This series of articles about starting an online business is for people wanting to know how to get started.

I’ve decided to break this up into several posts because there is quite a lot of ground to cover, and I want help you to develop a good overall understanding of what the online business world is all about, and what it can mean for you and your family.

I’m passionate about this topic because of the amazing opportunities that exist for everyday people like you and me to actually set up and operate a successful online business.

In a world where traditional jobs and career pathways are either disappearing or completely changing quite rapidly, I know that many people are desperate to find another way of providing an income for themselves and their families.

I think this is particularly the case for people in mid career who have suddenly lost their jobs due to no fault of their own, and suddenly find themselves unemployed, and in many cases unemployable.

Why unemployable? Because the kind of work/career they’ve done in the past has been replaced by some form of technology and finding another job that they are qualified to do can definitely not be easy to do.

Further than that though operating an online business can be developed and operated quite successfully on a part time basis. As a result it’s quite possible to develop additional streams of income for yourself to supplement what you might be getting in your day job.

Another major bonus with an online business is that you can operate it from anywhere you like, as long as you have a laptop and an internet connection.

And….unlike working for a boss, there are no limits on the level of income that you can make with your own online business.

Having said that there are no guarantees that you will make any money at all which is exactly the same risk anyone would be prepared to take when starting up any other kind of business.

There are ways of course of minimising the risks, and increasing the possibility of developing a successful business.

And that is……get yourself a fantastic coach, someone like John Thornhill who is also one of my coaches and mentors.

I recommend that as a part of making your decision about starting an online business for yourself that you take the time to read John’s FREE report “Why You’ll Never Succeed Online”.

What Skills And Attributes Do I Need To Start An Online Business?

Firs of all, and this is perhaps one of the more important things is your reason for doing this.

Why do you want an online business? What do you hope to achieve?

Being clear about your reasons and writing down some, income, life and lifestyle goals that an online business could potentially help you achieve is going to help you remain motivated for the short and longer term as you work to develop your business.

The second attribute I believe is important is being prepared to do the hard work involved. And yes, there is indeed work involved in this.

But when you get started you will quickly realise that you will only have to do some of the work once.

This means learning how to set things up so that much of your business as possible is automated, and ideally geared to earning passive income.

In terms of skills needed, no need to panic. If you have basic computer skills like being able to edit a word document, copy and paste text and images, and upload and download items to and from your computer then you’re good to go.

Coaching programs like the one my mentor John Thornhill’s program contain excellent step by step, looking over his shoulder type videos. Each video can range from just one or two minutes, but never longer than seven or eight minutes.

It makes it so easy to get your online business up and running very quickly.

To close, let’s take a very quick look at the different kinds of online business models. In future posts I will explain each model in much more detail.

Online Business Models

I’m going to show you 10 fairly common online business models with a very brief explanation of how each model works.

Affiliate Marketing

This is where you promote and sell other people’s products and earn a commission on sales. There are various places to find products to promote, for example on sites such as Clickbank, and JVZoo.

Amazon Affiliate

Amazon, and Amazon Prime today provide exceptional opportunities to promote and sell virtually any type of product. So, if you think you’d like to deal in physical products then this business model could be for you.

Drop Shipping

This is another opportunity where you deal in physical product. Your purchase the items you want to sell from a wholesaler, add your margin, and then sell it. With drop shipping you don’t pay the wholesaler until a customer of yours actually orders the product.

Apps

Apps are applications that work on mobile devices to accomplish a specific purpose. These days there are all kinds of apps – just look at your smart phone to see what I mean. You don’t necessarily need to be an app developer, there are plenty of people out there to develop it for you if you have a good idea for an app.

Your Own Information Products

This is a very common online business model today. Here you create and sell your own information products e.g. an ebook, a video series, live and recorded webinars etc. Because these are your products you control what price to charge, and the leads you generate remain your customers.

Content Marketing

With this model you write content based on certain keywords that you identify are commonly searched on platforms like Google. You do this in order to get your website ranked highly in search listing on sites like Google.

Blogging

This is a very common form of business development. When you write regular blogs, and it is apparent to your readers that you really do know what you’re talking about then they are more likely to buy something from you. Having a blog therefore is an important way for you to establish your credibility.

ECommerce Websites

A website set up purely to sell products and services in an ecommerce business. The products you are selling could be ones you’ve purchased to mark up, and then onsell. And/Or, you could be making and selling your own products from the website.

Lead Generation

This is an online business where you sole focus is to develop leads, usually in the form of gathering email addresses. You do this as a paid for service for other businesses so that they in turn can sell their products and services to the leads you have obtained for them.

Software As A Service (Saas)

This model is one where you charge your customers a monthly, or annual fee to use your software. For example Microsoft 365, or Adobe who has a monthly subscription. The idea is you sell software tools that help others to to develop or make sales in theor businesses. You don’t need to be a software developer – you can hire people to create this, although this can be expensive.

Summary – Starting An Online Business – Part 1

In this article I’ve explained that starting an online business can be a viable option for every day people like you and me to set up a business that could provide much needed extra income.

More than that though, taking the time to learn how to develop a profitable online business can ultimately enable you to have a completely different kind of lifestyle, and a measure of financial independence.

I hope you’ll join me for the remainder of articles I’ll be writing in this series.

 Tweet (Share on Twitter) Share on Linkedin Pin it (Share on Pinterest)
amazon affiliate apps blogging content marketing drop shipping ecommerce internet marketing lead generation online business Saas
Anth McAvaney
Anth McAvaney

    3 replies to "Starting An Online Business"

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.