Online Entrepreneurship - Where the Virtues Outweigh the Vices - But Beware!

The life of an online entrepreneur is extraordinarily rewarding. In fact, so far this decade the growth of successful internet home-based businesses is an absolute phenomenon. Indeed, much discussion on forums and message boards across the internet is devoted to the topic of online businesses. Forum participants freely state their opinions about online business -- the good, the bad -- but rarely is the ugly discussed to any depth. Why? Noteworthy is the fact that many individuals who regularly participate in such forums are successful or relatively successful entrepreneurs. For that reason alone the majority of what they say is overwhelmingly positive. Therefore, it is safely assumed there is a "thumb on the scale" concerning the positive aspects of online entrepreneurship since those engaged in such discussions have "skin in the game". If discussions of the day-to-day challenges online business presents became decisively negative before an audience containing potential business partners and customers, the long-term outlook for internet-based enterprises could turn quite bleak. It is, thus, necessary that all aspiring netpreneurs realize there is an inherent conflict of interest in the glowing statements online business pros make from time to time. With this thesis in mind, let's take an "eyes wide open" review of e-commerce and consider how online business might be disadvantageous. Profitable, yet -- as with most things worth doing -- problematic.

First, there is distraction: the enemy of every successful online entrepreneur. Working from home means myriad common domestic distractions such as leaking faucets, crying children, or neighbors at the door. These intrusions divert focus from the daily business tasks at hand. Once such events intervene and interrupt the daily "to do" list, concentration flees like a thief in the night. It could be hours before a serious return to work occurs. Those successful at their home businesses develop strategies that jealously guard their concentration in the work-at-home arena. Why jealously? Because it is concentration which leads to the laser-like focus that supplies the drive all entrepreneurs need for success in business.

Distractions represent the "camel's nose under the tent" in the home work environment. Much of the work entrepreneurs do when developing a business involves repetitive, tedious tasks alternated with challenging efforts to master new information and skills. Without vigilance, pacing, and proper balancing of work versus personal time, it is only human that attacks of boredom or, conversely, frustration may set the stage for continuous cycles of self-defeating distractions. Once such distractions become pervasive, the competitive, driven characteristics of a once-ambitious online entrepreneur become dull, lackadaisical and -- without disciplined self-correction -- ineffective for developing a successful business enterprise.

Then there is the big C: competition. As collegial and helpful as the online business community can be, it is also highly competitive. Sometimes even brutal once you begin to develop your personal "brand" within your niche. Within the internet business community, entrepreneurs with bigger "brands" can and do crush rising businesses if they think such nefarious acts will maintain their advantage within a particular niche market. Some competitors think nothing of discrediting each other in writing across many well established online forums and in e-mails to their respective downlines. Ultimately many are only interested in selling their products and making money in an incredibly cutthroat manner. For this reason, many talented online entrepreneurs find their way to personal and financial success quietly, avoiding the more distasteful aspects of the business by "flying under the radar" of some of the internet's more infamous "birds of prey".

So, yes, there are disadvantages to online business. The life of an internet entrepreneur can also be incredibly rewarding and liberating, personally and financially. The internet opens avenues to relationships with people otherwise inaccessible because of geographic and cultural barriers. Pursue the virtues of every opportunity, steer away from the vices presented by distraction, competition, and pettiness and you will be victorious online.

Copyright 2008