Do you know why most online businesses fail within the first two years of their journey? Is it due to incompetence, inconsistency, lack of funds or something else? Let’s find out.

You might have some good ideas that you want to implement in a real life business. You may have predicted huge growth in the back of your mind after some years from now and you’re quite certain that people will accept your products or services.

But you certainly need to understand more so that you can get your online business up and running. The online world is changing in a very fast pace and so are businesses. It can be a rewarding experience, if you ask these 5 questions to yourself before starting an online business and get a clear answer to clarify all your doubts. @thestrongtraveller

1. Why do you want to start a business in the first place?

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”
― Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

We all want to become rich and successful with our business. But most of us fail to be whatever we’re willing to be in life. It majorly happens because we fail to recognize the true purpose of why we’re doing it, why would it make a difference in our lives.

Great achievers like Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King Jr, Wright brothers, whoever have succeeded in their lives by achieving greatness, never focused on their goals or outcomes alone, rather they tried to find out the question why they’re doing it.

When you start your online business, put your great vision at the forefront. Let people know your “why” and do everything to serve that purpose. @thestrongtraveller

2. Which segment of audiences are you targeting?

Before you go into whom you should target, understand the difference between the target audience and target market.

Target market can be anyone who is simply interested in what you do, but the target audience is the specific group of people who will surely go for your products and services.

One thing is clear, you just can’t say everyone is your target audience. At first, you need to narrow down your set of choices, think of whom to target specifically. Such characteristics can be based on demographics, income range, gender, tastes and preferences etc.

Next comes how you interact with your target audience. You need to set the medium that you prefer the most, some people may wish for talking directly with them, or maybe choose to go with some other methods. After you have decided upon that, you need to understand who are not the potential audience you’re hoping to be and do the needful by removing them.

Then have a look at the market competition and implement a course of action to set apart your online business from other businesses. If you are going to launch a social media campaign, for example, you may wish to buy Instagram likes in order to help improve your engagement and therefore the chance of more and more people seeing your content on their feeds who will then follow and interact with you. Also, you will want to understand how your customers are navigating your website. There are always some patterns of navigation and your responsibility is to identify them and do the required changes in your strategy in order to provide them with a complete and fulfilling customer experience.

It is very important to know more about your audience and never just assume that whoever is coming to your website might be a potential customer. Do your research and homework properly. The more you get to know about them, the better you will to serve them, thereby flourishing your online business. @thestrongtraveller

3. What strategies you have that makes a difference?

Each business has its own set of strategies. If strategy A works for an eCommerce company selling baby products in the eastern region, then the same strategy won’t work for the same products in the southern region. To help with this, many find it useful to have tools that allow them to Create Impactful Strategy Maps Easily in order to be able to visualize their business operations and make decisions to help improve them. 

Though you need to take some unique strategies, there is always some common ground that you need to play out to understand what works best for you. The process is always trial and error, you try out something and if it fails, go for another one. @thestrongtraveller

Whatever you implement keep in mind these points,

• Always deliver high-quality contents to get ahead of every other site and it will also help you to get a good google ranking,
• Create your website mobile friendly as more and more people use mobile devices, so chances are high that they’d prefer a more mobile friendly website,
• Use the most out of social media, you know why! It will give you a huge amount of reach.
• Focus on the target audience, as we have discussed how important your target audience is for your business,
• Diversifying your options would be a wise decision to try out different opportunities and exploring new avenues because you never know what would work best for you unless you’ve traversed through all the possible avenues,
• Make full use of marketing tools that make you understand the real needs of customers, what are their tastes and preferences and how they want to be served.
• Never ignore website analytics as it will help you to understand how your audiences are reacting with your products and services when they look into your website,
• Network with other businesses, this helps to connect, share ideas and opportunities to learn and grow for maximum mutual benefits,
• Investment in learning is the best way to stay updated on what’s going on outside, how you need to keep your business on track and what more is required.

4. How to fund your business?

This can be one of the most important questions to ask yourself because you definitely need funding for your business. @thestrongtraveller

One easy option comes up, is to fund your own money. That money can be yours or funded by your family or friends. This would be the most risk-free and hassle-free  way to get money compared to any other options.

But if you think you have some better bigger ideas for a business and you don’t have sufficient balance to fund it all by your self, don’t worry! There are a lot many online communities that provide the fund to get a business on track.

Check out this 35 Best Crowdfunding Sites for Small Business and find out what fits the best with your needs and references.

5. Are you flexible enough to learn, unlearn and relearn?

It’s said that always be open to changes. @thestrongtraveller

Online business has seen many rapid changes through recent times. Flexibility and a mind that adapts changes quickly have been most successful nowadays.

You may have some ideas before coming to the world of online business. Preconception. But when you enter the world you might feel lost. To get hold of things you have to learn and grab things as soon as possible. But then you might discover something else. Then knowledge you have from the beginning will require so many modifications.

So you got to drop that knowledge and dump it as garbage. Unlearn.

Then you again learn something new that adds so much value and you can easily make your business profitable. Relearn.

This process to learn, unlearn and relearn comes into your life every day while dealing with different problems popping up from your business, but having a flexible mind makes these a lot easier for you. @thestrongtraveller

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Arkaprabha Das is the Founder & Editorial Chief at The Strong Traveller. He has always been a man of many caps. Apart from being an MBA professional, he is also a freelance writer, fitness-freak, Tabla player and, possesses a mind & heart of a true entrepreneur! You can always drop him a ‘Hi‘ at his LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram account!

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