Starting an online business and learning how to leverage the internet to make money from it is the greatest opportunity available nowadays.

That’s why more and more people are becoming millionaires, multi-millionaires, and even billionaires.

Having said that, it’s not easy to breakthrough in the digital world.

You need the appropriate mindset and specific skills to set yourself up for success.

It all boils down to having the right education and investing in yourself.

Only by acquiring the necessary knowledge and applying it can you stand out in the digital economy.

In a nutshell, there are no shortcuts to achieving big results.

Forget about quick get-rich schemes, and distrust those who tell you that you can make an awful lot of money in the blink of an eye without any effort.

All you need at the beginning of your journey as a digital entrepreneur is the right mindset and the proper digital skills.

Just devote all your energy to these two cornerstones.

You wouldn’t build your house on weak foundations, would you?

The same holds for your business.

The best way to acquire the knowledge needed is by learning from someone who has already walked the track you also want to take.

Yet, you can even do it by yourself.

We live in a world where knowledge and skills are at our fingertips.

You can literally access thousands of online courses that show you what you are supposed to do to start your online business.

It goes without saying that setting up your online business on your own requires much more time.

What’s more, you are more likely to make mistakes than if you are guided by people who have already built their business online.

WHAT IS NEEDED TO SUCCEED IN AN ONLINE BUSINESS?

First of all, you MUST know your WHY.

WHY do you want to start your own online business?

Once you know exactly WHY you should start and build a successful business, you need to become AWARE of the negative implications that not succeeding would imply.

When I started my journey in the digital world, I did have thorough clarity on WHY having my own business would be my only option.

I was fed up with being just a number of a big Corporation.

I was fed up with doing what I was instructed to do.

I was fed up with doing something I was not passionate about just because I had to make ends meet.

I was fed up with trading my time for money and feeling like a slave just chasing the weekend to be free.

I was fed up with not having time to spend with my loved ones and to do what I like doing.

Those were just a few of my personal reasons WHY starting my online business became a MUST.     

I couldn’t bear the implications of not taking action; keeping working in a job for 30, 40, or even 50 years, and not having time for myself and for the people I care about.

So, when I started my journey in the online world, I was not bothered by how many knockbacks I could possibly bump into.

I was not afraid of the unknown, after all, I had never run a business before.

I was ready to do whatever it would take to set up a business that could serve me and that could free me up from the hamster wheel.

What has driven me was the fear of not following through, of quitting.

I knew that the alternative would be running the hamster wheel and trading my time for money for the rest of my life.

For me, that idea was so painful that giving up my goal was totally out of the question.

As I wrote in my article - BURN THE SHIPS - I did make a covenant with myself that I would stick to my plan no matter what.

I did have only one option: SUCCEED.

The bottom line to build your successful online business dwells within YOU.

The attitude through which you approach your journey will determine your success.

Let me ask you:

Are you ready to do whatever it takes to make a living thanks to your own online business?

Are you aware of the implications of carrying on with what you have always done?

If you are anything like me, you are determined to build a profitable business, to become your own boss, and write your own paycheck without running the hamster wheel anymore.

What's more, you have a burning desire to create a lifestyle with MORE FREEDOM to do what you want; when you want; with who you want.

Let’s now have a look at the main reasons WHY starting an online business could be a game-changer for you.

12 REASONS TO START YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

1) IT CAN BE STARTED AROUND YOUR CURRENT JOB

Having a steady income enables you to set up the foundations of your business, that is investing in your education.

Working in a job that you don’t really like, and you are sick of will motivate you to go through the learning process of gaining the digital skills to start something new.

You may argue: where can I find time to devote to my business if I work in a 9 to 5 job?

I can assure you that most people start this journey around their full-time job.

What is pivotal is to be committed to putting in work every day.

If you are serious and you take micro-steps on a regular basis you will get momentum.

You will end up getting the first results that will motivate you to keep pushing till eventually, you will be able to replace your 9 to 5 salary without ever having to work in a traditional job.

2) SPREADING OF AUTOMATION

Another big reason why you should consider starting your own online business is that most of the jobs that you know will be completely AUTOMATED in the next decade.

According to statistics, the impact of AUTOMATION will be catastrophic on the job market.

• By 2022 42% of total task hours will be completed by machines. (World Economic Forum)
• By 2030, 20 million or 8.5% of the global manufacturing workforce will face job loss due to automation. (Oxford Economics)
• One in four jobs in the United States will face a high risk of automation job displacement by 2030. (Brookings)
• The youngest workers (aged 16 to 24) face the highest average risk of automation exposure (49%) in the United States. (Brookings)
• Transportation, storage, and manufacturing sectors will face the highest number of jobs lost to automation. (PwC)

Science fiction is becoming a science reality.

Robots have already started gaining a big role in the workforce and they will be the major character replacing human beings in the next few years.

In supermarkets, cashiers are being replaced by self-checkout machines.

And this is just one sector among the many that will introduce robots to take over from the workforce.

It’s not rocket science spotting the change our world is going through.

To survive it we MUST be ready to adapt to where the world is going.

It’s our responsibility to be left behind or to thrive.

“Change is the only constant in life. One’s ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life”. – Benjamin Franklin 

If you play your cards right, technology will make your work life and lifestyle much better.

How can you adapt to the digital revolution and set yourself up for success in this new era?

You need to keep up with the change the world is going through, i.e. acquire digital skills and an entrepreneur mindset.

It’s high time you started being the creator of your future to avoid being left behind by automation.

Will you be driving change, or will you be driven by it?

3) INCREASING NUMBER OF PEOPLE USING THE NET

According to a Digital 2020 report, 4.54 billion people have access to the internet, but over the next 10 years, this number is expected to increase up to 7.5 billion people. 

As for the social media users, in January 2020, the official number was 3.80 billion.

Worldwide there are 5.19 billion people using mobile phones.

The fact that people are spending more time online, and the amount of online trafficking is increasing results in more opportunities to sell products and services.

The more people you can reach and serve the more money you make.

4) FURLOUGH AND REDUNDANCIES DUE TO COVID-19

As you can see from the chart above redundancy blew up back in October 2020 and economists expect further top levels of layoff in 2021.

This was another reason that pushed me to start my online business back in summer 2020.

I realized that what I had always thought to be true, i.e. having a traditional 9 to 5 job equals security, was false.

I realized that investing in myself and starting something on my own would be the best choice for my present and future.

Have you also been furloughed, or have you been made redundant?

If so, you know what it feels like.

But, as I did, you can regard it as your WAKE-UP CALL and take up the challenge to start creating a new life.

Besides the increase in unemployment, Covid-19 has also accelerated online purchases.

According to Statista, retail websites generated almost 22 billion visits in June 2020, up from 16.07 billion global visits in January 2020.

This is of course due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has forced millions of people to stay at home.

Can You spot the opportunity?

The more people purchase online, the more money you can earn, and the earlier you can live your best life, a lifestyle with MORE FREEDOM.

5) LOW START-UP COSTS

All that is required to get started is a web hosting platform and a domain name; you don’t have to pay for equipment, suppliers, employees, etc.

A shared web hosting platform is usually cheap, it costs between 3$ –7$ per month, while a VPS hosting platform “VIRTUAL PRIVATE SERVER” costs 20$ – 30$ per month.

Your domain name is going to be the URL associated with your website and it costs between 10$-20$ per year.

As you can see, starting your online business is much cheaper than starting a traditional one.

6) GEOGRAPHICAL FREEDOM

You are not tied to a physical place, what you need is just your own device and an internet connection, and you can work from wherever you want.

7) FLEXIBILITY OF TIME

Unlike your current traditional job, once you have automated your online business, you will spend just a few hours a week checking how it is performing.

8) OPERATING 24/7/365

With the new technologies in place, you can automate your business so that you don’t need to be present to earn money, your business works 24/7/365 for you.

You earn money even while you are sleeping.

“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die”. - Warren Buffett

9) REACHING SPECIFICS DEMOGRAPHICS

Thanks to your online business you are able to choose which kind of people you want to serve.

You can target specific people that you really want to help solve their problems.

10) DOING SOMETHING YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT

One of the underrated aspects of starting an online business is that you can literally build it around something you truly love.

11) MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS

Once you have got your primary business working on auto-pilot you can devote time and resources to add further businesses.

This is what rich people do, they want to make sure they have more tributaries that bring them money continuously, so if one or even more tributaries dry up, they can still have their cash flow coming in.

In other words, you'll be able to create PASSIVE INCOMES.

12) SENSE OF FULFILLMENT

When you build something from scratch, and you see day in, day out how your business is growing and is impacting on your life, and on the life of your customers, your day is worth living.

The reward that you receive by seeing what you have created is invaluable.

FINAL THOUGHTS

From my experience, one of the most challenging steps in building an online business has been resetting my mindset.

I grew up in an environment where I was always told that I had to go to work to make money.

What about you?

If like me, you grew up with the idea that money equals time, you have also grown up with the following conviction:

"If I want to earn more, I need to work more".

That’s the rub because we have only 24 hours a day, we cannot increase the daily hours, and as a result our income.

At the beginning of starting your online business, you will end up working even more than you are used to doing without seeing any results.

That’s a crucial point because if you have always been an employee, you are used to showing up and getting paid.

Seeing that you are working your tail off to set your online business for success and not getting the results you expect can be really frustrating, and can lead you to give up.

But what does giving up mean?

Quitting implies being trapped in the hamster wheel for the rest of your life, being a slave of the system where you trade your life for a salary.

Do you get my point?

In the beginning, you have to be prepared to put in work without earning any money.

If you have false expectations that you can replace your salary overnight, I am afraid starting an online business is not for you and I cannot help you.

Nobody is born a star!

Of course, you want to set up a successful business, but to achieve it you have to invest your time and resources to lay strong foundations first.

What happens is that over time, once you get better and better at mastering your mindset and the digital skills you will end up working less time and earning more money.

You will learn how to automate your business and have it serving you.

Resetting your mindset in my personal opinion is the hardest part of breaking through and starting to earn money online.

YOU MUST abandon the assumption that to earn money you have to show up and work all day long.

Since you've got to the end of this post, I assume you want to make the transition from working in a traditional job and building someone else's dream to starting your online business and building your dream life.

I want to give you the same opportunity that was given to me to start your journey as an online business owner.

I am going to share with you Free On-Demand Training Workshops where you will find out how you can start your online business from scratch and pave the way for a lifestyle with MORE FREEDOM.

Your mind will be blown by the opportunities that the digital economy offers.

I am looking forward to hearing your opinion about what I am going to share with you concerning the internet gold rush.

You can stake your claim to it or sit back and watch it happen.