Every year, millions of people speculate about the possibility of starting their own business. It’s an opportunity to set your own hours, determine your own destiny, and possibly make a lot of money. However, most of those people are held back, intimidated by the idea of starting a business from scratch with no experience.
But these days, it’s easier to start an eCommerce business than ever before. Especially if you choose to open a representative office first in order to test the market and then to establish your proper business.
Why? And how can you get started?
Why It’s Easier to Start an eCommerce Business Than Ever Before
These are just some of the reasons why it’s easier to start an eCommerce business now:
· There are no real logistical barriers. First, there are no significant logistical barriers stopping you from starting one. You don’t need to have a specific degree. You don’t need to have entrepreneurial experience. You don’t need to have $1 million in the bank. You don’t need to know how to code a website. All you really need is a genuine desire to start this type of business and the discipline and willpower to make it happen. You can choose to set up an offshore company in a tax haven in order to benefit from low taxation and confidentiality for your business.
· Educational resources are abundant. Next, recognize that educational resources are abundant. At this point, you may not know exactly how eCommerce businesses work. You may not know the right type of business structure to make for your business or how to market a business to a niche target audience. But if you spend even a few minutes searching online for these topics and similar topics, you’ll likely find a host of videos, books, white papers, and blog articles that can tell you everything you want to know. You can even take online courses to learn how to start your own online business. Depending on your current level of knowledge and experience, you may be able to get started with minimal consulting, or you may need to spend a few months learning the basic principles. Either way, there is a clear path forward for you.
· Supportive services are available and inexpensive. It’s almost impossible to run an eCommerce business purely as an individual. You simply don’t have all the skills or equipment necessary to handle all the requisite tasks. But these days, supportive services are widely available and are generally inexpensive, allowing you to tap into the expertise of others to fulfill your business needs. For example, Sherpack fulfillment center services offer solutions for all your fulfillment needs for a relatively low price, such as customized kitting, direct to consumer fulfillment, and even repackaging services. You can also take advantage of free website builders, website plugins, and automation tools to make your life as an entrepreneur easier.
· There are countless niche audiences to target. If you want to succeed, you need to have a specific niche audience to target. This helps you limit competition while maximizing the relevance of your marketing and advertising. And because there are so many niche audiences to target online, you should never run the risk of running out of potential buyers.
· Marketing and advertising are approachable. Marketing and advertising are crucial for the success of your online business. These are deep, relatively complicated subjects, but they’ve been made much more approachable by tech companies that want millions of people to use their tools. With even a modest budget and an inkling of your marketing strategy, you can start circulating ads.
· Your business can run 24/7. Many eCommerce businesses can be almost fully automated. In other words, they don’t demand much time from you. Once you set up the basics, you can take a mostly hands-off approach and pursue other goals as you see fit.
· Exponential growth is possible. Even so, it is possible to achieve exponential growth with your eCommerce business. If you keep expanding, reaching new audiences, and introducing new products and services, there’s practically no limit to what you can earn.
Key Steps to Starting Your Own eCommerce Business
So how do you get started?
· Generate a unique idea. You can’t create a business without an idea. Your idea doesn’t have to be perfect, especially at this stage, but you should have some kind of idea of what product or service you’re going to sell and who you’re going to sell it to. Make sure it’s at least somewhat unique so you can have an opportunity to position yourself with minimal competition.
· Write up a business plan. Writing a business plan isn’t just a formality. It’s a step that forces you to confront all the strengths and weaknesses of your business and make decisions about how you want to operate. It’s an opportunity to learn more about the business environment you’re going to enter and it’s going to serve as the foundation for creating your business in reality.
· Do your research. Follow up by doing as much research as possible about your market, your competition, and the potential barriers to your success.
· Start a website. The heart of most eCommerce businesses is a website, so that should be one of the first things you work on once your business plan is solidified.
It’s true that starting an eCommerce business is easier than ever, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be easy for you. This is still a pursuit that requires work, knowledge, and discipline – so if you’re truly interested in becoming a successful entrepreneur, make sure you’re serious about achieving that goal before you take your first step forward.
