The biggest things stopping you from building a profitable online business and how to overcome them (Part 1)

I recently surveyed my email list and asked them what's standing between them and their goals. After reviewing the responses, there were definitely some common threads! So, across two special episodes I'm sharing the biggest things that may be stopping you too from building a profitable online business *and* how you can overcome them.

– What “I don't have enough time” really means and what to ask yourself instead.
– The common myths about outsourcing and the baby steps you can take to get started.
– Why understanding your fears about creating something that people might not buy can help you to hone your focus into something they will.
– How recognising your fear of being judged by others can help you to reconnect with your “why” and your “who”.
– The struggle is real: why converting your leads into buyers won't happen automatically, and what you need to do instead.

 

 
Today I'm sharing part one of two of the biggest things that are stopping you from building a profitable online business that also gives you the freedom you started your business for and how to overcome each of these things. So over this episode and the next episode, I'm sharing 10 of the most common ones that popped up as well as some ways that you can start to overcome these so you can continue to grow your business.

 

#1: Not knowing where to spend your time. 

So lack of clarity around what to do in your business, what to prioritise, where to focus your limited time for the most results. Pretty much everyone that I surveyed said, I don't have enough time to do all of the things. So either we all just don't have enough time or we're trying to get way too much done, or we all really suck at time management. 

I'm not sure which one of those three it is, but the quickest way to waste your time is to aimlessly spend it on busy tasks that make you feel productive, but that don't really serve any purpose or don't move you any closer to your goals in your business.

So the very first step is to get clear on where you are going. What is the bigger vision that you are working towards? 

Once you know where you are going, then you can start to prioritise the actions you need to take to get there. What moves you closer to one end goal might move you away from a completely different outcome.

For example, if you're trying to build a lifestyle business where you only work 20 hours a week, let's say, then you're going to be going down a completely different pathway to somebody who's trying to build an entire empire and who wants to work 40 plus hours a week. So you need to know what you are aiming towards before you can prioritise your time to get there.

 

#2: No budget to hire anyone or outsource. 

Now, outsourcing or hiring is a really great way to buy back time and create more time to do the things that you want to do and the things that you are really good at in your business and it doesn't have to be that the very first person you hire is full time. They can be on an hourly basis and, you know, many virtual assistants, they actually allow you to hire them on that hourly basis, or you can buy a package of hours to use over a period of time. 

I know when you're early in your business, it's so tempting to do all of it yourself because, just because you can, right? So why would you pay somebody else to do the things that you can do? And I get this because I did everything myself at the start. I did my website. I did my graphic design. I did all the tech setup, the customer support, all of the things but growing your business requires letting go of your need to do it all. Your time is so much better spent on the things that are within your zone of genius, not the lower-value tasks that anybody else could do.

 

#3: The fear that you will create something, a course or program or a membership and nobody's going to buy it. 

This fear can feel very real and you won't know whether it's actually real or not until you ask people to buy it. And it helps to remember that this fear is coming from a place of keeping you safe. It's not based on any actual reality. Your brain has no idea whether somebody is going to buy it or not, but the fear that you are feeling can convince you that they won't buy because then if you're convinced, then you're not going to run the risk of trying and failing. So you're going to stay safe. 

Now, I also want to remind you that risk is a key part of entrepreneurship even if you don't identify as an entrepreneur, if you are creating anything new, you are an entrepreneur. And if there wasn't any risk, if success were 100% guaranteed all of the time, then everyone would do it and there would be no reward in it.

 

#4: The fear that others will judge you.

Now, before I started this podcast five years ago, I put it off for like six to 12 months. The one thing that stopped me from doing it was this worry of what others think of me for doing this. And this was way before everyone and their dog had a podcast.

So I thought that they would think I was weird for doing this podcasting thing and eventually I realised that the impact I could make with this show was It's way more important than what a few people might think. So I did it. And guess what? Nobody said anything. They didn't say anything mean and if they judged me for doing it, well, I didn't hear about it and here we are 700 episodes later. 

 

#5: The struggle to convert leads into buyers.

Now I've noticed that so many business owners buy into this idea that if they can just get their business or their offers in front of the right people, then they will buy and this just isn't the case.

Marketing will get you the leads but your sales process will be what converts them into buyers. Your sales process is that journey that you are taking someone on from when they become a lead through to when they buy from you. 

For example, live launching. That's one sales process. It's my favourite one, but it's not the only one and it's highly likely that each of your offers will have its own sales process. You're not just going to have one sales process for your entire business. You might have a different one for each offer. 

 

Pin it?