Why You Should Not Give Up
After several months, 12 to 14 hour days, courses, webinars, lectures, gurus, online forums, Facebook groups, so much advice, so many ideas, so much noise, and so much money spent…
Are you still not even close to where you want to be with your business?
Maybe even a creeping sensation is starting to set in. You know the one that says maybe you should go get a ‘real’ job, or maybe everyone was right and this business thing is not for you, or maybe you’re doing it all wrong and you’re just not cut out for this life.
All those comments can become louder and louder as each day goes by and you are not one step closer. So do you keep going through the negative wall you’ve built for yourself…or give up and take the easy road?
Is Entrepreneurship Really for Everyone?
You are bound to hear people say that entrepreneurship is not for everyone. And that’s true. Sky-diving is not for everyone either. Neither is cooking or data analysis.
Image by antoine carrion from Pixabay
Yet somehow when people tell an aspiring entrepreneur that entrepreneurship is not for everyone, the comment comes with an…I told you so…overtone.
When you are about to quit accounting or nursing or teaching, you might still get at least one person telling you to not be crazy, and give up your ‘good’ job, but you’re probably not going to get the same kind of superiority mandate that comes with proclaiming entrepreneurship is not for everyone.
In fact, .entrepreneurship is for anyone who has business ideas in their head, wants to be an entrepreneur, and is willing to work until the business meets your definition of success.
This could mean you try 127 different business idea. But as long as you keep trying…and you can feel the thrill in the effort…you are on the right path to becoming an entrepreneur.
How The Great Showman Did It
Recently I was reading the recollections of P.T. Barnum, the great showman. The book came out in 1872, so there’s no political correctness if that sort of thing bugs you – and if not, you can click this link to download a copy of the book for free (the book downloads automatically, there is no separate login).
Barnum was a regular farm boy, did chores, and then worked in the corner store as a stock boy. But over the years while he was working for others, He was hoping to do something on his own.
When someone brought him a ‘curiosity’ to exhibit, he jumped at the chance. This ‘curiosity’ was a human being, so we won’t jump on the merits of selling staring access to people with no televisions and no smartphones – we will only look at how he made the decision that eventually led to his entrepreneurial career.
Many people, given the opportunity to exhibit a curiosity would just say ‘no.’ Not for political correctness reasons, but because they’d have no idea what to do.
Barnum had no idea either. He had never done a show before. But he knew he wanted his own business. His mind was already tuned to watch out for an idea that might become a business. So when the idea was presented, he grabbed it.
If you had met him working behind the counter of the corner grocery store, would you have guessed he was going to become a world-famous millionaire showman? Probably not.
When you see yourself, and wonder what you’re capable of, do you guess who you could be?
You don’t have to end up as a world famous showman, but if you have business ideas in your head, and you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur then at the very least, you want to give yourself a chance to end up somewhere in the realm of your own ideas.
How Will You Do It
If you tell yourself upfront that you know getting your own business up and running is going to take time; and you know there could be many mistakes; and some things will not work out; and you have to try multiple iterations of your idea to get to the one that can be a viable business…then you should not be too surprised when these obstacles arise.
In fact, you should take each one as a learning experience, build on it, and push forward with the next idea. You don’t get much traction in complaining that your business is not working, or you have no idea if you’re going to make it.
But you get a lot out of working every day to learn 1% more, and to gain a 1% higher return. The real value of the experience is never lost as long as you keep going to build your business.
In my new book Recast: The Aspiring Entrepreneur’s Practical Guide to Getting Started with an Online Business, I talk about beginning the entire process by taking a deep breath – and by that I mean, assessing your mental and physical stamina for moving forward.
If you have never done any personal development work around building your success consciousness, and affirming yourself and your goals – this may be the time to get started. These practices help you keep the down parts of the ups and downs of entrepreneurship in perspective – and give you the confidence and perseverance to move forward.
This new era of life – beyond the pandemic – to just the transition to the global high tech world has given you the opening to have the life you want through entrepreneurship.
But you have to get started…and keep going…to make it work
The number one reason is…
- If you have business ideas in your head, and
- You want to be an entrepreneur, and
- You’re willing to do the work…
…You’re about 3/4 of the way there, so keep going…
Summary
- You will have ups and downs trying something new, learning, and making your mark in a new field.
- But your vision for the business you want to create, the solution you want to deliver, and the life you really want will keep you going
- Your desire to be an entrepreneur will be the fuel that keeps you going, because – like P.T. Barnum – you will always be on the look out for an opportunity…
- You just have to know it when you see it, and move forward as soon as you can
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How to Be An Entrepreneur
by Case Lane
Entrepreneurs can begin rich or poor, college-educated or not, and working for others or self-employed or unemployed. They encompass every background, every demographic, every twist in every type of story.
But the question often comes about whether or not, there is a ‘type.’
Does entrepreneurship rest in the hands of the few who are called or self-proclaimed to pursue a life outside the usual status quo, and just be so differently focused?
What does it all mean if your idea of a good time is to create a business from scratch?
The Entrepreneur Image
When aspiring entrepreneurs want to know how to manifest as an entrepreneur, the question can be answered on 3 levels – literal, functional and practical.
The Literal ‘Pop Culture’ Definition
Literal is the pop culture version of entrepreneurship. The entrepreneur you see and celebrate is the larger-than-life billionaire who founded a business on his, usually his own, and transformed it into a global corporation.
Some of the familiar entrepreneurs were alive decades ago, but their businesses still exist today. Some of them look like they are still in high school.
But all vary in personality type and style. And any one of them can define – how to be an entrepreneur?
Mark Zuckerberg wears the grey t-shirt and jeans to face the world. Warren Buffett wears a suit. Sir Richard Branson goes skydiving…Sara Blakely is an inventor…Howard Schultz a reinventor…JayZ an empresario…
Since none of the famous names behave in exactly the same way, the pop culture definition is not helpful in determining ‘how to be’ for an aspiring entrepreneur.
The Functional ‘Philosophical’ Definition
A good example of the functional definition of an entrepreneur is from UNCTAD – the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which says: an Entrepreneur is an individual who identifies opportunities in the marketplace, allocates resources, and creates value.
If you are a person who can identify a marketplace opportunity, allocate resources to it, and create value for people who want or need what you have to offer…you’re an entrepreneur.
However, upon closer inspection the definition does have gaps. A typical entrepreneur must function beyond those three goals. When identifying opportunities, you have to determine whether the opportunity is viable.
To make your opportunity viable, you may need to use more resources than you have available. You may have a great idea and be personally willing to work day and night on it, but you will not get very far if the long term cost of making it work is beyond your means to pay.
When it comes to creating value, you have to deliver to the people who want or need the product or service you have to offer. As an entrepreneur you have to be able to go beyond allocating resources to actually understand how and where to allocate. If you have the greatest product in the world, but poor distribution or mediocre marketing, your business is unlikely to be successful.
If you’re a great marketer, but your product falls apart quickly, you will not have a consumer base for long.
Although an entrepreneur must be able to see an opportunity, allocate resources and deliver value, it you do not fill the gaps between those words, your opportunity will be lost, your resources wasted and your value never realized.
The Practical ‘Work’ Definition
If the pop culture model, and a philosophical foundation are lacking in providing a complete picture of the entrepreneur, the definition may be grounded in practical attributes.
The entrepreneur is the one who does the work.
The explanation may sound roundabout, but that’s the only common thread existing among all entrepreneurs is a history of doing the work to get the business moving.
Once you have a business idea, you do the work to make it a reality.
You allocate resources either you own or those you hire. You expend some resources to determine how to turn your idea in to a business.
If you have no idea how business works, your first task will going to be to do research to determine how to move forward. You can study other people to see what they have done, or you can take courses or learn from books.
Few famous entrepreneurs learned their current trade when they were young. Some did, especially those who might have worked in a family business, or had a specific skill that they developed, but the rest learned on the job.
They learned by doing.
The practical application is to take your idea, spend a bit of time learning how to turn it into a business, and then to start.
Incrementally building the business, developing a prototype for your project, and testing the market is the best way to limit your risk and prove your idea if viable.
To be successful, you have to keep iterating – trying different approaches until one sticks. You may find you have to go through hundreds of different ideas to get close to the one that will give you lifestyle freedom. But that’s all part of how you can be an entrepreneur.
Summary: How to Be an Entrepreneur
To be an Entrepreneur:
- On a pop culture level, you can pick your favorite billionaire and model their behavior. Although it’s best to be original, there is also significant information written about how the most successful people made money.
- On a philosophical level, you can be the person who identifies opportunities, allocates resources and creates value. You have to cover all the steps in-between also, but knowing your core mission puts you one step ahead.
- On a practical level, you just have to do the work. An entrepreneur is the person who takes a business idea and turns it into a business by focusing night and day on making it happen. This is the connection among all entrepreneurs – doing the work – until it’s done and then…starting again
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by Case Lane
In the delightful comedy W1A about management life at the BBC, one of the characters has the useless corporate title, Director of Better.
No one, least of all the holder of the title, knows exactly what the title means nor what the role is supposed to do. The show is a continuous standup play on the triumph of bureaucracy in maintaining employment for well-meaning, educated professionals who essentially do…nothing.
But as uncomfortably true as the antics may be, the laughs will not last.
Even before a global pandemic, those who keep an eye on the economy were already documenting how technology and access to the global market were changing the future of work, and the expectations of society.
The value of every mythological line in the American dream was under scrutiny, and lifelong ideas about the ‘right’ thing to do with one’s life were being unmercifully contested.
In the midst of this, the often questionable journey for the entrepreneur continued to expand online, and created not only a new category of businesses, but an entirely renewed way to view the entire profession.
No longer the dominant road only for status-quo-defying risk-takers, online entrepreneurship opened up to anyone who was willing to do the work, to transform their speculative idea into a product or service for the global marketplace.
The result has been an up-leveled opportunity for anyone to take their place in the global economy through electronic means. This realization changes the game for all those who thought there was no room for them on the Internet money train.
For these reasons you should become an online entrepreneur:
- The Need for Solutions
- The Opportunity to Deliver Value
- You Can Have Any Idea
- You Can Operate in Any Niche
- You Do Not Have to Be an Expert
- You Do Have to Do the Work
- The Reality May Not Meet Your Expectations
- There is Money to Be Made
- There Are People Making Money
The Need
Surfing the Internet is another way to say searching the Internet. People are online looking for…everything…to satisfy their desires across a range of wants related to the most demanded, and most obscure, human needs.
This endless searching has allowed the major internet companies to gather data on consumer desires. And this data is for sale.
While business people have always attempted to ‘know their customer,’ now they can extract that information based on the customer’s own requests demonstrated by their typing, clicking, searching, reading, listening and viewing all day.
This demand-driven activity has not stopped entrepreneurs from considering the innovations people did not think to ask for. But they can just as easily assess demand by creating introductory products, service instructions, or even spin-offs of existing products or services for those who can never find exactly what they seem to want.
In fact, the online entrepreneur does not have to create anything new at all. A promotional video, deftly worded advertisement, or ten minute podcast generates enough data to understand consumer demand for a directed product or service designed to meet the expected need.
And the bottom line is…there is an endless stream of unmet needs across all consumer demographics all over the world.
The Opportunity
Anyone watching internet surfers continuously looking to be fulfilled, can see an opening that presents an opportunity to deliver a product or service to these desperate consumers.
An aspiring entrepreneur can target potential customers through the search engines like Google, social media platforms like Facebook, or their own proprietary e-mail lists, with advertisements, promotions, stories, images, audio and videos designed to encourage a connection.
Any Idea
A person who recognizes gaps in the economy…and fills it…is the entrepreneur. And more often than not the gap is related to an unserved demographic frustrated with never finding products or services that are aimed at them.
The ability to deliver products or services to this specific niche is the cornerstone of the online entrepreneurship opportunity.
The ‘mass’ market is on the decline. Consumers are searching for products or services designed specifically for their exact desires. They want a business that hears their voice, and meets their needs. And the intrepid entrepreneur is often one of the potential customers who has grown tired of waiting for someone else to invent the product or service they keep searching for.
All Niches
Decades of marketing practices aimed at the ‘mass’ market has left a wide-open field for entrepreneurs who are willing to deliver for those who do not currently receive.
An aspiring entrepreneur can immediately be the automatic leader in their field by delivering a product or service from their unique perspective, and using their singular approach.
The nutrition, diet and fitness market presents the typical example of how this works. Until everyone on earth finds a food plan they enjoy, and a health routine they can maintain, for the ideal look they aspire to…there is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to deliver a new nutrition, diet or fitness product.
The entrepreneur only needs to determine how best to deliver the product or service to those potential customers who will become their pampered community.
Not the Talent
For any idea the entrepreneur wants to develop there is an opportunity to approach almost anyone in the world who may be interested. In the most successful scenarios, the entrepreneur builds a community around their product or service, and continues to nurture and cultivate their fans.
But the entrepreneur has to first find these fans, ideally, through the online platform where they are most comfortable.
If you prefer writing, you can become a blogger, and seek to attract your audience by delivering value in the form of interesting articles.
If you prefer to talk, you can start a podcast and organize your value in a discussion or interview, which showcases the product or service you want to deliver.
Similar options exist for using images or being on video.
And if you do not like any of those options, and you just want to be an executive or manager, you can outsource the work to a content creation team based anywhere in the world.
Not an expert
Online entrepreneurs are creators, writers, instructors, influencers, marketers, store owners, coaches, consultants, developers, artists, speakers, photographers, organizers, and some…are experts in a particular field.
As noted in the next paragraph, to be successful, the only expertise one needs is the amount that is generated relative to the work the entrepreneur is willing to do.
The online entrepreneurship field is one devoid of formal credentials. The magic is in understanding the target consumers’ needs and, literally, speaking their language, then working persistently to deliver such sufficient value that these dream customers tell all their friends.
The Work
To create an online business, the aspiring entrepreneur picks an idea, a niche and a platform, and then delivers lasting value. The challenge is…how?
The number of entrepreneurs who have created one product, and took it to immediate success in the market without any changes is probably zero. By default, the entrepreneur must be prepared to adapt and change to consumer demand. The ‘big’ idea typically needs to be refined and molded until consumers respond.
The same is true for the distribution or marketing. A great idea poorly delivered will not find its intended base.
A good product poorly marketed will not find its audience.
A typical entrepreneur is likely to try dozens, perhaps hundreds, of iterations changing one segment after another of the product or service to find the ‘hit’ lurking just over the horizon.
This is where the statistics about entrepreneurship success and failure begin to play out. Those that actually make it are the ones who have the resources to keep trying until one version of their idea survives.
Those who can no longer hang on…fall by the wayside.
The Reality
Entrepreneurship is no walk in the park. Not because the work is particularly difficult, not because the potential consumers are missing, not because the idea is bad…but because the aspiring entrepreneur has no idea what is going to work.
The online entrepreneur has to be prepared to try and try again. From changing a headline on a landing page, to adding just one more email, to responding to every comment on social, to posting a question they never thought to ask before…the key to the game is perseverance.
Many successful entrepreneurs will tell you about the ideas that flopped. But each one led the entrepreneur to try something new, to watch for any signs from the market that the idea was resonating, and to scale rapidly when the most recent fix appeared to be a hit.
The question is: will you be successful before your energy or money runs out?
For those who keep their 9-to-5 while working on their side hustle, the question becomes: will you be successful before you really can’t stand your regular job anymore?
Either way, the only successful players are the ones who are persistent, and do not give up.
The Monetization
Where does online money come from…here’s a short list:
- Advertising and affiliate links on websites
- Private Coaching
- Private Consulting
- Advertising and sponsorships on podcasts and videos
- Direct digital product sales of books, videos, audio, courses and software
- Percentage of affiliate sales from joint ventures selling other people’s products
- Speaker fees
- Physical product sales of t-shirts, coffee mugs, pens, books and more
- Masterminds and conferences
How is the money made from these products?
By marketing to potential customers, and convincing them that the product or service you have to offer, in the form you offer it, will meet their needs.
This is the part where many aspiring entrepreneurs fall short. After locating a potential customer base, and confirming they are searching for the product or service you have to offer, you still have to be able to close the sale.
You have to get them to buy.
So aspiring entrepreneurs must create an incentive for potential customers to look at what they have to offer, make a purchase, spread the word, and come back for more.
The options for encouraging this path are as equally endless as the money spigots…
- Build a social media following by consistently posting online
- Start a blog, podcast or YouTube channel full of interesting content
- Create a website loaded with compelling content, and allow ads and affiliate banners
- Align with existing entrepreneurs in a joint venture (if you have something to offer them)
- Write and promote a book, course or app
- Create and promote other digital products
- Apply as a paid speaker, after volunteering to speak for free and building a reputation
- Set-up an online store and use social media to promote the products
- Tell everyone who will listen what you are doing, and convince them, even if they’re not interested, to tell others…
The Survivors
The Internet is littered with millionaires who are not afraid to tell you about their success. Many webinars begin before breathing to recount the host’s great successes from zero-to-million-dollar paydays, to zero to million follower social feeds, to total domination by learning the ‘one true way’ to do…whatever they purport to do.
They can deliver dozens of testimonials, endless words of public praise, and smiling and delighted successes at every turn. The presentations are slick, beautiful, and hyped for mind-control returns.
These are the successes.
The people behind these numbers are often exactly who they say they are, whether or not the ‘one true method’ they teach is repeatable and can work for others. And any way you slice their story – they have managed to at least get to the point where they can display a life of bling, and get you to listen to them talk about it.
Something went right.
In many cases, the successes did one thing legitimately and consistently correct…they did the work.
They posted every day, talked to everyone they knew, pushed through imposter syndrome, overcame fears, chanted affirmations, read every book, took every course, and continuously applied their learnings until their message clicked.
Keeping in mind all of the above, the aspiring entrepreneur can select any one of those models to emulate, or try to forge a new road. Either way, the fundamentals will not change.
If you have an idea that fills a gap, delivering a product or service to a niche consumer base that wants or needs what you have to offer; through an approach they can find; and you are willing to keep working until your dream customers find you and respond…you will have your business.
You just have to get started.
Case Lane’s latest book Recast: The Aspiring Entrepreneur’s Practical Guide to Getting Started with an Online Business is available now at Amazon.com
The book details the first ten actions to take when getting started online.
Disclosure: Links. to Amazon.com are affiliate links which earn for eligible purchases at no additional cost to you.
The Creative Actions for Starting an Online Business
by Case Lane
This is Part Two of Two posts about my new book Recast: The Aspiring Entrepreneur’s Practical Guide to Getting Started with an Online Business.
The book is ten practical actions for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business online, live with purpose and achieve their dreams
In this second post, I’m covering the Creative Actions, where aspiring entrepreneurs must understand the options for moving forward with a business idea
Part Two: Recast
When you Recast Yourself as an Entrepreneur, you are deciding to change the way you think, work and act so that you can bring forward – usually from scratch – the vision of a product or service that provides a solution for people who want or need it from you.
You are doing something exciting and terrifying.
You are aimed against the tide, and this whole societal idea of what you should and should not be doing.
Maybe it’s a little crazy?
And maybe it’s the entire idea of progress.
But how exactly do you do it?
Recast for Success
The role of Marty McFly in the fabulous Back to the Future movies was originally played by Eric Stoltz. They had already started filming when the production decided Stoltz was not right for the part. They wanted Michael J. Fox, who at the time was the star of a hit comedy series called Family Ties.
Now this is Hollywood, and Hollywood does not exactly share talent. The problem is like having a professional athlete who wants to play two sports. Like Bo Jackson, who played professional baseball and football at the same time. Both teams are freaked out that the athlete will be injured in the other sport – and then deny the other team their star. This might explain why you rarely get the two-sport professional anymore.
When Back to the Future was recast, the production had a problem. How do you get Michael J Fox in two places at once? Legend says they worked out a deal where a car service, and an assistant took him back and forth between the Back to the Future set and the Family Ties set, and made sure he was where he was supposed to be.
Both sets had to work out a schedule, plan their shooting for when he was available, and the transport had to get him back and forth as required.
Presumably, Michael J Fox could catch up on his sleep in the car.
Both Back to the Future and Family Ties were iconic mega hits, so history can assume everybody was happy.
But the opportunity for came from working through the logistical and schedule details.
The Creative Actions
For an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to get started with an online business, which requires navigating between an old life, and a new dream, you have to focus on the Creative Actions that bring the dream to fruition.
The five creative actions you need to move forward, follow the five foundational actions discussed in a previous post. As in the book Recast which covers all ten actions together, the count for the creative actions begins at…
6. Identify your Idea
7. Research
8. Connect
9. Create an Action Plan
10. Do Activity #1
6. Identify Your Business Idea
Your business idea is the core value you want to deliver as an entrepreneur. What is the product or service you believe is wanted or needed by people in your soon-to-be-defined community in the world?
Identify your interests and skills, your passions within those interests and skills, and extract your business idea from that information.
Even if you are not sure about the idea, pick one so you can move forward. You can always change it later as thousands of entrepreneurs have done before you.
7. Research
Once you have your idea, you begin researching. This research is specifically about how to get started and set-up a business around your idea. For example, if you want an online store, you begin investigating how to set-up an online store.
Your research can include taking an online course, reading books, listening to podcasts, watching videos – taking notes. Whatever is the best way you like to approach learning.
Take notes about key points so you go alone. For example, if someone outlines a step-by-step, take notes include where there are gaps in your understanding. Your next research will be to fill in the gaps.
Put together a picture of the work you have to do next.
8. Connect
Part of your research is also action #8 – connecting. You want to talk to people who have done what you want to do. If you cannot find like-minded people – you can continue to research specific people by listening to their podcasts, or watching videos and reading their books.
If you can talk to specific people, use the information you gathered in your initial research phase to ask questions that continue to fill in the blanks.
Ask what the gurus leave out! That’s the most valuable question: What are people not saying about a particular product, service or industry?
9. Create Your Business Action Plan
As you are gathering research, you are creating an action plan. Make a blueprint for the activities you need to do to start your business.
Your blueprint can include activities such as buying your domain name or options for product manufacturing. Each activity will likely have additional activities attached to it. As you create your action plan, account for any area where there are still questions.
In your Action Plan, include how long an activity is estimated to take, who is needed to do it, and how much it could cost.
With any cost that looks prohibitive, identify alternatives, or create another action to identify the money.
Keep going through this process until you’ve given yourself a complete overview of all activities you would need to do to get your business up and running.
But do not keep adding ideas and activities forever.
The key to the entire process is to take Action. You create a plan only as far as you need to begin creating your business.
10. Complete the First Activity in Your Action Plan
Your final get started action is to complete activity in your action Plan. Finishing the activity will lead you to the next one. Completing your first action gives you momentum – and feedback. You can begin to see results and get more ideas.
Your Action Plan is a living document. One that adapts and changes as you take action. You keep it going with each new move you make.
Summary: Your Creative Actions
When you Recast as an Entrepreneur, you are setting yourself up for a life of – professional satisfaction, financial security and lifestyle freedom – on your terms.
But you have to be prepared to be an entrepreneur.
And you have to get started.
Your Creative Actions for Your Entrepreneurial Dream are to:
- Identify your Business Idea
- Research
- Connect
- Create your Action Plan
- Complete your First Activity
Every action you take towards building your business gives you the confidence and momentum to keep going forward. And if you keep going forward, you avoid falling away to the fears and obstacles that stop many aspiring entrepreneurs from achieving their lifestyle dream.
Disclosure: Links to Amazon.com are affiliate links which earn for eligible purchases at no additional cost to you.
ARE YOU FOLLOWING THE RECAST PATH?
CLICK TO GO TO THE GETTING STARTED FACTOR YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND NEXT:
ENJOY LIVE CLASSES?
Case Lane is delivering a FREE WEBINAR: How to Start an Online Business With An Idea You Champion!
Thursday 10 am PST via Zoom
WANT TO READ THE BOOK?
You can Download Recast at Amazon.com
Get all the details about how to Recast your life, and become an online entrepreneur in this exciting new book!
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The Foundational Actions for Starting An Online Business
by Case Lane
This is Part One of Two posts about my new book Recast: The Aspiring Entrepreneur’s Practical Guide for Getting Started With an Online Business. The book is ten practical actions for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business online, live with purpose, and achieve their dreams
In this first post, I’m covering the Foundational Actions, that are often overlooked by aspiring entrepreneurs who just jump right in to the online business arena.
Part One: Recast
When you make a decision to stop doing everything you were supposed to do – college, work, mortgage in the suburbs – and start doing everything you have always wanted to do – you throw off years, maybe decades of indoctrination and start again – as someone else.
An extraordinary moment for an extraordinary person?
Or just the right-of-passage for every entrepreneur?
Historically, most people were dependent on their tribe or community, and could not just walk away. Now you can be individually free, and that’s both liberating and terrifying.
In a steel mill, to recast means melting the steel down and reshaping it into a new form.
In Hollywood and on Broadway, recasting means replacing the original performer with some new.
What does it mean to Recast Yourself as an entrepreneur?
The Consequences of Recasting
In the DVD extras for the movie The French Connection, director William Friedkin talks about the actor who played the movie’s memorable villain. Friedkin had told someone to go to Europe and get the actor he wanted to play a rich French drug dealer named Alain Charnier.
When the actor showed up on set, Friedkin took one look at him and said something like: ‘you’re not the guy I wanted.’
The actor said something like: ‘I didn’t think so. And I’m Spanish not French.’
That bit of mistaken recasting created one of the most memorable roles in one of the greatest movies ever made. Spanish actor Fernando Rey would play Charnier in both the original movie, which won five Oscars including Best Picture, and in the sequel The French Connection II.
Recasting is a Hollywood, and Broadway, reality that is loaded with disasters and successes. But at it’s core, recasting means giving the part to a different actor. On the screen, a new person comes in, and makes the role their own.
When I set out to write a book about getting started as an entrepreneur, I wanted to capture the essence of how you should adapt to your new role – and I called the book Recast.
When you decide to become an entrepreneur, you are recasting the role of your life, from playing perhaps an obedient adherent to the status quo, to someone who lives the life you have designed for meaning and purpose.
And you come out on the other side thinking of yourself differently.
Start Your Recast With Yourself
Start your recast as an entrepreneur in a completely different place than most people…start with you.
Many aspiring entrepreneurs remain ‘aspiring’ because you are trying to jump right in to starting a business without any preparation. Then when you get derailed by relevant details, you stay derailed and do not get back on track.
The Five Foundational Actions
When Recasting, begin with the foundational actions you need to take to BEFORE you launch into your business details. Your five foundational actions are followed by five creative actions.
The five foundational actions are to:
1. Take a deep breath
2. Establish your workspace
3. Gather your tools
4. Remove distractions
5. Set your schedule
1. Take a Deep Breath
Taking a deep breath is shorthand for saying make sure you are mentally, and physically prepared to dedicate your time and effort to your business.
Entrepreneurship is a marathon of endless sprints. You have to be prepared to constantly adapt and change to circumstances, to shift when something is not working, and to double-down when it is.
You want to be able to move forward with confidence and security, and the only way you can do that is to make yourself prepared for the long-haul. So once you have convinced yourself that is what you’re going to do, you need a good place to work.
2. Establish Your Workspace
If you do not already know for sure where you’re going to work, take a moment to walk around the house or neighborhood, and identify your spot. This may sound mundane until you realize that you’ll want your own corner for maybe hours at a time to do business related activities.
Don’t skip this action, and then come back a day later and say you did not do any work because you could not find a good quiet spot to focus.
Take a whole day if needed. Identify several locations that you want to test, but select one to start that’s realistic and suitable for your work.
3. Gather Your Tools
After picking the place to work, avoid sitting down, and getting up five minutes later because you forgot coffee or a pen or the lighting does not work.
Make sure you have around you all the tools you like to use when you’re working.
When you go to work in a corporate job, on the first day HR takes you around and shows you your desk, the break room, the supply room, and so on. Do the same for yourself.
Identify your coffee or water. Get the supplies you like. Even if you’re 100% digital, make sure the electrical outlet is accessible. And you’re not in a wi-fi deadzone.
Although, these actions may sound trivial, these are exactly the setbacks that provide obstacles…and excuses for aspiring entrepreneurs who end up delaying their business…sometimes for years.
4. Remove Distractions
When establishing your workspace, be aware of potential distractions. If you are sharing space, make sure you can work without being interrupted. And interruptions do not only come from your household. You could have external disruptions such as a school bell or trash pick-up that interfere with your video calls.
Also if people know you’re working from home, they will inevitability think you can be on the phone or sign for packages or run an errand – when you’re trying to get your work done.
Removing distractions means letting everyone know you are working on your business, not having a vacation. And you have to be serious and dedicated to this particular action.
5. Set Your Schedule
To finalize your foundational actions, you will create your new schedule. In corporate life, you have a set time to go to work. In online life, you want freedom and flexibility. But you also have to do the work, or delegate to others and supervise.
The most common factor among successful entrepreneurs is the fact that they actually did the work. They created a business, and kept moving forward with their plans.
Create a schedule where you put time aside every day to do the work. You may only have a limited amount to do, or a lot, but establish the time you need to complete your daily tasks.
Account for conflicts with your household or location. You do not want to be scheduling your calls at the same time your child is having a piano lesson.
You want to have a picture of your entire day, and then identify the times within the day that work best for your work.
Summary: The Foundational Actions
Setting up a solid foundation for your business will support you going forward, and make the next part – the creative phase that much easier.
To Create a Solid Foundation for Your Entrepreneurial Dream:
- Take a deep breath and get mentally and physically prepared to focus on your business
- Find a dedicated workspace
- Gather the tools you will need to do the work
- Remove all distractions from people to devices
- Create your schedule that fits your selections
If you take these actions first, before you dive in to your business, you will feel more confident and secure before moving forward.
For the next article: Click Here for the Creative Actions: Part 2 of 2: Recast: Ten Practical Actions for Aspiring Entrepreneurs Who Want to Start a Business Online, Live with Purpose and Achieve their Dreams
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How to Get Out of Your Corporate Mindset When Starting Your Own Business
by Case Lane
Many corporate management-level employees are often hired ‘at will,’ meaning the employee can be let go for any legal reason, and an employee can also leave for any reason – and neither side incurs legal liability.
Yet despite those facts, society insists on referring to those jobs as ‘secure.’
When aspiring entrepreneurs talk about leaving a company job to start a business, they are often admonished to stay in their ‘secure’ job.
Security has come to mean – a place to go every day, a regular paycheck, maybe benefits like subsidized health care, insurance, matching 401(k) funds, and if you work at a Hollywood studio – a free movie every week!
But for many, the ‘security’ comes with a nagging sensation that you are not as secure as you think. When an aspiring entrepreneur walks away, the sensation does not disappear, it remains as a lingering tug determined to pull you back.
The Trappings of Corporate
Back at corporate some time ago, there was this executive, let’s say X, who was upset one day after lunch. X had lunch with Y, and Y had paid with the platinum corporate American Express card. A fact that moved X almost to tears.
Confused?
At this company, the platinum corporate card meant Y had been promoted. Regular management level people had the green corporate American Express card. But the platinum card told X louder than a press release, that Y had been given the recognition demonstrated by the card.
X could not have an intelligent adult discussion about the vagaries of the promotion system, or what was on the lunch menu, because X’s self-esteem and worth were tied to the color of the corporate card.
When you make the decision to walk away, you are not only leaving a job, but also all the Trappings, with a capital ‘T’ that the corporate life provide. Whether you have them now, or can expect to be rewarded in a couple of years, those perks are enticing.
And the best way to get rid of the ideas from your head is to replace them.
Assess What You’re Losing
This may sound counter-intuitive if you are looking for encouragement to quit your 9-to-5, but you have to understand the perks you are giving up by analyzing everything you are about to lose.
Money
The number one benefit is a steady paycheck. Your first hint of panic will come when you realize the money is no longer going to come in from that reliable source.
If you started your business before leaving your job, and already have your second income, you can make this transition easier. You at least have an understanding about what you can expect.
But if you can’t stand your job, and just walked away, then the one thing you have to focus on is replacing your income. Use the need to replace that income as the motivating factor when working on your business.
You may have other financial benefits to replace including health insurance or disability. Over time, you will want to use your new income to cover these potential losses also.
And as for the corporate card, Amex has plenty of business cards you can apply for.
Workspace
Your workspace is about to change. If you had a great office with a view, you may be missing that immediately. In my new book Recast, I write about how setting up your new place to work is one of the foundational steps for getting started with an online business.
You become your own HR, and re-establish a comfortable workspace for yourself. You might not get the view. But you should get the advantage of being where you want to be.
Socializing
Outside of the office there will be no more idle conversations, water-cooler talk, and busy time. As an entrepreneur with your own business, you will be continuously busy, especially in the beginning, and should have little time to miss the easy days of having an office job.
But the other side of office life – exchanging ideas, having meetings, meeting new interesting people – this might be difficult to adjust to. You have to prepare yourself for a life of isolation, solitary decisions and meetings of one.
You can get around these feelings by seeking those who are like-minded to form masterminds, or other groups who may be interested in doing what you’re doing. Try and find an accountability partner who can help you stay on track and focused on your Action Plan.
The key in the entire process is you have to replace the parts of corporate life you like the most with similar support in the online business world. Over time, as you focus more on your business, you will find the memories of your former life fade fast, and your new one becomes more omnipresent and relevant in your every day.
Summary: How to Get Rid of Your Corporate Mindset
You have to slowly replace the Trappings of corporate life with your solopreneur alternatives:
- Salary and other financial benefits come from continuously focusing on the work required to replace the money as soon as possible
- Your comfortable workspace can be established wherever you decide to work
- You can be happy to be rid of idle office time, but desperate to reconnect with people – do that by joining group masterminds or finding accountability partner
You get corporate out of your head by creating a new focus – the value you want to deliver – the product or service that your soon-to-be-discovered community wants or needs.
And once you have changed your focus, you are well on your way to being a recast entrepreneur for the long-term
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How to Dominate Your Niche of Niches Online
Part 4 of 4: Be the Automatic Leader in the Niche of Your Choice
by Case Lane
As an aspiring entrepreneur, you may have spent years, maybe four or 8 or 10, continuing your education, putting in hours or days on your chosen skill, or maybe even researching a subject of interest every day.
With the activities you enjoy, and wherever your interests lie, you have more information about the subject than someone who is looking for the product or service you have to offer.
Yet when it comes to thinking about delivering your message online, you may feel uncomfortable. You squirm a little at the idea that you could be someone who could deliver value to others – for money.
Maybe even at your work, there are probably people who are paid more than you; in education thousands of others have your diploma; and in your hobby…it’s a hobby, for a reason. Your daily reality may make you question how you could be a leader on online.
You Can Provide Solutions
Once in the Duty Free store at Los Angeles International Airport, I overheard a discussion between a store clerk and a passenger. The clerk was trying to explain to the passenger that she could not take the bag of stuff she had just bought – alcohol, perfume – with her.
That policy can be confusing for infrequent travelers. Duty Free Stores are promoted as free from taxes. You can purchase products when you are leaving the country. But the store must send the items to your flight, and you pick them up literally as you are walking on to the plane.
The passenger obviously had not bought duty free before so she was confused, and was trying to understand the rules in a language that was not her own.
But I could understand both. Or make myself understood. I had an approach – unique and singular – based on my education, knowledge and experience. No one else can deliver in exactly the same way (no one else was around), the moment was mine to seize.
I could provide a solution.
Of course, there is a risk in providing unsolicited advice. Some people might consider you rude, presumptuous or…not an expert. You may not be their idea of a solution provider, your approach may not suit their sensibilities, or they may not respect the experience you have.
There are many possibilities….
But at the same time, when people are struggling, and they’ve tried other solutions and nothing worked, they still need help.
In my case, I was in a position to deliver a solution.
Where will you be when your future customers come looking online for you, and your potential product or service?
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, your role is to deliver value to those who want or need the product or service you want to offer. If you have something to offer, the only way your community can learn about it is if you offer your knowledge.
You may find it awkward to offer people your help in a way they are not expecting. But at the same time, if you have the knowledge and a way to deliver it, you can support another person’s goals, and be a great assistance to them.
In the beginning, you may feel imposter syndrome because your position is new and untried. But it’s valid. You have a solution – someone else does not. It’s your opportunity, some would say, responsibility as an entrepreneur, to offer the value you have to deliver.
Summary: How You Dominate Your Niche
1. If you have gone in to business, it’s because you believe you have value to offer. You have business ideas in your head or a solution for someone else’s problem. That value needs to be expressed.
2. Your approach to the product or service is different from others, and it’s an approach you should not feel afraid to deliver. Because your experience, education, expertise – that’s all unique to you, and that uniqueness is what is going to differentiate you and make you the automatic leader.
3. There were automobiles before Henry Ford, furniture before Ikea, makeup before Mary Kay, mobile phones before Steve Jobs, movies before Walt Disney. And you probably do not need to be told why those products became unique when those individuals decided to deliver them.
As an aspiring entrepreneur, you do not have to be creating a global corporation, but you do have to use your uniqueness to attract the customer base that you have created the product or service for.
Online people can be accusatory and critical – but there is a way to ensure those ones are not relevant to you.
You deliver to the people who appreciate your uniqueness, and you ignore everyone who does not.
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How to Decide on an Online Platform
Part 3 of 4: Choose to Be Comfortable
by Case Lane
When choosing to launch an online business, you do not want to be phony.
In fact, you are told must be authentic.
Except there’s the conflict. You are being told you MUST be authentic, under the assumption that everyone knows what authentic is.
At the same time that people claim you must be authentic, they also claim you should make videos, or send email, or start a podcast or dance on Tik-Tok.
Aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business, and attract an audience, but are turned off by the so-called ‘authentic’ things everyone is saying to do, need an alternative for appearing on an online platform.
The best bet is to pick the space where you are most comfortable.
What is an Online Platform?
Your online platform is the Internet space where you have your online presence – the basis for your business.
Bloggers have a website, podcasters appear in directories, vloggers post YouTube videos. Social media influencers dominate on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter.
You decide which one works best for you by deciding first which form of public expression suits your preferences.
A Presence You Own and Defend
A while back, in Hollywood, one of my colleagues once told me about this incredible idea one of the senior executives had that would change the industry.
My colleague was prone to exaggeration about a senior executive’s idea…especially if it could lead to career advancement. But the executive in question was more qualified than most, and had a solid reputation.
The idea could have been great…
….but, it was terrible.
And to my surprise I told my colleague exactly what I thought of the idea. I reacted against character because I felt passionate about the subject, and had a strong opinion of its viability.
The decision whether the idea would be implemented was not mine to make, but the opinion was definitely mine to express.
The defense of your own approach is even more pronounced online.
Model Your Own Instincts
When you see people online in your target industry acting all the same – being cutesy, dancing, giving shoutouts, swearing and hollering….
You might think that’s how you have to behave to win over people in your potential community.
Many aspiring entrepreneurs imitate successful people because they believe the success can be directly copied.
But that approach rarely works.
There is already a successful person being the original version of who you want to be, so a fake version has a limited chance.
Often a new entrepreneur does not want to behave like the successful person. But does it under the mistaken belief that the community will only respond to the questionable behavior.
However, since you are passionate about your product and service, and turned off by the presentation of the existing leaders in your field, then you may have an opportunity with other members of the community who feel as you do.
No doubt your niche has specific approaches to ensure you are seen by your community, and are communicating your message effectively, but you can modify your approach to ensure you are comfortable, and therefore authentic in your presentation.
If you see a successful person in your industry who is a blogger, but you hate writing, you can either do something else, or outsource the writing to someone else.
Remember, online your marketplace is the entire world. There is likely a community that would appreciate receiving your product or service in a form that it is not currently presented.
For example, today almost every book is released in digital, print and audio formats. Not to mention those that may eventually be made into a movie or show.
The reason you can keep releasing the same story in different forms is because different people want to absorb the same story in the format they prefer.
Select Your Platform Preference
You can deliver your product or service offering on exactly the platform that you prefer.
You have to decide where you add value, and how you want to contribute based on your expertise and skills.
You can also look at your niche the same way. Test the approaches you prefer, and measure your community’s response.
For example, professional NFL football has one community of beer-drinking, screaming, face painters…and another of statistics and analysis geeks from analytics professors and statisticians to college students and the curious who discuss the probabilities of certain plays, moves and scores in every scenario.
The business of data is data tables, analysis apps, fantasy football instruction manuals, courses on how to understand the game, blog, podcast, affiliate for clothes, gear, and food…and more.
You can approach your own passion in your niche in any direction you choose, and find your community wherever they may be hiding.
You can write, talk, film, teach, dance or holler…
Practically everyone is on the Internet, and everyone is looking for their preferred approach to education, information and entertainment.
There is no competition and all fields are wide open because people are constantly searching for their preferences.
When you go online with your business idea. You can deliver as you see fit.
That’s the incredible opportunity that exists in the online space today. And you have the opportunity of a lifetime to take advantage of it.
For the next article: Click Here for Part 4 of 4: How Dominate Your Niche of Niches
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How to Prepare to Be an Expert Online
Part 2 of 4: Identify Your Passion in Your Skills and Interests
by Case Lane
When I was at law school, a few years ago, I realized something no one ever talks about. People were NOT putting their entire lives online on the social networks. The secrets were still very much being kept secret.
You might guess what some of those secrets were, but what’s surprising is that even the benign activities were being self-censored.
For example, if someone had a hobby they thought their friends would make fun of them about, or an interest in an influencer they wanted to follow, but did not want everyone to know they were following, people had to find other groups and places to express this interest away from their main social pages. They created new pages or signed up for other sites under different avatars.
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to start an online business in a niche no one knows you are interested in, or where you have limited or no experience, you face the same dilemma right?
How can you legitimately declare your passion or expertise to be exactly what you say it is even if you have no experience in your niche?
The Science Geeks Hangover
Have you ever actually seen one of those bubbling plastic model volcanoes? You know the kind that are the staple of jokes on TV show when making fun of a science project.
Those model volcanoes are Science Fair fodder. And at the Science Fair, as you remember, the winners get a blue ribbon nobody sees, and a pat on the back that has no clear path to ongoing success…
Now don’t get me wrong. I love science. I think the Science Fair champions should get the front page of the paper, and be honored at the Super Bowl half-time show.
Those brilliant geeks make the plastic volcano to demonstrate the build up of pressure into heat, steam and gas that EXPLODES into the air, then down on to everything in molten liquid destruction…
It’s super cool! And often easily forgotten…
The State Science Fair is a big deal for some people, but it receives not nearly the attention given to the State Basketball Championships, which is a big deal for everyone.
The science champion will likely receive a free ride to college, and so will the basketball champion.
The science champion may even receive a lot of interesting offers to work in a research lab or at a big corporation.
But the basketball champion knows exactly the types of offers she could receive. The basketball champion already has an absolutely clearly defined road to success that almost everyone knows, and can repeat.
Only the future professional athletes have this clarity…not the biologists, not the musicians, not the historians, not the programmers, and…definitely not the entrepreneurs.
The Value of a Familiar Road
The high school basketball player who has the intention of playing professionally, knows to work to earn a spot on the varsity team, and if not the junior varsity, and at least play intramurally.
The top players may even earn a spot on an AAU traveling team, and compete at multiple levels.
During high school, the goal is to earn a Division IA full ride college scholarship, and if that doesn’t materialize, the player tries for Division II or III with an eye to reach Division I, some day.
While in college, the goal is to try for the NBA, and if not the Development League or leagues in Europe, Asia or South America.
There is also an opportunity to compete for a national team to play in the Pan-Am Games, or maybe even the Olympics.
When playing days are over, the player can start the process again as a coach or team management, first in high school, and then college, and internationally…
…and so they keep going.
Not everyone makes it, but everyone knows what the path is…and has an chance to pursue each possible direction to achieve the next level of success.
The science champion may or may not get a job, may or may not have a promising career, may or may not get to work in their preferred field, and in all circumstances has no clear path to defined markers of success.
There could be annual science competitions, but none have the objective championship declaration like the number of points scored in a basketball game.
The science champion will have to figure things out and accept decisions made by others. They are caught in a status quo of research grants, subjective analysis, and naysayers and unbelievers, questioning what turn out to be their best ideas.
The Opportunity to Prepare
The basketball player can ramp up her own performance, and aim for higher and higher opportunities along the pre-determined path.
And because the basketball player can see the path, the road and the opportunities ahead, she can PREPARE to be a professional basketball player, coach or even team manager or executive, knowing the available jobs and programs, out around the entire world…for life.
Every day the basketball player needs to do more drills, more shots, more weight-lifting and running. Diet can be modified, so can sleep. Hours can be spent watching tape to see not only how the greats play, but also your own mistakes.
The basketball player can always be ready for the next opportunity…
…The science champion has to rely on outside forces.
The aspiring entrepreneur must do both.
Like science geeks, aspiring entrepreneurs do not have a clear road, but like basketball players, you can prepare.
An aspiring entrepreneur can understand the road to follow, and the skills to develop, while declaring a passion around an idea upon which you build your business…and then work directly in that business to achieve success.
And the success is defined…by the objective global marketplace.
The market will tell you if you have won or lost against your definition of success.
Declare Your Expertise Through Your Work
Many who follow the entrepreneurial road are indoctrinated into the science geek’s understanding of life, and allow the gatekeepers to decide their path.
Outside forces define not only the qualifications for your professional success, but also the attributes that would put you on their radar in the first place.
The result is not always satisfactory, a fact that leads many to try entrepreneurship. And when walking away to go into business for themselves, aspiring entrepreneurs can look at the activities successful entrepreneurs are doing, and model their practices.
As an entrepreneur, you set your goals based on the opportunity you see, and you work to achieve them.
The only approval you need is from the global marketplace where you deliver your product or service.
Select your passion, the niche or space – the product or service you want to champion – exactly where you want to make your mark, and you use it to do exactly what you want to do, even if you have no experience.
The key driver for successful entrepreneurs is doing the work. That’s what separates the successful from the forgotten. That’s the only common denominator.
Entrepreneurs can be born rich or poor, finish school or not, go to the formal workplace or not, travel the world or not – and in all cases, the success stories are written by and about those who did the work, and did not give up.
You declare your expertise exactly where you are going to put in the work.
Because your intentions and effort will put you ahead of those who are not doing anything. You can start with zero experience because the minute you get started you know more than the next person who never tried.
If your production and delivery of the product or service resonates with that next person, that person will consider you the expert they want to follow, and you will have your business.
Just like a basketball player, you keep the main goal in mind, while you make adjustments based on feedback and the response you receive from the global marketplace.
While the science geek is waiting for grant money or possible job offers, you are practicing the moves needed to break in to the next level by being passionately involved in your chosen area of expertise.
You have to get ready like the basketball player.
You have to prepare to be a Ready Entrepreneur
For the next article, Part 3 of 4: How to Decide on an Online Platform: Click Here
ENJOY LIVE CLASSES?
Case Lane is delivering a FREE WEBINAR: How to Start an Online Business With An Idea You Champion!
Thursday 10 am PST via Zoom
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Click this link to get your summary and early bird notice of the book’s release.
How to Find an Online Business Idea…
…That Works for You!
Part 1 of 4: You are in the Internet World Now!
by Case Lane
You are looking at a world where everyone seems to be making money online.
Even if you do not really surf social media or pay that much attention to the online world, you know other people are building financial security and having an awesome time…and you’re not.
And you’re wondering what to do next. Should you join in? Are you missing the future? After all you’re educated and have worked for years and have tons of experience, and you’re wondering why you cannot have the same success, that these overnight online wonders seem to be having.
Then you think again, and wonder about jeopardizing your education, work experience and knowledge by doing something you’ll regret online.
Do you have to be silly? Swear and be outrageous? Do a song and dance like those other people you see? Or can you be serious and spread your knowledge without becoming just another one of those annoying Internet show-offs?
The Value of Online Business
You know, many of us never imagined having to figure out how to earn income online…
We did not see, and did not have to see the rise of technology as a life-altering fact.
For many it was like a fad that would pass…
I noticed this back when I worked in Hollywood, and watched the rise of digital media from physical media (you remember film and tape, right?). Over a couple of years, we were first spurred on to switch from VHS to DVDs..
…but would you believe I worked with a high-paid home entertainment executive who once said, with all sincerity, “I don’t know why someone would want to buy a DVD.”
Maybe in hindsight, when you think about the multi-billion dollar industry that was once occupied by DVDs, you want to laugh right? This guy was making millions, seriously millions of dollars a year, running a billion-dollar division of a mega global corporation, and he honestly had no idea what was driving consumer choices.
That executive could not see the future that was right in front of his face. He probably would not be able to do the same today.
The transition from the industrial age to the tech age is already overwhelming people, including, and maybe especially, those who are educated, and well-off, and think that they and their children are already set for life.
What if they are not? What if you are not?
In 2020, the world changed overnight. We have always lived in a world where we could not, technically, predict the future. But in 2020, the uncertainty is at a new height.
Companies are spending day and night planning for the post-pandemic world. But they’re planning in a fog.
What’s the new normal?
Nobody knows.
Your Opportunity Online
Given the uncertainty around us, we have to react to changes…and learn to react quickly.
In the pandemic economy, essential workers, corporate management …and online entrepreneurs continued to work. Delivering value and solutions to increasing numbers of those who want or need new services and products.
After starting ebook self-publishing while in law school, I decided the best way to learn was to do, and I became immersed in the world of online entrepreneurship and the tech tools and resources available to everyone who wants to get online.
I firmly believe that a great number of us, maybe one-quarter to one-third of the population should be independent, self-sufficient entrepreneurs taking full advantage of technology and the global marketplace to maintain and enhance our security in the global economy.
We should not be living in a world of constant instability.
And even if there is some recognition tomorrow that the global pandemic exacerbated the gap between rich and poor, and we have to do something about it, governments and civic society are unlikely to develop long-term solutions anytime soon.
How long will lasting permanent sustainable viable change take? Longer than you you’ve got.
You are much better off securing your place – by yourself.
Follow a Guided, Tactical Path
The online entrepreneurship opportunity is alive and thriving, the investment is low, and the demand is high, yet many do not accomplish their dream to become an online entrepreneur, or they drop out while trying.
To avoid overwhelm, and help you see through the jumble of information so that you could get your chance in the digital economy, follow a clear path that makes sense to you.
Based on my research, reading, building my business, observing developments all over the world, talking to other entrepreneurs, helping aspiring entrepreneurs, and trying all the various paths myself, I developed a framework you can use to prepare BEFORE diving in to one of the online entrepreneurship fields.
Instead of randomly thinking about whether you could be a blogger or podcaster or course creator, take the cleared path through the noise, and adopt the blueprint you could use so you would know where to start.
Focus on Value
The tech economy both thrills and scares people.
The first post is the hardest, right?
As an online entrepreneur, remember you share value. Your work is important. You provide knowledge, advice or even useful tips from your hobby that other people can find useful.
The first time you decide to put your words online, you may feel a little trepidation.
This fear is normal. The reason is the visibility and permanence that comes with posting. In this current environment, what you say online defines you, and stays part of your legacy forever…as far as we know…
And that’s pretty scary…
So spend time to think through the content you plan to deliver before you post your message…even if you’re still worried.
What will happen?
A variety of people are making money online for a reason. They overcame their initial trepidation to make sure they contributed.
Entrepreneurs have the courage to move forward.
Define Your Personal Goals
Maybe you want additional income, or maybe you are really concerned about your current paycheck or your retirement…
Maybe you want to use the incredible education, knowledge and experience you have built up, and deliver it to a world that wants and needs what you have to offer.
If you can create an online revenue stream for yourself, you have a chance to build your future security, hedge your bets against job instability, and fully participate in the online global economy…
In other words, you can set your own future…and maybe set one for your kids, friends and others too.
This is the future we all have to get moving on together.
That old world Hollywood executive did not understand how the world was changing…
But you do…
…And so do I…
Get the Right Idea
To take advantage of the online entrepreneurship opportunity to make money, be successful, and achieve lifestyle freedom…
Focus on a business idea that:
- Reflects your interests or skills
- Delivers over the platform where you are most comfortable
- Helps you be the automatic leader in your niche of niches
That means…
1. Technology, and the access to the global market you get through technology are not passing fads. You have to recognize that this is a permanent change to our economy and society. And you have to decide if you want to fully participate, by starting an online business, and becoming a contributor.
2. If you’ve come this far, you probably recognize that becoming an online entrepreneur allows you to take the best of all worlds…
…You can highlight your professional skills
…Reach deep into your interests
…And deliver value to those who are aligned with you.
There may be other professions that provide you with job satisfaction or financial security, but they all also likely depend on the Internet. By starting your own business online, you are setting yourself up for the future that is already here and covering all your bases.
3. When you prepare to be an online entrepreneur you increase your chance of success by focusing on exactly what you like to do, and picking the platform and tools that best fit your vision for your ideal life.
You have your opportunity to achieve your vision of Lifestyle Freedom through an Online Business – the 21st century dream life – but without Feeling Fear, Embarrassment or Imposter Syndrome.
You want to be authentic and deliver value as you see fit.
Today, right now, you are living the opportunity to have the life that you truly want. A life on your terms where you add value that you believe in, and that makes you feel like you’re really contributing to build the world you want to see.
Becoming an entrepreneur, being your own boss and having your own business is one of the best ways to take control of your life, and to deliver to yourself your own life dream.
But you have to get started.
Why is it so important for you to move forward with entrepreneurship now?
Summary
1. Technology is our lifeline and upon it we are building the future. So the more you know about having a life online, the better you will be.
2. Being an online entrepreneur means you develop online skills, you learn the tools and resources which now are indispensable in the work world, and you can accelerate your professional development, and improve where you want to be.
3. When you prepare to be an online entrepreneur you increase your chance of success by focusing on exactly what you like to do, and picking the platform and tools that best suit your vision.
For the next article: Click Here for Part 2 of 4: How to Prepare to
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