Photo Courtesy: damienweighill.com
It’s been a few days now since this blog started. I, however, purchased the domain name about 4 years ago from Lunarpages with the Intention that I’ll start my own Internet Business. I won’t get into the usual drill of what businesses are the best to start with since I already posted “Top 3 Kick Ass Ways to Earn Money Online In India” and I intend to add more to that list later.
What I wanted to talk about was altogether different: I wanted to introduce you to a disease of sorts; perhaps “condition” would be a better word? Ever since I started my consulting practice online (which originally started with Freelance writing for clients all over the world), I started on a small scale. I grew slowly, learned from experience and I have full-fledged consulting practice now.
Yet, it’s a service-based business. I mostly don’t outsource any of the writing work, if any. I only farm out work such as Web Development, Web Design, Virtual Assistantship, and Social Media management. Over 80% of my business rests on writing or producing content though. As you can, I have to be at work to make my money.
I also have these grand plans of “traveling and working” – both at the same time, Location Independent professionals as they are called.
I have this itch for starting and running new businesses. Since my service business is already in full-swing and is a good source of income for me, I need more [ yeah, you can call me relentless or greedy even].
What the heck is a Semi-Start Syndrome?
Don’t bother to “Google it”. I just made that up myself. I define this syndrome as the habit of continuously ideating and then evaluating only to research a little more into the idea to discard it altogether.
Here’s an example:
I came across a particular website called WPMU DEV which is a membership site charging you a monthly fee in exchange for hundreds or thousands of wordpress themes, plugins, and support. It also offers a multi-site option for entrepreneurs who wish to provide their clients with WordPress hosting on their own. Plenty of business models can already be found on the WPMU Dev showcase.
My mind went into the entrepreneurship mode. I started thinking about the various possibilities. What can I do with it? What do I gain out of it? Here’s what I thought:
- I will provide basic web designing services, as they are called here in India, but with a twist: Charge clients a recurring fee each month through my fetchprofits flagship brand,, say about 2499 INR. In turn, I’ll set their website up, add content to it regularly (as in maintaining their company blog), do social media management, email marketing, etc.
- Create a community here at Rebelpreneur.com and provide unlimited hosting, wordpress set-up, and all tools and resources to help my readers get started with their online business.
You’d have though that I should start, right away. I spent a day just thinking about these ideas. I went so far as to think about how to market these businesses, etc.
I then come across a few posts on the Internet ranting about the fact that there’s really nothing much about it. Oliver Whitman of Seo Chemist wrote a blog post titled “WPMU Dev: A Scam? ”Another friend of mine, Ivan Byross of Open Source Varsity also told me that I can have all of this multi-site functionality in other ways and it’s not necessary to buy this, really.
That officially kills my business idea. So, I leave that idea about and I am now thinking of something else altogether.
You get the idea now, don’t you? That’s how quickly ideas germinate and die.
Just saying, you know?
I am Ashwin. I am a web-consultant, freelance writer, and an entrepreneur. I am also a Certified Behavior Analyst, speaker, and corporate trainer. I am an e-commerce enthusiast and an avid reader. When I am not working (which is rare), I travel around the world just for the sake of traveling.
