I hope you enjoyed the bank holiday and that those of you who are parents are surviving the half term break! I’ve been juggling children, writing, packing and posting and have also managed to squeeze in a visit to IKEA. It’s been a busy one for me!
This week though has also found me in a very reflective mood and I think this is partly down to an email I received from a reader of mine. It was actually very complimentary but also provoked some self-examination from myself.
The gist of this email was that the reader is now travelling the same path that I’m on, except that he is perhaps two or three years behind the point I have already reached.
One of the questions he asked me was what the tipping point was for me and it made me take a long, hard look at what I have achieved and brought back the memories of those frustrating times as I tried to get started with a career from my online business ideas.
Advice to improve your online business ideas
One minute I’d be on a high, thinking I’d discovered the answer to becoming a millionaire overnight. The next, on a low when I realised I’d bought into was a load of rubbish!
I’ve been scammed (embarrassingly, this happened several times), sold poor quality goods and naively believed every word that was fed to me by unscrupulous ‘Gurus’.
Working into the early hours became the norm for me and there was a point when I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually sat down in the evening and watched a bit of light entertainment. Instead I literally crawled in to bed at two or three in the morning, exhausted and knowing I had to get up again in just a few hours time.
I have an inkling that this is how the person who sent me that email is feeling now.
But there was a belief and drive within me that kept telling me that there had to be a better way to live my life and it didn’t have to be this way.
You see, in some respects I’m quite selfish because whilst I wanted and thought that I deserved all the nice things in life that being in full-time employment provided, I was not prepared to sacrifice the quality of my home life to retain it.
Round and round I went.
The more I went round on this hamster wheel the more I knew that things had to change – not just externally, internally too.
If I wanted change then it was up to me to make it happen.
It was then that I made the decision that I would no longer spend time searching for the ‘magic bullet’.
I decided to concentrate on finding a genuine system that would work for me and it was literally a few days later my husband suggested I should try selling on eBay.
I hadn’t even got a buying account on eBay at the time, let alone tried to sell anything and the old fears all started to take over, but something inside was telling me that there was mileage in this idea.
So, to answer my reader’s question: the tipping point for me was the decision to stop wasting money on get rich quick schemes and devote my time to online business ideas that I could start on a small scale, with little capital and of a size that I could be in control of.
Once that decision was made there was no stopping me!
For a simple, small start-up, my advice to anyone who is just starting out with the idea of an online business would always be to seriously consider eBay and Amazon before moving on to selling from your own website.
Forget about those get rich quick schemes and seek out proper business opportunities from people who have actually been there, done it and know the business inside out.
People like Nick Laight, Charlie Wright and of course me!
Whilst it might look easy for us now it most certainly wasn’t always like that! We’ve all slogged and toiled to get here, and now our motivation is to offer you advice to help you get started.
There is no magic bullet. You can’t sit back and wait for things to happen.
Make the decision and then do it. I started with eBay, moved on to Amazon, set up my own websites and finally with the guidance of some truly genuine guys I now publish my own books and courses so you don’t have to pick your way through the minefield that I went through!
Three free resources to help you get started on the road to success…
I mentioned some names earlier of some people who can offer you some truly inspirational advice, so I’m going to point you in their direction so that you can gain some extra, free valuable information and advice to help you on your journey.
Please take the opportunity to sign up to their free newsletters…
First up, there’s Charlie Wright. He is, in his own words ‘a battle scarred warrior who’s really been there’ and his website Biz Opp Jungle is a fantastic resource for weeding out the good home business opportunities from the bad. Charlie isn’t afraid to tell it like it is believe me.
Then there’s Nick Laight, Director of Canonbury Publishing. Nick’s been helping people start their own businesses for years and is credited as being one of the most well respected, genuine and knowledgeable guys around. Hop over to his website What Biz Opp and you’ll find plenty of opportunities and ideas to get you started.
And finally, don’t forget that you can find loads of free articles and advice on my own website at www.powersellerpod.com
This is where I’ve been, and what I’ve done and please remember that I know exactly how it feels to be starting from scratch.