Dec 14 2011

Five Commandments of Launching an Online Business

Internet has been very kind to entrepreneurs, providing them with the platform; many different marketing mediums, a huge market, an ever increasing number of potential customers, and a perfect launching pad to kick start a business with very little, or no investment. In fact, it has been so kind that many people have started to take it as granted, more like a place where you can hit the jackpot every time without moving a muscle.

In the past, internet might have been a playground for entrepreneurs, but in this time and age, it has turned more into a battle field, and the intense competition means that in order to survive, you’ve got to keep your nose to the grindstone all the time, especially when laying down a plan. You cannot afford to invest in an ill-considered business plan and expect it to be successful. On the other hand, you cannot just go out replicating a successful business model because too many businesses are doing exactly the same, hence leaving very slim chances for success (if any).

So, when all’s said and done, it’s important to brood over your online business plan, and try to make sure that it adheres to one of the following five scenarios.

Be the first one:

The reason why we saw so many entrepreneur success stories coming out of Cyber world in its early days was because they had the “first mover advantage”. The point of the matter is that any idea which has the element of novelty is bound to get the buzz on the Internet. Thanks to the very low costs associated with business start ups, Internet comes out as the ideal platform for entrepreneurs to experiment with the new ideas, even if the idea doesn’t sound too convincing or too profitable in its early form. There’s every chance that it will take a profitable shape with the passage of time.

Internet is full of success stories where the proprietor didn’t start with the intent of setting up a business venture, but as a hobby or leisure pursuit, however the idea clicked and went on to become a money-spinning business. Therefore, if you are looking to try your luck in the cyber world, you should try to be the first one, and do something which is totally unique.

Be the biggest one:

Facebook was not the first social network, and it’s not the only social network at the moment. What actually works in its favor is the sheer size of community it has managed to pull together, mainly because it targeted the right audience right from the word go and managed to get them all on board in next to no time. Same goes for Google that wasn’t the first Search Engine but managed to trounce its competitors by piling a lot more websites in its index than any of its peers. Moral of the story? Size matters. True, that to be the biggest, you will need to have a lot of investment and patience, but once you reach that point, you will be able to reap the benefits for a long time to come.

Be the cheapest one:

Internet businesses have an edge over brick and mortar stores because of the low costs, both for businesses and the consumers. But there’re many areas where there’s a room for improvement and a further slash in prices. Any business that can offer a product or service at a cheaper price as compared to its competitors is bound to win over the customers. Therefore, if you are about to offer a product or service, which is already in abundance, make sure that you’ve figured out a way to cut costs and price it a little lower than the average price in the cyber world.

Be the local one:

When you’re looking to enter a market, already swamped by the big wigs operating on much bigger scale, your best (and probably the only) bet is to dedicate your business to the local customers. For example, if you are looking to start a daily-deals website and you’re concerned about the big shots like groupon.com, you can go for a daily-deals website catering the local businesses and customers. This way, you will always have an edge over the bigger ones, because you are operating from the same locale and you can reach out to local businesses with ease. And not only the businesses, but local customers will also prefer your website over the big ones because of the availability of more deals. Later on, you can always add more localities or cities, as the site grows.

Be the Better one:

If you can’t be the first one, or the cheapest one, or even the biggest one, you’re left with no other option but to be the better one. There are many websites and businesses which are quite popular, still the users have quite some reservations about some features, the only reason they stick with these websites is because they don’t have any better alternative. Thanks to all those social networks, you can now keep a tab on the likes and dislikes of consumers coming from your targeted niche and come up with a service that’s better. Remember that no matter how clustered is the market with competition, there will always be room for some improvement, you just need to identify any such opportunity and make the most of it.

Author’s Bio:

Misheal is an online entrepreneur, and she manages a discount website featuring coupon codes and discounts for services like 1and1 or Network Solutions. Take a look at these coupons at 1and1 Coupon Codes and network solutions promotion codes .