How Long Does It Take to Grow an Online Business? (My Honest Timeline)

How long does it take to grow an online business? I wish more of us asked that out loud.

Because there's a LOT of messaging out there about how quickly it should happen... and if I'm really honest, a lot of it isn't true. Not just on social media, either.

I don't have a magic number for you. What I do have is my own timeline, and the things that helped me keep going through the months (okay, years) before it worked.

How long does it take to grow an online business, honestly?

Longer than a lot of the marketing out there suggests.

There's a lot of messaging (and, if we're honest, a lot of dishonesty) about how long it can take. And even once it starts working, it doesn't move in a straight line. You figure something out, it starts working, and then it bloody breaks again... and you have to figure it out again.

That's the journey we're always on.

So at the very start, give yourself permission for it to take time. Time to work out who you want to help, how you want to help them, and how you actually LIKE helping. And know that even that might change along the way.

What my own timeline really looked like

Before 2020, I was a wedding photographer for a decade. Then the pandemic happened, and life changed.

Between then and 2022, when this business REALLY took off, I did so many things. I was a virtual assistant for so many different businesses. I was writing real estate copy for houses that were being sold (stuff I really shouldn't have been doing, if we're honest, but I was doing my best). I was getting as much income in as I could, however I could, to take the pressure off while I figured it out.

Then in 2022 I started this business with an email list of zero. Not even my mum was on there.

I hosted my first summit that May and 600 people signed up. From May 2022 to the end of December 2023, about 18 months, my list grew from zero to 7,000+ without social media.

So for me it was a couple of years of in-between before the business took off, and then about 18 months of building my list on top of that. That's the honest version. If you want the practical side of those 18 months, here's how I'd build my email list from scratch.

Take the money pressure off while you build

If you've got a part-time job, if you're still working, if you have another way to make money... great. Don't get rid of it yet.

Start building, but know that it takes time, and do everything you can to take the pressure off yourself for it to make money really quickly. That much pressure for it to work straight away kills EVERYTHING. And everything you create, people can feel that energy.

For me, having other income took the financial pressure away, which meant my nervous system could be more regulated, which meant I could actually sit with the BIG questions. What do I want to do? What do I want to try? What feels fun?

Yes, it took a lot of time, because I couldn't sit down for six or eight hours and think about those things. I had to actually make money. But it gave me the space to work it out.

So no shade to anyone who needs to go and do that. Do what you need to do to take the pressure off while you're building.

Filter what you're seeing while you build

It's REALLY hard on our brains when we're seeing income claims everywhere, or following people who seem like it all happened for them really fast. (P.S. it didn't.)

So be intentional about it. Unfollow, block, do whatever you need to do so you're only seeing what's actually helpful for you to see as you're building.

Because otherwise it's so easy to slip into black and white thinking, which is SO human.

"We're either succeeding or we're failing. No, no, we're learning."

We need to give ourselves space to learn as well.

Park the shiny ideas and pick one thing from each side

If you get distracted easily, I'm right there with you. I get distracted. I want to try all the things. I get excited. I'm impatient.

So I keep what I call a car park. It used to be a whiteboard behind me, and these days it's more of a post-it note situation, but anything I want to remember goes in the car park:

I want to remember this. I want to come back to it. I'm not giving myself permission right now, but it's here.

Even just the act of writing it down helps. Okay, I've done something towards that. It's there, I know it, and I'm coming back to it.

I also remember watching those repurposing workshops where you do this and turn it into that, and that, and that. Oh my goodness, how overwhelming! Maybe you keep it up for two weeks and then it just falls away (unless you have a team).

So instead of everything at once, pick ONE thing from each side:

• one relationship-based strategy, where you're getting in front of someone else's audience (summits, bundles, podcast guesting, freebie swaps)
• one search-based strategy that builds over time (blogging, YouTube, Pinterest, PR)

Both of them lead to your email list. If search is the side you want to try, here's how to use your website and SEO to grow your audience.

Commit to them for 90 days. If 90 days feels like forever, I have clients who do 30 days at a time, and that's okay too.

Then circle back and look at the data. Are you getting sign-ups? Are you getting any sales? How does it feel... do you enjoy it? Then decide whether to keep going for the next 90 days or tweak it and try something different. We need to make sure we're not just making emotional decisions.

Grow the one thing you own

This is the part that helps me stay calm now, through every up and down: knowing I have an email list that I own. (Here's why your email subscribers stick around longer than your social media followers.)

When something changes in my business, I kind of see it as fun now. Okay, what could I do differently? How could I make an extra $500 this month? And because I've built that list, I could launch a new offer quickly and be pretty confident I'd make some sales.

I'd be in a completely different place without it.

The relationships make the ups and downs SO much easier to handle too, because you have your people. You can go back to them and say, hey, what do you want now? (This is how I make friends as an adult... I honestly don't know how you make friends otherwise.)

So how long does it take? Probably longer than you'd like. Take the pressure off where you can, park what can wait, and keep growing the one thing that's yours.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to grow an online business?

Longer than a lot of the marketing out there suggests, and I don't have a magic number for you. I started this business in 2022 with an email list of zero, and from May 2022 to the end of December 2023, about 18 months, my list grew to 7,000+ without social media. Even once it works, it doesn't move in a straight line.

Should I keep my job while I build my business?

If you've got a part-time job or another way to make money, don't get rid of it yet. Having other income took the financial pressure off for me, so I had the space to work out what I wanted to do. No shade to anyone who needs to do that.

How do I stop comparing myself to other people's income claims?

Be intentional about what you're seeing. Unfollow, block, or do whatever you need to so you're only seeing what's helpful while you build. It's easy to slip into black and white thinking, and we need to give ourselves space to learn as well.

What do I do with all my shiny ideas?

Park them. I keep what I call a car park (these days it's more of a post-it note situation), and anything I want to remember goes on it. Then pick one relationship-based strategy and one search-based strategy to focus on.

How do I know if a strategy is working?

Commit for 90 days (or 30 days at a time if 90 feels like forever), then look at the data. Are you getting sign-ups, are you getting any sales, and how does it feel? Then decide whether to keep going or tweak it, so you're not just making emotional decisions.

Why grow an email list while I figure everything out?

Knowing I have an email list that I own helps me stay calm through every up and down. When something changes, I could launch a new offer quickly and be pretty confident I'd make some sales.