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The idea of starting a business and becoming your own boss…of being able to take a holiday or pay raise on-demand…doesn’t have to be a dream.
In this post we’ll talk about how to making this dream a reality and why now is the right time to get started.
Let’s start with the ground-floor needs for employment: food and shelter.
Most careers are founded in meeting these material needs rather than enjoying the job itself.
Why not found the career the enjoyment of the job and use the job to address the material needs?
It’s possible by just tapping into the resources available inside your own home and an internet connection.
Starting your own online business is the first step on the path towards self-fulfillment and self-preservation.
Consider yourself lucky…This is the start of an eye-opening series of articles, podcasts and videos designed to demonstrate the essential elements of starting and building an online business you can be proud of.
Human history and online businesses
Let’s be honest with ourselves, unless you’re a Google or Amazon, most people don’t consider online ventures to be “real” businesses.
Why? Ignorance for one, fear of technology for another.
Not everyone has accepted or adapted to to the ascension of the digital revolution.
This resistance is not unlike that which faced the Agricultural or Industrial Revolutions before.
Let’s look at some statistics…
Home and online business statistics
In America, a new home-based business is started every 12 seconds in addition to the roughly 38 million home-based business already in existence.
Out of these home-based businesses, 70% succeed within the first 3 years, accounting for 30% of all American business.
About half of the home-based businesses start with a capital investment of less than $5,000, yet they can have upsides of $100,000, $500,000 or more per year. All in all, these American companies make $427 billion per year.
For this reason, 70% of Americans prefer to be self-employed than to have a regular job. Not only is the financial incentive there, but the the freedom to work on personal terms with scheduling flexibility is hugely attractive. (Source: Business for Home)
source: http://www.businessforhome.org/
Now, let’s look at the statistics in Australia.
The estimated number of “digital workers” or people who use the internet to work away from the office is 5.6 million.
Of those digital workers, roughly 73% use a personal laptop or smartphone to work. (Source: SMH)
That’s a lot of people making the transition to an online working environment.
Why an online business?
Unlike an upstart brick and mortar business, online companies have unrivaled access to potential customers. Literally millions of persons at any given time are probably searching about a topic related in some way to your business.
It’s also important to note that online businesses:
- Operate 24 Hrs 7 days a week
- Have very low overhead
- Maintain lower barriers of entry
- Largely consist of automated processes
How to get started with your online business
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Plan the operation
Make sure that when you begin the planning process, the first thing you should do is reflect on your knowledge, experience, talent and skill-sets because these things will form the core of your product offering.
Don’t try and reinvent the wheel. Take advantage of what you already have to get the business off on the right foot.
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Create the online business
Start working towards the creation of a product, message and website.
Transmit a message that aligns with your goals and target audience. Clearly profile potential customers and start building a customer list (commonly called a mailing list) to propagate your business.
Get the website online quickly and effectively. Wasting time or cutting corners in this area can spell disaster for any business, particularly an online one.
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Promote your online business
Self-promotion is 100% key to any successful online or home business. Have an attractive and appropriate design to catch customer attention. Relate to your target market. Speak their language. Give them a quality product coupled with a quality experience and they’ll come back for more, bringing additional business with them.
Sign up to our webinar to learn more…
