Building an online business - You first need an idea - Part 1

When it comes to starting and building up a business online, it all starts with an idea.  It doesn't even have to be a great idea or unique, you just need an idea that you can run with in order to make some profits.  I know some of you will want to do a non profit, and that's great, but you won't be coming back here claiming you're successful.  I'm going to be talking more about a for profit type of business model so that people can have a better idea of what to do and what not to do when working online

There are statistics everywhere online that will tell you that over 50% of businesses fail within the first 3 to 5 years.  This is a staggering amount because that means over half of the businesses you drive past, who are still in their infancy, are going to close their doors within the next 5 years.  All of that can be avoided if you know what you're doing and the ones who do end up closing their doors probably could have avoided that outcome if they just ran their business a little better, but you never know.

Everyone who is working online, or wants to, thinks that everything will just fall into place without a business plan.  I can't tell you much this is untrue, you definitely need a plan of attack in place prior to starting anything.  You will need to know what is going to happen and what you will need to do if something goes wrong.  If you don't, you're going to be screwed in a very short amount of time lol.

I'll be breaking down this discussion into 5 different parts so you don't get flooded with information all at once.  I will interlink them so you can skip ahead, but they won't be linked right at the beginning since they will get written up at different times

In this part of the discussion I'll be going over the idea stage of starting up your own business.  This is a crucial part of your business plan because if you don't have an idea, and you're just winging it, you're likely going to fail miserably.  Now I do know some people who got into businesses that they didn't think they would, but they stumbled upon something that could br profitable and then did a massive amount of research before going all in.  This is a rare case but can happen to anyone.  I mention this just so I don't get people coming in here saying something along the lines of "I started my business without any prior research and do just fine!" lol.

Let's get started!


The idea stage
You will need to sit down and think of what you're most passionate about.  This is because when you're passionate about something, then turn it into a business, it's easier to run and manage because you already know a lot about the products or services that will be going into it. 

If you plan on "winging it" in the idea stage, you need to step back and think "Will I fail or will this work?" and if you think it will work, you need to go back to the drawing board lol.  So let's think of what you could possibly be passionate about...

• Motherhood (babies)
• Sports
• The Outdoors
• Tech (computers, smart phones, VR, etc.)
• Home and Garden
• Gaming
• Design
• Marketing
• etc.

These are just a few big niches that you can get in to, but I would avoid them if this is your first business.  I say to avoid them because it will take a lot more work to become successful in these niches compared to smaller niches that you can dominate

So lets say you go with something in the gaming niche, which is great, but all you have right now is a broad idea.  You will need to narrow it down slightly so you can get a little more targeted.  Now remember, the gaming niche is extremely tough to crack in to even if you narrow it slightly, but it can be done over time (years).  I'm just using gaming as an example and I hope you get the idea lol.

So to narrow down the gaming niche you will need to think of what you're targeting, consoles or PC gaming.  If you go towards PC gaming then you have finished narrowing it, sort of.  If you go with gaming consoles, you can narrow it even more since there are multiple systems out there.  Remember, there are console specific games, so if you want to target one game that is specific to PlayStation or Xbox you will need to choose the right console.  If it doesn't matter which console you're targeting, then go with the one you like the most.



So now it looks like this...

Gaming >> Gaming Consoles >> PlayStation or Xbox or Nintendo



After this you can get even more specific by narrowing it down to gaming genres like fps, MMO's, etc.  So now you have a specific console and a gaming genre, which will make it much easier to talk about if you're only into fps or MMO's

I would target one specific console and run with it.  Later on you can branch out and target each gaming console then link together all of your websites for a bigger network


Now that you have your idea, you can continue on to the website design and domain!



In Conclusion:
You need to at least get semi-targeted when you're in the idea stage because starting out too broad will always send you in different directions and put a much larger work load on your desk each week.  If you narrow it down, it will be much easier for you to focus and you won't have to do as much research compared to targeting everything within a niche


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Thanks!

Razzy