Five Reasons 93% Of Ecommerce Business Owners Fail!

1. Starting An Ecommerce Business with a "Get Rich Quick" Mindset

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This is the number one reason that almost all eCom business owners fail, fact is this, making money online can be quick and easy - YES. Below one of our store owners going from zero to over 500 per day in sales in a few short weeks of operation! The short term thinking and the “Get Rich Quick” mentality quickly gets in the way here.

Where the attention should be on building something of value for the end customer, increasing the product quality, focusing on long term growth strategies the focus slides on filling your own pockets and your business goes down the drain as quick as you launched it while you are left to deal with customer complaints, refund requests, shipping delays and on and on.

In short - play long term, there's a simple way to remember it.

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Think Macro - Work Micro
A.K.A: Think Long Term - Work like tomorrow is your last day...

2. Shiny Object Syndrome

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The KILLER of almost ALL startups eCom entrepreneurs, looking around at what you see on the internet being better, shiner, easier to make money, and quite simply taking your attention away from you and the work you need to do!

Doing or trying 100 different methods, programs, courses listening to 100 different people and quite simply doing 1% of all 100 of them will just get you there 1% of the way to success.

Cutting the distractions and focusing solely on the outcome, putting the blinders on and going deep into the work for the time you need to. ZERO distractions and full focus is what will see you win. 

The grass is greener where you water it, I get it - eCommerce moves fast and you don't want to miss trends or mess up on something that might be a sure thing. But nothing will pay more than you going full focus on you, your business, your brand, your marketing and your own product research.

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This is one of the best ways to ensure your eCommerce business explodes!

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Take action based on what you know and believe in and focus on seeing results not focusing on someone else around you who might be making money on bitcoin…

3. Know Your Numbers

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One thing I've seen more than anything else is failure to track and measure your numbers, understanding your margins, taking a good look into the cost of advertising, tracking NET NET profit each day. Down to the micro! 

The better you can understand your business and know all of the moving parts the better the result will be.

It's easy to say and you probably hear it all the time - I made 1,000,000 last year… Yeah but how much did you keep, like after expenses, after taxes, after you pay everything… what are you left with NET, NET… Hmm yea maybe not as remarkable. 

Knowing your numbers and especially when it comes to advertising, understanding what it costs you to acquire a customer, what it costs you to have your product shipped and “landed” to your customers address, what it costs you to generate a lead and on and on… 

Then not just to track these things but also understand how to “pull the levers” and control the growth of the business through these mechanisms. 

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Numbers are predictable, numbers are repeatable - numbers don't lie!

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Your numbers don't lie, they don't misconstrue your ideas of what is right and wrong, they give you an unbiased look into your business and give you straight up metrics of what you need to do to change.

Track all the numbers of your business and you will never fall out of control and have something happen to you that you didn't expect.

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4. Failure to Understand that "It's not about you"

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It never is about you, your ideas, your concepts of what you think are right and wrong don't apply. Ultimately it is up to your market as to what they like and don't like. 

Remove all of your attachment to the product itself and focus on the outcome that it solves the customer. People don't buy things for the “Thing” itself. They buy it for the outcome that it achieves...

I.e. I don't buy a coffee from the cafe and pay 5.60 for it because it's a “coffee” and it gives me a shot of energy. If that was the case I would pour some instant coffee from the bag and just have a shot at it would cost me .07 cents… 

People buy outcomes, not products. Always think a layer deeper than just “is it the best product” it's about what does this product do for the end user and then deeper again, what does the end user FEEL like achieving the desired result? 

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Remember - It is NOT about you

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Use the acronym WIMFM (What It Means For Me) when thinking about your product. 

Remember - It is NOT about you.

5. Lack of Direct Response Advertising Copy

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Your marketplace (the internet) is simply a compilation of words and images (some still, some moving, aka video) that fills the minds of your consumers and has them scrolling from page to page, clicking from button to button.

If you and your business want to stand out - and REALLY stand out, you’ve got to learn to leverage the art of captivating attention and eyeballs and then directing them at your will towards an action of your choice. This is what’s known as “Direct Response Advertising” 

Some books that will aid in your rapid upskilling of this skill are: 

1. Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz
2. Made To Stick by Dan and Chip Heath
3. How To Write A Good Advertisement by Vic Schwab

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In essence practice these things, improve yourself and your ability to execute on the above, read these advertising books, really knuckle down on your desire and “Will to Win” and watch the results come. 

Remember - it's not a Get Rich Quick - It's a long game, but there still are some awesome returns to be made along the way! 

I hope you enjoyed this short read and upskilled yourself in some of the failures made by initial startup eCommerce Entrepreneurs.