What is the hardest part of building an online business?

The hardest part of building an online business is to find that one overlapping sweet spot where you can make a sustainable income for yourself from using your skills, experience, and beliefs to provide unique products or services to your niche customers who are willing and able to pay you money for solving their immediate problem or pain point.

To make money online, you have to find that sweet spot where all six criteria overlap. Then you have to develop and implement a strategy related to that sweet spot.

1. You are so passionate about and committed to your money-making idea that you will spend all your free time working on it (even on weekends!).
2. You want to create value for people and desire to make a difference in people’s lives trying to solve their problems.
3. You have desperate niche customers who are willing and able to pay you for your unique product or service because you can solve their pain points or problems, which is the ultimate outcome of your online business activities.
4. You can create a sustainable stream of income out of the money-making idea when you do decide to quit your 9-to-5 job. Remember always that you have to pay your bills!
5. You have or are capable of acquiring the necessary skills and experience to build that online business without much re-skilling or learning.
6. You want to align your business and work with your personal and religious reasons and beliefs. Your WHYs of embarking on an online business must be crystal clear. Like any business, your online business has to be profitable and sustainable over a long-term.

If you are an employee working in a 9-to-5 job, you must be able to ultimately depend on your online business for a sustainable stream of income, perhaps even replacing your salary someday.

The Internet has reduced the barriers to entry for so many people wanting to start an online business. It is estimated that there is 3+ million blog post published daily.

With opportunities, there are always dangers.

There are so much competition and noise out there on the Internet that it is really hard to build an online business if you do not find a very small niche to start off with offering unique products and services.

There is so much sameness that you have to be unique in your approach, in your product or service offerings, and in your marketing messages.

You must identify that one pain point or severe problem that your targeted niche market is experiencing and desperately needs an immediate solution. For example, people are willing to pay big bucks to an expensive specialist just to eliminate their physical pain.

Money can be made online when you can reduce the pain that your target customers are experiencing (or increasing their wealth or health) by offering them your unique products or services using various sales funnel and digital platforms.

Ultimately, you must ask yourself whether you are absolutely passionate about and committed to this money-making business idea and whether it is aligned with your personal and religious reasons and beliefs. If not, then this is not a business idea to embark on.

You should have the necessary skills and experience to develop or acquire, market, and offer these unique products or services to your niche customers and solve their problem. If you don’t, then you may need to upskill yourself first.

Once you have found that sweet spot, it is time to develop a personal strategy to build and make money online. Then you just have to focus on executing this strategy ruthlessly!