Contents
- Is Online Business Actually Real?
- When Meaningful Work Still Feels Restrictive
- Why Business Feels Wrong
- Does Online Business Still Work, From My Experience?
- What Actually Changed Things for Us
- How That Played Out in Practice
- A Business That Grows With You
- The Work and the Risks (Worth Knowing Early)
- So… Does Online Business Still Work?
Is Online Business Actually Real?
Having worked “online” for the last few years, my honest answer is yes — online business can work. But not in the way it’s often advertised.
I haven’t seen huge numbers of people build and maintain the staggering incomes that get flaunted in ads. What I have seen (and in some cases helped with) are people building sustainable businesses that support their lives rather than consume them.
What they have in common isn’t a secret formula. It’s a genuine desire to help people, paired with a willingness to do the work properly.
This article isn’t here to sell you a dream. It’s here to show you what that actually looks like, and help you decide whether an online business could work for you.
When Meaningful Work Still Feels Restrictive
If you’ve tried your best to build a life of meaning, you’ve probably chosen work that helps, serves, and aligns with your skills.
- teaching,
- caring,
- creating,
- supporting,
- or leading.
And yet, despite doing the “right thing”, you feel restricted. Limited by time. By money. Or by someone else’s rules.
For us, it wasn’t about wanting more. It was about not wanting to waste the life we had.
Why Business Feels Wrong.
For me, the word business came with baggage.
Entrepreneurship – comes with connotations of bragging apprentice contestents willing to invest in any unaligned properties, stocks, or ventures that they will try to sell to anyone to line their own pockets.
High Street Folly – Borrowing or investing to start a brick-and-mortar business with heart, only to pour all my time in, risk folding, and end up with debt and shame.
Online Business – Funnels, hype, smoke and mirrors, and nothing tangible. Promised freedom, but felt like a shortcut to stress rather than a path I could trust.
So we avoided business for a long time. Better to find somewhat aligned jobs that we could walk away from at the end of the day, or without losing investment. When we started our outdoor centre, we did so with funding and investment from an external source, essentially working as managers while ignoring marketing and focusing on delivering the best sessions possible. This was to our peril.
Does Online Business Still Work — From My Experience?
It took us years to admit that the problem wasn’t business itself — it was how we were approaching it.
Our centre was successful but not sustainable because we stretched ourselves too thin delivering to any business that came our way. We needed to market to a specific audience that we could deliver cost effectively to.
We felt like we had failed in delivering something we loved, so we looked for external guaranteed wins, proven models we didn’t need to emotionally invest in, things that. would give us money so we could live the life we wanted.
We had sporadic success with different ideas. Small wins. Short-lived momentum. Then frustration.
Things only began to work when we stopped chasing shortcuts and started getting practical.
If you’re curious about learning a values-led approach that focuses on helping first, this framework was an early turning point for us:
What Actually Changed Things for Us
The real shift didn’t come from a tactic or a new business model. It came from a series of grounded decisions:
- Getting clear on what we genuinely wanted to help people achieve
- Listening to the problems people were already asking for help with
- Helping first, before worrying about products
- Enjoying the work in the businesses we built
- Creating honest content instead of hype
Here’s what that looked like in real life.
How Our Online Business Played Out in Practice
Getting Clear on What We Wanted to Help With
At first, we assumed we should sell outdoor-related things.
But that wasn’t what we cared about.
What we really wanted was to help families spend more time outdoors together. Adventure, connection, freedom — not gear.
That clarity changed everything.
Listening to the Real Problems
We initially tried selling risk assessments because we thought it was our most “valuable” skill.
But no one was really asking for that.
What people were actually asking was:
Can you build an online business ethically?
Can you do this without sacrificing family or values?
So we stopped pushing what we thought we could sell and started helping with the questions people were already asking.
Helping First to Discover Real Value
Instead of pitching, we asked people whether they were working toward the same goal as us — more adventure, more flexibility, more intentional living.
Their answers showed us what they actually needed.
That’s where the real value came from.
Working in Ways We Enjoyed
We also stopped forcing ourselves into roles that didn’t fit.
Keri naturally gravitated toward:
- Where to go
- What to do
- Parenting and family life
That became blogging and vlogging.
I leaned toward:
- Business ideas
- Ethics
- Marketing and consulting
We didn’t copy someone else’s model. We built around who we already were.
Creating Offers — and Recommending What We Didn’t Want to Own
When a subject genuinely excited us, we created our own offers — mentoring, books, courses.
When it didn’t — things like tax, insurance, or specific business models — we didn’t force it. We shared trusted resources instead.
Those recommendations worked not because we were experts or great salespeople, but because we deeply understood the situation people were in.
If you want to see an example of a values-led resource we still recommend, this is one we’ve returned to repeatedly:
Marketing Without Hype
Our blogs came directly from real questions.
Our videos were honest — offering insight, not selling a lifestyle that might not suit everyone.
That approach didn’t grow fast. But it grew right.
A Business That Grows With You
Our business didn’t start fully formed. It worked best when we helped people along roads we were actually walking:
- When we wanted financial and time freedom, we talked about business.
- When we wanted to take our kids out of school, we talked about education.
- When we wondered where to go next, we talked about travel.
The business evolved with our lives, not the other way around.
The Work and the Risks (Worth Knowing Early)
This path takes time. Learning. Experimenting. And personal responsibility.
There are risks — wasted effort, wrong ideas, slow progress.
But there’s also clarity. Alignment. And a chance to build something that actually supports the life you want.
If you want a clearer picture of what this kind of values-led business involves before investing time or money, this is a good place to start:
👉
Find your Mission Map
So… Does Online Business Still Work?
In my experience? Yes — if you stop chasing hype and start building around real people, real problems, and a life you actually want to live.
The better question might be:
What kind of life are you trying to build — and is the work you’re doing helping you get there?
That’s where everything really begins.
