Sometimes I can’t think of a succinct response when I’m asked what I do for a living.

“I’m a writer,” is what I usually say, but often, that isn’t enough. I need a quick response that covers it all — but that’s a lot to ask because my work is so multi-faceted. And I like it that way! But it can be challenging to come up with a simple response that describes my vocation.

The elevator speech is just a name for saying what you do for a living, quickly and succinctly. And it’s an ideal opportunity to slip in a little marketing. Don’t miss the bus. Make one up that captures the heart & soul of your business and commit it to memory.

Here’s one that I use:
The Online Business Cookbook offers recipes for starting a business online. We serve people looking to create income from a Web business. We earn a living through our business consultation services. We’ve started four profitable Web businesses, the first of which is now seven years old and still expanding.

How to write an elevator pitch

Starting an online business is like learning a foreign language. Or a new dance step. It feels awkward to not know what you’re doing. Especially if you’re already proficient in many other areas of life. Why is that?

Learning something new requires eating humble pie. Admitting you don’t know everything already. We grownups often have a hard time with that.

Ever been stopped in your tracks by any of these prickly obstacles?

• fear of embarrassment
• looking foolish
• being rejected
• fear of the unknown

Me too.

Dan Millman is a champion gymnast and popular writer. He is the author of thirteen books about self-mastery, including The Peaceful Warrior.

His advice might surprise you:

• Don’t make success a goal. Simply do your best. You can’t control the outcome. However, by doing your best you boost your chances at success.

Paralyzing fear is often at the heart of any big challenge or change. As Millman says, even the almighty Michael Jordan cannot make the ball land in the basket. The only thing Michael can control is whether or not to take the shot. Here’s the thing:

Although we can’t control fear or make it go away, we can overcome it.

Millman has some other stellar advice. He tells tennis pros that when they’re on the court in the frenzy of a game, not to see their opponent across the net. “Instead,” he says, “see your student and your teacher.”

Switching that advice around a bit, we could say that when starting an online business, don’t see your competitors across the Net.

Instead, see people with a genuine interest in your service or product. They’re looking for ways that you can fix their problem, or answer their question.

Not knowing what you’re doing can be downright intimidating, no doubt. But it can also be your biggest blessing, because you stand to learn something very valuable, whether it’s a new dance, or a new way of conducting your business.

Let go of your fear of rejection, or of not getting it p-e-r-f-e-c-t. Perfection is an ideal, rarely achieved (or at least rarely achieved precisely the way you envisioned it).

Let go of achieving success. Concentrate your efforts on doing your best and overcoming your fears. Do this every single day while creating your online business, and watch what happens.

The secret to success may lie in not making success your goal.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!

Today’s post on the Small Business Success blog reports on important factors that can make or break a small business.

Entrepreneurs polled declare these factors very important to success:

1. Past job experience
2. Learning from successes and failures
3. Strong management
4. Good fortune

And among the barriers to entrepreneurial success:

1. The failure to take risks
2. Not putting in the time and effort required
3. Difficulty raising capital
4. Lack of business management skills

What barriers to success are you experiencing? Do these four factors ring a bell? Starting an online business can be very inexpensive, in terms of capital. It depends (like so much in life) on what your business goals are.

I thought it was interesting that the “failure to take risks” was at the top of the second list.

• What are you risking in order to start your online business?
• What do you think you should risk, but you haven’t (yet)?
  

The Wile E. Coyote School of Risk-taking

Try this:

Think back on a risk you took in the past. Maybe you were starting grad school, getting married, moving away from home, building a house in the desert.

It can be about business or not, just any sort of venture that, when you started, made you feel as though you were jumping out of the airplane for the first time.

Did your parachute open?

Let’s say it didn’t. You crashed and burned. (This is the Wile E. Coyote School of Parachuting. You didn’t stay crashed-and-burned for long.)

Something inside (your inner entrepreneur, let’s say) compels you to drag your crumpled self over to the plane and climb onboard again.

You can’t give up. You WON’T give up.

Do you have the persistence, guts and determination to carve out your niche and start an internet business? I think you do. Or you wouldn’t be here.

I think you and Wile E. Coyote have a lot in common.

Perhaps you don’t think you’re as determined as he. His goal is pretty clear: Catch the Roadrunner and eat him for breakfast. He doesn’t clutter his day with other objectives. In anticipation of snagging that winsome critter, he spends every moment patiently refining his strategies. He puts in the time and effort necessary for success.

When he fails, he peels himself off the ground and tries a different approach. In fact, the only difference between you and the Coyote may be that his goal is clear, and yours isn’t. Be like the Coyote, and take failures in stride. And then be yourself, and learn from them.

What is your Roadrunner?

Your Roadrunner is your online business goal. Where is it, and how far away?

The Coyote seemed to have non-ending resources. He could always afford to order another Acme gizmo to help him catch the Roadrunner, so my silly analogy stops here.

Meep-meep!

Here’s something to keep in mind when you’re starting an online business. In order for your web pages or blog posts to get indexed by Google, first they must contain unique and quality content.

Easy to say, harder to pull off, right?

If you’re like me, your brain doesn’t always engage instantly the minute you sit at the computer. At those times, aside from asking Ninj to make me a latte (he makes the best), I pull out my bag of writing tricks.

This trick is called Cubing. You might recognize it from your freshman comp class. Like looking at a cube, you see six different perspectives on the same thing just by shifting it in your hand (or your mind).

Cubing is a tool for getting a whole lot of writing down on the page, quickly. If you would rather have a tooth drilled than sit down and write, you’re going to love this.

Once you do it, you can use the pages you’ve written in at least six different posts or longer articles (it’s always generated way more than six pages for me).

Cubing

1. Describe it. How does your subject look to you? What distinctive characteristics does it have?

2. Compare it. What is your subject like? Contrast it too. What is it not like?

3. Connect it. What can you connect or associate your subject with? What does it remind you of? Anything else it makes you think of?

4. Analyze it. What makes your subject tick? What makes it the way it is? What notable aspects does it have?

5. Apply it. How can your subject be used? What purpose does it serve, and what is its specific function?

6. Argue for or against it. Define an issue and take a position using your subject.

Oh, and let me know in the comments if you try this. Generating unique content isn’t always easy. This is one way that always seems to get my brain unlocked.

Does your blog smell good?

What do fresh, hot baked goodies delivered straight to your door have to do with starting an online business?

Let me illustrate with a flashback. It’s not fattening, I promise…

Every morning when I was a kid, the Helm’s Bakery man would pull up in his yellow truck. The moms on the block would grab their change purses and run out to meet him. He’d lift up the back door of his truck, and pull out a wide drawer loaded with fresh, hot baked goods.

Inside, the cinnamon-y fragrance and warmth made a stark contrast to the busy street. I loved that he knew my favorite donut, buttermilk, and that he’d hand it to me with a smile and a wink. And, that there was a definite window of opportunity. You had to choose quickly because he wouldn’t stick around for more than a few minutes.

Then the 70s rolled in, the neighborhood moms got jobs outside the house, and the Helm’s man quit coming.

So why am I thinking about him today? What do donuts and Web businesses have to do with each other?

The Helm’s man came to mind because I’m thinking about the importance of building relationships with our customers. It isn’t just you that wants a relationship with your clients. It’s something they want, too. They want to know you’re in their neighborhood, and that you understand them. They want empathy.

The Helm’s man:

Showed up like clockwork. I can’t remember a morning he didn’t show up. He was making a living. He knew his customers counted on him to deliver. If you blog every day, your readers will expect you to show up. Take it one step further and deliver something good, true and useful.

Remembered our favorites. He was a little like Santa, but less demanding. He was like a good waiter, someone who knows what you normally get, but politely asks first if you want ‘the usual.’ The more you know what your customers want, the more likely you are to deliver it.

Created a memorable environment. The drawer full of tantalizing bread, muffins, donuts and bear claws seemed like a magic place. You may only have a blog or Web site — however, you can make it stand out. Give it your own unmistakable stamp of personality. If you do this right, your customers will return regularly because they crave the warmth or humor, information or service you deliver.

An engaging debate is going on over at Daily Blog Tips. Starting an online business means writing for your readers.

Can Orwell's writing tips help you run a business online?

The question is about writing clearly online, and people don’t agree about how best to simplify information for online readers.

I don’t know a whole lot, people, but this is an area I love and actually have practical experience in, so here’s my $.02:

Write as if you’re explaining something to an intelligent and interested friend, someone who knows a little bit about your topic and wants to know more. Imagine she or he is listening attentively. Enthusiastic listeners improve communication.

The debate going on is, in part, about whether it’s a good idea to write as if your audience is in the 8th grade. This is not bad advice. I don’t know about you, but I was very smart in the 8th grade. That is the year my classmates and I were introduced to George Orwell.

In 1946, Orwell wrote an essay titled Politics and the English Language which contains this advice for writers of his day:

• 1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• 2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• 3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• 4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
• 5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

That was 1946. However, it’s still solid advice, don’t you think? I spent six years teaching college English, and I think we’re kidding ourselves (in the US) if we believe the majority of our audiences are reading at a much more advanced level than what is expected in the 8th grade.

Bear in mind that writing online is more effective when you write to your specific audience, especially if you want them to take an action, such as buy your service or ebook. Being aware of your readers’ expectations is just as important as keeping in mind their average attention span. The Ninja and I sell ebooks about how to start a cleaning business. We’re not about to quote Orwell to those readers. It wouldn’t be relevant. You guys are a different story.

Avoid pretentious diction and meaningless words and you and Orwell will be on the same page.

P.S. (He’d hate that I just used that tired metaphor, right?) I break his rules all the time. However, another wise person, whose name I have forgotten but whose advice I remember, said that you should know the rules first, before you break them.

I know I’m not the only one! So, please, tell me in the comments where you break the rules and still get good results.

A friend of ours is still working a job, but he’s thinking about starting an online business. He’s not crazy about his job, but he’s not exactly motivated to leave it, either. It’s that ‘leading a life of quiet desperation’ thing.

He asked me how long I thought it would take him to start making a profit.

His question caught me a little off-guard. While the Ninja and I make a nice living, I don’t always think in such black and white terms, like how long it takes to see a profit from doing ‘x’ activity. If money were my prime motivator, I’d have stayed in L.A. and kept working in the film industry, which is what I was doing in my early 20s.

Clearly, our buddy isn’t prepared to go whole hog, quit his day job completely, or take a part time one, which would allow for the time it takes to build a business online. His job pays well enough, he says, and he’s kind of happy, in an existentially miserable sort of way. There’s nothing wrong with that. Good people stay at lousy jobs for worse reasons.

I told him that in truth, it would take longer than he’d probably like.

Quick-talking gurus and self-proclaimed experts of all stripes are online, claiming to have made millions in their first few months. And they’ll gladly sell you their secret ingredients.

I hated to tell my friend that he’d probably wind up disappointed, but he lacks the number one ‘secret sauce’ that everyone who successfully builds a business online has got to have: Commitment.

Other secret sauce must-haves are persistence and patience.

The three virtues.

Andrew Rondeau posted about this too, recently. Check it out. His main point, which I agree with whole-heartedly, is that coming up with the idea is the easy part. What’s more difficult is putting the systems into place that will make your internet business profitable.

“Times of upheaval can indeed lead to major positive shifts in our lives,” says Arianna Huffington.

Entrepreneurs are positive thinkers by nature. We tend to be optimistic enough to strike out on our own. If you’ve ever left an unsatisfactory job to start your own business, you’re an optimist!

For some reason, I never really saw myself as all that confident or comfortable with risk, but a couple of my girlfriends have told me recently that they’ve always admired those qualities in me. Huh. And here all along I just thought I was simply stubborn and got bored easily.

Thinking positively isn’t simply about seeing the glass half full. It’s about having the confidence to take bold action when people all around you seem to be shrinking in a state of fear. Let them keep their nowhere job, if it makes them feel better. However, if your basic nature tells you it’s time to act, then do something about it. Listen to your intuition. Don’t watch too much prime time news – it’s enough to stop anybody cold in their tracks.

Taking a bold risk during an economic downturn can catapult you in a winning direction. If you’re already an entrepreneur you know this is true. Seeking opportunities, such as starting an online business, pretty much means you can’t stay in a safety zone all the time.

Even a chicken knows that you’ve got to kick your way out of the egg if you really want to fly.

Stress also manifests differently for entrepreneurial types than it does for others. Being a decision maker makes you feel in control. This isn’t the easiest way to make a living, and you might take a pay cut while you’re getting started. But even when you screw up, you get immediate feedback from reality.

Entrepreneurs feel stressed when they aren’t in control, or when they’re given hectic little tasks to do that don’t amount to anything significant.

Homework assignment:
Ask your BFs to give you feedback about your basic nature. Do they see you as a risk-taker or a safety-seeker?