Being prepared is a good reason to even consider starting an online business. Being prepared for the unexpected financial crisis of any kind – whether it is the sudden loss of your primary source of income, or an insurance deductible or other disaster, it is always best to have some money saved. While credit of course is ‘nice’ you can get in serious trouble for over-extending yourself and it may take years to climb out; Therefore, cash is best.
Being flexible is about keeping an open mind when you are starting your business, in every regard — from what your business will do, to what resources you will use. This is because much will be done through ‘trial and error’ and even just analysis when something may be either doing better than you expected or not as well. You want to remain flexible so that you have the ability to change more or less on the fly.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t give things a fair chance before you pronounce judgement either way. There is nothing instant about earning a steady income. You do hear tales about somebody making a ‘killing’ in a few weeks but this is the exception, not the rule.
The rule is usually that you have to ‘pay your dues’ – expend the time and effort required to build and develop your business; and to thereby sustain momentum in your advertising and marketing. From that will come traffic, and from the traffic will come conversions to sales, eventually. Visualize a shopping mall with hundreds of people mulling about and realize that only a handful of those people will actually transact business the same day. Hello, this is reality.
This is another area where being prepared becomes highly relevant. You need to be prepared for much of the time in the beginning where you will be working and even spending money on your business and nothing is coming back in (yet). So obviously you want to have some operating expense money saved up or at least available.
Another good way to ensure that you have money coming in even when something is lagging behind, is to have multiple streams of income. If your online business is affiliate marketing then having more than one affiliate program will help toward that end. If your business is service related, then having multiple, different kinds of services will help maintain a steady stream of income. Find out what folks need and provide it for them.
Again, don’t take the attitude that you can use credit and will have the return on your investment before the bill is due. NOT for sure. This is speculation that can get you in deep debt and even harm your credit rating when you can’t make a payment on time. Just don’t do it, period. Even that the sun will come up tomorrow is not promised, so do not speculate with your money.
