The Six Obstacles Stopping New Entrepreneurs From Building Their First Online Business
(And Real World Examples Of How To Overcome Them)
Hi. I’m Andy, co-founder of The Foundation.com
In the past three years we’ve helped 1,000+ people start their first business.
Over the years, I’ve noticed there are six common obstacles stopping new entrepreneurs from building their first business…
This article will show you what each obstacle is and how to overcome it with a real world example of it in action.
(Note: On August 10th, The Foundation is giving away a free course helping new entrepreneurs start their first business from scratch, regardless of their circumstances.
Obstacle #1 — I Don’t Have Time To Start Anything Else On The Side.
Ever wonder how to start a business when you have zero extra time?
If so, the story of Carl Mattiola might change how you think…
Carl applied to The Foundation in 2013. He was 33 years old and an employee of Tesla Motors, working directly under Elon Musk. (If you’ve read anything about Elon, you know how hard he works his staff.)
Carl was working 60–80 hours per week. And he wanted out. He was tired of the long hours, getting called into work on weekends and he wanted more time to surf.
He made a commitment to working two hours every single morning on his business. Two hours of focused action. After six months of focusing on his business every day, guess what happened?
He built ClinicMetrics, a software business generating $3,000/month. A month later, he quit his job at Tesla. Now, two years later, his business is generating over $100,000/month.
All because he committed to just two hours per day.
(Listen to his whole story here.)
The Bottom Line: You can create a business in as little of two hours of focused action every single day.
Obstacle #2 — I Don’t Have Any Good Business Ideas To Get Started
The most common excuse I’ve seen for not starting a business is lack of a ‘good idea.’
Esther was one of those people.
Esther was a 41 year old photographer who loved taking photos but, after so many years of it, she was tired of constantly being away from her family every single weekend.
She wanted more freedom in her business. But here was the problem: She didn’t have any other business ideas. She only knew her photography business.
When she joined The Foundation, she started started talking to photographers and asking them all sorts of questions about what pains they have in their businesses. She followed the Idea Extraction process.
And she saw a common pattern… Almost all the photographers felt unorganized. They had no software to manage all the weddings and everything in the pre/post production of them. Things would get lost and problems would happen along the way.
When she realized how much pain this caused them, she started mocking up a software idea to help them.
That was all she needed find her idea… She pre-sold over $10,000 to help fund the software, built the first version of Shootzilla and, two years later, she only shoots weddings she loves.
She didn’t start with an idea… Esther knew that all she had to do was focus on the pains people experience and allow the ideas to come to her.
(Get Esther’s full story here.)
The Bottom Line: All you need to do is find pain. The best business ideas come from painful problems. So if you stop searching for ideas and start searching for pain, you’ll have an abundance of business ideas to choose from.
Obstacle #3 — I Don’t Know What I’m Passionate About
How are you supposed to start a business if you don’t know what you’re passionate about?
Daniel’s story about bacon might give you a hint of what to do…
Daniel Bailey was a 30 year old lawyer who hated the hours his firm required him to work. He was desperately searching for a way out. But like many people, he wasn’t clear on anything he felt passionate about.
Then one night he was craving bacon. And he half-jokingly posted on Facebook, “Does anyone else wish there would be a ‘bacon delivery service’?”
The next morning he woke up to dozens of responses. So he applied what he learned in The Foundation to following up with people…
He kept taking action, listening to his customers, and experimenting.
Eventually, he started BaconMePlease.com, a subscription bacon service.
Now, less than a year later, he’s making over $25,000/month selling bacon caramel chocolates online. He quit his job as a lawyer. And he’s living life on his terms. All because he kept taking action, even though he didn’t have a ‘passion’ in the beginning.
Daniel realized that his passion actually builds when he takes action and learns new things. He no longer uses that as an excuse for not creating the life he loves.
The Bottom Line: All you need to do is take action. You don’t need passion to get started. Just take action and the passion with naturally follow.
Obstacle #4 — I Can’t Build A Software Company If I Don’t Know How To Code
(This one is specific to people who are interested in applying for The Foundation… I thought I’d add it here because Sandy’s story below is so inspiring.)
How do you build a software business when you don’t know how to code a website?
Nobody felt this way more than Sandy.
Sandy Connery is in her forties and she owned a brick and mortar store for the past decade. She would cringe when she went into work and wanted a change. She spent her career as a podiatrist, helping people fit shoes for their feet.
She knew the industry was dying and desperately wanted the freedom that the recurring revenue of software provides… But she had no experience with anything software related.
That didn’t stop her.
Once she discovered her idea, she started looking around for partners to build the product.
Over ten months, she generated over $16,000 in presales for Connectable.biz and negotiated a deal with a business partner to develop the software for her for $0 upfront.
She gets to focus on what she loves (building the business and marketing) while her partner focuses on what he loves (the technical and design work.)
This was all possible because she believed in her own resourcefulness.
Sandy knows, as an entrepreneur, her only job is to solve the problem for her customers.
(You can get her full story here.)
The Bottom Line: All you need is to focus on solving the problem… not building it yourself. You don’t need to ‘know’ software. You simply have to believe in your own resourcefulness to get the problem solved for your customers.
Obstacle #5 — I Don’t Have The Money To Invest In My Business
What do you do when you don’t have the cash to build a business?
The fastest way to make money that we’ve seen in The Foundation is by solving marketing problems for small businesses.
Nobody does this better than our alumni John Logar… During his six months with us, John generated $120,000 in pre-sales for little consulting and software projects.
In one example, John turned 3 hours into $18,000 by calling customer jewelers and selling them a marketing analytics package. In that package he helped them understand all of their data, put together a marketing funnel based on that data, and helped them grow their business.
John didn’t put together the analytics package, he outsourced it. And it he didn’t put together the marketing funnel, he outsourced it.
All he had to was find the pain, and sell. In 3 phone calls he made $18,000.
(Get John’s full story about making $120,000 in 6 months right here.)
Here’s the bottom line: You don’t ever need to worry about money once you master the skill of consulting and outsourcing your solutions.
Obstacle #6 — I Secretly and Silently Doubt My Ability To Create A Business
Doubt. The silent killer that hardly anyone ever addresses. We all have it, including me.
So how do you conquer your doubts and become the person on the other side of all that fear?
By creating a new identity for yourself.
How?
By taking action every single day that’s in alignment with the new identity you want to have.
Each example above fought day in and day out to create a business they loved.
Each day, they faced new fears, insecurities and doubts they had about themselves.
And each day, they chose to take action, despite those fears, insecurities and doubts.
This is the path of any new entrepreneur… It’s a path of transformation.
We all have our own unique ‘beliefs’ that hold us back… Fortunately, one of the things The Foundation is best known for is our ‘mindset’ content that helps new entrepreneurs transform their identity.
We find, when these core fundamental issues are addressed, it unlocks exponential growth in people.
(The Foundation is accepting new applicants for the Sept 2015 class…)
Here’s the bottom line: Doubt is natural and to be expected. The key is accepting it, allowing it to be there, and taking action in alignment withe the new identity you want anyway. Do that everyday, and you will become unstoppable over time.
So often we, as entrepreneurs, see obstacles in our way.
But the truth is, each obstacle is point us towards a skill that we are supposed to learn.
The trick is to remember, no matter what obstacle you seem to be facing, there is always a way through it.
Always.
Andy Drish is a serial entrepreneur, writer and dog lover. He helps entrepreneurs scale their businesses by discovering their own unique genius.
The Foundation is currently giving away a free course, helping new entrepreneurs start their first business from scratch, regardless of their circumstances. It starts August 10th and you can enroll now for free.
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