Depends on your professional background and personal preferences. The popular options include online service-based businesses (as an evolutionary step from a freelance side-hustle) and product-based online businesses such as online stores. The two require the least starting capital and can be effectively scaled over time.
The three best online businesses to start from home are an online service business, digital product business or dropshipping business. Both can be effectively run from a home office with low-to-no investment in extra equipment or space.
To start a small online business you’ll need to first determine your business type — B2B or B2C, services or products. Then set up a website. You can create a simple one for under $100 using a SaaS website builder (no coding skills required). Populate your website with content, images and products, connect a payment method and start selling.
Ecommerce is one of the most profitable online business types since you have limitless potential for scaling. You can start a small niche store and then grow it into a cross-country or even cross-border operation, servicing customers worldwide.
Today you can say virtually any type of product online as long as there’s a demand for it on the market. To determine product viability analyze the target market size (the estimated number of people who may want to buy from you) and possible profit margins (the amount of money you can earn from selling a product for a price that the target market is ready to pay).
Technically, you can start an online business without any capital investment. But there still will be a few minor startup costs such as domain name (under $10), website builder/platform (under $30/mo) and website content creation. If you DIY your business website creation and setup, you can start an online business without spending too much money.
You don’t necessarily need “marketing” as a business function to launch an online business, but you’ll have to invest in some promotional activities during launch. Unless you are launching to a pre-warmed audience, acquired earlier (e.g. your existing fans on social media or blog readers). A strategic marketing campaign for the launch will pay itself off in hours.
Dropshipping is a good online business idea for newbie entrepreneurs who don’t want (or have the means) to invest in inventory or deal with logistics. A dropshipping partner is responsible for those two tasks, while you focus on marketing and brand building. The con is that profit margins with dropshipping are often lower while differentiating your products from the competition is harder.
The best ecommerce product ideas present themselves in existing industries, where either digital commerce penetration is still low (because the competition mostly sells offline) or existing product(s) don’t fully meet the customers’ needs. The market for reusable water bottles is incredibly large and the interest in them is high. But there is only one brand that sells a self-cleaning water bottle that most people find more convenient than the regular (and cheaper) ones.
Absolutely! Starting an online business is like driving without a rearview mirror: you can get where you need to be but may miss a huge obstacle heading your way. While you don’t need a formal, business school-style plan for a small ecommerce business, it’s best if you prepare at least a short roadmap document, charting your main steps before the launch.
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