5 Reasons Your Online Side Gig Will Fail and How To Change Course
Written by
Josephine Nesbit
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An online business can provide you with a little extra income each month or enough to quit your full-time job and work from home. But not all businesses succeed. In fact, Zippia found that the success rate of online businesses is only 10-20%, and most fail within the first 120 days.
Before you start building a website for your brand, you need to be aware of the common obstacles that cause most online businesses to fail, and how to overcome them. Experts say these challenges are avoidable.
Why do so many fail within the first four months?
Failure to Take Action
Most people fail before they even begin.
According to a Medium post by Jerry Keszka, many people fall victim to the “get ruck quick” mentality, expecting immediate results without putting in the necessary time and effort. They may also be afraid of failure or of what other people might say.
Keszka said he started many times and failed, but that’s how he learned. You won’t create a successful online business if you don’t even try.
Not Being Consistent
Building an online business also requires consistency. Most people fail to earn a steady income because they lose motivation or get distracted, Keszka said. You can avoid this by setting a schedule for yourself and sticking to it. Dedicate a certain amount of time each day or week to work on your brand and increase your chances of building a sustainable business.
There’s More Competition
Roughly 10,500 new websites are created every hour, according to PCWorld. There’s a lot of competition out there.
The more competition, the harder it is for entrepreneurs to keep and attract customers. You can’t stop new businesses from emerging, but you can use different kinds of competition-related strategies, according to Entrepreneur.
Knowing your customers’ preferences isn’t enough. Try to predict what your customers will need in the future and feature additional products to your existing portfolio in order to offer a full service. This could prevent your customers from looking elsewhere for a better alternative.
Lack of Knowledge
Another reason online businesses fail is due to a lack of research on the target audience along with not understanding the skills and tools needed to navigate your business.
Entrepreneur recommends engaging with your potential customers and researching statistics to get to know them better. To build up your industry knowledge, Keszka says to use free and paid resources to build your skills and confidence and network with other entrepreneurs or seek mentorship.
Poor Web Development
Your business is entirely online, so it’s crucial that your platform be functional and work properly. Entrepreneur suggests investing in building a successful, scalable and fully functional platform capable of withstanding large volumes of web traffic. Pay attention to your website being mobile-friendly and secure, especially if you have an e-commerce business.
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