10 Reasons Your Online Business Is Failing

Okay let’s be honest – your business? It’s not failing. As a matter of fact, it’s downright impossible for you to fail at achieving any business – or life – dream so long as you simply refuse to say die.

But sometimes, and often despite your very best effort and analysis, it really does feel as though it’s failing.

And that’s what I want to talk about today.

The pain that comes with giving your all to a dream you KNOW matters, and having it just not … quite … work.

The frustration of pouring your heart and soul to create a new project – whether something relatively simple like a blog post or something really frickin’ important and ‘bottom line’ relevant like an eCourse – and hearing … well … crickets.

The heartache of knowing that you really HAVE followed the rules goddamnit, so why isn’t it working and why people just can’t SEE how great your stuff is and why don’t they just go ahead and BUY it already?!

This making money online thing is a tricky beast. Even more so if you insist on making it by doing something you love; something that truly makes your heart sing. In the short-term it can seem easier, even smarter, to just do what you gotta do to get the money rolling in; it can feel as though doing what you REALLY want to do (and succeeding at it) would just be too good to be true.

If right now your business is not working on your terms – if, in fact, you feel as though you’re flat out failing and you just don’t know how to breakthrough – I’m here to tell you that you CAN ‘make it’ online, and better still you can do it on your terms.

I’ve been blessed to have been able to create an incredibly successful online business, in which I make consistent high five figures a month, doing what I love. But I didn’t get here on my own; not by any means! I got here because I was fortunate enough to learn from some of the most amazing and inspirational coaches and leaders in the big bad online world. Some of them I paid. Some of them a lot. Many of them I simply paid attention to. It took me 3 years online before I made a cent, but eventually I found my path. The money was slow at first, and what did come in came mainly from doing what i thought I needed to do for money. Eventually, I found a path where not only could I keep moving forward but on which I could do so ever more – and ever more – on my terms. In the thick of building my business (and let’s face it, the evolution never stops!) I failed again and again and again. But the one thing I did do, no matter how far or fast I fell, was pick myself up. A lot of the time, I was able to do that because of the people who helped to PICK me up.

Today, if your business plain old feels as though it SUCKS, I want to pass on the care and support I received so often when I needed it. Here are 10 reasons your online biz is failing not quite working yet, and what you need to do about it. Let’s call this a mix of the practical how-to and strategy plus the woo-woo inner mindset work. If you want my opinion, the latter matters a whole lot more than the former!

1. Stop pushing. Instead, listen.

First things first. [pq] The more you push – try to FORCE – yourself to make things work, the more success will evade you; thumb its nose at you. You were born to succeed by being true to you and by being in alignment.[/pq] This does not equate to pushing or to desperation. I don’t mean you don’t have to do the hard work because God knows you gotta put the time and effort in. But when was the last time you really listened in to your intuition about how your business should look, and feel? When was the last time you truly connected with and listened to your clients, and what they want and need? Stop pushing. Start listening. Often you’ll find the answers to be a lot more straightforward than what you first thought.

2. What do you really want?

Did you really get into this game so that you could spend hours agonizing over mastermind WordPress, social media, or SEO? There are so many (trillions of!) things you could and perhaps ‘should’ do to build your biz, but none of them come anywhere close to spending daily time providing value by delivering your message. You + speaking your truth + listening to what your peeps want and need + giving it to them = the greatest formula for success even without being an SEO guru and even (gasp!) without a beautiful website. Didn’t you once have a simple desire to change people’s lives in some way? if you spend an hour every day doing that, and you do so consistently, you’ll not only change lives you will change your own. Do ALL the other stuff after that hour (or three) each day.

3. Who are you being?

We all fall into the pattern at times of emulating our coaches or people we look up to online. It’s an easy thing to do, especially if you’re imitating someone’s work who you love. But tell me – can you honestly say that everything about your message and how it’s being told is about YOU? Are you being you in your writing or creativity? In your marketing? In your sales approach? You can follow strategy, for SURE. But you gotta bring you into the bargain or it just won’t work. And it just won’t FEEL good even when it seems to be working.

4. What’s the one thing you do?

What is the ONE thing you do in your online biz? You can have a ton of products and offerings. But you have to be able to sum it up with the one thing or you’ll confuse yourself and the world. Plus you just won’t be in alignment if you’re constantly jumping from idea to idea trying to find what works. Stop doing that! Just be you instead! If you look at my business, I have offerings that deal with passion and purpose, with creating your dream body, with building an amazing and profitable business, with living your ideal lifestyle, with being your very best self but if you bring all of that together the ‘one thing’ I do is I help women like you to create (and live!) their dream life. What’s your one thing?

5. Can I tell?

Seriously – if I go to your website, look at your Facebook page, or talk with you – can I tell what your one thing is? If not, chances of me identifying with you and buying anything from me are slim.

6. Are you telling me about it?

What if i don’t go visit your site or your page, or decide out of the blue to contact you and ask how you can help me? Is there any way I’m going to KNOW what you do? Osmosis ain’t gonna work here, and nor will the collective conscious. You need to be TELLING me about what you do! Tell me about your free stuff, tell me about your paid stuff, tell me about your crazy high premium stuff! Tell me how you can help me and show me the value you offer and I will love you forever. Don’t be afraid to share your gifts! A business mentoring client of mine recently bemoaned how slow her list growth was and it turned out, when i asked, that she wasn’t telling people about her free gift at ALL! Surprise surprise, when she did her list more than doubled in ONE WEEK!

7. Are you inviting me to take action?

It’s actually not enough to tell me or even to show me. If you want me to join your list, download your freebie, or buy your thing you need to tell me in no uncertain terms that that’s the next step I should take. You probably need to incentivise me to do it right away as well – I’m a busy and often multi-tasking gal, and I’ll plain and simple forget otherwise, even if your thing is the EXACT THING I’M MEANT TO BE DOING. Again – don’t be afraid to share your gifts! It’s not like you’re trying to rip people off, right? We’re talking about you creating value to change people’s lives. They’re not going to get that value and have their life changed if you don’t make it very clear how they can do so.

8. Are you giving more than you wanna get?

Speaking of value – and this is so powerful – make it your rule to always give more than you want to receive. if every day you ask yourself what is one simple thing you can do today to provide value? How can you inspire, educate and/or entertain? If you can combine all 3 of those things, or even employ at least one of them, in everything you do then when you do make an offer people will be thrilled to hear from you – and buy from you!

9. Be honest now: are you actually doing what matters?

If you have 2 hours a day, are you working at providing (and delivering) value in that time? Are you making an offer? Or are you working on all the smaller things and even things you THINK are big things but are not in fact at all related to GETTING SH*T OUT THERE AND OFFERING IT TO YOUR PEEPS and telling yourself that you have to do all that first? If so, you’re on a surefire track to continued frustration. You can’t do everything. You just can’t! So you have to get good at doing what counts. KNOW what counts first – for you.

10. You gotta have faith (and a willingness to receive)

This is what it all comes down to. Particularly if you ARE doing all of the above. You can manifest and affirm and do the actual work till the cows come home, but at some point you need to be willing to step back and just receive. And that comes down to faith. Faith – at least in part – supersedes logic. Faith is felt, not counted or ‘ticked off’. If you expect things to continue being tough, frustrating, never-ending, they will be. But if you expect your effort to pay off, and you know you’re being true to you (and you’re actually, you know, providing value in the world) then you WILL succeed. I can’t say when, and neither can you. But with faith, the timing doesn’t really matter because you KNOW it’s going to happen.

I believe in you. I know from my own experience that hard work – especially when it’s aligned – DOES pay off. If you refuse to quit, it’s impossible to fail. But you sure as heck can get there a lot faster if you implement the above steps! Comment below – which one most spoke to you, and what are you going to do about it?

Remember –

Life is Now. Press Play.

Katrina Ruth is an author and speaker and helps driven women to create (and live!) their dream life.

Kat is currently accepting applications for her April 2014 Fearless Wealthy Woman Business Mentoring Mastermind. There are 10 places available only! If you’d like to have Kat’s personal support and attention and create a step-by-step strategy to explode your online business with purpose, passion and PROFIT click here now to apply for your place!

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