The digital landscape is teeming with young entrepreneurs amassing fortunes overnight. However, the realm of online businesses isn't exclusive to the youth. In this two-part series, James Barrington of Netsightuk.com guides you on how to join the burgeoning league of successful digital entrepreneurs and gear up for success.
It's crucial to note that over 80% of existing online businesses will cease to exist within the next year without making a single penny in profit. Tales of instant wealth from the internet are often exaggerated. While they may be rooted in truth, the money is often intangible and hasn't been converted into hard cash in the owner's bank account. The label "Internet Millionaire" doesn't necessarily equate to profit or hard cash. For every triumphant online business, hundreds are still vying for investors' attention, and many will inevitably fail. Launching a long-lasting and profitable online venture is costly and labor-intensive. This is the harsh reality. Still interested? Let's delve deeper.
From the get-go, you need to comprehend that the internet will expose you to a global audience of potential customers. A basic understanding of how the internet operates is beneficial but not mandatory. You only need to grasp that one computer containing your information can interact with others on a global scale, and this can be leveraged to sell your services using the internet as the conduit. Just as you would stop at a highway shopping mall to make a purchase during your journey, people also stop at your virtual store (website) to browse and buy your products. The rest is all technical, and if you're not inclined to be technically literate, you can delegate this to the programmers and designers.
Setting up an online business differs from establishing a venture in the physical world, but the fundamental principles of business still apply. These include:
These principles broadly cover the following research areas:
Thorough research is the first and most critical step in establishing a successful dot-com venture. The 80% of dot-com firms that will fail in the future will do so simply because they don't understand their market and customers and hence cannot survive in the long term due to a lack of planning and research. Don't fall into the same trap.
Once you have a clear idea and evidence that your concepts will work as a business venture, it's time to bring in the technical expertise to build a working model. At this stage, all of the research and knowledge of your marketplace is critical to success. You will need to convey your ideas to people who may never have been in business and have no grasp of business fundamentals. As they will likely be responsible for the design of complex programs to ensure the seamless operation of your services and transactions, it's crucial you make them understand your goals. Specialist consultants who design projects specifically for the internet can help here, however, demand for their expertise is high and they are certainly not cheap.
Most designers and programmers will appreciate a simple project prospectus, summarising what the website intends to achieve in the short and long term. This is known as the project plan (similar to a business plan). From there, they can draw up a technical specification for the website before any work is performed, listing all of the functions and explaining how each program will work to achieve your goals. Only when you understand the workings and are happy with how things will work, should you proceed to the next stage of designing the technology.
Here are some things to consider:
