Why Your Online Business Won’t Work
What I’m about to tell you is probably the most powerful stuff you’ll be exposed to in the process of starting, running, and growing your business and why your online business won’t work.
This is stuff nobody tells you about because the industry doesn’t care about your success, they care about their own funnels, upsells, and beefed-up bonuses that elevate the price of their programs and drive their cash flow.
The current state of online entrepreneurship is based on claims of ‘10k followers in
48 hours’, ‘$100k webinar formulas’, and ‘Facebook™ ads automation tools’. It’s all so far from what true business is that it literally hurts to watch the wasted time, money, effort, and ideas.
When I attend an Internet marketing event or meet people online it’s painful to see how almost everybody approaches running their business the wrong way.
It hurts even more to see “gurus” on stage boasting about their short-term results and recommending tactics that have the propensity to do more damage than good.
The Ugly Truth
You’ve been tricked by the conversion masterpieces out there. This gets me heated and is such a trigger for me, so please accept my apologies as I go a bit deeper and get more direct here with some potential “parental-advisory” words.
I mean, what is wrong with this industry? What makes you think that getting 100k new followers on Instagram will make your business?
Have you EVER seen Tesla, Apple or Google running an IG campaign to generate more followers? Have you seen those companies running a webinar funnel? Have you ever signed up to receive a PDF lead magnet from them?
I didn’t think so. And you know why? It’s not because a lead magnet funnel is bad. But because it makes no sense for their strategy.
Multi-billion dollar companies that do their business online do not apply the gimmicky tactics that everyone out there is trying to sell you. Because those tactics make no sense for their strategy.
But, the get-rich-quick, ‘one webinar away’, ‘automate your business’, ‘get new followers’ approach is what sells, so the industry sells it to you.
They perfect their messaging, hire direct response marketers to squeeze the last bit of money out of you by hitting on your emotions, logic, and fear.
It messes with your mindset and your expectations and it clouds your judgement. You forget about the basics, the fundamentals of what makes the business a money-making establishment. Basics like business strategy and business models.
Yes, building a business strategy or a business model sounds boring compared to hitting 100k followers on IG using shady tactics and posting pictures that get the best “reach” and “engagement.”
But who cares about those followers or your beautiful funnel when you don’t know what to sell, the offer doesn’t convert (because you focused on followers, not creating the business), and you don’t even know what your strategy and business model?
You’re trying to start from the end.
Yes, building business fundamentals is less sexy, but it actually WORKS. It always has, and always will – because to have a business, you need to build one, starting with the foundations.
This is how the online “gurus” tell you to build your business:
They sell you the “best email headline”, the “best landing pages”, the “best scarcity methods”, the “best webinar scripts” to use, the “best offer” frameworks. All random tactics.
These are all random elements that people sell you. And all of them have ZERO chance to work because, even if you have the best “formulas”, you don’t have the “glue”.
This is the proper way (the glue) to approach your business (and anything you do)
Your Values -> Your Goal -> Your Strategy -> Your Tactics (what everyone sells you is the LAST piece)
Your Values: this is your WHY you do what you do.
Your Goal is the WHAT you want to achieve. Yeah, I know “more sales”, but what exactly, specifically is your goal?
Your Strategy is HOW you will achieve your goal (long-term).
Your Tactics is what actions, tools & vehicles are you going to use to make the strategy happen.
See the difference between what you are being sold and what you should be doing?
See how much you are missing out?
See how much time and money you are wasting when you focus on RANDOM tactics that take you nowhere?
See how you’re trying to start from the end?
You have been focusing on the wrong thing – When you focus on the wrong stuff, it’s as if you were to buy a monthly car wash subscription for a car you don’t have.
The whole industry made us focus on the wrong (vanity) metrics – the social media engagement, the number of funnels we build, the number of followers, email subscribers, webinar attendees…but, all of it won’t matter IF you don’t have the proper strategy in place.
You have been focusing on the wrong thing and applying your potential to the wrong element. You’ve been tricked into believing in and focusing on the wrong metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). It messed with your mindset, your beliefs, your goals, and your expectations.
Time to wake up, my friends. It’s time to stop spending time and money on the gimmicks and “nice-to-haves” and start building your business.
You’ve been most likely following the gurus of the internet, impressed by their results and excited by the potential results you could have when you apply their tactics.
But, when you do buy their $2,000 online course in a haste because the price goes up to $7,500 in 12 minutes, and you will lose the opportunity to buy their 28 bonuses (that you’ll never even open and that will just mess with your head and slow you down even more), and when you add their upsell that they convince you that you need… when you finally reach the purchase confirmation page after accepting or rejecting all the upsells, down-sells, cross-sells, and when you apply what they teach, you eventually realize two things:
- You aren’t getting the results you were after. You applied all the magic formulas, spent so much time and money, and put so much hard work in, and yet, you are in the exact same spot (minus the course cost that vaporized from your bank account).
- There’s been no movement. All the hustle, all the busyness, and the lack of progress and results still remain.
Strategy first, tactics second
One thing you need to understand is that the tactical details change and shift all the time. Email marketing, messenger bots, text messaging funnels, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, long webinars, short webinars, lead magnets…all of it evolves and changes constantly. But, the strategic layer of business changes very rarely.
Your strategic layer should form the foundational approach to building your business and the tactical piece should be a current vehicle to execute on the high-level strategy.
It doesn’t work the other way around.
Strategy first, tactics second – tactics that fit the strategy, that fit your business model, and that push your business forward.
Sadly, most online entrepreneurs are focused on the tactical piece – the webinars, the funnels, the advertising campaigns, and email sequences…
Your problem isn’t that you don’t know how to deal with all of these tactics and traffic ideas. You’re smart. Your problem is that you’re a Tactical Opportunity Seeker, when you should be a Strategically Focused Entrepreneur.
On top of that, you suffer from the so-called Shiny Object Syndrome (S.O.S.) – aka: being a “squirrel-entrepreneur.” You’re jumping from one idea to another, buying app-sumo deals, attending webinars, and being an “info-junkie.”
When you behave like that, you’re not focused on the one thing that will move the needle forward in your business, and your energy becomes scattered across multiple activities that do not bring the expected results. Instead of executing one solid strategy and building a solid business foundation, you jump from tactic to tactic instead.
“When people are overwhelmed, they do nothing.” – Tony Robbins
This behavior creates chaos, confusion, overwhelm and lack of clarity. And when you’re not clear on the next steps, you can’t focus. And when you can’t focus, you develop your “squirrel entrepreneur” side and the S.O.S.
The truth is YOU HAVE THE POTENTIAL to achieve the results you’re after. The reason you haven’t been able to reach the results so far is because you were NOT focused (yeah, you squirrel) and you were applying the WRONG method to achieve the outcome (you were jumping from idea to idea, sucked into guru-funnels with no strategic plan).
If you’re constantly trying to beat the system, bouncing from biz idea to biz idea, if you’re constantly thinking that one of these “things” you’ve been sold and told to do are no longer true or no longer work, if you’re bouncing from topic to topic, then you are suffering from Shiny Object Syndrome.
And when that happens, you feel bad. You might think there is something wrong with you – after all, you bought the programs. It must be your fault that you haven’t reached the results the courses promised, right?
And as long as you’re being a squirrel entrepreneur, you will keep buying the magic pills and “business in a box” solutions. Why? Because you’re not thinking strategically about what you want.
You’re looking for a solution to your symptoms and you’re overlooking the cause of the problems. You’ve been preyed on. It’s SO much easier to sell to a Squirrel than to Strategically Focused Entrepreneur because the Strategically Focused Entrepreneur will compare the new “opportunity” to what they need to make their strategy happen but the Squirrel will chase the shiny object, hoping it’s the easy way out of the hole they’re in.
This biz thing is hard – but, don’t jump from shiny object to shiny object. Refine what you have. Refine what’s in front of you. Make it work, then move on.
You need to be a Strategic Entrepreneur.
Now, you have two options:
1/ Stay where you are – Go back to the approach you’ve been applying – go fast, chase all the shiny objects, tools, and products with no time for implementation. Be a “squirrel entrepreneur”. Stay in the “confusion” zone and see no results in the end.
2/ Move forward – Remove the frustration and confusion, and achieve results.
“Success is hard on the frontend and easy on the backend. Failure is easy on the frontend and hard on the backend” — Myron Golden
If you choose option 1, totally fine, but you’ve been warned. You might be wasting time, potential and money.
If you choose option 2, and you want to be a Strategic Entrepreneur, let’s continue…
Your strategy should be a mix of research on your goals, skills, competencies, and dreams – these are the foundations of your business. You shouldn’t care if someone is doing webinars to sell their digital product if you hate being on the camera, hate running webinars, and don’t want to sell a digital product. A copy-paste approach to business is NOT a strategy. Your strategy has to be right for YOU.
You’ve been tricked!
Here’s the basic problem you’re experiencing. You’re not seeing any results with the tactics you’re applying because you don’t have an overarching strategy – and without a strategy, you are most likely choosing the wrong tactics.
Your strategy should be a mix of research on your goals, skills, competencies, and dreams – these are the foundations of your business. You shouldn’t care if someone is doing webinars to sell their digital product if you hate being on the camera, hate running webinars, and don’t want to sell a digital product. A copy-paste approach to business is NOT a strategy. Your strategy has to be right for YOU.
Here’s a VERY common example, one I’ve seen often having worked with over 500 online and offline entrepreneurs.
I like to use an example of a bridge to illustrate what happens when you’re not focusing on one thing that will move the needle forward in your business. If you can imagine that between where you are in your business right now and where you want to be, there is a gap. Let’s say you’re at $10k/mo and you want to be at $100k/mo. There is a gap you need to fill. You need a bridge to bridge the gap (I love this wordplay!).
Let’s assume the bridge you need to build consists of 5 big blocks. You attended a webinar, got excited about the idea that was presented to you and were convinced “this is it”. This is what you need to implement to get you from $10k to $100k months.
So you start building the first block with excitement. All is going well and the first block is built. Time for the next one. Now the “novelty” wears off a bit, but you still feel the excitement and are committed to making it work.
The third block is hard! You start to be impatient. You start to hear about this new opportunity out there that someone had mentioned is capable of building a $100k business. But you persist. The third block is built, but your enthusiasm is low.
Fourth block. Oh, man. That guru that sold you the program never said it was going to be so hard. Nobody told you that you would need to put THAT much work in to get the results you desire. Not to mention that the tactics the guru is giving you aren’t working – maybe because you don’t like doing what they’re telling you to do.
You feel like you are building a business you are trapped in, doing stuff you don’t like (ex. Facebook Live every day. Damn, it works for the guru, but man you hate doing it). Four blocks.
You are tired, your enthusiasm is gone, there is no money in the bank, you scroll your newsfeed or open google and see an ad that promotes a new opportunity. Perhaps it is another “business in a box”, perhaps it is “just” another tactic.
You fall for it and get your credit card out.
You leave the four blocks of your current bridge and start building another bridge. The first block, second block, third. Oh, look, a new opportunity! Now you have a second bridge with three blocks built.
A third bridge, a fourth bridge…all partially built. All the potential, time, and money WASTED. You are tired and burnt out because, all together, you built zero bridges and spent time and energy on tens of blocks that would have been enough to build one solid bridge in the first place. You consider going back to a 9-5.
Now, an alternative scenario
The same situation – you’re at $10k, looking to get to $100k – but, this time you’re smarter. You start by clearly defining your goals, the one thing you need to focus on, and the path to get there (aka, your strategy).
You map out all the blocks of your new bridge. You identify the must-have elements, all the assets, and resources you’re going to need. You reach out for help from those that can help you reach your goal.
You fully utilize YOUR potential and build a strategy and a business model that is sustainable because YOU are good at what you do (no more Facebook Live broadcasts if you hate them!) and because it utilizes YOUR skills, competencies and YOUR zone of genius.
Because you analyzed what you’re good at, what you love to do, what you want to do, and built a strategy around that, you maintain that elevated state of excitement in building the bridge, you push through obstacles and implement ideas that support the strategy.
You’re patient and consistent. You evaluate any opportunities and ideas against your goal pyramid to see if it fits or if it should be ignored (for now).
You build a bridge. You reach your goal. Finally, success.
To conclude
To make a success of any new venture you need to find one business idea that you are happy working on and focus just on that one idea alone. Ignore every other opportunity that comes your way and only take heed of advice and courses relevant to what you are doing and which will help you build that next block.
Unless you truly commit to one thing for at least twelve months you can not say it has worked or not.
If you can’t commit to it then by all means keep living your entrepreneurial life as a squirrel!
*This post has been extracted and adapted from a post by Mike Koziol. The link to the original post is: https://mikekoziol.com/business/the-missing-piece/
