Leaving college it seemed as though everyone knew what they were going to do with their lives and many of my friendship group had jobs waiting for them once they graduated. For my buddy Bharat Bhise and I things weren’t so simple and in truth neither of us really knew what we wanted to do. Around that time the internet was really lifting off and we loved the prospect of running an online business. Bharat had plenty of skill when it came to graphic design, but other than business I really didn’t know much about this world. Bharat and I decided to spend a year ups killing and planning, and the results have been fantastic ever since. If you like the idea of an online business but don’t know how to get started, here are some tips which may help.
Pick a Field
Before you start anything you have to pick a field in which you are going to work. It can be very tempting to try and be a Jack of all trades but if you want success you have to pick a single industry to work in. For example if you want to design websites then this will be your main focus, if you plan to start a drop shipping company then settle on that. The key is to have a specialization which you are going to focus on. The products don’t really matter just yet, now is the time to upskill so that you can deliver once you start your online business.
Marketing
One of the best things about an online business is that you can do much of the marketing yourself, without it costing you very much money, especially when compared with hiring a digital marketing firm. Bharat and I used social media and nothing else to get our business off the ground, in later years we branched out but social media served us very well. Use this time before you launch your business to get your head around how social media advertising works and what other methods you can use for your business such as SEO. Doing this work now will ensure that once the business is launched you can get right into the marketing strategy thus boosting how well your company does.
Research Your Market
Because it is so easy to set up your own online business, there is a lot of competition online. The key therefore is to understand your market perfectly, who are the big players? What do customer trends look like? Where will you fit in this industry? These are key questions to ask yourself and they will help you to formulate a smart business plan which you will put into motion. Once you launch your business you won’t have the time that you do now to research all of this which is why it makes so much sense that you use this time to arm yourself with as much information as possible.
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