10 Common But Insignificant Excuses Most People Use Not To Start Their Own Business
I’ll tell you why they do not matter so you can start your own business.
10 years ago, if you declared that you were going to attempt to make some money online, you’d be met with a strange look and an assumption that you were up to something (or that you’ve lost your marbles).
These days almost everyone dreams of owning an online business and the lifestyle of freedom that it can bring. It’s become (almost) mainstream — a pervasive goal.
And for a good reason — who wouldn’t want to make money online, quit their job, and have the freedom to live anywhere and do anything they want?
This is the life I’m blessed to be living right now, and I can safely say it’s everything it’s cracked up to be. But if so many people have this goal of living the laptop lifestyle of freedom, why is it that so few people actually act on their dream?
To cut through the BS and be 100% real with you — it all comes down to excuses. If your dream is an online success — you’re either pursuing it, or you’re not. And if you’re not, you have an excuse or two as to why. It’s really as simple as that.
These days with the abundance of knowledge, tools, and clear examples of successful people online (who are willing to share basically everything they know), there isn’t ANY reason whatsoever as to why you can’t do it, assuming you’re willing to work and commit.
All that really matters is 2 things: belief and action. And that’s available to anyone, despite your background, your past, your current skills, your education level, how much money you have now, your IQ, or what connections you have.
That’s the beauty of the day and age we live in, it’s a level playing field, and the arena is open to all.
In this post, I wish to clear the air a little on some common excuses that stop many people from doing their own thing online, and more importantly, I’ll show you why they do not matter and should NEVER get in your way if running a business truly is your dream.
Perhaps one of these limiting beliefs has been stopping YOU from just going for it — I’ve had to deal with most of them at different stages and still do at times, so this post is as much a reminder for me as it is for you.
1. “I have no business experience and no clue how to start my own business.”
Neither did I when I first started, and you’ll find it was the same for the vast majority of people who are now successfully running their own online businesses.
Nope, I can’t say I was a born entrepreneur raised in business circles and set up lemonade stands as a kid. I just figured out the whole business thing as I went along, and anyone can do the same.
That’s the beauty of online business; absolutely anyone has a chance because it’s straightforward to get started with. There are low barriers to entry, and you can easily teach yourself anything you need to know.
On top of that, there are so many successful people online who love to share exactly how they did it, whether through free information or their own course or product, so there’s no shortage of examples of success that you can model to get similar results for yourself.
Not having any business background or knowledge shouldn’t even cross your mind because you can’t start your own internet business and make money online.
If someone has the audacity to say, “I really want to start an online business, but I don’t know-how,” you can translate that to “I don’t actually care about having my own business — it’s not important to me.”
If you want something badly enough, you’ll find a way to learn how.
And with an abundance of good information at our fingertips in this great day and age (Google is your best friend, as are books, blogs, training courses, and even seminars), not knowing how to do something is nothing but a lame excuse.
Being proactive with your own self-education is key to achieving absolutely anything that you want and designing the life of your dreams.
Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune. — Jim Rohn
2. “I will fail anyway; don’t 9 out of 10 businesses fail?”
One of the biggest reasons most people will never even try to start their own business or attempt any challenging goal for that matter is because they don’t believe that they can actually make it happen — fear of failure.
But fear is never an excuse for inaction. Literally, every successful business owner on the planet has dealt with the fear of failure, self-doubt, and uncertainty — they just didn’t let these things stop them, and neither should you.
Whether the age-old saying that 9 out of 10 new businesses will fail within the first 3 years is actually accurate or not doesn’t matter and shouldn’t even concern you as a success-focused entrepreneur.
As Han Solo said, “Never tell me the odds!”.
Negative people love to use these scary statistics to rationalize not even trying but don’t fall for the trap. Because if you change the way you view failure, you can literally transcend it.
Most people see failure as a bad thing, but successful people typically do not see it this way. Failure should be embraced as a good thing because the truth is that every “failure” or setback brings you one step closer to success.
Corny, but nothing but the truth.
If you never give up, you’ll never fail, and success will eventually come if you keep on going and improving bit by bit. Adopting a never say die attitude is the true key to achieving your dreams, in my opinion.
Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm — Winston Churchill
If one of your online ventures doesn’t bring you the results, you desired after really giving it a shot, oh well. Never let it get to you and dent your belief.
Instead, see it as part of the process towards success and take all of the lessons and skills you’ve gained from that business into the next one.
In my honest opinion, though, if you take the right advice from someone who has actually seen results, and you take massive action in your business, it’s not uncommon to see life-changing results with your very first business, as I and many others have experienced.
But whether you succeed with your 1st or your 10th, what does it matter?
You’ll get there eventually, and it’ll all be worth it. BELIEVE in your internet business dreams because you have no reason not to attack it with a winner’s mentality.
The funny this is that your belief (or lack of belief) will typically play out in reality as a self-fulfilling prophecy — whether you believe you can do something or you can’t, you’re usually right.
How so? Well, if you don’t TRULY believe it’s going to work from the start, you’re not going to put forth much time and effort because, in the back of your mind, you’ll think, “what’s the point? It’s probably not going to work anyway”. Your mediocre results (due to lack of effort) will then prove your belief right.
But if deep down you really believe that online success is attainable for you (why wouldn’t it be when SO many others coming from your exact situation have done it), you’re going to put in a lot of time and effort and persist with it because your belief will fuel your actions.
Again, you’ll prove yourself right in the long run because with this sustained time and effort — results are literally inevitable.
If 9 out of 10 businesses fail, start 10 businesses. — Robert Kiyosaki
3. “I don’t have any money to start a business.”
Even more, a reason to get started making money online then! It’s surprising to hear so many people use a lousy excuse such as this not get started with their own gig when the truth is most people running their own online business started with virtually nothing. I started in debt and without a spare 10 bucks to my name.
Some people are still stuck with the limiting belief that it takes money to make money, which isn’t true online. You can literally get started with peanuts, and as soon as money starts to come in, you’ll be seeing profits.
I personally started with a few hundred dollars of borrowed money for an online course, some tools, a domain name, a hosting package. But you could even get away with even less than this (depends on the type of business as well, though).
If you’re totally broke and serious about starting a business, you’ll find a way to put together some funds. Borrow from friends or family, sell some junk lying around, sacrifice spending here and there, do whatever it takes (legally) to get things going.
4. “I’m not great with computers/tech stuff.”
I’ve lost count of the number of people who have told me that they could never get into online business because they’re not a tech whiz. Sure, being an ace with computers won’t hurt you, but if you’re not, it’s a total non-issue.
First of all, every task, tool, or program that you need to be familiar with to build and grow a typical online business is easily learn-able and straightforward to use.
You can get away with fundamental computer skills, so I’d go as far as to say that if you don’t have any problems using your own personal Facebook or Twitter account, you won’t have any problems starting an online business.
Secondly, these days it’s dead easy to outsource basically any task imaginable for a low price if you don’t want to get your hands dirty with something in particular.
5. “I’m not an expert at anything.”
Some people have the misconception that you need to be an expert in a certain area to make money online, but you don’t have to be.
Sure, there are many ways to leverage your expert knowledge or skills, but there are also many other ways to make money online without having to be an expert at anything. You could also hire experts and run the high-level operations of the business.
Plus, if you do get into a business model where you need some expertise, such as writing a niche blog or creating an online course, you can put in the time to get to a good enough level with it where you’re “expert enough.”
You don’t have to be the world’s greatest expert on something to be able to offer valuable information on it — if you know more than MOST people about something, then you have something to offer.
Also, keep in mind that if you have a particular idea that you know has many potentials, you’ll naturally be very motivated to learn everything you can about it so you can position yourself as an “expert.”
6. “I don’t have my own product to sell or service to offer.”
Again, this isn’t a problem as having your own product to sell or offering your own service is just one method of many to building an internet business.
A couple of good examples would be affiliate marketing, where you only promote other people’s products through a website or blog, or setting up a service-based business where you take charge of high-level tasks and marketing whilst your employee or virtual assistant actually does the grunt work for you.
7. “I don’t have time to build a business.”
Now to the biggest BS excuse of them all. When somebody says to you they have no time for something, what they’re really saying is that it’s not a priority for them.
Saying that you’ve got no time is just a BS story that you keep telling yourself that is holding you back in life.
Every man (or woman) has the same time as the next man — 24 hours a day. If something is important to you and you’re committed, then you will make time for it no matter what.
You won’t think twice about making necessary sacrifices to free up more time working on your business. If you’ve got a day job, you’ll squeeze in some business building time before or after work and on the weekends.
Plus, be honest with yourself about how much time you’re throwing away on things such as trash TV, social media lurking, playing video games, and just sitting around doing nothing.
If you added up the amount of time the average person wastes away every week on mindless unproductive tasks, you’d be astounded. Of course, take time to relax, but use your time consciously as it’s the most precious resource you have
8. “I’m not smart enough.”
Making money online, whilst not always easy, isn’t rocket science and is simple in nature. Success isn’t determined by your IQ, your book smarts, or how smart your 5th-grade teacher said you were.
What really counts is your attitude, how much action you take, and the strategies that you apply, which thankfully are all totally in your control. In life, you can have all the education, knowledge, and “intelligence” in the world, but without a ton of execution, your dreams will remain dreams.
I’m no genius, and I bet there are a ton of smarter people than me. I would probably only consider myself with average intelligence, at least in how society typically measures it.
But what I credit all of my success so far too is simply the action that I’ve taken over and over again, which anyone can do. The work isn’t all that hard, and as I said, it can be quite simple. It’s just a matter of forcing yourself to do it.
Action is the real measure of intelligence — Napoleon Hill
9. “I can’t think of a great idea.”
This is a big one for many people who are stuck in the thinking that you can only start a profitable online business and make good money if you invent some grand new revolutionary business idea.
But as an entrepreneur, you don’t need to invent at all, and the majority of successful people online have modeled a proven business idea and/or market and implemented it in their own way. Why re-invent the wheel.
10. “There’s too much competition.”
Yes, there IS indeed a ton of competition online, and it’s only growing. Everyone man and his dog wants to make money online, and for a good reason.
But it’s a weak excuse, and a change of perspective will reveal the truth — that there’s ALWAYS a way for you to get your own slice of the pie if you’re willing to work both hard and smart.
Even in very competitive fields. You can either put your own twist on something, do it better than your competition, or outwork your competition.
Plus, if there’s plenty of competition in a particular market…that’s a good sign and means there’s plenty of opportunities!
On top of that, whilst it’s the dream of so many people to run an online business, you’d be surprised how few people actually follow-through consistently on their dream and put in a lot of consistent, focused effort.
Most people only dabble here and there, so if you play the long game and take massive action over time, you are literally separating yourself from 95% of those who attempt to earn online.
If you haven’t started your business, why not?
So there you have it, you truly have no excuse to pursue your internet business dreams if it’s something you really want to do. So get started now — you don’t want to be sitting here a year later and regretting not having made any moves.
The internet truly is the way of the future, and if you don’t get up to speed, you’re going to be left behind and kicking yourself for not having taken the opportunities seriously.
It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, how smart you are, how much money you have, or what skills and knowledge you have right now.
Just do it! It’s not easy, but oh so worth it.
