A lot of people think that starting an online business of any kind is a stressful affair.

Well this is definitely not true. At least not completely true.

Because the truth is that it completely depends on you and the steps you take to run your business.

I created my online coaching business related to photography training back in 2014 and apart from some hiccups, I don’t think I can label it as stressful.

A certain amount of stress will obviously be there because that’s expected when you start any kind of business.

But how can you keep the bad stress away?

The answer lies in AUTOMATION.

If you automate your business as much as possible, then it becomes less stressful.

Let’s see some examples from my own experience:

In the first few years of running Creative Pad Media (my photography training business), I used to manually copy paste the emails of my prospects from an Excel sheet to Gmail and send bulk emails. This was very frustrating and labour intensive.

Then I signed up for an email marketing service provider called Aweber and BOOM! Almost all that work got automated for a monthly fee which I was more than happy to pay.

Similarly when I discovered Facebook ads, I stopped reaching out to third party promotion websites and collaborations with other organisations because with Facebook ads, I could reach out to my target audience with a click of a few buttons. I hate networking with other people and asking for favors so this really helped me to grow my business without depending on others. It suited my personality. That’s why one of the modules I have in Online Course Blueprint is about how to create and use Facebook ads to sell your online courses. It will not be an exaggeration if I say that Facebook ads completely changed my life.

I can give endless examples like this.

But the point is that it’s always better to spend a little money than endure long duration of consistent stress.

Wherever you feel you are doing something repetitive and stressful, chances are that there is always a way to automate that task.

Apart from automation, another thing to help you love your business is to run it in a way that fits your personality.

I’ll give you an example of this.

At Creative Pad Media, when someone buys my course, I give them access to a private Facebook group where they can post their shots as they learn photography from my courses.

This strategy was working really well for my students as well as for me.

But then in 2017, a few of my students approached me and told me that they also want to start a Whatsapp group where they can have discussions and post their shots.

I somehow did not feel right about this as it immediately made me feel stressful about handling such a large group of people on Whatsapp.

But I made the mistake of not listening to my gut and I decided to go ahead with the Whatsapp group idea.

Right on the first day I realized this was the wrong decision. There were so many notifications on my phone that it started to overwhelm me.

I ruthlessly shut down that group the next day itself, much to the dislike of my students.

I knew I would alienate some of my own students with this decision but I knew that in the long run this would not matter since I can always get those extra students but I cannot get back my peace and happiness if this group continues.

I also knew that had I let the Whatsapp group remain active, I would also have made more sales.

But I was even willing to let go of those extra sales and marketing.

Why?

Because that model did not fit with my personality.

Even in my normal life I don’t like checking and chatting on Whatsapp much.

I’m not a very social person and this model just did not fit the introverted personality of mine.

Always remember that money is not everything. Especially if it comes at the cost of you being perpetually unhappy.

Yes, you are bound to make some mistakes when you start your online coaching business.

But the important thing is to consistently evaluate things and remove or automate things you don’t like.

Let me know your opinion in the comments below.

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