If you are planning to start a new business in
2005, you should seriously consider one of the many Internet based
businesses available today. The online businesses have numerous
inherent advantages in comparison to their brick and mortar
counterparts.
Investment is relatively small
The basic elements to start an online business are
the followings: a good product or service, an online presence, and a
good marketing plan. All these things can be done on a shoe-string
budget. You won’t require more than US$ 2000 to start any of the
business described below. In most of the cases, the investment can be
even lower. Quick to launch
Once you know, what products or services you are
going to sell, you can, basically, start your business within three to
four weeks. Some of the online businesses don’t even take more than two
to three days to start.
Large audience
Internet is big and it’s getting bigger! Whatever
business you prefer to start, Internet allows you to tap instantly into
a huge number of potential customers, which is, virtually, impossible
to do with a brick and mortar enterprise.
Huge growth potential
With the Internet, sky is the limit! If you have a
good product, service or idea, you can create a dot com behemoth over
night! Smart guys are doing this! Internet success examples are abound.
Work from home
The best thing about online business is you can
take care of it even while you are on vacation. No office is necessary;
you work from home, if that is what you prefer.
Less paper work
Since starting for your quotation and purchase
orders to the invoices and shipment tracking, everything is done
online; you hardly have to do any paper work. Check out an example of
how easy it is to manage your business processes online at http://www.rusbiz.com/deal_manage.html
Flexible time schedule
No longer have you had to work nine to five! You
set your own schedules. Although, with any new business, initially, you
have to work very hard, however, the time flexibility allows you to do
other important things whenever it’s necessary.
There is no limit to Internet business ideas.
Savvy entrepreneurs are constantly coming up with mind-boggling online
projects and striking rich in no time.
Here I have chosen several of the online
businesses with great upward potential with proven success history.
Selling information
If you are asked, what do you do on the Internet
most of the time? The answer, most probably, will be searching or
retrieving information. You are not alone! A survey conducted by
Neilsen Media Research shows that Books and Information Category tops
the highest selling product and service on the Internet with a
significant margin in comparison to other categories. This makes
information a natural product for sale on the Internet. Information
sells online in the formats of e-books, articles, reports, data,
whitepapers etc. If you have expertise in any specific field, you may
consider selling your ideas in one of the mentioned format. Check out
Clickbank’s marketplace to get a good idea what people are selling. You
will be truly amazed by the scope of ideas!
Resources
Travel agency
According to Jupitar Research the U.S. online
travel market has grown at a fast pace over the last year, totaling $54
billion in 2004, or 23% of travel purchased. The online market is
projected to grow to $91 billion in 2009, or 33% of travel purchased.
Apart from being a soaring market, travel agency
is also highly rewarding and satisfactory business. The interesting
thing about this business is your own network of acquaintances is also
your potential customers.
The success of this business will depend on your
target market and product that you are going to sell. Choose a very
niche product and focus on a specific market segment. For example: Red
Sea Rivera of Egypt is increasingly becoming a primer destination for
many sun worshippers. Try working with several of the hotels from this
area. Create package deals and offer to European customers.
Resources
eBay store
eBay has grown into the largest online marketplace
in the world. Entrepreneurs are taking advantage of this. Opening a
store on the eBay is fairly easy. However, the competition is stiff!
There are nearly half a million stores are selling almost anything you
can think off. In order to be successful you have to choose your
products very carefully. The best selling items on the auction
marketplace are collectibles, books, computer software and hardware,
clothing, home and garden supplies, business supplies, wholesale lots,
DVDs, special events tickets and even cars and real estates. If you
don’t have your own products or you don’t want to physically handle a
product, you can consider selling drop-ship items.
The main reason why you should mull over selling
your products through eBay is the sheer number of visitors eBay gets.
By no means, an average website can bring you so many customers.
If you find difficulties doing the auction sales
yourself, you can also concentrate on seeking out products and selling
them through eBay drop off stores. You can also come up with your own
drop off store.
Resources
Web service firm
Services required by the Internet users and online
businesses are increasing enormously. The Internet service industry is
evolving so fast that for their various requirements, many companies,
today, prefer outsourcing as oppose to doing things by hiring
employees.
Large and small companies started to realize that
it’s more cost-effective and time-saving to outsource sophisticated
business related services, which are not their core business. This has
created a flourishing industry, part of which did not even exist
several years ago.
To be successful in this market you have to know
what’s the odds are. A rush to provide complex solutions of vast range
that fail to provide benefits at reasonable costs for businesses will
sure take you out of business very fast.
The services that you can provide may include:
- Website design
- Website promotion
- Online security consulting
Resources
Export Import Business
Thanks to the Internet, getting into import export
business has never been easier. As the nations are accumulating wealth,
their demand for foreign made products is also swelling. You can be a
part of this action too! Whether you are planning to import or export,
Internet resources can be of great help too you. The trade leads site,
B2B exchanges and various marketplaces have made sourcing and selling
products and services globally simple, effective and inexpensive. You
can also create your web store with many of the B2B exchanges and run
your business processes solely online.
Resources
Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer
and present CEO of Rusbiz.com.
A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in Business
Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global
B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start and run online business.
You can contact him at mailto:nowshade[at]rusbiz.com
http://ezine.rusbiz.com/article/41.html
