Image by Inottawa. Flickr Creative Commons Licence.
Gender Issues:
Most are men, who are not likely to worry about keeping a household running smoothly and deal with the daily minutiae of a happy household. Their minds are unencumbered with a multitude of deadlines and to do lists.
Most are men, who willingly give up free leisure time to pursue their online business goals. Research shows that many men don’t know what to do with their leisure time anyway, so usually spend it drinking.
Women, on the other hand, generally have far less leisure time to sacrifice, and in order to put in as much time as men, in pursuit of their online business goals, typically need to sacrifice their sleep time.
There was a recent example offered by one of the “master gurus” who spoke admiringly of a colleague, at how he had travelled two hours to work, and two hours home again, and STILL found at least two hours to spend building his business in the evenings.
I dare say few women would be able to achieve this, unless they were single and unencumbered by family obligations, or had a totally supportive partner and family, or a nanny or housekeeper to take away many of the daily time consuming chores.
Men have a competitive approach to business, while women tend to have a cooperative approach. Most online products reveal this competitive approach by the Rambo words they use in the titles or the headlines for their sales copy: Murder, Stomper, Killer, Avenger, Pimp, Conquer, Gladiator, Boot Camp, and so on.
Many copywriting courses for sales letters and headlines are written by, and probably for, men.
Initially there were a few female entrepreneurs who where basically imitating what the guys were doing. Personally, I didn’t feel comfortable with their style because it came across as contrived, and certainly not coming from their authentic selves.
But this is certainly changing – seeing more successful women entrepreneurs online, and doing it their way – feminine, caring, cooperatively. There is a growing movement of women – and men – who are bringing their heart and soul into their online business activities.
Left Brain Learning
This is similar to many gender issues discussed above, because men tend to be left-brain focused, while women tend to be right brain focused.
But it also has to do with passion and creativity versus method and logic, so it’s not strictly a gender thing.
Passionate and creative people hate following rules because, and by their very nature, they like to be innovators and to take risks and to push boundaries.
But most online entrepreneurial courses are offered on a “Do As I Say” or “Do As I Have Done” basis. Just like at school, the instructors have little patience with you if you deviate from the lessons in your own creative way.
As things stand at the moment with regards to learning your ideal way to run YOUR ideal business, you will find you really need to go through a lot of “This is the way I did it” courses to learn basic fundamentals that are common throughout all business models, but also what differentiates one from another, and to recognise which ones click with you.
The risk that passionate and creative people face when trying to build their own online business is going around in circles as they learn from here and there, making many false starts and spending a lot of unnecessary money along the way. In short, your typical chaotic, creative process.
However, the biggest risk that I see, is that passionate and creative people give up. They give up because it’s too hard, or too technical, or they have no mentorship to help with the doubt and confusion.
Timing
Most online gurus started when the internet was very young (mid to late 1990’s) and there was not the amount of choice or distractions that are there today. Their challenges were different to what they are today.
Early gurus essentially had open slather on the online marketplace because there was very little competition – very few people realised what the internet might be useful for. The public was hungry for information, so whatever was offered was eagerly consumed. The downside for early gurus was they had to teach themselves how to build an online business at a time when there was nothing available – it was a lot of trial and error learning.
Nowadays, the playing field of online business has changed considerably. There are rules and regulations that must be followed due to earlier abuses of the system. There is a chaotic amount of information available on how to make money on the internet. There are many more business models to choose from, and a multitude of options for earning money online.
Your challenge today is overwhelm, and trying to sort the treasures from the trash. But the tools you need to build a great online business have been made much easier.
The only thing that hasn’t changed over time is the level of determination required to succeed online.
Existing Networks or Relationships
This is an insidious issue, because it lies hidden. Success breeds success, and successful people love sharing how they became successful – and charge you to learn their techniques.
But it’s a little bit like taking 5 years to be an overnight success. Few people let on about the struggles in their early days. They don’t mention the trials and failures along the way.
How it happens is like this: You’ll see a headline or opener that basically reads how they made $23,489 in two weeks with no previous list to speak of, and they’ll teach you how to do it as well, for a nice price. But what they don’t make so clear is that they may have a few people in their network who were willing to promote their product to their own substantial list, in return for a cut of the sales.
Well, you might think there is nothing basically wrong with that, and that you could do that too. Okay, but let me tell you it’s not that easy trying to sell yourself, an absolute newcomer, with no track record, to a big player who get hundreds, if not thousands of these requests all the time.
But then you could be lucky. You might have such a player as a member of your extended family, or who is in your golf club or who you meet at a friend’s wedding.
What I’m saying is that serendipity often plays a critical part in success, and it isn’t often acknowledged.
However, there are a few real gems out there that do teach new online entrepreneurs how to build their business up step by step. But it’s not glamorous, or easy or quick.
Final Thoughts
You will make a number of false starts – it’s part of the game, so don’t be so hard on yourself.
Keep at it. It is a complex field, and it’s a chaotic learning environment at the moment. Hopefully I can help to make it better.
Remember most online business courses (offline too, for that matter) are not designed for passionate and creative people. So learn what you can, and hunt around for some good, understanding mentors.
It’s a long term thing. Don’t give yourself unreasonable expectations. It’s totally okay to be a tortoise than a hare – especially if you’re a person with many responsibilities to juggle.
The process of building an online business can be considered a process of self discovery, as you define your service that you gladly offer the world, recognise and overcome your resistances to technology, and also recognise and overcome your resistances to being successful.
An online business can be considered a creative product. Learn to use your tools, learn the techniques, explore your personal styles – and then create your life’s work. Mold it, shape it, refine it. Then, leave it alone.
Visual “To Do” Chart for Creative People 