Starting an online business (and actually making money) can be challenging

In this video I want to walk you through step by step how to successfully start an online business and make six figures in 2022 and beyond

These are the same strategies and steps I used to launch my online business and go from $0 to $100,000 in my first year as an online fitness and life coach.

These steps even work for those of you who have, or looking to have, a brick and mortar business.

STEP 1. FIND A PROBLEM TO SOLVE

Every business has ONE purpose.

To solve a problem.

Think about every store you’ve ever visited or purchased an item / service from.

Why did you go to that store / make that purchase?

That store was able to solve a problem you had.

If you are going to have an online business, service based business online, or any type of business, you need to understand what problem it is that you are here to solve.

If you are uncertain about what problem you can solve, I suggest going through my skills, passions, economy checklist

This is a great way of reverse engineering a problem you can solve, based on the skills you have or can learn, what you are most passionate about, and what people are willing to pay for.

SKILLS

One of the first things to consider are your skills.

What are you skilled at? What have you won awards for?

Creating a business around a skill you have is a great way of being able to beat out competition and have a successful online business

Get a list of all the skills, or knowledge, that you have and write them on a sheet of paper

Here are some ideas for various skills / knowledge

• Do you play an instrument well
• Are you good at a particular subject in school or in general
• Are you knowledgeable about any categories (fitness, nutrition, finances, cars, food, art, history,)
• Are you good at photography, art, drawing, painting?
• Are you good with computers?
• Are you good at organizing / cleaning?
• Are you good at cooking?
• Are you good with graphic design, video / photo editing?
• Are you good at social media

The list is endless as to what kind of skills or knowledge you may possess.

Next, ask yourself which of these items you would enjoy doing to make money.

Notes:

• If you don’t know what you are skilled at, or don’t feel you have any particular set of knowledge, ask your friends and family what they feel you are good at - you might be surprised what they say
   
• What skill would you like to learn? If you don’t come up with any skills you have you could make money at, ask yourself what you could learn quickly to make money
   
• Are you okay with just providing sweat equity? There can be great money in just mowing lawns, washing cars, and doing mundane simple tasks that other people don’t want to do.

PASSION

What are you passionate about?

What brings you energy?

What is something you can talk about endlessly, read about, or do without having to psych yourself up?

One of the keys to really creating a successful online business (or any business) is to center it around something you are passionate about.

It’s not that you won’t be successful if you don’t center your business around a passion, it just helps.

To be successful in anything you have to put in a lot of time and effort.

There’s nothing worse than putting a lot of time and effort into something you don’t enjoy.

Get a list of all your passions and write them down on the same sheet of paper.

Check to see if there are any similarities from your skills list.

Perhaps you are skilled in fitness and have a passion for fitness and nutrition.

Or perhaps you are skilled at drawing and computers…. and have a passion for graphic design

ECONOMY

What will people pay you for?

Now that you have a list of skills and passions, you want to see how you could combine them in a way that people would pay money for.

I had a passion and skill for fitness and nutrition and decided to create a fitness coaching business.

Later, I added life coaching to the list of services that I was able to provide.

These were all things I knew people would pay money for.

Perhaps you find you are good at drawing and computers and can start your own graphic design company helping people with logos for their business.

Perhaps you decided you want to develop a skill to build websites and have a passion for business. You could start a website design and creation business (there can be BIG money in this one)

Maybe you have a passion for French culture and are skilled at writing. You could help with marketing and add French flair to your marketing style to create more of a niche.

The combinations are endless as long as you get creative.

The key here at this point is to start targeting a problem that can be solved based on your skills and passions

STEP 2. IDENTIFY CUSTOMER AVATAR.

The key to a successful online business is knowing your audience and learning how to target them.

You could have a great product and/or service, but if you don’t know who your audience is, or where they are located, you will struggle.

For example, if you were trying to sell a Bentley in an underprivileged area of town, you might think your car is undesirable or no good (because no one is buying)

However, if you were to take the same car and go to a very affluent neighborhood, you may start getting sales- and lots of them

It had nothing to do with the car, it had everything to do WHO and WHERE you sold the car.

Who is your target audience?

Create what I call an avatar list (a full profile of your target audience/ customer)

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Desires
• Fears
• Wants
• Dislikes
• What keeps them up at night?
• Values
• Etc

The more you know about your target audience the better. This will also help later when it comes to messaging to your audience.

STEP 3. CREATE YOUR OFFER

Now it’s time to create your offer

Your offer is what sets you apart from your competition and ultimately what helps you build a successful business.

Your offer let’s customers know what it is they get working with you or buying from you.

The more specific your offer, the better.

Meaning that the more you can provide a solution to a specific problem and a specific person the better.

Let me give you an example:

Let’s say a successful businessman (or businesswoman) needs help saving his or her marriage.

So that business person goes online to look for a relationship coach and finds an endless sea of coaches who are all certified and “helps with relationships”

Who do they choose? Everyone is certified and everyone helps with relationships

In this case, they would probably call whoever they feel would connect the most with.

However, what if they stumbled across a coach who “helps successful businessmen/ businesswomen create deeper relationships with their spouse despite not having a lot of time”

This is an example of a much better offer because

1. It speaks specifically to a problem
2. It speaks specifically to a certain type of person

The more specific a solution you can solve the better (and the more money you can command because you are specialized)

STEP 4. FIND YOUR AUDIENCE

Once you have your offer in place, now it’s time to go find your audience.

You can have the greatest product or service in the world, but if no one knows how to find you, or if no one has heard of you, you’ll never stay in business

This is the time where you need to go out and begin finding your ideal clientele.

There are endless ways to find your ideal clientele / customers

• Create profiles on various sites
• Go on social media apps (IG, TikTok, Youtube, Facebook)
• Create a blog
• Start a podcast
• Go around your neighborhood and pass out flyers
• Post on craigslist
• Go to your local community center and post an ad
• Go to your local library and post an ad
• Go to social events and spread the word

My suggestion is to pick what your top 1-3 places would be and start there. As you start to master those, next you can add in more.

If you find some of your strategies aren’t working, then try other strategies.

STEP 5. ENGAGE AND NURTURE

One of the reasons most businesses fail is because they fail to engage and nurture their audience.

Just because you have a great offer and you’ve found your ideal client doesn’t mean they will always buy or buy right away from you.

Most people buy from someone, or something, once they’ve received some value.

This last part is about nurturing and engaging with your clients.

As you find your audience or clients you want to provide value for them.

Be sure to give them some free suggestions, offer advice, help them solve some small problems for free.

The more value you can provide someone, the more likely they will be to buy from you at some point.

The key to growing a successful online business, or any business is to stop focusing on “selling” someone and focus on nurturing, engaging, and creating community.

If you solely focus on creating an impact, nurturing, and solving problems for people, the sales will come.

Here’s ways you can nurture and provide value for people

• Post youtube videos with some free advice
• Post IG content with great value
• Answer people’s questions in facebook groups and provide solutions for people
• Start a blog helping solve problems
• Go on reddit and answer peoples’ questions
• Offer free introductory classes to bring awareness
• Have free guides or information to give people value
• Engage authentically and make friends online solving problems

There are endless ways to engage and nurture your clients over time.

But that is how you start a successful six figure online business and go from $0 to $100,000 in your first year.

IF you enjoyed this content, make sure to subscribe to my youtube channel. Each week I post videos on how to go from where you are to where you want to be financially - personal finance, entrepreneurship, income magnification, investing, passive income, and wealth building.

Want to learn how to create the breakthroughs needed to go from where you are to where you want to be in the areas that matter most to you: finance, fitness, mission/purpose , relationships, life etc?

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Let's build that dream!

Shaun