How do you start a business online to generate a second income? Or a third? Or plan for retirement? Or even quit your job to work on your own, online? The first lie that you should never believe is that you can set up a successful business online for free. No, it will never work and that is not the truth. We bought into that lie, too till we began to set up a business online. Have you not heard that there is no such thing as a free lunch?
Everyone who offers services out there is doing it for a reason and usually, it is for money. If you are offering your services for free, you will not be called an entrepreneur, but a philanthropist. Those people do it for a deep-set personal reason; entrepreneurs do it because they believe they have something to offer in the market in return for money.
So, if you are an entrepreneur in the making who is just starting out, here are some tips so that you know what you are getting yourself into.
Research
Before you even start anything, do complete research, as extensive as possible, on the products that you are about to offer. Read blogs, watch videos, and check out every part of the Net. They say the Internet is the largest library in the world. It is. Research, research and research. The important part of research is to check out what people are searching for using keywords on sites like Google.
There are sites also which can give you insights on the terms that are being searched. Those sites have extensions which can be added to your browser and every time you search using a specific keyword, it will show the traffic for that keyword, per month and Cost per Click (CPC). The higher the CPC, the higher the competition.
So obviously, you would want to sell something that appears frequently during searches and has higher CPC.
Pick up some skills
Seriously. Whatever you may have learnt `by the way’ may not be sufficient to see you through. You may think that you know it all, but there are experts out there who may know much more and have a lot more to share. You can choose to learn from such people from their TikTok or YouTube videos but remember, they are also out to make money so if you want the full spectrum of information, be prepared to invest in yourself.
Plus, it would be good for your customers to know that you have certifications to support your expertise. It adds credibility.
Choose your site
We found out that good website hosting sites offer 14 days trial, after which you have to select a plan. Are there sites which offer free basic plans? Yes, of course, they exist. If you do not mind their adverts popping out on your pages and if you are contented with very basic features, yeah, why not? Trust me, no one’s going to be impressed enough to buy from you, save some friends who may purchase out of pity. Ask yourself, would you buy anything from a website that looks like those people are not serious about their business? Yeap, that’s the answer.
We also realised that the better the plan that you purchased, the greater the features were. So, be prepared to invest in a good subscription plan, ideally one that you pay annually. Two reasons why you should do this – one because it will be way cheaper, and second because it would take the hassle off paying monthly. Then again, if you are under financial constraints, it is alright to go for the monthly subscription.
Design an engaging website
People buy online based on a few criteria. The look and feel of a website to begin with. So, you have a great idea, you have collected all your materials, and have identified a superb site to host your website, next, stop being stingy and spend some money hiring a competent web designer. Can you design a website yourself? After all, all web hosting sites have tools that you can use to design your site yourself. Yeah, man, you can. But who is going to be impressed with a site that looks like an elementary school project, what more buy from that site?
We did the same mistake with our first online store. But ours started as a school project so the website was designed and built by my daughter. Then when we tried to sell things through that website, sales never happened. Almost nil. Then in 2018, we decided to move to another site, hired a web designer and our business took off.
How difficult is it to hire a web designer? We generally work with freelancers as opposed to companies. Money is the only constraint. There are many sites online that offer the services of freelancers. So far, our experience has been good. These freelancers get their projects based on the ratings that they secure from their clients, so you can check out their ratings and choose who you would like to work with. You can choose the budget that you can afford for a particular project and choose from the freelancers who bid for the project.
The most important thing is that you need to know what you want them to build for you.
Product photography
Unless you are a dropshipper, the products or services that you would be selling would be yours and would need good photographs. Initially, we just used friends who were good at photography. Again, though our designs were really different from those others offered, our photos sucked. No sale. So, in 2018, when we re-did our website, we hired a professional photographer and models. It worked. We did a decent sale. We still do.
Of course, if you are naturally talented in photography, you should pick up some skills like using daylight or good artificial lighting for your photos. One of the things that we decided at that time was to use outdoors for our photo shoots, which actually worked in our favour. But outdoors meant ensuring it was not a rainy day. Otherwise, it was a breeze.
If you are using indoors, you may want to ensure you have a good clean wall to be used as the backdrop. Or if you would like to superimpose a different background, you may want to ensure you have a railing where you can drape green fabric.
If you are very proficient in this, you may want to create a mood board and product presentation samples to refer to during photography.
Product description
You have awesome products, engaging website design and excellent product photography. How would you describe each product?
Remember, people buy based on what you tell them on the product description page. If you would like to know how best to describe your product see how others in your business have described their products. Were those descriptions sufficient for you to decide to make that online purchase?
Have a size chart available on each product page, if you are into garments, to provide guidance to customers.
It would also help a lot if you have a Return/Refund Policy on each product page to ensure you are covered from all angles in case there is a dispute by your customer.
Using hashtags is another good practice but before you do that check out keywords on your search engine. If you are selling shirts, do a keyword search `shirts’ on your browser. If you are subscribed to any of the data providers for keyword search, you will find that the search engine difficulty for the word `shirts’ will appear as 78/100. That means whichever brand you see appearing at the top had to `fight’ its way up to be featured at the top of the result.
Checkout feature
So, you have a great website, the photos and you have uploaded your products with great descriptions. Next, you have to set up your checking out feature. Most websites have this feature in-built but you can also customise it.
Ideally, your checkout should allow registered customers as well as guests to checkout with ease. The more payment options are available, the more engaging the experience of shopping at your website would be.
It is also imperative that customers are advised on the expected receipt of the product, to set expectations right. Do provide a contact number and/or email addresses where customers can contact you in case they need something related to their purchase. These will not be standard features in the general checkout template, so do your part. It is your business, after all.
In the next part, we will see how best to market your products. Remember, no one buys a product. People buy benefits, styles, solutions to a problem and such. So, if you are just a dropshipper, you can showcase your products and if people buy, good. Else, no loss because dropshippers do not own, produce or ship the products that they sell. They just market. But if you have your own products, stop shoving them down your friends’ throats! People may buy the first few times out of pity, then, they may block you on Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram and everywhere you are their friend.
Then again there are marketplaces. Will those work? Read more here in Part 2.
