There was a statistic I heard a little while ago about Mums in business which saddened me.
Want to know what it was?
That 95% of new businesses will fail.
The thing I find sad, is…
I have to agree with it.
But, there is one key element that can put you in the 5% of successful businesses.
Want to know what it is?
It all comes down to choosing the right business model. Or, if you’ve already chosen your business model, you can easily add new income streams to help boost your profits.
Wanting to start your own online business is an exciting prospect. You can be your own boss, in charge of the daily running of your business. And even better, your profits are yours to keep with unlimited earning potential.
But what happens when you have no idea what you want to do.
Enter the doubt.
What if I fail?
What if my business idea has been done before?
What if I don’t know what on earth I am doing?
This is scary stuff.
But even though these are all very valid questions, they are questions that have answers and the answers aren’t half as scary as you may think.
One of the key things to remember when trying to decide what type of business is right for you, is “does this field or business idea interest me?”.
You need to have an interest or passion in the business idea you choose because it will be you sitting at your computer at midnight writing a blog on said topic. So you need to have a dedication and passion for what you do as well as somewhere to draw your content from. If you have no interest in painting, then trying to write a blog or share your expertise may be a little difficult for you.
To find out what interests you, write down everything you love to do and what you don’t like to do.
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Then write down what you are good at and what you are not so good at and ask a friend or family member to do the same about you.
Look at what you have written and see if you can pin-point a common theme. It may be something that you think is really trivial, but it can be the catalyst to your dream job.
If you have written down that you love to travel and meet people and you are good at talking the ear off a horse, then maybe a community-based business around travelling and best places to go in certain countries might be your niche. With everyone looking for opinions and recommendations these days, community pages and forums are a great way to engage with this.
If you are still unsure, or would like a gentle nudge, we have come up with our top 5 ideas for an online business that you could build on.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has gotten a bit of a bad wrap in the past but it is actually a highly lucrative income stream if done properly. Affiliate marketing is essentially promoting a third party product on your website / blog / mailing list /social media channels and when someone whom you have directed to the product purchases, you’ll receive a commission. Now, there is a secret formula to getting this income stream right to ensure you don’t come across spammy.
Affiliate Marketing Suggestion:
Family Travel Blog – A travel based business could be a great way to build a community and share experiences and advice on travelling around the world. An active Facebook group where members share their stories as well as ask for advice could be a good way to build a potential customer base. Once you have an active group of members with a common interest, you can then start to offer curated promotions via your affiliates. For example, create blogs and how-to guides on everything travel related and embed your affiliate links within them. You could start with a blog called ‘7 Pieces of The Best Luggage To Use When Travelling With Little Ones’
Affiliates can literally make from a few dollars to over $50,000 per month. Yes per month.
With a travel blog, I would look to being an affiliate for holiday packages that pay around $500 per sale, encourage 20 people to buy and that’s an income of $10,000.
Market Place
Think Esty, eBay and the like. Don’t freak out about how big these websites are and get put off though! Remember, they also started with just an idea and I believe that anyone can be just as successful as them.
Marketplaces traditionally house lots of other smaller stores (vendors) on the one website and offer your audience an all-in-one place to shop. It is your job to provide an audience (eg potential customers) to these vendors to make it worth while to list on your website. The best part is, there is no inventory, picking and packing or dispatching products with this model. It saves you SO much time which can be invested into growing your business.
Usually, you will be paid via a commission for every sale, in between 15 – 25%. Payment transactions will take place on your website, but once the payment has been made, the website will spilt that payment, send you your commission and send the remaining amount and the order direct to the vendor to dispatch.
If your average commission payment is $20, you’ll need to make 500 sales per week to bring in an income of $10,000 per month.
Marketplace Suggestion:
Tweens – This has to be one of the biggest gaps in the market for kids clothing. Babies are covered and some and the toddlers and preschoolers are pretty well catered for as well. But what about the tweens. A marketplace dedicated to tween fashion would help so many time poor mums to the fussy 7 – 13 age bracket shop a little easier.
Online Directory
We love online directory’s because they offer the game-changing combination of being able to apply any concept your heart is in love with to a highly automated and recurring income stream. However, there are secret ingredients to getting it right. We don’t want the old style 1990’s directory that looks dab as that will get you no where fast. The concept, branding, messaging and growth strategy has to be on point to make it work. An online directory works similar to a marketplace, but no transactions take place on your website, instead when the customer clicks ‘buy’ they get taken to the vendors website.
So, you may be wondering how you create an income with this model? Well, here is the best part. Vendors pay you a monthly flat rate. That means you have recurring income every month. Start with something super low, like $19.99 and once you have 500 vendors signed up you’ll be making a highly passive $10,000 per month.
Online Directory Suggestion:
Online Mums Facebook Group – If you live in an area that needs an overhaul of the local business arena and activities, then a community page dedicated to your local area and surrounds could be a great idea. A site like North Shore Mums started as just a community Facebook page and now they are one of the go to websites for all things Sydney North Shore, from searching their local business directory to finding the best kindergarten or Mums group. They have opened up income streams from their business directory as well as advertising and affiliate marketing / promotions.
Memberships
A membership platform is ideal for those who have a skill or expertise in a certain area and they want to use their knowledge to help others. With a membership, people will generally be paying a monthly flat payment, and in order to retain people you must be continually providing updated content and value.
Memberships Suggestion:
Let’s say you are a lawyer with loads of experience in small business practices, you love what you do but you hate the work hours and having to put your little ones into long day care.
Use your knowledge and convert it into an online format, then sell it to mums who are starting out in business and need to learn the legal side of business. You can create videos, training, provide legal docs – whatever you like!
Depending on the concept, you can charge anywhere from $9.99 per month to $100s per month.
Let’s say for example, you charge $149 per month, you need just 70 people to be making over $10,000 per month.
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