The crazy thing about online business is that we jump in with dreams of freedom and then end up with a never-ending to-do list that has us feeling more stressed and overwhelmed than we could have imagined, right?

Thankfully it doesn’t have to be that way.

However, it’s usually only after we’ve been in the trenches for a while that we realise we don’t actually have to do EVERYTHING on our to-do list in order to see success.

In this post I want to help you skip (or at least shorten) that hustle phase by sharing with you the things I should have focused on and the things I wasted time on when starting my business.

I hope that you can use this as a bit of a guide to fast track your own business journey and save yourself a ton of time and stress.

Here we go:

My first tip is to know yourself really well. What I mean by that is to get super clear on your likes / dislikes, skills, priorities and boundaries.

When you don’t pay enough attention to how various strategies suit your personality, you end up doing a lot of tasks that simply drain your energy and take the pleasure out of your work. This is huge because working for yourself requires a lot of motivation, commitment and growth. It’s a lot easier to manage your time and show up for your community when you’re feeling confident and using strategies that are aligned with your personality.

So what does that look like?

It looks like deciding what types of products / services you can offer confidently and within your time availability.

It looks like deciding how to show up on social media in a way that supports your personality and doesn’t make you feel stressed.

It looks like working within a niche of people that you feel connected to and confident to show up for.

The beauty of online business is that you can really tailor it to suit you and it’s totally ok to think outside of the box and do things a little differently if you want to.

My advice is to stop worrying about your logo, brand colours, the perfect website and that styled photo shoot. While these things are wonderful and important, they tend to be HUGE time wasters that we get hung up on when starting a business. You feel productive but you’re actually not doing tasks that will earn you money fast.

If you spend a little more time up front deciding how you want to run your business and who you want to serve, you’ll find that the other stuff falls into place more naturally and a lot more efficiently because you have a better understanding of what your business will look like.

Honestly, I changed my logo at least three times before I earned a cent. Not the best use of my time let me assure you!

Here’s what I recommend instead:

1. Get clear on your vision, your time availability, your boundaries, your priorities and how much money you have to invest (if any).

   
   

2. Choose ONE paid offer that will serve your audience and that you have the time and resources to provide.

   
   

3. Create ONE free offer that leads to your paid offer and set up an automated email funnel to do the heavy lifting for you (if you offer services this email sequence could lead to a discovery call).

   
   

4. Choose ONE platform to connect with your audience on. You can expand your reach later, but make sure you don’t over commit yourself when you’re getting started.

   
   

5. Choose a type of content to create that aligns with your personality, fits within your time availability and provides your audience with what they need.

Once you have this stuff sorted, you’ve built the foundation of your business. Then you can think about how to deliver your content and offers in a way that looks professional and reflects your personality.

If, like me, you are not blessed with the creativity of a designer you can jump onto Canva and use their templates to design your logo, graphics, social media images etc.

Just remember that your business will evolve so it’s ok to start where you’re at and make tweaks as you go. Make sure you get the foundation of your business built first so you can start earning money sooner and avoid wasting a ton of time on things that will change over time anyway.

Cheering you on always,

Michelle xxx