With most business transactions happening on the internet and the rate of unemployment hitting unprecedented numbers, one way to help yourself out is to start an online job.
This won’t be capital intensive as you will not need to think about an office space or other rental and utility charges.
Here are some businesses you can look at:
1. Gig-based business
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This is the easiest one to start because you don’t need to develop any product upfront. All you need to do is to find out what you can do and get people to pay for that service.
2. Affiliation
Affiliation is about promoting others’ products you believe in. Again, you don’t need to spend any time and effort developing a product here. However, you need to build an audience that will listen to your recommendation.
3. E-commerce
E-commerce is about moving the retail business model online. The biggest challenge of running an e-commerce business is to keep control of all the moving parts at the same time from branding to marketing, suppliers to customers, and inventory to delivery.
4. Courses and programs
Selling information is a lucrative business model for many. But first, you need to position yourself as an expert in your field and your course/program as the solution to your audience’s struggles.
5. Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a Service basically means an online tool that helps solve a problem or leverage specific resources. The hardest part of running a SaaS business is to stay competitive because frankly, anyone can just copy your software idea nowadays.
To start any of the above business modules,
1. Test your idea
The securest way to get your idea running is to test it before you start making any significant investment anything into the idea. Do a market survey to determine if there is a ready market for your service or product
2. Develop your positioning and offering
90% of the elements that make or break your business come down to your positioning and offering. To make sure you get them right, spend a great deal of time studying your audience and focusing on solving a problem for them. This means you want to have the great product that solves the right problem at the right time.
3. Design a marketing system.
Think of how you will send your business message to your audience. As a start up, you should look for cost-effective ways of marketing.
4. Continuous innovation
Once the idea is out in the market, you should be looking for what next to do to keep the product or service relevant to your customers.
5. Financial plan
One key thing is tracking the financial flow of your business which calls for a well-structured system to monitor your cash flow.