And, running a business online is relatively less chaotic than having a brick and mortar business. This is because, it requires less hands and assets to handle.
In addition, the online business gives you the ability to reach tons of people in the world, than the brick and mortar business can.
As an illustration, a quick comparison in google trends shows the increasing popularity of the online business over the brick and mortar business and in- store shopping.
As shown above, it’s evident that the online business takes a dominant space in the business world.
How to start your own online business: Who is it mean’t for?
If you are increasingly time and location challenged to manage work and family commitments, there is a good news for you, seek to become an online entrepreneur.
Knowing how to start and build your own online business will help you to live the life you crave, by being financially independent and having control of your time.
Not only that but also, enjoying the flexibility and perks of being your own boss.
Are you worried about having little or no startup capital?
Online business is suited for any body, especially, those with low startup capital. Starting your own online business does not have to be as expensive as starting any other business. You can literally start it with a laptop, an internet access and a big enough market to serve.
However, most aspiring entrepreneurs fail to do a proper homework on how to start a successful business online before they plunge into it. Hence, failure is unavoidable.
As an entrepreneur I have been there, I have started several businesses without doing a proper research of what it takes to start and build the business successfully.
And the result?
I got burnt out quickly and abandoned the business. I have also seen entrepreneurs that went ahead to create products that nobody cared about.
Now, Let’s Learn How to start your own online business from scratch
Every business has its intrigues, with the online business not being an exception. There are unique aspects of running a business online that every aspiring entrepreneur needs to consider before starting an online business.
Consequently, this guide is aimed to teach you how to start your own profitable online business in the following step by step manner that guarantees success.
Get a market
The first thing you have to do is to pick a market. For the purpose of having good financial returns for the time and effort you’ll spend building your own online business, I’d suggest you pick a market that is large enough. That is, a niche that has a good search volume.
Apart from the market having enough search traffic every month, it also has to be a niche that is not competing with other marketers for traffic.
The reason is if you are going to depend on organic traffic to grow your business , you’ll require an enormous amount of backlinks from authority sites to get your business to the top pages of search engines (where the traffic and money really are), if your market is very competitive.
Your first point of search for a business idea is your passion. Figure out what works for you, what you are good at and take delight in doing.
If you don’t want to get frustrated and eventually give up on your business, then you’d want to operate in a niche that is both fun and good for making money.
Building a business is hard and it undoubtedly requires the kind of relentless dedication that comes with passion. You definitely need passion to keep going in turbulent times on your business journey.
If you have passion for your business, you’ll not mind the number of hours you have to sacrifice to grow it.
Neither, will you see issues that come up from time to time as burden, rather, you view them as challenges you are happy to conquer!
But the question is, can your passion fit into a money making venture?
Most of the successful people we know were able to monetise their passion.
There is no shortage of people who took their passions–the things they would and often did do for free–and turned them into wildly successful new ventures
For example, Mark Zuckerburg liked “coding and people.” So he used his skills to build Facebook, a platform where people socialise.
Bill Gates is another example of someone that turned his passion into fortune.
So, What do you do? What next?, when your passion does not fit into an online business model.
It’s okay to look at some other areas of interest in your life. What makes a successful business is not the business idea an entrepreneur has, but the willingness to convert it into a business and make money from it.
Other areas to consider get a market
List out some industries that interest you, explore their forums to see areas of need.
Do you have a solution to a frustration your battled with? There may be more people than you think in similar situation that need same solution.
Tap into a market that is existing already by Checking out your potential competitors sites and taking note of what they’re doing to fill the demand.
Ask yourself, if you can do it better? If you can, by all means go ahead with the business. You really don’t have to reinvent the wheels or be another Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerburg to make money online.
2. Research your market
You need to research the market before starting. To figure out if you should go ahead with your business idea, you need to ask questions like these:
Is the market competitive? Like I said before, operating in a niche that is not so competitive gives you a head start in your business online.
Research your competitor: Find out who is operating in your niche, what are they doing, how are they doing it, are they doing it well, can you do better?
Does your market want what you have to offer?
Can you reach your target audience
Is your market big enough for you to make your desired revenue?
There are tools available online to check if you are in the right market. Use ahref or semrush to check how competitive your market is, if it’s too competitive don’t touch it, unless you are willing to spend money on paid traffic.
If you have more than one business idea, and you do not know how to choose the best for your business, go to www.google.com/trends to compare their popularity.
This is a great way to know which one is in greater demand.
3. Choose your business name and register it with your local authority
Now that you know how to get a market and validate it, the next step is to look for a business name to start your online business with. Choosing a name for your business is a strategic decision because it reflect your brand identity.
4. Take care of the legal structure of your business
Prior to registering your business name and in some case, even before choosing a name, you’ll have to first choose the legal structure that best suits your business.There are four structures that are available: sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company (LLC), and corporation.
This is mainly for the purpose of paying your tax. Please seek legal advice or the appropriate authorities qualified to offer advice in this area.
5. Set up a blog or website as your marketing tool.
Setting up your blog is a very important step in learning how to start your own business online for the following reasons:
Your blog is the most important marketing tool that your business has to engage with your customers.
It give a voice to your business.
It is one important medium through which traffic come to your business.
It gives you an opportunity to convert your traffic to leads.
You blog keeps your business ahead of the curve because you stay on top of market news, the latest about your competitor and the trends in your chosen niche.
You become an authority in your market, who customers go to for answers to their questions. And, your leads get converted to paying customers because they trust you.This is almost a guaranteed way to get sales.
The basic requirements for starting a blog are domain name and hosting.
Register a domain name.
Registering a domain name is much easier than registering a business name. Go to the sites that sells domain names and buy a domain using your business name above if available. If not you can search for any other available domain name.
Buy Hosting.
You also have pay for hosting for your blog. This is the only way your blog can propagate across the web, thereby making it accessible to people. There are many sites that are responsible for doing this, and most often, they sell the domain and hosting. The site that I use for hosting my blog and the other online businesses I work on is Bluehost.
There are many reason why Bluehost is my preferred hosting service provider. I’ll give just four out of them:
First, When you buy Bluehost hosting for a minimum of 12 months you get you get your domain name free of charge from them.
Second, they provide a superb customers support especially for those that are to bluehost.
Third, they give your a one click installation process for you to install your blog on wordpress (this is the best blogging platform for your blog). And bluehost is the official hosting service provider for wordpress.
And finally, when you buy through my links on this blog, you get the hosting at discounted price inclusive of the free domain.
Your business should have its bank account separate from your personal account. Having a business bank accounts is important for the following reasons;
It allows you to organize your business more effectively.
A business account makes it easy to track what money is coming in and what money is going out
Clients would have confidence and trust in your business.
Plus, it makes tracking a whole lot easier and easier when you are filing your taxes.
Conclusion
Now, I believe you’ve got the keys to start your own online business. The next thing is to get to work on the business to see it generate profit. But keep in mind that success doesn’t happen overnight despite what people say about making money online. But, if you’re confident that you have a product or service people want, you can continue to work on your business until success comes.
Thank you Adokiye for visiting the site.
No, online business is not limited to blogging alone; However, it’s a very important marketing tool for your product or service online.
Is online business limited to blogging alone?
Thank you Adokiye for visiting the site.
No, online business is not limited to blogging alone; However, it’s a very important marketing tool for your product or service online.