Published on December 14th, 2016 | by Guest
0How to Start an Online Business With no Money
That’s such a common situation when you have a great business idea, but don’t have enough capital to invest in it. Fortunately, there is a lot of ways to start your business at almost zero budget. The lack of money shouldn’t be your big concern in the case of online business.
Who says that you need any startup money when it comes to launching a website and selling products online? You can start having profit from your online business even without any major financial investments. Just your time and effort. So if you are interested in answering question how to start an online business from home, here are a few main points for you.
Get prepared for the challenges
Once you turn your great business idea into a business plan, you might see the first real difficulties on your way. But don’t let them scare you. The fact that you need minimum capital investments doesn’t mean you are halfway there. Don’t forget about such issues as:
- High competition. Finding your niche in the market plays a crucial role not just in succeeding in your beginning, but in surviving at the market.
- Content creation. Even though you have decided what to sell, you need to attract an audience to your store and keep them engaged, which means a lot of work to do.
- Web design. You need to have a catchy and understandable website design. The look of your online storefront is the representation of your entire business.
How to start an online business in four steps
However, if you are not going to give up easily, there are few main steps you need to make when starting an online store.
1. Find your suppliers
Your step number one is to define your target market and what you are going to sell. Once you made up your mind here, you can start looking for the suppliers. Now for the start, there could be a few options where you can look for them.
You can make a direct contact with a local manufacturer or find a supplier who already works with existing brands. The moment you decide on your preferable type of suppliers you can start looking for them online. Luckily, there are lots of resources now to ease your way. However, here is one tip for you – look for those who can offer you drop shipping services.
2. Drop Shipping
You will get a great chance to start your business as soon as you launch the website if you made your choice on drop shipping policy. Such policy allows you to save money on renting an extra place for storing and hiring people when you are still on your knees. Now with the drop shippers, like 3PL warehousing and fulfillment, you have the third party of the deal to fulfill your customers’ needs.
The thing is in such a way you don’t have to store all the goods and items you sell. In fact, you don’t even need to see or touch them, all you do is find clients for the manufacturer through your website. It creates a great opportunity for you to enter this business with no startup capital.
3. Legal registration of the enterprise
If you are wondering about how to start a business in a way of its legitimacy we have answers for you as well. At first, legal registration of your business might seem as another obstacle on your way. However, the USA, as most of the European states, offer quite a friendly procedure for registering your enterprise, whether it’s your new business or a bought franchise.
The first required thing is to pick a name and be sure that you are legitimate to use it. Fill in all the applications and get your online store registered! Most of the states offer online registration for a greater comfort. In the end be sure you obtained a personal tax ID number and look for the regulations and permissions that should be obtained to run your type of business.
4. Online registration
Honestly, we reached the easiest part of our guide to launching your online store. These days you can register your business on the internet within a few minutes. The main issue here is to pick a right e-commerce platform for starting your business since there is a lot of offers attacking you once you start to google. However, you can use some of the following tips as a map of how to pick a proper platform. So here you go, check:
- If it is for free, or if it has a demo version of free;
- If it requires setting your mind on your business once and for all. In other words, will you be allowed to change the business name along with other information?
- If it is client-friendly. Will it provide you with the guidelines or leave you to learn everything on your own?
Taking into account tips we mentioned, our advice to you will be to use an online store builder by GetSocio.
Why GetSocio?
By choosing GetSocio as a platform for your future online store you get great opportunities to save your time and money. First of all, Getsocio gives you a chance to test all features and your business idea, before you invest any money in it. There is a 14 day trial period which you can use as a great test drive.
Secondly, Getsocio will be your biggest helper while you are going through all the stages of opening an online store. Thirdly, this software is customized for everyone. You have great tools to make the website look exactly like you want it to be. And finally, payment system of a platform makes it possible to pay in most comfortable and popular ways.
To sum up
In conclusion, we want to make a clear statement – it is possible to open an online business with no money. All it takes in starting your own business in online sales is a strong motivation, a well-developed business plan and a good e-commerce platform. The most difficult is to make the first step, however, we hope that our four steps plan will serve you well.