5 Reasons an Online Business Is the Shortest Route to Financial Freedom

Peter Voogd

- VIP Contributor

Leading Authority for Young Entrepreneurs

The 1 percent didn't become wealthy trading time for money, and neither will you. It's tolerable for a start, but at some point, you have to intensely focus on scaling and leverage. Enter the Internet. The Internet has created a new economy that is accessible to everybody. Its explosive growth and sheer size has already changed our perception of the traditional way of doing business. Amazon, PayPal, Netflix, eBay, and numerous other tech giants have virtually cornered their respective markets and created domination in areas where just a few years ago traditional brick-and-mortar businesses reigned supreme.

The advent of the Internet has in many ways leveled the playing field for small businesses to compete with major corporations. Online businesses have the unique ability to grow exponentially because they present endless possibilities and upside. Creating the next revolutionary online business is not easy, and it takes risk, but you must see past the risk and keep your eyes fixed on the endless rewards. You must focus on leveraging and scaling your business by harnessing the power of the Internet.  

Here are the top five reasons why taking your business online will help you immeasurably leverage your business and regain your long lost freedom.

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1. Scalability and exponential growth.

Regardless of what type of business or industry you are in, scalability is an essential for taking your business to the next level. Establishing a business online is the quickest and easiest way to realize truly exponential growth. The most successful businesses today are rooted in highly scalable online business models -  Uber, Google, Netflix, Amazon, all the social media platforms - the list goes on.

An online business provides all of the essential ingredients to create the perfect scalability formula. Some of the main ingredients the Internet provides, among countless others, include:

• Instant access to more than 3.2 billion potential customers (roughly 40 percent of world population).
• Dirt-cheap costs to build a world-class website.
• Robust integration capabilities with social media and free access to the most sophisticated and user-friendly marketing platforms.
• Overnight proof of concept with real time customer-feedback.
• Drastic reduction in costs for all aspects of running your business.

Success and scalability are intertwined. Taking your business online lets you achieve the scalability necessary for your business to thrive by maximizing output while minimizing costs and time.

Related: How to Start a Business Online

2. Time over money.

The Internet is not some parallel universe exempt from the laws of reality. This was quickly discovered by all during the dot.com bubble. Your business valuation will not simply 10x or 50x by adding a ".com" to your name. However, the Internet does provide certain shortcuts to those who leverage its benefits. By understanding and mastering these benefits, you will be able to drastically increase your business’ growth while scaling back the amount of time you spend in your business.

Once you design and launch your ecommerce site, little additional time is required to run it because of the Internet’s efficiencies and automation. Virtual assistants have reduced your time commitments even further and for next-to-nothing prices. This gives you more time to focus on big-picture projects that take your business to the next level. It also allows you to live life on your terms, and focus on the things that keep you motivated and engaged.

3. Create raving fans and loyal advocates.

The goal of business is to create raving fans and loyal advocates. they go out of their way to promote your product to anyone and everyone, not because you asked them but because they want to. This is the Holy Grail of marketing that you cannot put a price on. Creating an online platform to attract these zealous supporters is paramount, and the quickest, surefire way to achieve exponential growth.

A website gives you the best opportunity to prove your credibility and authenticity. By showing your customers that you can consistently provide them value and deliver on your business's promises, you can earn their support. Having an online presence allows you to shift your customer's perspective from a one-time buyer to a lifelong raving fan and loyal advocate.

Related: 4 Essentials for Achieving the Entrepreneurial Dream

4. Maximize, not minimize, your time.

It’s not about working hard, or working smarter, it’s about working right. The Internet has paved the way for this principle that has taken the entrepreneurial world by storm. In less than 24 hours you, as an entrepreneur, can think of an idea, create a minimum viable product or service, list the product or service for sale online with a  global customer base, receive instantaneous user-feedback, then modify and adjust your product based on that feedback! Efficiency at its finest.

Validating that your idea works by people actualing pay for it is priority number one. Remember, your customers are marketing geniuses. They know exactly what they want and it is your job to find that out. Too many entrepreneurs begin with an idea for a product that they think people want. They spend months, sometimes years, making sure the product and business are perfected without ever testing or even showing it to potential customers! The Internet has given you the perfect platform to do just that.

5. Now is the perfect time.

What are you waiting for? There will never be a perfect time to take action and start an online business. If you’re waiting for the right time, regret is guaranteed. Forget the naysayers and be decisive. I am telling you from experience that now is always the perfect time to chase your biggest ambitions. Twelve dollars - that is it! Twelve dollars is all it costs to buy a domain name and host it for a year with GoDaddy. For that same twelve dollars, you can design, build, and maintain your very own online business in less than a day!

How many business websites do you need to visit before you create your own? Stop being an online consumer, and switch teams to reorient as a producer first, and a consumer second. Those focused on building something bigger than themselves stay consistently on purpose. They are always producing results, not consuming.

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252208

WHY CHANGING MY MONEY MINDSET CHANGED MY LIFE

Do you lie awake at night wondering if you’ll have any money left in your bank account at the end of the month? Do you fear you’ll never kill your debt for good? Do you look at your bank statement and wonder where on earth your money went?

I know how you feel. These are feelings I’ve experienced first hand for years. I told myself that I wasn’t destined to be good with money so I should just enjoy life. The fact is I really I wasn’t enjoying life.

I had grown numb to the gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was making one wrong decision after another. I told myself that “everyone” lived this way so why should I even criticize myself for making poor decisions? So, I just came to accept that debt would be a normal part of my life and do my best to keep my head above water.

Thankfully, that’s not the end of the story.

HOW I STARTED

I’ve shared this many times before on the site, but it bears repeating. I graduated from college with roughly $50,000 in debt – and that was 20 years ago, so it would be nearly $75,000 today. It’d be one thing if that money all came from student loans.

But it didn’t. I discovered credit cards in a big way when I stepped foot on campus. Little did I realize the offer of a free t-shirt or water bottle was a pittance in relation to what they were offering me – a blank check…or so I thought.

Seeing my parents spend as they chose and with little regard to its impact on their budget, I followed the same path. I used those credit cards (four in fact; WAY too many for a college student) to finance a lifestyle I thought I wanted but couldn’t afford.

Go on vacation? Sure; the credit card can do that! Go out for drinks with friends? Get to swiping! Have a bad week? That credit card is going to get a workout this week!

So on the cycle went. When it became obvious the cards didn’t provide enough funds to feed my addiction to spending I moved on to the student loan money.

In short, I was addicted to spending – I just didn’t know it at the time, and it was taking me down the drain fast.

The situation I describe above was one of my own making. Regardless of the fact that my parents did very little to teach me about money, I ended up in the situation I did as an adult.

I do not share it with you to get sympathy or to feel sorry for myself. I chose to spend every cent willingly and did nothing to educate myself on finances. Faced with the very real possibility of bankruptcy, I thought it was the easy way out. It took a roommate getting in my financial face to force me to take a real look at what I was doing and where it would take me.

DECIDING TO BE DIFFERENT

We all have a desire to belong. There’s nothing wrong with that at all; it’s human nature. However, I firmly believe that who we surround ourselves with can and does have a great impact on our actions, financially and otherwise.

For myself, this meant I saw myself as a victim to my financial situation. I thought there was nothing I could do to improve my financial picture and that it was someone else’s fault I was in as deep as I was. I viewed money as something that had control over me and that I couldn’t learn how to manage it.

My roommate challenged this view. He told me that I was not a victim and that I was in the situation of my choosing – and, you know what, he was absolutelyright. Instead of viewing money as a tool to be leveraged to get where I wanted in life I viewed it as something that controlled me as its victim. Boy, was I wrong.

So, how did I come back from the brink of bankruptcy and slowly begin down the path of financial freedom? It was two things – I sought help, and I began to educate myself.

I met with a financial counselor who showed me how to do some of the following:

• Establish a budget. I had no idea what a budget was, much less how to make a budget.
• Create a spending plan with that budget. Each dollar is a small tool to get you where you want she said, so we established a spending plan.
• Cut spending I had to learn that overspending in the present was robbing my future self. I had to stop that.
• Decide what I want in life. I had to admit that I was holding myself back and stop playing the victim card.

It was then that I began the transformation of living differently; I refused to accept the false premise that “everyone” has debt so it should be fine that I do, as that would get me nowhere in life.

YOU’VE HEARD THE JOKE

 You’ve heard the joke about excuses, right? They stink. I managed to come up with every excuse I could think of – from blaming my situation on my parents to being upset at the credit card companies.

The problem with these, and any other excuses was one thing – I wasn’t taking responsibility for my decisions. I wasn’t taking responsibility for my actions. I wasn’t taking responsibility for my money. Nothing was going to change until I chose to take responsibility.

What I needed was a good, long look at myself and my situation – without any excuses. As little as I wanted to do that, it showed me one important thing – that I needed change and without that change, I would continue to stay in the same situation. Yes, that means difficulty and change is rarely pleasant, but it’s vitally needed.

Let’s face it; challenge is all around us. We can choose to conquer the challenge or come up with some sort of excuse that it’s impossible to overcome our predicament. As I learned years ago, and continue to learn today, giving into the excuse will take us nowhere.

What’s needed to defeat these excuses is to find your why. Yes, you need to know how to attack the issue but without the why you set yourself up to sliding back into failure. If you’ve decided you want to be different and control your money, you need to grab hold of the why like a quarterback does a football and not let go until you reach the end zone.

WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS NOW?

There’s one simple reason why I share this personal message with you today, April is Financial Literacy month. Financial literacy can mean a lot of things, but what it really comes down is knowing how to manage your money.

That can range from knowing how to pay off debt to how much you should be saving for retirement and much more.

In short, it means you understand how money works and you use it as a tool to better your life and that of those around you. I know what you may be thinking – that it’s too difficult to learn to manage your money effectively.

I used to think that way. I used to think that it was impossible to understand different financial topics because I didn’t learn about them in school or wasn’t taught them by my parents.

Here’s the thing. You don’t need to be an expert to manage your money. I know there are many things I’m not an expert at, and in those cases, I seek to learn what I can to be moderately proficient and then I take action – which really is key.

Working with my hands is an example. I don’t know the first thing about working with tools. It’d be easy to throw up my hands and not do anything around the house. But, thanks to YouTube I can teach myself how to do something I’ve never believed I could do.

Dealing with your money is the same way. There are many financial resourcesyou can use to better manage your money – and many of them are free or incredibly cheap. Beyond that, the Internet is full of free information to help you manage your money; you just have to take advantage of it.

If you feel overwhelmed at where to start, don’t use that as an excuse to give up. Instead, break it down into bite size chunks. Take one thing you want to work on and focus on just that until you get comfortable, then add another.

The key is to take action. I know that’s often the most overwhelming thing to do, but once you do you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can build momentum.

Looking back over the course of my financial life I can say it’s the act of not giving into excuses and taking action that changes things. You’ll want to procrastinate, but taking one step today guarantees one thing – that you’ll get to where you want that much quicker.

Source:https://www.frugalrules.com/changing-money-mindset-changed-life/

The 3 Decisions That Will Change Your Financial Life

Tony Robbins

There’s nothing worse than a rich person who’s chronically angry or unhappy. There’s really no excuse for it, yet I see this phenomenon every day. It results from an extremely unbalanced life, one with too much expectation and not enough appreciation for what’s there.

Without gratitude and appreciation for what you already have, you’ll never know true fulfillment. But how do you cultivate balance in life? What’s the point of achievement if your life has no balance?

For nearly four decades, I’ve had the privilege of coaching people from every walk of life, including some of the most powerful men and women on the planet. I’ve worked with presidents of the United States as well as owners of small businesses. 

Across the board, I’ve found that virtually every moment people make three key decisions that dictate the quality of their lives.

If you make these decisions unconsciously, you'll end up like majority of people who tend to be out of shape physically, exhausted emotionally and often financially stressed. But if you make these decisions consciously, you can literally change the course of your life today. 

Related: Tony Robbins on the Importance of Being Fearless

Decision 1: Carefully choose what to focus on.

At every moment, millions of things compete for your attention. You can focus on things that are happening right here and now or on what you want to create in the future. Or you can focus on the past.

Where focus goes, energy flows. What you focus on and your pattern for doing so shapes your entire life. 

Which area do you tend to focus on more: what you have or what’s missing from your life?

I’m sure you think about both sides of this coin. But if you examine your habitual thoughts, what do you tend to spend most of your time dwelling on? 

Rather than focusing on what you don’t have and begrudging those who are better off than you financially, perhaps you should acknowledge that you have much to be grateful for and some of it has nothing to do with money. You can be grateful for your health, family, friends, opportunities and mind.

Developing a habit of appreciating what you have can create a new level of emotional well-being and wealth. But the real question is, do you take time to deeply feel grateful with your mind, body, heart and soul? That’s where the joy, happiness and fulfillment can be found. 

Consider a second pattern of focus that affects the quality of your life: Do you tend to focus more on what you can control or what you can’t?

If you focus on what you can’t control, you’ll have more stress in life. You can influence many aspects of your life but you usually can’t control them. 

When you adopt this pattern of focus, your brain has to make another decision:  

Related: Tony Robbins on the 7 'Forces' of Business Mastery

Decision 2: Figure out, What does this all mean?

Ultimately, how you feel about your life has nothing to do with the events in it or with your financial condition or what has (or hasn't) happened to you. The quality of your life is controlled by the meaning you give these things.

Most of the time you may be unaware of the effect of your unconscious mind in assigning meaning to life’s events. 

When something happens that disrupts your life (a car accident, a health issue, a job loss), do you tend to think that this is the end or the beginning?

If someone confronts you, is that person insulting you, coaching you or truly caring for you?

Does a devastating problem mean that God is punishing you or challenging you? Or is it possible that this problem is a gift from God? 

Your life takes on whatever meaning you give it. With each meaning comes a unique feeling or emotion and the quality of your life involves where you live emotionally. 

I always ask during my seminars, “How many of you know someone who is on antidepressants and still depressed?” Typically 85 percent to 90 percent of those assembled raise their hands.

How is this possible? The drugs should make people feel better. It's true that antidepressants do come with labels warning that suicidal thoughts are a possible side effect.

But no matter how much a person drugs himself, if he constantly focuses on what he can’t control in life and what’s missing, he won't find it hard to despair. If he adds to that a meaning like “life is not worth living,” that's an emotional cocktail that no antidepressant can consistently overcome. 

Yet if that same person can arrive at a new meaning, a reason to live or a belief that all this was meant to be, then he will be stronger than anything that ever happened to him.

When people shift their habitual focus and meanings, there’s no limit on what life can become. A change of focus and a shift in meaning can literally alter someone's biochemistry in minutes. 

So take control and always remember: Meaning equals emotion and emotion equals life. Choose consciously and wisely. Find an empowering meaning in any event, and wealth in its deepest sense will be yours today. 

Once you create a meaning in your mind, it creates an emotion, and that emotion leads to a state for making your third decision:

Decision 3: What will you do?  

The actions you take are powerfully shaped by the emotional state you're in. If you're angry, you're going to behave quite differently than if you're feeling playful or outrageous. 

If you want to shape your actions, the fastest way is to change what you focus on and shift the meaning to be something more empowering.

Two people who are angry will behave differently. Some pull back. Others push through.

Some individuals express anger quietly. Others do so loudly or violently. Yet others suppress it only to look for a passive-aggressive opportunity to regain the upper hand or even exact revenge.  

Where do these patterns come from? People tend to model their behavior on those they respect, enjoy and love.

The people who frustrated or angered you? You often reject their approaches.

Yet far too often you may find yourself falling back into patterns you witnessed over and over again in your youth and were displeased by. 

It’s very useful for you to become aware of your patterns when you are frustrated, angry or sad or feel lonely. You can’t change your patterns if you’re not aware of them.

Now that you’re aware of the power of these three decisions, start looking for role models who are experiencing what you want out of life. I promise you that those who have passionate relationships have a totally different focus and arrive at totally different meanings for the challenges in relationships than people who are constantly bickering or fighting. 

It’s not rocket science. If you become aware of the differences in how people approach these three decisions, you’ll have a pathway to help you create a permanent positive change in any area of life. 

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239312

5 Reasons an Online Business Is the Shortest Route to Financial Freedom

Peter Voogd

The 1 percent didn't become wealthy trading time for money, and neither will you. It's tolerable for a start, but at some point, you have to intensely focus on scaling and leverage. Enter the Internet. The Internet has created a new economy that is accessible to everybody. Its explosive growth and sheer size has already changed our perception of the traditional way of doing business. Amazon, PayPal, Netflix, eBay, and numerous other tech giants have virtually cornered their respective markets and created domination in areas where just a few years ago traditional brick-and-mortar businesses reigned supreme.

The advent of the Internet has in many ways leveled the playing field for small businesses to compete with major corporations. Online businesses have the unique ability to grow exponentially because they present endless possibilities and upside. Creating the next revolutionary online business is not easy, and it takes risk, but you must see past the risk and keep your eyes fixed on the endless rewards. You must focus on leveraging and scaling your business by harnessing the power of the Internet.  

Here are the top five reasons why taking your business online will help you immeasurably leverage your business and regain your long lost freedom.

1. Scalability and exponential growth.

Regardless of what type of business or industry you are in, scalability is an essential for taking your business to the next level. Establishing a business online is the quickest and easiest way to realize truly exponential growth. The most successful businesses today are rooted in highly scalable online business models -  Uber, Google, Netflix, Amazon, all the social media platforms - the list goes on.

An online business provides all of the essential ingredients to create the perfect scalability formula. Some of the main ingredients the Internet provides, among countless others, include:

• Instant access to more than 3.2 billion potential customers (roughly 40 percent of world population).
• Dirt-cheap costs to build a world-class website.
• Robust integration capabilities with social media and free access to the most sophisticated and user-friendly marketing platforms.
• Overnight proof of concept with real time customer-feedback.
• Drastic reduction in costs for all aspects of running your business.

Success and scalability are intertwined. Taking your business online lets you achieve the scalability necessary for your business to thrive by maximizing output while minimizing costs and time.

Related: How to Start a Business Online

2. Time over money.

The Internet is not some parallel universe exempt from the laws of reality. This was quickly discovered by all during the dot.com bubble. Your business valuation will not simply 10x or 50x by adding a ".com" to your name. However, the Internet does provide certain shortcuts to those who leverage its benefits. By understanding and mastering these benefits, you will be able to drastically increase your business’ growth while scaling back the amount of time you spend in your business.

Once you design and launch your ecommerce site, little additional time is required to run it because of the Internet’s efficiencies and automation. Virtual assistants have reduced your time commitments even further and for next-to-nothing prices. This gives you more time to focus on big-picture projects that take your business to the next level. It also allows you to live life on your terms, and focus on the things that keep you motivated and engaged.

3. Create raving fans and loyal advocates.

The goal of business is to create raving fans and loyal advocates. they go out of their way to promote your product to anyone and everyone, not because you asked them but because they want to. This is the Holy Grail of marketing that you cannot put a price on. Creating an online platform to attract these zealous supporters is paramount, and the quickest, surefire way to achieve exponential growth.

A website gives you the best opportunity to prove your credibility and authenticity. By showing your customers that you can consistently provide them value and deliver on your business's promises, you can earn their support. Having an online presence allows you to shift your customer's perspective from a one-time buyer to a lifelong raving fan and loyal advocate.

Related: 4 Essentials for Achieving the Entrepreneurial Dream

4. Maximize, not minimize, your time.

It’s not about working hard, or working smarter, it’s about working right. The Internet has paved the way for this principle that has taken the entrepreneurial world by storm. In less than 24 hours you, as an entrepreneur, can think of an idea, create a minimum viable product or service, list the product or service for sale online with a  global customer base, receive instantaneous user-feedback, then modify and adjust your product based on that feedback! Efficiency at its finest.

Validating that your idea works by people actualing pay for it is priority number one. Remember, your customers are marketing geniuses. They know exactly what they want and it is your job to find that out. Too many entrepreneurs begin with an idea for a product that they think people want. They spend months, sometimes years, making sure the product and business are perfected without ever testing or even showing it to potential customers! The Internet has given you the perfect platform to do just that.

5. Now is the perfect time.

What are you waiting for? There will never be a perfect time to take action and start an online business. If you’re waiting for the right time, regret is guaranteed. Forget the naysayers and be decisive. I am telling you from experience that now is always the perfect time to chase your biggest ambitions. Twelve dollars - that is it! Twelve dollars is all it costs to buy a domain name and host it for a year with GoDaddy. For that same twelve dollars, you can design, build, and maintain your very own online business in less than a day!

How many business websites do you need to visit before you create your own? Stop being an online consumer, and switch teams to reorient as a producer first, and a consumer second. Those focused on building something bigger than themselves stay consistently on purpose. They are always producing results, not consuming.

Related: 4 Reasons Why an Online Business is the Best Investment You Will Ever Make

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252208