I was reading a post on Facebook this morning and this person wrote about the struggles they were having getting something or other working on their website. I can relate to that because this past week while setting up the Casual Marketer site I had all sorts of issues getting my payment gateway working.
The thing that caught my eye though was one of the earliest comments that came from an internet marketer who said, “You should just outsource all that and stick to what you do best.”
His comment was immediately followed by a chorus of other people agreeing or as is always the case in that crowd, people pitching themselves to fix the problem.
I sat there just shaking my head because this is something that just grinds my gears, people perpetuating a state of ignorance when it comes to the technology that runs their online business.
Now, I’m a pretty technical guy and I understand really well how this stuff works. I play with high end technology every single day and I have spent over twenty years working in the IT industry. So yes, I’m probably slightly better able to deal with these issues, fair enough, but that doesn’t mean you get to just ignore it because you’re not as technically proficient as I am.
I posted in a private Facebook group this week about the struggles I was having with the payment gateway and a friend of mine said, “If you’re struggling, what chance do the rest of us have?”
Again, to a degree, she’s right, there are some problems where you just should put your hand up and seek help from an expert. Sometimes it’s just cheaper and faster to get someone to do it for you.
But over the last two or three years, I’ve noticed an ever increasing level of technical helplessness has crept into people who run their own online business. They don’t even make an effort to do anything themselves.
These are often the same people who then complain that their “web guy” has flaked out on them or the person they paid to setup their funnel screwed up and now they’ve missed a deadline and they’re losing money. Inevitably they also complain about how much they spent to end up with nothing but an even bigger problem.
If you’re bootstrapping your own online business or don’t have a team of people to help you get your technology stuff done, I recommend you take a deep breath, pull on your big boy or big girl pants and start learning. There is so much information available on the internet and videos showing you how to do stuff that just about every technical problem is quickly solvable.
There are essentially two groups of people: one group who fear technology or lack the experience and confidence to understand how easy this stuff can be to put together successful. The other group are people who have been attracted to bright shiny objects and have bought so much technology that they end up confusing themselves about which tools to use.
Overwhelmingly though, the biggest problem that people have is just not taking the time to sit down, map out what they want to achieve and then plugging in the technical pieces to solve those problems. They lack a marketing technology strategy in their business.
If you’re struggling to work out what you technology platform should look like, then you should book yourself in for a half an hour “Tech Talk” with me. You get access to my experience and no nonsense approach to solving technology issues to help simplify what you’re trying to do and get you moving forward.
Don’t let your technology overwhelm you into inactivity, get on a call with me and we’ll get you moving quickly in the right direction.