Five Important Lessons I Learned from a Niche Business Launch
During the last two months, I have developed and launched an online business offering Private Label Rights articles: PLRArticlesNow.com.
It’s not my intention to be overly promotional or boast about the business; rather, I’d like to tell you what I’ve learned from the experience that you may be able to apply to your own online ventures.
Things are actually way different
For those that are wondering “okay, who’s this guy?” I’m Murray. I’m the owner of the blog Murlu.com. I’ve had other successful blogs that are still up and running but I can honestly say that developing a business is way different from simply creating content and interacting with a community.
Once you’ve developed a system to creating blogs and chase a niche topic, it becomes quite easy. Chasing a business idea, on the other hand, takes a lot more leg-work than you may realize (but there are a few items that overlap).
You will find many parallels between your knowledge of blogging and launching a business, but there is also a whole new world of obstacles that will pop up along the way that may leave you frozen in your seat.
So, without further delay…
The Five Important Lessons I Learned from a Niche Business Launch
I can’t say, that I’m a master of launching businesses; all I can tell you is what I personally experienced during the development of my latest venture. You may not hear these all too often but they are important to understand if you choose to go beyond blogging and enter the world of real online business.
- Think “Business”; Not “Project” – Get out of the idea of thinking of each new item you work on as a “project”. A project doesn’t (generally) come coupled with the additional work you will need to include such as discovering a market and your customers. You may never take a “project” seriously, either. A “business”, on the other hand, aligns your work to maximize your efforts and resources to ensure you’re doing what needs to be done to reach your launch date.
- Your mission and vision matter – Discovering a niche is about all that you’re often told when starting a blog. A business, in contrast, needs to include a mission and vision to properly align your goals and offerings to the correct market. Your mission is what your business is all about; it’s what gets people attached and on board with what you have to offer. Your vision is where you see your business going in the future; it’s, in many ways, your culture and overall purpose. Blogging, alone, rarely keeps your mind on these two topics. Your mission and vision will keep you on point and focused so your work has the most valuable results for your business.
- Leverage the hell out of your blog – There is, most likely, a couple viable business ventures you could properly launch directly related to your blog. You may have multiple categories and topics you regularly cover; each of these, in many ways, can become your next business venture. There is a market for everything on the web – don’t be afraid to chase one of your niche topics even further by launching a completely new venture related to what you’ve previously covered such as an e-book, video series or any number of information-related products. Leverage the hell out of your blog once you’ve set your mind to what niche topic you’d like to cover by including it in each of the post on the same topic.
- Learn as you go – Hackers have the urge and need to learn from the ground up; they never settle with the intended purpose of an item. Instead of waiting for every ‘chip’ to fall into place; learn the necessities of your business while it’s running. You see, you can never be quite sure that every one of your plans will work out the way you imagine them to; instead of trying to plan for the future, confront it face on and adapt as you go. Get into the mindset of learning only when need be – don’t assume everything will work, but be ready for do your research when it does pop up.
- Don’t wait for perfection – You’ll most likely approach your business venture much like you do your blog: you try to ensure that every little detail is perfected before you hit the publish button – stop it! It’s okay if you take an extra day or two with your blog because you’re pushing free content, but when you realize that every day you fail to launch your business is money left on the table, you realize that now is the best time to launch. You simply won’t be able to perfect everything because everything changes (in time). Go with what you have and align yourself after you’re up and running based on the feedback.
There will be many other aspects of launching a business that will certainly arise, such as the technology you choose as a platform, but understanding these five lessons has created the most amount of impact in my online venture.
In all, change your mindset from that of a blogger to business owner. Set a definitive goal for the purpose of your business and align each aspect of your work, efforts and resources to best move you forward in your ventures. Don’t assume that everything will work out how you’ve imagined it; always test, optimize and listen to feedback. Tap into your own community and network for help when need be. You can go beyond the basics of blogging; switch up your mindset and the next online business could be yours.
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