The 5 Reasons Most People Fail in Internet Business
If you’re thinking of starting an Internet business, you’re probably aware of some of the obstacles you may face. But, there are obstacles that you may not be able to avoid unless you’re aware of them. Here’s a look at 5 reasons that stop most people in their tracks before they can get their business online - at least if you’re aware of them, you’re capable of overcoming them with a little work and determination.
1. Motivation
Most people who want to start their own business have great intentions but lack the proper motivation to see things through to success. Do you see this in yourself? Probably not now, but after a few weeks, look back and see how effective you were in focusing on your business building tasks. Don’t feel bad, in today’s multitasking world; we need to split our attention among several different activities. Human nature makes us focus our attention on those activities that bring us the most pleasure. Usually, our lack of motivation toward achieving our business goals arise from not meeting our expectations within the timeframe we have imposed on ourselves. Ask yourself this question:
My definition of success is________________.
Good, now that you’ve answered that, look at what you do each day. Do those activities get you any closer to your answer?
If not, work on eliminating or reducing what you see as obstacles on your path. Many people, perhaps you included, find that much of their day is made up things that don’t get them any closer to their definition of success and they simply give up on achieving it.
Now, take a few moments to really give this some serious thought. If you find that you’re not giving enough time to the tasks that are necessary to move you in the direction you want — you probably don’t have a plan for success. We all make notes to ourselves for what needs to be accomplished each day and we leave them everywhere as a reminder. What you need to do is add one or more notes to that on what you need to accomplish for your business each day that will lead you closer to your goal.
Finally, take some time right now, sit down for a few minutes, brainstorm and write down easy to accomplish steps that will lead you in the direction of business success. Then, put these new steps in your calendar…starting with the first one you’ll do right after you finish reading this… Then, take another step!
Look, you’ve gotten closer to your goal!
2. Knowledge
I once worked with a very sage Chinese engineer who told me, “Knowledge is king, but being an expert in anything is a matter of perception. You only need to know one thing more than your audience to be perceived as an expert.” What he meant was — you always want to continue building your knowledge on your business niche, but you don’t need to know everything from the beginning. You only need to know enough to get started, and then add to your content as you become more educated on the subject. There are a lot of people who have started online businesses that have tried to achieve this through duplication of their competition’s website, but in the end most people can see through their shallow effort. You can’t pin your hopes on starting small and keeping it that way.
The most important thing is to get your business online. You’ll never receive an income from it unless you get it out there in the first place. However, this doesn’t mean that you should stop learning once you get to that point. Likewise, it doesn’t mean you should “fake it until you make it” either.
Begin by learning enough about your subject to get up to speed quickly, get your website established online, and then continue over time to learn more about your niche and applying you new knowledge to your website. The value of the knowledge you gain will eventually pay off much more than had you stopped learning.
The unfortunate thing is, that most people have the tendency to do only what’s necessary to quickly put up a website and sprinkle it with some rehashed products. This minimal effort will never lead to the profits that they dreamed of.
Improve your chances of success. Get the knowledge that will launch your business beyond your dreams!
3. Procrastination
We all procrastinate. You procrastinate when you put off things that you should be focusing on right now, usually in favor of doing something that is more enjoyable or that you’re more comfortable doing. Starting a daunting task, such as, an Internet business may make you move your attention towards something that’s more enjoyable. It’s not that you don’t want to start working on your business, but because it’s not always that fun! People have the tendency to focus on activities that get them instant gratification or give them a sense of familiarity.
There’s a simple fact you need to know, procrastinators work as many hours in the day as other people (and often work longer hours), but they invest their time in doing the wrong tasks.
Another common cause of procrastination is feeling overwhelmed by the task. You may not know where to begin. Or you may doubt that you have the skills or resources you think you need. So you seek comfort in doing tasks you know you’re capable of completing. Unfortunately, the big task isn’t going to go away – truly important tasks rarely do.
One good method I’ve found that can help you counteract the effects of procrastination is by continually putting the task in front of yourself. You can combat the itch to lose focus on your important tasks that way. Keeping the task always in view will keep it in the front of your mind. Sure, you can postpone things temporarily, but recognize that you’re procrastinating and agree with yourself to return to it at a set time.
I’ve found that if you have recordings about key things that involve developing your business; listen to them while you work the other tasks. With that, you’ll be more likely to return to the task – even if you complete a piece at a time!
If you’ve heard all the recordings before you’re done… play them again… and again… and again, until you complete your tasks. This is a great reminder of what your doing, why your doing it and may give you the motivation you need and supply you with great ideas each and every time you replay the same content.
4. Perfectionism
A perfectionist Is never satisfied by anything less than perfection and may set their standards beyond reach or reason. This can be a business killer for some people. In their pursuit to build an Internet business, they may attempt to create a business model themselves that equals what others have done and have established over many years. In this pursuit, they sabotage themselves by never getting their website finished and online.
How do you battle perfectionism? Get over it!
You can’t make any income by being perfect and never establishing an online presence.
If you find yourself in the perfectionist mode, set an achievable goal… far less than perfect, then publish what you’ve completed… good or bad. You can always “tweak” your business or website after it’s out there. Sure, you might lose potential customers in the beginning, but how many will you lose by not being out there at all? How long do you plan to maintain an online presence? You’ll do fine.
One website I always use as an example for this is hamsterdance.com, which has had an online presence since the early days of the Internet. Back then it was ugly. It had ugly graphics and had a song that stuck in your mind… kind of like “It’s a Small World!” Well, after all these years not much has changed, but they do have several versions of their original format. The amazing thing is… they get MILLIONS of visitors each year!
So, like I said… get over it… publish it… tweak it… and get on the road to success starting today!
5. Frustration
Aaah! The final frontier…
We’ve all thrown up our hands in frustration from time to time, especially related to the key elements I’ve detailed above. You may even add in some anger as well because you’ve been working really hard towards your goals or on a project that’s just not working.
You can avoid frustration in your tasks by keeping your focus on what you want to happen. I run into frustration myself from time-to-time, but I have a simple note on my desk that helps me through it. It’s a bit tattered now, but has been very meaningful and persuasive in pushing me through the frustrating moments.
It simply states, “Plan where you want to be.”
Isn’t where you want to be worth the frustrating efforts?
You can easily push past the frustration yourself by removing the “noise” you encounter when trying to gather information for your business and by simplifying your tasks to where it’s manageable, but productive. You can always build on them later. Give yourself the chance to win and celebrate success more often by splitting up the frustrating tasks into bite-sized pieces, and then you’ll be amazed at how you can knock them out quicker.
Here’s how to tackle the problem with “noise.” Begin with those emails you constantly get about, “get more traffic”, “make more money”, “learn the secrets,” etc. These are just noise. Ignore them… what do they know anyway? Really!
Focus on your OWN business and cut out those distractions. You’ll find that you’ll have more time after you complete your tasks and get your business underway to revisit those emails that you deem credible.
Ditch the rest!
