5 ways to create a successful online business

This blog post was first published on 17 November 2020

We thought we’d share with you some ways in which you can look after your well-being and stay productive, when starting an online business working from home.

1. Look after your well-being

This is number one for a reason. Your well-being is key to your happiness, productivity and your ability to provide the best service to your clients. You went into business to do something you love, make an impact and have more freedom over your time. The reality is that building a business can feel overwhelming and stressful at times, especially if you’re not looking after yourself. With so much noise online and different things to juggle to stay on top of things. With the added element of lockdown and us all spending more time online and not being able to do some of the things we usually would to relieve stress, it’s all the more important to focus on looking after yourself.

Whilst we may no longer be able to go to our local workout class, there is an abundance of different live and recorded classes on Instagram, well-being memberships apps etc. So long as it’s safe to do so bearing in mind national guidelines about social distancing and self isolation, take the opportunity to get outside. Doing this first thing like you would if you were commuting to get some fresh air first thing may be a great way to start your day feeling positive and motivated or head out in the afternoon for a walk or a run to break up the day and get some exercise so you can return to your desk feeling refreshed beating the 4pm slump.

2. Boundaries

Whilst we’re talking about well-being, it’s important to mention setting and keeping up healthy boundaries in your business, especially when this time may make it tempting be extra flexible at your own expense to support your clients. We all know how important it is to provide a great service and support to your clients, especially during this time when people are particularly struggling and may need more help. Please know that boundaries actually enable you to be at your best and best serve your clients.

One way to do this from the outset is to be realistic with yourself about how much support you can provide to each client bearing in mind all the other work you do to run your business. Then ensure you reflect this in your marketing and contracts . This also helps you to ensure you Stay Legit and can actually deliver what you promise. It might be time to revisit your sales pages and take a moment to think before saying you can consider deliver 24/7 Voxer support? When can you realistically say you are available to support clients between sessions , bearing in mind your capacity, your own time off, as well as the type of business you want to run. Get clear on that and communicate that from the outset so you’re looking after yourself and staying legit.

If you are looking to sell legitimately into corporates ,aka Sell Legit, check out my bundle to ensure you have everything you need, including terms and conditions for your business and website, refund clauses, disclaimers, copyright policy, cookies policy. It also includes drafting guidance notes so that you can make bespoke alterations to suit your business. In addition, you will receive ‘Top Tips for Sales’ guidance note to support you with legal language around sales and tips on refunds and late payment clauses.

Find out more here.

3. Manage your time on social media

So many entrepreneurs spend lots of time being “busy” on social media without being productive and doing what they need to do to really move their business forward. With the added extra number of free workouts and challenges during this time it can make it all the more overwhelming. Get super clear on what your priorities are in your business and focus on what you need to do online to move those forward.

Top Tip: Focus on what you need to do in your own business, as opposed to getting caught up in feeling like you should be running a challenge, creating a new freebie, on another social media platform or launching simply because that’s what other people have told you that you need to do in order to succeed. Everyone and everyone’s business is different and so what you need to do will be unique to you. Be mindful that ultimately, there are lots of people who have something to sell during this time. Trust yourself enough to stay in your lane, give your attention to what resonates and focus on what you need to do to move closer to your goals.

If you’re posting in the morning, you may want to ensure that you have a form of morning practice to get you in the right headspace and focussed before getting onto social media. Avoid getting sucked into the scroll of doom and aim by setting times of the day you want to be on there and focus on your creation rather than mindlessly consuming information and realising that it’s been an hour and you haven’t posted what you came on to share yet.

4. Done is better than perfect

If you’re putting off sharing a new project or launching an offering, go ahead and put one foot in front of the other to get it out into the world. When we really care about our work, it’s completely natural that we want to be mindful and know that what we’re launching feels right. What too often happens though if that small business owners end up procrastinating out of perfectionism and imposter syndrome and that project that they were so excited about gets put on the back burner for several months and they find other ways of keeping busy rather than moving forward the things the projects and offerings that will move their business forward.

Remember how excited when you had this initial idea. Focus on your next step forward and get stuck in and enjoy the process of what you’re doing, rather than dwelling on how much you need to do, putting pressure on yourself to get things perfect or over focussing on the outcome. You’ll feel so satisfied after you’ve completed whatever it is that you’ve been putting off.

5. Outsourcing

If you’re feeling overwhelmed in your business and you’re finding yourself not having enough hours in the day to do what you need to do to move your business forward, it may be time to outsource. It can be tempting to try and do everything yourself, and whilst it’s great to be mindful of where you’re spending money, doing everything yourself may be holding you back from moving forward. You may end up spending too much time doing things that you’re so strong at in an effort to keep your business running smoothly and less time in your zone of genius. One really effective approach is to outsource the things that someone else can do better than you can.

Let’s take legal as an example. It is probably going to take you at least five solid days to research what you need for your business and then draft up just the basic legal documents. Or you can come to Lucy Legal, download Get Legit and get the key legal documents for your business for £397. If you work at an hourly rate of £100 an hour and it was going to take you 20 hours to draft the documents yourself you’ll save £1,703 by delegating the task and getting ready made templates. Plus you’ll have the piece of mind that the documents have been drafted to include everything you need.

If you want to start working with a freelancer then you’ll want a contract for that. You can grab a document to send to a VA, Pinterest expert, Membership community manager here.

If there is anything we can do to support you at any time feel free to drop us an email to [email protected]

Team Lucy Legal x