When I started out online, that was the first question I asked myself.
“What do I need to start an online business?”
No gimmicks, no b.s., I just wanted to know what works. What it costs? And what the potential income is as well as the time commitment.
Today I’ll do my very best to show you exactly what you need to start creating your very own online business today.
What Do I Need To Start An Online Business:
Essentially, you will need the following to start a successful online business…
- A solid education.
- Select a niche or niche based product that you love.
- And some time and money to make your online business dreams a reality.
There are a small handful of excellent ways for most everyone (like you and me) to make money online. Which method you chose will dictate the cost and time it will take before you see success.
It also will dictate the educational direction you take. We will discuss the best online business methods below.
First, I think it’s important to understand your motivation and how to maximize it.
Start by Setting Goals:
Goal setting isn’t as boring as it may seem. It’s also easy to get yourself in the habit of doing, without even knowing it.
I like to think of Short Term Goals as my daily tasks. My “To Do” list.
My Long Term goals are going to be more broad. Like figuring out which online business model makes the most money. Or what’s the best long term traffic strategies I want to employ.
So setting goals is an essential part of starting, building, and maintaining your online business.
Since you are your own boss, setting goals and deadlines is important to help improve productivity.
Remember, cutting up your big goals into small chunks makes them far more manageable.
Selecting an Online Business Niche:
Choosing a niche also needs to be included in your planning.
In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that choosing the correct niche is the key to being successful with any online business.
A jack of all trades is a master of none. This adage is particular true when talking about businesses.
If you don’t choose a niche, then you will have a hard time defining who you sell to and what you want to actually sell online.
This is especially true when you create sales content (copywriting) for your products, you’ll need to know what you’re talking about.
Specializing in one niche will earn you the respect of your customers and make it easier to generate online sales.
Benefits of Choosing an Online Business Niche:
Here’s a list of why selecting a specific niche (or niche product) is important.
- You will have less competition.
- It will make it easier to market and write about your niche/niche product.
- Makes it easier to find clients.
- Clients are more likely come back for repeat business.
- It’s less expensive.
- Your chances of getting referrals is much greater.
As you can see choosing a niche is important.
Not sure what niche to choose? Check out this article on how to find my online niche.
Best Online Business Models to Consider:
There’s a lot of ways to make money online. But in my mind, the two best ways you can start an online business are through: Affiliate Marketing and eCommerce.
We will talk about these two types of business opportunities in this following sections.
eCommerce:
eCommerce is simple buying products and selling them online. This could be buying generic products and re-selling them, but most of the time it’s branding your own product to sell online.
Having your own eCommerce website is great, but it takes a good amount of capital to create an online business based on this model.
Ecommerce can also take a good amount of work and time, but it easily has the highest profit potential in the shortest amount of time.
If you want to explore the eCommerce route, the fastest method to see success is by selling on Amazon.
There’s a handful of eCommerce training platforms and so if you’d like to look into the various options, I’d encourage you to check out Our Top Ecommerce Recommendations!
Downsides to the eCommerce Business Model:
The biggest issue with eCommerce is the risk involved with starting an eCommerce business.
This means you will have to first invest in a product with your own money. eCommerce businesses often require a larger investment (Compared to other online business models.) but they can be extremely profitable.
To learn more about eCommerce or selling products on Amazon, this is my top recommended training program.
Pros to eCommerce:
With eCommerce, you have the potential of creating a true brand name product for yourself. That’s why I think having the best training available is critical to your online business success.
If you’re going to risk $1,000’s of dollars on products, you want to make sure they’re going to sell for a profit.
You will essentially be in control of all the selling, but you will also have to obtain and store the actual products yourself.
Again, this is something that can be eliminated using Amazon’s Fulfillment By Amazon program.
If you are short on time and money, then the cons to eCommerce will certainly outweigh the pros.
Affiliate Marketing Online Business Model:
Affiliate marketing takes a new, different approach to online business.
Basically, affiliate marketing is a business model that let’s you earn money through commissions.
All you have to do is focus on the selling.
That’s right, no need to worry about shipping logistics, storage, or borrowing money from the bank.
Depending on the affiliate program, you usually only have to promote an affiliate link in order to get a commission.
For instance, if you are part of Amazon’s affiliate program, then you will be promoting products being sold on Amazon.com.
If a person clicks on your link and makes a purchase, then you get a commission.
It’s as simple as that!
Of course, the majority of work goes into bringing traffic to your website and using copyrighting skills to show your clients why you recommend a certain product.
To learn how to bring in traffic for free, check out our Free Targeted Traffic eBook.
In fact, people often use affiliate marketing to generate a passive income or a side income on the top of their day job.
You can of course use an affiliate marketing program as your main source of income.
The Next Steps to Start Your Online Business:
Once you figure out out your niche and business model, the next step is education.
Now there are many ways you can go about this and there are a bunch of different training programs out there.
In my experience, the educational program you chose will make all the difference in the success of your online business.
You can certainly do it alone, but that wouldn’t be my best recommendation based on my experience. Instead I think you’re chances of failure will be much higher if you go at it alone.
For eCommerce, check out our favorite educational eCommerce programs to see what works best for you.
Those who want to start an online business on a shoe string budget (using Affiliate Marketing), here’s my favorite training program.
[thrive_link color=’red’ link=’https://learntogrowwealthonline.com/start-here/’ target=’_self’ size=’medium’ align=’aligncenter’]Here’s My Top Recommended Training >>[/thrive_link]
Ultimately, the internet provides great opportunity for entrepreneurs.
And running a business online tends to be a location independent job.
There’s also the fact that starting a business on the internet costs a fraction of starting a traditional business.
But ultimately, it comes down to you, if you’re going to find success online.
Enjoy this “what do i need to start an online business” article? Check out our training program to find more answers to your questions!
Leave a Reply