What it Takes to Do Business Online - Make Time!

What it takes to do business online? Short answer: think through your commitment, be ready to give all it takes.

Congratulations! If you agree, this means you are level-headed enough to think through your costs before you jump into a new venture.

Yes, friend, I do sincerely recommend weighing the pros and cons, and considering what you will give up to gain – this is what takes to do business online. Knowing all these things will give you a solid confidence that will help you over-ride every problem and stumbling block that gets in your way.

To give you exact answers as to what it will take, I need to know more about the online business you are considering. However, I do see some general requirements: what it takes to do business online. Let’s talk about these first. (The specifics will follow next time).

1. Motivation
You need a strong REASON why you should pursue this online business. What will make you STAY at it and not give up?

2. Time
You will have to set aside some hours to work at this, and guard that block of time ever so carefully! Especially at the beginning when you are forming work habits, it is so easy to allow a friend to drop by and interrupt you, or to dash off to a funeral, then some shopping, then meet someone for coffee. And you cannot get those hours back for your business.

Oops! Now I’ve scared you, and you wonder if it will take all your waking hours!

It doesn’t have to, but yes, at the beginning… it will take lots of time.

You may enjoy the work so much once you are turning good p r o f i t s, and meeting exciting new people that you will gladly spend all your time at it! (Of course, isn’t the point of making lots of money so you can spend more time with family and on meaningful projects).

2 Hours/Day - for Dabblers

I found that it takes two hours a day, just to get informed, and get a taste of what could happen.

You will need to give an hour or so to learning the ropes, watching the training videos in the back office of the business you have signed up. The other hour each day would be for trying out the things you are learning.

If you are stuck in another job, or maybe a difficult family situation, you may simply not have more time to give, at least not for now. Then be content to give up those two hours, but resolve to discipline yourself well in that small block of time. Count it as Prep Time.

Naturally, how productive you can be in such a small block of time may depend on your past experience and knowledge, and how quickly you can make some decisions. But if you intend for it to be part-time and you are not dreaming of tremendously huge incomes – then this may turn out perfect for you.

On the other hand, if you have only a small block of time, keep your business strategy very simple. Just do one stage after another. Only expect it all to take longer to do business online.

Confidentially, I have had periods when, what with all my other volunteering commitments, etc., I could only give a couple of hours a day. I found it was enough to keep informed, and to start blogging, and for trying things out, but not enough to work at promotion and marketing in earnest. I began to plot and figure out how I could carve out more hours in my day to make my efforts pay off.

4 Hours/Day - for the Money to Come!

With this extra time I could really tackle, first some free, and later some paid ways to drive traffic to my business offers, and helpful blog posts. I also found that once people started signing up, I needed extra time just to correspond with my new leads and downline members, and answer their personal questions.

I was VERY GLAD I had taken time in the 2 hour/day period to write my series of responder emails that would introduce the basic wisdom I wanted to pass on. That allowed me to urge people to sign up to my eAction LIST, and that they should read those emails for a few days. Those would answer many of their first questions.

Still, people need that personal touch, so I was still taking time to answer their emails and to phone some to help them make the right decisions.

All this activity, if the offers, and landing pages and your mailing list is all set up, should start to produce income! Hallelujah! Now motivation is not so hard to come by. Income has a wonderful way of priming the pump, and showing us what else we can give up to make time for what becomes more important to us.

But the income streams will still come in fits and spurts for a while. Don’t relax and believe you can count on this income without further efforts.

That comes when your downline has learned to produce too; that’s when you begin to get this passive “gravy money” from their incomes. Unless, of course, you have some wonder products for sale, and good evergreen articles and/or advertising in place to bring in the sales.

In fact, by now you may be getting ideas for books and videos and webinars that YOU want to prepare. These items that will really ratchet up your income by a few multiples! But guess what; more TIME to prepare them is what it takes to do business online at that level.

6 Hours/Day - for the Steady Cash Flow!

I’m still dreaming of being in this category, but I can see that if I could devote several whole evenings each week to doing nothing more than producing my own products, or offering Webinar courses, or workshops (I have always enjoyed teaching!) – then, whoa! I could get the money to roll in like those I watch in the training videos at a certain marketing community, who speak glibly of making 5 to 6 figure incomes – not just annually, but every month!

Let me assure you that I’m not greedy! I don’t want all that money for myself. God has long ago taught me to live simply and to be satisfied with what I have. But hey, I’ve dreamed since I was a preteen about being able to give away to missions and people in need, and I daydream constantly about helping out different people who are doing a great work, but need funds to complete it or to carry on better and to bless many more. I don’t think there are enough generous givers in the world, so I desire to be one.

I want to be generous and yet wise and discerning, not foolish, about how I give away the Lord’s money. Yes, I’ve already promised the Lord, that I will give away everything above my base budget. It will make me deliriously happy to give away – well, on a full-time basis! That’s when I can probably pull back to just two hours a day to maintain business income and I can concentrate on researching and giving. (And – well, I need to keep my commitments to write certain books too).

I’m not sure what your reason is for wanting to earn the larger incomes that are possible online. But if your goal is firmly entrenched in your mind, it will keep you motivated to keep working even when you have days that don’t seem to be anything but tedious work, and no results.