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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Starting an online business today is very different than it was 10 years ago. There’s more competition and much more information than just a short while ago. With the explosion of social networking and the speed of news flow and information in general, the expectations of a typical Web surfer today is for a high quality and professional presentation of this information or they won’t bother looking at it.

So if you’re looking to start an online business, you really do have to have to take this into account. This means that before you get started or you even make a penny, you’ll have to do some deep soul searching, thinking, planning and learning to give yourself the best chance of success.

There are a huge number of people starting up a business on the internet, many with the intention of giving up their day jobs to work from home full time. This is a noble and worthwhile goal and is being done by people all over the world and from all different backgrounds. The thing is, because it appears to be quite easy to get set up online, we naturally think that being successful online will be just as straightforward.

Sorry, but it’s not going to happen that way. You aren’t going to see fantastic success by the end of this month – or next month or the month after. It’s going to take time, effort and dedication, and the success you have will be in direct proportion to the effort you put into your business. What I can tell you though, is that the rewards for the people that do stick at it are truly life changing.

While you’re looking for answers about starting a business online, you’ll see many places that quote consistency, persistence and mental attitude are the keys to success. I agree that these are very important parts of the puzzle, but they’re not the whole picture. There is a vital ingredient that gets missed out all too often, and without you’re doomed to failure.

What’s the piece that’s missing? What is the secret that allows some to succeed spectacularly where many fail?

Value.

It doesn’t matter how disciplined you are, how persistent you are, how positive or consistent you are, if you’re not offering value, something that can really help solve a problem or make a positive change, then nobody will buy you’re offering.

If you want to build a successful business for the long term, then it’s the value of what you’re offering that’s your priority from day 1. Everything you do has to be built around value. If it’s not of value, you are wasting both your time and everyone else’s.

The internet is a great leveller when it comes to starting a business. You don’t have to spend a fortune for a shop, or pay a premium for a location. You don’t have to hire any staff to get up and running or spend months negotiating leases before you can open your doors. Once you open an online business you’re open 24 hours a day for the whole world to see straight away.

But, this is a double edged sword. Because you can get online easily, many would be entrepreneurs just go right ahead and do it without any real thought or plan and immediately fall flat on their faces. The first impression they give is not based on value for their customers, but on making money for themselves. They work hard to get visitors to their sites, but can’t then work out why nobody buys.

Don’t get me wrong, we all make mistakes and it’s part and parcel of starting and building any business. However, you must work smart if you want to succeed. You must allow yourself to watch, learn, and understand what’s involved in getting your online business off to a strong professional start, or you’ll waste a lot of time and money.

In all our daily dealings, we don’t get a second chance at a first impression. Value the opportunity to make your first impressions and give as much value as you can in what you offer. The more valuable first impressions we leave, the more valuable a business we build.

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