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If you're here, you're most likely wondering how I managed to live the life of my dreams with a thriving and constantly growing online business which I started at 19.

I'm also gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you want to learn how I did it so you can do it for yourself.

Well, in that case, congratulations!

That is the exact purpose of this blog post and you have managed to come across my version of liquid gold.

Let's get into the steps I took to live my life today, and how you can do it too.

How to Start an Online Business that Makes Money

Before we can get into how I built all of this, we need to set up your foundation for success.

Let me lay it down for you; If you don't put in the effort, you won't achieve your goals.

It's pretty simple, right?

Now, I can just imagine you scratching your head and thinking "but that's why I'm here, you're supposed to tell me what to do so I can build my own business and live the life of my dreams."

You're right, that's what I'm going to do, but first, you need to understand that starting an online business is not a get-rich-quick scheme.

It takes months, if not years to build the business you're dreaming of.

You need to be willing to put in the effort of building your business and laying the foundation so that you can live the life you're dreaming of.

That being said, it is totally possible for you to grow your business, achieve financial freedom, and live wherever you want.

I'm just letting you know that there needs to be a lot of time and effort put into the online business end of things before the income side of things can begin.

How Can You Grow Your Online Business?

Building your online audience from the get-go cannot be overlooked.

It is crucial to your success down the line and understanding that from the start is really important.

Before you can start making income, your need to focus on growing an audience who listens when you say to do something.

Building both a social media following and growing an email list are great ways to do this. I would suggest doing both at the same time if you can.

So, how do you begin to get eyes on you and your business?

What Type of Online Business Should You Start?

There are many different types of online businesses, so I'm going to focus on a few and break them down a bit.

These lean towards the marketing side of things (this isn't about your niche) and are how you get people to begin noticing you, specifically to build an audience or get potential clients.

The income side of things is a different story that I'll touch on soon.

Ideally, choosing two or more of these would be best as you will have an audience coming in from more than one place.

Make sure whatever you choose is something you enjoy doing since you should love the business you create.

• Podcasting. Podcast listeners tend to stick with their preferred podcasts, and that loyalty can go a long way. If you enjoy interviewing others and can talk about a certain topic on your own for 15-20 minutes, this could be the way to go.

• Online Events. When I began my business, I focused on helping entrepreneurs build their online summits. That was pretty much my specialty and I really enjoyed it! Nowadays, I would suggest using this once every few months or even once a year to help bring in a bunch of new people to your audience, not as a constant method.

• Social Media. If you have a love for filming yourself and are willing to keep up with all the latest trends, go the social media route. If you don't usually enjoy those sorts of things, use something else as your main audience builder and post every so often something to keep your social media pages alive. If you'd like to learn a bit more about growing your social media, I made a free course to help you navigate the world of Reels.

• Blogging. This is the method you are reading right now. If you love writing and don't mind putting the work in to figure out all the different bits that go into making a blog successful, then choose this route. This is my preferred method of consistent audience growth and I really would suggest it if writing is your thing!

• Freelancing. This is different from the other 4 as it is about both marketing your business and generating an income. If you are good at cold emails, talking to potential clients, and have a specific area of expertise you can use to help your clients grow, then starting a freelancing business might be right for you.

Can You Make Money Quickly as an Entrepreneur?

I'm gonna be pretty blunt with this. No.

Being an entrepreneur is generally not a get rich-quick-scheme.

As I mentioned before, it can take months if not years to begin making the money you've been dreaming of.

Even so, you can definitely make money as an entrepreneur.

Starting with a business strategy can be life-changing when it comes to this.

I didn't have a solid strategy during my first year as an entrepreneur for growing or maintaining my business, and it began to decline.

As soon as you understand how all the different parts of an online business work and how they function together, then you can begin to make some really big waves.

You can create a business plan right from the beginning that sets you up for success.

Learning to make a business plan is amazing for anyone who wants to create a consistently growing business from the start.

How do You Make Money with Your Online Business?

Great! Now that we know how you're going to grow your audience, it's time to figure out how to actually begin making money.

Much like growing your audience, there are a few options for making an income.

Remember, I recommend choosing two or more so that you have multiple sources of income.

Before getting into them, each of the audience-building methods I mentioned above will have their own specific ways as well which I won't be including in the list below.

I would seriously suggest doing some research into the specific audience-building techniques you will be using to give yourself the best chance to grow your business and income.

• Online Courses. This is one of my favourite ways to grow my own income. Not only do I love putting them together, but you can also help a lot more people by constantly giving information out where time is not an issue, such as in 1:1 coaching.

• Products. These can be both real-life products or digital. A real-life example would be if you had a clothing brand and you promoted it with a fashion blog. A digital example would be if you sold things like an online journal, an online .pdf, or an online checklist.

• Online Workshops. An informational workshop your audience can purchase to attend with a specific place and time (and maybe a replay) is an awesome way to earn income while giving your audience important information. This is more of a once-in-a-while thing, but great nonetheless.

• Memberships. Having your own membership that can be subscribed to for a year can be a great way for your audience to get a lot of insight into your brand, learn a ton about whatever your business focuses on, and get to know you more.

• Coaching. Both 1:1 and group coaching are how a lot of people start their online businesses. If you niche down and coach specifically on a certain topic such as anxiety in entrepreneurs, it can help you get very specific clients.

Are You Ready to Start an Online Business?

Awesome! You now have a strategy that aligns with you and the business you want to create. So... where do you go from here?

At this point, you should be researching the specifics of the strategies you have chosen.

For example, if you chose to start a podcast to grow your audience, then I would research "how to start a successful podcast", "the best software to use to edit a podcast", "how to market your podcast" and things that will tell you exactly what to do when it comes to starting a podcast and doing it successfully.

Thanks for getting to the bottom of this post and learning how to build an online business!

Send me an email at hello@umbrellavs.com with your new business strategy and we can talk a bit to better understand your goals and vision for your online business.

See you soon!

Isabella