Many aspiring entrepreneurs want to start an online business.  The idea of low or no start-up costs, running an empire from your laptop, and being able to use all the latest technology in your day-to-day operations is appealing and romantic.

Many believe online entrepreneurs move faster, get things done easier, and reap immediate rewards by keeping their entire business infrastructure online.

The Internet is full of success stories from people doing what you want to do.  But what, if anything, makes their process different from any other type of entrepreneur?

To listen to these tips, check out the Ready Entrepreneur Podcast Episode 062:  A Quick Start Guide to Online Entrepreneurship at Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen to your podcast

What does it mean to be an online entrepreneur?

Being an online entrepreneur is the same as being an entrepreneur in general. 

Entrepreneurs identify value to deliver to the global marketplace.  If you have a product or service that people want or need, and you want to bring that product or service to a potential community, then you are already thinking like an entrepreneur. 

You become an entrepreneur when you get the business started and reach out your potential customers.

What is different for an online entrepreneur?

To understand any potential differences between online entrepreneurs and traditional entrepreneurs start with the definition of an online business. 

An online business means a business enterprise that delivers products or services only over the Internet, and you earn your revenue the same way.  You take advantage of online tools and resources to get your idea in front of your community.

Some of the most popular online businesses include blogger, vlogger, podcaster, author, teacher, software designer, artist, editor, copywriter, marketer…and the list goes on and on.  These are all businesses that can be started and function only online.

For the purposes of this article, online businesses are those that were created through the rise of the Internet, and its applications.

Old vs. New

Traditional businesses that are now conducted online are different from new economy businesses that were invented online.  If you are a licensed professional in a traditional business like healthcare, and you start providing medical advice online, you are governed by a different set of rules than a blogger who starts providing opinion about a healthcare issue online.

An aspiring entrepreneur starting an online business must decide: what business you are in.  If you are in a regulated industry, you must follow that industry’s rules even online.  If you are in a new economy industry, the rules are still murky and somewhat free. However, the environment of online law is changing rapidly, by the day, and all entrepreneurs must be aware of how these changes may effect their business.

A Website or Landing Page vs. Social Media presence

When starting an online business, an aspiring entrepreneur must know if there are potential customers. And the potential customers must know where to find the entrepreneur.

Many online businesses start with a website, but some avoid even that early expense by focusing on a social media presence.

If you have only social media, your biggest challenge will be in knowing who your audience is, and finding a way to keep them as part of your business.  Setting up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram provides you with a free forum for posting about your product or service offering.  You may even be able to communicate directly with your community using services like Messenger.  This may set up your initial business, and even provide you with a few customers.

But you also have to think of the customer experience.  With a website, you can set-up and organize all your information in an easy-to-navigate format.  Most importantly, you can host a permanent location for new and interested customers to sign-up with you and learn more about your product or service.

Own your audience

From the first day you begin an online business, you want to be able to own the potential customers who come looking for you by maintaining a relationship with them. You start by giving them a place to sign up for more information.  When they sign up you get their e-mail address, and you can ethically continue to communicate with them about your product, service or related issues.

If your audience is only located on a third party platform like Facebook, then that company owns the audience.  You can be kicked off of Facebook at any minute, and at that point you lose the audience and all the comments and connections you may have made.

If you own your audience, you control the relationship.

To own your audience, you can sign-up for an e-mail management service like ConvertKit that provides both forms and landing pages for you to collect e-mails, and back end organization for the e-mail lists you have.  You can learn to use the service’s features which automatically upgrade your plan as your email list grows. 

New Rules

Aspiring entrepreneurs should be aware of the regulations that are being implemented to protect people’s personal information, children, and commerce in general.

Taking possession of someone’s email information means you are subject to privacy regulations. Most legitimate entrepreneurs state upfront that they never sell or share an e-mail with a third party.  This type of transparency helps build trust with your audience, and positions you as a business that does not need to run scams to attract people for only their e-mail address. 

If the content you provide is not suitable for children, you must also be aware of the appropriate warnings that you need to include to warn parents and others.

Even with the focus on issue like privacy, other Internet practices are not diligently governed, and you must police yourself using common ethical standards and practices.

The Internet is global, anyone, anywhere in the world can put up any type of online front page and be in business.  The governance for this behavior is not universal, nor recognized by everyone. 

The reality is both an opportunity and a trap.  If you are doing business with the public, you are subject to certain rules and ethical practices.  If you abuse people’s trust, they will find a way to bring down your business. The same forces that allow you to successfully join the global business community in a matter of minutes can end your business just as quickly if you prove to be unworthy of their trust. 

The best practice for an aspiring entrepreneur is to be prepared to behave online as if you are facing your customer directly in the face, and not as if you are anonymous and unaccountable for your actions.

Which Online Business should you select?

The criteria for deciding which business idea is best for you to start is another article. In general, you should consider:

• A thoughtful, truthful personal brainstorm on your strengths
• Issues or problems that come up in every day life
• Products or services you would use to make your life better
• Align the above with your education, experience, knowledge and hobbies

When you have your idea, you decide which platform is best for delivering it to the global marketplace. Here are some useful links depending on the type of person you identified with above:

For writers – Start a Blog

For personalities – Start Video-blogging

For Teaching Others – Start an Online courses

For techy types and gamers – Create an App

For software designers – Create Software as a Service (saas)

Online entrepreneurship is the same as all entrepreneurship.  You identify value you can deliver to the global marketplace through a product or service that will solve a problem, or deliver a solution.

Summary of The Quick Start Guide to Online Entrepreneurship: 

• As you are getting started, decide if you are moving a traditional physical world business online, or starting with a new economy purely online business like blogging
• If you cannot decide, check out the resources just above this section for how to get started in the new economy areas
• Once you have an idea of what you want to do, decide if you want to have a website or strictly social media presence as the place where your potential community can connect with you.  If you have a website or landing page, you can begin immediately to collect e-mail addresses and communicate directly with people who are interested in your product or service.  If you only use social media, you can get started right away, but you do not own your audience
• Be aware that just because you are online does not mean you are above the law.  You must still recognize laws, regulations and ethical practices when dealing with the public and operating online

Disclosure: links to ConvertKit on my site are affiliate links which means I earn revenue for eligible purchases that helps support this website and other resources for aspiring entrepreneurs.