Is it hard to run a online business?

Product
Business license (not necessary always, but usually for things like state/provincial taxation)
Secure Server
Merchant Account or 3rd Party Payment Processor
Website
Customers

ok thanks

I think that the "customers" issue is the most difficult problem that most online businesses encounter. It is fairly easy to set up a site and get things running technically. The problem is first of all to get people to come to your site and secondly, to get them to pay for your product or service.

Remember the dot-com bomb of last year? You can't just assume that if you build it you will profit. It's not that easy. There doesn't seem to be a surefire method of making money online - even the really big, really popular sites are having problems making actual profits.

I think your first major flaw here is that you want to run an 'online business'.

One very harsh lesson that was learnt during the dot.com bust of the 90s was that investors put way too much money into online businesses that didn't have any real 'physical' (non-virtual) foundations. If you havn't got a 'real' business, I personally think it's very difficult (in fact, think: mission impossible) to run a pure online-only venture. And you'd also find it very difficult to obtain financial baking for your business, too.

Cheers

Online only ventures can work, I have a couple of friends that do just that but the thing is to get a product(s) that you can sell easily and cheaply online without too much competition and then you have to be able to market it well. The marketing is very important as there is no point having a website selling cheap whatevers if no one ever finds it!

I agree with Julia. You can run a successful, profitable web-only (or at least mostly) business. But you need to be sure of your market and the desire for people to buy your product or service via the web.

More over, always remember: It's still business!

Being online doesn't change the fact that you're still running a business. You need to put in the time, deal with all the Devils in the details, market, and work hard at. Plus being online means you must also commit the time and effort to learn web and e-commerce technology and online marketing/promotion methods and issues.

I know I sound like a broken CD when I keep repeating that in threads about running an online business but it's sooooo true!!

I wish I had $1.00 for every person I knew who thought that a quality website and a loyal e-commerce customer base just somehow "magically" appears when they buy a domain name! Then they get fustrated, PO'd and even red-in-the-face mad when they can't figure out how to make an HTML form, or setup a shopping cart or have to deal with META tags and content to get a good listing etc. etc.

The net is just a venue for promoting your business to a wider audience than you could if you had a physical store front. But either way you still need to learn the business operations aspect and deal with it all.

When you say, you'd like to run an online business, do you plan to sell items like a retailer or do you have a new concept or idea that you'd like to sell online? Dot commers have a bad reputation, but they can work if people stick to solid business plans and research.

The most important thing is having an idea that is unique because being first is very important... not the end all, but it makes a huge difference.

The second thing is you need to research that market and see how large it is and look at the demographics. The best thing is to focus on a niche market (ie. if you sell a computer gaming tool, you may focus on flight simulator players) initially and branch from there.

Next, you need to consider the design of your website. I think it's better to have a consulting firm or web developer(s) do this so you can focus on more important things like business processes, credit card services, finding suppliers, determining operating costs, etc. If it's too expensive and you can do this yourself then go for it, but try to make for the items mentioned above as a website alone will do you no good.

Once your site is up, begin testing. Once you get the kinks worked out and add some small features that you find people requested you can set a launch date for your site. Try and get in the local papers or magazines if possible. This is where marketing skills can play an important role.

A lot of companies spend a ton in advertising and get next to nothing in sales in return. Here's my suggestion to get around this. Try and find a magazine or website that you find a large portion of your niche market reads. Contact the editors and see if they would be interested in doing a an article that reviews your website. Let them know that if you receive an x amount of sales that month you will run an advertising campaign for a set time frame. The review can be considered a test ad... doesn't cost you anything and you can see if running ads with the magazine is worthwile. Continue this trend with more sites and magazines that you find through your research.

There's also some typical things to do for the web, including submitting your site to search engines. Make sure to use proper keywords and alt tags, but don't use spam otherwise your site may be blacklisted.

I think if you follow these steps you should be in a good position to succeed. A lot of that will depend on your product(s) and business plan though.

Mark

A unique idea helps, but isn't always necessary. But if you do use an "old" idea you just have to do it better than everyone else who has tried it before.

There's always room in the market for one more.

and when it comes to the hosting industry at the small end of the pond, always room for infinite numbers of crash and burn "dead business walking" victims....

Seriously, i think that all who have posted views so far have covered different aspects of types of issues that you need to address in order to start, let alone run an online business. One aspect that i do notice in the online environment with small start-ups is the lack of real understanding of ALL laws relevant to the business and online environment they are operating in. This relates to where you are located, types of products and services traded, target markets, advertising placemnts within geographical markets (as in servers and advertisement locations where the ad is based) and so on.

It does not mean that you have to become the legal specialist at all, rather knowing of the complexities that can arise from taxation and legal issues, especially in ragards to trading across international borders and civil liability.

Add these to all the other important foundation requirements and it can be a daunting task in planning and deploying you idea, concept, etc.

Good resources are usually local and federal govt sites including small business development resources. tannedfeet.com is one off the top of my head for those in the u.s. that may be of use.

Cheers

Quote: Originally posted by deep
What are the requirements?

Passion and persistence.

Also useful if you're made out of rubber

I agree with Mike. It takes a lot of passion and persistence.

I have this saying taped to my monitor where I can always see it.

"Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it" -- Lou Holtz

Quote: Originally posted by ehost4u
"Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it" -- Lou Holtz

Good one. That's why I said "passion & persistence" - got to make up for lack of talent!