The Hidden Value of Online Businesses
“How to make money online” is Googled 113K a month.
The number of searches for “side hustle” has grown year after year to 34K a month.
All of this is showing that online business has become a big business. People are hungry to learn a new way of working — a way that has mouth-watering potential. Almost limitless earnings, fully remote work, and all from working a few hours a week…
Sounds great, huh?
I’m not here to tell you this isn’t true. One look at the Empire Flippers marketplace shows you that it’s possible. What I’m going to do, though, is cut through all the noise and show why you are the most valuable part of any online business.
But before we get into that, let’s begin with a reality check.
You Might Not See Profits For Months
When a niche becomes as popular as “making money online”, there’s always an adjacent niche of gurus trying to sell you a course on how to get there.
There’s a lot of good courses that exist but there’s also a lot of bad ones. Unfortunately, people who run the bad ones tend to shout the loudest. They make it seem easy to generate profit from day one with just a few hours of work.
The truth of the matter is that there are very few businesses in the world that can earn you money straight out of the box. Online businesses are no exception. While they can become a form of passive income in time, a lot of sweat equity is needed before you reach that stage.
Your passion and excitement for starting your own business is incredibly important. It’s going to be the driving force behind your success. Learning how to harness it and tempering your expectations will be key to finding your way and building a profitable online business.
Referring back to the Empire Flippers marketplace, a lot of businesses take at least six months before they even see a profit. This figure is pretty typical as new websites tend to take several months to rank in Google, and e-commerce stores will require inventory to be paid for upfront.
With this knowledge, you shouldn’t be pinning all your hopes on a single business. Get into the mindset that creating businesses helps you to grow, not just the other way around. Once you build up this knowledge your strike rate improves, making the process a whole lot easier.
The Hidden Value is You
One fact that many online gurus don’t tell you is that 90% of startups fail.
It may sound like the odds are stacked against you, but if you start backing yourself instead of a business model, then it won’t deter you. We’ve interviewed many online entrepreneurs, and one thing they all have in common is an “abundance mindset.”
An abundance mindset is an acceptance that failures are part and parcel of running a business. A single business doesn’t determine your long-term success.
Learn to Leverage Skills and Knowledge
Spend some time learning, watching videos, and reading how to do things. However, set yourself a hard date to start your business. You’ll never be fully ready, but there is no better way to learn than by doing something yourself.
Count everything as a learning experience. Gaining experience allows you to further your knowledge and in turn, learn how to build your wealth. Anyone can gain knowledge but experience has to be earned. If you are persistent in your desire to start a profitable business, then you will already be ahead of most wannabe entrepreneurs.
Remember to document your success. The skills involved in creating an online business are highly desirable. You can transfer this knowledge and experience to future ventures.
Launching your own business means you’re going to be constantly improving your skill set. This is an exciting time because as you gain experience, it starts opening up more doors to wealth. Not only will you be able to create profitable online businesses, but you will also be able to start flipping them.
Using the capital from your business, you can buy other businesses or even sell to buy more. You might be thinking: Why would you want to sell something that’s profitable? Selling gives you more money to play with. You can go out and buy two other profitable businesses and use your newly found skills to improve them. Now you have two successful businesses and you get to skip the building phase.
This is an overly simplified look at flipping businesses, and I’m not going to tell you it’s all plain sailing. However, flipping businesses is one of the quickest ways to build your wealth and achieve the independence you desire. Investors will also tell you that diversification is an important part of any business portfolio.
What Skills Should You Learn?
It can be daunting when trying to find your way into online business. Affiliate marketing, e-commerce, Amazon FBA . . . there seems to be an endless list of models to choose from.
However, if you break it down further, each model requires its own set of skills. Here’s a few examples of some common skills needed to build an online business:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Email marketing
- Paid advertising
- Social media marketing
- Website design
It is very unlikely that you are going to become an expert in all of these. Instead, pick one and start putting it to use. For example, SEO can be used to create an affiliate website. Start doing some keyword research to give you ideas for content to create. Then put it into practice: buy a domain, and build a website.
Identify Strengths and Weaknesses — Outsource the Rest
As you get established, you’ll find out what you enjoy doing and what you don’t. Lean into the things you like. If you enjoy doing something, you’re likely to get better results from it.
We can’t all be full-stack entrepreneurs. Leave your ego at the door and acknowledge your weaknesses. Fortunately for you, you don’t have to start from square one every time you need to utilize a new skill.
This is where outsourcing comes in. It allows you to defer tasks to other people who have expertise in that area. If your paid ads need optimizing, then you can find someone to do that for you. Advertise on freelance job boards and get almost immediate applications from people wanting to work for you.
Not only does this give you expertise, but it also frees up your time to concentrate on other areas of the business.
Put It All Together
When you get into this mindset of backing yourself for the long haul, there will be no stopping you. Online businesses can be a truly magnificent opportunity, but don’t get sold on the fact it’s easy.
The first few months, or maybe even the first year, can be challenging. When you get past this point and start making consistent profit you can reap the rewards. Online businesses can be very profitable with minimal hours worked.
There is a very active market for buying and selling online businesses. To take a look at businesses that are already successful, visit the Empire Flippers marketplace and register for a free account. This will set you up to build your own portfolio of profit-making online businesses.
