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Seven Steps to Starting a Small Business Online

Step 1: Plan your online business around something you love

How should you start an online business? Start it differently than the failed online businesses do. Start it with a solid foundation instead of a random guess.

If you've never run a business before, online or offline, it's essential to start thinking differently. You need to start thinking about your business like an entrepreneur instead of like an employee.

Employees tend to focus on completing tasks. Entrepreneurs focus on achieving results.

It's a bigger jump than you might think.

With an employee mindset, you might be tempted to think, "If I just pick a product and put it online, people will buy and my business will make money."

Starting your online business that way, however, is a sure recipe for failure.

Simply putting products online does not guarantee success. You need to focus not just on the tasks involved in starting an online business but on how to plan your business all the way through to the results you want.

The best starting point for this is with you.

You sell best what is part of who you are.

Believe it or not, you can make lots more money online by selling even seemingly obscure things that you know and love than you can by selling the hottest selling items that you don't.

So before you make even the tiniest step toward starting your small business online, first make a thorough assessment of what you know and what you enjoy. Then limit all online business ideas to only those areas.

Step 2: Identify what the buyers who share you interests need

Narrow your choices to one of those passions. Then, start to plan your online business around it. List the problems that people who share that passion have.

Think of what they need; identify the problems they want solved.

The key to selling online is to find problems that people want solved and then offer products or services that solves them.

This is why you have more success starting an online business in an area you know and love than if you try to sell something you pick randomly. If your online business is in an area you love, you know exactly how your potential customers think. In an area you don't, you can only guess.

Brainstorm the words and phrases those people use online to find solutions to those needs. Research (don't worry, I can show you how) how often they use those keywords on the search engines and how many other online businesses compete for those searchers.

Once you've done this, you have:

• A problem you know people want solved
• A good idea where you can find those people

In other words, you'll have a solid foundation for your online business. You'll have two-thirds of what you need for your small business to make money online.

Step 3: Choose the type of online business that best meets both your buyers' needs and your own

The third thing you need is:

• A way of solving the problem that people are willing to pay you to provide

That's what we show you in step 3.

Step 3 lets you explore online small business models that help you solve their problem while making money in return.

Explore these online business models to determine which model and what kind of products fit you—and your buyers' problem—best.

Step 4: Starting the nuts and bolts planning for your online business

Having completed these three steps, you now are ready to start planning how your online business will reach the customers you identified and start making you money.

This involves two things:

• Planning your business system
• Learning the nuts and bolts of starting your online business

Planning your business system involves deciding how you will move people through your online store or auction business to get the most out of the visitors who find you online.

Learning the nuts and bold of your online business finally lets you start the steps that most new business owners start with. NOW's the time to start learning html and buying your domain name and all the other technical matters you need to know for your online business.

Step 5: Create your Internet small business to start an ongoing relationship with your online buyers

In starting your small business online, you want to do more than just slap up a bunch of products and expect your visitors to do their part and buy.

You want to set yourself apart from your competitors. You want to start building relationships.

Develop your online business to start ongoing relationships with potential customers. This step will make the difference between buyers who wander off elsewhere, and loyal, repeat buyers who buy and buy again.

Step 6: Promote your online business to attract more buyers

By this point, your online business is started and running. But starting a small business online isn't a one-shot deal. You don't throw your business online and then step back while money rolls in.

You grow your online business by promoting it. Choose from the many tools and strategies listed under Step 6 to find the best ones to start bringing in new buyers.

Step 7: Track and test EVERYTHING so your online business makes more money

By now, your online small business is bringing you income. The funny thing, though, about online business is that no matter what steps you've taken to meet your buyers' needs, you can always improve.

That's why you want to test and track everything in your Internet business. You want to remove the bumps that knock your visitors off your sales path. You want to smooth the way for more of them to buy. Even the best-producing online businesses can always do better.

Help in starting your small business online

Make use of our articles, tips, and tools. And drop me a line to let me know what you need. I'll be happy to help.

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