Ten Important Things to Consider Before Starting an Online Business
These ten factors may not necessarily appear in the same order as listed below, but they are certainly vital to the problem at hand.
HERE ARE THE TEN QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK YOURSELF:
1. What type of online business do I want to participate in?
2. What do I have on offer that will be better than my competitors in my niche?
3. Do I need to prepare a business plan for my business?
4. How much will it cost me to set up my business?
5. Is my business based online or BOTH online and offline?
6. Do I need a dedicated website for my business and how much will it cost?
7. How will I market my business, either online or offline?
8. What is the right strategy to market my business?
9. Do I get good value for money in advertising my business?
10. Am I reaching the right audience with my advertising?
Having a positive answer to all of these questions can only take you to the next stage of your quest to run an online business.
Get involved in researching the business you want to be in and give it a try. Take, for example, the mobile phone industry. Statistics show the total number of mobile phone users worldwide between 2013 and 2019. By 2017, the number of mobile phone users is expected to reach 4.77 billion. Customers and potential customers use their mobile phones to search for products and services on the Internet more than a laptop or desktop, so it makes sense for business owners to use this technology to market their products and services. This could suggest that there is an opportunity to take advantage of the mobile application industry to meet the needs of these companies that require mobile applications.
Millions of apps for just about anything you can think of are now out there, either free or paid to download. You might ask, why don’t I have a piece of the pie and start a mobile app business? The excitement starts, but one must have some kind of knowledge about the whole process of designing the app. This will probably force you to delve into your research on the whole aspect of mobile app development. With this established, my first question is answered; Through study and research, you have made an informed decision to get involved in mobile app design and development. But what will you offer that is better than your competitors? This is not an easy question to answer, but at a minimum, strive to offer quality products and services to customers, and simply make your Products and Services more affordable while maintaining quality.
Starting a business without some kind of business plan is like driving down a very long highway with 1/4 of a tank of gas, hoping it will take you to the next service outlet. The business plan will give you a breakdown of what you need for the business, although success is not guaranteed as there are a number of opposing factors standing in the way.
There are many companies with little or no start-up cost compared to other companies with a huge start-up cost. It also depends on whether your business will be both online and offline. You have to decide if the business you want to pursue has a minimum start-up cost.
Setting up an online business doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg if you take the time to do extensive research on the business you want to get into.
If your business is internet based, advertising it to the right audience can be a daunting task. Finding the right sources to advertise your business can be quite challenging and risky as this is where you can spend large sums of money to advertise but get little return on investment if the advertising strategy is wrong.
Advertising a business to a target audience involves a number of factors like;
1.Google indexing
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
3. Domain Authority (DA)
4. Page Rank (PR)
5. Backlinks
6. Social networks
7. Join forums
8. Blogging
9.Google AdWords
10.Google Analytics
11. Keyword Research
Doing all these things can be demanding and boring, but if you need to be successful in any business, you just have to get on with the task at hand.
Delegating this challenging task to an SEO expert can be quite expensive. If you put in the time and effort, do your research, and use the SEO tools available on the market, believe me, you can bring your online business to life without “breaking the bank.”