More online businesses are popping up as more entrepreneurs begin to recognize the potential for growth that exists when running a business via the Internet. When you are operating a business in the online space, it is important to have a niche that differentiates you from the competition.

In order to choose a niche, online business owners must determine a few factors about themselves and what they have to offer. These factors include determining personal interests and passions, assessing personal skills and expertise, analyzing market demand, and researching competition.

In this article we will discuss why having a niche for your online business is so crucially important for its success and explore each of the above listed factors that need to be considered in order to choose a niche.

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Understanding the Importance of a Niche

When discussing a niche in a business context, the word refers to concentrating on and specializing in a specific target area within a larger category or market. This means that by choosing a niche, a business is refocusing to appeal to a particular audience.

This may at first seem like a counterintuitive move for a business to focus on a small subset of a much larger market thus making their potential consumer pool smaller. However, by choosing a niche and thus offering a specialized service, the online business can then tap into areas of their given market that may not have much competition.

This gives the online business to essentially bridge the gaps or fill holes within a market that may not currently have too much saturation in terms of competition. It also ultimately helps with many aspects of the business’ success.

Benefits of Having a Niche

There are many benefits to having a niche for your online business. According to Indeed, the three main benefits of having a niche are less competition, the opportunity to develop and further expertise, and the opportunity to build community with consumers within the nice.

Indeed further states:

“Instead of trying to become a market leader in the mainstream market and competing with massive corporations, finding a niche can allow you to gain market share by focusing on getting a high amount of engagement from a smaller pool of customers.”

The three benefits described by Indeed are all majorly important for having an online business that experiences a good amount of success. While having less competition is an obvious benefit, the opportunities to improve expertise and build community are particularly important when it comes to building a lasting online brand and presence.

Some Niches are More Profitable than Others

It is important to note when choosing a niche for an online business that some niches are more profitable than others. As such, it is ideal to structure the business and its related products or services to match a niche that is currently profitable within the market.

The profitability of a niche is also likely to fluctuate, meaning that different niches will experience success depending on current market demands and timing. Hence why research is needed before just jumping into a niche that may not be currently profitable.

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Thus, online businesses need to take on a level of adaptability in order to flow with changes to popularity and success of niches.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as it is more commonly known, is an important practice and component that any online business should have. SEO is the practice of utilizing specific tactics to increase the quality and content of web traffic reaching a website.

With some niches, there may not be an enormous amount of natural web traffic, therefore it is essential to use the best keywords and SEO tactics to bring in the right kinds of consumers who are looking for whatever your business provides.

SEO analytic tools are also a useful means for checking on how your online presence is doing and how your content and brand online could potentially improve to bring in even more consumers. SEO that is molded to fit with a business niche, there is much greater opportunity to reach a much broader audience.

Identify Personal Interests and Passions

While hard work and diligence are certainly two of the key aspects that make a business owner successful, having passion for the work being done is arguably just as important. According to an article published on Entrepreneur, passion can help to separate those who have the capability to push through difficulties from those who do not.

Passion can be a somewhat abstract term. When we speak about passion in terms of business, what is being referred to is the ambition and drive that results within a person out of their inherent love of a certain subject matter or area of work.

Therefore, it is key to identify your own personal interests and passions before deciding upon your business niche. While it is unrealistic to think that your career and business will always fill you with joy and inspire you, choosing a niche that speaks to your interests in going to keep you much more devoted to continuing the growth and success of your online business.

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Plus, since you are choosing something you are passionate about, the opportunity to build community around your niche increases as well. This is because you will be able to interact with your consumers more authentically and honestly and relate to them over your shared interests.

Passion is Important for Business Success

Let’s briefly examine the various ways in which passion can positively impact your business. As mentioned, passion can be the driving force behind your devotion to your company. This driving force will be especially helpful in the early stages, when the work may be more intense and time-consuming as you work hard to get your business off the ground.

According to an article on Business Insider, there are three main reasons why passion about your business will ultimately lead to better success. These reasons are as follows:

• Passion fuels confidence – When someone is passionate about their work, they are more likely to have a better knowledge or expertise on the subject matter and thus will end up working in a more confident manner. 
• Passion creates excitement – Excitement resulting from passion can happen in the business person themselves, within their colleagues, and within their target audience. People are more inclined to patron a business that makes them feel positive and excited for the future.
• Passion is contagious – Like how the excitement can spread from the business owner to the colleagues and consumers, so can the passion itself. Witnessing someone be passionate about a subject matter can drive others to learn more about the topic themselves.

Hence why identifying topics and areas of business you are passionate about is so important when choosing a niche. It is important to note that you can also adopt what you are passionate about to fit within a particularly profitable niche, but this cannot be done until those passions are defined.

Choose Broad Topics at First

When it comes to business niches, the reality is that there are thousands upon thousands of them that can help to narrow down the scope of your business. Each individual niche comes with its own strengths and weaknesses, and as such, should be thoroughly researched beforehand rather than blindly picking a niche out of a hat and sticking to it.

However, because niches can be so specific, it is often more beneficial to start by picking broader categories of online business that you think your business would fit into. Looking at a wider scope of businesses related to what your own business has to offer can help you to determine how to set your business apart.

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For instance, the online market is oversaturated with fitness clothing brands these days, but still new companies continue to pop up. For someone who wants to niche-down within this industry, starting from the very top and looking at the most popular brands can help you to identify what products there may be less of. From here, you can then begin to niche-down according to what you have observed about businesses within a broader category.

Consider Already Popular Industries

Depending on what services or products your business has to offer, it is likely that you may be able to fit your business within a profitable industry even if that industry may not immediately seem like it matches your own business model.

As mentioned in the previous section, choosing a broader category at first can help you to narrow down niches that may fit with your business. Choosing a niche within a popular and currently profitable industry is a great way to cash in current trends.

According to an article on The Balance, here are a few examples of currently popular industries:

• Fitness and Weight Loss
• Health and Wellness
• Dating and Relationships
• Pets
• Self-Improvement 
• Wealth-Building and Investing
• Making Money on the Internet
• Beauty Treatments
• Gadgets and Technology
• Personal Finance

While it is certainly not required to choose a niche within a popular industry, it is important to take note of what industries and niches are doing well. This will ultimately give business owners greater insight into what actually sells when it comes to online business and can potentially spark creativity or ideas on how to niche-down a business.

Assess Your Expertise and Skills

While passion is a main ingredient in the recipe for online business success, so are a person’s expertise and skill set. To make a business really stand, the business owner should emphasize their own personal strengths and areas of expertise.

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In order to do so, a person must honestly assess their expertise and skills in order to determine what tools they have in their toolbelt to guarantee and increase the success of their business. For instance, let’s say a business owner is an expert in a specific type of yoga.

This knowledge could help them to develop a product or service to assist with that type of yoga, while also helping them to niche down from the broader health and fitness categories.

Likewise, it is important to analyze how your skills or expertise may be able to crossover into multiple niches. This can, in turn, help you to take different elements from several niches in order to create your own strong brand.

Assess Your Overall Strengths

If you have decided to start your own online business, chances are you already have in mind what skills you possess that you will employ to this business. However, even if you know what your number one area of expertise is, it is still important to sit down and assess the entire scope of your strengths and weaknesses.

Moreover, there may be areas within your own expertise that you are overlooking that could be usefully applied to a niche that may not be the obvious choice for your business. It is important to keep an openness to innovation, as you want to choose a niche that is going to help your online business standout from the rest.

When choosing your niche, once you have determined your core interests and passions, you should take the time to detail how your field of knowledge can be applied to several different industries and niches within those industries. This will help you to narrow down your decision making process even further.

Keep in Mind Available Resources

While passion and expertise are important, you must also keep in mind what resources and assets you have readily available to you. While you may be able to choose a super unique niche, it means nothing if you do not have the resources to back it up.

Thus, business owners need to take detailed notes on what they already have available to them versus what they will need to obtain. This can help to further narrow down your niche, according to what materials, resources, and overhead costs may apply.

Assessing your resources is also a good way to creatively explore different products or services that could be produced that only require the resources currently available. Therefore, an assessment of your resources can not only help you to choose a niche, but to cut down on startup costs as well.

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Analyze Market and Consumer Demand

Once you have chosen your industry that your online business falls into, it is important to research multiple niches within the industry to determine what products and services are already widely available to consumers. When creating an online business, it is important to take note of how popular certain products are, as well as which niches are too overly saturated and would be hard to compete in.

By analyzing what is currently available in the market compared to what consumers hold in highest demand, business owners can begin to identify areas and niches which are less saturated by competition but still in demand by consumers.

With so many online businesses in existence these days, it is important to structure your business so that it can fill any holes in the market and meet consumer demands that are not currently being met. As such, new online business owners can take advantage of niches lacking in saturation and help to bridge the gaps with their own unique services or products.

Research Online Competition

Along with analyzing the current market and consumer demand within your industry and potential niche, it is also crucial to do research about your biggest online competitors. You may have a super interesting idea for a product or service, but with the sheer level of online business out there, that idea may already be taken or overly-used within the market.

Thus, it is of the utmost importance once you have chosen a niche to research your competition and see what they have to offer. You ultimately will want to differentiate your own online business according to what you can bring to the niche that is new, rather than offering the same product or service as everyone else.

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Thus, it is of the utmost importance once you have chosen a niche to research your competition and see what they have to offer. You ultimately will want to differentiate your own online business according to what you can bring to the niche that is new, rather than offering the same product or service as everyone else.

Final Thoughts

Choosing a niche for your online business is a crucial step in helping your business to stand-out within a broader industry category. Niches allow for business owners to target much more specific audiences and build community with that audience that in turn builds up the reputation of the brand.

It is highly important when choosing your niche that you keep in mind the role that passion and expertise play within your business and subsequent success. A niche should not be chosen at random but should instead reflect the maximum potential that you and your business have to offer.

It is arguably equally important to also analyze the current market, consumer demands, and competition within an industry and its related niches. This is key for finding the ways in which your online business can provide a unique and specialized armada of products or services that stand out against the competition.

Your Content

If starting your own business is your dream, the idea of whether you can pull it off can be daunting. But it’s not impossible. You just have to know how to start—and that’s by thinking like an entrepreneur.

Becoming an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart, but with the right mindset and actions, you too can become worthy of the title. If you’re ready to leap into business ownership, read on; we’ll cover ways you can start thinking like an entrepreneur to improve your chances of success.

How Do I Become More of an Entrepreneur?

As we suggested above, to become an entrepreneur, you’ll have to think like one first. The following are eight ways you can start:

Focus on Specific Goals

Entrepreneurs are focused individuals. They set goals and do everything within their power to reach them. Thinking more like an entrepreneur means that you must take a deliberate approach to the things that you want in life. Whether that be getting started on your innovative idea or pitching your freelancing skills to online businesses, you need to focus on something that’ll propel you towards your goal.

Everyone wants a start-up business, and everyone wants the chance to negotiate millions of dollars on Shark Tank, but none of that is specific. You need to think about the intricacies of what you want. If your goal is to start a business, how do you accomplish that? Starting a business can look like designing your very first landing page or setting up a drop-shipping store.

Take some time to think about what it is that you want to achieve from your entrepreneurial journey. Focus on an achievable goal and figure out how to accomplish it. It can feel overwhelming at first, but many free resources can help you find your way.

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Stay Motivated

Once you’ve started pursuing entrepreneurship, success can and will feel so far away. While undoubtedly difficult, maintaining a sense of motivation is essential during the process. It will drive you to create the reality that you want. When things inevitably get tough, your motivation will help you overcome setbacks.

To start thinking like an entrepreneur, learning to stay motivated is crucial. You can stay motivated by celebrating the small victories of your journey and surrounding yourself with other entrepreneurs.

If you’re practicing a craft, exercising, or learning how to start a business, working on it every day, regardless of how little, is a victory in and of itself that should be celebrated. It gets you that much closer to your goal, and tracking that progress can give you a powerful sense of motivation.

Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals is an irreplaceable source of motivation. The reality of someone expressing distaste in your entrepreneurial proclivities is unavoidable. Still, if you don’t take care to distance yourself from the hate, it can dampen your sense of motivation.

You can find like-minded entrepreneurs in many ways. A great way to interact with people who share your passion is to take an online course that offers an online group for students to interact with one another; this can look like a members-only forum or private Facebook group.

Take the First Step

While a vision is nice to have and can serve as an empowering source of motivation during your entrepreneurial journey, ultimately, that vision alone isn’t enough. Nothing in life is possible if you refuse to take the first step to get there.

If you’re going to be an entrepreneur, there’s no way around doing what must be done. The path to success is paved not just with failure but also with a willingness to try. You can start by making a business plan for yourself. Do market research; learn about copywriting. Get some clarity about what you want to accomplish as an entrepreneur, and take the first imaginable step towards that goal.

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You don’t need to commit to taking a considerable leap, but starting small helps you build momentum for when you are ready to make that jump.

Prepare for What is Ahead

When having larger than life ambitions, it can be terrifyingly easy to become paralyzed by the uncertainty of which direction to take and the possibility of never reaching those ambitions.

Entrepreneurs are resilient. In the face of setbacks, they stomach it and keep going. Preparing yourself for the hardships of owning a business is a great way to start thinking like an entrepreneur. You can do this by getting comfortable with self-doubt.

Self-doubt, like all emotions, is just a feeling that manifests in unhelpful thinking patterns. Through mindfulness, you can learn to stop identifying with these feelings and thoughts and triumph through the work you need to accomplish.

Take Calculated Risks

No one successfully got to where they are without taking risks. Becoming a successful entrepreneur requires you to be comfortable with the prospect of making decisions that you’re not always certain will benefit you in the long run.

By becoming an entrepreneur, you’re abandoning the security of a steady paycheck. While risk-taking is necessary for anyone interested in entrepreneurship, you don’t always have to take huge risks. Instead, you can take calculated risks.

Calculated risks can provide a helpful cushion in case your plans don’t work out. For instance, you may be tempted to take the chance of quitting your job to pursue entrepreneurship full-time. Instead, you can start a business while you’re employed and work at it in your free time until it takes off.

This can look like starting that online business that you’ve been thinking about after returning home from work each evening.

Listen to Others

Entrepreneurs need to listen to their customers for feedback on the quality of their products, employees on the quality of their leadership, and clients on the quality of their services. There’s so much room for growth as a professional by listening to others.

An excellent way for you to polish your skills as a listener is to engage in active listening with the people in your life. Active listening is the skill of entirely focusing on a speaker without judgment and comprehending the totality of their message. Active listening means that you listen first and then ask questions to understand after.

You can practice this by listening to your friends and family without mentally rehearsing lines or urgently taking your turn to speak.

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Collaborate with Others

Reaching success as an entrepreneur is impossible without collaborating with others. Collaboration is a tool for bringing out the best in everyone involved for the collective benefit of all parties involved.

An excellent way to collaborate is to join focused social media groups that are involved in your industry. In those groups, there are plenty of opportunities for collaboration. By promoting someone else’s online business, your own can be promoted as well.

Entrepreneurs are always working together to generate leads. You can help bring exposure to another blogger by writing a free guest post, which will, in turn, bring traffic to your brand. You can offer free website copy to a local business so that they promote your services.

Think about which businesses have similar audiences to yours. You can make a list and start reaching out to them for collaboration.

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Find a Mentor

Making mistakes is a natural component of entrepreneurship, but sometimes mistakes can cost you years of progress. Mentors mitigate this by offering you invaluable advice, keeping you accountable, and making it so that you’re even more likely to succeed.

Here a just a few places you can find a mentor: 

• Social Media: The first place to look for a mentor will always be your own network. Beyond that, platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter offer you the chance to connect with more experienced professionals in your niche or industry. 
• SCORE: SCORE is a nonprofit organization that facilitates the connection between you and volunteer, expert mentors across 62 industries. Mentors are available to work remotely, but you can also be paired locally.

Final Thoughts

Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy; however, you can take concrete steps towards thinking like one and ultimately becoming one. You can start by having specific goals you’d like to achieve and then taking the first step towards reaching those goals. Learning how to stay organized and motivated throughout the process will prevent you from giving up. Finally, if you need accountability, consider getting a mentor and collaborating with others.

Thinking and becoming an entrepreneur is entirely achievable, and your successful entrepreneurship doesn’t have to remain a fantasy; get started creating your business today!

Your Content

Coming up with a billion-dollar idea is hard enough, but starting a business goes beyond its initial concept. Unfortunately, there are several roadblocks in the way of success. The good news is if you plan it right, it doesn’t have to be so hard.

Starting a business is hard because you need to develop a thorough business plan, research everything from accounting to permits, and figure out a way to reach your target market. However, if you make a detailed plan and are willing to put in the time, you can make it easier.

This article will explore the most common roadblocks new businesses face, along with the steps required to get started and be successful.

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Roadblocks When Starting a Business

Some of the main reasons that starting a business can seem hard are:

• Underestimating the budget needed and running out of money
• Being too stuck on one idea and not willing to compromise
• The market is already saturated with similar products or services
• Not doing enough research beforehand and missing out on opportunities

There are other issues you may face, and they can pop up at any time during the process. To be prosperous, you will need to be willing to do plenty of research and know when to ask for help.

Budgeting

Brutal honesty is the key to budgeting. Ask yourself:

• How much money do you have?
• How much money do you need?

Having a clear understanding of your own financials is going to be vital to your success. In order to purchase supplies, permits, advertising, and potential locations, you need to have an exact number from which you can draw.

When you know how much money you have, you will know whether or not you can begin alone or whether you will need to borrow.

Knowing how much money you need will be more challenging to determine. You can’t know all of the costs involved, but you can estimate. Through research, you can check a few different insurance companies to find the best price. Similarly, you can look into multiple locations for possible stores and decide when you have a more concrete idea of your budget. 

Something things to keep in mind include:

• One-time purchases: These will be made at the beginning of the process and are necessary to the business, but won’t be recurring, such as a coffee machine for a cafe.
• Essential purchases: Products or services essential to your start-up, such as camera equipment for a photographer.
• Fixed costs: Generally month-to-month expenses that will be consistent, such as internet connection.

The budget should be the first thing you draw up. Having an idea is one thing, but bringing it to life will mean spending money. Without it, you won’t get too far.

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Compromising

No matter how good you think your idea is, chances are, it will look very different after doing a little research. You might find that your concept too closely resembles another company or that what you’re looking to offer needs something extra to draw people in.

For example, if you had an idea for a dog walking business, chances are there are others in the area. You might find that you need to offer a waste removal aspect to gain people’s interest. Another example would be a new cafe, not offering vegan products. By not considering this demographic, you could lose out on vital revenue.

Market Saturation

Having a unique idea is often unheard of. Chances are, somebody is doing something similar somewhere. Unfortunately, market saturation can cause a decrease in demand, making it very difficult for new companies.

To succeed in a saturated market, you will need to:

• Create something new and improved
• Offer a lower price point
• Add additional products or services

Though difficult, it is not impossible. Work to make your idea as unique or innovative as possible. Offering something similar at a lower price is a great way to get customers’ attention, along with providing something extra with their purchase.

Research

There’s no getting around it; you will need to spend a significant amount of time researching everything from products and services to your competition and their pricing, along with legal aspects, financing, and branding.

This is a commonplace where people hit a roadblock in the process. Research can be difficult if you don’t know what you’re looking for. A good rule to follow is to research everything.

• Check out your competition and what they offer
• Look at local stores to see what’s popular and what doesn’t seem to have a market
• Look into local demographics to see if they have the capital to buy what you’re selling
• Check online for comparable products and services and compare yours, being brutally honest about the quality
• Speak with family and friends to get their opinions
• Consider wholesale cut your costs down
• Join social media groups and take note of shared grievances and pain points
• Look into online advertising as well as in local papers and stores

The more information you can gather before starting, the bigger head start you will have.

How to Start a Business

In many cases, people will start their own business based on a job they already know how to do. In other situations, it could be an idea born from a problem that you can’t seem to solve. Some other reasons people choose to start their own business include:

• Wanting flexibility at work
• Be your own boss
• Pursue something you’re passionate about
• Make more money
• Be more independent 
• Seeking a challenge
• Learn new skills
• Work from home

Regardless of your reasoning, getting started can be tricky. Knowing where to begin and what needs to be done can be a daunting task. Depending on the kind of business you are looking to start, there may be a need for licensing or permits, finding store locations, or investing in machinery.

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With that said, most businesses will require many of the same steps to be taken before they can be active.

Create a Business Plan

Once you have a solid idea, it’s a great idea to write it down in detail. You should lay out all the information you have, along with any research or additional ideas. Start a to-do list and create a plan of action, including all of the things you will need in order to be successful. These lists will likely get bigger as you get further into the process, but it’s essential to have somewhere to go from.

Some benefits of working through a business plan include:

• A better understanding of the business as a whole.
• Help in assessing the potential for success and see any areas that could be problematic.
• Prove how serious you are to both yourself and potential investors.
• Give you an idea of who your target customer base is.
• Provide vital research opportunities
• A deeper understanding of the market and competition

This business plan will eventually be polished and become a document by which your future company operates. Initially, it can act as a catalyst in research and development.

Research the Market

If you have come up with your idea because you have a problem that you can’t seem to fix, then chances are, other people are having the same trouble. For example, if you search for local dog-walking services and find that none are available in your home area, there should be a market for other dog owners looking for the same service.

Whatever the endeavor, start by looking into your area for similar businesses. You may find that there are already some current businesses in place. Likewise, if your business is an online option, there is presumably already something similar.

Finding active businesses with a comparable model doesn’t have to be a roadblock, however. If you feel you can offer a better service or have something that sets you apart, you should still go forward. Just understand that it may take a little longer to find your place in the market.

Business Overview

Unlike the business plan, which is an overview of your goals and business ideas, a business overview is a detailed plan of what you will be offering, along with how you plan to achieve your goals.

Within the overview, you should include detailed descriptions of what you intend to sell or offer. If you are looking to manufacture a product, state as much, along with how you intend to produce, package and ship it. If you are looking at an online service, give details on what you will be providing and who may require it.

Market Research

Market research will include not only competitors, similar products or services, and location-specific information, but it should also have your target market. This is the time to look at who might be willing to purchase what you’re selling and how you can better reach them.

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For example, if looking to sell a web hosting platform, you should aim your research online. Visit blogs and equivalent platforms for information on what is already available and for how much. On the other hand, if looking to sell dog sweaters, visiting pet stores is a great place to get an idea of the quality and cost.

Additionally, you should be able to narrow down your target audience to a quite specific group of people. For example, although plenty of people are pet owners, it is widely agreed that Millenials and Boomers have more extra income to spend on their pets than Gen Z.

Costs or Budget

Budgeting is one of the most significant issues you can face when starting a new business. In many cases, it is so easy to underestimate the costs involved. By making a detailed list of all the potential costs, you can often streamline things and find ways to save.

Some costs will be mandatory, such as:

• A business license
• Insurance, including personal liability or renters
• Supplies, including machinery or stable WiFi

Other typical costs that can be variable will include:

• Renting a storefront
• Designing and creating a website
• Advertising
• Staff
• Personal transportation

Having a clear idea of the required costs will help you to understand whether or not you will need to take out a loan to start the business or whether you have the capital yourself.

Permits and Insurance

The first active step you will need to take before you can open your business is to register as a legal business. For this, you can use the company name or your own in most cases. However, before choosing a company name, be sure to check that you can obtain the appropriate domain using a domain checker tool.

Permits will depend upon your state and county. You will need to check your local laws to see what, if anything, you may need to apply for.

However, insurance is a must-have. Be it a personal liability insurance to cover yourself should you be offering in-home services or renters insurance on a storefront. You could save thousands down the line should something go wrong.

Open a Bank Account

You will need a bank account to:

• Register for taxes
• Pay invoices to vendors
• Receive payments from clients

Looking into using a payment processor, such as Stripe, will give you the ability to receive online payments and in-person payments. They take a small percentage but offer worldwide secure payments, along with a physical terminal through which you can have clients pay in person.

Finalize a Pricing Model

By this point, you should have a clear idea of precisely what you are offering and how much you will be charging. Ideally, keeping things simple is a good idea at first. You will be able to provide more once you are established and have a solid client base.

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Pricing will depend upon a few things:

• Competitor prices
• The complexity of the product or service
• Manufacturing costs
• Overhead

A standard formula to calculate the retail price of a product is:

• [The cost of the item ÷ (100 – the markup percentage)] x 100 = Retail price

Using this, an item that cost $12, with a markup percentage of 50% would cost:

• [$12 ÷ (100 – 50%)] x 100 = $24 retail price

Design and Create a Website

Even if you’re not offering an online service, having a website is essential in today’s market. It gives your customers access to information, such as pricing, products, and opening times, along with a way to contact you.

For new businesses, using online templates from companies such as Wix can save time and money. They are sleek, professional, and more than enough for a first-time website. Further down the line, you can look into something more serious, but these services are initially a great way to keep to a budget.

A key thing to remember is that more than half of your possible users will be browsing on their smartphones. When designing your website, ensure that it is mobile-optimized.

Create a Brand Identity

Creating a recognizable brand isn’t just for large corporations. Being remembered is vital to early businesses. It can help to make a cohesive unit, from advertising and sales to promoting loyalty amongst clients.

Although designers can be quite expensive, there are some cheaper options for the initial start-up. Etsy has several designers, such as We Are Creatives, who will take some information from you and create three to six different logo ideas for under $100.

Look for Clients

Finding customers is no easy feat. It can mean sending out email blasts, looking to family and friends for referrals, and even making in-person pitches.

For online software, putting up flyers in internet cafes or advertising in online forums would be a great way to get in front of probable customers. However, if you are starting a business selling dog sweaters, you may need to approach local pet stores to see if they would be willing to stock your products.

If you will be opening a store, offering discounts or holding an opening party would encourage people to try your products. Offering small gifts or incentives will help entice people to purchase and hopefully motivate them to come back.

The Power of Social Media

Not only are social media accounts free, but they also have the potential to put your company in front of thousands of new customers. With almost 2.7 billion monthly active users, their market is too big to ignore.

Facebook Ads

Not having a Facebook page will make your business seem out of touch and unprofessional. Customers like to have a direct link to companies, building trust and a relationship. It is also the best way to inform clients of new information.

To create a Facebook ad:

1. Create a business page, which is usually linked to your personal account.
2. Under the cover photo, you will see a “Promote” button.
3. Select a goal for the ad, such as “Get more likes.”
4. Use a previous post, or select a new photo and text.
5. Narrow your audience down by location, age, demographic, and interests.
6. Choose how much you want to spend per day and for how long.
7. Submit to be reviewed by Facebook, which should not take more than a day.

Even if you have an established following, using Facebook Ads can get your company in front of many more people.

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Be Active

Having social media is more than just posting and hoping for results. It is important to like, share, and comment on posts and your followers’ posts. You are looking to create a relationship of trust, and by engaging in discussions and commenting on posts, you are fostering that trust and bond.

Studies have shown that people are more likely to purchase from or do business with a Facebook page that is active and responsive.

Conclusion

In the beginning, it can seem like starting a business is hard, and the truth is, it won’t be easy. You will need to do hours of research, create a budget, register for various permits and insurance policies, and create an online presence that is both consistent and approachable.

It may seem overwhelming, and you may find that your original idea changes as you go on. But if you put in the work and follow a clearly laid out plan, you have a great chance of success.

Sources

• Entrepreneur: 50 Reasons to Start Your Own Business
• Business News Daily: Startup Costs
• The Balance MB: What is market saturation
• Pet Business: Who Spends the Most on Their Pets 
• Small Business Administration: Register your business
• GoDaddy: Domains
• Stripe: Terminal
• Shopify: Pricing Strategy
• Wix: Templates
• August Ash: The Importance of Mobile-Friendly Websites in 2019
• Etsy: We Are Creatives
• Statista: Facebook Active Users
• Post Planner: Top 10 Benefits of a Facebook Business Page

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