Are You Suffering from this Potentially Deadly Business Disease?

Hi everyone!

From the title, you might think that you have a clue as to what I’m going to talk about.

And you might be on the right lines.

However, stay with me here, as what I’m about to share with you might not quite be the thing you’re thinking of. And if you don’t yet have any idea as to what it might be then stick around too, as this might be something that you need to hear…

Many People Suffer From S.O.S.

You’ve likely heard of a business disease known as “Shiny Object Syndrome“. However, what I’m going to share with you today is NOT about Shiny Object Syndrome!

For the benefit of anyone who doesn’t know what it is, Shiny Object Syndrome is what’s used to describe the constantly buying new stuff in the search of that one thing that will be “the one” that makes a difference to their online success.

Whether it be a new course, piece of software or whatever, it can be very easy to fall into the trap of S.O.S., jumping from info product to info product, course to course, software to software, in the hope that the next one will be the one that changes everything for you.

Most, if not all, of us have likely been in that situation at some time or other. I certainly have!

And let’s just make it clear that there’s nothing wrong, in itself, in buying stuff. If you can learn some new skills from a particular info or training product or you know that a piece of software will be useful to you right now or that you will definitely use it at a clear point in the future, then fine.

The problem lies where a person gets something, maybe toys with it a bit, then moves onto something else, motivated by exactly the same thing that motivated them to get the previous product. And the previous one. And the previous one…

They keep seeing the next thing they come across as a nice, new, shiny product that MUST be purchased, when they would actually be much better in devoting their time and attention to mastering just one of the things they’ve bought already.

Do You Suffer from S.M.S.?

No, I’m not talking about sending mobile phone (cellphone) messages! Although that can sure be a problem for some people!

What I’m talking about here is a different business disease that I call “Shiny Method Syndrome”.

What is Shiny Method Syndrome?

It’s actually quite similar to Shiny Object Syndrome and it could even be said that in some ways it’s even more insidious.

How so?

In that a person might think that they have themselves pretty well disciplined. They no longer jump from shiny object to shiny object, thinking that this next purchase will be “the one”. They have a grasp on what is needed to make a success online and they are determined to focus on that.

Yes, they feel that they are now pretty much focused and they don’t need to keep buying e-books, course or even software to make progress.

However, here’s where the equally deadly S.M.S. can creep in…

Even though you might not be buying product after product, that doesn’t change the fact that there is still a lot of information out there. There are still many opinions, many strategies and many people vying for your attention.

And let’s not misunderstand this – there is much great, helpful information out there, many great, knowledgeable people and many great, useful strategies.

But have you ever heard of the expression, “Too much of a good thing”?

That’s exactly what can be the case when you’re suffering from S.M.S.

Instead of jumping from object to object, what you’re doing is jumping from method to method. And there are many of them to choose from – article marketing, e-mail marketing, blogging, product launches, JV giveaways, social media marketing, video marketing, drop-shipping, e-commerce, website flipping and so many more.

The point is, there is no shortage of ways to, not only make money online, but also strategies to facilitate it.

How to Avoid S.M.S.

Quite simply, you need to stick to one or two things at a time and MASTER them, especially when just getting started. When you’re a little more experienced or have a team to work with then you might have more scope to expand your options. But to begin with, in order to get momentum, you need to focus.

Think of some of the things I listed above:

• Blogging – it works.
• E-mail marketing – it works.
• Social media marketing – it works.
• Video marketing – it works.

And so on and so forth…

But I’ll tell you what won’t work:

Choosing to blog, picking at it, not really absorbing yourself in it and mastering it and then deciding that YouTube is where you need to focus your energy, because “Everyone loves video”.

So, you decide to do videos on YouTube. But, again, you only pick at it a bit, never really mastering it and then you read something that tells you about the power of Facebook and Twitter. So that’s it – you now decide that Facebook and Twitter should be where you place your focus.

So you place your attention on Facebook and Twitter, because “Facebook and Twitter are huge”. But then you watch a video that outlines how you can get great results through building a simple funnel and launching your own products.

“That’s it”, you cry! “Everyone should have their own products! That’s what I’m doing now.”

So you set upon creating your lead magnet, front-end product and maybe an upsell. But then you watch another video that says that you have to have recurring income in order to be really successful. So you now decide that this is what you should be doing and you set to work in creating a recurring membership site.

Do you get the picture?

None of those methods are wrong. And there’s nothing wrong in wanting to do a mixture of, or all of them.

But when you’re trying to get that initial momentum in your online business, you are going to be continually spinning your wheels with that approach just as much as you will if you’re buying one shiny object after the next.

Equally, it could be that you do try to stick to just one main method, say, blogging. Put if you try to plug too many things into that strategy at once, you risk losing momentum, your energy and your joy. I’ve done it myself and I see other people falling into the same trap time after time after time.

This is why I always tell people that when you’re just starting out, pick one or two methods and stick with them until you see consistent, measurable results. Once you get to that point you can start to think about plugging in additional methods that will enhance what you’re doing.

But trying a bit of one thing, then shifting your attention to another thing and then another and another is only going to serve you to get increasingly frustrated.

Get one or two things running and ticking over well enough first and then, at that point, start thinking about adding something else to the mix, if and only if you are able to keep everything moving along.

To continue with the blogging example, yes blogging works. And yes, also doing e-mail marketing, social media marketing, video marketing, product launches and other stuff can work alongside it. And you absolutely should be doing at least some of those things.

BUT..

Not all at once when you’re first trying to get momentum, especially as a rank newbie.

K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple, Stupid. Or, if you prefer the less personal version, Keep It Stupidly Simple.

Either way, simplicity when starting out is vital.

If you make things too complicated you risk the swift death of your online efforts before you’ve really got started.

Be determined not to allow the business disease of Shiny Method Syndrome to mislead you and pull you down.

I hope that you found this post useful. If so, please don’t forget to share it across your social media channels.

And I’d love to hear your thoughts – have you experienced S.M.S in your online growth? How did you overcome it?

What tips would you give to people who are just starting out?

If you are currently experiencing S.M.S., what do you think you need to work on in order to streamline things and make better progress?

Please let me know by leaving a comment below!