Evaluating your idea: External Evaluation is still coming, folks, look for it this week.

However, I find I have something to say outside of the practical business of setting up an internet business. I have something to say about common sense, about hard work, and the reality of online businesses in general.

Excerpts from two different emails received recently:

My online store has been live for two weeks. Although I'm getting lots of traffic from Google ads and other advertising I'm running, I haven't had a single sale yet. Where are the sales? What am I doing wrong?

I am getting ready to start a store online. All my products will be drop-ship for the first year. I have projected a average of 3-5000 orders after 3 months. My launch date is in spring.

I realize that some of what I'm about to say is preaching to the choir here, but I hope you'll share it with the less online savvy in your own social circles.

Online business is not a Kevin Costner movie.
Just because you build it, does NOT mean they will come.

Let's think in practical, offline terms for a moment. If you want to produce a print magazine, what kind of knowledge will you need to have, learn, or buy? You'll need marketing, editorial, design and layout, ad sales, distribution, print process, shipping, and those are just what I can come up with off the top of my head.

By the same token, if you want to open a store in the real world, you'll need to have, learn or buy knowledge in: sales, marketing, design, merchandising, real estate, finance, building management, buying and ordering, research, and again that's just off the top of my head.

On top of that, every business needs someone who knows financial, who can crunch the numbers and evaluate the statistics of your business - how many buy vs. how many browse, how many pick up a subscription vs. how many buy off the shelf - as well as research all the nitty gritty things of your business that you can't even imagine right now. Because there's no way to improve your business unless you know how it's doing today.

Folks, it's the same online. Owning a business, whether online or off, is a largely thankless job. It is not - and I repeat NOT NOT NOT - enough to just learn HTML and learn search engine optimization and slap up a web site. Whether you open a restaurant or an online store, you'll need to not just get the word out about your business, not just service the customers you get, but spend hours every week for the rest of your life learning more.

That's because there is always more to learn. And it's a slow process. Getting started is slow, learning is slow, in fact the only thing out there that isn't slow is how quickly everyone else is moving around you. And yes, that can be panicky at times. The more you know, the more you'll realize how much you have left to learn.

The good news is if you keep trying, keep learning, keep giving it your all and keep your eyes and ears open for new developments, concepts, ideas and ways of doing business, if you read everything you can get your hands on and pick the brains of everyone you know who knows more than you do, if you keep customers happy and your business moving forward and never give up, odds are MUCH greater that you'll succeed.

But life isn't a Kevin Costner movie. Nor is online business like that old IBM commercial from a few years ago - set up a web site, see three orders in the first hour, then 10, then 50, until the counter is rolling so quickly you can't keep up with it, and all in the first day. Makes for a great, and memorable commercial. But it's the very rare few (think: lottery winners) who manage to accomplish that here, in the real world, where we're all doing business.

As in the old story, the turtle will (or may, at least) win the race. But it's a slow, dogged race, incremental in its early days, until you get the ball rolling.

If I've scared you, GOOD. If I've scared you but you're still wanting to try it because you know deep in your heart you can do it, BETTER. If you're scared but going to try even knowing you may fail because you're determined to keep trying until it sticks, EXCELLENT. Congratulations, because you're on your way to becoming an entrepreneur.

Stay tuned. More advice to come.

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