Enterprises of all sizes have one thing in common: they are all small businesses. Starting small is a column for people who have just started. Learn how to make this first hire, manage all the documents and get ready for success.
Whether you are looking for a side hustle to earn some extra income, or you are ready to ditch your day job and take your passion project full-time, the increasingly connected online world has made it easier than ever to start an online business for free.
How to Start an Online Business
Once you are determined with what business you will do, it could be tempting to jump into your exciting new project with both feet. But for an online business to have the best chance of success, you will need to take prudent steps to make sure it is sustainable and scalable.
Do in-depth research on your market to understand who your competitors are and if there is even a demand for what you sell. You do not need a professional agency to manage that kind of research for you, especially if you are trying to get started with a minimum investment. No matter who does the groundwork, be ready to discover that your genius new idea or product might not be the exciting success you had imagined.
What you need to Know before Starting an Online Business
When you plan on launching an online business without money, your two biggest resources are your time and your skill set. So make your start-up business by offering your services to clients you have worked with before, then build on that trust and expand your network until you have perfected your business model and have grown your customer base.
For service-based work, rather than selling physical things to clients, you will need a deep understanding of the location of your talents and how much of your time is worth. If your current set of skills does not command high enough rates, invest in yourself first with online training and mentorship to equip yourself with up-to-date knowledge of the latest industry techniques and tools. With that understanding in hand, you will have the groundwork to move into riskier and more rewarding types of business, such as designing, building, and selling products at scale, and hiring more support to help you reach your business goals.
Online Business Ideas that Cost No Money
Start a Blog!
The traditional blog format became unpopular when social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook exploded in popularity. But while authors, journalists and writers are increasingly looking for direct communication with their readers, blogs are making a comeback.
WordPress is always the leading platform in this area and comes with a number of monetizing options to turn your trusted content into a source of revenue. Services like Substack allow creators to launch subscriber-backed newsletters that are not only paid for by those who sign up, but also provide reams of analytics you can use to refine and improve your content.
Do affiliate Marketing
When you successfully recommend a product to your online followers through a single reference link, most retailers will reward you with a small percentage of that sale as a commission. You simply need an existing website or blog containing relevant content, or a social media presence. To do so, Amazon and Shopify have developed well-designed affiliation regimes.
If you are an expert photographer, for example, your views and ideas on cameras that are worth buying are appreciated by people who follow your work. Convert these recommendations into affiliation links and you can begin to earn a small passive income. But be careful not to send spam to readers with products that do not interest them, and always be transparent and frank about the commission you get.
Become a Community Manager
Community management is critical as the public grows. Not only are they a bridge between a brand and its customers, but a good community manager promotes healthy communication and audience growth through special events and on-line offerings. Managing social media is an important part of it, where community managers act not only as the voice of a brand but also as content moderators and dispute solvers.
It is not just big brands that need community management. People who follow many online activities such as Twitch broadcasters and YouTubers, are increasingly hiring community managers to help them moderate and supervise Discord channels and live chat.
Offer SEO Services
Small companies that want to promote themselves and their products are often in complete darkness when it comes to search engine optimization. If you have an understanding of how online marketing works, you can provide an invaluable benefit to growing businesses working in your domain. If your search services include a content strategy, you can also offer your services as a blogger or editor.
Google also offers free online courses that teach the core competencies in digital marketing and include certification at the end of an exam. Educate yourself with basic marketing skills and you can help new businesses get their name out there.
Do Translations
If you speak more than one language, translating can be lucrative, particularly if the languages you speak are less common where you live. Translators tend to specialize in one area—you might want to focus on translating literature, advertising copy, or legal documents—but there is a bottomless demand for translators in other fields, too.
For instance, browse the thousands of small games developed independently on Steam and you will find lots of calls for translators to work on scripts and dialogues for other markets. Platforms such as Gengo and Up Work may also connect translators with people who need their services.
Provide Content Services
If you can spin words into paragraphs or create compelling video or audio content, you can sell your creative skills to brands and businesses trying to expand their presence and grow their audience online.
As evident as it may seem, for any content marketing strategy to succeed, it takes a lot of content. And not just any content, but entertaining, informational, consistent and authoritative content. Lend your expertise to companies that need it and you can start generating revenue with the tools and knowledge you already have.
Sell Things Online
Online markets such as eBay and Etsy have some of the largest and most active client bases in the world, making it easier than ever to sell your stuff online. Perhaps counterintuitively, the more niche your product is, the better your chances of having success on these sites, as you are competing with fewer sellers to reach shoppers with specific interests and hobbies.
Web Design
Easy to use, modern website creation tools mean that most new brands can launch a high-profile site in minutes, but these commercially available solutions can only take you so far. When it comes to things like deep customization, e-commerce functionality, and ongoing maintenance, many companies look to dedicated and qualified designers to give their site an edge over the competition.
Freelance web design can be hard to get right, like juggling customer expectations and budgets can sometimes take longer and harder than it’s worth. But if carefully managed, this type of work can derive considerable additional income.
Online Coaching
If you are an accredited coach, your skills are probably in high demand on social media. Life coaches, business coaches and fitness coaches are increasingly migrating to sites like Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok to reach new clients who need support and guidance. With the right social media marketing strategy and instant, sharable content, you can quickly grow your customer base in a way that was not possible a couple of years ago.
Data Entry
Data capture is not necessarily the most exciting work available online, but there are many. Sites like Zirtual help connect businesses with workers with administrative skills and attention to detail. And depending on how long you are ready to commit, you may choose to pick up fast and easy tasks, or take on more complex and time-consuming tasks. The type of work also varies greatly from one job to another from manual downloading of data from old dusty physical archives into a CMS to checking the integrity of sprawling customer databases.
Organize Travel
If you have experience and expertise in travel and tourism—particularly to destinations that are off the beaten path—you can use your knowledge and connections to kick-start an online travel business with little or no investment.
If you are a trusted voice in the industry, you can choose affiliate marketing and referral offers with travel agents and hotel reservation sites. Next, you can use your social media channels to recommend brands, share experiences, organize routes and promote your content in the distance.
Create a Podcast
Podcasts continue to skyrocket in popularity, with reports that Spotify is investing almost USD $1 billion in the companies that create them. But as for any giant market, there are a stunning number of podcasts to choose from. The more specialized your podcast, the better chance you have to find an audience. So try to think about your industry or hobby and what people you work with are interested in and socialize with every day.
Online tools such as ZenCastr and Riverside FM make it easier than ever to create podcasts with a professional sound by managing difficult microphone and post-processing settings.