If you’ve read articles recently on personal finance or employment options, you’ve likely seen references to income inequality, lengthening work hours, and the quest for career satisfaction.
Many of us find ourselves in the predicament of tightening our budgets, hoping to make our dollars stretch as far as possible.
You could try to alleviate your financial discomfort with a second job. However, say goodbye to the free time you enjoy that helps maintain basic sanity in your world.
So what’s a sensible option for bolstering our personal bottom lines, without losing the freedom that keeps us vibrant and engaged?
Here’s an option: Millions of Americans will be receiving tax refunds soon.
Check an online tax calculator to find out if you’re one of them. Presuming you are, why not consider using that money to start a small business? A great option is to start an online retail or informational commerce company.
There are a surprising number of digital-based businesses you can start with only a marginal outlay of time and effort on your part.
First Step: Pick a Path For Your Online Business
Online businesses capitalize on connectivity. Everyone you know spends time posting and scrolling through content, social media, and more.
Digital marketplaces such as Ebay and Etsy, as well as visual clearinghouses like Pinterest, can help you display and monetize your belongings, knowledge, or skills, then offer them to eager customers.
So first, take stock of everything you have to offer.
You almost certainly possess items or abilities for which someone is currently searching — and might pay big money.
An online business can earn you the financial freedom necessary to achieve your personal goals and desires.
The big question for most people: How do I get started?
Rest assured, it is not as difficult and daunting as you may think. With a modest amount of seed money and the right planning, you can successfully organize, launch, and maintain an online business.
Getting Started With An Online Business
With most new endeavors, the initial steps are the most challenging. In fact, these tough steps often keep aspiring entrepreneurs stuck at the starting line for far too long.
Fear of failure grips even the most capable. But it can be overcome with proper planning and positive momentum.
Put It In Writing
A working business model rarely springs forward all at once. Start by putting your ideas on paper.
Make lists, jot down small ideas, note potential investors, and create some long and short-term goals.
It’s critical to visualize your plan in writing. This practice will enable you to more effectively refine your needs and goals as you proceed with the plan.
By setting early concepts down in writing, you will free up your mind to create new ideas and structure them in the most cohesive manner possible.
Even more importantly, a written plan will provide you a vehicle with which you can bounce business ideas off of colleagues and friends.
You’ll find that feedback from trusted and honest sources is one of the most effective ways to hone your vision and build an action plan afterward.
Finance Your Endeavor
Traditionally, starting a small business often involves loans and investors.
Fortunately, many online businesses require smaller overhead costs. This low investment requirement can all but eliminate the need to pursue loans or financial partnerships.
For example, if you’re offering a service based on your own skills (e.g. organizing, pet sitting, or house cleaning), you can start work and build clientele by word of mouth. This approach requires very little extra space or overhead associated with inventory or shipping.
If you can get a small nest egg together — from a bonus at work, an insurance payout, the aforementioned tax refund, or (gasp!) saving the old-fashioned way — there are plenty of online businesses that cost less than $5,000 to launch.
Don’t Forget Key Legal Procedures
Before committing to selling your goods and services online, it’s worth researching the legalities involved in ecommerce.
Everything you do to promote and sell products or services will have ramifications for your business’ success and profitability — from declaring income on taxes to protecting copyrights and trademarks on any designs you conceive.
Hire a lawyer or seek other legal counsel. Conduct thorough research on your idea before investing your seed money.
Create a Niche
It’s imperative from the early stages to identify a likely target market and focus your efforts there.
- If you want to sell clothes on Ebay, ask yourself what styles you’ll offer, and who those items will appeal to.
- If you’re writing content, what is its focus, and who will want to read it?
- If you’re offering a service like babysitting or teaching music, where and how can you connect with people who need those services?
Once you’ve decided what you have to offer, survey the digital marketplace to see how and where your offerings can best fit in.
Here are some helpful areas to explore:
Online Forums and Marketplace Reviews
These are great for determining market pricing averages and getting a feel for what customers are looking for.
These online communities can also become excellent vehicles for word-of-mouth advertising. Your brand can spread its roots through likes, shares, and re-posts.
Social Media
Similarly, when combined with the right content and connections, social media conversations can lift a company or brand to prominence.
The surging number of online shoppers — and influencers swaying their choices — requires you to learn best practices for wielding the marketing techniques that lead to lucrative revenue streams via social media.
Direct Contact
Online commerce often allows for direct access and personal connection. In many ways, it’s a boon that designers and original content creators can share their work directly with their audiences and markets.
This accessibility also brings a chance of original ideas becoming fair game for poachers and copycats.
Make sure you protect your intellectual property legally by copywriting, trademarking, or creating legal documentation of your proprietary work.
Be Aware of Storage and Shipping Overhead
When you’re selling items in the world of ecommerce, shipping methods and storage options are the two biggest logistical challenges you’ll face.
If your inventory (and/or your bulk shipping materials) grows beyond the confines of your home office, or you need climate-controlled conditions to preserve valuables, there are multiple storage options you should look into.
Also, consider beforehand that your merchandise pricing will be affected by your shipping costs.
If most of your profit is lost to shipping, you need to reconsider what you’re selling, where you’re shipping it, and for how much.
Throughout, Remain Positive and Committed
Above all else, you can make your online business a manageable and profitable endeavor. The focus should be adding to your bottom line, not your blood pressure.
There are numerous in-depth tutorials available to assist you in identifying the possibilities for creating your own digital cottage industry.
Keep in mind that success may take some time. Instant profitability is possible, but not likely.
But you most certainly CAN create a sustainable online business model that grows organically over time — and grows your bottom line along with it.
Feature Image Credit: CC 0; Public Domain. Feature image sourced from Flickr.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions stated in this post are that of the author, and Return On Now may or may not agree with any or all of the commentary.
Laura Gayle
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