Successful online businesses that continue to grow and evolve have a few things in common. You probably already know that the most effective ways to build a business is to find out what people want, why they want it and how you can provide it to them at a profit. The next level is to create a business that sustains itself and continues to grow.

The 4 Keys to Creating and Growing a Successful Business …….

These are the 4 key components that I have found to be the most important to ensure that your business is successful long term. This is my own personal criteria. It is not a written law. There are many successful businesses that don't have all of these components but I have found that most businesses could improve by adding the pieces that they don't already have.

Here are the 4 keys to creating and growing a successful online business:

1. Simple
2. Systematize
3. Scalable
4. Residual

A famous business guru once said that a good idea should be able to be explained on the back of a napkin. Make sure your product is simple to understand. This doesn't mean that your product can't perform a complex process. It just means that it should be easy to explain to customers, investors, the press, etc. It should also be very simple for the customer to purchase. The fewer clicks it takes to get to your purchase page or order form, the more you will sell sale the better.

Systematize

It's been said many times that McDonald's is successful because of their systems not their hamburgers. McDonalds are capable of being almost completely run by teenagers because they have created systems for every aspect of their business. Every process in your business should have a written system. A good system is one that someone with little or no experience can easily follow to perform the task at hand.

Scalable

You want to create a business that can grow or scale-up quickly. If you are the only person on the planet that knows how to make your special widget, then you can only sell your widgets as fast as you can produce them. If you have clearly defined your product or service so that it is simple to understand and you have created systems for your business, it will be much easier to scale-up as it grows.

Residual

The hardest sale to make is the first one. Every sale after that get's easier and easier as you begin to develop a relationship with your customers. Most people work so hard on getting the initial sale and then they don't do very little to cultivate a long term buying relationship with their customers. The easiest way to cultivate a term buying relationship with your customers is to add a residual income stream.

Some examples of residual income would be monthly fees for membership sites, coaching programs, software licensing, health club dues, warranty plans, etc. If your product or service doesn't have one already have a residual income stream built in, what can you add to your product or service that will create a reoccurring stream of income for you? The best kind of residual program is one that automatically charges your customer's credit card a fee every month. This reduces a lot of the labor intensive follow-up, billing and collections that are required if you have to “re-sell” them every month.

So, as a refresher, the following are the 4 keys to creating and growing a successful online business:

1. Simple
2. Systematize
3. Scalable
4. Residual

Keeping these 4 key points in mind as you create your product or service will have you make more money with less stress and less work.