Every entrepreneur hopes for the time in which they will have built a successful, self-sustaining business. This often includes having a business that you are passionate about. It also includes having a business that provides you with purpose. Passion, purpose, and perseverance are key components to any successful entrepreneur. In this post, I want to discuss what I have learned about success. These lessons certainly apply to being a successful online entrepreneur in the competitive niche markets.
Passion
One of the biggest components of success to me is passion. When I first started developing niche websites, I found myself turning to projects I had less enthusiasm about. Undoubtedly I was finding niches that were good options from an economics standpoint. However, I was not into the topic. Soon I found myself managing projects that I had little personal focus on, nor personal interest.
In fact, one of my first niche websites was in the educational space. I was developing a blog that focused on reviewing degree programs. I did my research, analyzed the competition, and ultimately felt this was a great idea. Personally, I think it still is a great idea. Most college websites have horribly 5 star reviews and very little real insight into the college experience. Nevertheless, after a few months with some income, I found myself lacking interest. This lack of interest spiraled into complacency with the articles, complacency with my interaction with guests, and ultimately a reduction in the involvement I had with the website. At the end of the day, I lacked passion.
An excellent article by Corrina Gorrdon-Barnes discusses how to find passion. I will summarize as best as possible but I believe the key for anyone in being successful as an online entrepreneur is to find their passion. First, you need to actually believe that you can do what you love or feel passionate about in life. If you lack this belief, there is no doubt you will avoid pursuing ventures that although you are passionate about, you overlook because you believe they are not feasible.
Second, focus on the experiences, the work, the people, the interactions, the articles you read, the conversations you have, and anything else where your passion perks up. This is really a way for anyone to figure out their interests which hopefully leads to a more full understanding of passion. Third, review all of those experiences, work, people, interactions, articles, and general topics to find how they might fit into different business or passion ideas. For example, if you are passionate about running and traveling, your business idea could be a blog that solely focuses on the best places to travel for running.
Third, do ensure you are focused on what passions are profitable and what passions are hobbies. The distinction is not always clear and quite frankly I have found myself pursuing both from time to time. My personal opinion is that you should analyze this, but in the online entrepreneur world, you might find profits in unexpected places. The article goes on to explain other steps but to me these are the necessary components.
Purpose
Purpose if something that most individual entrepreneurs do not think about often. I know this because I didn’t and most of the individuals I work with do not mention it. This is unfortunate because purpose is why we are doing what we are doing and ultimately what drives us. Internally it is purpose that keeps us pushing towards an ultimate goal and externally it is purpose that keeps customers trusting our organizations.
Whenever you are researching ideas, whether it be business or personal, the goals at which you are trying to achieve must align with your internal thoughts. For example, if your create a niche website focused on helping customers find affordable medical equipment, your purpose is something grander that the focus. It might be helping your customers achieve health through affordability. If you focus on this purpose, internally you can align with this and externally your customers can align with this. In short, you are selling something more than equipment but rather a purpose.
In all of my activities, both personal and business, I seek out the true purpose. If you have purpose and it aligns with your internally, you will be able to succeed. You will be able to succeed because customers will understand the purpose, believe in it, and ultimately trust that your purpose is their purpose. The bottom line is that purpose allows you to align your personal, your business, and your customers in a fashion that otherwise might not occur.
Perseverance
Perseverance is defined as “steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.” Think about this. If you have passion for a project, purpose for the project, shouldn’t you have perseverance to ensure the project’s success? Not necessarily. Luckily, you can focus on growing your own level of perseverance to succeed in the online niche website world.
First, you need to address your fear of failure. When I started by first website, I failed. I failed miserably. I purchased the domain, hosting, and even got some design work. I researched the idea for hours. Unfortunately, I was scared to fail and because of that fear, I did just that. Failed. As an online entrepreneur you need to address this and build up your courage by focusing in the passion and purpose. If you do this, you will mitigate any fear of failure.
Second, focus on what you hope to achieve in your business endeavor. If you focus on achievement, you will avoid simply writing articles on your blog to get something up, you will avoid pointless work, and most of all you will avoid doing things that do not engage your customers. The idea is that you need to not only have the courage to succeed, but also you need to actually utilize that courage to do your best, as much as possible.
Conclusion
In an effort to focus on the success of my customers, I want to ensure we are focusing not only on idea generation but also the inspirational aspects of success. I believe by focusing on a holistic approach, we all can succeed in our online niche market endeavors.
