Seven Important Steps To Success

I'd like to share with you today seven steps that have helped me to build a very successful online business.

1. Begin with the customer in mind. Far too many people start out with what they believe is a great idea and then look for an audience to which to market to. You are much more likely to be successful if you start by identifying a group of people who have a common problem or need and who are willing to pay to fulfil that need.
2. Establishing a clearly defined plan including a set of "SMART" objectives. In my view it doesn't matter if you intend to create just a single site or a huge portfolio of online properties, you must start out with the end in mind.
3. Stick with your plan. We all know how easy it is to be distracted by the latest product launch. However, don't let vendors dictate what you buy or when you buy it. Only you should be making those decisions. You should only be investing in products or services that will enhance your ability to achieve your business objectives.
4. Be willing to take risks, be willing to fail fast and be open to the possibility that there's a better way. While it's vital that you have a plan, it's also important that you allow yourself some flexibility to experiment with alternative methods, tools and techniques.
5. Track your results. You have to have a way of keeping score. It's up to you to define your critical success factors. It's also up to you to track your results. It's not just about profit and loss. You should also measure the effectiveness of each source of traffic, your optin rate and your sales conversion rate.
6. Play to your strengths. You've probably heard the phrase: "Jack of all trades and master of none". Well, although it's feasible that you could do everything, I strongly recommend that you do the stuff you're good at and outsource everything else. In fact, I'd go so far as to say.. build a team of experts and specialists around you and play to their strengths while you work ON your business rather than IN your business.
7. Have fun, relax and take time out! I've learned over the years not to take myself too seriously. I've also learned that too much work and no play really does make folks dull. And boring! On Monday this week I took Sarah, my daughter-in-law, and Grace, my gorgeous granddaughter, out for the day. We had a great time. It was a fun day and on Tuesday I returned to my desk re-energised.

So, there you have it. Seven steps to succes. I see myself as very lucky to be able to do virtually anything I want whenever I want thanks to the income and flexibility that my online business gets me.

I've built up a network of online friends, over the years, many of whom enjoy a similar lifestyle. Lifestyles built on similar success steps to the ones I've outlined above.

One of those friends is martin Avis. I told you about his "Newsletter Success Formula" yesterday. Thinking about it, Martin's "formula outline all of the steps he used to achive his success.