Published on August 1st, 2019 | by Sunit Nandi
0How Much Does it Cost to Start an Online Business?
The success of online businesses has already proved that they can be incredibly profitable ventures. These eCommerce stats reveal that people spent $2.3 trillion online in 2017 and this could rise to $4.5 trillion by 2021 as more of us move away from shops on the high street and pay to have things delivered to our door. The sale of services and software, as well as online entertainment subscriptions, all bring in huge amounts of money too.
However, trying to get a piece of this trillion-dollar industry and starting an online business isn’t easy and it doesn’t come cheap. The price of starting an online business can vary, and there are a few different things that can affect your budget.
Hiring Employees
When you start building your business, you’ll quickly find that there are things that you don’t know. You may not have any experience in customer service, or you may not have technical skills such as coding or design skills. If that happens, then you’ll probably start trying to hire employees.
One of the biggest tips for making new hires is to look closely at your weaknesses. Hire people who can fill in the gaps of your skillset. Don’t pay someone to do something that you can do because, with better time management, you could do these tasks. When your budget is tight, hire those with skills you don’t have.
Your Online Profiles
Unless you have a huge budget that allows you and your team to travel all around the world to meet everyone who may like your product or service, you’re probably going to need an online profile. Setting up a site and a few social media accounts is an easy way to spread the word about what you’re doing. With these sites and accounts, you can quickly share your idea and people can quickly choose if they want to spend money on it.
For social media, share ideas about your industry and talk to potential customers. You can also share what you’re doing, offering a look at how you’re creating your product. With a site, you’ll want to spend some money on WordPress hosting, looking for servers that can withstand huge jumps in traffic and have good security if your site takes any user data. Speed and a good support team are also important so that your site will load fast and you can get answers if you need them.
Developing an MVP
You’ll probably also spend some money on making a minimum viable product or MVP. An MVP may not have all of the tools that you would’ve thought of, but it has enough to share with customers, clients, and investors.
It allows you to start making money from your business without having to wait for development to be completed. With an MVP, you can test your business idea too and see if it’s something that will make money.
Some online businesses will cost much more than others. Trying to make your own entertainment network will cost more because of licensing. However, by spending smart, you can start your business with a smaller budget.