Article

Do You Have What It Takes to Start, Build and Grow a Successful Internet Business?

Insights from someone who built a successful online business as to what it takes to create income online.

I created, owned, operated and recently sold for a nice profit, an online ecommerce business that I started from scratch eight years ago. An online retail business is certainly only one avenue of many into the world of becoming a successful internet entrepreneur.

How do you investigate other options for making genuine income online? The plethora of results that a quick google search reveals for common search terms such as "starting a home business " or "how to make money online" might be overwhelming to such a degree that the thought of starting an internet business begins to feel like a monumental task, leaving you dazed and confused. It is rather like going to a restaurant where there are so many menu options that you have difficulty making a decision, which ultimately casts an unfavorable shadow on the whole dining out experience.

As someone who has been there/done that I am here to say that it does not have to be this way. It is certainly easy enough to spot and bypass the spammers who are trying to sell you their get rich quick schemes. Do not believe anyone who would lead you to believe that online income can be obtained quickly and with little effort. It just isn’t so.

The good news is that there are legitimate ways to make money online. And for most of these legitimate, small business options, the cost of doing business on the web is much lower than opening a comparable business in your town’s commercial district. But, like its real world counterpart, there is no guarantee that your home based internet business will succeed. While there are certainly a number of contributing factors that allow one business to succeed while another fails, I believe that much of it rests with the owner and her level of knowledge and preparation in advance of the undertaking.

Do You Have What It Takes to Start, Build and Grow a Successful Internet Business?

From my personal experience (read about me) I believe the most important factors for success are that:

You realize the importance of assessing the market and competition before making a definitive decision as to what products or services you will offer.
You have knowledge in and/or passion for the field into which you venture. If you love what you do enough that you have a hard time stopping at the end of the day and you can’t wait to get going in the morning, your success is practically guaranteed.
You have reasonable expectations before you begin about the amount of work, dedication, time and patience needed to build a sturdy base for your online business. It will not happen overnight and there are no shortcuts. Do it right and build for success. Extra time spent in doing this will pay off in the end.
You have a decent level of organizational skills. Your use of time will be most efficient if you organize and think things through to the end before you begin.
You appreciate and understand the importance of strong customer service. When you are on a first name basis with your customers, they feel special and rave about you to others.
You are open-minded, flexible and prepared for change. The internet is in a constant state of change and growth. New technologies arrive and with them, shopper’s opinions about what equates to an acceptable online shopping experience change as well. The business that “keeps up” will stand head and shoulders above those that do not.

While my observations are based on my experience with online retail, these same factors could apply to nearly any web business idea that you could choose to undertake. I believe that the key to success rests not with the type of online business that you ultimately decide upon, but in your understanding that only a truly legitimate business will succeed. If you dedicate yourself to making your online business an honest, ethical business of value, you will succeed. Google does a nice job of recognizing "the real thing" and will reward your work and dedication with traffic. And not unlike your real world counterpart, traffic truly does make the business world go(and stay) around.

Updated April 5, 2012

Comments

katiem2Apr 6, 2012

Very good points to consider, it is in fact a serious business that should be considered as such. It is what ever you make of it in terms of what you put into it. Great read and inspiring food for thought.