The Internet has been a boon for small businesses. Anyone with spare time can start an online Etsy store, market their services on the side, or start an online business. However, with all of these increasing competition and expansion of the free market comes great uncertainty. What if your side business is doing well? Should you quit your day job and pursue it full-time? What should you anticipate? What could go wrong?
Certainty in an Uncertain World
Alex Jeffreys learned a long time ago “everybody is looking for certainty in an uncertain world.” Jeffreys learned that lesson from a mentor which put him on the path to success he finds himself today.
Jeffreys learned that it isn’t about finding certainty — it's about testing and trying out what works and finding out what doesn’t. You cannot create certainty because there isn’t any certainty, he said. All anyone can do is continue experimenting and learning from their mistakes. Eventually, you will discover for yourself what works and what doesn’t, thereby creating a form of certainty.
Mentors can Propel You
Jeffreys took his mentor’s advice and applied it even further. He found that to find success in business, you can take lessons learned from other people. Alex Jeffreys emphasizes that by spending money on mentors, you’ll learn from their mistakes. A good mentor will teach you what works early and quickly, so you can propelling your business forward.
Mentors have already gone through the certain-uncertain dynamic, forging the path to success. Jeffreys found that the key to getting ahead in business is to invest your money in people who have already made the mistakes, the mentors, to learn from them. That way, you’ll get to skip the long slog of test and analysis and jump right into what works.
You can work on refining your business rather than on building it.
Confidence Building
Everyone suffers from crises of confidence, especially those of you who are starting out on their own for the first time. You never know if you’re making the right decision. Will these clients work out? Is your product pivot working?
Learning from a skilled mentor can also give you a confidence boost. It is easier to make the hard decisions if you have a mentor with whom to work through ideas and plans. The confidence, according to Alex Jeffreys, inspires you with a new mindset to stop self-sabotaging and achieve success.
Jeffreys found that when his mindset shifted, so did his bank account. He began recruiting more clients for his coaching business, which created more success stories, which turned into more clients. He began building a success machine based entirely on the confidence and mindset he gained from working with his mentors.
Numbers: Know Them
But, don’t think that following in the footsteps of a successful mentor will carry the day. You also need to know your market and businesses’ numbers inside and out. You need to become intimately familiar with the numbers, sales figures, average pricing, shipping, standard means, and deviations – everything that has to do with your business and the markets in which it competes.
Your revenue will fluctuate wildly in the beginning, but eventually, you will stabilize. You will learn how much to spend on a new client to keep your business profitable; you will learn your time commitments, marketing and conversion costs, and more.
Once you know your numbers, you will know when you are doing well and when to start heavily reinvesting in your business. Reinvestment is another difficult decision to make. It is almost as frightening as starting the company all over. But, knowing your numbers enables you to decide when and how to “slam the gas” on your company. Numbers don’t have emotion, trust them, they will tell you when your business is ready.
Alex Jeffreys is the owner and founder of Marketing With You, an internet marketing coaching program dedicated to teaching individuals how to market their businesses online. With successful products such as the Super Funnel program and the Affiliate Sniper program, Alex Jeffreys has helped hundreds of students gain success.
Robert Alleson