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There’s no one-size-fits-all to business, so it’s not always easy to work out what you need to do. But if you’re looking to bootstrap your way to success and build a credible online business from the ground up, you’ve come to the right place.
In this blog post, we’re going to run through fifteen tips that can get you started. Whether you’re a freelancer or creative looking to get clients or you want to build an online product business, it will be much easier than you think. It’s all about taking things step-by-step and approaching it all in the right way. Let’s take a look.
Why an Online Business?
So first of all, it’s good to consider the benefits of building an online business over anything else. Most of the time, when you opt for something online, your overheads are minimal – sometimes you won’t even have any. You can often bootstrap your way up from the bottom and have more control of the profit that you make. However, if you did something in person, you may have costly overheads, such as rent, to keep up with from the beginning.
What You Need to Know Before You Begin
Before you dive headfirst into business, you need to make sure that you’re aware of what entrepreneurship may be like for you. It’s easy to think that you can get into it and work less. This is something that many people aim for, but it might be that you actually work more on initially in order to be able to enjoy this luxury later on down the line. You will also need to have the right approach and attitude to get to this point. We’re going to look at that in more detail next.
15 Tips to Get Things Underway
Now, to help you launch your business on the right foot, we’re going to run through some of the best things to keep in mind as you go. And feel free to tailor these points to your own goals and way of doing things. Here we go…
1. Know What You Want to Do
To begin with, you need to make sure that you know what you want to do. And this can be a tough one. It’s safe to say that we don’t always know what we want to do in life. If you have had a strong idea from the beginning, that’s great. If not, your first port of call is to work through some ideas and figure out what you’d like to do.
2. Set a Goal
When you’ve got that all figured out, you can then look at setting some goals for both yourself personally and what you’d like to achieve with the business. When you have an overarching goal in place, it helps you to then move forward and create actionable steps to bring everything to life.
3. Create a Business Plan
Then it’s time to pull together a business plan. If you’re looking to get funding for your business, this is going to be a key step – so make sure that it’s detailed. If not, you can use this as a guide to help you get the business underway. Either way, it can be a helpful document to have.
4. Choose a Business Name
When you’re thinking about all of the key areas of the business, you’re also going to want to think up a business name. This could be a full business name or it could be something fun and relevant to your business that you want to trade under.
5. Get Set Up
With both of the above points ticked off, your next port of call is for you to get the business set up properly. Depending on where you live, this could work in a range of different ways. You might want to register yourself as a freelance contractor, for example. Or maybe you want to go with a fully-fledged LLC or limited company.
6. Build a Brand Identity
The next thing you’ll want to do from here is start to think about your brand and how you’d like to build it. You will want to have a brand image that matches the feel and personality of your brand. This is where building a brand identity comes in. With the right look for your business, you’ll be able to project the right message out to your target audience.
7. Create a Website
From here, you can then look at designing your website too. If you’re bootstrapping, you might be interested in using a template on WordPress or something similar. But if you have the budget, you can also look at getting a web designer in to create something completely custom. Either way, this is a huge part of selling your business online.
8. Formulate Your Marketing Plan
Next are your marketing ideas. You may want to pull together a full marketing plan as part of your overall business plan or start to jot down ideas for marketing in a spreadsheet or in your project management software. Whether you want to create a presence on just one social media channel or look to build out a full content strategy, it’s important to get this underway as early as possible.
9. Consider Outsourcing
At this point, you may also want to think about whether or not you want to be able to outsource areas of the business to experts. This is something that can help you to save both time and money in the long run, but be a huge advantage to the business. If you know that you’re not an expert at marketing or finance, you can harness the knowledge and experience of someone who is. This is why turning to a specialist PPC agency, graphic designer, and even an accountant can come in handy. It’s about hiring expertise in the areas you lack.
10. Hire a Team
At the same time, you may also want to think about hiring a team. This is often something that you’ll do gradually. But if you’re looking to start a bigger business from the beginning, you may want to hire a few team members to start with. It could be an assistant or web designer, a salesperson or even someone to help with customer service. Here, focus on the kind of support you need.
11. Network
Then, when it comes to growing your business, you’ll need to make sure that you’re networking. But this doesn’t have to be intimidating. Networking for your business can often mean attending events that you want to go to, meeting new people, putting yourself in key rooms, and opening up windows of opportunity for the future of the business.
12. Be in it For the Long Run
Ultimately, you then need to make sure that you’re in it for the long run. If you’re looking to build something and find success overnight, it might turn out to be a lot more stressful than you realise. However, if you are always focusing on what you’re looking to build and achieve in the long term, it will start to pay off!
13. Have Grit
From here, you’re also going to need to make sure that you have grit. Being in business can often be challenging. It most certainly has its ups and downs. But when you know that you’re able to take whatever is thrown at you, overcome it, and look to move forward quickly, you’ll be okay.
14. Adjust as You Go
Another thing that can help you here is the idea of just adjusting your plans and ideas as time goes by. As you start to achieve goals or overcome obstacles, you’ll want to pivot and adjust as you see fit. This is how you can stay in business for a long time and not struggle.
15. Enjoy the Journey
Finally, you’ll want to make sure that you can enjoy the journey. It’s safe to say that the world of entrepreneurship very much is a journey. But it can be a lot of fun and come with a lot of benefits, such as time freedom, more money, and a lot of flexibility. So enjoy it all!
Final Thoughts: Finding Business Success in the Online Space
It’s safe to say that launching an online business can feel really intimidating at first, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Instead, once you break it all down, have a plan, focus on building your brand, and build your sales up from there, it can all feel a lot easier. Plus, when you look to do it in your own way and put your spin on things, it can feel fun too. Entrepreneurship is something you should look to pursue when you want freedom and an unlimited life. So make sure that you lean into that and enjoy the journey along the way!
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