.png)
How To Launch An Online Business (In 3 Steps)
If every journey starts with a roadmap, then why wouldn’t your online business? Since a smashing idea alone isn’t enough, you will need durable pillars to become an online powerhouse.
If you're about to take a leap in setting up your digital, eCommerce business, you will realise that discovering your niche, creating a sensible yet effective business plan and articulating your brand values is what translates as success.
Step 1: Plan your online business
Deciding your niche
There are different ways to monetise your business and get the cash rolling. The most popular types of online businesses are:
Ecommerce stores selling physical products (Amazon, Depop, Etsy, etc)
Websites selling products in digital formats (online courses, eBooks, etc)
Consulting / Coaching (PR, SEO, personal development consultant, fitness coach, etc)
Creative services (blogging or illustration)
Selling/Freelancing Services (copywriting, web design, translation, etc)
(Saas) Software-as-a-service (CRM, online tools, subscription-based model)
Online News Publications (HuffPost, Buzzfeed etc)
Trading in stock and cryptocurrency online
Niche Blogs (fashion blogs, food blogs, etc)
Get on with a business plan first
A business plan is the engine that sets a successful online brand in motion. Entrepreneurs who omit this crucial step usually end up bouncing on bumpy roads further down the line. If you don't want to taste the bitter flavour of failure, you should dedicate some time to craft a business plan before gracing the market with your goodies and offerings, products and services.
However, your business plan doesn’t need to be lengthy, jargon-y or mind-bending. To the contrary: succinct and simple business plans should be your go-to. You're probably scratching your head right now, wondering why you need a business plan. Watch me throw 3 valid reasons real quick.
A business plan enables you to:
Track and chase market prospects
Ferret out opportunities and challenges
Select an appropriate product pricing model for your stock and services
Now that the WHY is clarified, let's break your business plan down into snackable sections and see what elements you should get onboard:
Business overview
A business overview is a snapshot of the nature of your organisation (e.g. Will you be selling jewellery or help start-ups design their logos?). Either way, this should be made clear.
Next comes the legal structure of your company (i.e., proprietorship, partnership, corporation, limited liability company).
Finally, let your vision and the measurable goals you want to achieve for the months or years to come radiate.
Market analysis
What's the size of the market you're about to access?
Who are your key competitors?
Are there any gaps in the market for your product to fill?
What are the opportunities and challenges that you might face with your launch?
Elevator pitch
How are you planning to present your service or product to potential investors and customers?
Customer / market segmentation
Regardless if we're talking about an online or offline business, it's important to remain customer-driven throughout. For this reason, it's vital to target the right people by building client personas and defining the relevance of what you offer.
Marketing plan
It's all fun and games with putting your offerings out in the world until you try to attract actual buyers and generate profit. The business plan is the curtain raiser for your goods to your ideal client.
Operations and logistics
These are the inner workings of your company — the nuts and bolts. Prior to your launching, you need to consider how you will be sourcing, producing, storing, and delivering your stuff.
Finance and budgeting
What are your financial projections for the first few quarters of your business?
How much money will you need to kick it off?
What's your estimated timeline for financial profitability?
Can you guarantee the viability and sustainability of your company?
What's your brand purpose?
Now that your business plan is done and dusted, you should have a pretty rough idea of how your products or services will be absorbed by the market and consumed by your targeted customers.
Why does it matter?
Your brand purpose will be the foundation of your online business.
What makes your brand any different, and why should consumers choose you over your competition?
How do you define success for your business?
Could you encapsulate the value proposition of your brand in a few words?
How to use your brand purpose?
Your brand purpose will be the angular stone to all of your actions thereafter. In fact, it will determine the positioning of your business in the market, including how you will communicate your messaging. Most significantly, it will introduce you to investment opportunities to expand your brand, while also explore new product categories and partnerships.
The most popular methods of making money from your online business are:
Selling your own goods (physically or digitally) – This relates to direct product selling on your own hosted website or via an online store on a third-party marketplace such as Amazon, eBay, Flippa, Etsy, Udemy, etc.
Advertising Revenue – You get paid by hosting and selling ad space on your website either straight up to advertisers or via an online platform like Google AdSense.
Drop-Shipping – When you drop-ship, you offer physical products on your store yet product manufacturers or B2B providers are responsible for handling and shipping. You get commissioned from every product that's sold.
Affiliate marketing – You refer customers to the seller’s store (both physical and digital) and you receive a commission once a product is sold.
Revenue from consulting services – You earn money by coaching people online (by email, skype or other virtual tools).
Subscription-based model – You earn money from people subscribing to your monthly services (for example hosting online tools, etc)
Step 2: Launch your online business
This step is dictated by the operational side of your brand, i.e., the way you set up your online store and design your brand experience.
Why does it matter?
Mess that up or skip it over, and you'll soon catch yourself working more in your business rather than on your business. Most entrepreneurs think that since they haven't processed any transactions yet, it will be easy to track sales manually at the beginning. Don't fall into this trap!
How to use your business operations?
Don't waste your precious hours defining sloppy business operations at high costs. Your objective at this stage is to find the right tools and platforms to quickly get your product to market, and minimise the time you have to spend managing your operations.
Here are the main areas of operation to take into account:
Supplier and inventory management
Payment infrastructure
Order completion
Accounting
1. Supplier and inventory management
If you're an online seller of products, you need software that benefits your relationships with vendors and stakeholders, helps you optimise your supply chain, and monitor your inventory. Choose the rights tools which will allow you to measure inventory needs and ensure you don't overstock on goods or run out of supplies.
TradeGecko is a multi-channel platform that takes inventory, creates and manages orders for small- and medium-sized companies. It’s ideal for online businesses, because it integrates well with ecommerce stores such as Shopify and accounting services like QuickBooks.
2. Payments
Processing payments is normally a complex and costly endeavour to perform. I prompt you towards a solution that's already incorporated into your ecommerce platform. This way, you will secure the safety and privacy of your users’ data as well as the safety and transparency of transactions.
With Shopify’s embedded payment options, your online store can directly accept credit/debit card payments. Therefore, no additional third-party solutions are involved, which renders it the fastest and safest way to sell online.
3. Order completion and product shipping
Great news! Your first orders start to flow in. This doesn't mean that you should lay back and disregard the ways those orders will be processed, or how products will reach your customers. The logistics of order completion and shipping can get quite messy, so I recommend a software that merges with the rest of your ecommerce for a seamless and secure transfer of information.
Fulfillrite will undertake the collection, packaging and shipping of stock from your warehouse directly to the consumers' door for you. Also, if the order arrives on time, they can also manage returns.
4. Accounting
One more thing to bear in mind when you're an entrepreneur or e-retailer running your own financial operations is an accounting, invoicing and taxes system that will smoothly integrate with your other platforms (e.g. Shopify, WordPress and Magento). Once again, I suggest Quickbooks, as you can link your bank account with the service to automate your imports and classify your transactions.
Brand design to breed trust
Time to squish those creative juices and bring your concept to life by forming your brand image. Imagine the process as being the forefront and window display of a brick-and-mortar. Manage your budget and tap into your design skills to do it yourself. If you want to keep your expenses at a minimum, here's a free DIY online tool called Hatchful.
Alternatively, you can fetch a creative studio or graphic designer to do the legwork for you. If you have more time and budget, you can also resort to 99designs where plentiful of professionals put their services to your disposal and you only pay for the designs you like.
Step 3: Time for selling online!
Enough with the theory on branding and operations — let's get cracking with the release of your ecommerce site.
Your webpage is the cornerstone of your business. This is where visitors will engage with your brand values and get a feel of your stock. If they’re convinced, this is also where they'll proceed to checkout, score you more sales and leave invaluable feedback.
A traditional retailer is not much different to an e-retailer. It needs to inspire and satisfy. Equally, it needs to be secure space that's easy to navigate.
There are two routes that you can take for online sales and build your own ecommerce website.
The first option is to rely on CMS platforms such as Wix or WordPress. The cost for running such pages is normally low, but the creation and maintenance expenses are relatively high.
Such sites are better reserved for entrepreneurs with a technical know-how and adequate amount of time in their hands. If DIY is not your forte, you can collaborate with agencies that will develop your site for you.
The second one is to use templated and all-in-one services powered by Shopify, BigCommerce or Squarespace.
There's a monthly charge for gaining access to these platforms, but think that you'll manage to launch a fully-featured ecommerce site with a trustworthy payment gateway straight up and with minimum effort. Again, you can also turn to a creative agency that can guide you through the process and ensure a smooth implementation.
A new post on how to grow your business and measure your performance is coming next week!
To be continued!
Comentarios