About this column
Abby Kerr Ink is nine months old.
In human baby months, that’s a really cute age. They’re on the move. Getting opinionated. Banging two toys together. Responding to their own name.
As a 9 month old online business owner, you may be thinking, I want my pacifier!
But in online business months, nine months can be a really awkward age.
For online business owners, nine months or thereabouts is very often the age of frustration, overwhelm, self-consciousness, boredom, waning blog posting schedules, reassessing, realigning, renegotiating, and it can also be the age of Oh my God I now haaate my service pages with a passion. {I do.}
Can you identify?
I’ve been whispering in the backchannels lately — {mmm, backchannels — another word you may have heard by your 9th month of online business} — that Abby Kerr Ink is in a period of transition. That I’m honing and feeling my way toward that the work that’s equal parts pleasure and profit for me. That I’m looking to trim down and tone up everywhere that needs it. {Okay, not totally talking just about my business here.}
I’ve been thinking a lot about how my business and I have evolved since we launched in February 2010 {though the site didn’t go live ’til June}.
Here are 9 lessons I’ve learned in 9 months of online business:
No. 1 Doing business online is so much easier than brick and mortar business. Yet it’s continually challenging in gratifying ways. I would never go back to brick and mortar business after having realized the potentialities of online business — but that’s me and my personality. Some people would far prefer face-to-face contact with all their customers and a physical storefront to maintain instead of an online space. How about you?
No. 2 You have to choose your teachers. They don’t choose you. At first, it’ll feel like everyone with a blog or a program will have a very important and valuable story to tell you, or sell you. There are too many voices out there competing for your attention and you just can’t listen to them all, much less apply all of their actionable tips. I like to learn from people whose businesses I admire, especially when I see them as radically different from mine. In my earliest days, these were {and still are} Danielle LaPorte, Sarah Bray, and the folks at Copyblogger. Lately, it’s Dave Navarro, Laura Roeder, Sinclair, and Natalie Peluso. {By the way, have you seen what these last two are doing with Action Studio?} [affiliate link]
No. 3 Low-hanging fruit isn’t always the sweetest. The most obvious service you can offer people isn’t necessarily the one you’ll love performing. Low-hanging fruit is a great place to start, but know that one day, you’ll pick your last bushel and then close down that orchard.
No. 4 Your truest niche is really the Niche of You. {You’ve heard of the Brand of You? This is similar.} You don’t have to pick a niche. You are a niche. {Are you getting my free e-course on Creating a Truly Irresistible Niche? If not yet, sign up here.}
No. 5 When your message is strong and clear, your right people will self-identify and put themselves in front of you. If this isn’t happening to you yet after 9 months of online business, probably you have one or both of these problems: your message/brand proposition/USP isn’t strong and clear, or else you’re not working the right channels in the right way for your business.
No. 6 You don’t have to eat the whole elephant at once. Learning, including learning about doing business online, is incremental by nature. That’s how our brains take to it best. So work with your brain, okay?
No. 7 If you find yourself accidentally imitating someone else’s style or substance, you’ve got to stop it immediately. The sooner you suss out your imitation and cease it, the sooner you’ll write your way into your own voice.
No. 8 When in doubt, take action. Don’t do more research. Only action leads to evidence.
No. 9 Have a life away from your business. You’ll quickly discern that most of your offline friends and family do not appreciate the full scope of what it is you’re trying to do. Sometimes, they’ll be downright skeptical or disapproving. This is okay; you don’t have to cut disapprovers out of your life. Even in 2010, much of the intelligent world still doesn’t realize it’s possible to make a full-time income from an online business in a relatively short period of time if you build your business right. So don’t judge ’em for not getting it. {They’ll see.} And if you have that rare offline friend-without-an-online business who actually gets how much this means to you and believes you’ll succeed and is willing to listen to all your stories and latest revelations, hold on to ’em. {Thanks, Kelly!} Most importantly, let these offline friends pull you out of your online world regularly and engage you in some face-to-face interchange. It’s important.
In the comments, I’d love to hear an important lesson or two you learned within the first 9 months of your online business.
Hello, you.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Bravo, Ms Kerr…as evah!
Funny, funny thing as I read through this post. I was nodding my way through it, then found myself saying: “hold up, why is this so resonant for me..I don’t have an on-line business! Yes, I have coaching clients that find me through my blog, but that doesn’t make it an on-line business does it?”.
Two possible reasons this struck so many chords: a) my business is INDEED an on-line business and wants to be recognized as such (perhaps has morphed accordingly over time), b) this is sage advice for ANY business. There is a third possible reason this was like an arrow to my heart: a) and b) are both true.
Huh.
Nicely done.
XO
TG
Ooh, thank you for sharing your thoughts and awakenings with me, Tanya. Your business is indeed an online business — funny, I never saw it any other way because that’s the only way I’ve known you. :)
You know, you’re right: most of what’s in this list can be applied to brick-and-mortar business. The biggest difference I see between having had a B&M and now having an online biz is the luxury of time. I never felt there was any when I owned a boutique! The great majority of my learning curve had to take place in public, in front of customers, during store hours {way too exhausted outside of shop hours to do anything much }. So there was constant frustration. With Abby Kerr Ink, I get to set my own hours {and while they’re still very long — longer than the hours I put it at my shop!} they are hours in which I can breathe, find my natural rhythms, explore, hit my stride, etc.
— Abby
I’ve been “preparing” to begin my online business/blog or whatever for almost a year and # 8 just kicked me in the pants. How many times do I have to hear that before I just JUMP? Seems like I’m still convincing myself I’m ready and why can’t I just do it?
Hi, Margie! —
Two things come to my mind. One of the scenarios is probably true:
a} You’re probably so ready to launch it’s ridiculous by this point. You’re doing more research as a way to delay the inevitable. This will only stop when you decide it does. {I say that with hugs.}
b} You don’t really want an online business/blog, or you have major ambivalence around it for reasons that need to be looked at. It’s totally cool NOT to have an online biz if that’s not what you want. I’ve encouraged a couple of dear friends to start something based on their passions and talents over the past few years and they just won’t do it because — surprise to me! — they didn’t want an online biz for perfectly fine reasons. Maybe it’s not entirely for you at this moment in your life?
Keep me posted.
It’s so crazy to go back and read some of your posts and see your evolution ( like I talked about in the last one) I only know you as abby, brand editor and it’s cool to see everything else.
I have learned so many of the same things. Especially: 3-6
Oh, the low-hanging fruit. It takes a lot of courage to actually do with away with it but I am starting to realize that when I do decide to get rid of that stuff, I will be able to go ALL IN with the stuff I know I am truly meant to help people with. A lot of tht low-hanging fruit is money now but not in the long run.
My business has gone such a bumpy evolution over the past 9 months and I can never figure out where my businesses start and stop along the path. I am making the official start of this new business in late July but I have been working hard at this entrepreneurship stuff ( mostly successively till recently)for almost a year so lets see:
– Be kind to yourself during the evolution. Like I said, it’s been hella bumpy and I haven’t enjoyed myself for a lot of the ride and I need to start.
– BE VERY selective of who you learn from and develop the chops to be able to trust your own intuiton.
-If it feels wrong, t almost always is. Don’t take a job that will give you a little bit but HURT a lot.
— Be clear about what you Do and what you don’t