And I mean right now.
You could start an online business today and from then on it’s all about doing things consistently. That doesn’t sound hard does it? I’m not even dumbing it down to make it sound better.
If you’re on the fence about whether you should start an online business, I want to give you several reasons why you should just go for it.
1. You Can Be Doing Something You Love
This is could be a cringe-worthy reason depending on whether you believe it or not. But to put it simply, you are in control of what your business will look like and so you can build it around something you love doing.
The biggest part of the work I do with clients is finding their business ideas, their niche and their target audience. I specifically encourage them to consider ideas that they are actually interested in. They are in it for the long term and so it needs to be something they will be happy putting the work in for.
It’s actually imperative that you do something you love doing, because you will be more successful in the long run. The fact that it will be a much more enjoyable journey is an added bonus.
2. There is No Limit to What You Can Earn
In a standard job you are exchanging time for money and there is a limit to how much of your time you can use to do that. With your own business, you can begin to exchange your knowledge for money.
Why is this better? As it is not time-dependent, you will be able to package up your knowledge and sell it to multiple people at once. This could be in a variety of forms, such as video, courses, books, membership sites, newsletters, the list is pretty long!
By concentrating on one specific area of strength, that you are passionate about, you can help thousands of people at once.
3. Building an Online Presence is Important Whether You Have a Business or Not
The internet has always been there to build an online presence, but it is just now reaching its true potential. More and more people are building their presence online and those that don’t, whether they have a business or not, are getting left behind.
So many people are now using their online presence to enhance their career and in doing so are carrying out the same actions they would in order to build a presence for an online business. So why not put those efforts into building something for yourself?
You don’t even have to put a label of ‘online business’ on it to begin with, if that is a problem. Build your presence in your name, discover what you’re really good at and what you love to do and then seamlessly move into business mode!
4. Creativity is Good for You
Creativity really helps when starting an online business and you will be constantly exercising your creativity muscle to learn new skills, think of innovative ways to market yourself and push yourself outside of your comfort zone.
From my own personal experience, as well as seeing they way my clients flourish, being creative in a way that you don’t normally do in your day job brings an element of fun into your work. It often spills over into your current job and brings more energy into everything you do.
Creative thinking can help you live longer by reducing stress and anxiety [1]. If we get too comfortable with our standard careers, we often don’t think in different ways and therefore miss out on the development of our brains.
5. There is a High Volume of Competition, But Low Quality
Building on from the creativity aspect, there is room to stand out from your competition by providing high quality. The vast majority of online businesses are either really good at marketing but not so good at the service they offer or they are the other way round, great service, not so good at marketing it.
With the right combination of marketing and service, you will find your competition reduces drastically to a few successful businesses. That’s before you start looking at differentiating yourself from them with your point of view, tone, branding and personality.
6. It is Inexpensive to Get Started
You can start for free if you don’t want to spend any money. £10 is slightly better. £100 is the next level up. These are not big numbers when you think of starting a business.
Keep in mind that an online business involves simply being of service to an certain audience online. Add to this that you start from a relatively low level and build up consistently over time. You can start earning money without having paid out anything, depending on what you do. Anything you earn can be put back into the business to raise it up to the next level each time, allowing you to build exponentially.
The key thing is that you are consistently putting in the work to grow your business and build your online presence.
7. You Can Push Your Boundaries
Who said you had to do one career for the rest of your life? Don’t you think it’s a little crazy that you choose your career within the first few years of adulthood? That’s a pretty big decision to make at such a young age.
What if you got it wrong?
If? Of course you’re going to get it wrong! But you don’t have to stick with it for 40-50 years. You can push yourself to try new things. You don’t even have to leave the relative safety of your job (is it safe though?).
With an online business, experimenting is important. You need to try things out to see if they resonate with your audience. If they don’t, move on to the next thing. There are so many different ways to reach your audience and cater to their needs, you will be trying things out that you never imagined yourself doing. But you’ll find they really weren’t as scary as you thought.
8. You Can Have More Freedom in Your Life
I’m not going to sugar coat it, starting and growing an online business is hard work, especially if you are doing it in your spare time while you keep your day job. But the rewards of getting through the first year or two are huge.
Once you’ve got past that point where you can choose to leave your day job and concentrate on your online business, it feels like a weight lifted. You are in control now and you can decide the direction and level of success you want to achieve.
With this control comes the ability to set the amount of time you work on your online business. If you want more freedom for family life, you design your business to give you that. You don’t even have to compromise on the growth of your company, you can begin to outsource work and concentrate on the things that really excite you.
9. You Can Do it in Your Pants
Ok, this may not be a real reason, but having the option to work in your pants if you really wanted to is pretty cool!
This point is a continuation of the last point about freedom, because it’s quite an important one. You control how your business looks, feels and grows. If you go down one route and it doesn’t feel right to you, change direction.
If you want to get up and work in your pants, you go for it.
It may seem like I’m trying to paint a rosy picture of starting and building an online business. In some ways I guess I am, but it comes from genuine experience.
The biggest reason, which I have held back until now as a bonus, is the following thought:
“What’s on the other side of fear? Nothing.”
Jamie Foxx
What is stopping you?
If it’s not nothing, then I respectfully disagree.
Now go and get started building your own online business empire!