Have you ever pondered what a six-figure business leader would do differently if they had to begin from nothing?

For the longest time, I was building my blog but not my business, Financials. I approached my blog as a hobby rather than a business.

If someone had told me all I’m about to tell you, I would have saved so much time and energy and concentrated on what really matters.

By learning from my mistakes, you can grow your business far faster than I did.

Here are five things I wish I had known before starting my business.

1. Do Not Place All of Your Eggs in One Basket

I made a terrible mistake when I initially started taking my blog seriously in 2016. I had one traffic source in mind: Pinterest.

Bloggers can easily get visitors through Pinterest. I’ve had random pins of mine picked up and become popular without my knowledge. Obviously, this makes me want to go all in on Pinterest and disregard other traffic sources that take longer to gain traction.

What I didn’t realize was that Pinterest could (and most likely will) become the next Facebook. Facebook’s algorithm changed in an instant, and many bloggers and business owners noticed a drop in traffic in a single day.

I’ve only recently begun to think about diversifying my traffic. I started with what I was most afraid of: Google. I ended up taking an SEO course, using the tactics, and seeing amazing results in just a few months. If you aren’t already focusing on Google, I urge that you do so as your next major traffic source. It’s game changing.

2. On The First Day, Create an Email List

With over 2.5 billion individuals utilizing email daily, email marketing is essential for all business owners.

I started my email list late in my business since I didn’t believe it was important. Now that I have a 8,000-subscriber email list, I understand how valuable even one email subscriber is.

Email marketing is more effective than social media marketing. You may use an email list to build a strong relationship with your audience, work toward a warm sell for your digital products or affiliate links and direct them to recently released articles.

Even better, with an email marketing tool like MailChimp, starting up an email list with a current blog is cheap (or free). Create a powerful opt-in freebie related to your niche to boost email list subscribers. Nobody joins an email list merely to receive another newsletter. To acquire their trust, you must provide a lot of value.

3. Produce Outcomes Rather than A Hazy To-Do List

The problem with many to-do lists is that they contain vague chores rather than concrete ones that result in outcomes.

Making to-do lists can be really fulfilling. Though to-do lists can help you get more things done, many of them have a key flaw.

I used to write stuff like compose blog entries or concentrate on email.

Instead of being imprecise, I now define concrete tasks that provide the desired results. Instead of writing blog articles, I’ll do something like this: write one blog post about establishing an online business with email.

Making a to-do list in this manner ensures that you are producing results. You do a lot more in your business, which boosts clients, traffic, and revenue.

4. Networking

There are numerous advantages to using networking as a business strategy, and I waited far too long to take it seriously.

If you’re wondering how to get started networking, there are numerous options. Interacting on Twitter with other bloggers and business owners, as well as visiting business conferences such as Fincon, FlynnCon, or BlogHer, can lead to fantastic relationships. Events might be frightening and intimidating (especially if you’re an introvert like me), but they can also be game changers in business.

5. Concentrate on Quality Rather than Quantity

I remember reading articles from other bloggers about producing new content 2-3 times each week when I initially started my site. Some suggested publishing every day. For a long time, I published three times every week and noticed that the quality of my pieces was poor.

Instead of doing what others did, I ran some testing and discovered that one article every Monday is the most effective for my business. I try to write essays that are at least 1,000 words long, if not 2,000.

These are just a few of the things I wish I had known before starting my business. As my business expands, I learn new things and reflect on what I could have done differently in the beginning.

Finally, I’m learning from my mistakes, and I hope you can learn from mine as well.