What Is the Best Way to Start a Business Online?
Introduction to Starting a Web-Based Business
Are you ready to establish your own internet company as an entrepreneur and achieve financial independence? You’ve come to the correct location if that’s what you’re looking for.
The goal of this manual is to help you achieve your goals. Because we’re talking about real life: real achievements, real obstacles, real business, we’re not offering quick satisfaction or instant success.
Entrepreneurship might be difficult, but it’s also one of the most important steps you can take toward financial and professional independence, as well as creating something fresh and interesting to be proud of.
Gretta van Riel, who teaches our Start & Scale Your Online Store course, began her online store with only $25 in her pocket. This is how her salary increased in three months:
Gretta’s SkinnyMe Tea business made over $600,000 a month in its first six months. Since then, it has grown to over 300,000 subscribers worldwide and generated millions of dollars in income. Gretta has now gone on to establish a number of successful ecommerce firms that produce millions of dollars in sales. There are many more success stories like this, with individuals from all over the globe launching internet companies and earning a part-time to full-time income.
It takes a significant amount of effort to do this. To tell you the truth, it doesn’t always work out. On the other hand, it does happen from time to time, as it did with Gretta and many other internet business owners. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience in any case. And kudos to you for coming here, reading this guide, and investing the time to educate yourself—because that’s how this work gets started. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Is This Information Helpful?
Are you looking for something?
If you’re looking for a way to…
You want to create a brand-new internet company.
You already have an internet company, but your sales aren’t up to par.
You’ve considered launching an internet company but are unsure whether it’s the appropriate fit for you. You may not know where to begin either.
Is It Right For You To Start An Online Company?
There are several advantages to starting an internet company. People, understandably, are enthralled by the prospect of earning large sums of money.
This is a very reasonable reason. It won’t happen in a day or two, either. Many entrepreneurs spend years without paying themselves a salary when they first start their firm. And being wealthy isn’t always a foregone conclusion. In fact, if you just intended to earn a lot of money, you may be better off doing a desk job and putting money aside. So making a lot of money isn’t the sole motivation to start a company.
Other arguments are often offered. One is individual liberty. Controlling your own time is an important part of owning a company. Being your own boss is what it entails. This might be a tremendous lure if you’re fed up with working for others and bored of building someone else’s dream.
Entrepreneurs are motivated by financial independence. You may become a multimillionaire in the future. Perhaps you won’t. What you obviously want is a better life, and business may provide you with the financial control necessary to achieve that goal. You are earning money for someone else while you work for them. Your money-making efforts are eventually going upstream to your boss, yet each hour of your time yields X amount of dollars. When you start your own company, you get to keep all of the profits.
Do you think you’ll be able to live the life you’ve always wanted? Yes, provided your fantasies are attainable. You get thrilling new power over your life when you go from a day job to your own job, to a business you start. You have complete control over your schedule, finances, and activities.
You will also face new difficulties. You are no longer required to work for your employer. You do, however, have a new employer in the form of the market. Clients, customers, growth and revenue targets, and so forth are all new bosses for you. Bills continue to come in month after month, and although you no longer have to labor for someone else, you now have a new imperative: profit or die.
And, in order to confront and overcome this obstacle, you must ask the correct questions about your company and be prepared to discover practical solutions.
Entrepreneurship Frequently Asked Questions
If you just remember one thing from this article, it should be that critical thinking is essential. Let’s face it: the internet has a lot of garbage when it comes to business resources.
However, there is enough of gold to be found. That’s one of the main reasons we founded Foundr: to assist our community in cutting through the BS and finding the gold.
So, how do you go about getting things done? So let’s start with a don’t: Never accept anything you read or hear about entrepreneurship at face value. Instead, examine ideas, put them to the test, retain what works, and toss away what doesn’t.
Yes, many possible business pathways will lead to a dead end. Simultaneously, there are several paths to wealth.
Critical thinking has three main components:
What are the chances that I’ll succeed?
Approximately 90% of startups fail, depending on who you ask. What does this imply for you personally?
It implies that starting a company may be challenging. It’s possible that your first concept will be a failure. It’s possible that your second business may not succeed. You’re competing with both large enterprises and small firms in this crowded market. It’s possible that you’ll need to try once more.
You may potentially succeed on your first attempt, as many individuals do when their firms are properly set up.
Remember that those startup failure statistics apply to a broad range of businesses, and there are things you can do to enhance your odds. Today, more than ever before, business is more accessible. You already have everything you need to launch an online money-making machine if you have a laptop and access to the internet.
Is it possible for me to accomplish this and work full-time at the same time?
Yes. Many companies start out as part-time jobs (Foundr is one of them). It’s challenging to juggle a full-time job with a growing company, but it’s doable, and it’s what most first-time entrepreneurs do.
Working full-time while starting a business might provide you with the financial stability you need to launch your venture without incurring huge financial risks. We’ll show you how to verify your company concept in a subsequent chapter so you can get started with greater confidence and less risk.
Will I have to seek outside funding?
No. Sure, you may seek outside funding, but most internet firms thrive without it. You may bootstrap your company if you don’t have the necessary contacts to seek financing or just don’t want other people messing with your firm.
In the startup sector, this is a touchy subject, since some individuals swear by raising funds. However, we strongly advise you to start your first company on a shoestring budget.
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Starting Your Own Business
It helps to understand why you’re beginning an internet company and what obstacles you’ll face along the way if you want to succeed.
Take a look at this list of advantages and disadvantages. Which one of these advantages appeals to you the most? Which expenses should you be most aware of, and what efforts can you take to avoid or at least lessen the damage caused by entrepreneurship’s challenges?
Pros
Individual liberty: Every week, we spend 40 hours or more at work. You take control of your time in every way when you run your own business: how you work, when you work, and why you work. Instead of working for someone else to get money, you may do something you like while pursuing your goal.
Quit your dreaded 9-to-5 job. You may break free from the constraints imposed by others’ norms and institutions and make your own timetable.
More financial independence. When you run a company, you have more direct control over your finances and how you make and spend money, which means you have more influence over your life. And, if you make it big, running your own web company might mean generating a lot more money than working in a corporate setting.
Cons
Increased personal responsibility. When you are working for someone else, deadlines and meetings are a constant concern. It’s possible that a supervisor will look over your shoulder. Even if these things are inconvenient, they may be useful in holding you responsible. As an entrepreneur, such guiding principles are no longer applicable: You must inspire yourself, and the bottom line is the only certain mechanism of responsibility that you have available to you.
Isolation. Office settings, with all their flaws, at the very least provide a definite opportunity for human connection. In order to succeed as an entrepreneur, you must go out of your way to mingle with others on a daily basis.
Particularly when initially starting out, there is less financial stability. You give up the stability of your salary in exchange for the unpredictability of the market, which may result in either a feast or a famine when it comes to the amount of money in your account.
Everything is brand new! Exclusive Free Training Information Is Unveiled…
Start a Profitable Online Store in 12 Weeks or Less: Here’s What You Need to Know…
Find a thriving market niche.
Here’s how to locate and develop a guaranteed successful product concept for your product in a hot niche that’s currently popular.
Take it from the Pros.
In only six months, this 23-year-old entrepreneur was earning $600,000 USD every month from her first firm!
Develop Your Company’s Image
How to start from the ground up and establish a multimillion-dollar ecommerce company.
Sourcing and manufacturing are two different things.
Discover how you may make the goods at a low cost while maintaining quality.
In what kind of online business should you get started?
Almost every day, individuals all over the world express their desire to start their own company. “I really don’t know where to begin with them.” It’s a regular source of frustration. The key is to carefully consider your alternatives, making note of the abilities you possess, and brainstorming methods to monetize various company models as you go along.
A higher-level brainstorming session is an excellent place to begin before diving into a particular specialization. Here, we’ll look at a few different sorts of internet companies, how you may monetize them, and how much money you might potentially generate from them.
Exactly what kind of online business may you start is up to you.
As you consider what sort of internet company you may start, consider if you can respond “yes” to the following questions about your potential venture:
Do you give a damn about it? Is it able to meet a requirement? Is it possible that the individuals who would be interested in your proposal also have the financial means to pay for it? Could you come up with a method to set yourself apart from the competition?
In Chapter 3, we’ll go through the process of selecting a niche, but for now, take a look at these fundamental company categories.
Physical Products are those that are tangible.
Create your own ecommerce website where you can sell actual, live, tangible things. With a digital storefront, you can sell tangible items while providing consumers with more convenience and choices while eliminating the major obstacles that stand between you and a brick-and-mortar presence. Start & Develop is an online course offered by Willspost that teaches you everything you need to know to start and grow your own ecommerce company from the bottom up, with the ability to scale it to the point where you generate millions of dollars in sales.
The cost of entrance into the ecommerce industry varies. You will need to set up an internet shop, which will cost you anything from a few dollars per month to several hundred dollars per month, depending on which one you select. In this article, we looked at and compared a few popular ecommerce systems. It is also necessary to take in the price of inventory storage if you are keeping goods on hand. More information on how to start up an online shop may be obtained by signing up for our free masterclass: How to Launch a Profitable Online Store in as Little as 12 Weeks or Less.
Products that are digital in nature
Not all items are tangible in nature. Digital services, such as online courses and ebooks, have the potential to be very successful. You may express yourself creatively with these types of things, and they are often less difficult to make than physical objects. In addition, you won’t have to worry about inventory, suppliers, or shipping costs anymore. Everything is now done digitally. Users pay on a recurrent (typically monthly) basis to get access to a variety of members-only material on membership websites, which can be a lucrative source of income if done properly. Membership websites are becoming more popular.
Billing members on a monthly basis ensures a steady stream of income as long as your consumers continue to find value on your site. Providing free information (on a corporate blog, for example) in conjunction with selling digital items is the most effective strategy for establishing authority and demonstrating value to readers before they make a purchasing decision. Creating and maintaining a website, web hosting ($10+ a month), product production (if you outsource), and membership site fees (if you choose to go that route) are all expenses associated with selling digital items.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is an acronym that stands for Software as a Service.
Software is a massive business with several sub-industries. Although the software as a service (SaaS) model does not attempt to generate the same sort of continuous income as membership sites, it does try to collect the same kind of ongoing revenue as membership sites. Using SaaS, you host a software program on your server, and in most cases, you charge a monthly subscription for access to the service. This is the most costly of the large choices we’re considering to launch because of the significant investment necessary to develop the software in the first place, but it has the potential to earn the most recurring and consistent income of any of them.
Coaching/Consulting
As an online coach or consultant, you may share your knowledge and experience in a certain field. You may connect with folks who are looking for assistance and instruction in an area that you are knowledgeable with over the phone or over Skype. You may charge an hourly or per-session pricing that is appropriate for your situation. If you are providing coaching services, the cost of entry would include any services you would need to manage your firm, such as a website and scheduling software programs.
Services
Do you possess a talent for which people are prepared to pay a monetary compensation? It is possible to earn a good living by providing a service such as writing, editing, or graphic design on a freelance basis provided you put in the effort, network, and locate customers who are ready to pay you what you are worth.
Admission into the services company is comparable to the expense of entry into coaching. Additional teaching resources, on the other hand, may be required as your firm develops and grows.
What Strategies Can You Use to Make Your Business Profitable?
What methods do you use to earn money from your web business? Of certainly, this is the most important issue. This whole enterprise crumbles if there is no income flowing in.
Here are four of the most often used strategies of monetization.
Advertising
Ad networks such as Google Adsense provide a straightforward deal: You display their advertisements on your website, and they will pay you a little sum for each time a visitor clicks on one of the advertisements on your website. The issue in advertising is dealing with a large number of people at the same time. In order to make meaningful money with advertisements, your website must normally get a large amount of visitors.
Affiliate Marketing is a kind of marketing in which affiliates are compensated for referring customers to a company’s website.
Affiliate networks, such as Amazon Associates, allow you to sell things while earning a reward when your readers buy the products you promote. You may include a unique URL leading to the product’s sale page, and you’ll earn money every time someone clicks on that link and purchases the product.
Drop Shipping (also known as drop shipping) is a method of transporting goods from one location to another.
Drop shipping may be thought of as a hybrid between affiliate marketing and selling one’s own items online. Customers submit orders on your website, which you then forward to a supplier that fulfills the orders and delivers the goods. Drop shipping commissions may be very profitable, frequently ranging from 20 to 35 percent, which is much greater than the commissions earned via affiliate marketing.
Making Your Own Products and Selling Them
While running advertisements or marketing for others might earn you some money, the big money is frequently found in creating and selling your own items. Because you are the only proprietor, you may expect to get 100 percent of the revenues from each widget you sell.
When it comes to starting an online business, how much does it cost?
You may be thinking to yourself, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down!” at this point. “Can I even afford to start an internet business?” you may ask yourself.
That’s a good question. One advantage of starting an internet company is that the cost of entrance is far cheaper than the cost of entry for more conventional business models, sometimes by orders of magnitude. Here are some questions to ponder during the next weeks.
Do I need financial assistance?
When thinking about launching a company, many people look to investors for guidance. Should you look for venture capitalists to support your business? With more money to work with comes the possibility of making quicker progress—and so getting a head start on the competition in the startup race. One disadvantage of venture capital investment is that you give up some control over your company. On top of all of that, pitching investors takes time and relationships that you may not have.
The following materials from Willspost may be of use if pursuing outside financing is something that interests you.
A Beginner’s Guide to Raising Capital for a Startup
What is the most effective method of financing your startup—VC or crowdfunding? Or Is It Time For Something Different?
Top investors reveal what they like (and don’t like) about their investments. Concerning Your Startup Pitch Presentations
You might potentially go right past the gatekeepers and directly to your prospective clients’ offices. To raise money via crowdsourcing, you solicit little donations from a bigger number of individuals, regular consumers who are enthusiastic in seeing your concept come to fruition. Crowdfunding is beneficial since it allows for the validation of ideas and the gathering of feedback while at the same time gaining financial support.
However, less than half of all crowdfunding efforts are successful, so if you decide to go this way, do your homework beforehand. Running a successful crowdfunding campaign has evolved into a fine art form that needs a certain level of expertise. If you’re anxious to launch a campaign on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, you should do some research beforehand. Listed below are some helpful resources provided by Willspost to get you started:
Tips for successfully crowdfunding your idea and receiving (a lot of) money for it.
Willspost magazine has released a special edition titled: What You Should Know About Crowdfunding
How we raised $200,589 in pre-sales for our coffee table book via the use of the Kickstarter platform
Eighteen crowdfunding professionals provide their best tips and advice on how to achieve success with your next crowdfund campaign.
Having stated that, we should point you that you may, or may not, need financial assistance. It is totally feasible to begin and operate a profitable internet company without the need for outside funding.
When it comes to founding a software as a service (SaaS) firm or manufacturing hardware or other tangible items, financing may be quite beneficial since these endeavors frequently include significant upfront expenditures. In addition, it’s more usual to see entrepreneurs raise financing once they’ve established a couple of successful enterprises and have established the track record and relationships necessary to attract outside investment.
What about taking out a loan?
If you wish to leave your work right away, you may live off of a loan while starting your own company from the ground up.
The emphasis is on the word “could.” It’s a high-stakes approach. What happens if your concept doesn’t work out? What happens if the income doesn’t come in precisely when and how you anticipated it to? What happens if there are unexpected difficulties or costs? This isn’t always the most prudent course of action, and we don’t encourage it.
Is there anything more I can do?
Instead of seeking capital, consider the alternative: starting your company with whatever funds you have on hand and growing it from there. This does not need a significant investment of financial resources. After a little amount of income has begun to dribble in, you may reinvest it directly back into the business, so establishing a cycle in which your firm continues to develop.
The term “bootstrapping” refers to the fact that your company may be a side hustle, something you do in your free time while still keeping your primary source of income. Starting off with a minimal viable product to see what works (we’ll go into more detail about this in Chapter 5) is a good way to ease yourself into it while still doing your regular job. Once your concept has been proven, you may start saving money and spending it as you like, ultimately accumulating enough income and savings to justify quitting your 9-to-5 job.
The following is a full disclosure: we are strong admirers of this technique, and that is how Foundr got its start. As a result of our interactions with entrepreneurs and our own experience, we believe that there are so many low-cost alternatives to ease into business that the risk of bringing on investors or taking on debt is not always essential. Every firm and its creator are unique in their perspectives, hence this may not be universally accepted.
Identifying a Specialization
Choosing a successful and long-term niche for your online company is one of the most critical aspects in the development of your online enterprise. As entrepreneurs, we have the incredible chance to establish and work on what we are passionate about while simultaneously earning a good living. When it comes to your specialty, having a strong sense of enthusiasm is essential, particularly when the going gets rough and the money doesn’t appear to be as motivating as it once was. If you are successful, we have seen more than one instance when a founder starts a company, gets it off the ground, and then realizes that they have little interest in their new profession.
Essentially, the sector in which you will operate, as well as the sorts of items or services you will offer, will be determined by the niche you choose. It’s your area of expertise, and it’s what your company will become recognized for.
For instance, Willspost is a company that specializes in the business development sector. We are experts in connecting with and assisting startup and entrepreneur founders and entrepreneurs. Because of this, our audience has grown to depend on us for tools, tips, and tactics to help them develop their businesses.
For a variety of reasons, selecting (and being committed to) a niche in today’s internet economy is essential. First and foremost, competition is strong. If you concentrate in one or two products or services rather than providing a broad range of goods and services, your firm will be more successful. Second, in the world of internet company, customer loyalty and familiarity are very significant assets. The likelihood of repeat consumers increases when your clients identify you and understand what to anticipate from your products and services.
Finally, choosing a specialization is beneficial to your mental health as well as your success as an entrepreneur. There’s an ancient proverb that goes, “The man who pursues two rabbits catches neither. ” Those who can narrow their attention and work hard to achieve success in a certain specialty are considerably more likely to succeed.
How to Select a Specialization
Although there are a plethora of niche possibilities, this does not suggest that you should choose the one that is the most convenient, fastest, or most lucrative. A great deal of thought and deliberation must go into your decision, and unless it meets the vast majority of certain established criteria, you face the danger of squandering a significant amount of time, money, and resources.
What is the best way to go about selecting a niche? Begin by posing a series of questions to yourself. Be forthright! This is a company into which you will pour your heart and soul, so don’t be afraid to put your all into it. In an ideal world, your responses will serve as the basis for your web business.
What is it that you are really enthusiastic about? What is it that you find yourself exploring for leisure or working on after your formal job is over. What would you do with your time if money were not a constraint on your activities?
What do you do naturally, and what do you do for which you have a particular training? Are there people in your life who turn to you for guidance or teaching on certain subjects? How long do you think it would take you to establish yourself as an expert in that field?
What activities do you find yourself engaging in in your life? Consider whether there is anything you are currently doing in your life, such as hobbies, interests, or volunteer work, that you might turn into a successful venture.
Is there a void in the market that you’ve seen recently? Are there any niggling issues in your life that you’ve been wanting to get to the bottom of?
What are your interests, talents, and hobbies? Do you keep a running list of them? Great!
Taking a Look at Your Niche Concepts
After that, go through each of your selected specialty themes using the criteria listed below. Examine these benchmarks in depth, since they represent some of the most reliable indicators of prospective company success. The idea here is to identify a niche (or two!) that is ripe with opportunity for both personal fulfillment and financial gain. That’s exactly where the action is!
Carry out a Google search.
Search for keywords that are relevant to each specialty, including broad phrases as well as precise terms. For example, if I were a makeup enthusiast and expert, my primary search phrases would be “makeup,” “makeup kit,” and “makeup instructional.” I would also search for phrases such as “makeup videos,” “makeup equipment,” “organic makeup,” and so on and so forth, depending on how particular I wanted to be with my searches. The purpose of this exercise is to identify current material and perceived demand in each of the niches studied. What kind of websites, blogs, and other internet enterprises are devoted to this particular niche market?
What exactly are they selling, promoting, and talking about these days? Who are the most influential people and merchants in the industry? What kinds of results do you get when you search on YouTube, Pinterest, and other social media sites? Make use of your best judgment to determine the level of demand and current expertise in each specialized sector. There isn’t a magic number of results to strive for in this case, but it will be quite obvious if there isn’t much search activity in the area where your suggested specialty is located. Also, don’t be afraid to engage with potential competitors. Competition is a positive indicator of consumer demand and online viability. In essence, these individuals have already done the legwork and cleared the path for a market that is ready to purchase.
All you have to do is set yourself apart from the competition or improve on what is currently available. On the other side, if you don’t perceive much competition, you should proceed with caution. While it’s possible that a certain specialty is underserved, the chances are that it doesn’t do well online.
To measure interest, do a keyword search.
Conduct a specialized keyword search using the same phrases as in Step 1 to find further information (This link is free with a Google AdWords account). The Keyword Planner will provide a range of average monthly searches as well as the amount of competition. This information should provide you with a decent understanding of the overall level of interest in each phrase. When I looked for cosmetics-related terms, I discovered that “makeup” received 1 million to 10 million monthly searches, “makeup kit” received 100 thousand to one million, and “makeup instructional” received 100 thousand to one million.
Regarding my exact keywords, “makeup videos” received 100K-1M views, “makeup tools” received 1K-100K views, and “organic makeup” received 10K-100K views. These figures indicate that there is a lot of search and market activity in my sector, and that I will most likely be able to discover buyers who are interested in my products. It is critical to analyze the search activity in your niche since almost 30% of online customers begin their purchasing journey on Google (or another search engine).
Do an Amazon search to find out more.
While Google is the most common starting place for many online buyers, Amazon remains the most popular, with more than half of customers beginning their shopping journey there. As a result of the wide range of products accessible, competitive pricing, and verified customer reviews, Amazon has become a one-stop shopping destination. On Amazon, search for the same phrases that you used in Steps 1 and 2, as well as additional terms that are connected to your specialty. Is there a variety of items accessible, and how many distinct sorts are there to choose from?
Is there a book or instructional resource that goes into further detail about your specialty? What is the general agreement among the product reviews for the most popular items on the market? If there are at least five pages of search results, this is a solid indication of the possibility for profit. These findings will also provide you with a decent indication of the level of competition you could encounter if you decide to sell on Amazon in the future.
Make a search for affiliate marketing.
Check online marketplaces such as ClickBank and ShareASale to identify items that are relevant to your market segment. These are also indicative of a company’s preparation to enter the market. Having at least one or two affiliate relationships in your niche is a solid indication of the success of your business. Using these sources may help you make (or break) the case for your niche alternatives, even if you ultimately decide that affiliate marketing is not for you. In the future, when you’re wanting to expand your internet company and generate more revenue streams, affiliate marketing research may be quite beneficial to your efforts.
Concluding Remarks
It takes a lot of time and effort to thoroughly explore all of your specialty alternatives. The problem with speeding through (or omitting) this phase is that it might result in lost resources, which is something you definitely can’t afford as an internet business.
Not to worry if you’ve analyzed your possible niche alternatives and haven’t discovered anything in the way of market interest or money prospects. Many other niches may be found out there to explore. It’s a widely held belief that the secret to starting a successful new company is just “discovering that one brilliant idea.” Almost all entrepreneurs end up abandoning one or more concepts at some point in their careers and pursuing a different path.
Explore the following scenario: If I realize that there is too much competition in the beauty physical items market, I may consider being a freelance writer on the subject or possibly providing online instructional courses. When it comes to starting an internet company, the options are unlimited!
Similarly to what we said previously, you want to be at the intersection of your passion and your profitability. “Can I build someone who is better or different than what is already out there?” is a crucial question to ask oneself. In the event that you are interested in and enthused by a niche that has market demand, viability, and originality, you will be well on your approach to launching an internet company that will be successful.