How to Start an Online Business in 2024

[00:02] you've decided that this is the year you are finally going to start your online business then you are in the right place because today I'm going to be breaking down the seven steps for starting and growing a successful online business

[00:15] don't even have to take you very long in fact you can do all of them in just a few months and your life will be changed forever now before we get into all that really quickly so you know like who I am and where this information is coming

[00:28] from my name is G Perkins I've started three successful online businesses over the past few years and I've also started several offline businesses before that as well and today my full-time job is being an online business strategist and

[00:43] I run a coaching program that helps people start their own online businesses so this is what I do fulltime I'm fully in this world and that is where what I'm going to share with you comes from all right so let's get into it the very

[00:56] business is just deciding what business you're going to start brain stor you business until you've made that all important decision and in fact this is people who say they want to start their own business never actually start the

[01:13] all important decision unless you already have an idea that you are set on in which case you know congratulations you've done this step you can move on to the next step but otherwise take a few minutes a few hours even a few days to

[01:25] brainstorm a list of a whole bunch of different ideas so that you can make sure that you're really choosing your best option narrow down the list to just appealing to you and then you'll want to spend some intentional time thinking

[01:38] what would really be involved I like to use this day in a life exercise where you imagine like what would you actually have to do on a day-to-day basis to run that business that can really help you to figure out whether you would actually

[01:51] enjoy running these businesses or not so what you want to do here is narrow it down to one idea that you are the most excited about now this does not have to be the best idea on the list don't worry about getting this right I'm sure you

[02:04] have lots of good ideas on your list just try to choose one that you are the you'll want to do some market research on that idea and you can keep your market research really simple so don't get up in your head about this it starts

[02:16] with just trying to find people who might be interested in this business or what this business would offer can you find those people online can you find to get in contact with them because at some point if you go on build this

[02:30] customers right well the best time to start finding customers is before you even start the business at all just to make sure those customers are out there Once You' found some people who you think might be interested in your idea

[02:44] whether you do that online by using online forums or Facebook groups or about people you know in real life but once you find those people what you want to do is reach out to them tell them about your idea and just ask them what

[02:57] then I'd recommend you go a step further and reach out about interviewing a few them about like the real problem that they're facing what their real goal is what they've already tried to solve this problem what sort of help or support or

[03:12] products they might be interested in to get that result that they're looking for complicated but the more informed of a decision you are able to make here the more likely it will be that your business will be a success and you won't

[03:26] boards later on now this is a great time to tell you about the sponsor of today's video HubSpot HubSpot just released their 2024 social media trends report so basically this is a report that breaks down exactly what's going on with social

[03:42] media this year how are businesses using social media most effectively what strategies are they going for what are the biggest social media platforms this what's not when it comes to building a business online one of the things you

[03:56] have to be the most strategic about is your Market marketing how do you get the visibility that you need so that people know you even exist how do you stand out from the competition how do you get people to pay attention to you and be

[04:09] interested in what you have to offer so knowing what other businesses are doing on social media can be really helpful so that you can either choose to take part in strategies that other businesses are using that are working really well for

[04:22] them or so that you can choose to Zig when everyone else is zagging and in HubSpot talks about in this report that's working really well for businesses is going big going bold and doing things different than other people

[04:36] are doing you can grab the HubSpot social media report for free at Gillian perkins.com HubSpot dport or by clicking the link in decided what business you're going to start the next step is to write a

[04:50] start the next step is to write a business plan plan plan plan now again like this doesn't need to be complicated you can keep this really simple I have a bus business plan template that I have titled the easiest business plan ever

[05:03] that I use as a starting place with a lot of my clients and this just Maps out business what is your business going to sell who is your target market how are you going to advertise your business basic things like that we just want to

[05:17] we are not building our business aimlessly but instead we know what we're trying to create it's kind of like the difference between putting together a puzzle knowing what picture you're trying to create versus is doing it

[05:30] blind yes you can do it blind and it can work out but it tends to take a lot trying to create you can grab my business plan template for free at business plan template for free at Gillian perkins.com slth the- easiest

[05:44] Gillian perkins.com slth the- easiest ds- plan- eff I'll be sure to include that link in the description below as well so that you can get it more easily so moving on with the steps for starting your online business step number three

[05:57] people are zagging and that's because I would recommend that the next thing you do is a beta launch of your product with the most exciting new product now I know that this might seem like way too much way

[06:10] too soon like wait what I haven't even registered my business name I haven't an audience yet how could I possibly beta launch it yes that is totally true and some people prefer to do those other things first but here's what I'll tell

[06:24] things first but here's what I'll tell you that is the slower route all this yourself if you want to start your online business more quickly then I'd recommend that you do your beta launch

[06:38] before you do all those other things so in short a beta launch is where you do a in short a beta launch is where you do a test drive of selling your product so version of your product that you can

[06:50] take to Market or you are just going to pre-launch your product before you even create it so the most common example of this is Kickstarter right so on their product they're launching it before the product even exists maybe

[07:06] idea but they bring it to the masses and they say hey here's my idea what do you think would you like to invest would you like to purchase this product before it then you'll get it if not you'll get

[07:20] many different ways you can do your beta launch but the basic principle here is the same you're bringing your product to Market before it's really ready now one this process is that you are super transparent and honest with people about

[07:35] sell a product and pretend that it exists when it doesn't yet and you also really ready to be taken to Market because people never like that but if you're totally transparent that this is just a pre-order campaign or you are

[07:51] releasing just a smaller version of your product at a lower cost then this can be a fantastic way to test out your product idea before you go to all the work to create it and before you go to all the work of actually properly setting up

[08:05] your business you just want to test things out so that you make sure that your idea really has potential before you invest all that time and energy and money if your radal launch is a success meaning that you are able to pretty

[08:17] easily get at least a handful of sales then that is the green light to be able to move on to step four of your business startup process and step four is setting up the administrative side of your business you didn't file your paperwork

[08:31] last night so in this step you need to register your business name with your find out if there are any special licenses or requirements that are required by your state for the type of business that you're starting you also

[08:46] want to set up a simple website and I would recommend that you set up some email marketing software so that you can start growing your email list early now technically that last step is optional not every business has an email list but

[08:58] it's kind of like saving for retirement most people end up wishing they'd done it and they end up wishing that they'd started earlier so I say like just get your business so that you don't have

[09:11] that regret later on with your business set up and legal you are ready to move on to step number five which actually is an optional step itself and that is the step is optional is because it really depends on what your business is

[09:24] product for example then you're probably going to need to do this step you'll either need to improve your prototype and get your final product manufactured or else you will need to create more of your product if it's something you're

[09:37] creating yourself or if you're selling a digital product this might be where you actually create your online course but if your business is going to sell a service like web design or graphic design or writing services you might not

[09:49] need to do this Step at all or do it very minimally just further mapping out exactly what this service is that your business offers by the way if I sound like a fr in today's episode I'm not sick I feel fine but our trees are in

[10:03] sick I feel fine but our trees are in full pollination here in Oregon and it is affecting my throat so I'm sorry if I sound weird but I feel fine so at this point you have done five of the seven steps of starting and growing your

[10:15] online business and you are in the home stretch kind of nope not really because actually those first five steps are definitely the easiest steps of building a business these last two steps are the steps that

[10:30] really grow your business and they tend to be things that are harder and take a lot longer in fact they're things that you might keep doing on into the future as long as you run your business so step six is finding customers and since I

[10:46] think you're starting an online business you're going to be finding customers online now there are of course lots of different ways you can do this some of the ways that I tend to recommend to my clients are first of all networking this

[10:58] is a great starting place now when I say networking I don't mean going to strangers and then promptly forgetting their names or just sticking their business cards in your Rolodex effective networking really looks nothing like

[11:11] this this is about meeting people and getting to know them building relationships in your space so that later on you can collaborate with people who have brands that are similar to yours and also through this process of

[11:23] relationships you find potential customers and that leads me right into the next strategy that I love to recommend to new online business owners there are lots of different ways you can

[11:37] do this you can partner up with another brand for a joint venture promotion where they promote your product to Their audience and you split the profit you can do guest blogging you can be a guest on podcasts you can swap lead magnets

[11:52] which is where you share another Brand's lead magnet with your email list or audience and and they share your lead magnet With Their audience and you both

[12:04] me know if you want a whole video about that that's quite a strategy on its own anyway doing collaborations with other brands in your space is a great way to find potential customers another good one is content marketing so this is

[12:18] where hubspot's free guide can really come into play because a big part of content media marketing is social media marketing these two things are separate but they work together so content marketing is where you create content

[12:31] about whatever it is that your business does so for example if you're starting a plumbing company then you could create videos about how to do minor plumbing repairs and then at the end of each of your videos you could have a cold action

[12:43] where you tell people if your repair is too big for you to do yourself then call suppose you're probably starting a plumbing company but similarly here on YouTube I create videos about business strategy and digital marketing because

[12:57] that's what I help people with and so then my videos are great introduction to people like you who are interested in starting their businesses and who might at some point be interested in hiring me and my company but then how this relates

[13:09] to social media marketing is you can then take that content that you created and share it on social media YouTube is kind of an interesting mix of a Content platform a search platform and social media but then we've got the straightup

[13:21] social media like Instagram and Tik Tok and x and things like that where you can tell people about blog posts or podcast episodes that you created and Link them to it to get the word out once you've started to get that ball rolling in your

[13:35] business and you are seeing new customers come in the door every single month then it's time to move on to step seven and scale your business scaling your business means that you are taking it from something that is small and

[13:48] but what's important here is that you need to keep your ratios right so for to keep those ratios right you have to keep the sides one to one to one to one right or else it's not a square and with a shape like that you might lose your

[14:03] structural Integrity if you scaled it disproportionately well the same thing can happen with your business if you do not scale your business proportionately then you might find that your business is lopsided and that is what can lead to

[14:15] business collapse and your business failing and that is what leads to such a high percentage of small businesses failing so instead here's what we need to do you need to make sure that first of all you are scaling up your marketing

[14:27] to attract more and more new customer customers but at the same time you are scaling up your systems so that you can serve and support those new customers you need to for example have the systems in place to be able to deliver product

[14:39] to as many new customers as you're tracting and then at the same time you also have to make sure that you are scaling up your team you have to have the people in place to run the systems to support those new customers and also

[14:52] initiatives to attract the new customers scaling your business is something that you'll probably continue to do for the life of your business it's an art and a science but it's not as hard as it might sound so there you have it those are the

[15:05] seven steps for starting and growing a successful online business now here's you to be thinking so much about this entire process that you get hung up and thing the most important thing right now is that you get started that right now

[15:21] you get to work on making that decision about what business you're going to start and then from there you create a simple plan for starting your business don't worry about step number seven focus in on step number one and then two

[15:33] and so on before you go don't forget to download that free business plan if you need some help creating a solid plan for starting your online business and hubspot's social media trends guide as you are thinking about how to

[15:47] you can find the links to both of those resources in the show notes below this episode next up you'll want to watch this video right here to learn how to Market your business online there's a lot that goes into digital marketing and

[16:00] in this video I break it all down it's the ultimate guide to marketing your the ultimate guide to marketing your online business