Making Money Online is Not Hard, Your Mindset and Lazy Habits are The Problem

Making money online, working from home while doing it, and generating multiple passive income streams is probably in the minds of just about every working adult in America.

Especially after the start of the pandemic, when many of us had the privilege of being able to work from home, and realized how amazing your day can be when you don’t have to worry about traffic and commuting.

Pandemic Entrepreneurs, the term coined to describe the millions of people who started a small business during the pandemic, represents 4.4 million new businesses that were created in the U.S. during 2020, the highest total on record.

Unfortunately, according to the Small Business Administration, about 20% of small businesses fail in their first year, which equates to about 880,000 small businesses that were started in 2020.

To make matters worst, a staggering 96% of businesses will fail over a 10-year period of time.

To put this into context, about 3.3 million businesses from the 4.4 million that were started in 2020, will not exist in 2030.

Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail

What makes one entrepreneur succeed while another seems to fail every step of the way? Let’s discuss.

Not Having an effective Business Plan

Whenever I mention that for a business to succeed, there has to be an effective business plan, people look at me crazy and tell me is not necessary.

The fact is that if you don’t have a business plan, or at least a business map outlining the core of your business, you will never be able to get your business off the ground and give it a fair chance to succeed.

“Every day is a bank account, and time is our currency. No one is rich, no one is poor, we’ve got 24 hours each.” — Christopher Rice

As a new business owner, you need to clearly know who your ideal customers are, the kinds of products and services that you can offer them (and they are willing to pay for), and tactics and strategies to gain new customers.

Not having any of this, you should probably save your money and invest it elsewhere.

The Wrong Mindset

Tony Robbins once said that “Our mindsets create our realities; what we believe influences what we are able to achieve.”

Don’t let your limiting beliefs take away your energy. Instead, stay hungry in your quest for making your story a success, your drive will inspire you and pay off in the end.

Lack of Passion

Without the right dosage of passion for your craft, even the smallest tasks will feel enormously daunting. Soon thereafter, the days of you not working on your business will continue to pass by without you even realizing it.

On the other hand, a passion-driven mindset lets you endure through all the ups and downs of starting your own business.

With this high level of focus, you create an unstoppable drive that propels you towards accomplishing your goals.

“The longer you’re not taking action, the more money you’re losing.” — Carrie Wilkerson

Fear of Business Failure

Business failure is probably one of the biggest fears that a new business owner has. Apart from losing all the money and the time invested, a business failure carries an emotional burden of defeat that many new entrepreneurs don’t know how to handle.

Instead, you need to look at each business failure as a learning opportunity to refine your craft, try new strategies, and come back stronger and wiser.

Doing it All Yourself

There seems to be a major misconception online that new entrepreneurs should be doing things all on their own, without the help or support of other people around them.

The fact is that, while you should try to bootstrap and learn how to do as much as you can, you need people that can support you and advise you when things get tough.

Having The Wrong Perception About The Internet

For some unknown reason, most people think that running a successful internet business is as easy as getting a website built and hanging out an ‘open for business’ sign.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Running a successful internet business of any kind requires self-discipline. People will start an internet business and think that they can party all night, sleep until noon, and then make a living in 3 or 4 hours sitting in front of a computer.

Somehow, they think that the world is just going to line up on their website and hand over money. It isn’t going to happen.

Despite what some of the self-proclaimed gurus out there are saying, an internet business that is successful does not run on auto-pilot.

It’s true that well-established internet entrepreneurs like Pat Flynn don’t have to put in the long, tedious hours working on your business anymore, and that’s because they have put in an enormous amount of work to get where they are.

It didn’t happen overnight for them and it won’t happen overnight for you either, but you should expect to put in a lot of consistent hard work and make many sacrifices if you truly want your business to succeed.

So, if the odds seem to be against starting your own business, and you know that starting your own business is the right path for you, how can you make your business a success story?

Let’s discuss.

How You Can Improve Your Odds of Success

The thing about starting a business…any business…..is that there is no guarantee of success under any circumstances.

Even big international businesses can fail at new business ventures. A failure is always an option but the possibility of success can be optimized.

Here’s how you can optimize the possibility of success.

Have a good solid business plan in place BEFORE you launch your online business.

There is an old saying: “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail”. A detailed set of plans for success needs to be made.

You need to have the steps from getting from point A to point B listed in great detail that include realistic cost estimates for accomplishing each step.

Expect to work VERY hard to accomplish your goals.

You must never expect anything to be easy. Each step toward success requires work, time, and patience.

Sometimes things don’t work out right on the first try. You have to be willing to try again and again until you do succeed.

Avoid the “get-rich-quick” schemes.

The internet woods are full of those who prey upon those who are looking for quick and easy ways to become rich.

Those ways do not exist. Get over thinking that there is an easy way. There isn’t any.

The only thing you can do is show up every single day, consistently work hard, and never give up.

“Beware of small expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.” — Benjamin Franklin

Remember the statistics, over 90% of all new internet businesses fail in the first 120 days.