You Have an Online Business Idea - What Next?
OK, you know you want to have your own business or website on-line.
You have tons of thoughts floating in your head.
Now, where to go next.
The first thing - very first thing - I do when faced with the prospect of an exciting new site or business idea is to answer the following questions:
I don't want to sit here and answer a bunch of questions that are going to give me brain pain!" OK, So you don't really want to have this business or website, now do you? You just want to spend your time fantasizing about it.
That's super cool and I respect it.
I like to dream that I am a millionaire traveling the globe in my shiny new private jet; BUT.
I'm not.
No, I actually want that to happen some day so I am spending the time I have right now answering those questions and developing my ideas into a framework for action.
That is what answering those questions will do for you.
Let's just go through them here...
How do you market it effectively, that is for another article.
Now, the other questions are really just a re-analysis of the first 3 questions.
It is helpful to rehash your initial answers to further flesh out your thought process.
Once you have taken a look at what we just went over and start to prepare your own answers to the questions, you will build up your confidence and maintain a great level of clarity.
You have tons of thoughts floating in your head.
Now, where to go next.
The first thing - very first thing - I do when faced with the prospect of an exciting new site or business idea is to answer the following questions:
- Who are my customers?
- What do they like to do? Where do they go on-line?
- What is my ultimate goal?
- Is my customer someone I spend a lot of time with?
- Who do I know that is like my customer?
- Can I really reach that goal?
- So what goal can I reach in 1 month - 3 months - 6 months?
I don't want to sit here and answer a bunch of questions that are going to give me brain pain!" OK, So you don't really want to have this business or website, now do you? You just want to spend your time fantasizing about it.
That's super cool and I respect it.
I like to dream that I am a millionaire traveling the globe in my shiny new private jet; BUT.
I'm not.
No, I actually want that to happen some day so I am spending the time I have right now answering those questions and developing my ideas into a framework for action.
That is what answering those questions will do for you.
Let's just go through them here...
- Who are my customers? You might love your idea and think everyone will want and need it but you are not everyone.
Think realistically, if you like it so much then who are you? Are you an adult, great, but are you a college student? A 30 something, 40 something, business professional, stay at home parent, or maybe a techie or even an academic.
Honestly, in many cases, a stay at home mom may not like the same things as a college student or an academic.
See what I mean?They can overlap.
For instance, you could have a 40 something - stay at home mom - who used to be a business professional in a tech field.
Just be sure to make a list of who you think your customers might be.
The more focused and realistic your list, the more targeted your marketing and work flow can be.
If you want to make your business directed at everyone on the planet, more power to you; however, you risk gaining a loyal customer base if your product is all over the place and confuses people. - What do they like to do? Where do they go on-line?Now that you have you basic customer established you can look at what you know about them.
For this question let's say you have a passion for gardening.
You decide that you want to have a site dedicated to gardening.
You feel that your target customer is a home owner in the 30 plus demographic.
Now there are more questions to ponder.
Is your gardening site going to be geared toward master gardeners? Or is it more toward your average weekend warrior / do it yourself-er who like to have the best yard on the block? These are important considerations because both groups like gardening but both groups hang in very different circles.
Again, the more drilled down you can make it the more likely your site will be the competition for others and not just competing. - What is my ultimate goal?Yes, I know...
you want to make a million dollars by next week!!! Come on, we both know that is not realistic.
It is totally fabulous and dreamy, but - sorry - not likely right now.
So, what can happen? Back to our gardening site...
some realistic goals:month 1 - get website on-line; month 2 - get website traffic and set sales and marketing goals, month 3 - Reach $1000.
00 in sales, month 6 - reach $2500 in sales, etc.
And such is the plan.
Lets test if it is realistic:
- Month 1 - getting site up and running, maybe 150 hits
- Month 2 - market to get traffic, maybe 600 hits this month (about 150 a week)
- Month 3 - getting traffic to 1000 hits this month and 10% makes a purchase
- 100 customers make an average purchase of $10.
00, month sales equal $1,000.
00 - Month 4 - traffic increased to 1500 hits and 10% make a purchase
- 150 customer make an average purchase of $10.
00, month sales equal $1,500.
00 - Month 5 - traffic increased to 2000 hits and 10% make a purchase
- 200 customers make an average $10.
00 purchase, sales equal $2,000 - Month 6 - traffic increased to 2500 hits and 10% make a purchase
- 250 customers make an average purchase of $10.
00, sales are to $2,500
How do you market it effectively, that is for another article.
Now, the other questions are really just a re-analysis of the first 3 questions.
It is helpful to rehash your initial answers to further flesh out your thought process.
Once you have taken a look at what we just went over and start to prepare your own answers to the questions, you will build up your confidence and maintain a great level of clarity.
