I've spent the last 12 years in online business. Had many failures and a few decent wins.

Here are 47 things I wish I knew when I started ⬇️
1. You win if you can figure out how to leverage your skillset and curiosity in a great market. If you're missing one of these, you'll struggle.
2. Building an audience beats marketing tactics, time and time again. If have a poor brand/audience, and you’re relying heavily on the latest tactic, running your business will feel like an uphill battle.
3. The bigger the give, the better ask you can make. I spent ~2 years writing over 150 free articles on my music production blog before creating our flagship course that went on to make over $1.5mm. It’s cliché, but you need to deliver value above everything else.
4. Focus on fundamental biz & marketing skills before worrying about tactics. Tactics change, fundamentals stay the same. Learn copywriting, email marketing, offer creation, sales.
5. Don’t just read business books. Read everything that interests you. Many in the online biz world are stuck in a narrow, one-track mindset and fail to innovate. Expand your mind, think divergently, and leverage insights that others can’t.
6. The more you can gain your satisfaction and fulfilment from the work itself (rather than the rewards) the better. This will keep you engaged for the long haul, even when things aren’t working as you expect.
7. Learning from someone 10 steps ahead of you is far less effective than learning from someone who’s 1-2 steps ahead of you. @realryanbooth nails it: https://twitter.com/realryanbooth/status/1500737205765087232
8. Never get complacent. It’s easy to have a successful product launch, great black friday sale, and feel the natural desire to take your foot off the gas pedal. If you need rest, rest. But don’t become complacent. It takes a long time to get out of that rut.
9. Deeply understand the 80/20 rule and how it applies to you (as a person) and your business. As much as humanly possible, engage in the 20% that produces 80% of the results.
10. It’s better in the early stages of your biz to focus on 1-2 marketing channels as opposed to multiple. Assumption: more channels = more revenue. Truth: focus & iteration = more revenue.
11. You (probably) don’t need as big a team as you think. A lot of ppl hire to feed their ego or cure loneliness. Most people I’ve talked to in the online biz space say that transitioning to a smaller team improved their life & biz immensely. Hire, but only when you NEED to.
12. Don’t scam people. Don’t do shitty stuff. Don’t lie in your sales copy. You have a reputation to uphold. Making some quick money today might be alluring to you, but it’s not worth the damage to your personal brand.
13. Speaking of personal brand, it’s everything. I wish I’d started building mine outside the music production space earlier (I'm just getting started). If you haven't started building yours, get to it.
14. Share your journey. Build in public. Showcase the wins, the failures, and the struggles. It will resonate with people, more than you can possibly imagine. https://twitter.com/JustinSaaS/status/1492127583370153985
15. Avoid sunk cost fallacy. Spent months on a product that’s not selling, despite every attempt at marketing/selling it? Might be worth cutting your losses and moving on. This is painful and hard, but often necessary.
16. Your customer doesn’t care how much time you’ve spent making the product/course/program/whatever you’re selling. They only care what’s in it for them. Explain the benefits clearly in your messaging.
17. Take everything in the “internet marketing” space with a grain of salt. Everyone is trying to sell you something. They will tell you that X marketing tactic is the best, or “high ticket courses” are the best way to make $ because it's in their interest to do so.
18. Online biz is volatile, even if you don’t think it is. Markets change. Offers don’t convert as well. Channels fail to give the same results. You want a war chest & rainy day fund. Keep your burn rate low. You will sleep better at night.
19. Momentum is a superpower. Do everything you can to build it. When you have it, maintain it for as long as possible. You can get more done in a few weeks than what most people get done in months if you’re in a state of momentum and have focused energy. https://twitter.com/businessbarista/status/1450192137983873024
20. There’s a high chance you’ll have shiny object syndrome, even when you have a thriving business.

In 9/10 cases, it’s better to stay the course.

There were numerous times I felt like doing something else. Looking back, it would have been a mistake—every time.
21. “Raise your prices” is good advice, but only because most people are scared to raise their prices. Otherwise, it’s terrible advice because it doesn’t take into account market/offer/purchasing power dynamics.

You can raise your price 10% and halve your conversions. Be wary.
22. Detach emotionally from the daily numbers.

Focus on longer-term trends.

Shit sales days (and weeks) happen.

Multiple low revenue months? Probably an issue that needs to be looked into.
23. If your business isn’t performing well you might be tempted to impulsively do “something” to fix it. Acting out of anxiety-driven impulse instead of careful consideration of strategic opportunities will rarely produce a positive result. Slow down, think, then act.
24. Focus on your marketing calendar before building out complex evergreen funnels & automations. I explain why in this thread. https://twitter.com/SamMatla/status/1500544933438001152
25. The digital nomad thing is generally overrated. Nothing beats a consistent routine in a custom-designed home office. Some people can do the work-and-travel thing, most can’t (effectively).
26. You need to cultivate the ability to focus intentionally on projects & tasks for long periods of time. This ability alone will put you ahead of most. https://twitter.com/AlexHormozi/status/1494455776122793993
27. You get into online biz because you want time freedom, but quickly realize having a strict routine is essential to move things forward. Enjoy control of your schedule, but make sure there’s consistency.
28. When you reach your local maxima, don’t stay there. I did this for 3 years and became incredibly bored, and almost depressed.

If you’re entrepreneurial, you thrive off challenge. When that challenge disappears, it’s time to set bigger goals or move on to something new.
29. Networking for the sake of networking is a poor use of time. Do cool/interesting stuff, publish content, and build relationships organically with people who see that you clearly have something to offer.
30. Just ship it. My first digital product was a 40-page $5 ebook. It looked like shit. It wasn’t written well. It made $1,000. I discontinued it after 6 months because of how bad it was. But I got over the fear of “selling.” If you haven’t crossed that chasm yet, hurry up.
31. Don’t rush to make your first hire. Know exactly what you’re hiring for, have multiple applicants, value character above everything else. https://twitter.com/Nicolascole77/status/1500901615431266304
32. Don’t fall into tendency-based action. If you’re highly analytical & obsessed with data but your biz is early stage and has low sales volume, then your impulse to “dive deep into the data” is only holding you back. Focus on growing traffic/sales before worrying about that.
33. The ultimate hack is to become passionate about business itself, not just niches and customers.

That way you can spot great opportunities based on market fundamentals (instead of being blinded by what you “like” doing, because what you like doing may not be profitable).
34. If you don’t have any skills, go put your head down and study/practice copywriting 2+ hours per day for the next 6 months. Every day. Grind it out. Most won’t do this.
35. A good dose of paranoia is helpful to combat delusional optimism. You should think about ways your business could fail, while still retaining optimism. Too much paranoia will paralyze you. Having none at all will likely leave you unprepared for inevitable negative events.
36. Invest in coaching for specific skills you need to develop and specific problems you need to solve in your life/business. Use money to make money. https://twitter.com/WrongsToWrite/status/1499015201387163667
37. The best trait you can cultivate as an entrepreneur is bias toward action. Be decisive. Move forward. Ship. If you don’t have this trait yet, do everything you can to cultivate it.
38. The second best trait you can cultivate as an entrepreneur is strategic decision-making. Once you've developed bias toward action, you need to ensure you're heading in the right direction.

Taking relentless action down a sub-optimal path is not a good use of time.
39. Know yourself. Specifically, know what drives you. People will say "don't focus on the competition"—but if you enjoy being competitive and find it drives you, then maybe you should.
40. It is harder than you think to outsource important marketing work. Rarely will you find someone who understands your customer, offer & market better than you do. Unless you’re running a big operation, continue doing high-leverage marketing work for as long as it makes sense.
41. There are opportunities EVERYWHERE. It’s not that you can’t come up with an idea, it’s that you’re trying to find the perfect biz idea. Look around you at problems that need solved, or just compete with old, inefficient businesses like @landforce says: https://twitter.com/landforce/status/1487493826511998976
42. "The benefits of building a company — purpose, financial security, and the sense of worth that comes from doing something important in the world — are granted only to people who show up day after day, especially when they aren’t in the mood." - @david_perell
43. Assumptions are the death of effective marketing and offer creation. If in doubt, talk to your customers. Do it again, and again, and again until you’re certain of their problems and desires.
44. Ask for help. Many online biz owners are happy to help you out, as long as you don’t ask stupid questions (Google-able Qs). It’s why I keep my DMs open.
45. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. My first successful business wasn’t anything innovative, I just did things better. Wrote better content and made better products. Your idea does not have to be unique.
46. Consistently analyze the opportunities in front of you. Act on those that have asymmetric upside. If it fails? No big deal. If it succeeds? Huge deal.
47. Finally, if you have a profitable online business that supplements your income (or provides a full-time income) then you are in an envied position. Most people will never achieve this. Reflect on this when you envy others ahead of you.
Found this thread helpful?

1. RT the top tweet above to help this spread!

2. Follow me @sammatla for more insights on growing your online biz

3. Join my weekly newsletter for detailed, tactical advice on scaling yourself and your biz: http://sammatla.com/newsletter 
You can follow @SamMatla.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: