excels at mediocrity

Partners and I have started a few ecommerce websites over the years. A couple have been pretty successful, some deceased and a couple more still in climbing the charts. I’ve learned it’s not as easy as people think. It sounds easy, hosting is cheap and there are a lot of shopping carts out there for people to use. With the .com boom back in the day the idea that internet businesses are easy money still lingers. While it is true that you can make a good living operating an internet business, the same is true for a brick and mortar business you open down the street in your home town, I have friends who do it. The truth about both types of businesses is that it takes a lot of work to make them successful.

My cousin emailed me today wondering how I got started because he’d like to try something similar. I’m excited for him because starting a business is fun, challenging and can be rewarding so I gave him the basics to get him going. Later I was talking with my brother Spence about it. Spence and I started an ecommerce site a while ago and before beginning he asked me similar questions. Today he says “If you would have told me all of the work it takes I probably wouldn’t have beleived you and done it anyway. But If I had been able to actually visualize what it would take, there is no way i would have.”

That sounds pretty discouraging. It really does take a lot of work, but any successful business does. I’m so glad I have the businesses I do. There are a lot of advantages to owning your own business. When people ask me how I got started I am happy to share some ideas, but I hope they realize that it won’t happen overnight. I started learning as much as I could about 10 years ago and as my partner at The Plan Collection can tell you, it took us a few years before we were really able to personally benefit from the fruits of our labors.

It’s not as easy as people think but as a wise man once said, “He who wants it does it”.