Whether you’re looking for a way to turn your junk into cash (eBay maybe), a market to sell your crafts (maybe Etsy), want to start your own business (possibly home-based ) or already own a small business …. you’re in the same boat as a lot of other people. Many people seem to be looking for ways to raise a little cash these days. Some of us want to be our own boss and control our own destiny. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well.
So, where do you start? Most business advisers will tell you to find something that you love or are knowledgeable about. (OK….. I love cats but how am I going to make money at that?) They also stress that you need to find an unfulfilled niche – something that you can offer that’s needed or wanted and ideally something that isn’t easy to get. If the niche you choose revolves around a product or service that’s abundant, you’re bound to end up competing on price. (Trust me, you don’t want to end up having to compete on price.)
For now, let’s assume you’ve identified your niche and have a product or service to sell. (It can be your product or service or you may have decided to go the affiliate or AdSense route.) Next comes the tough part – building awareness and making sales. There’s definitely the traditional route including business cards, printed promotional materials, traditional advertising and word-of-mouth advertising through networking. There’s also the world-wide-web where you can market your product or service globally. You’ll find that the key to success doesn’t lie in any one of these methods but actually will be a blend of some or all of them.
As an entrepreneur, you’ll soon learn that you’ll need to wear many hats and perform many tasks to succeed. Some of these hats, you may (and probably should) outsource. Others you’ll choose to do yourself. Promoting and selling your goods and services on the Internet is crucial to your success. (And so we get to the purpose of this blog.) I’ll be sharing tips, ideas and resources to help you “keep-up-with-the-web“. I’ll talk about a lot of the basics and some of the advanced stuff too. There’ll be free white papers and links to free stuff as well as some of the better options that are worth investing in. Best of all, there will be an open conversation. I’ll be looking forward to exchanging ideas and information. The Internet is constantly evolving. So, lets get started!
About Sherryl PerryWelcome! If you're looking for help building an Internet presence that fits your needs and works for you, you're in the right place. I blog common sense articles about WordPress, social media and SEO. My goal is to help small business owners and entrepreneurs understand their core business. Together, we can develop and implement business strategies that make sense to you.
So, where do you start? Most business advisers will tell you to find something that you love or are knowledgeable about.They also stress that you need to find an unfulfilled niche – something that you can offer that’s needed or wanted and ideally something that isn’t easy to get. If the niche you choose revolves around a product or service that’s abundant, you’re bound to end up competing on price.
Talking about online entrepreneurs I would like to say that there are two types of online entrepreneurs – entrepreneurs, who earn from selling their products i.e. the owners of e-commerce websites and entrepreneurs, who earn from informational web resources i.e. blogs and so on.
Hi Terje,
That’s a good point. I think informational blogs can take the longest to build but when done well, they certainly can drive a lot of traffic. If you get enough traffic, there’s money to be made in selling advertising space and sponsorships. The key to me is to find something that you’re passionate about so that your site does not become a burden. It’s so much more fun to do work at something you enjoy.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Social Networking and Casting a Bigger Net
Good luck Anne! Are you thinking of blogging? Blogging is a great way to engage potential customers. The search engines love blogs too!