If you’re like me, you want to start or grow your own online business not only for the money, but also for the freedom. Online entrepreneurship absolutely has its challenges, but when it works, you get to do the work you love, leapfrog corporate bullshit, and make money on your time and your terms.

Clearly, you and I are not alone in our desires for autonomy: One in three Americans have a side hustle, and the events of the last 18 months have millions of people rethinking their careers.

With everyone suddenly spending far more time online, a huge untapped market has surfaced. Opportunities like this are a once-in-a-generation phenomenon, and the chance to rapidly attract and grow an audience of potential customers online is finally here.

The best way to gather this audience, statistically and historically, is to have them be on your email list. Email subscribers have both higher purchase intent and higher lifetime value than followers on other platforms.

And yet…

No one believes me when I say this. (Which I have done repeatedly.)

That’s why I’m excited about today’s breaking acquisition news:

Mailchimp, the OG email service provider, has been acquired by Intuit — for $12 billion in cash and stock.

An email software that’s 20 years old… getting acquired for that much? Really? Shouldn’t this have been the type of exit from more hyped platforms like Substack or Clubhouse?

Nope. The acquisition makes perfect sense. Email marketing is not going anywhere; if anything, email marketing is surging again.

You need an email list — and the best time to build one is now.

“But Do I Need An Email List If I — ”

Yes.

Don’t even finish that sentence — the answer is yes.

The reason you should start an email list now is not just so that you’ll have one.

Starting an email list will force you to make a decision about what you want to write about or sell online.

This is where a lot of you are struggling right now.

I know this because I surveyed my subscribers — people like you who are reading on this platform — all throughout the summer, and y’all told me the same things over and over again.

• You’re an aspiring creator, freelancer, or online entrepreneur
• You’re thinking about a bunch of different niches or topics you could write about
• You keep buying courses and then never finish them
• You’re struggling to gauge whether your current efforts are working or not
• You don’t have more time or mental bandwidth
• But the prospect of returning to the office or being stuck in dead-end career paths is equally demoralizing

And so on.

As a result, you have total analysis paralysis… despite being smart, educated, driven, and resourceful.

Setting up an email list will force you to make a decision. And since Mailchimp is free to start using, you could set an account up and get all the way to 2,000 email subscribers before paying a penny.

Don’t Listen To Influencers With Giant Followings When They Say

…that you need a gigantic audience to have an online business.

You don’t.

I ran a multi-6-figure consulting business for years with fewer than 1,000 email subscribers. You don’t need a lot of people in your audience; you need the right people.

You also need to gather these people in one place. Preferably a platform that doesn’t have shiny objects floating around everywhere.

And you need to sell. You don’t need to sell hard, but you do need to make offers frequently and well. Don’t forget the selling part. Otherwise, you don’t have a business; you just have a really expensive hobby.

Email ticks all these boxes.

“I Don’t Know What Business Idea To Pursue”

Pick one! And then go with it for at least 90 days.

Here’s an analogy that has always resonated with me: Think like a scientist.

Scientists don’t sit around and agonize over which experiment to do. Instead:

• They create hypotheses,
• They follow the scientific method,
• They conduct experiments, and then
• They measure the results.

That’s it.

You could do the same. Conduct some experiments.

Choose ONE topic or ONE business idea and practice focusing only on that topic for a minimum of 90 days.

The Best Time To Start An Email List Is Now

An email list will force you to make a decision about your next step, and being decisive about your next step is what will ensure your destiny.

Think about where you want to be in the future. Is it working for yourself, on your time, and on your terms, with the salary you want?

If the answer is yes, it’s time to reverse-engineer the steps it will take you to get there. I would bet money that one of those steps would be to test out different offers and put them in front of your ideal clients to see what works and what doesn’t.

Having an email list makes growing an online business so much easier. But the longer you wait to jump in the sandbox, the more crowded the internet will become.

Don’t let this wait. Keep the dream alive. You’re closer than you think.

What will you do today to move your entrepreneurial dreams forward?

Thanks for reading. 🙏🏼

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