Digital Advantage Electronics

Five tips to know before starting an online business.

People start online or internet business for many reasons.

• They want to work from home.
• They want to be entrepreneurs.
• They want to fire their bosses or their bosses have fired them.
• They want to make money online.
• They are looking to add to their existing cash flow.
• They can’t find another job that pays well.

For what ever reason people like us start online home businesses, it has been my experience that by doing a little homework will save you a lot of time and most of all money and avoid the pitfalls that most online entrepreneurs run into.

Don’t get me wrong, I encourage capitalism and the spirit of entrepreneurs all over the world.  But there’s nothing more frustrating, heartbreaking and depressing than putting so much effort into a business and watching it die before it even gets off the ground.

I would like to share my personal experiences of running a few online businesses as well as a small retail business and the five things that I believe people can benefit from.  The experiences have been both good, bad and at time painful and humbling, but thru the pain and frustration comes enlightenment, knowledge and a rekindling of my own faith and confidence in starting a new online venture and moving forward. 

The first thing is your STATE OF MIND.

  Some call it “mindset” or “attitude” but it’s the same thing and it starts here.  You must be absolutely positive and committed to success and not be afraid to fail.  Being industrious, confident, enthusiastic and completely focused on the end result will help you through the very frustrating time of the start up phase. At times you will feel overwhelmed, but know that it’s perfectly normal.  But you need to push through it.  Without a good solid state of mind, your business will surely fail.  It’s just like building the tallest building upon sand.  No matter how big the vision, without a strong base it can’t help but crumble.  My business coach taught me to work on myself twice as hard as I worked on my business.  That’s because the success of the business is a result of what goes on in my head.  Key:  Read great books about great people everyday.

The second thing is RESEARCH.

1. You’ll thank yourself later.   Key:  Use the internet to research businesses.

The next thing is your BUDGET.

1. Key:  Sit down and write down on a piece of paper exactly how much you want to invest.

The fourth thing is DISCIPLINE.

If you are going to be working from home, you really need to learn to block out distractions and master your time management.  Working from home sounds really exciting when you think about it.  No bosses, spouses or kids to bother you are wonderful things, but without self discipline you’ll end up watching TV, taking a nap, going to mall to buy something for the business, then you get side tracked.  Next thing you know, it’s been a few hours and nothing got done.  Make a schedule the night before and follow it no matter what unless there’s an emergency or something.  You can always tell if you displayed discipline and proper time management by asking yourself at the end of each day “did I accomplish everything that I needed to for my business to succeed’?

The final element is PERSISTANCE.

So many of us, including myself have given up when success was right around the corner.  Work hard and with enthusiasm and things will start to happen.  It may take a time and while I can’t tell you exactly how long it may take because every person and every business is different, I can tell you this, winners of races don’t always go to the fastest or strongest, but a lot of time to the person who never gave up and stayed in the race.  Abraham Lincoln failed twice in business, lost eight political elections before becoming president and suffered a nervous breakdown before he was elected president.

There are other traits and element to success but you’ll find they will fall within one of these categories.  I wish you all the best on your journey.  May you find or create the right online business for yourselves.