Running an online business is a mental and emotional rollercoaster. You start off thinking that you need one set of skills and quickly discover that you need a completely different set. I founded Up Write in 2018. At the time I had never run a business. The closest experience I had to business was watching The Apprentice. There were times when I doubted that I had what it took to be successful. But I decided to give it a try anyway because the alternative was staying miserable in my job.
Here’s what I’ve learned about running a business online. I’d love to know what you think, if you agree or if there is anything you’d add.
1. It can look like you’re doing well, even if you’re not
The amount of times someone has said to me “you look like you’re doing really well” and every single time I’m surprised. Do I look like I’m doing well? Or are you just seeing all my social media posts and deciding that I must be doing well. The only people who know what my balance sheet looks like are me and my accountant. Everyone else is making assumptions, including you.
You might get an email from a coach telling you she’s having a high ole time in gay Paris but thats only the bit she’s telling you. You don’t know how much she’s spending on her team, or on ad’s, or if she’s spending more money than she’s making. You don’t know what her level of credit is or how much she’s got jammed onto her credit cards. You only know what you’re being told. Likewise there are plenty of people doing well, quietly. It’s so easy to compare ourselves to other people but the reality is that we are comparing ourselves to a version of that person that we made up. Because we don’t actually know.
2. You are not Facebook’s customer unless you are paying them for ads
I listened to a podcast this week that was a real wake up call. I would urge anyone running their own business to listen to this episode all the way through. It will really open your eyes to how social media marketing works. You can listen to it here. The gist of it is, you are not Facebook’s customer unless you are paying for advertising. You are the product. Facebook’s business model is about keeping you on the platform for as long as possible so that they can monitor and compile all your interests and preferences – this information is then harvested and sold to marketers. In order to do this, Facebook has done a lot of work to figure out what will keep your attention, and you on the platform for the longest amount of time possible.
Facebook isn’t interested in what you want or need. They are only interested in keeping your attention. And they discovered that conflict is what keeps people’s attention.
So you can spend the rest of your life trying to hack the algorithm to get your posts seen. Facebook will push posts that are antagonistic, provocative and divisive first. Because that’s what gets people’s attention. So instead of wasting your time trying to please the algorithm you’re better off trying to please yourself and your potential clients and make sure your offline marketing is as robust as it can possibly be.
3. Everybody wishes they were doing as well as someone else
Absolutely everybody online is looking at someone else online wishing they were doing as well as them. Someone is looking at you right now wishing they were doing as well as you. Yes. You. Take a moment to appreciate how far you’ve come. Yeah stuff probably feels hard still, but there’s stuff you do now that two or three years ago you probably didn’t ever think you’d be doing.
4. You really can make more money than you think
When I started my business my financial goal was to replace my employed income. At the time that was £1348 a month. That felt like a mammoth task. I was charging £35 for a blog. I would have had to write 39 blogs a month to make that. It didn’t take me long to realise that I would make more money if I packaged up my services. Which I did and soon my books were full. My new problem was that because I was trading time for money I had capped my own income. So I put my prices up. The next problem was that I had created a full time job to replace my part time job and I didn’t even want to work part time. So the dilemma was how to maintain the income whilst reducing the hours. The answer for me was to change from a done for service to a training model. You CAN make more money in a way that doesn’t involve you having to do work you don’t enjoy or more hours than you want.
If you can be flexible in your approach and willing to try doing things in a different way there is always a way to do anything. The person who really helped me figure this out and shape the early years of my business is a lovely fella called Chris Gardener – you can find him here.
5. You have to be disciplined about your health and self care
When I closed my eyes and thought about what it would be like to run my own business I saw myself sitting in coffee shops, being in charge of my own time, taking long walks with the dog, reading books and going to the gym. In three years that perfect day has happened only a handful of times. I started off wondering if I had the personal discipline to run a business and I’m here today to tell you, I’m a workaholic. I love and hate my business in equal measure. If I’m bored it’s because I want to be working on my business. I’m not an early bird but I can work late into the night. I struggle to take time off and I have gotten to the point of burnout at least once a year.
I have to be ruthless about my diary. I have to schedule days off and I have to protect that time fiercely. I have to force myself to exercise every single day, even if it’s just a 20 minute walk because I know that if i don’t i’ll become a lethargic slug who will just stare, morosely at a screen for more hours than is healthy. You have to get good at saying no to people. I’m not perfect every day – overfilling my diary again this week, but the important thing is that I noticed and I made adjustments.
If you do not take care of yourself you’re forced to let clients down when you have to take time off sick. If you don’t give yourself time to breathe and space to think, listen and read your creativity suffers and your business stagnates. If you don’t put boundaries into your business it all becomes for nothing because you don’t get to spend that precious time with the people you love. What’s the point of your business if you aren’t living the lifestyle you so desperately want? It all starts with saying “No”.
I’m going to leave this blog here. Next week, Part Two which includes……….
- The hardest part isn’t starting, its not giving up
- You don’t need to know everything to be of service
- Never ask anyone else what they think you should charge
My name is Clair and I help online business owners create dreamy, client magnet content marketing. You can work with me on a short course, in a membership community or 121. If you’d like to get better at social media marketing, blogging, web copy or email marketing you can email me at Clair@upwriteonline.co.uk and we can have a chat.