Three Steps forward and two steps back. That’s how it goes, isn’t it?
Today, I woke up thirty minutes late and went and turned the coffee pot on. I got the kids up as usual, rushing them, since it was later than normal, then got myself around. For whatever reason, the coffee pot—after thirty minutes—had only managed to brew half-a-cup of coffee. I waited another ten minutes. I poured what was there—still only a half-cup of coffee. Forgetting my glasses and my watch, I grabbed my coffee, kids, keys, bag, and phone, and headed out the door. I wasn’t too worried about my glasses or my watch, my vision is 20/20 in my right eye and 20/25 in my left eye, they’re only to help with my astigmatism to keep me from getting headaches. Anyways, we headed off, now 10 minutes later than usual but still with 15 minutes to spare. I often leave a half-hour early because we live in the country and there is a lot of deer, so I only drive about 25-40 mph to the school. It usually takes about 20 minutes to get there. I see a few deer along the way, the usual number is around 20 or so in the morning. They normally just stay on the side of the road but, not today.
As I pulled up close to a big buck who happened to be turned the other direction, he turned ran right toward me, in front of me, and BAM— that’s when I lost my headlight. You ever have those days where nothing goes right? As the day wore on, not only did Mr. Deer turn around and try to ram my car a second time, but then later, the ATM refused to give me my money, I drove over a curb, and a black cat ran out in front of me. We went to one of our favorite shops who promised to have everything we planned to buy but, nope, they were out. The day was a total loss. Every edit I made to my website resulted in an error on a completely unrelated page. It makes you want to quit, just give up and crawl under the covers and sleep it off. Maybe stay there forever. Which brings me to the point of this post: Ten Reasons Why Starting a Virtual Business is Impossible. Sometimes it feels like an endless cycle of failures. So, what do you do when that happens?
1) Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back:
Progress is slow. You just start making some progress, then you have a major setback—or a bunch of minor ones. It’s tedious, to say the least. You either put it aside for a while, maybe you’ll get back to it (or maybe you won’t), or you push on through it. It really just depends on you and how long you’ve been at it. Somedays, everything happens at once and it’s like the whole world is coming for you and is out to get you. That was my day. Other days are uneventful, slow, nothing bad happens but nothing good does either, and you just have to keep plugging through. However, for those times when you’re frustrated by the setbacks, just know you’re not alone. How to overcome setbacks: Start by setting goals and keeping tabs on those goals. GET EXCITED ABOUT YOUR GOALS!
Write down three separate areas of your business you’re pursuing (examples: website, course practice sheets, social networking pages). Once you accomplish those, add to the list. Imagine your future goals, write down anything that comes to mind and hold on to it! Depending on the nature of the setback (financial, personal, physical, virtual etc.) you can measure qualitative or quantitative data. If the setback is regarding finances (for example, the deer cost me a headlight, I am considering the ramifications regarding had the deer busted my windshield or totaled my car i.e. I don’t feel so bad losing a cheap headlight!) you can always be comparative to other possible outcomes or past data. If you were more in debt a year ago (for example, a year ago my debt was over 9k a month compared to about 2.5k a month now) and you set a goal to get out of debt and have made some accomplishments, celebrate that and continue working toward a specific goal.
List goals and accomplishments daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, every 5 years, etc.! I keep a yearly planner and I keep them for years!
2) You’re having to learn everything from scratch:
It’s easy to get frustrated when you’re learning something you’ve never done before, especially when you’re not making any money. How to overcome learning everything from scratch: When I started (at age 37) building my virtual business, the best thing I learned is that it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be done. I haven’t been very tech-savvy in my life, even though I took Integrated Information Systems Technology classes in a Vocational school back in the year 2000-2001. Things have really changed in LITERALLY 20 years. Plus, I knew absolutely NO ONE who runs a successful business that was willing or able to teach me everything, or ANYTHING really, I needed to know about how to lay the groundwork to run a business, especially a virtual one. BUT—we live in an information society today where literally everything is available at your fingertips—with a simple internet search.
I started reading blogs and downloading guidebooks. I did a step-by-step guide on how to start an LLC and I followed every step, including hiring my own legal team and accountant. I downloaded a guidebook on how to build a blogging business. I followed a YouTube tutorial on building a WordPress website. Every time I run into a snag, I jump on YouTube and look up a tutorial or walk-through. Facebook has a plethora of pages to follow on building blogging businesses as well as copywriting, copyediting, and proofreading businesses, and I’m sure anything you could think of. I purchased an online course on Proofreading so I could have access to the practice materials. I also intend to further my skillset with a transcript course and a copywriting course.
Work-from-home resources and opportunities are endless! Every time you learn from one new resource, you’ll learn about another new resource and expand your knowledge. For example, I learned by starting my website for my Proofreading that WordPress is often used for Blogging so I started my Blog and as I learned about that I learned about keeping an email list platform where I learned about MailChimp. So, one thing leads to another. Another example is when I researched billing, I learned about WooCommerce which also lead back to MailChimp and PayPal for Business. Recently, I purchased Freshbooks. It’s like Quickbooks except it’s designed for people who provide services instead of products, and it links to Paypal and your bank account. It’s like your own personal accountant and it keeps track of what you spend for your business, helps you file your taxes, and you can send invoices, right from the program.
Download guidebooks, watch tutorials, and take courses. Take Notes! Keep a notebook, notepad, or your phone handy to text yourself notes. However you choose to do it, take notes!
3) You don’t know what you’re doing—yet:
Starting a virtual business is always hardest in the beginning when you’re laying the foundational groundwork for the business to run itself. YouTube Tutorials: I can’t stress this enough, YouTube Tutorials. You can learn anything you put your mind to. If watching videos isn’t your thing, there’s often live chats, calls, or step-by-step guides you can follow. You want to make sure you have all your ducks in a row. Optimize your SEO, have the right plugins, promote your blogs and pages, gain followers, likes, and shares, start utilizing ads, have a privacy policy, SSL, licensing, legal team, accountant, Microsoft Office, Freshbooks, and other tools necessary to run your business. Lay a firm foundation before EXPECTING the business to run itself.
How to overcome the lack of knowledge: Remember that laying the foundational groundwork is the hardest part to overcome. It gets easier! Start by doing a Google search or finding a YouTube tutorial whenever you get stuck. If that doesn’t accomplish what you seek, take an online course on marketing, place an ad seeking help on Craigslist, take a business or marketing class at your local college, or look on Facebook Marketplace for college books. The possibilities are endless! Watch those tutorials until you get it figured out. Don’t give up! You can learn anything you put your mind to and overcome your lack of knowledge. Others have learned what you are learning now, you CAN too!
How to overcome the lack of knowledge: Remember that laying the foundational groundwork is the hardest part to overcome. It gets easier! Start by doing a Google search or finding a YouTube tutorial whenever you get stuck. If that doesn’t accomplish what you seek, take an online course. The possibilities are endless!
4) You’re used to making a paycheck:
There’s no instant gratification when it comes to starting a virtual business, especially if you’re a blogger or YouTuber. That’s why most of the time these things start out as a side-hustle or hobby. Since I lost my job a few months ago, this is my full-time job now, but not everyone has a spouse that can pay the bills on a single income. So, there’s a few options here. If this is your full-time job, you obviously need to make sure you have someone paying the bills for you somehow—indefinitely—because you don’t know how long it will be until you’ll start making money.
I’m not going to go into any details on how to secure that income, for obvious reasons, that’s between you and God, but once you’re there, and your bills are paid, but your commitment to the virtual business is waning due to lack of income, then this applies to you (or me). How to overcome lack of paycheck: Keep your eye on the prize! Have you ever researched the income of top bloggers, pranksters, fail-video YouTubers, reaction-video YouTubers, tutorial YouTubers, work-from-home copywriters/ editors/ proofreaders/ website builders etc.? The list goes on and on. Many of today’s entrepreneurs run virtual businesses from home and the income is limitless—literally. And, most of them are having the time of their lives doing it! We’re talking billions of dollars in passive income. Imagine 10 years from now if you could be making even a fraction of what most bloggers make, let’s say you’re making a thousand a week, it’s going to be worth it.
Once you do the hard stuff and lay the foundational work, you can sit back (on a beach or in the mountains for that matter) and watch the money just roll in. Just be sure to cover your bases and lay a firm foundation, don’t cut corners! Don’t forget why you’re doing this! Write down your reasons if you have to, but don’t stop now just because you haven’t got anything to show for it.
5) You’re not making any money—yet:
Alright, this my friends— is where it gets really hard. Not only does it feel like you’re just playing on a computer all day, but if you’re going to have a successful virtual business you have to post on social media— so you literally will be playing on a computer all day too— to an extent. “Oh, old Harry just plays on Facebook all day!” Yeah, something like that. So you’re just playing on social media, creating blogs, making a website, and typing stuff in all day (virtual business right?) to sell your product or service and you’re not making any money yet— so how do we deal with that?
First of all, CELEBRATE the small successes. Like the days where you take three steps forward and two steps back, remind yourself that SOMETHING went right today, and ask yourself what those things were. Get a dry erase board if you have to and list them. • List three things you accomplished today • Tell your friends or relatives about your site • SHOW your loved what you accomplished
Get excited about your progress! Show your family. Even if progress is slow, celebrate the little things you accomplished today! List any progress and consider writing on a dry-erase board.
6) You feel like you’re not accomplishing anything:
Do you ever feel like you worked all day and got nothing done? Yeah, me too. That’s most of my life, really. In my case, I have incredibly slow internet, so everything I do takes forever. I’ve been working from home for about 6 months now and haven’t really made a ton of money, but I’ve grown quite an Amazon addiction. It’s like Christmas every day! But, that’s for another blog post. So the best way again, to feel like you’re accomplishing something is to, again, celebrate the small successes. And, focus on multiple streams of income. Remember, this doesn’t build itself overnight. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Just build on your business little by little, every day. Build on your knowledge, little by little, every day. It will all come together, eventually.
So far, (and try not to stretch yourself too thin) I’ve started this website, got my LLC, bought my Freshbooks and all the fixin’s for the proofreading business, the coursework, getting ready to start copy writing, court transcribing, medical transcribing AND I just learned about Cryptocurrency. So, there’s no such thing as get rich quick, that I’ve found. I guess maybe it’s out there, but I haven’t found it yet. But, sometimes you have to just stop and look back at what you have accomplished, and find out why you feel like you’re not accomplishing anything.
Figure out why you feel you haven’t accomplished anything and how to solve that problem. My example, slow internet. I’ve been researching the internet in my area and have yet found a way to solve it, but there are other ways around it. I can better utilize my time, or find better times to get on the internet and work my schedule around the prime internet times better.
7) You’re tired, bored, or both:
So, you probably need a break. I like Pokemon Go, so I load up the kids and go for a drive. I also like The Mandalorian and Agents of Shield. Or I have coffee with my mom. Just stop what you’re doing, take a break. Go for a walk, get some exercise, or do what you enjoy. It’s not going to hurt anything to take a day off.
Get some exercise, go do some of your favorite things, or just take the day off. It will do you some good.
8) You have distractions:
Whether it’s your family, tv, Facebook, or Twitter, everyone gets distracted. My bedroom or office door is a revolving door. I swear I should put in a revolving door, it would be like a circulating fan. We have a household of 10 and I’m apparently, the most popular person in the house, so my door is constantly opening.
And, every time I get distracted, it takes me 2 or 3 minutes to get back into my work. It happens. Just try to get back to it. Or shut your phone off, lock the door.
Do whatever it takes.
Whether you have to shut your phone off or lock your door, do whatever it takes to reduce distractions. 2 or 3 minutes at a time when it’s a dozen times a day, really adds up.
9) There’s never enough time in the day:
I thought about petitioning God for more time each day, but didn’t think he’d listen. There’s nothing you can do about that. Just try to get enough sleep and start fresh tomorrow, that’s about all you can do.
Get enough sleep and don’t sweat the small stuff. Tomorrow is a brand new day!
10) You’re having to learn a whole new level of multitasking:
It can be tough, and tougher as we get older, but I’ve seen ladies upwards of 70 starting their own business proofreading, so if they can do it, so can we. I still feel very overwhelmed: keeping receipts, invoices, bank statements, credit card statements, keeping my accounting books, doing the actual work, building my website, writing the blogs, socializing on Facebook, writing blog posts, and I forget all about Twitter and LinkedIn. I don’t even have Instagram or Pinterest.
I have a hard time keeping up with all that, plus I have kiddos in sports and a hubby who wants my attention, as well as my mom at home. So I get the multi-tasking.
I have reminders on my phone, a calendar that I put everything into on my phone, and I have alarms I set on my phone. I also have two pocket calendars, one for bills and one for appointments. I write the kids sports and school activities, doctor appointments, and anything I need to be there for, I write it down. If it doesn’t get written down, it doesn’t get done.
I also keep a notebook. I write myself notes, I send myself text messages, I take screenshots with my phone. I am constantly reminding myself what I need to get done. Sometimes, I wonder if my mind has up and left without me.
Just know, if I can do this, you can too. Hang in there! Here’s to your success, and mine as well!
Jeannie Culbertson ~The Noteworthy Mom
I handle it by putting everything on a digital calendar, a pocket calendar, and a wall calendar. It helps, but my mind is still very slippery. I tell everyone to remind me when they have stuff going on, I still forget sometimes. But, the calendars and notes too, can help.
To sum it all up, here’s a handy list to help you overcome the difficulties starting your virtual business from home. To download the following list, click here.
1) Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back: List goals and accomplishments daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, every 5 years, etc.! I keep a yearly planner and I keep them for years!
2) You’re having to learn everything from scratch: Download guidebooks, watch tutorials and take courses. Take Notes! Keep a notebook, notepad, or your phone handy to text yourself notes. However you choose to do it, take notes!
3) You don’t know what you’re doing—yet: How to overcome the lack of knowledge: Remember that laying the foundational groundwork is the hardest part to overcome. It gets easier! Start by doing a Google search or finding a YouTube tutorial whenever you get stuck. If that doesn’t accomplish what you seek, take an online course. The possibilities are endless!
4) You’re used to making a paycheck: Once you do the hard stuff and lay the foundational work, you can sit back (on a beach or in the mountains for that matter) and watch the money just roll in. Just be sure to cover your bases and lay a firm foundation, don’t cut corners! Don’t forget why you’re doing this! Write down your reasons if you have to, but don’t stop now just because you haven’t got anything to show for it.
5) You’re not making any money—yet: Get excited about your progress! Show your family. Even if progress is slow, celebrate the little things you accomplished today! List any progress and consider writing on a dry-erase board.
6) You feel like you’re not accomplishing anything: Figure out why you feel you haven’t accomplished anything and how to solve that problem. My example, slow internet. I’ve been researching the internet in my area and have yet found a way to solve it, but there are other ways around it. I can better utilize my time, or find better times to get on the internet and work my schedule around the prime internet times better.
7) You’re tired, bored, or both: Get some exercise, go do some of your favorite things, or just take the day off. It will do you some good.
8) You have distractions: Whether you have to shut your phone off or lock your door, do whatever it takes to reduce distractions. 2 or 3 minutes at a time when it’s a dozen times a day, really adds up.
9) There’s never enough time in the day: Get enough sleep and don’t sweat the small stuff. Tomorrow is a brand-new day!
10) You’re having to learn a whole new level of multitasking: I handle it by putting everything on a digital calendar, a pocket calendar, and a wall calendar. It helps, but my mind is still very slippery. I tell everyone to remind me when they have stuff going on, I still forget sometimes. But, the calendars and notes too, can help.
