Six Success Factors – Setting Up an Online Business

This is the first in a series of blog posts based around an incredible webinar hosted by Rich Schefren. What I love the most about the content Rich delivers is he doesn’t go down the route of many so called gurus who tell you to do “X + Y to make Z”, he teaches proper methods regarding setting up an online business. Is it any wonder he has helped to create more online millionaires and indeed multi-millionaires than anyone else?

My other mentor, Alex Jeffreys, claims to have earned almost $700,000 in nine months of being guided by Rich and I hope that with the help from both of them, I can achieve similar success.

The first topic I want to blog about today is creating a business by design. What is meant by this is rather than just diving straight into a “business”, which is pretty much what I did and have continued to do for the past three years of working for myself online, it is to create a real, robust business which can grow and then ultimately grow without you.

The mistake most people make, myself included, is they dive straight in and if by chance things start going well, then tasks are outsourced. While the business owner has taken themselves out of the equation somewhat the “business” is still dependent on them because only they know what tasks need doing etc.

I have previously listed 10 secrets of a successful online business but before you even get to that stage you need to know these four simple, yet hugely important elements to creating a real business which can succeed and eventually not require your input at all.

1. Determine What You Want

Rich argues this is the most important aspect when setting up an online business because you do not want to become involved in one which consumes you. I have to admit that this is where I have gone wrong so far – my business, or lack of one, has been my life and consumes up to 14 hours per day.

The early stages of the GPS coaching program was all about defining what you wanted from your business and life in general and I blogged about this previously.

Ultimately, what I want from the business is to be recognised as an authority in the internet marketing niche and to be able to consistently earn $20,000 per month. Of course there are authority figures who earn a lot more than that but I believe this to be a realistic figure to achieve.

One tip to determining what you want from your business to make a list of everything you don’t want.

For example, you may not want to wake up early every morning or not to be stressed out by money issues. By writing these out you are then able to plan out your ideal day and get a clearer idea of what it is you really want.

Rich argues that these should not necessarily be “money goals” but lifestyle goals. Do you want a bigger house? A new car? Money is just a means to an end to achieve these tangible, lifestyle goals.

I went through this process in a little more detail via Rich’s GPS coaching program and also identified what I did not want in my business to help determine what I did want.

2. Determine What Your Customers Crave

This is the most important marketing information you will ever learn. Finding out what your customers crave is more important than any other marketing “strategy” you may learn elsewhere.

What you need to do is understand your customers and know what they want. That way, you can tickle their fancy through your free content and products and have them eager to buy your next big ticket item without even having to “sell” to them.

Find out what your customers problems are, what causes them pain and create something that can solve them. This is the only way you business will succeed for you to achieve your ideal life.

In the current financial climate this is even more important because when you manage to obtain a paying customer, you need to be able to hold onto them for a long time.

3. The Purpose of Your Business

Ultimately you want to create a “greater purpose” to your business. If you want to become “free” of your business, i.e. it flourishes without your involvement, then it needs to have a purpose.

Ask yourself, would the world be worse off if your business did not exist?

Where I have struggled before is I have had no real purpose online and I have written before how this is about the third attempt I have made to write a blog. Now I am focusing on helping people a few steps behind me learn how to make money online and this I believe to be the purpose of my business.

With this greater clarity, I find it a lot easier to produce new blog content and come up with ideas for new products. Nothing feels “forced” or done just for the sake of it and because of this, I feel as though my business can only go from strength to strength.

4. The Simplest Business Model Wins

Setting up an online business with the simplest models are those which become the most successful.

This is the business model which Rich believes to be the best way to succeed online and it astounded me in its simplicity. It’s just another in a series of “aha” moments I have had since taking the coaching and I do not plan on over complicating what appears to be a great method to making money online:

1. Have a Front End product that a customer buys and this enables you to overdeliver and then form a relationship with that customer.
2. You then move the customer into a Continuity program where they pay you a monthly fee. This allows you to build on your relationship further and get the customer used to you overdelivering on a monthly basis.
3. You can then promote more expensive items to your customers on the continuity program.

This three step plan sounds very simple but when you know what your customers want and can give it to them, then they will be willing to spend money on time and time again because they know you can deliver on your promises.

The simpler the business model, the less people you need involved in the running of your business, the easier it will be to improve and the more likely it will be able to grow.