You’ve arrived on this page as you want to know everything about starting a business online.
However, the internet is full of people who want you to spend money on products that don’t get you anywhere. They promise you the earth, but they don’t even bring you back a dime. These sellers seem to want to keep people busy but without any reward for their hard work.
There are some scammers out there that will do anything they can to get your money. They will fill you with all kinds of ideas about making a million pounds by the end of the day.
It’s time to look at a few truths on starting a successful business online:
Truth #1 ‘Free lunches’ aren’t Free!
Every business is going to cost you some sort of financial investment. When you’re getting started it’s very important to spend initial money very wisely. There are plenty of ‘gurus’ who claim that they can help you do this and that. They usually arrive with an expensive sports car, but can often come in other guises and do a lot of exotic travel. They give the impression that they haven’t had to put any effort into making millions of dollars.
Well, let me tell you that the truth is very different from that. Every successful business takes time to work. It’s not easy, you have to put time in when you don’t really feel like it and you’d rather be doing something else. But that’s just the price that has to be paid to make a good living, have fun, feel rewarded and inspired. As an entrepreneur you don’t have a glass ceiling on the amount of money that you can make, the only limit is organising your time and effort so that it’s spent on the right things.
Truth #2 Leverage is essential
If you’re wondering what leverage is – it’s getting everything and everybody optimised for maximum output. When resources and people work together, it’s a lot easier to get better results than if you had one person doing it all.
Imagine, you are giving your house a makeover. If you had four people working on it instead of one, you’d be speeding along and making good progress. With 10 people on the job it would be done pretty fast indeed. That is why leverage is essential.
Truth #3 Friends and Family Don’t Understand Your Job
In today’s economy, it’s rare to find somebody who lasts for 10 years in the same job. Our parents may have witnessed situations where people have had the same job for 40 years, but it’s just not like that anymore.
These days you don’t have to think traditionally – ever read the ‘4 Hour Week’ by Timothy Ferriss? It turns any traditional thinking on it’s head. You really can create your business to fit with your life, not the other way around.
Truth #4: Rome Was Not Built In A Day
In exactly the same way, you won’t have …
Of all the fundamentals that entrepreneurs need to know to succeed, technology provides the most new opportunity and the most constant change. Computer literacy is not an option, it’s an absolute necessity. Every business needs a website in the same way every business needed to be listed in the Yellow Pages 25 years ago. The marketing opportunities on the world wide web must be understood and evaluated to ensure the best decisions for your venture. The technological tools and capabilities available to small business are expanding every day, and only those entrepreneurs savvy enough to keep up are going to survive and thrive in the new economy.
You Need a Computer
The ability to use a computer is pretty much a given these days, though there is the rare entrepreneur who is still uncomfortable with the idea. The advent of the internet makes most things much easier, from conducting industry and competitor research to keeping in touch with your customer base. Excellent accounting system and contact management software decrease the time spent on these non-core competencies while simultaneously making related data more accessible and useful than the old ledger books and rolodexes ever could. Email is the preferred form of communication for many, from vendors to customers, so current business owners need to be prepared.
Your Business Needs a Website
A website for your business is an absolute necessity. Whether a simple 3 to 5 page business card site or a full-blown ecommerce store, having a web presence is no longer a luxury, it’s a must. What you need depends on your industry and business model, but failing to represent your business online is likely to become a fatal mistake. However, simply posting a website is not enough. Doing so without performing the appropriate SEO (search engine optimization) is pointless. It is akin to placing a billboard on Mars — if nobody sees it, it might as well not exist. Effective SEO tactics are not particularly complicated, but they take some time and research to ensure you are making the best use of your time.
Get Involved with Social Networking
Social networking is the new frontier for marketing a business. It’s hard to say whether that will continue or if and when consumers will become immune to the constant barrage of messages, but for now it is essential to exploit the opportunities available on these social websites. The contacts you gather through your activity on social sites and from opt-in mailing lists from your own site provide excellent direct marketing opportunities. Email newsletters and promotions are extremely effective, and cost you only a bit of time and effort. Email blasts to your customer base keep your company in mind. Even if they don’t open all of them, they are repeatedly exposed to the business name, a psychologically important outcome!
Consider a Smart Phone
In addition to basic computer operations and internet opportunities, the newest technologies can help entrepreneurs stay organized and manage their time more effectively. Smart phones are not …
So you think you’d like to start a vending business. Do some soul searching and make sure you are the right type of person. Ask:
· Are you an entrepreneur? This is someone who must assume all the risks of a business, but can also guarantee the benefits.
· Are you self-motivated? There is no 8-to-5 in the vending business; you work until everything is done. On the other hand, there are days when the hours just fly. The really great thing about vending machines is they conform to your schedule: They can be installed just about anywhere, generate sales 24/7 and can be serviced most any time. But it’s up to you to make it happen.
Best ways to get started:
The more information you can get about vending, the better off you will be.
· Contact NAMA, the National Automatic Merchandising Association, the trade association that handles issues involving the food and beverage vending industry. They have information on all aspects of the business, including education, health and safety, government affairs, NAMA-certified vending machines, publications, expos and careers. You can reach them at (312) 346-0370 or .
· Work for a vending company. You will learn if you really like the business, and find valuable shortcuts, like installing and loading vending machines, buying product, inventory and accountability. Of course, you can learn all that on your own after starting a vending company, but it takes time.
· Check with (or find) appropriate business counsel:
– Accountant – How best to run the paperwork for the best return – on profits, as well as taxes. Also ask if you should set up your company as a sole proprietorship, corporation or LLC.
– Attorney – To set up your corporation and advise on any legal implications
– Banker – Open new accounts solely for the business (don’t use your personal accounts)
– State, county and federal governments – Any licenses, permits and other paperwork
Some people avoid all this; they just jump in, set up a couple locations, find out they like the business. . . and then have to go through all this. What a hassle. Do it right from the start and you’ll be able to focus your newfound excitement and energies on building your vending business.
A few words of wisdom
Buy the right brand of vending machine – this can make or break your company. Check out the NAMA-certified vending machines and buy one of these. Call a vending company in your town and ask what brand of vending machines they use. If you have decided to buy a particular brand of machine, ask the vendor if he has heard of it or has any experience with it. There are only 5-7 brands of vending machines that I would buy. See my article: “What types of vending machines should I buy?”
Look at what Coke and Pepsi buy when you’re considering drink machines. They have more machines out than any vendors. Find the brand name and …
Does that sound like you? Always wanted to go to business on your own, yet never took the first step? What the hell are you so afraid of? What’s the worst thing that can happen? Remember: if you don’t take risks in your life, your life will forever be the same.
This article is actually not really an article. I simply wanted to share with you two insights I gained over my years of entrepreneurship. So here goes.
There are two conversations I will always remember. The first one was with a good friend of mine, one Saturday perhaps 15 years ago. I was born and raised in Tel-Aviv, Israel and the whole concept of Saturday morning with friends is a big thing. My friend had an idea for a new business, and me being an entrepreneur in heart, was listening and giving pointers. He was going on and on about the business model, what the steps were, how big the market is etc. in his head he was already going public and retiring to a little island he just bought off the coast of Greece.
I remember vividly sharing his enthusiasm, telling him how I thought it was a good idea, where he should get the initial funding, how I thought the product should be designed etc. We had a lovely talk and then said our goodbyes, going back to the daily grind on Sunday (in Israel, people work on Sunday, but mostly have Fridays off).
After a couple of days I was talking to him over the phone, chit chatting about life the universe and everything, and asked him how he was moving forward with his business idea. His response was, and I quote: “I don’t have time right now; things are really hectic at work”. It hit me like a thunderbolt. My friend is a Saturday entrepreneur. In his head he build up a fantastic scenario made of the things he believes can bring him joy, then comes the start of the week and he is back on his daily routine. Saturday entrepreneurs will never take the leap to becoming real entrepreneurs. That takes guts, risk and a little bit of uncertainty.
The second conversation I wanted to share with you was a talk I had with my late grandfather. He was an old school businessman, filled with wisdom and insight. At the height of his ventures he actually owned a bank that he sold to another bank, making a nice bundle in between;)
I was 17 years old and had just failed my third driving test. I remember sitting with him in his house, telling him that I will probably never have a driver’s license. He looked at me, smiled and very calmly said “go take a look outside, see how many idiots drive a car, then come back in here and tell me you can’t do it”. I had carried that sentence with me all my life. Whenever someone tells me entrepreneurship is hard, I …
New business owners often want to create a business the way we prepare an instant frozen dinner. Pop into the microwave, press a button and enjoy dinner almost immediately. But for long-lasting business growth, think of starting from scratch, simmering slowly and waiting till you’re really ready to serve.
Now I am being biased here, but I refuse to eat frozen meals. They taste like cardboard. They tend to have lots of preservatives. Even the dog will turn up her nose when I offer her the leftovers.
When I take the time to cook a meal from scratch – stir fry, simmer or bake – I find the labor often isn’t much greater. The resulting meal tastes about 100 times better and you know exactly where the ingredients came from. It’s also more satisfying.
So how does this apply to business? If you look around the Internet you see all kinds of ads promising to get your business off to a FAST start. You hear stories of people who skyrocketed to success.
First of all, many people who jumped to success have a hidden X factor: a background in sales (the ultimate ingredient in copywriting) or a few years where they plugged away learning – usually some combination of luck and persistence that’s the 90% you don’t see.
But taking the longer path may be more desirable. Why would you ever want to do that?
(1) It’s a good idea to move slowly when you start without a lot of money. You may need to take a j.o.b. so you can invest in your business. This strategy makes better sense than starting a business without any resources. If you can’t afford $97 for an eBook or you’re watching the minutes on your cell phone, you won’t make a lot of progress.
(2) Sometimes you need time to figure out your business. If you don’t have a background in sales (or a business background where you had to get clients) you will need more time to find your way in this new world. “Margaret” spent nearly a year learning her way around her new field. She did lots of pro bono work, studied and began finding clients before investing in a web site.
(3) You’re forced to do one thing at a time. Work on just one eBook and promote that eBook hard. Work on one niche and build up your profitability.
Then take what you learn and start the next project. One step at a time, you’ll reach a more satisfying destination.…
The primary purpose of starting a business (at least in most cases) is to make money, and lots of it. Entrepreneurs pick a business idea they are sure will be popular, with product and service features they know will be irresistible to consumers. Their thoughts are filled with how many customers they need to meet their projections, how much traffic they need to draw, and how the operations can be streamlined. They are sure that once they have all the details worked out, the customers will show up in droves.
Very often, this confidence in their venture spills over into their marketing materials such that the messages they deliver are misfocused on how great the business, products or services are. Unfortunately, this classic approach is no longer effective. Today’s consumers are more knowledgeable and savvy than ever they are far more concerned with what your product can do for them. The new adage for defining marketing efforts must be Ask not what your customer can do for you, but what your business can do for your customers!
Every bit of your marketing effort, from the website to personal sales to follow-up contact, must be completely customer-centric. Everything you think about your venture needs to start and end with your target market. They don’t care what you need, what you want, or how you feel. They only want to know what your products or services are going to do for them. Just remember, it’s not about you, it’s all about the customer.
Define your venture’s marketing messages by the benefits your customers will receive by doing business with you. Know the features of your products, but reframe those into direct benefits for your customers. People want to know how your product will make them better, happier, more attractive, or solve some other problem in their world. For example, a mobile oil-change service has the feature of “oil changes at your home or office.” Better to focus on the benefit of “saves you time and keeps your car on the road.”
Identify your venture’s USPs (Unique Selling Propositions), or what makes your business stand out over the competition. Three separate USPs are good, especially if each of the three targets the primary needs of different market segments. Of course, to define your USPs as benefits rather than features, you will need to know your target markets inside and out, in order to define the benefit that will draw them in.
One way to improve your marketing messages is to personalize the appeals. Use testimonials from satisfied customers and anecdotes about situations that your products improved. Emotional appeals are much stronger than factual appeal, regardless of the audience. Of course, the facts and statistics about your product should be available, but a laundry list of data isn’t likely to sway too many consumers.
Focus on showing customers what your products will do for them and how it will make their lives better. We are all pummeled by hundreds of marketing messages each day …
Are you just getting started with blogging for your business? This article is part of a series that will help you get your blog off the ground.
Choosing Your Post Length
There are differing opinions on this issue. Some expert bloggers suggest longer posts so that with each post, you have the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and capture the reader’s interest in your topic. Others point out that some readers will click away from a post that seems really long before they have even had a chance to read it. They recommend keeping your posts short but informative.
I tend to side with the latter opinion. If it too short, readers may wonder if they have read anything of value, but I think it is even worse to make them too long, but the length will intimidate readers who otherwise might have stayed to read the post.
I suggest posts that are 200-500 words in length, especially if you are writing every day. If you would like to give more information that that you can write articles and provide a link to them in your blog post or create reports that you can offer your readers for free.
Increasing Traffic to Your Blog
Once you have your blog ready and have begun to post, how do you get people to find it? One way is to write articles, as I mentioned before, and post links to your blog at the end of them. Use an article directory, such as EzineArticles, and in the resource box, mention your blog and provide a link.
Another thing you can do is visit other blogs that have a similar topic and leave comments with a link back to your blog. Find the ones you enjoy reading and comment on them regularly. Other readers will want to know more about you and will follow you back to your own blog.
List Building
Ideally, your blog will help you find the customers who are interested in what you are selling. But if you can find a way to increase their exposure to you by adding them to your list, they get to know you better and you get a chance to persuade them to work with you or buy from you.
To add them to your list, you will need to have something on your blog that provides a reason for them to give you their name and email address. A sign-up box that offers a newsletter subscription, a free report or something else of value to them that they can only receive if they sign up for it. Place this sign-up box high on the page in an obvious place so that they will see it every time they visit your blog.…
Starting a business on a low budget and succeeding sounds quite unrealistic but it holds true when you are talking about an online business. Online businesses have numerous advantages compared to a traditional one. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get started; even if your idea flops you do not loose a lot of money, and you can promote and sell a variety of products from expensive items to perishables.
Selling your product online also does not require you invent new wheels; all you need to do is to choose the proven ways and get started. This approach will also be helpful in avoiding any scams and fake programs.
When staring a business online with a low budget your first investment would be to buy a domain name and hosting for your online store. Next step is the choice of product. Choose a product that has no inventory. The product should have its worth is today’s debt ridden world and it should help people make there life better.
Now comes the most important thing that is how you market your website to get targeted visitors keeping in view you low budgets. Advertising you business is not a piece of cake it requires hard work and commitment. It’s advisable to keep advertisement budget next to zero. The reason for not spending big sums in the beginning is that you are still in the learning phase and by this tactic you are forced to learn. Once you gather enough knowledge about internet marketing than you can spend bigger amounts on advertisement and it would be called secured investment.
There are number of ways by which you can market your online business. SEO, search engine optimization technique can be used to submit your website to different search engines; you can place a link of your website on other similar websites. Some websites take money just for placing your ads while others charge you when these ads are being clicked. Business with very low budgets can also send emails to targeted customers.
Direct marketing is also an effective and cheap way to market a newly started low budget business. You can reach your audience by posting on different online forums and social networks, inserting fliers in newspaper is also a good direct marketing tool.
Starting a business with a shoestring budget and attaining success is a possibility in today’s world. All you need is a little hard work and motivation.…
What is the one thing you must have that will compensate for all other problems, short comings and obstacles you will face in your journey to start your business? Persistence is the only quality you really need to make it through everything else.
It is very simple but that is all it will take. You can be very smart but if you give up too soon you won’t get there. You can have a great idea but if you let negative events cause you to quit you aren’t going to get there.
Lots of people who don’t consider themselves especially smart or gifted or even hard working have achieved their goals just by doggedly moving forward no matter what kind of problem cropped up. Other people who seemingly had everything going for them failed because they decided they couldn’t or didn’t want to follow through to the end.
The key to staying persistent is to know exactly what the end goal is and then break down the steps to get there into small and manageable steps so you can complete each one in sequence and always know you are moving closer to your goal. If you simply resolve not to quit until you complete each step and then always resolve to move on to the next step once you’ve completed the one before you will find it impossible to stop and the path forward will always be clear so that all you will have to do is continue to make a little progress towards your next intermediate goal each day until you reach the very end.
I guarantee that if you are persistent and always look for a solution to whatever problem comes up and refuse to quit until you have gotten what you want then eventually you will get there. It won’t always be easy and it won’t always be smooth but eventually you will get to the end result.
I also promise that wishful thinking and planning without taking action will never result in you achieving the goal. It just doesn’t work that way and there is no reason to expect an exception in your case.
Many people are disappointed to find out there really isn’t a trick or secret that will simply give them everything they want without any work but those people will always be disappointed and complaining that life isn’t fair and that things are too hard. That’s fine.
I think they are wrong, though. What could be fairer than rewarding the people who are willing to do the most and keep at it after others quit with ultimate success?
If you want you can have it no matter what point you are starting from and what point you are aiming at. All it takes is not quitting even when quitting seems like the best option and a lot easier than continuing.
So the only question that remains is are you going to start and once you start are you going to finish? Many already …
It is estimated that something like 20% of new businesses fail within a year of starting up, and 50% within the first three years. These are grim numbers, especially for anyone who is considering starting up their own business. Fortunately, there is an upside, looking at those figures in a slightly different way, 80% of all new business survive their first year and 50% make it to at least three years.
What anyone looking to start their own company needs to do is to analyse what the businesses that succeeded did, that the ones that failed didn’t. There are in fact a number of common mistakes that failed businesses have made and knowing what they are will give newcomers the necessary knowledge to help them avoid falling into the same trap.
Business failures are often blamed on insufficient start up capital or not hiring the right people. The truth however, is that the failure of many new businesses comes down to something far closer to home, a failure to thoroughly research the potential viability of the business in the first place. Believing you have a great idea and throwing money into getting it up and running, without first having undertaken proper market research is the number one killer for the majority of new businesses. Fortunately there are ways to avoid this by carrying out relatively simple surveys yourself, without breaking the bank on expensive market research organisations before you have even begun.
Test out the viability of your business by asking the opinion and advice of your own network of contacts. Take a look at government data on such things; it is almost always available completely free of charge. Take a look at businesses operating in areas similar to yours and see if they are succeeding or failing. If they are profitable take a look at why, and find out whom they are selling their products or services to. One of the most common mistakes made by new businesses is that of over estimating the market impact that they will have. Setting up in a larger than necessary office or shop; hiring too many people and purchasing unnecessary and expensive equipment based on cash flow projections that have more to do with hope than reality, are the quickest ways imaginable to send a new business to the wall.
The importance of accurate market research and enforcing a strict cost control regime cannot be overstated. Never be afraid to seek professional, expert advice on financial issues, preferably from an experienced business accountant or financial adviser. Make sure you have enough money to get your business idea up and running and have contingency plans in place should it fail to take off in a short period of time. Also be aware that situations can arise that are entirely beyond your control, such as interest rate rises, for example. Having healthy cash reserves to get you through an unforeseen crisis is an absolute requirement in this day and age.
A professional business plan …