6 Tips On Starting An Online Business
If you’re thinking of starting an online business then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together a list of 6 tips that’ll help guide you through this exciting new endeavor.
But, before you start, the biggest tip we can impart to you is to just take the PLUNGE! As intimidating as it may seem to start an online business, don’t let the fear hold you back. Your biggest regret will be not starting at all.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have some guidance along the way so keep reading to learn more:
Time management:
When you first start your own online business you’re forced to juggle multiple tasks at the same time, so productivity and time management is vital to keeping your business afloat. One of the best productivity hacks that we can impart to you is to work in 90-minute blocks. Multiple studies have shown that working in 90-minute blocks is the best way to maximize productivity. The 90-minute blocks limit fatigue and allow for recovery during rest time. We’ve found that working with 90-minute blocks also keeps our minds’ sharp while drastically lowering our stress levels.
Invest in task management tools:
We all want more of two things: time and money! Task management tools provide you with both of these things by helping your online business run more efficiently while saving you money. These tools are an easy and cost-effective way to track tasks digitally, rather than manually. The best task management software out there, in our opinion, is Asana. It can help you and your employees stay on top of your to-do-lists, calendars, and project progress. You can sign up for Asana online – there is a free version that we find very helpful, but the premium version definitely offers a lot more. The premium version is about $11 a month, but is totally worth it!
Define your email marketing strategy:
This is vital to the success of your online business. Without a good email marketing strategy, you’ll fail to develop the meaningful relationships you need to grow your business. After you’ve enticed new customers with a welcome email, it’s important to keep that level of personalization going. We suggest segmenting your customer list into demographics such as income, age, gender, education; from here, you can send emails with content that appeals to the specific groups on your list. This type of personalization and list segmentation will improve open rates and engagement within your customer base. It’s important to make your customers feel understood and to provide them with the information that they’re interested in.
Formulate a social media strategy:
Over the last 10 years, social media has transformed completely. Platforms that started out as fun ways to keep in touch quickly transformed into powerful marketing tools! Social media marketing is now one of the most powerful ways to grow any online business. However, with this growth comes saturation. Social media was once a shiny new toy that companies used fervently, but it’s now an overcrowded space. Which is why having a good social presence is important but not enough. You can have a fabulous page, but in order to be noticed you need to be doing something completely original. Social media is no longer an edge in business, it’s a given.
Create batch content:
This is a great way to maximize productivity in a shorter period of time. Writing, designing, and laying out multiple graphics and captions at once helps you streamline your aesthetic and your message. Our approach to creating batch content is to start by collecting photos and quote cards. Collect whatever makes sense to share in your feed and on your website – it could be two photos or it could be twelve. Once you have your photos ready to go and touched up, it’s time to get the creative juices flowing and start writing copy to accompany your graphics! Creating content all at once, instead of sporadically, will save you a lot of time and help streamline your company message.
Be aware of tax write-offs:
While this may not seem important when you’re first starting your online business, we’re here to tell you – it’s very important! Not only will keeping track of taxes save you time and money in the long-run but it’ll also keep everything above board. There are a number of tax write-offs that new business owners should be aware of. These tax write-offs will help speed up your tax filing process, while also saving you money! To start with, you can write off a number of expenses for work-related travel; this includes hotels, airfare, rental car expenses, business meals, and more. Some other common tax write-offs include: business insurance, office supplies, and home office expenses. To qualify for these tax write-offs, make sure to keep receipts for everything; from your colored pens to the sushi restaurant that you wined and dined your customers in!
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