For striving entrepreneurs, taking on new business opportunities is the mission. The fantastic thing is, it’s quite easier now to build and invest in a new business venture if you have the right skills and a well-thought plan. One appealing option available that does not include traditional hurdles is an online business.
Online businesses are increasingly getting popular as it offers tons of amazing benefits. It gives you limitless freedom and incredible scalability with high margins and low overhead. And the best part? You can totally start it in the comfort of your home. But just like any other type of business, some important steps must be taken to start one. Find out below.
1. Know your market
First and foremost, you need to determine the market you want to cater to. The better you know your market, the easier it will be to offer the right products and services. What are the biggest needs and wants of your target market? What emotional hot buttons or words should you address with them? Where online do they spend most of their time?
Furthermore, instead of reinventing any wheel, you should stick with a proven profitable niche market. Plenty of competition is a clear sign of high-profit potential. Go where the money already is.
2. Write the business plan
The next step is to write your initial business plan. In general, a basic one should include sections such as vision and mission, pricing strategy, marketing and advertising, objectives, and action plan. Vision is your concept and plans for your business, while mission includes details like unique selling proposition and products and services you want to offer.
Pricing strategy is setting a competitive rate and projecting your business’ expenses and earnings. As for the marketing and advertising section, you can put what marketing methods and channels you plan to use. The objective section is for your time-specific and measurable goals, while the action plan is where you’ll list the steps that must be taken to achieve the objectives.
3. Design the website
Designing a business website is honestly not as tough as it sounds. You can create the website yourself using just your personal computer or hire a designer to do it for you. If you opt to do it yourself, you can use affordable or free website building tools. Or, use WordPress, which a free blogging platform that offers a wide range of customization features and thousands of templates.
On the other hand, you can easily hire an experienced freelance designer, which isn’t quite costly. You can try finding on websites such as Fiverr, UpWork, and Craigslist. Hiring a pro is a better choice if you don’t have the patience, time, and technology to build the site. That way, you can focus on other crucial things such as product creation or promotion and marketing.
4. Plan storage and backup
Aside from the traditional way of using hard drive disks for data storage and backup, you’d also need to invest in online solutions. Fret not because these aren’t relatively expensive. In fact, you can find providers out there that offer competitive pricing. If you’re starting a small online business at home, using a personal cloud backup solution is fine. Such an option is typically more affordable than others and ideal if you’re using your personal computers or devices.
You can then avail of a more complex data storage solution as you go along or by the time you need to back up huge files. Before investing in any solution, be sure to consult a trusted IT expert to choose the best one that meets your current and future needs.
5. Take care of the legal side
Last but not least, before launching your business, you should also make sure that it’s legally compliant. Doing this as early as possible will prevent plenty of frustrating and expensive problems down the line. If you’re planning to start a corporation or an LLC, it’s a requirement to register it with your state and file the necessary legal paperwork.
Also, check if you’ll need a separate tax identification number. If so, apply for it before running any operations. As for your tax responsibility, it’ll be better to have an accountant who can help you understand everything, from quarterly estimated taxes to sales tax.
There sure is plenty of wonderful benefits that come with opening an online business. It literally gives you the ability and new stream of income to make your personal goals happen. Take things slowly, learn through the process, and run that successful online business of your dreams.
