What is Webpreneurship And What It means for your startups?
Webpreneurship or Digital Entrepreneurship has been creating a lot of buzz since the early 21st century. So, What exactly is Webpreneurship and what it means to a normal business Startup in 2018?
Before diving into webpreneurship, Let us closely take a look at the early business model and their modification with the rise of technology.
Business can be literally defined as the process in which organization or any kind of economic system is involved in the exchange of goods & services for money & benefits. A business can include both products & services. It constitutes all kind of Brick & Mortar Business including Traders, Manufacturers, Distributors & service providers.
In contrary to this, Entrepreneurship is the art of operating a business with unique ideas, unlike the same old Business concept. An Entrepreneur can be considered as a trendsetter in a certain niche or category with a huge goal & risk taking abilities. If you have a dare to open a business venture truly upon a new concept apart from existing business models, You are an Entrepreneur.
On the other hand, Any Entrepreneur whose business venture is based on the internet or Web is called a Webpreneur. Webpreneurship is simply an art of running a business or startups on the Internet fully or partially.
After the Invention of WWW, the world went crazy and a lot of new technology and jobs were created shortly. There was a boom in jobs & hence the economy.
Soon after the invention of the Internet, A new concept of Shopping took place which initiated the birth of Online shopping. eBay & Amazon soon started their online venture with limited products. Amazon started out with the bookstore and It has grown out to be the largest Online shopping in the world by today.
A few years later, A new concept of search engine Algorithm was invented By Larry Page & sergey Brin which later went on to become the largest Technology company in the world Which is known as Google today. With the rise of search engine & especially Google, A whole new level of technology & jobs were created.
Few of the jobs that were created with the rise of Search engines & Internet includes:
- Web Designer & developer
- Graphic Designer
- Programmer
- Blogger
- SEO
- PPC Advertisement
It was not much later that the birth of Social network website took place & Facebook created a history by setting up a trend and proving to the world that you don’t need to born to a Millionaire to get Billionaire.
That gave a rise to a new era of Business & technology.
Gone are those days when you need to have large investment, manpower & resource to start a successful business.
In today’s world, All you need to start a business is a strong business ideas, passion, Skills, commitment & of course Internet. Whether you are in agriculture, textile, import, trading, manufacturing or services, the Internet can provide a solid background for your business.
Advantages of Webpreneurship
- Broad Audience
- Increased Boundaries
- Digital World
- Low Investment
- 24/7 Accessibility
- Less Human Failure
Broad Audience: When it comes about webpreneurship, Broader Audience is one of the main benefits of starting any business on the Internet. With more than 2.5 billion users alone on Facebook, You can predict how big the Internet Audience is nowadays; not to talk about giant Google and other Social Media Websites.
Gone are those days when people relied on Newspapers & Magazines for News & Information and TVs & radios for entertainment. People nowadays prefer more over the Internet for any kind of News, Information or Entertainment.
Increased Boundaries:
Internet increases the boundary for your business. If your business was based in Seatle, there would be no way for people in Florida to know about your business without Internet even though you provide the best services in the world. With the business on the Internet increases your visibility among prospective customers all over the world and hence increasing the possibilities for your business outside your place.
Digital World:
WWW is totally a digital world, which means that you no longer need a physical space or place to build your presence. All you need is a Web domain & hosting and you are good to go. No Hassles of office space, rent or lease. You can start your business with no place. That can sound astonishing but that’s true.
Low Investment:
Since you can start your business with no physical space, you can definitely cut down your budget on Office space and hence lowering your initial Capital. Moreover, A website can act as an advertising tool for your business for free. Moving on, you can cut your budget on traditional marketing & Advertising and hence gives you the freedom to start your business with no investment.
24/7 Accessibility:
You no longer need a receptionist to answer simple queries of your customer all the time. Wih a website, you can provide all the information, news, notice online and it would be accessible to them everywhere, anytime, 24/7..
Less Human Failure:
Since the technical part is entirely based on internet and require less human interaction, you can certainly assure a less human failure for the business. However, there are certain things that you should keep in mind while staring out any business on the Internet.
Important Areas of Webpreneurship:
Technical Areas:
This area includes setting up your website & Applications & setting up all the necessary resources like Payment gateway, branding models, contact process & other technical setups related to your business.
Web Marketing This is one of the most important phases of any business based on the Internet. There is no benefit of establishing your business online if nobody knows about it. The internet is a very crowded place and it is important for your business to create a strong online presence.
This is where the importance of web marketing takes place. It can help you from establishing your business online to marketing your products/services and enhancing your customer relationship and therefore establishing a strong business branding.
Services:
No business can last long if they have poor service approach. No matter how good you are at marketing or how many dollars you have invested on your business branding & advertising, If your business service is not satisfactory, nobody is going to give it a second try, Someone has said true,” You can only fool someone once”. So, It is important to consider your service over any other things.
Conclusion: Webpreneurship is all about using the right tools & technology on the Internet to benefit your business. A webpreneur should always look forward to discovering new digital channels & methods to grow his business. These were all about Webpreneurship and their advantages over the traditional business model.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment below and I would welcome any suggestion & advice on the list
Originally published at webpreneurshub.com on March 26, 2018.