Choosing an internet business is difficult. This site has evolved several times – partly because I’ve lost interest in the ideas I’ve had and partly because of the “bright, shiny object” syndrome. On the internet, bright new ideas and products are plentiful and developed so fast it’s almost a blur. What seems like a good idea one day, is old news the next.
So where is the best place to spend your time?
Some say it’s in a place that you already enjoy. Some say you can learn to enjoy wherever you are. Some say, it’s a business, it doesn’t matter if you enjoy it or not.
Chris Garrett has a course called “Make More Progress“. What I took away from this course is that it’s not what you do, but how you do it. It’s progress that peaks your interest and spurs you on – even more than enjoyment in something. Some progress, any progress – because without it, enjoyment wanes.
One of Chris’s suggestions, the “minimum viable product”, was advice I had never heard before – which was not only refreshing, but also made perfect progress-making sense. Can’t tell you more because it’s not mine to tell.
Spend time on making things happen.
I think the trick is to fill your business full of it’s own bright, shiny objects so you don’t have to go looking elsewhere. Which is what I’m going to do – just as soon as I reinvent this site again! 
Make it work! (as Tim Gunn would say)
Artwork & photo - Jessica Erin Higgins
My friend Cindy Bidar wrote a great post called Are You Afraid of Commitment? I swear—sometimes I think she writes these things to send me a subliminal message or something. Well, not so subliminal I guess. More like a big bonk on the head like they do in the V8 commercials to people who don’t eat their vegetables.
Cindy writes about making the commitment to be successful at your own business. About changing your mindset from treating it like a hobby to treating it like a business.
For me it’s much more comfortable to treat it as a hobby. It’s fun, it’s freedom, it’s doing what you want to do instead of what an employer needs done, it’s meeting great new people through social media and blogs. It’s a lot of things. Like a sparkly orange and pink aura swirling around you.
But Cindy is right – if we want to make money, we need to add an element of business to the mix. And it needs a lot of work to make money happen. So what is it that makes that so tough?
Here’s my theory. When you are a one-woman or one-man business, you are the business. It is like selling yourself. And that’s uncomfortable. Like a slightly less colourful and wrinkly grey aura spiralling around you. And any artist can tell you that if you mix too many colours, it gets muddy. No one wants a muddy aura.
So maybe the answer is to separate yourself from the business side of things. You can be the writer, the artist, the virtual assistant, whatever—but the “business” is another entity separate from yourself. A “thing” that you create and then commit to feeding and caring for. A thing that has its own swirling aura—preferably getting greener and greener.
Now if I can figure out how to do that, I’ll let you know.
In the meantime, what tips do you have for getting into that business mindset?
Tagged as:
business,
success
