What’s the key to finding happiness in your life?
There’s an interesting phenomenon among entrepreneurs. When compared to employees, they report being stressed more often (3% more often on average), but massively healthier and happier.
Naturally, happiness isn’t the same for everyone. Whether it’s traveling, raising a family, living in the countryside, or running a business, finding happiness is a personal path.
So, we’ll ask again, what’s the key to finding happiness in your life?
Starting or purchasing a small business online might be the thing that brings you happiness. And it doesn’t have to cost much for you to get started. Unlike most other income streams, you are the one who generates profit and holds it.
A successful online business can be started in just a few steps:
- Determine a market you can compete in
- Analyze that market to see where you can fit in
- Purchase a ready-made site in that niche or start your own
- Create a brand that resonates with your target audience
- Develop the website through one of the many pre-existing monetization strategies
- Continue growing your reach with ongoing marketing
We will explain how each of these steps fits in the puzzle as you read through this blog.
Why Should You Start an Internet Business
If you find yourself in the category of people who are motivated to succeed, business on the internet is a flexible and scalable solution to the challenges of financing and operating a business. While it is often less costly, that has no bearing over the potential profits.
- Make your online business what you want it to be
A turnkey online business can be whatever you want it to be. Whether you want to invest a few hours each week or have it entirely replace your full-time work, there is a monetization strategy that will fit into your schedule. If you truly want to reach the peak potential, consider bringing in a mentor before you begin. - Start generating a passive income stream
Probably the most convincing reason to start an online business is the passive income return. Is your money better spent on mutual funds, earning somewhere between 2-5% interest, or is it best spent on an internet business with massive growth potential? - Low cost and little need to invest time
You don’t need to put your life savings into it. As you grow a business on the internet, you will find yourself working less and less. Automation and the revenue to outsource tasks enable online business owners to work just a handful of hours per week to ensure the ship is running smoothly.
If that sounds appealing then read on.....
How to Start an Internet Business
Your first course of action as a budding online entrepreneur should be to find a market worth competing in. If you are new to all of this, you’ll want to take some time to research websites available for sale online.
As you look around and see what’s available, take note of the monetization strategy of the websites that interest you. There are several different ways of monetizing a website, and each requires a different skillset. You can offload much of the expert work through outsourcing, though you should be aware of how much time will be required to handle administration.
Online businesses range widely in terms of how much time must be allocated to administration. Here are a few of the most common methods that online businesses produce a profit.
Types of online businesses
There is no way to create an all-inclusive list of online business models that can stand the test of time. That’s because the internet continues to grow far too quickly, with new business types cropping up all the time.
That said, when you start looking at online businesses for sale, you are sure to find patterns of monetization that are common between properties. Here’s a snapshot of the most common monetization strategies.
- Using advertising to generate profit online
Google AdSense and Media.net are two major online advertising platforms that will enable you to generate an income off of each visitor coming to your website. As you increase the traffic coming to your website, so too will you increase the passive income you get from it! - Selling products through eCommerce
It has become easier and easier to start selling products online and shipping them to consumers. The trick has been developing a product that consumers actually want. Once you have that, the world is your oyster. - Recommending products and receiving a commission
This is generally referred to as “affiliate marketing”. That means you link users to a place where they can purchase a product – if they go through with the sale, you will get a portion of that profit. Pretty sweet, right? If you are already interested in a particular niche of consumer goods, then this may be the perfect route to go. - Selling software as a service (or web application)
While this may not be the most common type of digital real estate, it is certainly a growing one. Web applications and online software come in all shapes and sizes – owning it gives you the ability to grow it, developing it over time to solve user needs. It may be more hands-on than other methods, but it also has massive potential for growth.
Which type of online business is most profitable?
That list of business types may leave you wondering “what’s the most profitable internet business model?”, but take a moment to consider not just what is most profitable, but also what is most scalable.
When you look at an online business for sale, you will get to see a lot of data that supports its overall value to a potential buyer. Online businesses that can show consistent profits over a long period of time will fetch top dollar – however, that doesn’t necessarily make them a great investment for the long-term.
The only way to effectively compare businesses is to consider how deep your involvement will be, and how much time you are willing to invest in growing the business. You may come across businesses that have shorter records on profits but are climbing rapidly. If you believe that the growth is sustainable, that can make for a great investment.
When looking at the records of online businesses, take the information as a whole and don’t focus your attention on the profits alone.
How to build an online business that can sell
If your goal is to simply build a business that you can go on to sell, then you should be prioritizing documentation and analytics.
Measurements and guides are key to attracting buyers. If your business is able to generate revenue, that is only half of the puzzle. Buyers will want to know how it generates revenue if you want to maximize your sale price.
There are a few ways to go about this. Creating a standard operating procedure (SOP) will show a potential buyer that your methods of generating revenue are buttoned up. That way, buyers can assess whether the time investment or cost of outsourcing matches their plans.
Remember though – selling a business online will rarely be as profitable in the long-run when compared to managing the business yourself. We sell many businesses online and so we have seen it time and time again. The people making the most money month over month, developing a reliable source of passive income, they are the people who are buying businesses that can grow.
How Much It Costs Start an Internet Business
The success of digital tech giants has been fuelled by the relatively low cost of entry for new startups. Have a great idea ready for market, or know how to grow a brand? Then your online business can take flight without a massive amount of seed funding to get it going.
How much you invest in a new online business is ultimately up to you. The cost of entry is quite low, and if you are looking to begin pricing things out then you should head on over to our contact page to get up-to-date numbers.
Your ongoing costs will depend on the type of business you have decided to run, so again, it depends. That said, you really do not need to spend a whole lot – unlike physical real estate, digital real estate has a much lower overhead. We encourage business owners to invest in their business; the more you put in, the more you get out. But invest your money wisely so that every dollar is generating you one, two, or two-hundred more in its place.
Steps in Starting an Internet Business
Follow these steps to see results in your online business:
- Understand your market and how your business fits into it
- Reach out to mentors who have experience in your market to guide you along the way
- Purchase or start an internet business that has growth potential
- Invest time in understanding that business and the moving parts that are needed to continue its growth
- Automate and outsource as needed to free up your time
- Market your business and produce content that resonates with your audience
- Work with other online entrepreneurs who have been successful
As you go through these steps, you are bound to have questions. Online business moves fast, so staying on top of the changes as they come is key to ongoing success.