When Kishmel began building his business, he started with hours upon hours of market research. To truly be seen as an Instagram expert, he had to familiarize himself with the Instagram algorithm, the engagement trends, creating eye-catching content, and even had to network with every popular page in his niche. The hours of hard work he put into mastering his craft came to play as he began to scale his agency to hit its first 5 figure month.
Your first few years in business you will always make a mistake or two, along Kishmel’s journey he has had his fair share of avoidable mistakes or what he might even consider biggest lessons learned below:
Lack of Skill: Not spending nearly enough time developing his skills or service
Selling Himself Short: being underpriced and underpaid to close a deal
Offering Free Trials: Offering an absurd amount of free trials to prove himself
Not getting enough exposure: He didn’t reach out to enough prospects
Poor communication: Lack of communication between his clients and his services
Fear of Rejection: Scared of being rejected
These lessons above taught Kishmel the most valuable future-shaping insights on how to navigate the world of business.
When broken down, building an online business will come with just as many negatives as it does positives, something most online gurus won’t mention are the lessons you have to face to grow your business and learn from your mistakes. Kishmel has managed to build a 6-figure agency in a saturated business model by sticking to his plan of offering a unique and valuable experience, but that didn’t come without hitting the obstacles mentioned above,
Actionable Steps to Building your Online Business
Step 1: Figure out your business model, preferably around something you are passionate about or have a liking for. This will ensure that you can play the game of longevity when you get past the “fun” of building a business and into the long hard hours of work, make sure you enjoy what you do. If a business model that you’re entering is saturated, take a few days and think of every creative angle that you can think of within that niche and start there. Fresh perspectives and ideas take well with a saturated niche.
Step 2: Now that you have selected the business niche you’re starting in, don’t play the dangerous game of wanting everything to be perfect before you start. Long story short, it will never be perfect, and you will miss windows of opportunity, the best thing to do is to build a fundamental understanding then implement, learn the more profound concepts along the way but do not let momentum settle.
Step 3: Be ready to play the long game and understand that great things take time! Becoming an entrepreneur is, by far, one of the most challenging tasks you can take on. The life of an entrepreneur might sound glamorous and attractive at first, but that does not come without hours upon hours of hard work and sacrifice. The money will always be available to the person who is in the game the longest.
