3 Excuses Keeping You From Growing Your Online Business!

Hey Friend!

Do you find yourself coming up with all sorts of reasons why you’re having difficulty growing your online business? Maybe you’re disguising your excuses as obstacles? Either way, they impact your ability to show up and grow your business God’s way. But good news! You can easily break free from them and change the narrative for the better. Join me in today’s blog as I outline the three main excuses I hear and some simple tips for breaking free.

How to Break Free From 3 Excuses Stopping You From Growing Your Online Business

Firstly, please take this with a grain of salt. This might hit a nerve but please don’t get angry with me. The reality is that every one of these excuses has some truth to it. Believe me, I know. But some of these excuses are excuses, and until we are ready and willing to look at them and discern if they are excuses or realities in our lives, we cannot make any changes. 

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, thinking that something is going to change. And that’s just not where we need to be. I believe God has led you to this blog, and He has appointed the people who listen to the podcast or read the blog because I know and see what you are capable of. I know you have this incredible calling on your life and these incredible giftings on purpose, and God has this amazing place He is trying to bring you. Because that’s the whole point! That’s why we’re here – to use our giftings to help, encourage and teach other people and glorify God in all we do. So, we have to blast through these excuses once and for all.

Excuse 1 to blast through to start growing your online business: “I don’t have time” 

Now I have definitely been in situations where I had limited time or in seasons where I had less time than normal. But saying “I don’t have time” is not true and is an excuse. We have to know exactly what time you have and eliminate all the time wasters from your schedule once and for all.

If you are saying to yourself, I don’t have time to start a podcast, grow your business, or work on your stuff, here are a few tips for you.

First, get out a sheet of paper and write down why you believe you have no time. Next, look at that sheet of paper, pray and ask God to reveal to you the truth about time in your life. 

On the other side of the paper, write down all the things you do every day that aren’t God-centered, time wasters, or things your discernment alarms are going off about. Then ask yourself how you can eliminate or get rid of them. 

Be honest with yourself

Finally, put a time frame next to each of the things you wrote down in the previous step. Look at how much time you’ve just created for yourself to go and blow up your business or be with your kids. 

I want to remind you if you don’t call yourself out, who will call you out? If you don’t change your behavior, who will? No one else is going to force you to change the way you spend your time. You are the only person in control of your daily activities. So you have to create boundaries, beginning with identifying what your reality really is. 

For example, I looked at this a few years ago and said I had no time. But, when I prayed to the Lord and started working on why I thought this to be true, I realized it was because I believed I had to be on social media to grow a flourishing business and make money from home. I spent 3-5+ hours each day on Instagram, which was draining me and I felt burnt out, exhausted, and disgusted by the addiction. I would have an additional 10-15 hours per week by eliminating Instagram. How much extra time can you find in your week for growing your online business?

Is it an excuse or an obstacle?

That’s when I decided that the no time was simply an excuse and limiting belief that I had. What is that for you? Is that watching too much reality TV? Or do you have 17 million children and you need to ask for some help in your life? Is it that you’re working two jobs? 

If it’s a reality that you actually have no time, then okay. I get it. In that situation, it’s not an excuse; it’s an obstacle.

With every excuse, we have to discern if it’s truly an excuse or if it’s an obstacle, and if it’s an obstacle, how are you going to overcome it? As I regularly tell my boys, every single problem has a solution; it’s your job to find it.

Excuse 2 keeping you from growing your online business: “I’m afraid” 

The second excuse I see regularly is, “I’m afraid” or “I’m scared”. You know what this means for you. Maybe you’re scared of judgment, failure, or not doing something right. There is so much fear going on, and I want you to understand fear is not something we are called to lean into as Christians. Biblically, we are told that fear is a liar, and we are to “fear not.” Instead, we are to lean on God and have confidence. 

If this is you, I want you to go to scripture or google and look up scriptures for fear, scriptures for when you are afraid, and scriptures for when you are afraid of judgment. I want you to simply sit there and write these scriptures down. Then, I want you to write out “God says statements,” which is when you put yourself into the scripture. (I cover this in more detail in Clarify Your Calling!) But simply, it’s writing out a verse as it applies to you.

Push through your fears

Take this verse for example, “Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear nor be afraid, for the Lord your God, He is the one who goes with you; He will not leave you or forsake you.” – Deuteronomy 31:6. To make this into a God says statement it would look like “God says I am strong and I am courageous. God says not to fear or be afraid. He is telling me He is with me right now and will not leave or forsake me.”  

So we have reframed that verse to let that reality become something tangible and super personal to you. Also, feel free to expand on it; sometimes, when I’m doing this, Holy Spirit allows me to pour out, and so much more will come out about what God says. 

It might seem harsh to say that fear is an excuse, but that’s an excuse. You’ve got to push through your fear! There wasn’t a time when I started something new, and I wasn’t afraid. There was never a moment when God called me to do something, and I said, this will be easy and comfortable; I’m not worried about what people think of me. Growing your online business takes courage and you can’t let fear prevent you from living out the calling God has over your life!

I have been terrified so many times in my life and business, but that’s the whole point! We must step into our fear by faith so we can lean on God. That’s it. You clutching your fear is actually you not surrendering in trust to where God’s trying to take you. It’s time to release that fear because fear is not from God. It should not have a home in your life, mind, heart, or anywhere near you. 

Excuse 3 stopping you from growing your online business: “I don’t know how”

The third excuse I often hear is “I don’t know how”. Sometimes this can look like perfectionism or an over-analytic thing, or you might be just frozen. I don’t know how, so I’m going to do nothing.

Friend, that is an absolute excuse! Everyone who has done something incredible in the world didn’t know how. When I started, I didn’t know how to start a podcast, set up a website, coach my first person, or create a course. But guess what! I pushed through the “I don’t know how” and figured it out. And one thing I have learned, which is insanely valuable, is instead of figuring out the things I didn’t know on google, invest in the person who does know how. Find someone who knows what you don’t, that you trust, and follow in their footsteps. 

Don’t be afraid to Invest in learning

I’m really proud that over the last 12-18 months, I’ve leaned into, “I’m done bootstrapping this together, and I’m going to invest in learning the how” mentality.

Every time I’ve been willing to let go of money and allowed that money to help me grow and learn, it’s come back tenfold. The ROI of every dollar I’ve spent learning something, learning the how, has been exponentially returned in so many incredible ways. It’s also allowed me to bless other people by letting them help me (I do pay them!). 

I realize it takes a minute to have some finances to invest in yourself, but I invested in myself long before the money was comfortable and we were really in a place to do that. One of the first things I did was drop $1000 I didn’t have on an online course to help me with the tech and set up my email list. 

This was just after my business had completely crumbled back in 2016/17, and things were really, really tight. But I knew I needed to do it, and if I did it myself, it was going to take way too long, be super messy, or I was just going to stay stuck far too long because I was leaning on my excuse, I don’t know how so therefore now isn’t the time, so I’ll just do nothing.    

And that one course exponentially grew my business. It helped me grow so much faster than I could have on my own. It also taught me that it was just another excuse because the how is right in front of me. 

Ask God how and get resourceful

If not knowing how is keeping you from not moving forward, ask yourself, Lord, where is my how? And get resourceful! Get on the internet and look it up. Ask our team in the Facebook community. No matter where you are, there is a how for you. 

I know it might not be the time for you to invest in anything right now – if that’s you, there’s a how on this podcast.  If it’s anything to do with business, your how has been answered here! And we have a free catalog of all the podcast episodes in the Facebook community guides so you can search for phrasing or the solution that you need. If you need help in your home or faith, I also have more hows over on my website. The how is here! Not knowing how is another lie from the enemy trying to keep you small, trying to keep you from pushing forward. 

It’s time to go. Bust through these excuses. Let God and His word drive away your fears, talk to you about your time and priorities, and guide you on how to do it. Growing your online business is possible if you have the courage to say no to these excuses! You are called, and it’s time to step into your calling, show up in big audacious faith, and prove that anything is possible with God by your side!

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

P.S. Also, listen to podcast episode 549 for the full training on 3 Common Excuses Keeping You From Making Money and Growing Your Online Business.

APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE PODCAST

Friend, are you ready to grow a successful business God’s Way?

If you’re a woman of faith who wants to build your business in less than two hours a week, This free workshop is for you.

RELATED EPISODES:

How to Pray for Your Business, Surrendering Wordly Success for Kingdom Impact!

Behind The Business – TIME MANAGEMENT – How I Create Balance, Prioritize, and STILL Grow My Online Business

3 Tips to Beat Procrastination for Christian Entrepreneurs

How to Have Balance, Boundaries, & What Top 3 Things Move the Needle in Your Business?

”What’s Mine is His” A Declaration & a Prayer for Those Struggling With Control, Anxiety, or Fear