7 Patient Strategies for Growing Your Business OnlineThe sooner you stop believing in magic formulas for success the better.

ByKimanzi Constable

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Photographer is my life | Getty Images

如果你还没有注意到,有一个多few entrepreneurs online daily talking and marketing the same kind of business, and offering the same services. You log onto social media and you see many of your entrepreneur friends that sell podcast services, build funnels, run ads, can teach you how to use live video, teach you how to create a profitable blog, and the list goes on. Building an online business isn't easy, and there are some hard realities that you need to realize,CopyBloggertells us.

I know I'm not telling you anything new. Having said that, Ilovethe freedom an online business can provide. As you're reading this, I'm writing this article from a cafe in Nairobi, Kenya. I'm here in Africa as part of a six-country consulting tour. While I'm writing this, people are buying my books and other productson my website. I'm making money passively while enjoying the amazingness of Africa. If this is one of your goals, there are seven things you can do to get better results from building an online business or increasing your business' presence online.

1. Stop copying other entrepreneurs.

Customers buy from someone they know, like and trust. They don't buy from strangers. If you are the clone of some other and/or famous entrepreneur, they'll never get to know the real you. When they want to buy, they will buy from the entrepreneur you are copying. Use frameworks that work, but don't be a clone. Modelsuccessbut don't copy it. Let your voice come through, and build a business that's yours.

Related:10 Simple Things Successful People Do Every Morning (Infographic)

2. Be clear about who your core audience is.

If you try to reach the whole world, you'll end up reaching no one because your efforts to reach customers will be scattered. You won't be able to help people where they are if you're not speaking to a specific target audience. The more specific you can get with your target audience, the easier time you'll have marketing, which is what ultimately grows your business. When you do, you will be focused on your strategies. Your branding and messaging should be very clear.

Related:10 Questions to Ask Before Determining Your Target Market

3. Keep it simple.

Keep your website simple and clean. Even though Wordpress has a variety of options for widgets and plugins, you don't need all of them. When someone visits your website it shouldn't confuse them. When it comes to your business, keep it simple, too. Build traffic to your website. Learn the biggest struggles your target audience is facing. Create products and services that help solve those problems. Rinse and repeat. Yes, it can be that simple to create a solid foundation.

Related:Don't Just Start a Business, Solve A Problem

4. Don't rely exclusively social media.

While you can't ignore social media, don't make it your number one strategy for traffic and leads. New York Times best-selling author, Crystal Paine,clearly illustrated this. The bottom line is that you want to build your business on your platform, not someone else's. You want people to sign up to your email list, and interact with you personally, not just on social media.

Related:The Only Technique You Need to Quickly Grow Your Email List

5. Focus on what's important.

There's a wealth of information you can learn online. Most of these things aren't important to where you are in the process. If you're building, you probably shouldn't be learning about SEO. If you guest post and build your audience in other ways, the SEO will naturally come, so your time is better spent writing guest posts. Sit down, and evaluate where you're at in your entrepreneurial journey, and stick to what will help you where you are. Don't fall victim to information overload because it can easily keep you from making progress. The speed of implementation is what makes you successful in business.

Related:How to Treat Information Overload in 3 Simple Steps

6. Don't be afraid to charge a fair price.

It would be great to help as many people as possible for free, but you have a family to care for and bills to pay. If you add value and help people, you should be paid a fair price for it. Remember, you're building a business; it can't be a business if it doesn't make money. There are people online who should be ashamed at what they're doing and charging, but you'll find that in any industry. As long as you focus on serving and adding value to your customer's lives, your prices will be justified.

Reading:3 Lessons About Setting Your Price Learned From a Vegas Prostitute

7. Keep pushing towards your goals.

At the end of the day, if you want this to succeed, you have to determine right now that you'll keep going no matter what. Perseverance is what makes your business grow. Even if you haven't made the process you wanted to make at this point, you can't give up. Build this business one relationship, and one sell at a time.

Have patience. This takes time to build. With focused effort, you can build a powerful online business or grow your business' presence online. Use these seven strategies to optimize your building efforts. Have patience, and build something that helps your target audience. Focus and you will do this.

Wavy Line
Kimanzi Constable

Entrepreneur Leadership Network Writer

Content Marketing Strategist

Kimanzi Constable is an author of four books and has been published in over 80 publications and magazines. He is the co-founder of Results Global Impact Consulting. He teaches businesses modern content strategies. Join him atRGIC.

Editor's Pick

Related Topics

Thought Leaders

So, You've Been Hacked. These are the Best Practices for Business Leaders Post-Hack

The lasting effects of a cyber incident can impact an organization's reputation, customers, workforce, databases and network architecture.

Business News

An 81-Year-Old Florida CEO Just Indicted for a $250 Million Ponzi Scheme Ran a Sprawling Senior Citizen Crime Ring

Carl Ruderman is the fifth senior citizen in the Miami-Fort-Lauderdale-Palm Beach metropolitan area to face charges in connection with the scam.

Resumes & Interviewing

This AI Resume Tool is Only $29.97 So You Can Make Job-Hunting Easier

Expand your growth potential with this back-to-school sale.

Money & Finance

Want to Become a Millionaire? Follow Warren Buffett's 4 Rules.

企业家是不能过度指狗万官方望太多a company exit for their eventual 'win.' Do this instead.

Business News

How One Couple Became Multi-Unit, Multi-Brand Franchise Owners

When Matt and Anne Evers took the leap to buy a franchise, they never imagined they'd grow to 13 locations across two brands just eight years later.