It’s well known among my friends that I have a few websites that earn me extra cash in addition to my day job. When I meet new people, they often ask what I do and are frequently impressed by my online ventures. More often than not, I hear something like “I wish I could do that”, “I don’t know how you find the time”, “I’m not smart enough for something like that”. Which I believe to be utter nonsense.

You can usually make something online with some hard work and a modest idea. However, here’s my tribute to those who make excuses about trying to earn a little extra cash online.

1. I’m not smart enough

It’s debatable whether or not being entrepreneurial is something that can be learnt or is a natural talent. I suspect in reality, it’s a bit of both. However, I’ve personally discovered that my entrepreneurial spirit has grown with my experience and successes. Initially my motivation was a little extra cash to do some travelling, and my business ideas at that time were terrible! Over time, I’ve learnt what ideas work (for me) and what don’t, and I’m slowly refining my techniques for implementing successful ideas.

So my point is, the willingness to have a go is all you need. The rest can be learnt. Humans are incredibly well designed to learn new things. Regardless if you think you’re smart enough or not, you can always learn how to be successful. If you look at the most successful people today, all of them learnt from their mistakes and learnt how to be successful. They weren’t born with the skill of success, they were born with the willingness to try and learn.

You need a degree of confidence to take even the smallest of risks. However, as long as the risks are calculated, you can massively minimise the impact of any failed attempt. If you take small risks, you can make small gains. With each small step, you gain experience, you learn something and you boost your confidence too!

2. I don’t have the time

I hear this a lot generally. Over the last 6 months (due to my RSI mainly), I have learned that you must do the things you enjoy in life. Life is far too short to waste on things that you hate, get bored of, or get you down. A great quote from my girlfriend (an infinite source of wisdom) is that “anything worth doing in life is never easy”. If you want to reduce your day-job hours to focus on a fun hobby or spend more time with your family, then take steps to do so. The same sentiment can be applied to starting your own business.

If you truly want to work for yourself or top up your income, then make the time to do so. Does that mean getting up for work a little earlier and leaving work earlier to avoid rush hour, therefore giving you more time at home? Does this mean you stop attending a social group as it no longer stimulates you? Does this mean you work flexible hours in you day job to give you more time off?

If you’re in a relationship, have a chat with your other half. They might have ideas on how you can achieve your dreams. In the same way, you might be able to help them achieve their dreams.

If you really want to follow your dream, do something about it! Don’t waste time hoping it will just happen someday. Regardless if the dream is working for yourself or not, the same advice applies. I’ve been following my own advice this year, and I must say, chasing your dreams is a wonderful mood lifter!

3. I’m waiting for that big idea

You’ll be waiting a long time then, or it might never happen! Embrace the benefit of small ideas and learn from them. If you can learn how to make a small idea successful, then you’ll have the experience to make the big idea successful. Just think if you had a great idea, but you had no idea how to implement it! What a waste!

I go back to my earlier point about taking small steps. If you take every opportunity to learn something, either from your successes or mistakes, you become that little bit more experienced. Chances are, your small ideas will actually lead you to the path of that big money spinner! Use the small ideas as practice for the big one.

4. I still haven’t fleshed out my whole idea yet

This is more of procrastination than anything. If you spend all your time trying to flesh out your idea and make it perfect, you might miss the opportunity to make money from it. There’s every risk that someone else has had the same idea and beats you to it.

There’s a good friend of mine who is a perfectionist and a procrastinator (which actually used to be what I was like). He wants every solution to be perfect, but doesn’t quite get around to finishing everything. My tip is simple, start small and incrementally improve the idea, i.e. start small and add something a little extra on a regular basis (basically the iterative software development lifecycle for those software engineers out there).

Don’t worry if your solution or idea is not perfect. Make sure it’s good enough to do the job. You can refine it later.

5. I wouldn’t know where to start

This is a more understandable excuse I think, but one of the easiest to understand. I bump into people all the time who have experience with making money from a website. So ask your friends and family if they know anyone who makes money online or has a business with a website. Get chatting to people at your place of work and see if any of them do it. Perhaps find local businesses that have a web presence.

If you ask someone to tell you how they make money with a website or their own business, more often than not you won’t be able to shut them up! They’ll be more than happy to talk to you about their business and how they do things. Perhaps buy them some lunch and ask for 30 minutes of their time. Just write everything down that they say, and research it further on the web.

Don’t take it all at face value, do your research to find out if they were exaggerating or not. It’s in human nature to exaggerate facts in conversation to make something sound more interesting than it is.

Clearly the web is an invaluable tool to learning more about making money, etc. However, do avoid the scams on the web (anything that sounds too good to be true basically). So stick to the technical side of things rather than being drawn in by the scams.

Conclusion

So there are my favourite excuses for not acting on a dream to make money online. If you want to do it, then try it! Keep the risks small and don’t spend a fortune on your initial outlay. Learn everything you can and do your research. Common sense is also a great tool; and if you have it, use it.