When you first start an online business - especially if you're doing it in the evenings, on the weekends, or around a lot of other commitments - it can be tough to stay motivated.
Sometimes it feels as though all your efforts are going nowhere.
Marketing, creating your website, applying for gigs...
you're putting in a lot of hours for little return.
Here's how to stay motivated: Write Down Your Achievements Each week, write down what you've achieved.
That might be simply a list of tasks you've completed.
It might be a new milestone you've reached: perhaps your first client, or your first word-of-mouth referral.
It could even be the first time you receive an email from a client who's delighted with the service or product you provided.
When you've got big ambitions, it's easy to lose sight of your day-to-day achievements.
Make sure you take the time to celebrate them! This can make all the difference in keeping you motivated to carry on.
Read Others' Success - and Failure - Stories Look out for magazines, blogs or books that relate to your business area.
Read the success stories of people who've been there, done that.
You'll almost always find that it was a long, hard slog for them at the start - perhaps they even had failed businesses or went bankrupt.
When you realise that it's normal to find the going tough at first, it's easier to stay motivated and keep pressing onwards! Do Something Every Day Momentum helps build motivation.
If you can take one action on your business every day, however small, you'll keep it as something important in your life.
Letting your business slide for days on end just makes it harder to pick things up again.
If possible, schedule a particular time each day when you'll work on your business.
You might, for example, get up half an hour earlier than usual, and spend that time on your online business - or you might use your lunchbreak.
Get Advice and Support The internet is a great resource for advice and support: even if you feel as though your friends and family don't understand what you're trying to achieve, you don't need to go it alone.
Look for blogs, forums and other online communities where you can talk to others who are running similar businesses.
If you're looking for high-quality advice on running an online business, I recommend Naomi Dunford's Online Business School - you can read my take on it on the Starting Online Business website (though it's not just for beginners).