Taking the lead in Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship business can be so challenging, mostly when you are to start a new business online. Online business is the same as leaving your country to a new land, where you don’t know anybody, but within this place, you are expected to resurrect a non-existing skeleton and give it flesh. In all saying, remember that nothing is impossible and such as this one; you are expected to first think of something new and then follow it up with some action, and never allow any form of procrastination to set in.
Here I will be listing the proven sequence of steps, which, if you can follow them, and without objections, you have a guarantee to attain success when you’re starting a new business online. These steps have to be followed by a numerous number of people and it gave them a cutting edge into the business environment:-

• Look for a need and fill it.
• Make a note of selling points.
• Design a simple website.
• Put your business on search Engines for traffic.
• Work on your reputation.
• Be alert and always follow up requests through email.
• Use back-end sales and upselling to increase your salary.

Look for a need and fill it: –
When starting a new business and mostly online, do not start looking for a product first, and a market second.
The best approach is to start with a market, find a group of people who are searching for a solution to a problem but are not able to find one, provide the solution which they are looking for and you will have a product and also market to sell to. The internet is a vital tool for this kind of research:

• Go through the online forums to see the various questions that people are asking.
• Do keywords search; this will list the topics which are not being catered for by a majority of the sites.
• Check on the most competitive demand, and through that, create your product and package it beyond what is already provided.

Make a note of selling points: –
In most business ventures, you will find that, there is a particular course outline which they are using to keep their customers motivated from the point of entrance to the point of exit: Arouse interest with a compelling headline.

• List the solutions your product can provide and for which problem.
• Give a warm sign of credibility towards solving the listed problems.
• Provide testimonials according to the customer reviews.
• Create awareness of how the product can benefit the users.
• Present users with multiple offers with a promise of a guarantee.
• Create a scarcity sense of your product through urgency.

 Design a simple website.
Discovering a market and creating the product to be sold is not enough to keep you going, but at the success of these previous steps, you need to provide your customers with a simple website to reach your business from any distance.

• Use plain fonts on a white background.

• Create a simple and clear navigation and the same on every page.
• Use audio, graphics or video only when you think they can enhance your message.
• Provide email subscription to the contact list.
• Create two steps easy to buy process for potential customers.
• Remember that your website is the online storefront you have, so it’s better when made customer-friendly.

Put your business on search Engines for traffic: –
There are various means of getting traffic to your website, such as, “Pay-per-click advertising, which uses the PPC ads”. It generates keywords which you can distribute throughout your site in your copy and code, this is very necessary when your website is undergoing a ranking process in the organic search results.
Work on your reputation.
Don’t be stingy at providing a means for people to get the information they want through your site. Try to always include a link to your site with each bit of information so that people can always be engaged and thereby become a fund of your site. If you include links to site directories, it is more likely that other sites will be led down to your own website. It pays back.

• Give free and expert content. Create things like videos, articles or any other content that is useful to the people. Make a free distribution of that content through online article directories or social media sites.
• “Send to a friend” links are very important and useful for your site.
• Be effectively involved in industry forums and social networking sites where you are targeting your market.

Be alert and always follow up requests through email.
Be ready to always give them a feedback through email anytime you receive a request. Let them subscribe to your site because when you are doing this then:

• You’re creating a means of being at the service when needed.
• You’re developing a relationship that will last for a lifetime.
• Email marketing is cheaper and more effective than Television ads, print or radio broadcast because it’s highly targeted.

Use back-end sales and upselling to increase your salary.
Create every customer’s lifetime value in your business. According to record, at least 36 percent of people who made a purchase from you will come back for another if you follow up with them.

• Offer new products that will add new features to the previous purchase.
• Provide electronic loyalty coupons they can redeem at any time.
• Add related product to their “Thank you note”, after a previous purchase.

The internet changes constantly and so fast that you can compare one year of online involvement to about five years in the real world. But the principles of the successful startup haven’t changed at all. Try out this sequence for your new business and if you have been in the business before, then do a quick review and reflect the steps you may be neglecting, or you have never implemented in the first place. It pays a bunch.

By – Chidiebere Moses Ogbodo