Running a successful internet business can look so simple when you are on the outside looking in. You look at a successful internet entrepreneur and he doesn’t look like he is doing anything special but he is living the good life. It really doesn’t look like he is working all that hard. He seems to be enjoying life immensely.
Really...all he is doing is sitting comfortably in front of his own computer in his own very comfortable home a few hours a day. He talks on the telephone and seems to be enjoying every conversation.
Apparently, running a successful internet business is the proverbial ‘piece of cake’! Right? WRONG!!! Wrong, wrong, wrong!You are looking at the results of a very, very long and tedious process that consisted of many very long, late-night hours and a lot of blood, sweat and tears over a period of several years.
This successful internet entrepreneur worked very, very hard for the success that you are looking at.It is more than a little bit likely that he first placed four corner stones first as he began the long process of building his successful Internet business. Those four corner stones upon which he built his success are:
1. The right mind set. 2. Recognizing and using leverage.3. Building a set of useful contacts.
4. And he probably had a mentor.
We will discuss these four corner stones that must be laid down first so that a successful internet business can be constructed.
All of them are important, even crucial to the success of any business but especially to the success of an internet based business.
Constructing a successful business in cyber space has many things in common with the building of a successful brick and mortar business but there are significant differences as well.
A right and healthy mind set will not guarantee success but a wrong and unhealthy or unrealistic mindset will most assuredly guarantee failure. So the right mind set is the first corner stone that must be laid upon which a successful business can be constructed.
What is a right and healthy mindset? There are things that it is as well as things that it isn’t.A right and healthy mindset IS the willingness to work as hard and as long as is necessary to achieve the goals that has been set. A right and healthy mindset ISN’T the belief that success will be easy, quick or painless.
Those who believe that they can make an internet business enterprise thrive without having to actually put in any time or effort are simply doomed to failure from the beginning.
A right and healthy mindset IS the willingness to take the time to make a good, solid business plan that is based upon sound business principles.
A right and healthy mindset ISN’T just jumping in feet first and hoping for the best. The best that can happen under those circumstances is that you get out with anymore than two cents to your name.
‘Flying by the seat of your pants’ is NOT a plan...it is just plain suicide in the world of internet marketing. If you don’t have a formal education in business, you need to find people who do have that kind of education and seek then follow their advice.
There are dozens...maybe hundreds....of business models out there. Some are, of course, more successful than others but they all come with their own set of pros and cons.
The idea is to get the most bang for the buck. You need to use all of the power of the Internet to make your e-business successful. You really cannot afford to leave any stone unturned.
If you are a real go-getter, the temptation is to do everything first and that isn’t possible. You need to make a realistic plan and build one thing upon another until you have a good solid base from which to operate.
Once you get a website built, you will need to begin leveraging SEO (search engine optimization) and gaining page rank.
One thing does lead to another, of course, but one of the quickest ways to leverage SEO is to add a blog to your website. This is a way that you can get much more quickly indexed by the search engines.
Leveraging also includes branding yourself, your website and your products. One of the quicker ways to begin to get yourself branded is by investing in PLR (Private Label Rights) products and changing the names of those products to include your own name or logo. (Don’t forget that there must be some rewriting done.)
This is probably the quickest way to become branded as well as gain credibility on the internet. For example: you might by a PLR E-Book about Easy Dog Training and change the name to ‘John Doe’s Easy Dog Training Methods’.
You can sell the book, give it away as a free gift on your own website or list it in E-Book repositories for others to use.Remember that reputation and credibility are everything on the internet. Don’t take any shortcuts and never damage or allow others to damage either.
That is an old saying. “It is not What you know, but Who you know that counts”. Setting a corner stone of good solid relationships is an important aspect of building a successful e-enterprise.
Working hard at building good solid business relationships is worth every minute of time that you invest in it. Business relationship building should be one of your top priorities.
When you build social relationships, you insert yourself into social situations where you come in contact with people who have interests that are similar to or complimentary to your own interests don’t you?
That is precisely the same way that business relationships are established. You insert yourself into business situations where you will meet others who have businesses that are similar to or complimentary to your own business. You develop relationships over a period of time.
There are several ways in which to accomplish this task. One way is to participate in teleseminars or webinars that are related to your business.You will learn a lot, of course, but equally important, you will come in contact with those who are already succeeding in the niche market that you are working in.
Of course, attending real brick and mortar world seminars is an even better way to begin to build friendly business relationships with not only your peers but also with those who are in a position to help you....which brings me to the final corner stone that you need to lay.
It isn’t likely that there is a more valuable asset that a new e-entrepreneur can have than a good and capable mentor. Someone who has already made all of the mistakes can help you to avoid making all of the mistakes yourself.
They have the wisdom that comes from experience to point out pitfalls and to help direct you toward the better of choices.Why, you ask, would anyone who has it made want to take their time to help a newbie succeed?
Maybe I can answer that by telling you about my friend who is an accomplished musician. He played with some of the biggest stars in the business. He is a very, very fine guitarist who is now in his 70’s.
I asked him why he spent so much time doing that and he said, “It is like gaining immortality. If I teach them and they teach others, then what I know lives forever.”
Successful internet marketers want that ‘immortality’ as well. The ones who are the very most successful are the ones, amazingly enough, who are the most likely to mentor an up and coming e-entrepreneur.
Of course, these successful internet marketers are not going to be interested in wasting their time on a person who has not already worked hard to lay those first three corner stones themselves.
These potential mentors are looking for new comers who show that they have a right and healthy mindset, who are working hard at leveraging and who are well aware of how important it is to know all the players and the RIGHT people.
It short, the new comer most likely to get a mentor is one who is already working hard and helping himself and not looking for someone who can just smooth the way for him.