When it Come to Making Your Small Business Plan, is the Online Aspect Giving You Chills?

I’ve talked to many Spiritualpreneurs who seem to have a great fear of running the online aspect of their business, but (and this is coming from a real ‘techno-phobe’ here), having an online business is a lot less complicated than you may think it is!

Having any kind of business starts first at the Inner level – and if you don’t believe you can know what you’re doing when it comes to running your business online, there are a lot of other piggybacking beliefs that are riding on that…

• I don’t have what it takes
• I’m not good at technology
• Everybody else knows more than me
• I don’t have the time
• I glaze over when it comes to learning things like this…

You’ve got all these things rolling around inside your head – it’s sort of like Prego Spaghetti Sauce – ‘It’s all in there’!

So the first thing you want to do is get clear on what the beliefs are that you’re telling yourself – get really honest with yourself – what are you telling yourself about why you can’t have an online business?

Then, while you’re putting together your small business plan, start to identify the areas that you feel like you need more support on. If you’re feeling like, “Oh I just don’t understand blogging. Social Networking – it gives me a headache! I don’t get how to do this or that…”

Well, start out with identifying the areas YOU think are important to having in an online business, and anywhere that you feel you are lacking.

You also want to identify the areas you feel belong in an online business that you really do feel like you have some sense about, because there are things that are really serving you at an inner level with your beliefs, and at an outer level you do have competencies and skill sets and brilliances that are serving you.

People tend to focus on everything they can’t do, everything that don’t know how to do, everything that’s confusing or overwhelming – but you have to remember that for everyone that says they can’t do an online business, there are both inner and outer level reasons you have to address in areas that are both serving you and not serving you.

It’s very important to look at it from both sides.

A good starting point for having an effective online business, whether you understand all the ‘technology’ involved or not, is to simply map it out. Take a piece of paper and make a flow chart.

• OK, someone comes to my blog or website. What happens?
• What do I want them to experience?
• What do I want to have occur?

Map it out all the way down to all the different levels of all the different things you want to offer. Think of it as your online small business plan.

Online business are often based in having an effective profit funnel – you introduce yourself to people through free or lower end products and begin building relationships and credibility, eventually going all the way up through to higher end products – programs, seminars, continuity programs – it goes all the way through.

What you want to do is look at it from YOUR perspective. Get clear on who your ideal customer or client is, what their problems and issues are, and then set something up that you yourself would be excited about in terms of this profit funnel.

Why do it that way?

Well most people go out and think, “What would the people out there want?”

But the truth is, you are your best target market. Why are you in the business you are in? I am betting that it is because you have a real connection with the problem or issue that you are aiming to solve. You have an emotional, passionate connectivity with your product or service and the people you are offering it to.

If you don’t have this kind of authenticity, you may want to reconsider the business you’re in! It’s kind of like, if you’ve never had a problem with your weight, but you’re coaching people on weight issues, how can you really know what they’re going through? How can you really empathise with that?

Are you going to coach parents if you don’t have children? Are you qualified to be a marriage counselor if you’re not married? Is it OK to sell a product that you don’t like or you don’t believe in?

I feel very strongly about this that if you are offering a product or service, you have a real, authentic connection to what it is and who it is going to. My husband and I went to a relationship seminar and I said to him, “This guy better be married!”

I’ve been married for almost 20 years – I don’t want someone that has been married for 3 years telling me how to be married. Well, this seminar leader had been married for 34 years. And it was his first marriage. I stayed.

What it comes down to is that people often talk about creating an online business like it is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The idea is that you’ll hit on the right idea, start it up and then instantly get rich and not have to work anymore.

I’m here to tell you, that’s just crazy. Any business requires work. If any business tells you that you can work an hour a day in the very beginning and make millions of dollars, you should run for the hills. It’s like saying you’re going to lose 50 pounds in a month, with no effort, eating the same way you do now, and no exercise. No way!

Your online business should be something that really excites you. If you’re at that point already, you simply need to start getting clear on the issues, challenges and beliefs you have about having an online business – where you feel you need support.

Then, map out the experience your ideal client or customer will have when they come to your website.

There are a number of pieces and steps to doing an online business, but it’s not really complicated. The most important thing is being clear on who your ideal customer or client is, what their issues and challenges are, and how you are going to solve those issues and challenges.

If you don’t have that you don’t have any kind of business!

There are as many ways to be successful in an online business as there are for losing weight, finding a mate, or being successful at anything in life. There’s no one right way to do it. You want to find the way that best fits you so that you can feel good about creating an online business.

Walk through the experience you want people to have – I want them to come to my site, this is the way I want them to experience me, this is the way I want them to experience my product, etc. Think about how you would want to have the experience – what would attract you? What would be exciting for you?

Don’t do something that doesn’t feel like a match for you. If you don’t feel good about it, you won’t be a match to anything.

You don’t have to listen to other people or allow them to confuse you or have you do things you don’t want to do. Map out what you would be aligned with, and you will begin attracting the solutions you need.

Create your small business plan so that you’re playing to your abilities and the strengths that come naturally to you, and the rest will follow…

If you want to find out more about running an online business from a Spiritualpreneur angle, listen to the recording of a teleclass I did recently on the Missing Element to Your Entrepreneurial Success. I was joined by a special expert panel including Debbi Chambers – the Manifesting Muse, Gina Gaudio Graves – the JV Queen and Internet Marketing Expert, and Business Coach Carl Logrecco. You can listen in for some great insight by clicking here now.