Nothing is more rewarding than starting your own online business. Being your own boss and bringing your ideas to fruition will inspire you to help others and create an impact in the world. With a clear vision and a step-by-step plan, you can create a memorable brand that will stand out, attract the right customers, and set up a secure website that’s protected by cybersecurity.
If you have been wondering what it takes to create a new brand, turn an idea into a profitable venture and run your own business, we´ve got you! It’s not as difficult as you might think. The more you prepare yourself for starting a business, the more successful you´ll be at it.
In this article, we present you 4 Steps to start an online business with easy branding and cybersecurity. Branding gives you the right image for your venture, cybersecurity provides you a secure system to protect your data, transactions, webspace, servers, and emails.
Bring your Idea from Vision to Profit
To start your own business you need to have an idea, validate the idea to make sure your product will be bought by customers, decide on the branding, register your business legally, and set-up a website and social media channels. Each business is different, therefore what you need and how you market your services or products depends on your clientele and your niche.
Some people choose an online marketplace to sell their goods. For others having their own website and blog to promote their services is a better option, since it gives you more control over the hosting, the visibility, and the costs.
When it comes to promoting your brand, social media, blogging, or regular posts on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook help your business to stand out and be easily found online. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with keywords is another important factor that accelerates small businesses to rank higher in Google, and therefore attracts more customers through the power of the internet.
1) Idea Evaluation – The What & Why
Everything starts with an idea. But not every idea is a business idea! To find out if your idea is relevant to your customers and if it can be profitable, it’s advisable to start with thorough market research. Find out if there is a gap in the market that you can fill with a unique product or service, how much money customers are willing to pay for that, and which channels you want to use, to sell it.
Evaluating your idea prevents you from losing time, energy, and money later on. The better you know your market, your niche, and the uniqueness of your idea, the better you will be able to communicate this to your potential customers.
Think about the customer journey that your customer will go through, from having a problem to finding you as a solution! Which steps will she do to come to you and buy your service or product?
2) Business Plan & Legal – The How
Once you have identified your profitable idea and the market for it, it’s time to make a business plan. Write down what you will do to start your business, to promote it, in what time frame you will take each step, and how much money you expect to earn with it in the first quarter, the first year, and the next 3, 5 or 10 years.
According to where you live, you will have to find out about the legal requirements to start a new business. You can either form a company, register yourself as a solopreneur, or form a business with a co-founder. Make sure to be ahead of the game when it comes to taxes for your business, so that you calculate them right into your business plan. Knowing what to expect in terms of expenses, helps you to calculate your pricing and your earnings as well.
3) Branding – The Look & Feel
Your brand is what helps people remember you. Your brand includes the brand colors, which will be the same four or five colors across all your marketing collaterals and website, your social media design, and the logo.
There are several branding platforms that give you all of these services in one place! They offer web design templates, social media designs, logo creation as well as image videos for your complete branding. Doing everything via one provider can save you lots of time and money, instead of having to go back and forth with different designers, which normally costs you a fortune.
4) Cybersecurity – The Backup
The security of your email servers, your website, and your database is very important for your business. You want to make sure that all of your business information, the servers of your website, and the data of your clients is kept safe and secure at all times because that’s what your business relies on! Even big companies such as PayPal or Easyjet get hacked once in a while, which creates a loss of data and sometimes money too. Spare yourself and your clients the hassle and set your business up with cybersecurity from the get-go.
Bring your brand to life with these 4 steps to start an online business with easy branding and cybersecurity and take the first step!
Validate your idea, write a business plan, create a brand, and secure your website. Now you are ready to go!
Enjoy.