For those of you who didn't listen to Eben's teleclass, here is his list of 5 top mistakes people make with their online businesses (with my notes from the call):
Starting a business that you don't understand or a getting into a get-rich-quick scheme
- Warren Buffet is a great example - when he chose to pass on the .com boom, everyone thought he was getting senile. After the bust, he was probably the only one who was not affected - he actually came out ahead (despite "missing out on the great opportunity"), because he remained true to his investing principle (which is to invest only in the businesses he understands).
- there is no fast and easy money, even though most marketers make you believe that (and a lot of people actually
want to believe that)
- common myth #1: "Do what you love and the money will follow". Instead, find a solid business idea, then find an aspect of it that you will enjoy doing.
- common myth #2: "Build it and they will come" - something that only sounds good, but doesn't work in real life.
"Trying" an online business
- trying/stopping/distracting is like taking surface streets instead of a freeway route to destination.
- expecting instant gratification, when in reality everything worthwhile takes a lot of time to develop.
Treating a business as a job
- need to shift your mindset from "employee" to "business owner". In a job you get paid for work, in a business you only get paid for results.
- Failure/mistakes are frowned upon in a job, but in a business failure is an answer to the question "what if", it's a prerequisite to success, it's just a result of testing. Most of what even successful people do doesn't work - so you simply check it off your list and move on to the next thing to try.
- poker players and stock investors lose more often than they win, but they let their winners run.
- you never know what will work until you try.
Not realizing that a business is only about 3 things:
- marketing: give away your very best stuff for free (what they do in Hollywood with movie trailers, or in music industry with singles).
- products: they must pass the following checklist:
1) is my prospect experiencing pain or urgency or irrational passion?
2) is my prospect proactively looking for solutions?
3) does my prospect have few or no
perceived options?
- relationships with existing customers (it's 8 times more productive to focus on repeat sales than on trying to get new customers).
Focusing on getting money before creating enough value for other people
- create 10 times more value than you charge for.
- don't let "Justice Mechanism" prevent your success.
That's just in a nutshell - the teleclass was more than an hour long.
Hope my notes make sense!
