to Build Your Business in 2020
New Years has come and gone. Your
resolutions are likely broken already (no worries, almost everybody has broken
them by now) and it’s time to get SERIOUS.
Yes, you do get a “do-over” on your
resolutions, and it starts today. Even though some time has gone by, there is still
plenty of year left to make 2020 your best year ever – the one that sets you on
the path to your ultimate destiny of building your hugely profitable online
business.
And if you happen to be reading this long
after the beginning of the year, it doesn’t matter. Scope out the next 12
months on your calendar and use these tips to finally build your business as
big as you choose.
A year from now? You’ll look back and grin
and the progress you’ve made.
1: Choose a PROVEN Business Model
There’s a ton of info products out there
that give you plenty of theories on what may or may not work.
And there’s also another ton of programs
promoting business models that are PROVEN to work…
…Creating and selling info products that
people want to buy.
…Writing and publishing Kindle books that
people want to buy.
…Promoting info products that… you guessed
it… people want to buy.
Forget the gimmicks and loopholes and
untapped this or that. You can try those out later when you’re already making
excellent money in your business.
For right now, choose ONE business model
that is absolutely, positively proven to WORK and then just DO it.
I know this doesn’t sound glamorous or
innovative. But if your goal is to build a profitable business this year
instead of going down endless dead ends, then this is the one piece of advice
you must NOT ignore.
2: Write Down Your Goals
I know you’re sick and tired of being told
to write down your goals. But let me ask you… ARE YOU WRITING THEM DOWN? If
not, then maybe this the time when you finally do it. Not for me, but for YOU.
When writing your goals, be specific and be
realistic. No, you’re no going to build a billion-dollar business by the end of
the week or even the end of the year. But you can be earning $100 a day in your
business within 2 to 3 months.
Once you’ve written down your goals, write
them down again and again each day. Spend a few minutes feeling all the emotion
that goes with achieving your goals. See yourself doing it. Besides taking
consistent action on your goals, visualizing their achievement is the most
important step in goal getting, yet it’s the part most people leave out.
You must see yourself and feel yourself
achieving your goals in order to make them happen.
Do you know what else you need to do?
3: Break Those Goals Down into
Incremental Steps
Have a goal for each day. It doesn’t have
to be a big goal. The point isn’t to build your business in a week; it’s to
make progress every single day.
If your goal for the week is to, “Get my
business up and running,” you’re not going to do it.
But if your goal for the day is to,
“Research profitable niches, choose one and buy a URL,” you can do that.
Are
you still stalling? Okay, break the goal down even further, and just research
profitable niches today. Tomorrow you choose one niche and commit to it, along
with writing down 20 possible URL’s that are available. Day 3 you make your URL
choice, buy it and set up hosting
4: Focus on Your Strengths
There are going to be some things that
you’re really good at – yeah!! And there are naturally some things that you
aren’t good at. It’s just the way it is.
But what you do about it can make all the
difference.
If you choose a business model that works
well with your strengths, then you’re well ahead of the game.
And if you also outsource those things that
you’re not good at, then you’re going to make progress much faster.
I see aspiring marketers who get hung up on
some stupid detail like setting up a website. They could outsource the work and
have it done in a day. But instead they spend a month stressing over it, like
it’s this giant cross they have to bear. It’s crazy.
If you don’t know how to do something, get
someone who is a pro at it so you can cross it off your list and move forward.
5: Execute as You Learn
While building your business, you’re
probably doing some things for the first time.
You could learn all about them, become an
expert, consult others, do some research, outsource, second guess your
outsourcer, do more research…
Yes, I see people getting this bogged down
in learning new things. Except of course their real obstacle isn’t learning
something new, it’s being afraid they’ll make a mistake or won’t do the job
perfectly.
Forget all that. I want you to imagine that
your loved one has been kidnapped. You have “X” amount of time get your
business up and running or they are dead.
Now then, are you going to sweat the
details, or are you simply going to DO what needs to be done?
Do NOT try to learn the entire business and
then get started. Instead, execute as you learn.
You don’t need to see the entire road to
drive the first mile – you only need to see as far as the next bend in the
road. When you get to that bend, you’ll adjust your steering and keep going.
6: Keep Records
This sounds boring, right? Having to write
down everything you do in your business, how long it takes, what works, what
doesn’t…
What if I told you that this simple
exercise can double your income in a year?
If you rely on your memory, you won’t know
what’s working, what’s not working, what you already tried that failed and so
forth.
What gets measured, gets managed.
And what you pay attention to, grows.
Record everything you do and the results
that you get. This simple step will save yourself time and frustration as well
as money.
And it will help you to zero in on what’s
working, what needs improvement and what’s a total waste of time, too.
7: Reinvest in Your Business
Things are going great and the money is
flowing in. Time to go buy a new car or house, right?
Wrong. Save your money. Invest 50% of it
back into your business on things that are making you money. Do not splurge on
anything until you’ve got at least a one-year track record of solid income and
six months of living expenses in your bank account.
Track
your business expenses and keep them low. Don’t invest in fancy software
solutions until you actually NEED them. Don’t outsource 12 months of work when
you can outsource one month at a time, and so forth.
By visualizing success, you can speed up
the process and make it happen faster. By realizing that things can change
overnight, you save your money and make smart financial decisions.
8: Diversify
Once you have your first income stream
running smoothly and profitably, it might be time to look for a second income
stream. This could be creating a second product, building a second sales
funnel, adding affiliate marketing to the mix or whatever.
As you build each income stream, add
another, and in a year or two or three you can have several income streams.
I know it might seem like a good idea to
put all of your eggs in one basket and watch that basket like a hawk, but
things can happen overnight on the internet that make one or more of your
income streams disappear.
What if Amazon kicks you off their
platform? Or Paypal closes your account? Or Google comes out with an update
that takes your site from page 1 of the search engine results to page 42?
It happens. But if you have several income
streams in place, you could lose half of them and still be fine.
9: Build Your Email Lists
Your email list is your most important
resource. If Facebook stops working for you, or Google, or whatever, it won’t
matter all that much if you have your own mailing list(s).
While you cannot control third party sites,
you can always access your own list. And if you’ve treated your list well and
developed plenty of rapport with your subscribers, you can always use your list
for ongoing income, no matter what else happens.
10: Add Residual Income Streams
What if you’re in an accident and you
literally cannot function for a few months? If you have residual income coming
in, then you don’t have to worry about it.
Promote other people’s software as a
service and membership sites. Look for the offers that people stay with for
months and even years and promote the heck out of those.
Making these sales is some of the best
insurance you can have for whatever transpires in the future.
11: Realize Everything Takes Time
In fact, everything generally takes longer
than you think.
Don’t quit your job because you think your
business will be profitable in 30 days. It might be, but then again it might
take 6 months.
Plus, if you put yourself in a position of
having to rush, then you’re more likely to do something stupid, like produce a
lousy product no one wants to buy.
12: Make Contacts and Treat Them Like
Gold
Whatever niche you’re in, there are movers
and shakers you need to know.
Approach them with the attitude that you
are there to help them and not the other way around. Make friends. Don’t ask
for favors up front.
Interview them, reply to their social
media, mention them in your blogposts, be their brand ambassadors and so forth.
One day you will need them, and if you’ve
been a friend to them, they will be there for you.
13: Drive Your Own Traffic
If you could learn and use only ONE skill
online in your quest to build a business, it would have to be driving traffic.
Everything else can be done by someone
else. After all, if you can drive traffic, you can promote other people’s
products and never worry about product creation or customer service.
Start with ONE traffic method and MASTER
it. Then and only then should you move to a second method and so forth.
If you have time, master free traffic
methods. If you have money, master paid traffic methods. Free traffic takes
more work and it’s generally slower and less reliable, but it is workable.
Paid traffic has a learning curve and while
you’re learning you will likely lose money. But once you master it, you can
decide how much you earn and how fast you earn it.
14: Play the Numbers
Online marketing is a numbers game. The
more products you have, the more money you can make. The more books you sell,
the more likely you will make sales. The more social media posts you make and
the more posts on your blog, the more traffic you will tend to get, and so
forth.
Some of your posts, books and products will
bomb. Others will (hopefully) sell crazy amounts. Despite your best research
and efforts, you will sometimes be surprised at the results or lack thereof.
But if you’re putting out the numbers then
it won’t matter, because in the end you will have enough great posts, products,
books and so forth to carry you through.
15: Exercise and Eat Right
This one might surprise you. We’re talking
about how to be successful online, so what’s this doing in here?
Simple. If you’re tired, you’re not going
to do well. If you never exercise, if you eat crap and if you don’t get enough
sleep, then your body will suffer, your mind will suffer and your business will
suffer.
If you think you don’t have time to
exercise and eat right, let me tell you that you don’t have time NOT to do
those things.
I’m not telling you anything you don’t
already know, I’m just reminding you that this stuff is important. In fact,
it’s crucial if you want to be successful. Learn to love eating right and
exercising and everything else in your life will become easier.
16:
Buy Less and Sell More
This one is so simple, but a lot of people
just don’t get it.
If you’re always buying one more program
and one more piece of software, then you’re focusing your energy on BUYING and
on education.
To a point, that’s not a bad thing.
But until you start SELLING stuff, you do
not have a business.
You’ve got to spend 95% of your time
focused on selling if you want to have a real business.
Buying WSO’s and reading blogposts and
reports is not going to build a business. But selling stuff is.
17: Don’t Believe It
I’m not going to tell you to become jaded,
but being somewhat cynical is not a bad thing.
You get an email saying that this product
is the freakin’ bomb and you better buy it NOW. You trust the person telling
you this, too.
But is it really awesome? And maybe more
importantly, do you need it?
You read about a new shortcut, technique,
hack or whatever. They say it works. But does it?
Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t, but the
point here is simply this: Don’t believe everything you read and everything you
hear.
There’s a lot of hype online, and just
because you want it to be true doesn’t make it true.
17.5 Know How to Fail
Obviously,
you’re going to do everything you can to succeed. But sometimes, despite your
very best intentions and efforts, you’re going to fail, and that’s not only okay, it’s awesome.
Writing about it will help you to learn
whatever lessons there are to be learned, and it will help you to move on.
Posting it online to share with your
audience will help them to see that failure is not to be feared, and that you
are a real, genuine person who screws up, just like them. They’ll love you for
it.
Congrats, you made it through this article!
Most people would have stopped reading
before the end because they don’t have what it takes to succeed online.
But you do. You know that building a
business has nothing to do with fairy dust and magic, and everything to do with
getting in there and performing the work.
There’s not a doubt in my mind that you can
be successful, and I’m not talking sometime in the distant future…
I mean THIS YEAR.
In 12-months’ time you can totally have a
profitable business that allows you to quit whatever mind-numbing, soul-sucking
job you might have and start living YOUR life on your terms.
Congrats my friend, you are truly on your
way.
To Your Success Online
Steven Morton
Founder-Marketing Mastermind Tips
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