How to Build an Online Business

Chapter 2Mindset #2: Take action

Let’s recap. You’ve got a passion to start an online business. You’ve got a crazy idea that might work. You’ve got access to the tools of disruption … but there’s a key element missing. It’s called taking action. Some entrepreneurs have great ideas but they take too long to get started and by the time they do, the market has moved on or a competitor has taken the lead.

In order to succeed, you have to start.

This sounds obvious, I know, but it’s easy to forget that having an idea, talking about it and attending meetups and hackathons are all well and good, but ideas are a dime a dozen. What separates successful entrepreneurs from the others is that they do something with their idea. They create something that gives momentum to their idea. The best way to bring an idea to life is to create something for others to look at. That ‘something’ is often referred to as a minimum viable product (MVP). The MVP could be a pop-up shop at a shopping centre or a market stall, a one-page website to show prospects or a paper mock-up of your invention. It has to be something that others can see. Without that it’s just an idea — and everyone has an idea. I’ll cover MVPs in more detail in Step 2.

Why entrepreneurs start their businesses

How and why entrepreneurs get started is as varied as the businesses they create. Some start out on their journey because they personally experienced a problem that needed solving, saw a gap in the market that needed filling or ...