3 Online Business Tips To Do & Not To Do

It’s tricky to rock a rhyme that’s right on time.

(Side note: I won a lip sync battle in college with that one. Yup, Adidas tracksuit, Kangol hat, and shell toes to match. Every day I thank the stars that social media did not exist when I was in college. True story.)

It’s also tricky to run an online business – like an actual business. Everyone is all over the place (literally and figuratively).

Online businesses come in all shapes and sizes. But whether you’re selling future trips to Mars, locally-sourced baby food, or steering wheel covers, we’ve spotted some pitfall patterns to watch out for. Here are a few places where we see online entrepreneurs slip up and our suggestions for keeping it movin’.

Check out these three simple tips with a big impact.

1. Create a Feedback Culture

Whether or not you’re offering performance reviews for your freelancers and contract workers, you should make regular check-ins and give immediate, responsive feedback. Tell the contractor if you appreciated their initiative or if you felt the delivered product fell flat. When you wait to critique their work from a 30,000-foot view, the assessment can feel harsh and nit-picky. Plus, the feedback will be less valuable because it will be old. You might also start feeling resentment, which could make the whole relationship sour.

Our advice: Block out intentional time. Tell your freelancers what they did that was great and not so great, and point them to places you want them to invest more of their time.

2. Establish Some Team Spirit

In a traditional office, you’d have your core employees, who work together daily, sharing a coffee pot and parking lot. Freelancers and contractors are on the side. They can feel like them and us.

But in a virtual setting, you should treat your contractors, freelancers, and full-time staffers like equal parts of the team. This will create camaraderie and consistency. You wouldn’t expect a different performance quality depending on their status, so why treat them differently?

Our advice: Show everyone the same love.

3. Trust Your Gut

When interviewing candidates to join your online company, you might be immediately struck by one of their projects or swayed by a mutual friend. But you should not move too fast. Company leaders should use the same due diligence with hiring for their online business as they would for a traditional one. Create a blueprint to follow for all of your interviews, so you can create a baseline from which to judge the contenders. Feeling stuck? Just ask for help. We’ve got a one-page interview guide to share.

Our advice: Create a baseline from which to judge all your candidates.

Lauren Williams, Founder & Principle Consultant 

Lauren Williams utilizes her 20 years of expertise in the HR field to support companies by improving and enhancing their people skills/operations, maximizing their full potential. With care and passion, she focuses intently on the employee experience and how to leverage a solid community-based company culture that encourages organic employee engagement, retention, and empowerment.