3 C’s to Success
Do you want to succeed in an online business?
If so, you need to read this article, print it out, and post it to your desk.
No I’m not telling you about some incredible new life changing product you must have to succeed. You don’t have to join my coaching program. You don’t have to buy a copy of every single one of my products for both you and your neighbor.
Although of course both of the above would help. 
They’re just not 100% essential to success.
The 3 C’s below are 100% essential. You’re not going to make it online without them no matter who’s system you buy or what advice you follow. You can’t BUY your way out of them.
1. Commitment
Succeeding online takes commitment. Any business does. You’re going to have days where things go wrong…no matter how long you’ve been at this business.
For example, you might have the day where your shopping cart goes down during your big teleconference (it happened to me). Or maybe you’ll misspell the link on your own email (yep I did that too). Or perhaps it could be your merchant account puts your money on hold because of too many orders (my hand is raised).
Or it could be something else…such as the extremely intelligent idea you thought of that no one ever came up with before didn’t work out like you expected. And you did all your research to proving there wasn’t a single Adwords ad or product like yours on the market. Yes I did that too…TWICE. Only later to realize the reason no one was in the market was because NOBODY was buying.
The ad you run may not work. When you first start with Adwords you’ll probably lose a little money (key element there is “little” – ALWAYS make sure you set up a daily budget you’re willing to lose).
No matter what problems come up, you have to committed to making this business work…no matter what.
Even though I talk about working less, that may not be the answer for you when you’re first starting out. My first year I worked a lot more as do most people starting out. It takes time to get your systems in place. You’re simply making sure to work at automating and outsourcing as much of your business as possible.
2. Consistency
Be consistent in your growth and promotion of your business. I see online entrepreneurs do it all the time online. They get started with a bang doing everything possible to grow their business.
When it doesn’t grow as fast as they like in the beginning, they start getting discouraged. Or it even happens the other way around also. They achieve a measure of success, and they STOP doing the things which got them there in the first place.
Let’s take email marketing. They start building a list. They make their very first offer to their little list of 100 subscribers. They make one sale. The list grows to 200 and they send out another offer making more sales this time. They keep growing as they hit 1,000 and then 2,000 subscribers.
Someone sends them a nasty letter that they shouldn’t be promoting to their list. They get all bent out of shape and stop mailing them any offers. Two months later they wonder why their list is making any sales. They backed off of what was already working for them (and growing).
Or they get started with a blog. They’re running regular articles, getting indexed in the search engines, and driving some traffic. It doesn’t happen as quickly as they like. A new product launch comes out and they immediately change their entire focus to something completely different. Now they’re going to be the Adwords king/queen. Next month another product comes out and co-registration looks so much easier.
They stop being consistent in the plan they’re following. Every internet business requires you to do consistent promotion and growth. If you’re running any type of publishing business (like mine) you have to consistently create new products, write sales copy, and promote. If you don’t, your business starts decreasing.
If you’re participating in social media, you have to consistently take part. If you run Adwords campaigns, you have to keep an eye on them every week (even when they’re running great).
Make a list of activities your business MUST have done every week and every month to keep growing. Now organize those activities into the top priorities which require your participation for the moment. Then figure out which activities can be outsourced to others consistently.
It can be as simple as creating checklists to run your business, and then using them every single week.
3. Confidence
Both of the above often come back to confidence. One of my coaching clients asked me what was one of the most difficult things I ran into as a business coach.
My response, “It’s hard for me to get someone with zero confidence to succeed. It’s one of the hardest things I ever do as a coach. Confidence in your ability to succeed in spite of what difficulties may come is probably the biggest indicator of success I see.”
You have to get your head on straight.
If you’re thoroughly confident that the current recession is going to destroy your business, you’re probably right. But if you believe you can overcome that and make your business even more profitable over the next year, you’re also right.
A lot of times the reason someone jumps from program to program or idea to idea is because they’re lacking in this confidence issue. And after you boil through all their excuses, the real answer comes out, “I’m afraid _______.”
Yep, FEAR. It doesn’t matter what you fill in the blank above with. It’s still their fear that’s holding them back. Why does it take people so long to publish their first product? Fear. Why does it take them so long to start contacting JV partners? Fear. Or to make it even more personal. Why does it take me so long at times to start a new project? Yep, it’s fear. I admit it. I deal with it just like you do…even after doing this for 12 years.
Make a list right now of where fear has held you back in your business. What is it stopping you from doing when you get really honest with yourself? Then make the commitment to start confronting those fears and doing it ANYWAY.
Fear comes up when you send that different email. It comes up when you try a new kind of advertising. It comes up just as you’re about to launch any new product. Recognize it for what it is. Don’t allow excuses to come in. Then, just do it anyway.
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Once I made a committed to just do stuff I knew and keep doing it with consistency I was able to experience a small measure of success. That small measure of success boosted my confidence thru the roof!
But still everyday I have to remind myself it is consistent application of sometimes mundane activities – and the successes keep increasing – so it help to keep me on track.
And you are right! I have a new project I’m nearly ready to roll out but I keep thinking “What if nobody wants this?” inspite of the fact that I’m answering real life questions from my market place.
I guess you just sometimes jump out there and course correct as you go.
Hi Terry,
Somehow I heard of this 3Cs somewhere but it is always enriching to hear it from you again. You hit me with the email marketing example. I do get disheartened when someone unsubscribed from my list. I lost interest for a while to improve on my website and email contents. I have no clue what was going wrong. I guess I have to improve on my consistence and confidence level.
Thanks for this article. Keep them coming.:)
What’s a good C word for “proven business plan”?
Probably need to add that to the first 3 C’s.
The first three C’s are actually a time sucking death trap, if they aren’t aimed at a business plan that can actually work. Been there, done that!
[...] and great frustration. Leadership is always easier to explain leadership than to practice it. 3 C’s to SuccessOctober 21, 2008, By Terry DeanOne of my coaching clients asked me what was one of the most [...]
Perfectly true. It is confidence that makes any businessman successful and in internet business, it is needed more. Yes, consistent submission and commitment to complete the tasks are very vital in this. Thanks for elaborating on this.
Great advice, Terry. Speaking of being consistent… I recently started using StumbleUpon again after not using it for a while. All of a sudden, I started getting traffic from it — even though I hadn’t promoted any of my own blogs!
Coincidence? Or just the force of consistency after using it for a few days in a row?
Ryan