Learn how you can start an online business from home while avoiding many of the scam and fake opportunities that you may find in your research.
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Starting an online business from home has become one of the best ways for anyone to earn more money while having more freedom and time to time to do the things they love. However, with over $55 billion lost to scammers worldwide, we want you to be smart when working from the comfort of your home, in your pajamas.
While successful billionaire entrepreneurs like Mark Persson, Sara Blakely, Jan Koum and Brian Acton have shown us that you can set up an online business from home and excel at it, setting up an online business from home requires deliberate planning and execution. From conducting market research to launching marketing campaigns and navigating different regulations, a lot of effort goes into floating that brilliant business idea. But with the right ideas and plans and plenty of sweat equity, you'll have an incredible run. Thankfully, technology offers various tools that could help offer a more precise, cost-effective, faster, and less tedious business setup.
However, the same technology that democratizes wealth has enabled a culture of theft and scams. As such, starting an online business requires care and foresight. So, in this article, we'll be exploring all you need to know about starting an online business from home without getting scammed which will come down to knowing and avoiding existing scams and starting and growing your business the right way. But first, how do you start an online business from home?
Starting an online business while avoiding scams involves a lot of moving parts, and staying organized is vital. So, here, we'll be discussing the six simple steps involved in setting up an online business from home.
Before going full throttle into your online business, you want to be sure the idea has the potential to succeed. As such, the first step is to conduct an extensive market on your idea to ascertain its viability and profitability. After asking family and friends what they think about your idea, the next step is to conduct a competitor analysis where you research businesses offering similar goods, services or solutions, what they're doing, their customer demographics, and performance in the market.
The input from friends and family, Internet forum and social media will help guide your research on your target audience and what improvements can be added to convert them into loyal customers. Their pain points, income bracket, gender, profession, hobby, and interest will help you design your product offerings, brand voice, brand culture, etc., to suit their specs.
Finally, you can ask members of your target audience what they think about the solution or idea you're proposing and whether they would visit your website and suggest possible improvements. You can run online questionnaires, surveys, or focus groups to assess how your target market will respond to your product.
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After establishing your business ideas and target audience, the next step is to decide on a business model to maximize your business potential. If your business solutions involve setting up an online shop or selling products, you will operate an e-commerce model where you make revenue from online sales. If you're going into dropshipping, you'll need to integrate with the best dropshipping suppliers and build an e-commerce model from it.
If your product offering is to provide on-site entertainment or informational resources to visitors, you can monetize it using three different methods. First, businesses can pay to advertise on your site via sponsored content or visual ads. The higher the traffic you attract, the higher your chances for every advert. Keep in mind that the content on your website must be free for customers to access.
Secondly, subscription is another method of an online business model that is typically ad-free and generates revenue by having customers pay one-off charges or regular subscription fees to access their service or web content. Third, online businesses find the freemium business models a worthy pick. In this case, customers access a basic version of the online service for free but are asked to pay for additional premium features. In all, the best model for your business will depend on the nature of your online business and your short-term and long-term business objectives.
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After deciding on your business model, the next step is to build a website that succinctly captures your business goals and online business model. Building a website is typically simple; you can build one yourself, use a website builder or hire a developer. But unless you're at least knee-deep in coding, building your website can be hectic. Hiring a website developer is deemed the best option, only that you'll take your time to survey available options and assess the best fit in terms of specialization and cost.
After setting up your website, the next step is to get it up and running with compelling copy. Whether your website will provide users with informational or entertaining content, sell products or share information about your offline business, your written copy must be well-written, error-free, precise, persuasive, straight-to-the-point, and primed for SEO. These features must cut across every written content on your website - from the 'Homepage' to the 'services' page to the 'About Us' page and regular blog articles.
A dedicated blog is always an excellent idea for businesses seeking to build out a community from their target audience. This is particularly best for online businesses heavy on written copy. A blog section is highly beneficial for many reasons:
As you foray into the online business, you'll need to watch out for various legal regulations. You don't want to get caught in the crosshair of avoidable legal battles. It isn't good for business.
Since your business is online, you'll need to be guided by the General Data Protection Regulation, which gives consumers more control over their data and requires businesses to be honest and consensual in using consumer data. This law requires that online businesses ask for explicit consent before processing customers' data while maintaining transparency in how they use it. Such businesses must also give customers the right to access whatever data a business has about them and act promptly on requests to remove such data. Compliance with relevant sections of the Federal Trade Commission Act, Uniform Commercial Code, and intellectual property legislation will also come in handy.
An active social media presence is one of the most vital markers of a thriving online business. According to Statista, over 4.2 billion people used social media in 2021; by 2027, the number is projected to increase to almost 6 billion. You have a ready market waiting to churn out cash, so building various social media pages is non-negotiable. You don't have to launch your business on every social media platform; you'll need to find out which works best for you. There are different ways to build your social media presence:
Once you launch your social media profile, you'll be able to use it to attract your audience and build your brand. Having consistent logos, graphic designs and content will make it very easy for people to become familiar with your products and services. You can even use tools like Canva to create free graphic designs or tools like Fiverr's automated logo maker to come up with a logo.
From search engine optimization to paid ad marketing and email marketing, there are diverse campaign strategies you can embark on to drive traffic to your business. For example, paid ad campaigns using Google Ads will help ensure that a link to your website appears towards the top of its Google results page for a user searching for a specific keyword.
Email marketing is an effective way to establish a connection with your target customers. Email newsletters, for example, help you keep your fans aware of special offers and relevant news. Affiliate marketing will also come in handy as, in this case, other relevant websites will place adverts for your business in their content, whether as a hyperlink in articles or ads. Finally, you can hire a public relations professional to help you get into the public eye by covering your business in newspapers, high-authority websites, and magazines. But when it comes to public relations, there is no better way to get in the public eye than build a brand and loving customers who share your offerings via word of mouth.
To examine the best marketing strategy per time, it would help to monitor metrics such as the bounce rate, the amount of time an average user spends on each page, the conversion rate, and cost per conversion/acquisition. This will help you tailor-fit your marketing campaign and maximize your budget.
If you're looking for more insights into how to start an online business from home, we created a related article on how to start a business with less than $1,000 that includes a downloadable pdf checklist. But before you start, it's important to know what scams to avoid.
Starting an online business can get pretty hectic, as you need to stay vigilant every inch of the way. Here are popular scams to avoid when starting an online business from home.
Every business requires capital, and as a business owner, you're in constant need of money. In such situations, business lending scams can appear particularly attractive. Therefore, you must keep an eye out for deals that offer overly gracious terms and outstanding rates even if your credit is subpar. Most times, these dreamy offers require a sort of upfront payment to access — but once the scammer pockets the money, that's the last you'll hear from them. Most importantly, do deep research on any lending institution you plan to do business with, especially if they approach you online or if they aren't a traditional bank with a great reputation.
At one point or the other, you'll need to place orders and receive deliveries for office tools or business products. However, some scammers represent themselves as legitimate companies offering logistics and delivery services, only to get the order and make away with your money. To avoid this, the United States via the Federal Trade Commission recommends purchasing from suppliers recommended by people you trust.
Spam email remains a plague for online businesses, and email phishing scams have been a menace for several decades. You receive an offer on a business deal that sounds too good to be true, or receive an unexpected password reset request for one of your online accounts, you may be dealing with a scammer.
If you get a message that appears to be from a legitimate business you may recognize, it's best to research them as well, especially if their offer seems too good to be true. According to the FTC, today's scammers can make a fake email or website look like the real thing.
Starting an online business from home is tricky, but with the ideas discussed here, you'll be good to go. A blend of due diligence and commitment to your business's short-term and long-term goals will help your business succeed.
To prevent fraudsters and hackers from exploiting any weaknesses in your software, regularly update all your business-related software ad operating systems. Install new patches and run anti-virus software. Also, to prevent automated fraud and data leaks, you can implement a CAPTCHA (completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart) to avoid bot attacks on your systems.
Have a fraud detection mechanism. You can either develop a fraud detection system or a ready-to-use solution from a reputable provider. Also, keep track of all attempted fraud on your business and leverage this knowledge to further avoid future scams. Have viable security protocols. Also, have a crisis management plan to manage any circumstances where your business falls victim to any online fraud.
Here’s how you can start an online business from home without getting scammed:
$55 billion dollars lost to scams worldwide
Stories of 16 billionaires who started working from home
What does the term 'freemium' mean?
What is General Data Protection Regulation
Number of Social Media Users Worldwide
Use Canva for free to create professional graphic designs and videos
A list of public relations firms
How to start a business with less than $1,000 checklist
History of Internet phishing scams
Guidance on how to protect yourself from scams by the US Federal Trade commission
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