After a year of uncertainty and job losses, many people have been left to find other ways to make money, and starting an online business has been a popular choice.
As the world becomes more digitized every year, an online store is a great way to bring in an income in a cost-effective way. Without the barriers of bricks-and-mortar premises, online startups can be launched pretty much overnight with very few overhead costs. Once you are up and running, you can essentially manage your business from anywhere.
If this sounds like your idea of the perfect work-life balance, we are sharing a beginner’s guide on how to start your own online business.
1. Find a gap in the market (or offer a better solution than what is already out there)
Nobody is expecting you to re-invent the wheel. But finding a gap in the market is a great way to set up your business.
But finding a gap in the saturated online market can be pretty difficult. This is why if you can instead find a way to provide a product or service that already exists in a better way, you could find yourself with a lucrative business.
To find your niche, you will first need to do extensive market research:
- What is already on the market?
- What audience does this product target?
- Is there a different demographic that could benefit?
- What are others doing well / doing not so well?
- What challenges might I face along the way?
It is also worth starting your business with a good idea as to who the competition is. This might prove you are trying to create a business that is already out there, but it could also show you how to run your business better and more successfully.
A gap in the market might not be a brand-new product. But it could be how that product can benefit a new target audience. During your market research, gauge what type of audience you think you would like to target, as this will significantly impact your business’s tone of voice, marketing strategy, and more.
2. Create your product or service
As part of the groundwork for your new business, you will need a period of development. Creating online or virtual products is a great way to make a profit with very little maintenance. It also means you will have fewer overhead costs as there will be no inventory or stock to manage. Virtual products might include online courses, e-Books, or even downloadable prints.
If you want to sell physical products, one way to reduce startup costs is to consider drop shipping. Pairing with a reputable drop shipping service allows you to provide products to your customers without the mess and hassle of stocking and shipping yourself. When a customer purchases from your shop, you will then send the order to the drop shipper, pay for the product and they will do the rest.
Note: It can be difficult to set profit margins and make money from drop shipping unless you choose the perfect products. Check out this guide for the pros and cons.
3. Create a business account
Creating a business account will help you manage your company’s in- and out-goings much easier than setting up your e-commerce store with your own bank account. With a business account, you will be able to receive and send money online in seamless and easy transactions.
Business accounts often come with other perks too, like lower rates on sending or receiving money internationally – perfect for when your business takes off!
4. Set up a killer website
Your website is probably the most important part of your business. While you have done all the behind-the-scenes work, the first thing customers will actually see is your site.
Your website should be easy to use and offer very few barriers within the path to purchase. In the same way that a physical store would update their shop windows to draw and attract customers, your website should do the same.
To get started, however, there are plenty of out-of-the-box options. Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce are just a few examples of platforms that can make setting up your website a total breeze.
5. Marketing
So, you have got your vision, your niche, and your website. How do you find customers?
Well, an integral part of online business is marketing. Unlike a storefront in a local town, there is nothing currently drawing in customers or directing them to your website. So, you will need to find a way to market your products or service to the right audiences in all the right places.
There are several ways to create a marketing strategy, and you will likely settle on a combination of PPC, email marketing, SEO, and social media.
Establishing a social presence is integral for pretty much any target audience, but most significantly for millennials or younger generations. Social media is the place to engage and interact with your potential customers, create relationships and hopefully get a sale or two.
PPC (pay per click) is another way to direct traffic to your site from users browsing the web via search engines. You will need a small pot of cash to start with PPC, but it can be a great way to get your brand in front of relevant audiences quickly.
Once your business starts picking up traction, you will likely have a few customers interested in subscribing to your email marketing. It is a good idea to get this in place from the get-go. Offering site visitors an incentive to sign up to the list can also help you capture a few sales in the early days.
While social media and email take up quite a bit of time, other marketing practices can run behind the scenes. SEO – Search Engine Optimization – is the best way to show search engines that your business is relevant to common searches. SEO is what helps search engines read your site so they can display it to the right audiences for you.
With your business established, it might take some time to get your first sale, but there is plenty of marketing, content creation, and SEO to get on with to pass the time. Once sales start to trickle in, it is key to offer customers the best experience possible so you can build a reputation and generate more leads. Good luck!
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