You’ve officially started your business. You have a website, and you know what kind of work you want to do. You’ve read a lot of articles on business-building and told friends and family what you’re up to. Maybe you’ve even made some money from a few paying clients.
You have big plans for your business, and you’re ready to really get things moving. You want to make great money doing work that inspires you, all the while making your own schedule and living a life you love.
The good news is you can do it! The bad news is your business might not be set up to make it happen (yet).
Are you doing all the right things in all the right ways to move your business toward high profitability? Are you focusing on the tasks based on where your business is now and where you want it to go?
If you can’t answer these questions, or if the answers are overwhelm-inducing, you’re not alone. Many business owners have no idea what it actually takes to make money online. (And the truth is, it takes an awful lot!)
Today I’m sharing the top four mistakes people make with their online, service-based businesses. These are HUGE, and if you’re committing even one of them, you are severely limiting your chances of ever making it work online.
Don’t totally freak out if some of these apply to you, because I’ll also help you get things back on track. (That’s what I do!)
Reason #1: You Try to “Think” Your Way to Success
People love to talk about the things they want. They dream of what’s possible, think through their options, mull things over, discuss it at length with anyone who will listen. They think and they talk. Think, talk, think, talk.
But thinking and talking about doing something is not the same thing as doing it. The power is in doing.
You can’t think your way into a solid web presence, a high-quality email list, or the perfect niche. You have to try, to test things out, to see what works – in short, you simply have to do. Start somewhere (wherever you are is perfect) with something (whatever you have right now is enough).
If you really want to get paid to do work you love, get going by offering free services to some starter clients, play around to see what works, and refine your approach as you go. Lay this groundwork first, and the money will come.
Reason #2: You Refuse to Choose a Niche.
There’s a huge debate about this in online business-building circles, but I just don’t get why. It’s pretty obvious to me that without a niche, you’re working too hard.
Specializing in a particular niche allows you to zero in on the exact group of people you want to work with AND gives you laser-like focus in developing your products and services to respond to the challenges that those people experience. These two facts make everything – from writing engaging content to putting yourself out there to closing sales – so much easier.
If you really want to make it work online, it’s time to come around to the idea of choosing a niche.
Reason #3: You Aren’t Willing to Experiment
If you’re not willing to take risks, try new things, and fail a little here and there with your business, it’s probably because you’re afraid of making mistakes – either because of the potential consequences (like, I might lose clients/readers/followers!) or because you take professional failure personally.
But here’s the thing: Experimentation is an integral part of learning, and the very point of experimentation is to go through iterations of what doesn’t work to get closer to what does.
That’s a pretty way of saying that failure is a totally natural and even helpful part of building a successful business!
To achieve success, you have to reframe how you think about failure by detaching your personal worth from the outcome of things you try with your business.
And to deal with the worry of the consequences of failure, you have to figure out how to effectively experiment with your business and learn from your inevitable missteps. (It also helps to know when to call it quits on something that just doesn’t work!)
Reason #4: You Are Building Your Business on a Weak Foundation
A lot of new business owners think having a “strong foundation” for business means having a lot of training or knowledge in whatever service they offer, a beautiful website, a dedicated office space to work out of, or a professional logo and professionally printed business cards.
Imagine their surprise when I tell them that you can have all of those things and still have a weak foundation.
That’s because the true foundation of your business starts with understanding what exactly you want to do, whom exactly you want to work with, and how exactly you plan to make money. And when I say “exactly,” I mean specificity to the gnat’s ass. If you’re not crystal clear on those things, you can’t even hope to build a profitable business.
I dive much more deeply into creating a solid foundation for your business in my new totally free, Make It Work Online workshop.
Register here to get a step-by-step plan to fill your roster with perfect clients and make a consistent income doing what you love.
Tell Me: What Have I Missed?
I would love to hear from you in the comments…
Are you currently making any of the above mistakes? (I always love your honesty!)
Do you need any additional help overcoming them?
What other critical errors do you think can keep people from making money online?
Fill me in below!
I agree with your points. I’m confident that I’m on the right track. I quit my job as a recruiter and started my own resume writing/job search coaching service. I focus on the resume writing. I have had paying clients, and am “doing” a lot to generate more business (i.e. opt-ins, list building, pending blog, etc). The two things i struggle with are 1. What I should be charging, what packages should I offer, should I publish rates since my service is pretty custom. My rates are more than many, less than some, 2. How niche is niche? Resume writing is pretty niche to begin with. I offer a custom service and tend to target people seeking a new opportunity and most seem to be mid level to senior level people with disposable income. I will be experimenting with offering a DIY e-book , offer DIY webinars and such to offer other options, since my custom services are too expensive for many…..Anyhow, those are my two struggles. Any advice you could offer would be appreciated
Great questions, Diana!
1. What I should be charging, what packages should I offer, should I publish rates?
It depends on your experience level. I always have my new Make It Work Online clients start with $99 bite-sized offers because it’s easy to sell and market and get started getting clients. It then creates a snowball effect that helps them build their biz more easily and with more confidence.
I have a few articles on pricing that might help, too. Check this one out to start: https://jennyshih.com/2013/05/steal-this-my-perfect-pricing-strategy/
As far as publishing rates, that’s a personal preference. I publish mine 95% of the time and tell my clients to do the same. The reason is that if you don’t publish your prices, (1) you’ll have to have more sales calls and less conversions and (2) you have to have WAY better sales skills on the phone. If you publish your prices, then when you hold a consult, you and the prospect are on the same page about price. Of course, this isn’t the only way to do it; people successfully employ both strategies. It’s all about what you’re comfortable with.
2. How niche is niche?
“Niche” isn’t always about what you DO but about the specifics of who you serve. So Resume writing on it’s own actually isn’t niche. But resume writing for corporate execs who want to move to a Fortune 1000 CEO role, now that’s niche! Or resume writing for women who have been stay-at-home mom’s and want to go back into the work force, that’s niche, too.
You really can’t go too niche in most cases unless you narrow yourself down to just a handful of people on the planet 🙂
Great post, Jenny!!
One of the biggest mistakes I made early on was spending too much time on activities that didn’t bring value to my business (aka those tasks that directly impact money). I’d spend a huge amount of time and effort writing posts (but not promoting them, not connecting them to my products, etc.), making the website pretty, and “learning”.
It actually took me a long while (9 months) to sell my first program. Like you said, it’s a matter of getting out there, learning from your mistakes, and tweaking them.
One of the things I’d love to focus more on is being strategic with my time and content.
This post gave me some good things to think about!
Cheers!
Jennifer
I love this, Jennifer. Thank you for sharing!
You aren’t alone when it comes to making your website pretty and blogging but not promoting. A lot of new business owners start there — because taking those bolder steps can be scary. But catching onto yourself is important, and it sounds like you have.
When it comes to being more strategic with your time and content, do you know the exact shifts you want to make, or are you still figuring those out?
Thank you, Jenny!
Great post today!
I am learning as I go along that I, as an intuitive personality, assume that I am being
“perfectly clear” in my posts, interviews, and website offerings. Not so! Experimenting with fewer, more-precise words is helping!
Hahaha Merri! You’re not alone! We all think we’re clear in our own heads, don’t we?! 🙂 Great insight for you to work on wording. It will make a huge difference for your business, i’m certain!
Hi Jenny! I’m feeling good about most of these (in large part thanks to MIW) though I think I need to take your suggestion to experiment more. It’s easy to get tied to what’s working and miss what else could work, or work better. I may also niche down even further because there are a lot of ambitious, overgiving, burned out female changemakers out there! Thanks.
Thrilled to hear that you’re doing well (and MIWO helped!). And I love that you see that you could experiment more or possibly niche further. Business is ALWAYS a combination of doing what you know works and trying new things. Don’t necessarily stop doing what works; keep doing it to keep the money coming in. And do new things to continue your own growth and learning as a business owner.