Throughout my 7 years of online business experience, I have tried it all:
- Blogging
- Webinar
- Sales funnel automation
- Build a website with WordPress
- Courses
- Email marketing
- Hacks and tactics to grow 3000 followers in 3 days
- Consume endless content to learn, learn, and learn some more
And I have summed up my success and failure in 3 qualities. If you have these 3 traits in your business, it is inevitable to succeed (i.e. make a living to replace the full-time job or even make a fortune of 6-figure beyond).
I have seen and known hundreds of people following these 3 things (some of them intentionally, some by accident) and reach multi-7 figures in their business.
The best thing about these 3 traits is that they are universally applicable — regardless of where you are, and it doesn’t matter what kind of online business you operate — whether service-based or product-based, even MLM.
And yes, it is applicable to both extroverts and introverts of different personalities and styles. In fact, it encourages us to be authentic and it has the flexibility to adapt to each person’s character.
Last but not least, this ‘formula’ is replicable. You can repeat it time and time again and it works. You don’t need to be looking for new strategies every other day.
Enough of the benefits, let’s dive into the 3 qualities:
The first one, SUSTAINABILITY.
A lot of people think they can only get started if they have the perfect business idea, but here’s the truth: The business idea is worth $0.
You can have millions of business ideas but if no action is taken they are worth $0.
You can find a 7-figure or even 8-figure idea online within 5 seconds and copy that idea, but if you don’t know how to execute the idea (how to build a brand that connects with them, how to have a replicable sales process that keeps attracting clients to you), you won’t have a business even if you have a 7-figure business idea.
When I failed before, I blame it on the business idea — the idea is bad, that’s why it didn’t work out. In fact, I should be the one taking responsibility because either I did not validate the idea at the first place or if I have validated it, I didn’t execute it properly.
The execution is going to be where the challenges lie — and it matters MUCH MORE than the idea.
Sustainable means all aspects of the business in terms of resources, your time and energy, the way of operating the business, income for you and your team, client pipeline, and supporting system.
If you are experiencing burnout trying to be on all different social media platforms, this is not sustainable
If you are trying all kinds of strategies and overwhelmed, this is not sustainable
If you’re working 12–18 hours a day in your business, this is not sustainable
If you’re buying fake followers to like and comment on your posts, this is not sustainable.
If your business income is roller-coaster (1k, 0, 5k, 0), this is not sustainable
If you’re not finding one framework that you can stick to and find results, and just jumping from this coach to another course, that course to another freebie, and you’re trying to piece everything together to form a monster, this is not sustainable
Sustainable means solid income consistently. It means business built on solid foundation, a business that is going to last the time, not just an overnight profit and a quick boom and bust.
You are building an asset that gives you the best opportunity to serve in the highest possible way in your client’s transformation and having that rich reward spiritually and financially.
Nature has a way of sustaining itself through cycles after cycles. And it never runs out — this is what our business should be as well.
We want our business to be sustainable with the efforts and time that we feel good and comfortable dedicating (that feels joy because we actually enjoy doing it rather than pressure).
This’s important because statistically, in the online business industry or any industry, 90% of entrepreneurs fail within the first 5 years (actually most of them never make it within the first 3 years). And 90% of the remaining 10% fail within 10 years. If you operate your business in a sustainable way, you are already ahead of 99% of the entrepreneurs.
Is your business or how you are operating it now sustainable? Is it going to stand the test of time (even in unstable external circumstances such as political changes, or pandemic)?
Are the resources allocation sustainable? Are the time and efforts required of you sustainable?
We want our business to be sustainable with the efforts and time that we feel good and comfortable dedicating (that feels joy because we actually enjoy doing it rather than pressure).
The second trait, SIMPLIFIED
This is another one of the biggest traps where many entrepreneurs or business owners are stuck.
This was one of the greatest lesson in my journey as well.
When I see some other entrepreneurs doing it this way and getting those great results, I second-guess myself and my approach and think… you know what, maybe I need to try that. And I drop what I have built so far and waste time trying the other approach and found out that it doesn’t work. Now, we have to go back and pick up where we’ve left (having to build the momentum from scratch again) and starting all over doing what we were doing. This ended up wasting a lot of time, energy, and efforts and not making any real progress and filled this journey with frustration.
Does it sound true to you?
I was so frustrated that I got no result even though I followed the successful hacks that other entrepreneurs claim to obtain amazing results. Until I was so fed up with myself being distracted I stop looking at what others are doing and just focus on one person (my coach) and one framework — and that made all the difference.
Frankly speaking, the #1 reason for entrepreneurs giving up is overwhelming. Overwhelming and pressure can comes from many aspects — technically-challenged, unable to generate consistent income, unable to convert followers into clients, fluctuations in sales, unable to be noticed on social media, mindset blocks, shiny object syndrome and easily distracted, jumping from courses to courses without actually moving the business forward, earning $0 or little income from the business etc.
There is only one way to go — focus on the simple essentials that move your business forward. Others are nice to have.
Focus on the wrong thing, you get killed.
Getting too complicated, you get overwhelmed, and quitting is just a matter of time.
There is wisdom in the saying that “less is more”.
Third trait, SOULFUL
A lot of what we see in the online world seems to make online business seems like an overnight success:
“$10,000 launch in a week”
“$4,000 launch in a day”
“1Million in a year”
And that $10k, 20k, or 50k happened that week or that month because of many weeks or many months of work previously (that is not mentioned so that it feels like an overnight, easy, and quick success).
Everyone seems to be in a race of who can make it faster, but the truth is: you can choose your own pace.
If you’re working in a full-time job or If you have other priorities in life (e.g. baby/family / personal) and only have 5–10 hours to work on your business each week — that’s ABSOLUTELY OK. Start working on it — even it’s only 5–10 hours each week — the hours add up: in a year you would have spent around 500 hours on your business! There are no excuses.
A successful business owner may appear slow at the beginning, but they have built a strong foundation that allows them to accelerate with exponential growth later on. They are ready for the quantum leap without breaking the bone when landed.
Going at one’s own pace has the magic of aligning the energy with effort, aligning mindset with action. Because it gives one the grace period to untie any knots and work on overcoming the resistance which arises from our past experience or default belief.
While not everything will face the same resistance, ANYONE would face some kind of resistance that he/she needs to overcome on the journey.
And being soulful is all about the alignment of the inner energy with the external actions and steps so that we are congruent.
Having that integrity helps us go so much further — which is in line with being sustainable and simplified. The whole mission is to continue running when others have quit, to keep ourselves in the game long enough to get results, to adjust, to serve enough people to be ‘successful’.
And this is the whole purpose and intention behind the “Sustainable, Simplified, Soulful” framework which I practice every single day in my own business and preach in the coaching program. These 3 qualities are the gist and core of whether one can make it or fail it from my years of trial and error and also from hundreds of people who have done it.
The challenge, as always and anything in life, lies in the execution. And this is where most people get stuck — because they don’t have one framework that is flexible enough to adapt to them, they don’t stick with focusing on one strategy, they over-complicate things and have been jumping from courses to courses. Business is NOT rocket-science, too often we are the one standing between ourselves and our dreams.
If you want to learn the secret to succeed in any business, this article should be able to provide some insight.
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