I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of all the lies and scams I am seeing all over our internet these days. This article was inspired by my frustration while trying to start an online business.

In this article I am going to be brutally honest and candid about what you need to do in order to learn how to start an online business. I am not going to sugarcoat anything. I am going to tell you what you need to hear and not what you want to hear. Whether you choose to hear it or not is completely up to you.

Let me say one thing before you begin reading this article. Yes, you can learn how to start an online business, it will not be easy and it will not happen overnight, but you can succeed. Now, grab yourself a soda pop or coffee or other beverage of choice and get the truth about how to start an online business and make money online.

How to Start an Online Business - The Simple Truth

First off, get started right away! Yes, you need to get started learning how to start an online business at once, today, this hour. Don't wait until you are jobless or retired or angry at your boss or require immediate profits. Do not wait until your favorite television program is finished or the dog has been walked or you finish your coffee. You must start learning at once! Tell yourself that you're going to succeed and that you're going to make money online. Incidentally, did I mention that you need to get started today.

Everyday I get e-mails from people who tell me they need to start an online business and start making money online immediately because they lost their job or for some other reason; and everyday I tell these people that I cannot help them, to go back to the conventional workplace. If you get nothing else from this article, please understand that you are not going to make money online immediately with any online business. I am not saying this to deter you. I am saying this to hopefully save you some money, time and trouble. If you think you can start an online business and make money online instantly, you are wrong. Nobody does and nobody has and if they tell you otherwise, they are lying to you.

Answer this question: If you had an online business where you could do no work and just cash checks and make money online, would you tell anyone about it? Of course not. You would just sit in your office all day and endorse checks. I know I sure would.

However, I see these ads online everyday, and I hear from people who have joined these so called online businesses everyday. They pay $97 or $199 or whatever the fee is and they honestly believe they're just going to sit around and make money online while someone else does all the work.

Nobody is going to do all the work and let you cash the checks. It does not make sense. These types of so called online businesses are feeding on lazy or ignorant people who have no business starting an online business. Do not fall victim to this type of scam. If you are going to succeed in starting an online business and making money online, it will take time and it will take money and that is the only guarantee when learning how to start an online business.

One of the biggest challenges with starting and running an online business is investing in your online business. You have to be willing to invest in your online business and you have to be willing to give something up so you can invest in your online business. Take some time and make a list of all the little things you buy or have that you could do without for a a couple of months.

If you cannot give some of these things up for a few months so you can learn how to make money online, stop reading now since you don't have what it takes to run an online business and the odds are extremely high that you will fail. Remember I am just trying to save you some pain.

Did you know that 80 - 90% of traditional offline businesses fail in the first three years of business? Now, did you know that 80% - 90% of all online businesses fail in the first three months of business? It is true. They fail since they failed to plan and/or they had unrealistic expectations.

The bright side is that you can start an online business for a fraction of what it costs to start an offline business. And, while I am on this subject, keep in mind that when I mention your online business, I am talking about "your online business" whether you have your own website or you are an affiliate or you are involved in an MLM opportunity or whatever. It is YOUR online business and you better start thinking like it is your online business and take ownership of it psychologically and professionally.

Also, don't think just since you have a product or service that you think is the greatest in the world, that everyone will feel that way. Yes, you have to believe in what you are selling, but don't set goals that are unrealistic or goals you cannot reach.

Once you have actual customers using your product or service and it is working for them, then you have reason to get excited since they will tell others about it, who will tell people about it, who will tell people about it, etc. Pretty soon, you have traffic and sales and income, but not profit. You must reinvest all that initial income right back into your online business. The goal is to get more people to your site and more users telling others about it.

This is the way you make money online. You get some clients and you help them. Then you get more clients and you help them. Soon you'll have others selling for you since you have a good product or service. Remember the story: Give me a penny a day and double it each day and I will retire after a month. It is true and you can do the math on this. The same principle applies to making money online. Make a sale and put that income back into your online business so you can make 2 more sales and put the income from both those sales back into your online business and then you make 4 sales, etc.

After a few months you can take a little for yourself, but the majority of the income goes back into running your online business. You have to reinvest into your online business to make it grow. Businesses have been doing this for hundreds of years and it is the time-tested method to building and running a successful and long term online business.

Learning how to start an online business and make money online has literally saved my life. I was stuck in retail management for years and had no desire to live the life that God so graciously had given me. Now that I am a full time online business owner I have time to enjoy life and all the wonderful experiences that go along with it.