When you first start looking at starting your own online business, the options can be dizzying and the clarity of direction more than a little foggy can’t they?

Do you just jump in and start a website?

What should you sell?

What do people want to buy?

Do I need a blog, a sales website, a membership site?

Do I have to be on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram? 

That’s just for starters…then there are all of the other decisions around how to take payments, how to create products or where to find products to sell, how to move beyond just a “hobby” business into a real online business that has $1M+ potential – overwhelming options to say the least.

Look, if you are going to lead in business (or in life), the options in front of you will often be overwhelming – that’s the cost of taking the road less traveled.

Simplification Is One Key To Success

One thing I noticed from my mentors over the years is that the highest achievers have a way of simplifying all of the complex options and choices down to the most important 2-3 questions making their path forward more clear and certain.

The same thing holds for starting your own online business.

If you are just starting out and find yourself overwhelmed by the noise and options and lack of a certain path forward is holding you back, then try focusing on these 3 critical questions:

1. What Is Your Business Model

So many people get embroiled in the tactics of how to work a business model (get traffic, what to sell, how to reach your market, etc…) before they even understand what their business model will be.  Let me make it even easier…how will you make money?  What demand will you fill, how will you fill it (with what and how will you differentiate) and are their proven examples you can model to get started.  Inside Information Marketer’s Zone we work with our members to crystalize exactly how they will make money so that all other aspects of their marketing, product development and networking provide focused support of this model. 

2. What Drives You?

I’ve been around enough successful and unsuccessful business people to know that your drive will decide the level you succeed at anything you do.  95% of the people that come to us for coaching “sort of” want to succeed with their business and do you know what?  They do…they “sort of” succeed – which means they get their website up, they make their first $100, they have some fun and then cap out at a number far lower than what they would really like.  To succeed big you need to execute big, sacrifice big, have a big vision, not turtle with short-term obstacles – that takes a big WHY…are you mentally prepared?

3. Are You Willing To Network & Share?

Nobody achieves massive success on their own.  That doesn’t mean you need to follow everyone or that you need to give up your values, ethics or vision.  But you do need to learn to work with people – that means your market, your leads, your customers, your partners, your peers and your mentors.  You will have them all and you can’t make it to the very top without understanding the value of each one and treating each one as if they are a key piece of a bigger process called life.  I’ve had business entrepreneurs that were otherwise genius but that couldn’t (and wouldn’t) work with others which caps their success and they don’t even know it

If you are overwhelmed and want to get your business headed in the right direction then focus on these 3 questions first – make sure you have written out a few paragraphs or bullet lists around each of these, not only will these answers be key to your online business achievement but going through this exercise will be empowering in itself helping to clarify your path forward. 

Go ahead and post your answers as comments against this post – you will be adding fuel to the fire that will be your online business.Â