What do freelancers do? They sell their skills to earn money. So in general there are not so many differences between freelancing and online business because in both cases you have to sell your skills or products. But freelancing is little bit easier and less risky than starting an online business.
How?
- Freelancers can sell their services through various freelancing market places and forums.
- A freelancer can start earning by himself without involving someone else.
- It requires little or no capital to start.
- Nothing to lose; actually only earning opportunities and experiences.
All of these points are easy to express the benefits of being a freelancer. But due to human nature people can’t stay at in same position. They always want to move forward, spread their focus, increase their earnings, and expand their career. When a freelancer achieves a stable position at the freelancing marketplace then he starts to think more, start to create his own business, and will want to develop his own ideas and expertise. Have you started to think about your own business? Have you dreamt of becoming an online entrepreneur? If yes, then follow the below parts to get deep insights on how to go about it.
Ask Yourself?
Ask yourself a few questions and note down your answers.
- What do I do as a Freelancer?
- What will I do as a Business owner?
Most times, you should start a business which is closely related to your freelancing skills. Think about it, if you are an article writer, then you can start thinking of creating a business which will provide content to business owners or marketing firms. Because the less load you will take during the initial phases of starting your business the more organized and flexible it will be for you to run it. Don’t do anything at the starting part which will produce lots of maintenance costs in the beginning.
Will I start alone or do I need a partner?
Both sides have some advantages and disadvantages, so you can start alone or can start with a few like minded people. Here are two articles where I described more about this issue.
Article 1: Advantages and Disadvantages of Sole Proprietorship
Article 2: Advantages and Disadvantages of Partnership Business
Buy the Domain Today:
After the first step now you have a good idea about your upcoming business. This is the time to buy a domain and hosting to start your business. Take some time, do some research and then buy the desired domain.
Here are few important facts to consider when choosing a domain name:
- Your domain should give some idea about your products or business
- .com domain is preferable
- If your business is totally targeting local audiences then you can buy a country based domain like “yourdomain.com.au”
- Buy all other common extensions of your domain to avoid misleading problems.
You do not need to be act too fast when buying a domain. Just take time to buy a perfect one, because there are lots of factors to consider when you choose a domain like availability, search engine, your personal choice, length, and more. Here is an article to help you to choose your domain. To check and buy a domain you can use godaddy. Here are the top 5 websites you can use to register your domain.
- Namecheap
- Name
- Godaddy
- Hover
Hosting
As a freelancer you are already familiar with this term, so it should not come as a surprise to you. You just need to focus and avoid free hosting. If you want to run an online business then you must have the willingness to invest. As a starting point you can go with the small package of a reliable hosting service provider and the range of the amount will be 3-6$/month. This is a really small figure compared to other offline business or any other parts of online business as well.
Here is a list of hosting firms you can use:
- Hostgator
- Blue Host
- Host Monster
- Just Host
I will suggest you go with hostgator for their flexible and dedicated live chat support option.
Build a Site with CMS
At the beginning don’t need to have your own CMS or own coding website unless you are a programmer or web developer. You can easily use a CMS. There are lots of CMS available on the web, and you can pick the best one for your business and business needs.
Here is a list of CMS you can select
For Blogging
- WordPress
- Joomla
- Drupal
- Penzu
For Ecommerce
- Magento
- PrestaShop
- Open Cart
- Oscommerce
For Forum
- bbPress
- vBulletin
- Simple Machine Forums
- phpBB
Quality Product and Quality Marketing from the Beginning
Quality Products / Services + Customers Attraction Power = Business Success
Just creating a business website is not enough to make the business successful. There are lots of things involved such as customers’ psychology, affordability, competitor’s strength, and competitor mentality. Everything is important
So as a freelancer you might already have some idea about the psychology of your audiences, their economic condition, their availability, and their expectations. So it will be very easy for a freelancer to work on these areas. But still there are some marketing approaches which can boost the growth of the business and can keep you ahead. If you are not a marketing professional then it is good to consult with an online marketing professional so he can make the campaign smooth and effective.
You can start an online business yourself but without better and effective marketing approaches you will just be getting nothing or little in return.
Don’t Stop Freelancing before the Business Makes You Super Busy:
Don’t stop freelancing before you start to earn enough money from your online business. 30% of the business just stopped at the middle age for lack of funding. So to make the business useful you need to invest proper money. And investing all the money from savings or taking a loan is not a great option for all. Here are few reasons why you should keep freelancing for a certain period.
- It will help you to learn more
- It will help you to earn more money to invest more.
- It will help to give more time for your business to settle.
- It will help you to create a great professional network
So go slow, no need to hurry just makes sure you are on right track
Find an SEO Partner from Your Network
Your online business success is closely related to your SEO success. So you will need a person who can help you with SEO.
You can find someone from your freelancing friends who have vast knowledge about SEO. It will help you to get the job done with less money and the most important parts will be the ethics. Someone who is closely connected with you will advice you on the best thing and will be there as a friend besides the professional relationship.
Social Media
Use social media more than anything else at the beginning. At the very beginning of your business social media will be able to play the viral roles to make your brand
- Known to Everyone
- Create Engagement
- Easy to create your own audiences.
- Less costly
The more creatively you can introduce and run your business through social media the sooner you will get feedback from your audiences. So as a business owner you must give Social Media a lot of importance. Here is an article I wrote last month to describe why a CEO should be Active on Social Media.
Have you started your online business already, if yes then share your experiences, you experiences will be a great plus for my readers. If not then just start to think about your own business now.
