I’m a lucky guy. For work, I get to talk to hundreds of entrepreneurs and people who help small business owners. I’ve talked to piano teachers, wedding photographers, and roller-derby merchants. I’ve talked to bloggers, designers, and musicians. I even talked to a guy building a castle for his business in New England. Stone by stone. See what I mean? Inspirational, creative stuff.
A lot of them have one thing in common: they know they should be online, but something is keeping them back.
What is it? Is it too technical? Is it like learning a new language? Maybe. In a lot of cases, it’s all of the stuff they think they need to worry about that holds them back: cloud-based computing, HTML, WordPress,Twitter, A/B split testing, analytics, metadata, SEO, image resolution.
Listen, getting online is a lot like learning anything else. No one pulls out Rachmaninoff when they first start learning to play the piano. They learn Chopsticks. They learn Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. They start small, get good, and then go bigger. Getting online is the same. There are three initial steps that you can complete in a couple of hours, and once you’re done, you’ll have something cool to put on your new business cards. (more…)