The internet has made it possible to ditch the formal nine-to-five jobs, and become their own bosses. Like any entrepreneurial effort, you need passion and the will to succeed because it is not easy. Here is a shocking statistic; up to 75% of online bootstrapping businesses fail. The high failure rate is attributable to poor planning and choosing the wrong business.
There are many fantastic resources you can get online including https://www.traffictsunami.com/ that can give an online entrepreneur great tips on how to stand out in the virtual market.
However, we will explore the things you need to consider when starting an online business below.
1. What Are You Bringing Into The Marketplace?
Are you selling a service or a product?
Physical Products
There are many businesses which sell products through their online stores. Selling products will require things like inventory, products, shipping to the final destination, storage, amongst other things. Luckily, there are fantastic eCommerce platforms available in the market that will help make the process so much simpler.
Digital Products
Selling digital products like music, books, and software is a great market to get into. The numbers of customers who are online, looking for such products are very many, but you need to be careful that you do not break any laws. One such rule is piracy rules, and it can land you into a lot of legal trouble.
Digital products are great because everything you do is online, and you do not have to worry about a physical product that will require storage and all shipping. You can also sell them over and over again, and so the probability of making a profit is very high.
Services
The online marketplace is wide andhas made it possible for people especially freelancers, to sell a wide range of services. These include research, content generation, web design, and affiliate marketing among others. By joining the right platforms or having the proper knowledge, it is possible to get quite a bit of work online. You no longer have to depend on formal employment to make a living.
2. Who Are You Targeting?
Defining a market target is very important when you are starting an online business. There are two primary classifications:
B2B Or Business To Business
Business-to-business target market refers to one business selling to another. Think about distributors or wholesalers who sell to retailers. The main advantage with this line is that the volume of the transactions is high, and with the right product or service you can break even very quickly.
The major disadvantage is there is a lot of competition, and pricing will determine whether you get the business or not.
B2C Or Business To Consumer
As the name suggests, the business-to-consumer target market refers to the kind of business that sells to the end-user.
From the example above, once a retailer gets a product from a distributor, they then put it out into the market for the final consumers.
3. Do You Have A Unique Product Or Service?
The online marketplace is not like a physical one. In the physical space, you can have a monopoly in terms of being the only one who sells a particular item within a given area. The online space is however very different, because it is highly competitive, and if you do not stand out, no one will pay attention to you.
It is, therefore, essential that you have the following at the back of your mind before you launch your online business.
4. Is There A Need For What You Are Offering?
Focus on what the customers are looking for and provide an answer. As a start-up, there is no point in going into a crowded market place; you may invest a lot and not reap anything.
5. Is Your Pricing Competitive?
Do not under price because you are a start-up; you will burn. Offer discounts or run other promotions to get people interested in what you are selling.
6. How Good Is The Quality Of Your Products?
How good is the quality of your products especially when you compare it to what is in the market?
A few other questions to ask yourself would include;
- How much variety do you have - be careful though, you do not want to have such a wide range before you know your target market well.
- What are your competitors up to?
- How are you branding yourself?
- What marketing strategies have you put in place to ensure that you penetrate all the noise within the online Marketplace?
- How responsive is your website?
Bootstrapping Businesses Better
There is no easy path to success in the online or offline marketplace. You will have to do your market research, build customer profiles, pay close attention to what the competitors are doing and learn from their mistakes. Remember planning is essential when it comes to your online business and digital marketing; otherwise, you will inevitably fail.