[2023] How to start online business in India, 4 Easy Steps

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Introduction

We are living in a digital age, and every one has started using internet for expanding the scope and reach of their business.

We can order any commodity now from the comfort of our home, and more so after the lockdown.

When everyone has started taking benefits from internet and its related technologies, how can you afford to lag behind. You should and you can start your online business very easily.

There are many people, who have started their online business and are now doing well, earning a decent income.

Everyone has a smart phone and an internet connection, and hence online business are witnessing an enormous growth.

You have a smart phone, and spend your entire time watching videos and playing games. Why not use this time in starting your own online business.

If you are enough motivated to start your online business, then this post is for you. In this post, we will give you step by step procedure of “how to start online business” and earn a decent income.

What is Online Business? 

what-is-online-business

Any business that uses internet and its related technologies to operate entirely is called an online business. It is also referred to as e-business or electronic business.

An online business consists of selling goods and services through internet.

Today’s world is a digital world, and here we can start a variety of online businesses from home.

An online business can be in the form of :

  • Direct sales
  • Virtual assistance
  • Amazon FBA store
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Dropshipping
  • Reselling
  • others

Some of the above online business ideas require you to have an inventory, while some require you to just sell the products of others and earn a commission.

The next question, that might pop up in your head is “how much money can be earned in online business”?

It’s answer lies in how well you choose your business idea and how nicely you execute it.

To give you an idea, let me tell you that people are earning so much money from online business that they have left the high paying jobs to pursue it.

You might be wondering that starting an online business will cost you fortunes. You must be thinking that you will need a production unit, a warehouse and a good human resource.

No, it is not so. Starting an online business is very easy, and requires very low investment. But yes, it requires a lot of patience and good marketing strategies.

Benefits Of Online Business | Online Business Advantages

People are switching to online businesses very rapidly. It is owing to this reason that online business has many advantages.

Some of the benefits of online business are listed below:

  1. You can start this business any where and operate it from any place in the world. An added advantage is that while staying in India, you can target the customers of America.
  2. Most of the online businesses can be started with very low investment, and they can still yeild very high outputs.
  3. In most of the online businesses, the returns can be very high. For example, in affliate marketing, people are earning lakhs of rupees every month.
  4. It can be operated round the clock and round the year, irrespective of the prevailing conditions. For example, in Covid lockdown, many online businesses saw a very rapid growth, where as all the offline businesses came to a grinding halt.
  5. There are many online business ideas, where you don’t need to manage any kind of inventory. All you need to do is to resell the commodities of other companies. For example, there is a Meesho reslling platform, that has let thousands of people earn a decent income.
  6. It is easy to promote an online business by running ad campaigns through facebook, youtube and other social media platforms.
  7. You don’t need to open a physical shop, which comes with many costs like electricity and rental costs.
  8. You will become a job giver instead of being a job seeker. Being your own boss is the most satisfying feeling.

How to start an online business?

In order to start an online business, you should first of all look at the market outside you.

Do research about what will work for you and which field you have expertise in.

Also consider, which business is sustainable and good paying, and make a detailed strategy about how you can run it.

The step by step process for starting an online business is discussed below:

1. Choose a suitable business idea.

select-a-business-idea

This is the first step towards starting your business, and your entire success depends upon this step.

To choose a suitable business idea, you need to study the market and then prepare a list of well working and suitable business ideas.

From that list, you will shortlist one idea, that you have expertise in, and which has the following features:

  • Scalable.
  • Problem solver.
  • Good market.
  • Less competition.
  • comparatively new and unique.
  • Sustainable.
  • Profitable.
  • Properly manageable.

Once you find a business ideas, in which you find all of the above features in a balanced mix, it is now time to kick it off.

Remember, that you should never choose any business idea, just because every one else is doing it and making money in it.

Rather try to identify the problems around you and then provide their solution through your business idea, having all the features mentioned above in it.

Keep in mind, that no matter how sound any business idea is, it can’t be profitable, unless it is executed well.

The next step that comes now is to test your business idea.

2. Test your business idea

test-your-business-idea

Just because, you think that your business idea is going to disrupt the market, does not mean that it is the best one.

What matters, is what people think about your idea and not you. To check, what market and masses have to say about your business idea, you need to test it.

In order to test you business ideas, follow the steps given below:

2.1 Register a domain for your business

If you want to give digital identity to your business, then booking a domain name is very essential.

It is the first step towards taking your business idea online. A domain name is a name that provides identity to your business.

There are few things that you need to keep in mind while booking a domain. They are:

  • It should be related to your business. For example, if you are going to sell shirts online, your domain name should be shirts. com and not cakes. com.
  • Prefer short names.
  • Domain names should be easy to remember.
  • Domain names must be easy to spell. Prefer original spellings. For example, prefer cakes. com over kakes. com, if you are selling cakes.
  • Skip the Hyphens and Numbers.
  • Use the right extension. Extensions like .com is preferable over all other extensions.
  • It should not lead to copyright and trademark infringements.

There are many websites where you can buy your domain. These websites include godaddy.com. hostinger.com, namecheap.com, hostitbro.com and others.

You can also get a free domain with extension .blogspot.com, but if you are planning to create a brand and have a good market reach, buying a custom domain is very essential then.

After visiting these websites, all you need to do is to create your account and search for a suitable domain name.

If the domain name, you want is available, you can book that very easily. A .com domain name can be bought under Rs1000.

2.2 Buy web hosting

This is the second step towards testing your business idea.

Now that you have taken a domain name, next comes purchasing the web hosting.

Web hosting allows you to take a place on the Internet where you can provide your service, service or information to the people. After purchasing it, link your domain to it.

You can also get free hosting, but you should refrain from using it, if you are having the long term goals.

Such a hosting may be able to sustain your online business for some initial days, but once some traffic starts coming, the website may crash. This will be disastrous for your business.

A good hosting plan may cost you around Rs 4000 for a year, and this is a very small yet very valuable investment.

If you are a newbie, we suggest you to purchase hosting from the same company from which you have bought your domain.

In case, you have no problem in changing the Domain Name Servers of your domain, you can buy it from any seller.

Some of the best hosting providers are Godaddy, Hostinger and Hostitbro.

2.3 Design your website

Now that you have linked your domain to your hosting, you will be able to access your website. Design your website according to your business niche.

Building and designing a website is very easy, if you are using wordpress. It allows you to pick and drop various features for your website.

Make sure, that your website is user friendly, responsive and fast. Otherwise, people will refrain from visiting it. In addition, Google also dislikes non user friendly, non responsive and slow websites.

2.4 Run an ad campaign

When your website is ready, run a social media ad campaign to check your business idea on pilot basis.

Join ad networks on Facebook, Google and YouTube to promote your website defining your business idea and its features.

The ad run should be attractive and it shoud highlight what differentiates your business idea from the other identical ideas.

Running an ad campaign is not going to cost you too much. You will just spend around 200 Rs per day, to get around 200 to 300 potential customers to your website.

Since, you are not selling anything as of now, as you are just in testing stage, make sure that you ask your visitors to give their email address, so that they can stay updates, as and when the product is actually launched.

2.5 Study the metrics

Running an ad campaign has some additional advantages also. It will provide you a good amount of data to analyse the feasibility of your idea.

With CTR, you can understand, what percentage of people is interested in your business idea, and what its engagement can be.

The CPC can help you gauge the cost of generating the interest in your business idea among the general masses, when the idea is executed in the real life.

The percentage of the visitors who provide you their emails, will help you in knowing the demand of your product in the general public, and in getting the idea of a potential customer.

3. Kickstart your online business

start-your-business

If your metrics suggest a good response, and the data says that people are interested in your online business idea, interest can be generated at low cost and good number of people are willing to be your customers, then you should start your business idea without any further delay.

If the metrics suggest otherwise, then you should leave this particular idea and hunt for a new online business idea.

4. Scale up your online business

upscale-your-business

Now that you have started your online business, you should always be ready to upscale your business.

As soon as you will bring your business idea to the market, all the bigwigs will start copying it.

The only thing that will save you from their fierce competition is your readiness to upscale your business, well within time.

To upscale your business, you need to:

  1. have proper plan in your mind, as to what and how things should be done.
  2. know your customers and their demands very well, by asking for their feedback.
  3. have good data to chalk out your future strategy.
  4. get some good investors.
  5. develop a good marketing plans.
  6. switch to automation, if necessary.

How to start online business, final words

In this article, you learnt about how to start online business in 2022. If you have learned all the things correctly, then you can start your online business without any difficulty, and that too within a very short span of time.

Remember that, execution of a business idea is as important as a good business idea. A good business idea may not wok well, if not executed properly.

You also need to bear it in your mind, that success does nit come overnight.

You will have to work hard to be successful in your journey of starting an online business. Be patient, resilient and dedicated, if you want to be successful.

If you face any kind of problem, in understanding the above article, make sure that you let me know by commenting below.

Also Check; Best Blog Niche Ideas For 2023

FAQs

How to start an online business?

Starting an online business is very easy. All you need to do is to have a sound business idea in your mind. To execute your business ideas, you will require to setup a landing page, where you can list and showcase your products.
After this, you need to promote your website on social media to attract your potential customers.

Give me some online business ideas?

Some of the online business ideas are Direct sales, Virtual assistance, Amazon FBA store, Affiliate marketing, Dropshipping, Reselling, Domain investing etc.

What are the advantages of online business?

The advantages of online business are:
It can be started any where and targeting audience is easy.
It can be started with very low investment.
Testing your business idea becomes easy.
It can be operated round the clock.
It is easy to promote an online business.

Hello, I am Mansoor Mir. I am a part time blogger and a full time teacher. I have an experience of more than 4 years in the Blogging field, and I love writing about Business, Cryptocurrencies, NFTs, Technology and Academics.

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