Speak to an accountant

Many people look to start their online businesses while they are still working their normal day jobs. This is a sensible approach, as it means that you can get started without the added pressure of immediately having to find money to pay all your bills.

Also many people who want to start online have spent their time as business employees, not business owners. Running a business yourself means having to take a different view of both finances and day to day management. An accountant can give you a clear understanding of what financial information you need to maintain and the best way to structure your business from a Tax perspective.

Do not overlook this step, as it is time well spent and could save you a lot of money!

If you already know somebody who has an online business, ask them for a recommendation or introduction to an accountant that they use. Their accountant will have a better insight into what you may need and it’s always much easier to speak to someone with experience of what you’re looking for. If you don’t know anyone, take a look online. There are many forums or local business directories that you can source useful pointers from.

Research

If you’ve spent any time trying to finding out how to start a business online, you will have seen the suggestion that the best area to start a business with is something that you love – a hobby or a passion. While this appears to be an attractive idea, it also needs to be tempered with some caution.

Your hobby or passion may not be profitable!

The fundamental reason for starting a business is to make a profit. If your passion doesn’t offer a way to make a profit, then you’ll be just wasting a lot of time and effort and the only result you’ll achieve is disappointment.

Though it is very exiting to start a business and get it up and running, you need to make sure that you keep your feet on the ground and not forget the reason you’re starting it – to make a profit.

Choose a business model

What’s a business model ?

In essence, a business model is a framework on which you build your business. It’s a collection of processes that will enable you to know how each element of your business will work, how they fit together and how this will make your business profitable.

For online businesses there are essentially 3 broad models –

1. Affiliate Marketing. This is where you promote other peoples products and services for a commission when customers buy those products
2. Content Marketing. Original content is created ( articles, Blogs, specialist information) and this content is used to generate income with selling advertising space on the site, adsense ads, pay for content access or freelance working.
3. Product Marketing. Creation and sale of original products or services.

It is extremely important to thoroughly understand what’s involved in each of the models, so you can decide which one will suit both you personally and what you’re looking to achieve.

Register and set-up a domain name.

As you are starting out, you will probably do most of the work and setting up of your site yourself. I suggest registering a domain name that is of no relevance or importance to you or your business and use it to learn the ropes of creating and managing a website. This way you can be well prepared and confident of setting up your main business site, once you finally decide what it will be called.

Your initial site then becomes your test site to check, test, confirm and prove any changes or updates before putting them live on your main site.

Having a test site is imperative for making sure you don’t break your main website!

This article is a broad view at some of the things to look at when starting an online business. Much of this is common to starting a traditional Brick and Mortar business but with some twists. In the coming articles, I will be going into more depth on both the subjects here, plus more details on specific strategies and tactics to grow a long term profitable business.

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Tags: Business models, Internet Marketing, Make Money Online, starting a business

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