1. Low start-up cost yet large scale
Most online businesses are built with low start-up cost. You can start for very little and grow your website, webstore, web app or mobile app over time, adjusting your online business to how your audience interacts. Furthermore, new technologies that can be used with online businesses reduces the amount of work you have to do, allowing you to cut down on costs. For example, adopting e-business solutions such as a responsive website, smart UI/UX, e-commerce, rich mobile app, online marketing tools, that can reduce maintenance, repair and operation costs. Once you are setup and ready to roll, your business is open 24/7 365 days a year, and keeps running even when you sleep. This is what distinguishes online businesses from any other, because your income is not determined by the number of hours you work, but rather the level of productivity you can produce during those hours. This gives tremendous scaling opportunities to those productive ones. While it is hard to scale the number of hours you or your employees can work (we all have 24 hours in a day), if you create a smashing hit with your online business, there are few limits to how far you can go. You don’t have to be present in order for a transaction to go through, you just have to be consistent with your efforts and constantly be laser-focused on creating value for your customers to grow and sustain your business. Some people thrive under this, others don’t. If you are one of those that thrive under this, by investing your time on marketing, sales and any other activity that generates income, you will significantly reduce the number of hours you have to work in order to bring in a healthy income.
2. Location, location, location, is no longer
Not every single online business is going to automatically morph into a huge success with rapid exponential growth. Many entrepreneurs start an online business thinking customers are automatically going to find them and sales will pour in because they have a small footprint on the Internet. They think that a few tweets or Facebook posts are all it will take to snowball an online business into a virtual ATM machine. Scaling any business is not easy, whether it is a brick-and-mortar location or an online business, but an online business has advantages. For instance, a brick-and-mortar retail store has a defined audience, typically a radius from the business location. An online business isn’t restricted by this and can market to a worldwide audience. When you build an online business, you have access to customers in every region of the world, which also means in many cases you can work from anywhere in the world as long as you have an Internet connection and a laptop. Unlike your neighbourhood grocery store, people can buy your goods and services from anywhere. Not only does this allow you the benefits of scale as mentioned in the previous section, but it also protects you from regional economic fluctuations. For example, if the economy in your native country were to fail, people running offline businesses would typically be much more affected by the economic downturn than online businesses working with customers around the world.
3. You own your time
In an online business you aren’t tied down to a desk or a single location. You don’t have to wake up at 7 (if you don’t want to) and quickly get ready to get to work. Finally, you don’t have to take orders from a boss. If you own a business, you don’t have to take orders from anyone other than yourself – you are your own boss. Depending on the type of online business you choose to set up you generally have more flexibility in creating your schedule. You can choose what time of the day you want to work, how many hours you want to work and what days of the week you want to work as long as you set your business in an efficient way. This doesn’t mean that you can simply relax all of the time, it just means that you have more choices when it comes to working hours that fits you, whether it’s working Monday – Friday or just the weekends, and whether it’s early in the morning, late at night or in the middle of the day. You aren’t limited by an hourly wage because your income is often determined by how productive you are with your time, not the number of hours you work. Having more flexibility in your schedule means being able to spend your life focusing on other important activities outside of your business, and being able to make time for the things that truly matter (aside from your business that is). With the ability to run an online business from anywhere, you also have the freedom to travel and choose where you want to work on any given day. That can be extremely liberating to many aspiring entrepreneurs out there. Many entrepreneurs are drawn to online businesses because of the freedom they offer. Modern technology, laptops, tablets, business apps and VOIP communication systems are just some of the tools that allow businesses to be operated from any location. Next time you are in a coffee shop, take a look around. We guarantee someone is working on their online business or startup while connected to wifi and sipping their favorite coffee. Not being tied to a particular location or desk from nine to five can be very empowering. Whether you want to visit your family in another country or take a trip somewhere exotic, your business will always be with you.
Feel free to contact us and ask us about these online marketing strategies you needs if you have a project on which you would like us to quote. We hope you’ll hear from us soon.
