Cam Secore — April 18, 2017 You hear it all the time. The only way to get rich, to build wealth and to truly be happy with work is to do things your own way. You have to strike out on your own and build a business. That’s great, but isn’t it hard? While maintaining a business is still quite a struggle, starting one is much easier than it was decades ago. Instead of having to start with brick and mortar, you just need an idea and enough confidence to keep the business going. Here are a few things about the digital era that make startups so much easier.
1. Digital Space
It goes without saying that building a brick and mortar business is certainly still a viable solution for starting a business, but you need a boatload of money to get started. The investment necessary for property alone, much less your supplies and employees, is enough to dissuade most people from starting. However, now you can setup a website for practically nothing and have a business space online.
If you want to go the paid route, and believe it the benefits are worth it, you’re looking at about $ 10 a month for digital space. Some might require you to pay for several years of hosting, but even that’s just a meager $ 300 give or take. There are even free websites so that you can learn the ropes before spending any cash.
2. Niche
While niche brick and mortar stores certainly exist, they are a little harder to maintain. This forces you to cater to many people and carry a wide range of items. For example, let’s take Barnes and Nobles and how they sell all types of books. It’s very unlikely that they would survive selling a specific genre, like mystery or self-help, but a digital business thrives on going niche.
Pairing down your business to a core, target item and audience is one of the best ways to get noticed because of how people search. Most people don’t search for “books” they search for specific terms and specific businesses, so it just benefits you to get a specific niche and stay there.
3. Wealth of Information
Decades ago, starting a business was like some arcane mystery. Everyone knew the overall steps (get space, sell items, invest profits to grow larger), but few knew the nitty gritty steps necessary to truly get things off the ground. Now, there are books, websites and mentors dedicated to help you survive. You can easily find free information on getting the best host, marketing your website, gathering and selling items, the steps required to build an audience and so on. You’ll know exactly how to proceed without feeling like you’re walking through the dark without a candle.
4. Authenticity and Personality
One thing that many new startups think is that there’s no way they can compete with eBay, Amazon and the other huge websites. While it’s true that they get the lion’s share of profit, it’s not nearly as hard as you think to get sales. You can’t beat them in terms of selection or maybe even price, but you can easily beat them with authenticity and personality. Many people love siding with a business that feels more human, more honest. It makes them feel special, and they’ll feel like they made a smarter purchase because there’s no way you’ll steer them wrong.
5. Join the Big Companies
I know, it sounds like treason, but it’s a great way to make money and build your own company. You can sell just about anything, from physical to digital, on many of the biggest websites. For example, eBay is exclusively other people just like you selling their stuff, and Amazon makes it easy to list your product. While those other companies still get recognition, you can ship items with little cards and flyers about your website, and you can build profiles on those websites to build a customer base.
Conclusion
No one ever said that starting and maintaining a business was easy, but it’s a lot easier now than it used to be. From significantly lower costs to many options to win over sales, you’ll find that it takes a lot less work than you thought it would to get things started.
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