I did a personal survey recently by asking people on my list and also speaking with close friends and acquaintances and wanted to share what I discovered with you.
The 2 most common reasons I hear from people for why they don’t get started in building an online business of their own are,
- No IT skills
- No money
I want to shed some light on these, and hopefully help to address them constructively.
- No IT skills
My response to this is always the same when I hear it, “when will you ever gain it, if you never start to learn it?”
We’re now in the digital age, where information is accessible and learnable online. People also tend to overthink this and make it more daunting than it actually is.
Here’s the bottom line, you don’t need to know the ins and outs of how to make technology, you just need to know how to use it to your advantage.
And learning how to use online tools is 100% doable by almost anyone.
You managed to use the apps and features of your phone or laptop right? You didn’t need to know how to build a smartphone or laptop, you just needed to know how to use them.
It’s a similar principle i.e. you don’t need to know how to make online tools to start a business, you just need to know how to use them.
2. No Money
This is relative to each person. We’re all different and I’m not one to judge. But there is one common truth and it’s this – if you want to make more money than you currently have or LOTS of money enough to fund a better quality of life and a lifestyle of choice?
You’re not going to do it by holding on to money tightly. You have to invest it.
Most people put it in a bank. Keeps it fairly safe and there’s some interest, small as it is.
People also invest in pension schemes. That’s fine, except, you only benefit from that when you retire. What if you want to live a lifestyle now?
Others play the stock market, crypto (which btw crashed recently). Another investment route if you have the capital is real estate, flipping houses etc.
The general rule of thumb is, if you want big returns, you generally also have to take bigger investment risks.
Most people don’t have £20 – £40k lying around the house they can easily forget if they lost it as an investment.
Which leaves the only investment that makes sense and is also 100% risk-free.
And that’s to invest in yourself.
Whenever you acquire new skills and learn new and better ways to do things, you raise yourself to the next level and no one can take away what you’ve acquired and learned.
You become your own prime asset.
And guys, being your own prime asset is extremely handy esp. in a recession.
When I was ‘constructively dismissed’ from a company I was working for during the height of a recession in 2009, I was sick and tired of being an employee at that point, so I made a crazy decision to start my own online business (during a recession).
I learned about SEO (search engine optimisation) and provided online and social media marketing services to small and medium-sized businesses.
And I was successful with it, I ran it for 5 years and built up a great client list, but that’s a story for another time!
I wrote a book about what I learned during my 5 years running my own online business, it might help you, check it out on in my shop…
My advice to anyone who says they have no money to invest in starting or growing an online business is the same. Invest in upskilling. Invest time reading books, and learning from video tutorials on YouTube, many of which are free.
Invest in yourself. Invest in learning new skills, new ideas, new ways of doing things.
I’ll say it again, so you remember : ) you are your most valuable asset!
