The Possibilities

 With an online business, the possibilities are just as infinite as in a traditional business. 

 While it does take some grit and elbow grease, you can start an online business for virtually no cost. Then you can develop your skills and grow your business bigger and bigger. 

 That initial growth will take quite a bit of that “hustle“ that everybody talks about. But here’s the thing: you can get through that phase in as little as 3 to 6 months. 

 When you own a business, you don’t trade your time for money. Instead, you trade value for money.

What Kind of Business Should You Start?    

For your first online business, you want to focus on creating something that is simple and easy to manage. This doesn’t mean you’ll be stuck with an easy and simple business forever. All of the business models we’re going to discuss can easily be scaled into much larger, more complicated, and more profitable businesses. 

Let’s start by talking about some of the business models you should steer clear of when you’re starting your first online business. 

The first business model is the e-commerce business model. The reason you want to stay away from these types of businesses in the beginning is that compared to other businesses, the profit margins aren’t as big. 

Another business model you want to steer clear of is the financial trading business. This can be anything from trading stocks to trading in cryptocurrency, and even trading NFTs.  

The last type of business model to avoid is an agency model. 

An agency can easily grow from a service-based business, but it adds stress and complexity by having employees and contractors you have to manage. 

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Next Steps

Getting Started

Want to start your own online business and don't know where to start?

The Easiest Businesses to Start

So now that we’ve covered the different business models that probably aren’t a fit for a beginner, let’s talk about three business models that are great for people who are just getting into the online business space.

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Coaching 

 The essence of a coaching business is to work with people and help them achieve their goals. Sometimes, coaching can be confused with therapy. The most obvious difference between the two is that coaching often focuses on the future and the goals your client wants to accomplish,  whereas therapy tends to focus on the past and what makes you behave or act a certain way. 

 You have to consider the framework of your coaching business. Are you going to do intense one-on-one sessions? Are you going to do group coaching? Are you going to have a course that your clients will go through while receiving support from you? 

Consulting 

 With coaching, you are typically asking your client the right questions and helping them to discover the answers on their own. You’re acting like a wise mentor to them. 

 With consulting, you are the expert. You are telling your client what to do in order to accomplish the goals that they have set.  

 Because of this, consulting is much more common in the business world than in the personal world.

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Service-Based Business 

 With a service-based business, you are performing a specific service for your clients and you are accomplishing a goal for that client. 

 The main difference between a service-based business and the coaching/consulting world is that with a service-based business, you yourself are the one accomplishing the goal on behalf of your client.  

 If you can save your client money or time then you can charge well for your service and you are more than capable of creating a high-income service-based business. 

Picking the Right Business for You 

All three of the business models we’ve discussed have one overarching theme that ties them all together: with each of these businesses, you are helping someone else to achieve their goal. 

Deciding which business model is right for you really comes down to a combination of three things: 

•  Your relevant skills 
• Your previous experiences  
• What do you have a passion for

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Your Skills 

 No matter what your background or what you used to do before starting your online business, you have skills and expertise that you bring to the table. 

 Those skills can always be leveraged to serve you in your business. 

 Even non-job-specific skills like communication and problem-solving can easily be leveraged for your online business. 

 If you take a solid five minutes and come up with a list of skills you have developed that can be used for your online business, you will be surprised how long that list is.

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Your Experience 

 Right alongside your skills are your experiences. No matter what you’ve been through or what you’ve done, you have experiences that can help you to better perform in your new online business. 

 Everyone has unique experiences that can be leveraged for an online business. Obviously, this will vary a lot from person to person. But more than likely you have a healthy list of things you’ve gone through and challenges you’ve tackled that have prepared you for challenges you will encounter with your business.

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Your Passions 

Finally, and maybe even more important than the skills and experiences that you bring to the table, is the passion that you have for the work that you do. 

 The whole point of starting your own online business is so that you can make great money, spend your time how you want to, and do work that truly invigorates you and gets you excited to wake up in the morning. 

We’ve talked briefly about the benefits of an online business versus a traditional brick-and-mortar business. 

Let’s talk about some of those points in a little more detail. 

First things first, the costs associated with starting a business are vastly different depending on whether it’s a traditional business or an online business. 

With a traditional business, you typically have to invest money or take out a loan in order to acquire the assets and get your business running. It can be very easy to acquire a mountain of debt before you ever see any return on your business. 

Now let’s compare that with the assets that you’ll need in order to launch an online business: 

• Laptop  
• Cellphone 
• License  

In addition to the overall start-up costs being much less with an online business, there’s also going to be a much larger profit margin with an online business. With an online business, you get to keep almost every dollar you make, with the exception of taxes. 

Why Online Businesses Are Superior to Traditional Businesses When You’re Starting Out 

Everything we’ve talked about so far has been mostly theoretical. Now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty of starting a business.

Setting Your Business Up 

Getting your business registered with your State Secretary‘s office can seem like an intimidating step but it’s actually pretty painless and easy. 

 You simply go to your state secretary‘s website and fill out the necessary forms and then pay a small fee

 Once you register your business as either a sole proprietorship or an LLC (these are most often recommended for new business owners), you will want to set up: 

• Some sort of website 
• Scheduling software 
• Communication software 
• A payment processor 

 Building a website can be relatively easy and inexpensive. Website builders like WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace can be super helpful to get your website together and running quickly. 

The next piece of software you want to get is a scheduling software called Calendly (or something similar). Calendly is a very easy-to-use scheduling software that allows you to determine what times you are free for phone calls each day. 

 Zoom is a fantastic video conferencing software. It allows you to speak with your clients and potential clients, as well as see them on video.  

 The last bit of tech that you’ll need to set up for your new online business is a payment processor. These are software that you will use to send invoices to your clients. The two payment processors that are most widely used are PayPal and Stripe.

Getting Your First Few Clients 

 If you do a quick Google search on how to get clients for your new business, you will be overwhelmed by how many different ways there are to reach out to people and try to get them on a sales call so that you can close them as a client. 

 But the reality is, you are new to this whole thing. The approach that you are going to take to get your first few clients is going to be vastly different from the methods and tactics you use in a year. 

 When you first start out, you are going to create content, whether that’s on social media, your website, your blog, etc. With that content, you’re going to educate your target audience on the problem that you solve. 

 You’re also going to be reaching out to people you think would be good potential clients and letting them know that you’re starting a new business and that you would love to offer them your service for free. Since it’s free, you are going to get a lot of people that say yes to you. Use these opportunities to practice and hone your craft.  

 Out of all the different marketing techniques we listed above, it’s important to remember that the most fundamental aspect of marketing is to have good conversations with good people. 

Getting Paying Clients 

Your client acquisition process is going to look fairly different depending on which business model you decided to roll with. 

For coaches, social media can be an amazing tool for growing an audience and acquiring clients. 

The key to social media is to consistently create engaging content that helps your reader with their problems, as well as cements you as the authority in their minds. 

 If you’re some sort of business or executive coach, LinkedIn is going to be a great place for you to grow your following. While content creation is important, don’t be afraid to slide into the direct messages and start genuine conversations and build real relationships with potential prospects. 

However unlike coaches, consultants can also use strategies like cold emailing, cold calling, and direct mail to reach their target businesses. 

Since consultants usually focus on business-oriented prospects, it makes sense to utilize these more straightforward outbound methods. 

 With a service-based business, you are free to use whatever method you are most comfortable with. 

 You can use both outbound and inbound strategies for acquiring new customers. 

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Make sure you don’t just read this guide, think that it’s a great idea and that you would love to start a small online business someday, and then go back to living your life the same way you did before you read the guide. 

You have to actually go out and implement the things you learn. And don’t be afraid to fail at first. You’re not going to do everything right the first time you try it.  

 You’re going to stumble and it’s going to get difficult at times.  

 But remember… 

 Imperfect action will always be superior to perfect inaction.