside the program, I found myself progressing.
My confidence improved because I had a better understanding of my focus and purpose when creating my business online.
In case you are wondering what is the program I am talking about here, it is Weathy Affiliate.
Wealthy Affiliate is a online platform designed for new and intermediate marketers to learn and grow their business.
LESSON 4: IT IS ALL ABOUT DELIVERING VALUE
If you are someone who thinks starting a successful business online is all about putting put a few pieces of content with your affiliate links on it, then I strongly discouraged you not to start one.
Besides understanding your customers’ need , providing quality products to your customers is one aspect in the business that can’t be overlooked.
These days, customers are given too many options to choose. In order to remain competitive in your niche market, delivering good quality products or services is one way to win your customers over.
Quality products not only help you to maintain customer satisfaction, it also helps to build trust and loyalty with your clients online.
No matter what industry you are looking at , always remember that customers are still more willing to pay more for a product that can satisfy their needs.
LESSON 5: FOLLOW WHO YOU WANTS TO BECOME
It did not take me months but years before I started to build my website online. One of the reasons it took me so long was my lack of confidence.
However, things got better when I found a business model I am comfortable with. All of a sudden, my doubts began to vanish and I became more productive as a result.
To have a successful online business, you have to follow a system or mentor whom you like.
To get the results you want, you have to follow someone who already has the results you want. This way, you can cut down your learning path as you will be following a system that has already proven to work.
Once you found the right system or mentor, be sure to stay committed in order to see the results that you want.
MY AFTER THOUGHTS
One of the best thing about running a successful online business is the ability to design the future I dream of.
Instead of trying to figure everything out on your own, finding a mentor or system to speed up your rate of success.
Besides patience and determination, you need to have a passion for your business so that you feel fun even when you are working at your business.
Excellent write up you have here and it’s very engaging for me to read on. Learning from someone who has been through it all and still getting to be successful is always a great motivation. Reading through your experiences, I realised the only reason I haven’t got things started is because of my self doubt. I always feel it’s not just the right time and that my niche may not be monetizable. My highpoints here on this post are the lesson 1 and 3. Hopefully, this would be able to ginger me to kick start my own business.
Hi RoDarrick,
I am glad you have found the article to be engaging. I do wish you successful in all your ventures coming ahead.
Hi Cindy, thank you for an interesting look at the right mindset to run your own business. I, like you, spent a number of years on the internet looking for the right opportunity. Wealthy Affiliate is amazing in that the training in incredible and so is all the ‘tech done for you’ aspect of it. Does Wealthy Affiliate have a number of up-sales, so common in other online opportunities?
Wishing you every success with your online business, Denise.
Hi Denise,
From what I know so far, there are a lot of training going on. Besides the monthly membership fees, there isn’t any up sales.
Hope this information is useful for you .
If you never give up, you still have a chance. That is some great words there. People tend to give up the moment they are about to move up the ladder. They don’t see it, but they were about to. Giving up is what kills your dreams.
Wealthy Affiliate has taught me so much thus far. I know how an online business work and what I can do to improve my success if I ever go down the ladder. The WILL POWER must be there I always say.
Thank you for a great read, and all the best to you.
Aabidah
Dear Cindy,
Thanks for the Great inspiring post! This has to be motivating, not only for me but also for many others.
Success Leaves Clues and learning from others experiences will save us a lot of time. I got helpful insights from your post.
In 2008 I decided to become my own boss and after a long struggle on December 2017 I became a full-time blogger working from home. My dream came true but learned a lot of lessons along the road.
Indeed, Modeling those who are already a success will produce the same result to us.
You shared a secret… Helping others is the key! By lifting others we can lift ourselves. Its all about helping people and providing value to others which will yield great success.
One thing I learned from my experience is…
It is almost impossible to succeed in an online business without proper training, support, tools and guidance. You are 100% correct when you said, finding a mentor or system will speed up our rate of success.
Much Success!
Paul
Dear Paul,
Wishing you always successful too!
Awesome lessons learnt. This is so true, the number of businesses I have begun and quite runs into the hundreds, maybe if I just held on I could have made any of these succeed.
I love the quote by the Alibaba boss man. It is so true if you strive and hold on you have such a greater chance than most because they will all give up.
So if you just manage to ride the storms you will probably come out on top if you have a good quality product or service.
These are great lessons that I have taken on board. Thanks!
After reading your article, I realized why I spend too much money to learn how to do online business.
Choosing a right system to learn is so important to be successful. I did not have a mentor to guide me through the learning process, and I quit before I see any result.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and I wish you continued success 🙂
Hallo there Cindy,
I just stepped foot in the online business and I have been having a tough time learning and applying things on my business. I was almost about to give up when I stumbled upon your post.
The many insights you share here have changed my mind and thinking in a huge way. I have been trying to be a master at everything and this is what greatly discouraged me because I barely get anywhere.
Also, the quote on Jack ma has got me really thinking and I have decided not to quit. I have bookmarked this post and will come back in the evening to read it seriously, so as to gain the most out of it.
You have been a true inspiration for me today. Thanks a lot.
Hi Dave,
I am glad you find the post inspiring.
I believe you will do great success. Wishing you all the best.
Hallo there Cindy,
I just stepped foot in the online business and I have been having a tough time learning and applying things on my business. I was almost about to give up when I stumbled upon your post.
The many insights you share here have changed my mind and thinking in a huge way. I have been trying to be a master at everything and this is what greatly discouraged me because I barely get anywhere.
Also, the quote on Jack ma has got me really thinking and I have decided not to quit. I have bookmarked this post and will come back in the evening to read it seriously, so as to gain the most out of it.
You have been a true inspiration for me today. Thanks a lot.
One thing that I learned from my own online business is that the learning never stops. There’s always something new or situations that will catch you off-guard. Just like the other day when Google rolled out the latest updates, my traffic tanked to a miserable number. I don’t know why it happened because I’ve been producing lengthy content for the past 2 years. It’s very disheartening to see no new conversion at all for the past few months.
Giving up isn’t an option here, but these few days sure feel yucky…
Hi Cathy,
Prehaps you want to look into a traffic generation for instance pinterest to boost your traffic. it should help to bring your traffic up.
Thank you for sharing those lessons. The lesson number 4 hit me quite hard. I also recently started my online business, but my focus is selling the product with content and place many affiliate links inside them. I don’t try to deliver the ‘value’ first. This may be a good reason why there was no conversion until now. I need to come up with new strategy. Thank you again.