20 Reasons to Create an Online Course Now
Apr 01, 2022You don't make an online course in one afternoon. Creating an online course requires motivation and persistence. If you do not have a good motivation or reason to create an online course, there is a good chance that you will stop halfway through the process.
This article offers the following components:
- Why don't most entrepreneurs complete their online course?
- 7 Reasons Why Online Entrepreneurs Are Not Successful
- The motivation of a successful online entrepreneur
- 20 Great Reasons to Include an Online Course
In this article you will get 20 reasons why you should create an online course NOW. Determine your main reasons for an online course before you start. This will help you to keep going where other entrepreneurs give up.
Why don't most entrepreneurs complete their online course?
Most entrepreneurs who start developing their own online course do not complete this course. During the process they become demotivated or frustrated because they had not properly determined beforehand why they wanted to create the course. The work is more difficult, tougher or more than they expected and their interest fades.
In recent years I have helped many entrepreneurs with their online businesses. Many entrepreneurs have the question whether an online course is something for them. And with many entrepreneurs I have worked out whole plans, what this online course could be, for whom it could be, what it looks like and how they can market it.
And yet there is a large group who get very enthusiastic about the idea of ā€‹ā€‹creating or having their own online course, but never put it on the market.
A tour of fellow business coaches shows that more than half of the entrepreneurs never put their online course on the market.
What's going wrong?
My analysis between successful and unsuccessful online entrepreneurs shows that there are a number of characteristics why successful online entrepreneurs are successful and others are not.
7 Reasons Why Online Entrepreneurs Are Not Successful
- They don't want to be visible online. Many entrepreneurs do not feel the need to show themselves online. That is a choice. But very difficult if you want to be successful online.
- They don't want to do the necessary work. There is a group of entrepreneurs who are attracted by passive income and think that you no longer have to work. Unfortunately, an online course provides passive income, but also requires a lot of work.
- They feel that they cannot make videos. Afraid of the camera or using the excuse that you are not real in your videos. An online course without video becomes a difficult product to sell.
- They misunderstand the amount of work. You don't take an online course in an afternoon. Not sure if you want to sell it too. It is always more work than expected. If you are not prepared for that, you may quit.
- They get frustrated when they don't get feedback. Just because you love your idea doesn't mean others will. People react little and badly. That does not directly say anything about you. But you have to be able to handle it.
- They get demotivated if no one buys their course right away. Online business means trying and testing. A mega-successful online course debut is rare. You have to go through the process of testing and improving them in order to become truly successful.
- They have no good reason to continue creating their course. Without good reasons for doing something, you can start very enthusiastically, but you drop out somewhere because you become less interested. Have great reasons to create your online course.
The motivation of a successful online entrepreneur
Now that we have looked at why many entrepreneurs never complete their online course, it is time to see why you are going to complete your online course.
- How do you distinguish yourself from other online entrepreneurs?
- How do you ensure that you stay motivated?
- How do you make your online course successful and profitable?
When you consider that most entrepreneurs will never create an online course, you can also consider which world will open up when you do.
Take a look around you in your own field. How many entrepreneurs do you know who are really doing well online? Who have created their own course? Chances are most of them don't. And that is why you can distinguish yourself. And if there are already many entrepreneurs who already do that, what can you do better? How can you deliver better quality than other entrepreneurs?
Motivation comes from the outside and from the inside. The easiest motivation is when an extrinsic situation happens that requires you to change.
You probably know the stories - or maybe this applies to yourself - where a doctor says that you have to change your lifestyle in order to live a healthy life. An accident. Or a death in your environment. For many people this is a trigger to take action. That is extrinsic motivation. Something from the outside ensures that you get and keep moving.
Intrinsic motivation works differently. Something in you tells you to take action. There is no one else telling you to do that. And that makes it so difficult. If you think you should stop smoking, it may take many years before you actually stop. It is often the doctor who says: "NOW!", before you actually stop.
If you want to start something of yourself and finish it, you must ensure that you yourself have that motivation and have the drive to change. And you have to shape this inner motivation, give it a face, nurture it, grow it, cherish it and literally love it. Your inner drive must be so great that in the morning you think: "Yes, today I come one step closer to my goal! Get rid of all setbacks, I'll do it anyway!"
So, let's look at 20 great reasons how you can build and grow that intrinsic motivation.
According to the 2011 model of Adler & Chen, there are 4 different modalities for motivation: Intrinsic, Identification, Introjection and Extrinsic. Know more: Adler, P. S., & Chen, X. (2011). Combining creativity and control: Understanding individual motivation in large-scale collaborative creativity. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 36 (2), 63-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2011.02.002
20 Great Reasons to Create an Online Course
There are many reasons to continue, where other entrepreneurs give up. Because we think and work from entrepreneurship, I have organized the reasons into economic concepts.
A short word to the entrepreneurs who are already saying: it's not just about money, I want to help people. The reason you are not successful is that you see the two things separately. Turnover and money are not dirty, but a means to achieve your goals. If you got 10 million from me to help more people, would you say yes? Of course, because that way you can help many more people. But why wouldn't you want to earn it yourself, so that you can help those people yourself? Interesting question… If you say now, I don't have to earn anything from it, I predict that you most likely will not succeed. The reason is simple. Creating an online course costs in addition to motivation and drive. time and money. And with no income or opportunities to do it, the first two quickly stop.
20 Reasons for an Online Course
- More financial security in addition to or within your company or job
- Your income becomes scalable
- A 24/7 business. Turnover when you sleep
- You are building a financially secure future in your life
- You can work wherever you want around the world
- You can work whenever you want
- You can do what your heart wants
- You can help more people
- An online business is satisfying
- An online business challenges you to develop
- You can start your company at any time
- You can start an online business at any age
- Low start-up costs at an online company
- Low fixed operating expenses
- You can easily automate an online company
- The network for an online business is very large
- Your business is much more scalable online
- There are no geographic boundaries to an online business
- The internet business is booming
- Because you have another reason...
Online course provides certainty about your income
1) More financial security in addition to or within your company or job
A successful online course generates more sales within your company. More turnover means more solid business operations and more opportunity to grow. Even if you do not yet make a lot of turnover.
With an online course you can generate a lot of income. This can be additional income, or replacement revenue in addition to your offline business or job. That gives peace and security. An online course that is regularly sold, yields extra monthly turnover, which you can count on. If you already know that you will have enough turnover next year, what does that do to you now? It gives peace. In addition, in bad times, such as a disappointing period or if you lose your job - and unfortunately Corona proved this to be a real scenario for many entrepreneurs - an online course can offer financial security and peace of mind. Unfortunately, over the years I have seen many entrepreneurs who have postponed the creation of their online course, and now in Corona's time, regretted not getting started sooner.
Financial security is an important reason to create one (or more) online courses. And you start with that in times when you may not even need it. So why not now. When this reason drives you, hang up the mantra:
"I am now creating my online course, so that I also have an income in difficult times."
2) Your income becomes scalable
The second important reason for creating an online course is that your income becomes scalable. For every coach, trainer, practical worker, they are paid for the number of hours they work. To determine your maximum income per year, you calculate the number of hours you can work, and multiply that by the maximum hourly rate you can ask.
Calculation example - Work on an hourly basis
Suppose you can work billable for 20 hours per week. That is 960 hours on an annual basis when you work 48 weeks. Remember, many entrepreneurs in the Netherlands do not achieve that number of billable hours. With an hourly rate of € 55, your maximum annual turnover is:
20 hours x 48 weeks x € 55 = € 52,800
To get a higher annual turnover, you can do 2 things:
- Increase your hourly rate
- Work billable hours for more hours
But you will agree with me that both options are limited. It is not possible to increase your hourly rate indefinitely and make the same number of billable hours. And it is not possible to increase the number of hours. Suppose you go to 40, then it really stops.
An online course can make your income scalable. The knowledge you now tell over and over again can be packaged in an online course, so that you can help and guide more people than you can ever do on an hourly basis.
Calculation example - Online course
You have created an online course that you sell for € 297. If you sell this course 15 times a month, you will generate € 4,455 in turnover each month. On an annual basis, that is a turnover of € 53,460.
€ 297 course price x 15 courses per month x 12 months = € 53,460
Do you recognize the amount? It is roughly equivalent to 1,000 hours of work at 55 euros.
And what if you can sell the course 30x a month?
€ 297 course price x 30 courses per month x 12 months = € 106,920
Do you think this takes double the number of hours of work? No of course not. No doubt it will take a bit more work, more customer service, but it won't be proportionate to the first 15.
Scalable turnover means that you can also help more people.
If you are currently in an hour-business and you really want more sales, an online course can ensure that you can really scale up your sales, much more than you can ever achieve with hours and hourly rates.
3) A 24/7 business. Turnover when you sleep
You can always sell an online course. That is the special thing about the internet. Your company will always continue, even when you are not actively working within your company. This means that the sale of your course also takes place when you are on vacation or when you are sleeping.
To be able to sell your course 24/7, it is necessary to create an automatic sales channel, a sales funnel. I now say in advance, this is at least as much work as creating your online course itself. Perhaps even more, because you probably don't have to think about the content of the course, but selling your course online is a new technique that you will have to learn or hire.
But knowing that your income will always continue, even when you are not working, is a very reassuring thought for me, for which I like to do the extra work.
4) You are building a financially secure future in your life
Having a financially secure future is my main motivation for creating and selling online courses. I see building online courses and an online business as a career. This is something that you will do for several years to be able to have income for several years afterwards.
Due to the scalability of the internet and because you can continue to grow every year, you structurally improve your financial position. For times when you cannot work 100% because you want to take care of someone. Or because you want a sabbatical, or perhaps as your pension provision.
My inner motivation is driven by the thought that what I make now will continue to generate income for me this year, next year, and the years after. Every hour I now spend on my future income is worth a multiple of the time I put into it now.
Therefore, I am not afraid to put a lot of time into a blog like this now, because I know that this blog, along with the others, provides a solid income over several years.
Online course gives freedom where and when you work
5) You can work anywhere you want around the world
A frequently heard reason for creating an online course is that you want to work location independently. An online course or online business can make that possible for you.
With your computer, telephone and an internet connection you can work from your home address or at your holiday address in Spain. As long as you don't have to see your customers in person, there are no limits to where you can work.
This motivation reason does not apply to everyone. I personally have no desire to be in Ibiza. I much prefer to stay around my friends and family. But I do like that I can take my laptop with me and know that I can scale my business at any time.
Determine for yourself whether this is a motivational reason. And if you want to work from another country, decide when you will do so. This is a huge motivation boost to create, get and sell your online course.
6) You can work whenever you want
In point 2) we already saw that with an offline company, your income depends on the number of hours you work multiplied by the hourly rate. You will have to work those hours when others need them. This means that your working hours are always dependent on others and are therefore fixed, day in and day out.
With an online business you are not bound by a fixed 9:00-17:30 schedule. You can work whenever you want. It is therefore no problem at all to record your own online course in the evenings, when others are hanging in front of the television. With an online course you are not dependent on the availability of your customers and that gives you freedom.
You know that if you pay more attention to the sale of your course, you will have more income. That's an economic law. So you decide when you do that, you determine when you realize or scale up that income.
I work with entrepreneurs who sell their online course twice a year. In the months in between, they enjoy life, travel and vlog about the cool things they experience. That is what an online training can mean. The freedom to organize your own time.
Live your dream, work from your passion
7) You can do what your heart wants
The many trainers, coaches, knowledge entrepreneurs I have spoken who almost all say: "I do my job because I want to help others." And how beautiful is this. Your ambition is to help others and thereby make the world a bit more beautiful.
That is also my motivation. But I like a lot of things. And a lot of things I do not. And how cool I think it is to help others, to see them grow, I find it so boring to be busy with my administration. The more customers, the more administration and hassle. And I don't really want to be involved with that.
With an online course you can fully focus on the things that are important to you in life. Where does your passion lie? You can fully commit yourself to that. There is no one who determines that you have to do work that you do not want to do.
Especially if you are not 100% satisfied with the work you do? What would you like to do? And can you make something for that?
By doing what really matters to your heart, you motivate yourself to run a little faster every day.
8) You can help more people
Wanting to help people is a sincere goal. But we are entrepreneurs. And an entrepreneur has to make turnover in order to grow, to live, and... to be able to help others.
If you work from a mission or passion, you undoubtedly want as many people as possible to benefit from what you have to offer them. So how can you reach more people, help more people, than you are already doing? Precisely by offering them something that you no longer have to be 100% present, so that you can help more people at the same time.
With an online course you can reach a lot more people than you could ever do offline. If you want to make the world a bit more beautiful, your impact with that online course can be much greater. And how cool is that?
9) An online business is satisfying
I personally think this is an important reason. The satisfaction you get when you make something of yourself, build it up and market it successfully.
Having your own course and realizing your own turnover or income gives a feeling of pride. You receive external appreciation and you can stand for what is important to you in this world.
Incidentally, the need for external appreciation and recognition is a bad motivation for your online business, because you receive little or no recognition, especially in the beginning. Your environment often does not understand what you are doing and online you need a long breath before your community sees and appreciates you.
Therefore, let yourself be guided by the inner motivation. How does it feel when you have your own course online, knowing that many other entrepreneurs will never realize that.
10) An online business challenges you to develop
When you choose to create an online course, you choose a path in which you will learn a lot. You choose to go and develop yourself. To want to grow. Nobody knows everything when they start. And when you start your online business, you will often enough run into issues where you do not know what to do at first.
An online business challenges you to develop yourself again, to learn new techniques and to grow your knowledge and skills. Challenge, sometimes frustration and satisfaction are part of an online business.
The satisfaction of learning something new, which you initially think you can never do and succeed, is a motivation for me to try and improve again.
Should this not be a motivation for you? Be aware that this is the path of an online entrepreneur. And don't let it demotivate you. Growth, learning, trial and error are part of entrepreneurship.
Online course can be started quickly with low costs
11) You can start your company at any time
The special thing about creating an online course is that nowadays it costs almost nothing to start. With the camera of your mobile phone, YouTube, and social media you have enough to become successful.
Of course, you want more (I want more…), so a nice website, a good learning environment, marketing funnels, a good microphone, and speed. But fair is fair. All tools help you to make it better and more beautiful. But none of those tools are the reason for your success.
The success of your course starts with the step to get started. So, the only thing holding you back is yourself... The question is: when do you make the decision to stop thinking and take action?
I often hear from people that they think they are already late. And it is true, for a number of years it was easier to market your course than now. But that time it was more difficult to create a course. And there is always something like that.
Just as there is always room for a new restaurant in your city or village, there is also room for a new online entrepreneur. Because every entrepreneur is unique and has its own story and therefore its own target group. This is also the reason why many entrepreneurs are not successful. They are not unique, they parrot others and hope to get a piece of it. So be yourself and make sure you stand out and be unique.
The tools are there, you already have everything. So, start today! Your motivation should be: "I'll do it with what I have now, because you can always improve."
12) You can start an online business at any age
Who said that the internet is age-related? Whether you want to share your years of life lessons or if you are a young ambitious whiz kid, anyone can start an online business. There is no age limit to starting an online business and no one will tell you you're too old.
I work with entrepreneurs well over 65 years old who - now that they are well retired - are eager to share their life lessons with the younger generation. One of my clients is a 73-year-old writer who wants to be live on Facebook more often. When she took the plunge, she started doing Facebook Lives, and now she also makes videos for Instagram. Just like Pippi Longstocking: "I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that."
Let these entrepreneurs set an example for you.
Age is not important. Motivation is.
13) Low start-up costs at an online business
We saw in point 11) that you can already start creating your online course with your mobile phone. The start-up costs of an online business are very low, especially in relation to an offline business. In theory you can start without investing. However, free services often mean a lot more time and energy.
Incidentally, I am absolutely in favor of investing in good education and tools. Inventing everything yourself is an inconvenient way of building your business. Let yourself be supported by coaching and people who can help you. A good tool may cost more, but you save so much in time that they are more than worth it.
If you want advice on which tools I use and which I know will certainly help you, please get in touch with me.
I myself work with the online business platform Kajabi. With this software you can set up your website, put your courses online, build funnels, do your email marketing and manage your customer management. Everything under 1 button. That means that I can have a new online course completely online within 1 hour. You can spend hours if not days with many other (cheaper) tools. Kajabi costs € 1500 per year, but I immediately earn back that money in the time savings it gives me. Even before I have sold a course.
14) Low fixed operating expenses
Maintaining an online business means low fixed operating costs. You do not need storage for information products (digital products). Likewise, you don't necessarily need space for your practice. The rent of your office building is easily € 8,000-10,000 per year.
Within the online world, the best software tools will cost you a maximum of several thousand euros per year. That is it. A good webinar package costs € 800 per year. Kajabi (the package where I work) € 1500 per year. Cheaper is also possible, but often with more work.
15) You can easily automate an online company
As we saw in the previous points, an online course can provide income 24 hours a day and also when you are on vacation or away.
This is possible because you can fully automate the sale of your online course. For me this is one of the biggest benefits. You can automate everything you do online. Customer acquisition, advertising, building relationships, selling products, customer maintenance, etc. This makes your company infinitely scalable. And wherever you want, you can also give personal contact.
The advantage of this is that you don't have to worry about the sale of your online course. By automating your business, you create time for yourself that you can spend doing fun things or creating new courses.
Your company is infinitely scalable
16) The network for an online business is very large
With an online company you get to know new people and expand your network both offline and online. You will gain access to many new customers and you will notice that there are also many partners with whom you can work online.
An online course yields new partners and customers. Remember that the network of your network is many times the size of your own network. Suppose you know 100 people, who each know 100 people. When they recommend your course, it suddenly comes to the attention of 100 x 100 = 10,000 people. Online is a lot easier than the normal world.
17) Your business is much more scalable online
You can scale your company in many ways online. You can collaborate with other people and exchange your knowledge or complement and encourage each other. You can reach a lot more people, and bring in more customers. How easy it is nowadays to make a joint Zoom call with someone on the other side of the world.
I work with duo entrepreneurs who live hundreds of kilometers apart. They create online training courses together because they can record their own videos, and also jointly via Zoom. Then they paste the lessons together and have an online course, without having been together.
Other people can easily promote your company. The scalability of an online business is tied to your own creativity and experience. The longer you work, the more you learn to grow and scale up.
18) There are no geographic boundaries to an online business
With an offline business you are almost always tied to a local sales market. Whether this is your town or city, your province or maybe the Netherlands. Online you can reach everyone within your target group, regardless of where this person is located. Borders are not an obstacle for you.
One of my clients has a running school for the advanced rider. His company first consisted of coaching people on the spot. He now has his online coaching school with which he remotely monitors the running patterns of his participants. It no longer matters where his customers are. His customer market has expanded enormously.
19) The internet business is booming
The time to start an online business is better than ever. It has never been easier to start your own business with such a low cost. It has never been easier to reach millions of people without high advertising costs. It has never been easier to work with other people. Every moment new people join the internet. And every moment new potential customers arise for you. And more and more people are also spending money via the internet.
What is special is that I wrote this text above for the first time 5 years ago. And then it was also the best time. If I now see which tools I have that I didn't have 5 years ago, it is even easier than it was then.
Corona has also shaken up the world of online courses. There is really no reason to think that you are late or that there is no market.
The only one you can still stand up to now is you.
20) Because you have a different reason...
I can come up with many reasons why you should start your online course NOW. But whatever the reason is, it is slightly different for everyone than for someone else. In this article, I have indicated to you the main reasons for me.
What is the most important reason for you to create and market your online course? Why do you really want to do it? What do you expect from it? What will you do if it is difficult or disappointing?
Let us know!
No one can stop you more than you can.
No one can motivate you more than you can.
No one can say: "Now I'm starting," except you yourself.
Stay focused, keep growing and inspire the people around you!
Kind regards,
Bastiaan
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