Let’s face it:
A lot of people would like to know how to start an online business.
Starting a business online can bring a lot of opportunities and… a lot of money.
Anyone can do it.
You just need to invest some of your time.
And sometimes some of your money (but if you don’t have a lot of money to invest, you can still create a great business by investing less than $100).
In this article, you’ll learn the 5 crucial steps to starting a business on the internet… and make money with it.
Let’s go:
1) Find a market
The first step to create an online business is to identify a market.
Maybe you already have an idea about it, maybe not.
Let’s talk about the importance of this first step, and how to get it right:
If you want your business to be profitable, the choice of the market is crucial.
You want to choose your market wisely.
The first criteria of choice for a market when creating a business, is whether or not money is spent in this market.
And the best way to know that, it is to look to see if people are already spending money in this market.
Do people spend money in this market?
An easy way to know that is to look for competitors.
Are there some companies that are already selling stuff and services in this market?
If yes, that’s a good sign.
If no, there could be something wrong. Maybe this market is not so profitable.
So the best way to identify if there is a profitable market for your idea of business is to look for competitors.
If there are competitors, it is a good sign.
In fact, the more competitors there is, the more profitable the market.
I know it sounds counter-intuitive. Usually we tend to look for places where there is no competition, so that we can be unique and the only one selling. Right?
But usually, when there is no competition, it means that there is no money, plain and simple.
Of course, there are some exceptions. That’s why some innovations are a great success.
But most of them, however, sink into oblivion.
Therefore, the best way to know if an idea is profitable is to look for the competition in the concerned theme.
Find a need or a strong desire
The best way to build a successful business is to address a need or a strong desire of people.
This need or the desire should be strong enough for them to be spending money to fulfill it.
And as I mentioned it above, the best way to do this is to look for competition. In other words, to see if people are already spending money around this idea.
Find a thematic you’re passionate about
Starting a business online requires a lot of time and dedication.
If you start from scratch, you don’t make money overnight.
It usually takes several months to see your first penny.
In the beginning, you’ll need to be patient and work for nothing.
And in this situation, being passionate helps a lot.
When you’re passionate, work doesn’t seem like work. It’s more like pleasure, or like a game.
That’s why you’d better work in a thematic you’re passionate about.
All right…
Now that you’ve identified a market, you can jump to the next step…
2) Identify where your prospects are :
So that you can sell stuff and services to people in your market, you must get people to find you.
Because if nobody knows that you exist, and knows what you’re selling, you won’t go far.
It’s like a physical store where nobody goes…
In order to be able to make a sufficient amount of money, you must reach enough people.
And to reach people on the internet, you must go find them where they are:
Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and so on.
To do that, you’re going to create for each of these platforms a place where they can find you:
- A website for Google
- A Facebook page for Facebook
- A YouTube channel for YouTube
- An Instagram account for Instagram
Of course, you don’t have to be present on all these platforms. The key is to identify which of these platforms are better for your business.
If you’re a photographer, Instagram will be very useful to find clients. But on the other hand, Instagram won’t be interesting if you’re in the insurance market.
You must identify where your potential clients are, and then be present where they are.
NB: You can also create an affiliation program, where you directly contact partners so that they can sell your products to their audience (you reward them with a commission).
Okay, so now that you know where to find your potential clients, you can jump to step 3:
3) Build an audience
So that people notice you, you must stand out.
Your brand must be unique.
Because if it’s not unique, why would people buy from you and not from your competitors?
The first thing to do is to create a unique name:
Forget generic names and look for something unique.
Steve Jobs did this perfectly with Apple.
He didn’t call his company « Computer company » or something like that. He chose a unique name for his brand, something that differentiated his company from the others, something impactful.
You want to do the same for your brand. Find something unique.
Ask yourself how you can be different from your competition. What is your plus-value?
What do you do differently from you competition?
Maybe you help your clients reach their goal more quickly, more easily, with more fun, etc…
An easy way to look different than your competition is to specialize. Instead of trying to cover the whole thematic, focus on a specific part of the thematic and become an expert on that part.
People who are interested in this part of the thematic will come to you, because you’ll be the expert.
Specialized physicians always have more success than non specialized physicians: they have more clients, and people pay them more.
Think about it 😉
NB: create a logo that supports your brand. You can hire a graphic designer or do it yourself.
To build an audience, be consistent :
In order to build a following, you must be consistent.
People must have you in mind.
The best way to build an audience is to publish free content: on your blog, on your Facebook page, on your YouTube channel, etc…
Free content that will attract potential clients.
Free content that will be shared and drive more and more people to your pages.
You must also promote your content in order to make it visible to the people you want to reach.
You can do this by working on your SEO in order to drive traffic to your website. You can also do this by building partnerships, etc.
Once you have built an audience, you know you can start to make a lot of money.
People follow you. They like you. They trust you. They know you have some expertise.
In their mind, you’re different from the other companies in the market.
They know they can get some value from you.
That’s why consistency is so important.
If you’re not consistent, people forget you. And they don’t find you.
4) Make it legal
Before selling product, you must of course make your online business legal, like any other business.
I invite you to read the regulations for online businesses.
If you work from home, you may be eligible for certain tax deductions.
You have to go through this step only when you start selling. If you don’t make money yet, you don’t have to be registered.
5) Create & sell products
Once you have built an audience and registered your company, you can start making money.
And to do so, you must have something to sell.
It can be products (physical or digital), services, etc.
The most profitable products to sell online are digital products, because they are free to create. You only need to invest some of your time for the creation, but when it’s done you can sell the product as many times as you want. You don’t have any shipping costs nor any creation costs like you would for a physical product.
Here are some examples of digital products you can sell online:
- ebooks
- video courses
- audio courses
- multimedia courses
Of course, you can also sell physical products. There are some eCommerce stores that make a lot of money.
NB : I put the product creation in step 5, but you can start creating product right away (even before building an audience), and start selling right away. The thing is, if you don’t have a sufficient following you won’t make money with those products. So don’t expect to make a lot of money with your products if nobody knows you.
6) Create customer loyalty
Creating customer loyalty is a great way to make your business grow. It’s also the best way to protect your investment.
Think about it: if your website disappears from Google, if Facebook deletes your page, if YouTube deletes your channel… What happens to your business?
If potential new customers can’t find you, what happens?
Having a strong base of loyal customers is key.
It acts as insurance for your business.
The best way to collect a base of clients and potential clients is email marketing.
When you have your mailing lists of clients and fans, you are independent from the other platforms (Google, Facebook, Youtube…).
You can communicate with your audience whenever you want, and how you want.
That’s why you should collect the email addresses of your potential clients, and most importantly of your clients.
If you have a YouTube channel, incite your subscribers to subscribe to your newsletter. Likewise, with your Facebook fans.
Use your blog to collect email addresses.
And of course, cultivate your mailing list. Send email regularly. Not too often of course, but enough to make them addicted to the free content you send through your emails 😉
The key is to send a lot of free content, because if you always send them sales letters or links to sales videos, you will quickly lose their interest.
Remember: you want to create a base of fans. Some of them will need to get to know you before buying. Free content through which you share some of your expertise, some stories, some tips… are a great way to build trust and to differentiate yourself from the competition.
7) Bonus : Expand
Once you have identified what works, you’ll want to maximize your profits.
Building an audience as huge as you can shouldn’t be your first priority: your first priority should be building a audience big enough to conduct as many tests as you can:
What products work best? What do people in my market really want? What are the most profitable products I can create?
Once you have an understanding of what works best, you can look to maximize your profits by maximizing your traffic.
To do so, you can put more effort in your SEO for your website or for your YouTube channel, you can try to create more viral content, you can build partnerships with other companies, etc.
At this stage, the goal is to use as much leverage as you can to multiply your gains.