How To Start An Online Business

By Simon  |  29 Nov 2016 11:00:00

Starting an Online Business can be rewarding, disappointing, time consuming and life changing.

The key thing is understanding how to make the business work, how to bring in customers and how to actually make money.

Here are the facts - as we see them.

1. If you simply build a website and do not properly advertise it, then unless you have an existing customer base it will take years to get enough traffic to run a business, if this ever happens at all.

2. If you do not know what you are doing, you will likely lose money on Google Adwords. Up to 80% of adwords campaigns run at a loss. This is a huge problem as it pushes up the bid prices for the remaining 20%. To be successful at adwords, you need to be selling an expensive product or service, however you also need to be aware of the LTV (long term value) of your customers.

3. You need to use Marketplaces. Ebay, Amazon and niche marketplaces such as Etsy, already have an audience who may be looking for your items to buy. Most merchants find this far more lucrative than advertising on Google. However the key is to get any customers you obtain from marketplaces to buy direct from your website on their next order. Using a system like Sellr will let you list on multiple marketplaces and share stock accross those channels. This means that if you sell something on ebay, the stock will also be reduced on your website, so you cannot oversell.

4. Use advanced tools like repricers. Systems such as Sellr allow you to automatically adjust the pricing on your Amazon items for sale. If a competitor drops the price of item abc123 to 19.99, the repricer can automatically set your own prices lower e.g. 18.99, rising once your competitor adjusts their own price upwards. Depending on what you are selling, marketplaces can attract customers who are simply after the lowest price for an item. Because repricing is completely automatic it's a great way to address this.

5. You need to use as many marketing methods as possible to drive customers to your website. PPC, Banner Ads, Retargeting, Affiliates, Telesales, Direct Mail, TV, Radio, Posters, Magazine ads, buses and public vehicles.

6. Joint ventures can be very rewarding. If you can connect with another company who sells complimentary products to yours, then that can work well. For example, if you sell biscuits then you could get together with a cheese company to promote each others products.

7. A key factor that determines whether a business is viable is how much you  have to pay for the items or services you are selling  compared to how much you can sell them for. If you pay too much to your suppliers right at the start, then the business might be on a path to failure.  Many businesses are born simply from someone discovering a great deal on items for a niche market.

8. Competitors. Every business has competitors. This can be difficult if they are selling similar or the same products as you. However you have to keep adding new products and services and constantly monitoring and workign on your marketing. Most businesses do not pay enough attention to their marketing and so when their first set of products start to become less popular, they do not have follow up products to take their place.

9. Luck. If you get lucky, you can make huge amounts of money, however the key thing about luck is that if you don't put yourself in a position where you could become lucky, then it will never happen.

10. Work smart. Many business owners spend too much time doing work which does not directly affect the success of their business. Procrastination can be a huge problem with business owners scared of failure. "I will do it when I have done this." Sometimes you should drop what you are doing and switch to something which has a more direct path to profits.

11. Keep trying, keep persisting, try everything, never give up, identify when something is failing and try something else. These are traits of business winners.

Sellr is a system designed to help you make your business a success. Sign up now for free and free yourself from the 9-5.