If you’ve been online for any length of time with your home based business I’m sure you’ve probably heard the awful truth about doing business on the web. But for those of you who haven’t heard, the fact of the matter is that 95% of the people who start online enterprises fail. Being the mathematical genius that I am, by my calculations, this means that only 5% new ventures succeed on the Internet.
This raises the question, why is it so difficult to make a living online when there seems to be so many home based opportunities available? I believe there are various reasons why so many new entrepreneurs fail to make a go of it on the Internet and here are what I believe to be the top 10 obstacles to success encountered by these so called newbie’s:
1. People often enter the world of e-business with the mindset that there is some magic bullet or unknown code they can discover which will make them rich overnight or at least within the next few months. Unfortunately many unscrupulous Internet marketers prey upon this mindset by making outlandish promises of fortunes to be had by working only 10 hours per week and by following their simple step-by-step plan to Internet riches.
Those of us who have been online for any length of time know this is rubbish and as with any other business startup offline or online your Internet home based enterprise will require long hours of hard work in order to make it succeed. Some people lose thousands of their hard earned dollars to these individuals and of course become disillusioned and bitter and quit.
2. When these newbie’s enter the fray thinking about becoming rich with very little effort they jump from program to program looking for the one that’s going to deliver on all the false promises being made. This of course sets them up for failure because instead of finding one legitimate opportunity and concentrating on making it work their attention and time is divided between many different bogus businesses. So the lesson here is to find one honest chance at success and focus your attention on making it deliver.
3. When people discover how much work is involved in so many different areas of their business they become nervous and begin to believe they just aren’t technical enough to get their business up and running and throw in the towel even before they begin.
4. Information overload is a common complaint from many new online home business owners. People begin investigating all the Internet marketing opportunities available on the web and subscribe to every email list that offers a free bonus and spend most of their time reading these email messages. They start looking into all of these ventures and become inundated with information and confused about which direction to take which can become frustrating to the point that they begin to think about quitting even before they begin.
5. Procrastination becomes an issue for many newbie’s and before they know it they’re so far behind in their marketing efforts or even in building their website that they believe they will never catch up and get to where they think they should be. This can snowball until eventually they can see no way out except to give up.
6. If people are having trouble driving traffic to their home business website and their number of daily visitors is low, no matter what they try, and they can’t make that first sale then this can become very discouraging and self doubt can become a major issue. When this situation continues for an extended period of time it can lead to the decision to quit.
7. When people realize how much time, dedication and discipline it can take before you even begin to realize a profit they may decide this business just isn’t for them. This can be an epiphany for those who entered the online business world expecting to do little in the way of work for a huge monetary return, which of course isn’t the reality of the situation.
8. Ongoing education is a fact of life for home business owners on the web and when some people realize this fact they begin to think this isn’t going to be as much fun as they thought. Internet marketers should set aside a certain amount of time each day to read a report, listen to a podcast or view a video related to Internet marketing and this may not be very appealing to some newbie’s.
9. The ongoing cost of operating a home based business on the web may be a little more than some people budgeted for as their start-up costs. If they get involved with a pay per click campaign or purchase advertising and traffic without researching these tactics before hand they are setting themselves up for a big financial loss and a short business career on the web.
10. People who fail to set daily, weekly and monthly goals for their new enterprise will find it very difficult to stay focused and complete all the tasks necessary to compete on the Internet. Short term and long term goal setting is a must before you open your virtual doors and begin promoting your new enterprise. This must be an ongoing process through out the life of your business to ensure its continued success online.
The main point to take away from this article is before you decide to start a home based business online do your research and find one legitimate opportunity and focus on Internet marketing to drive traffic to your website and make sales. Everyone must realize this is a business like any other business and requires hard work, discipline and dedication in order to make it succeed.