If you’re looking to start a business from home and make money online, you don’t want to go it alone. The home based business industry is the fastest growing industry for a reason, but many people are making the same mistakes over and over again. After all, the online business world can be an intimidating arena to step into with no experience or background. The good news is that you really don’t need any experience. You can avoid a lot of the basic mistakes that most people make by connecting with a mentor and following this simple step by step guide to setting up online businesses from home. If you’ve already read part one, hopefully you’ve followed those first steps, and connected with a mentor who can help guide you through these steps and support you in your success.
Step 1 – Find a Product or Service To Offer
Again, going it alone is not recommended, especially for the beginner. There are some great companies that you can partner with that will give you the opportunity to offer their products, training programs, or services. Creating your own product this early in the game is not recommended. But the skills you learn as you represent someone else’s products can be directly translated as soon as you’re ready to launch your own, if you decide to.
For now, focus on finding something that is UNIQUE and can STAND ALONE apart from any business opportunity. It must be unique; otherwise someone will replicate it and sell it for less. This can happen faster than you could possibly imagine, so be sure you’ve got this element handled. The standalone piece is crucial as well. Some online business opportunities are really only selling their business opportunity, and will paint dazzling pictures for what’s possible for a select few. However, when it comes down to it, companies like this with no standalone product will be shut down, because that is illegal. Find something you can stand behind and believe in, whether it’s a product, training program, service, or even a person.
Step 2 – Set up Your Websites and Landing Pages
These will be where you drive your customers where they can enter their information (so that you can follow up) and have the opportunity to learn more about your product/training/service and make a buying decision. There are companies out there that can set up customized landing pages and websites for you (Marketing Burst), so that you don’t have to go to the trouble of learning all of the complicated ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO), meta tags, and keyword optimization. For the beginner these are ideal. Then later on you can create your own when you have the skill set. Partnering with the right company can often mean you have several pre-set custom landing pages and websites already optimized for you, ready at the push of a button. This would be another major advantage for the beginner and the person looking to get results fast.
Step 3 – Set Up Your Auto responders
Auto responders are a key tool when you start a business from home to make money online. Basically, they are a set of pre-written emails that get sent automatically to your prospects after they submit their information on your landing page. If you want to get results like the pros, you’re going to need to use the same tools they use. The good news is, there are some great companies that offer free programs that will set up capture forms (to collect your prospect’s name, email, phone, etc.), manage all of your pre-written emails to your prospects, track stats, and act as a contact manager (for example, Get Response, or Aweber). Remember that this is how you’re building a relationship with your new prospect. Focus on helping them find what they’re looking for, and providing them with great value.
Step 4 – Set Up Your Sales Funnel
You’ll want to establish a funnel system that can qualify your prospects for you in a step by step fashion. A funnel system helps them to understand what it is you have to offer, and gives them an opportunity to have their questions answered. This often involves an opt-in or landing page, a website, a webinar or teleseminar presentation, a 3-way call, and ultimately a conversation between with you. The beautiful part about online businesses from home is that the first 3-4 of those steps can be done on autopilot while you sleep, play with your kids, hit the golf course, or travel the world. Once again, partnering with a solid company would likely mean these are already in place for you.
Step 5 – Drive Traffic!
The name of the game in real estate is location, location, location. When you start a business from home to make money online, the name of the game is traffic, traffic, traffic! You probably now understand that with your funnel system in place, being successful online simply becomes a matter of getting as many people through that funnel as possible. If your product is right for them, and the timing is right, they’ll buy. If not, they won’t, and you move on to the next person. It’s very much a numbers game. So long as your system is working, more traffic means more sales.
There are so many ways to learn to drive traffic to your landing pages and websites. Generally speaking there are two approaches – you can work for your traffic, using free methods but putting in your own time and energy (writing articles, producing videos, using social media), or you can pay for your traffic (using piggy backing methods placing banners on high traffic websites, running PPC campaigns, etc.)
Follow these simple steps for setting up online businesses from home and you’ll be well on your way. Why do so few people who start a business from home make money online? Simple. They ignore these simple, time tested, proven steps to success. Take control of your future. Connect with your mentor and start creating the life you deserve today.