What is the main reason for starting an online business? Financial freedom must surely be high on the list.

There are of course a multitude of other reasons, here are a few: More leisure time, forced leisure time (unemployed, disabled, ill health), earn an additional income, achieve your dreams, make friends, fulfil your own and others needs (through goods, services, information etc). I could go on.

In order to achieve most of the reasons for starting the business is entwined strongly with the need for financial freedom. How do we achieve that?

To be truthful most of us start out on this journey badly. It is a bit like your first job, you sort of slip into it, it drags you in, you have got to pay bills and before Bob is your uncle, you have done 3 years. Sounds familiar?

Incredibly an online business is so, so, so the same. You see a wonderfully worded marketing person’s dream and latch onto it. There are promises of wealth and houses and holidays and cars (very big, sporty expensive cars) and beautiful partners and all for working 3 seconds a fortnight. Ah the dream.

Be honest David Lumsden, did you fall for it? I did, I did and I did. I started out in 1998 and it took me a long time to realise that what I was doing was achieving other people’s dreams with no hope of achieving mine. Simply my money was becoming theirs.

Now for the other rude awakening, believe me it hurts. The failure rate of people starting an online business is horrendous. The figure bandied about is 95%, I think that figure is way too low. For what is failure?

You do the measuring, think about it. Why did you try to go with an online business? Was it to take it out for a spin and say ‘never mind’ when it didn’t work? Was it to see if you could succeed where others had failed? Was it all a bit haphazard, following an impossible dream created by another person’s greed? Or was it because you hadn’t a clue what you were doing?

Did you and I fail because we did not immediately gain financial freedom? I think the failure rate equates to nearly all of us at some time. So is it all gloom and doom?

My goodness ‘NO’, (see even positive can come out of such a negative word). I had my downs, I was unsure if indeed it was possible to achieve my goals, any goals, but came to the conclusion that if it was possible, then I could do it too.

I did not create a get rich scheme (shame) but decided that if I followed others who had genuinely succeeded, so could I. And I have and I do. I could now start my own business and make money if I needed too. But I have no need as the business plan I use works. (Click on the link below to have a look at what works for me).

For newcomers to an online business, there is no getting away from the appeal of a ‘Get rich scheme’, there is no shame in trying it out. It may work although reality shows that to be unlikely. Even if there is gold in them there hills, the gold is not going to end up in everyone’s bank vault.

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