5 Mindset Shifts Every Aspiring Online Business Owner Needs

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If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years that I wish everybody wanting to start an online business understood, it’s that the most important thing to get right isn’t the business model, the strategy, or the product. It’s your mindset.

I know that may sound like a bold statement, but hear me out. The reason I believe this is because you can always change a strategy that isn’t working. You can pivot to a different business model, improve your product, or try a different approach. But if every setback convinces you to quit, compare yourself to everyone else, or start all over again, it won’t matter how good your business idea is. Your mindset is what determines whether you keep moving forward or give up.

Trust me, I’ve made plenty of mistakes, doubted myself more times than I can count, and learned the lessons I’m going to share with you here the hard way. Looking back, had I understood these things sooner, I could’ve saved myself a lot of time, frustration, and unnecessary detours.

So, whether you’re just thinking about starting an online business or you’ve already begun, I hope this will help you recognise any areas where you could do with a mindset shift, so you don’t set yourself back the same way I did for so long.

I know advice not to compare yourself to others is repeated a lot, but there’s good reason for that. And if you’ve ever fallen into comparison in any area of your life, whether it’s comparing your home, body, or *insert thing here* to somebody else’s, either online or in your real life, you’ll know… it feels horrible.

I used to do this a lot. I’d look at other women who seemed to be having great success in their online businesses and then feel rubbish about myself because I wasn’t seeing that same success. Of course, looking back, it was a massively unfair comparison to make. I was judging my beginning against someone else’s established business.

You may hear advice to “check out the competition” and see what others are doing for inspiration. And while that might benefit some people, I’ve realised it just doesn’t work for me. More often than not, it just sends me into a comparison spiral and makes me question everything I’m doing.

These days, I just stay focused on what I’m doing and avoid looking at other creators as much as possible. I’ve found I make far better progress when I’m just concentrating on myself rather than worrying about what everyone else is doing.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had this irrational expectation of myself to be perfect. Not saying I think I ever accomplish that (I definitely don’t), but even when starting something new that I have absolutely no experience with, it’s like I feel I should understand it and get everything right from the jump. Then, when I struggle, or progress is slow (which, hello, is normal), I’ll get frustrated, take a step back, and sometimes throw in the towel altogether.

Of course, writing this, I see how ridiculous this sounds, but sometimes these thought patterns are so ingrained I think we often don’t even realise they’re there, influencing the way we behave.

So, if you’re anything like me and can relate, or are scared to start because you worry that you’re not going to be “good enough,” I just want to say this to you:

Give yourself permission to be a beginner.

Nobody starts out being good at something they’ve never done before, and building an online business is no different. Your first pieces of work probably won’t be your best. And as you progress and get better with practice, you’ll probably look back and cringe. And that’s completely fine. Great, in fact! Because it’s proof that the only way to get better is to start actually doing it.

Every successful business owner you admire started in the same way: being imperfect and learning through trial and error. The goal isn’t to get everything perfect from day one. It’s to keep improving, one small step at a time.

When you’re just getting started, it’s easy to assume that if someone else is successful, the best thing you can do is copy exactly what they’re doing. I used to think that too. But like most things, it’s not that simple.

The thing is, the perfect business model or strategy for one person might be completely wrong for another. We all have different personalities, strengths, and goals, and something I think not enough people talk about is how important it is to honour those differences.

For example, I tried to follow in the footsteps of some people who were clearly successful on social media, and it quickly confirmed what I already knew deep down: that building my business in a way that required me to show my face and be constantly visible online wasn’t a good fit for me.

Learning what’s working from people who are further ahead than you is great. It can help you get an idea of the type of business you might want to build. But don’t forget to ask yourself whether their advice actually aligns with the kind of business and life you want to build. Just because something is popular doesn’t mean it’s the right path for you.

The best business is the one you can see yourself sticking with long-term, not one that might bring quicker results but leave you overwhelmed and burnt out.

Now, please don’t hear what I’m not saying. Making money is important. After all, that’s why most of us decide to start an online business in the first place. But if money is the only thing driving you, I think you’re going to find it much harder to keep going when things inevitably feel slow or difficult.

One thing I’ve realised is that to stay consistent long enough to see results, you genuinely have to enjoy what you’re building. So, for me, that meant occasionally taking a different route from what was being promoted or advised, like deciding to start a blog instead of forcing myself to build on a platform I didn’t enjoy, like Instagram. I enjoy writing blog posts, but ask me to write an Instagram caption, and it feels like a chore. Again, it’s all about building in a way that feels sustainable and good to you.

Also, try to focus on how you can help others, not just what you stand to gain from it. For example, as I write this blog post, I am constantly asking myself what I can share, either from personal experience or a resource I’ve learned from, that can help the reader in some way. Whether it’s giving them the confidence to finally start their own business, helping them avoid a mistake I made, or simply making them feel a little less alone, that’s a win in my eyes.

Ironically, I think the people who build the most successful businesses are often the ones who spend less time obsessing over the money and more time focusing on serving the people they’re trying to help. The money becomes the result of helping people, not the only reason you’re doing it.

The mindset shift that has probably made the biggest difference to me, and is one you may need to correct even if you don’t realise it, is this: stop expecting life-changing results overnight.

The online gurus can often make it sound like if you just *do this thing*, you’ll be making it rain cash money in no time. So, when the progress was slow and I wasn’t seeing results as quickly as I thought I should, I’d get so disheartened, assume it wasn’t working, and move on to the next thing. What I see now is that every time this happened, I was resetting any progress I had made, even if I couldn’t see it yet.

The truth is, every business has that uncomfortable beginning stage. Where the initial excitement has worn off, you’re building the foundations with no real results or feedback yet, and you’re questioning everything you’re doing and whether you’re even on the right path or completely wasting your time. This is where many people give up, not realising that if they’d just stuck with it a little longer, they likely would’ve started seeing the results of the momentum that was building beneath the surface.

So, before you convince yourself to quit or jump to the next shiny opportunity, ask yourself this: Have I really given this enough of a chance? Sometimes the biggest breakthrough isn’t finding a better business idea. It’s deciding to stick with the one you’ve already started.

If you’ve made it this far, I hope one thing has become clear: building an online business isn’t about being the smartest person in the room or finding the “perfect” business idea. It’s about developing the mindset to keep learning, adapting, and showing up, even when things feel slow or uncertain.

If you’re eager to get started but aren’t quite sure which type of online business is right for you, I’d recommend downloading my free guide here. Inside, I share five beginner-friendly online business ideas you can start without showing your face (unless you want to, of course), so that you can feel confident choosing the one that best suits you and the kind of business you want to build.

If you’re looking for more guidance on how to actually start, you can also check out the course I personally learned from and recommend here. Having the structure and step-by-step guidance a course like this provides is honestly one of the biggest game changers when getting started, and this one was specifically created for people who want to build their business on social media without having to show their face.

Whatever you decide to do next, I ask that you please keep this in mind: not to let fear, comparison, or perfectionism stop you from getting started and going after the things you want. Your future self will thank you for taking that first step today, even if you don’t feel completely ready.