The Potential
This is a question that many people ask, should I start an online business, or stay with the traditional form of business by purchasing a facility and trading solid goods.? Have you asked yourself this question? There are people all over the world making a killing using the internet as their virtual storefront, sometimes only working a few hours a week. They are free to go out, spend time with their kids, do anything they like, or even just chill out and earn some money doing pretty much nothing. Of course this is often blown out of proportion by many “Guru’s” who say that you can be earning a fortune with just a few clicks of a button, if this is the case everybody would be millionaires. The fact of the matter is that they have sacrificed many hours building their business just like people do with offline businesses. They have intricately set up their systems and fine tuned them to perfection, every aspect of their business has been evaluated over time and tested with different marketing strategies. They did not just switch everything on, plug in the systems and let the money roll in, they sacrificed time, money and SANITY! However, all of this said, there is unlimited potential on the internet, the entire world pretty much is online and has an internet connection. Many of these people also have buying habits online, some more active than others. Now you know the potential, lets look at the Pro’s and cons.
Pro’s and Con’s PRO - The biggest pro to setting up a business online, is that you don’t need any product to ship out. You don’t need anything tangible to store in a warehouse and send out to your customers, you can operate entirely digital. Things like digital training courses, ebooks, reports etc, you can sell for 1000′s of pounds/dollars depending on the quality and depth of what you are offering. You save on postage and don’t need to track orders, it can all be done with a paypal account and a sales page, they enter their credit card details and they buy, all you need to do is withdraw the money at the end of the month/week.
Another pro is that you can reach out to the entire world. You are not limited to local buyers, you can go international and sell to anyone who has a connection. If you have a shop in a particular town, you are always going to be limited by the people who are going to buy your products. Another thing to consider is that you have very little start up costs, in comparison to setting up an offline business. With an offline business you have the issues of obtaining a facility and other expensive outgoings that go with it. Online, you only need to worry about getting an autoresponder service set up, and a website and blog which doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. The marketing and exposure doesn’t have to be expensive, in fact, you could do it entirely for free! Cons - The only con I can really think of, is that you can very much be on your own a lot of the time. If you have no guidance, no help and no one to speak to, it can get a bit lonely. That why I joined the Six Figure Mentors. After trying different training companies and platforms, I found the SFM to be the best out of the lot. Its great to have a community of like minded people who if you have a query of any kind, you can get it answered in no time. Experience and a network of entrepreneurs in one! Any way, I am going to wrap it up here, I hope this has been useful in helping you make a decision on what direction to take in your life, if you have any questions, please do leave a comment, or drop a message at digitalmarketer@joe-searledigitalmarketer.com - Joe Searle Joesearledigitalmarketer.com