I wasted a $100 Adwords voucher in 2 hours on a stupid campaign thinking everyone would buy my stuff.

My blood pressure went up ten fold because of it.

It’s these simple lessons I wish I had known, because I would have had less stress, and achieved some of my goals sooner.

So, if you get anything out of this article, please don’t repeat them.

Yes, failures and mistakes (which I have many) are part and parcel of building a business.

It’s bloody frustrating. But, if you choose to skip the mistakes I made, I’m sure you’ll lessen the frustrations and frictions faced by many solopreneurs.

Because, it’ll help you move a step or two closer.

Here are the 3 mistakes I made. Try NOT to follow them, only if you want to end the struggle of building a home business online.

1. Not keeping an eye on the measurable numbers.
2. Relying on platforms that don’t care a cent about you, but your money.
3. Thinking everyone is your best prospect. This is a total time waster for your business. Instead, you need to focus on this one thing.

With that said, I’m going to expand a bit more on each mistake, and why looking back it made me cringe at the thought of them.

The Numbers Do Tell.

I dropped the ball on this one early. And I shouldn’t have.

Because I was lazy and did not pay a close enough attention to what the numbers were telling me.

Instead, I chose to go about it the wrong way, and naively continued to post content that didn’t stick.

Thinking back, it makes me cringe how dumb it was.

The smarter way – I should have paid closer attention to Facebook Page Insights, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and Google Analytics, so I can see what was working, what was not and just replicated the ones that worked.

Like for example, paying attention to the kind of posts that were resonating most with my audience (views, engagements and reach).

Then, I should’ve reposted it, repurposed it and even expanded on the topic as a blog post.

Like for another example, paying attention to my email subject lines, saw what was working and followed the formula.

Since then, I’ve been watching the numbers a bit more closely, and working on the ones that worked best for me.

So far, so good.

Followers Mean Nothing.

I’ve had my Facebook profile shut because some prick decided to hack my account. Few months later, I have had no reply from Facebook.

Fortunately, I had given a trusted source (my wife) admin access to my business page.

Which leads me to this …

Social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and so on are fantastic for driving traffic.

But if you choose not to build an email list, then you’re reliant on platforms to dictate your reach, and even limit your reach because all they want from you is your ad spend.

It’s obvious, if you want platforms to give you more reach, you’ll have to ‘spend to play‘.

Worse still, what if a platform you’ve been reliant on so heavily shuts down for even a day, because one of their engineers inadvertently pushed the wrong button on the keyboard.

Even worse, what if the platform goes bankrupt.

All your followers mean nothing.

But if you can turn followers into email subscribers, your business continues to tick along.

You’re still able to deliver useful content, updates and keep your brand in-front of the readers.

It’s just a solid way to build an audience online by bulldozing the wall between you and the audience, building trust and then turning them into paid customers.

Better still, no platform can take away your email list, because it belongs to you.

A huge asset.

Look Dumb Chasing Everyone.

When I started, I was told that the more NOs I got, the closer I was to a Yes.

And I did just that. I chased.

I would chase small businesses about helping them out with paid advertising.

You know what, the awkward cold market prospecting was hell.

Seriously, the number of times I would walk to the front door of every business, and then suddenly deciding not to was too many.

In order not to look dumb, I’d pretend to pick up a fake call just to walk away.

Stupid.

And I’ve also burnt through my warm market trying to build a downline.

All this chasing was doing my head in.

As you can tell, I suck at chasing … and asking.

Listen:

No matter what any expert tells you, not everyone is your prospect.

NOT everyone has a need for your stuff.

Can you imagine selling a top notch Wagyu beef to a vegetarian?

Or.

Can you imagine selling a weight loss product to someone who eats and trains like an athlete, 24/7?

You can’t.

It’s rejection hell.

So, stop the chase.

Instead, figure out your ‘target market‘. A group of your ideal type of customers, that actually needs your product, service or opportunity.

To do that, you have to figure out their needs, their problems and their desires.

And when I paid closer attention to those factors, I was able to post and email content that’s useful (not spam) to help them as best I could.

Once you do this, you’ll be able to passively attract the best prospects online to your business.

Because, you have what they want.

But, it does take time to build an audience, and build the trust.

You just need to focus on helping your people out and just show up by giving great content, consistently.

If you want a quicker way (and have the budget) to build an audience, then paid advertising is the obvious option.

Just make sure you stick with it long term, measure your ad spend, and drive the paid traffic onto your email list.

Final Thought on The Mistakes …

If only I knew then … I would have invested my time and money on areas that would have been more productive.

So, do yourself a big favor, if you want to stress less do not follow the same mistakes I made.

Focus on the areas that really matter.

Like focusing on helping people out with great content, consistently.

As well, keep any eye on the measurable numbers, keep track of it, and scale the business with ones that works.

And lastly, don’t rely on the algorithms solely for the vanity stuff.

Instead, take advantage of the platforms by driving the best prospects off it to grow an email list, and build the relationship based on trust and value (and then, promote your stuff).

That’s it, the 3 dumb mistakes that I want you to not follow, but use it to scale your business sooner. You’ll be happy when you do.

If you got value from this post feel free to share it!

And to help you get the most from this post, I’ve compiled a free mini workbook. A downloadable PDF version of this post plus 3 action questions to get you started, now.

You can click on the banner below.

P.S In case you’re one of the people (like me) who skim to the P.S before you read the page, here’s what this is about:

1. If you don’t like direct selling, then focus your attention on attracting the right people.

2. Why following the right numbers can help scale your reach, and even sales.

3. If You’re Sick of Chasing People And You’re Ready To Have Them Chasing You Then Click Here.

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Bye for now,

Jason Ou