It seems as though with so many people out of work more and more entrepreneurs are looking to start their own business. Even if they can't have the benefits they once had at their former place of employment, at least they can have some income streaming in so they can pay their bills without going into huge debt on their credit cards and what have you. It is for this reason that so many people are trying to start little online businesses where they can sell stuff on the Internet.
You see, it costs quite a bit less money to start an online business than it does to open a retail store, and try to sign a 10 year lease on a building when you don't have much credit, and you've lost your income due to being unemployed. It is somewhat of a catch 22, further the Small Business Administration or SBA is reluctant to lend money to people who have no way to pay it back. So, an online business does sound like a decent idea, the question is can you find something to sell that is not already readily available online?
Indeed, that is actually the least of your worries. You also have to get Internet traffic, notoriety, and do some marketing. However, with everyone being bombarded with spam, and people all over the social networks like Facebook trying to network with friends to promote their business, it's starting to get old. Most people who are online, even if they might be buyers of your product are so tired of being bombarded with advertising, that it is hard for a small company to get a foothold.
Even large companies are having a tough time building up their marketing and brand names online, even though they are spending huge amounts of money and have spent vast sums with search engines and social networks. So, just because you have a great product, something everyone wants, or should want, you are still not guaranteed success. It takes money to make money, and although it costs less to do marketing on the Internet, it is really a numbers game, and even if you have extremely targeted traffic, it's just not as easy as it looks to convert clicks to sales.
The other day, I was talking to an individual who had a new pet product, and the pet owners that are currently using his product absolutely love it. Of course, as soon as he built a website and started to get traffic, several other companies started offering the same product, actually it was a copy product, but they boasted the same results, even though they were more or less an instant business that was just created yesterday and a complete copy of what he was doing.
So please if you're launching a new product online, beware of the instant copiers out there. You're going to have to find a way to differentiate yourself from all the other online marketers who are desperate to sell something, anything online to make a few extra bucks. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
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