One question finds its way onto many a persons’ mind at some time or other. Should I start my own business?
Of course there are many adverts with dramatic headlines urging one to say farewell to the routine of a regular job. My favourite is “Honey I just Fired the Boss”.
But aside from the rhetoric, what are the realities of starting an internet business?
There are some very strong advantages of an internet business over a traditional “bricks and mortar” business.
You generally do not need to rent or buy premises. That is a major over head to any traditional business, and since you will be operating solely online you can often accomplish a great deal through automation and so it is possible to work with few or indeed no staff. Again this makes a considerable saving to your overall cost of operation.
Of course there are a great many differences between an online and a traditional business, but there are some things that hold true to both.
Before starting a traditional business, most people make a business plan and indeed, if you were to talk to any financial advisor in regard to starting a traditional business, the first thing that they would advise you to do would be to make a business plan.
No banker on this earth would be prepared to advance you even the smallest of loan without sight of your business plan. So I expect that you can see that a business plan features quite heavily in the preparation of starting a traditional business.
Why then should it be any different to someone starting a home business online?
I think that the attraction to make money online type businesses is that they are very easy to start and – at least for the initial stages – implement. This gives the impression that it is a very easy thing to do and even if the idea fails, there has been very little cost, other than time, lost in the enterprise.
The shame is, that it is this apparent ease of start up that encourages so many people to jump in straight away without proper prior planning. And yet the same idea that they have, is often a very good one and with a little forethought and planning may have had a really good chance of success.
Another thing that often causes failure is the idea that if you build a really nice website and have a really good product or service, then people will like it and buy from you. Now this concept is almost true but lacks one all important detail.
How are people going to know that your business website is even in existence? Whatever market place you operate in there will be a lot of competition. In most cases there will be literally millions of competing websites and if they have been around for a while they will likely be seen before your website
This is where you need to have a plan to get web traffic or more specifically highly targeted potential customers flocking to your site instead of going to someone else’s site.
If in your business plan you have set aside some money for ad-sense type advertising then this will hopefully provide some of the traffic that you require.
Your plan should also include some funds or some set aside time for search engine optimization. This is a very important area, because if you consistently optimise your website and build a continuous stream of highly relevant back links pointing to your site, then over time your website will begin to appear in the search engines above those of your rivals.
So should one consider starting an internet business? In my opinion, yes! But do so with your eyes wide open. It can be a very rewarding and lucrative enterprise, but it is not easy and does require a great deal of thought and planning.
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