It has never been easier to start a business online
Have a business idea or a hobby that you want to start earning additional income with? Do you have a craft, or a product in mind that you want to bring to life? It has never been easier to start a business, and it is even easier to start a business online. You don’t even have to quit your job, and can start own your own business to earn supplemental income. If it becomes successful enough to become your sole source of income, then you can work for yourself. You get to set your own hours and your own pace.
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1) All you need is a website
A simple website landing page for your new business can be made in as little as an hour. Modern website creation platforms like Squarespace and Wix make basic website creation simple, and are very cheap to continue using. You can purchase a custom .com domain for your business for around $20, and the platforms handle web hosting. Platforms like Shopify and Etsy have extremely robust, easy to use, commerce tools that you can use to create web stores, complete with shipping and automated marketing. Now that you have a website, you can turn a hobby into a small business, or start selling products and services to customers that may have never found you.
2) Social media helps you reach new customers
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Now that you have a website, you can turn a hobby into a small business, or start selling products and services to customers that may have never found you. Add your website domain into your social media bio, and start posting to promote your new business. Post things that are relevant to your work, or start blogging from your website, and post those articles to your social media. Communicating on social media helps you share information about your business and what you do, while also engaging new and existing customers. You don’t have to over exert yourself either, just start with one or two channels that feel comfortable.
3) You can automate scheduling
If you’re monetizing a service that you can offer as a small business, like catering or dog walking, there are simple digital tools available that can help you automate customer scheduling. Square offers a service that can be connected to your social media accounts, where you can set your availability, then a potential customer pays for and schedules, never leaving your Instagram. Squarespace also offers a feature for this to happen on your .com domain. All you have to do is figure out how much time you have, set your availability, then let the digital tools do the rest. Once a customer schedules an appointment, you’ll be notified via push notification or email.
4) Bookkeeping tools are digital
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If you use your website to sell products or services, you’ll get insights on how your store performs over time. Squarespace offers detail rich data, like per-product conversion rates (or the percentage of people who buy a product after visiting a product page), and will visualize a click funnel that leads to purchase (or which pages lead to which purchases). This helps you figure out what is performing best, and what needs improvement. These platforms let you export this data, which you can import into something like QuickBooks to handle bookkeeping and taxes, automatically.
5) Incorporate online
You don’t have to incorporate right away when you start your business online. You can just start slowly, selling a few items here and there, while you learn how to operate an online business, and then incorporate when you plan to dedicate more time. Incorporating online has never been easier, and services like LegalZoom will handle the entire process for you. All you have to do is pay their fee, and tell them a little bit about yourself and your business. You’ll get an EIN number right away, and they’ll mail you your business’ paperwork when it is available.
It has never been easier to start a business online. You can work at your own pace, and accept as much business as you decide. You can start by selling very few things, and then grow to become an independent business owner. Digital tools make this a simple process, because you can scale from zero at the rate you decide. An online business can either be a hobby for your time off, or something that you create to begin a new career. What would your business be?
