Starting out: 5 steps to start your business

1. Your plan
2. Your concept
3. Defining your market
4. Your product or service (can be affiliate programs)
5. Marketing your product

Your plan: Business is no different from any project you want to do. The 1st thing to do is to make a plan:

Decide what your goals are-write them down Make a rough time frame to achieve them Decide how much time you can realistically apply to your business Set aside a special time of day to devote exclusively to your business Make a daily schedule Make a weekly schedule Allocate a realistic amount of money that you will set aside in a separate account for your business. Make sure you do not overspend on your budget but at the same time do not starve your business. Set aside some money for marketing and some for developing and running your business.

Your concept:

Write down several topics that interest you and several areas that you have expertise in. Go through the list and see which ones you really love doing. Decide on a topic that really interests you and think how you can build your business around it.

Defining your market: When you start a business you will need to establish a market.

Who will be interested in the same topic that you have chosen? What products or services will they need and want- Check on overture search tool by putting in your topic keyword. It will tell you how many searches have been done- this will be your demand Check in the search engine like Google-this will bring up how many websites for this topic there are. These are your competition and represent supply Try to find something that has high demand and less supply-go through your list until you find the best one this will be your niche market Analyze your proposed customer Who are they What interests them Where will you find them (websites, discussion boards, forums and publications Make a thumbnail sketch of your most wanted customer

Developing a product or service: Based on your concept and market you can now decide what you can sell. Affiliate programs are the best to begin with as you will not have to set up any payment systems and can start immediately

Marketing your product: at first you will sell or pre sell to your market, as you will not have a website or newsletter. This called direct marketing and can be done by:

Advertising in ezines, that are related to your topic (remember to target these well) Start small with classifieds to test the publications and then go onto larger ads for better exposure. Advertising on related websites: you will need small classifieds for this Article distribution:-write or have written several articles about your business and distribute them to related publications, websites and article directories/libraries. An article distribution service is best for this. Always test track and record all your advertising.

Passive advertising: letting your customer come to you this is your second step in marketing and involves: Making your own website to attract leads Making your newsletter to capture leads Once you have established your website and newsletter you will drive traffic to the website By search engine submission Linking Pay-per-click and Google Adwords

These are the 5 basic steps to establishing your online business. In the coming issues we will go into each point in more detail to show you exactly how you can start and develop a realistic business, that will really make you money and gain you financial independence.

Copyright 2006 Christopher Robinson