Before starting the adventure of having an online business, you have to take into account everything you will need to avoid having unpleasant surprises along the way.
The most popular types of online businesses:
- Product-based businesses (e-commerce)
- Service-based companies (Coaching and Consulting)
- Digital products (software as a service)
- Freelance (Web Design, Graphic Design, Writing)
- Publication (Advertising and affiliate sales)
- Third party seller (Etsy, Amazon, Ebay)
Running an online business is like running any other type of business; To execute a successful strategy, you must have a solid plan. Even if you think you have it all figured out, don’t skimp on planning!
- Determine your product or service. To fully understand what you will be offering, you must first understand what problem you are solving and if there is a market for your offering.
- Defining your audience is a crucial planning exercise. By understanding who your target audience is, you can effectively communicate with them and give them what they need.
- Selecting your business name and determining your website URL is part of the planning process. Self-employed entrepreneurs often have difficulty naming their businesses, as the brand is often tied to the individual.
- How will you earn money? A blog in itself is not a business and having a large following on social media is not a guarantee of profit. Determining how you will generate income is a key part of planning.
Determining your product or service and defining your target audience are exercises that go hand in hand. You are likely starting a business with an idea of what product or service you want to offer, or you are starting a business with an idea of who you want to serve, but you will likely need to remain flexible at this stage and be open to modifying your offer. your audience or both.
Clearly answer the following questions:
- What problem are you solving?
- Is there a market for your offer?
- Who is your competition?
Instead of thinking about the big picture at this stage, focus on identifying one or two top offerings, or determining your Minimum Viable Product (PMV).
What is the minimum product or service you can start with (with the fewest features) and achieve profitability? That’s your PMV, and this allows you to focus on making progress during the high intensity period of your pre-launch online business.
Customers: To understand if you have a market for your offering and to understand what problem you are solving, you must identify your customer and determine if your new business will have an audience.
Describe your ideal client to define the “person” of your business:
- Describe your current client or your ideal client
- What is the most important thing for your ideal client?
- What are the values of your ideal client?
Now answer these questions as if you were the client and if you currently have clients, ask them to answer them as well:
- How would you describe our product or service to someone?
- In your opinion, what makes our product or service unique?
- What benefits does our product or service provide you?
- What problems does our product or service solve?
- What are the characteristics of our product or service that most attracted you?
Selecting the name of your business is a very personal and important decision for any entrepreneur. Including the keyword of your product or service in the name of your company, using your name, or choosing a name that inspires you or reflects your personality are viable options.
Using your name: If you are a coach, consultant or entrepreneur who will be the face of the business from a brand perspective, you may consider using your name as your business name. Be careful if your name is too common, difficult to pronounce, or too long. You may want to consider using a nickname or abbreviating it in some way The goal, regardless of whether you use your name or not, is to have a business name that is distinct, easy to pronounce and identifies your personality, your proposition and reflects the essence of the business you want to have.
Business URLs and social profiles: To maintain brand consistency, it is important to have a domain and social network usernames the same as your company.
