Back in 2002 when my son was born my goal was to have a business. At the time I had a hobby of making soaps so it seemed like a natural transition to go from hobby soapmaker to professional soapmaker as my new business!
I set up my first ecommerce website that year and got my first taste of making money on the internet. It was so thrilling to see money come in ‘virtually’ I must admit. There was something much more exciting about getting a bit of money from a random stranger through email than from slugging my soaps out to a craft show and standing behind them waiting and watching people before they decided to buy. I was hooked on learning to build an online business from that point on!
One Business Cost Me $10,000 in Expenses (DEBT)
For quite a few years I researched things like how to make great websites, how to get traffic, how to get people to buy from me and more. Eventually I let the soap business go because it was so much work and I felt there had to be a better business for me. I tried many businesses over the years but none of them gave me a good return on the money I spent. One business cost me $10,000 before I finally threw in the towel and resolved to find a better way!
You’ve got to understand I didn’t have 10k to spend on a business at that time. I was a single mom who was ALREADY in debt to my parents after being bailed out of credit card debt to the banks. I was horribly stupid with my money and I was spending it on every new business idea that appealed to me in an effort to find the true freedom lifestyle I was looking for. I learned from what one of my friends called the ‘School of Hard Knocks’ and I seemed to keep taking the same classes over and over again!
Dreaming of Being an Internet Marketer
My dream really was to put products out there online, have people who I’ve never met in person buy them ‘virtually’ and make a great living doing so. I knew that was the way to really leverage time and earn a great income. The problem was I really didn’t know how to make that happen, even after studying the resources of really smart people who were already doing so.
I think now it was a combination of not really knowing who I could serve and being too focused on the ‘next shiny object’ that I never picked something I was really passionate about and put my all into it.
So instead of giving up I decided to put all the trial and error, pain and mistakes and learning experiences to work for me and provide services to online business owners. It was the smartest thing I’ve ever done! After all, by the time I decided to do this four years had passed (it was 2004) and I had a whole lot of experience and learning behind my belt on how to make websites sell, how to do article marketing, how to do keyword research, how to use all kinds of good programs like Aweber, WordPress, HTML, Frontpage and more.
Why Starting a Service Business Was the Smartest Thing I’ve Ever Done
So in 2006 I launched my Virtual Assistance business. I say it was the smartest thing to do for a number of reasons:
Insider Information – It quickly gave me complete insider information into the businesses of real internet entrepreneurs who were making money online! Do you know how valuable this is? It allowed me to see their businesses from behind the curtains and understand what it was they were doing to make their businesses work. That training is something I will always be so grateful for.
Tiny Startup Cost – It cost me almost NOTHING to get started. All I needed was a website and a membership to an online networking group for moms in business called Mom Masterminds (now Solo Masterminds) to get my first 11 clients in 24 hours! This is a ‘results not typical’ kind of thing but the ladies in that forum had known me for a few years and trusted me. I gave them an amazing deal on services and they snapped it up.
Paid Training – I got paid to get trained on many new things I didn’t know how to do before. It allowed me to hone my skills and then move completely into a more lucrative service: website design. I had actually been building websites for myself since 2001 so I already had some experience but I learned many new things working with clients and seeing their websites. Eventually, around 2009, WordPress became THE platform to build websites on and I started offering this service to my clients. WordPress has only grown in popularity since and the needs of clients for help with this program is as large as ever!
In 2012 I finally stopped taking on any regular website design clients and moved my business entirely into the coaching and information product format. As you can tell it certainly was a process. I am so glad I started out with services for all the reasons above. It really was what I consider to be the safest and smartest way to create income without going into major debt buying stuff to try to make money from. That was my experience at least!
What Kind of Home Based Business Do You Want?
If you’re looking to build a service business because you want to make money online then consider providing WordPress services. Also make sure you do consider other types of income that don’t really on you trading your hours for dollars on an ongoing basis… that’s the beauty of the options of the internet.
If you’re looking to build a full out internet business where you don’t provide services but are struggling to make that really happen for you then I highly recommend you consider doing some supplemental work in services. When you get clients it will give you the cash you need to either pay your bills or grow your business (or both) and it will give you invaluable experience if you work with clients who are actually earning their livings online.
I know this has been a longer than normal email but I wanted to throw you something to think about today in this first month of the year. I want to see you succeed at this and I know it’s not always easy! I also want you to know I’m here to support and help you if you’d like some extra guidance. I offer a training program on how to work with clients to build WordPress websites and I’ve lower the price on it to only $147 (from $397) so that it’s at a price that hopefully everyone can afford.
As I mentioned I recommend you don’t spend a whole lot to get this going (because you don’t have to) but if you’d be interested in joining me for this course and you get just one client out of it afterwards you should be able to recoup at least three times of what you pay to sign up. The course is called WP Designer School and you can read more details about what’s included by going to the site here: http://www.WPDesignerSchool.com
I wish you all the very best in your online business setup . I also want you to know you CAN make your own dreams come true. It was a struggle for me, some people probably thought I was crazy but I did it. I’m living the lifestyle I truly dreamed of and sometimes didn’t know was possible but it really is. All the best to you!
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please post them below 