What are the best tips for starting a business

According to my research ‘What are the best tips for starting a business?’ is one of the most asked questions on Quora. So I thought I would answer it.

My first tip would be to ask yourself this really important question… Why do you want to own your own business?

There are many answers of course, but ‘I want to live the laptop lifestyle’ or ‘I want to be a millionaire’ or ‘I want to spend more time with the children’ are some of the classics. You see, the reason why I say ask this question before anything else, is because you have to work backwards. The lifestyle of your dreams has to work in sync with the type of Business you want to start. For example… If your answer is — “I want more time with my kids’ you would never open a 7–11 store, run a pub, start a restaurant or hand make clothes, and there are another 1000 businesses you should never get involved in, if you want more time freedom. If you want to live the laptop lifestyle, then you need to start a digital business, something that requires no stock, or customer returns, or anything where you physically have to attend one on one personal meetings. Starting a business is a big decision. It’s a lot of work, and it can be risky, so making sure you are putting all your energy and money into the right project is by far the most critical part of your decision.

I have a friend who is a Brewer and he brews some wonderful beers. I often hear people say it would be great to start their own little micro brewery. They are coming from a position of ignorance, because I can tell you Brewing beers is incredibly hard work. My friend works his nuts off. 7 days a week for not very much money — Trust me drinking beer is a thousand times more fun than brewing the stuff. You see he left a nice well paid corporate job and ended up creating a much harder job for himself, with half the pay and none of the corporate benefits.

So tip number One — Work out what sort of lifestyle you want to live, so you can use that answer as your guiding star.

Number Two… I’ve read many articles that state ‘you need to have a great idea’. This I feel is rather missguided advice. Tens of thousands of people every year start a business thinking they have a great idea. In reality these ideas are often completely bonkers, they might be ‘pure genius’ in their minds, because they see no-one else doing it — but there lies the rub. It’s true… No-one else is making fish flavoured milkshakes, and the reason is no-one wants to buy fish flavoured milkshakes. Again, what you need to do is reverse engineer it. The actual product or service you offer will emerge from good old fashioned research. You need to identify if the demand already exists. Everybody in the world knows that the human population loves Burgers and Fries… Fact. So if your town doesn’t have a McDonalds or Burger joint of any kind, then I think it’s fair to say that because we know people love Burgers and Fries, if you were to open up a store selling them you would be successful. There is an existing pent up demand, and people are more than willing to part with their cash to buy them. Get rich quick schemes — People cannot get enough of them, and they part with $10,000’s to buy them. Again, there already exists huge demand. You must sell or deliver what people want — Not what you think they want.

So tip number Two — Is to feed a hungry market.

Number Three… Product research, and more research. Remember this — It doesn’t matter if competition already exists, that is a good thing. Why do you ask? Because it shows clearly that people are spending money on that product and in that sector already. So your next job is to find their weakness, that one area where you can enter the market and do it better, quicker, with greater value. Have you ever looked at all of the Hundreds of wine bottles on the shelves and thought that it would be impossible to break into this over-saturated market? The Yellow Tail brand of wine was launched in 2001 by the Casella family in Australia. The brand quickly gained popularity in the United States and has since become one of the best-selling wine brands around the world. This is proof that if you can do it better than the others, you can breakthrough into any market.

Tip number Three — Find the product that will give you the lifestyle you want. Make sure lots of people are already willing to spend money on it, and then find your angle of opportunity. Find your unique selling point that buyers will find hard to resist. Personally, I would focus on solving peoples problems.

Number Four… Next, you need to create a business plan. This is a document that outlines your business goals, your strategies for achieving those goals, and your financial projections. Your business plan is a roadmap for your business, and it will be essential if funding is required. To be honest business plans are a pain in the ass, but from experience they are important because they (if they are filled out truthfully) highlight your costs. Most people think of a product and then think of a nice price that they could sell it for… Reality Alert!! The sales price can only be ascertained once the full costs have been factored into the making of the end product. Let’s use the massive coffee trend as an example:- You are a great designer, so you create a stunning looking modernist coffee pot. You see the market averages between $29 and $39 each. If you fully factor in on your business plan, all the costs that are required to get your coffee pot made, packed, shipped and marketed, and your business plan shows that each coffee pot would cost you $25 per unit, then your business plan has done its job. Your coffee pot would have to sell for around $75, so it simply would be priced out of the market. You are doing what all great entrepreneurs do… They know their numbers.

Tip number Four — Create a business plan and be honest with your numbers. Remember it’s profits you want, not financial disasters.

Number Five… I could say… Establish a strong online presence. In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is essential for any business. Establishing a website and social media accounts can help you to reach a broader audience and promote your business effectively. Ensure that your website is user-friendly and is search engine optimized. But in truth there is a much simpler way to start an online business, It’s called affiliate Marketing. Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing arrangement where a retailer pays an external content owner (also known as an “affiliate” YOU) a commission for traffic or sales generated from the external site’s referrals. The commission is usually a percentage of the sale price.

There are three main types of affiliate marketing:

Click-based affiliate marketing: The affiliate earns a commission every time a visitor clicks on an affiliate link and then makes a purchase.

Sale-based affiliate marketing: The affiliate earns a commission only when a visitor clicks on an affiliate link and then makes a purchase.

Lead-based affiliate marketing: The affiliate earns a commission when a visitor clicks on an affiliate link and then completes a desired action, such as signing up for a newsletter or downloading an E-book.

Affiliate marketing can be a great way to generate income. If you’re thinking about using affiliate marketing, there are a few things you need to do to get started:

Choose the right products or services to promote. You want to promote products or services that your audience is interested in and that you believe in.

Chris Barber explaines how he does it — Click Here!

Find reputable affiliate programs. There are many affiliate programs out there, so it’s important to do your research and find programs that are reputable and offer good commission rates.

Create high-quality content. Your content should be informative and engaging, and it should be relevant to the products or services you’re promoting.

Promote your affiliate links. You can promote your affiliate links on your website, in your email newsletters, and on social media.

Track your results. It’s important to track your results so you can see what’s working and what’s not. This will help you optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns and maximize your results.

Affiliate marketing can be a great way to grow your business and reach new customers. If you’re looking for a way to generate sales and leads, affiliate marketing is definitely worth considering.

Tip number Five — Consider Affiliate Marketing because once you have created your content and loaded it on your blog, on Youtube, on TikTok, on Instagram or any other platform you earn money while you sleep. It’s truly passive income. All your financial dreams could be realised, your 4 hour work week could become a reality, and you can actually live that laptop lifestyle you’ve dreamt about… So get to work if you really want to make it happen!

Chris Jones

Chris Barber shows how he makes $1,000 dollar affiliate commissions — Click Here!

Please note that this link is an affiliate link, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through it.

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