Having a business is a good back up plan in case some unfortunate events happen on your day job – whether you decided to quit, you were fired or other scenarios that are totally out of your control. This business can be your extra source of income to keep you up with your monthly expenses especially when you have mortgage and other loans. However, not many people are open to the idea of starting a business because many think it’s expensive to start a business. Well, it is indeed expensive but there are many cheaper ways now to start your own business – and the internet plays a major part in this.
In this article, we will discuss tips on starting your online business – a business that can give you additional source of income and the fulfillment of running your own business.
- Come up with your winning business plan – to start, you need to come up with a business plan. Think what you can offer to people. Are you going to offer services like article or resume writing, web designing, web development and others or do you plan to sell products like foods, clothes, shoes, bags and accessories? You should plan this carefully and see how you can successfully penetrate the market. It is best to think of some unique quality that will help you shine.
- Register a domain name – instead of renting expensive land-based shop, you will use a website to cater your products or services. Thus, you need to come up and register a domain name for your business. It is advisable to think of a domain name that is unique but short so it is easy to memorise and online users can easily type it in their browser. Do not use hyphens or numbers which can be confusing for users.
- Look for reliable hosting service – next, you should find a hosting site that will run your website so it is always online 24/7. You can choose from different packages they offer. You can start from a basic plan and then check from there if you need to upgrade. It is best that the hosting site has 24/7 customer support that you can contact in case there’s a problem.
- Provide high quality content – it is very important that your site has high quality content so users know that you are running legitimate business. If you are selling products, then be sure to use high quality photos with product descriptions that will help online shoppers to decide if that’s the product they are looking for. Also, it is a must to dedicate a post about how your site works. This way, people will know how to order and pay.
- Come up with marketing plans – finally, be sure to come up with marketing ideas to promote your website and the products or services that you offer. You can start posting links of your site to social media and ask your friends to repost the link for greater exposure.
Starting an online business does not need big capital. You can set it up on your own and run it by yourself. Once it becomes bigger then you can start hiring people. But to start, you only need minimum capital and manpower but the outcome can be very fulfilling especially when you gain trust and support of your target audience. Hard work always pays off.
