18 July 2007 5 Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

Many people have aspirations to start their own business. The benefits are plentiful, stemming from being your own boss to the possibility of attaining financial freedom. Imagine setting your own schedule, making the rules and reaping all the fruit of your labor. Sounds great doesn’t it? So why do most people who dream of starting a business one day, never do? Its because that one day usually involves high startup capital, a lot of risk, and a huge amount of time and dedication.

Over the last ten years, a new business model made it’s way into the homes and offices of most people worldwide. The online business model allowed large companies as well as individuals to get a piece of the e-commerce pie. There are many different types of e-commerce and online businesses in general. From time to time I will be writing articles on e-commerce as I have a lot of experience in this field and it fits in to the Money Socket Fundamentals of Wealth Building article. A successful online business helps you make more money so you can save more of it and ultimately invest more of it.

If you’ve been thinking about starting an online business, here are my Top 5 reasons to start one now:

1. Low Startup Costs: This is the best reason to start an online business. If you think of any business in the traditional brick and mortar sense, you have startup costs from the tens of thousands and it just goes up from there. You have to buy the merchandise, remodel the place, pay rent before it even opens and invest a lot of hard labor. You can start an online business with as little as $5.
2. Low Risk: Not only are the startup costs low, but the overall risk is low as well because your general expenses are much lower than a traditional brick and mortar store. With a retail storefront, you pay rent, utilities, employees, cleaning services, and more which can cost thousands each month whether or not you are making sales. With an online business, costs can be as low as $5 a month for just hosting. If you’re online business doesn’t pick up, you are not at risk. You can keep your day job and work on your business slowly, all while paying as low as $5 a month to keep the site up. If you fail online, your loss is in the hundreds and if you fail with a brick and mortar store, your loss can be in the tens of thousands.
3. It’s Easy: An online business is not that complex and it is very easy to start one. You can technically start an online business in the next hour while a typical brick and mortar business can take weeks if not months for the proper permits and retrofits. E-commerce is easy to understand because nowadays software is designed to be so easy that even the Geico cavemen can do it. If you have absolutely no knowledge about e-commerce, promoting an online business etc., there are plenty of free forums, sites like this one, and guides out there online. Starting the business itself is easy and information about starting and promoting your business is easily attainable.
4. Image: In an online world, all your customers see is your website or auction. They don’t see you, your store, your house or your car. The internet is the only place where a 15 year old kid can run a website that looks like a fortune 500 company. This is not possible in the brick and mortar world. If you plan to sell expensive jewelry, you better have a nice fancy shop in a safe location. That can cost thousands while on the internet all it takes is a nice design and perhaps a 1-800 number to have the same image as a big time jewelry website.
5. Expandable: Internet businesses are highly expandable. You aren’t selling to people in a 20 mile radius like most retail storefronts. You can literally sell to anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world. If you’ve conquered US sales, you can start marketing to UK customers easily. If your site does extremely well, you can hire people from anywhere in the world to log into your website and handle orders and customer service all while you focus on the big picture and collect checks. In the brick and mortar world you have to worry about employee theft, liability, and productivity.