subject: How To Escape The 9-5; Building A Business Online [print this page] If you toil in a cubicle, shut away between the hours of 9 and 5, you may be longing for a way out, and hoping to find it before retirement. For many the dream is a source of income which is independent of location, something to allow you to relax by the pool while money trickles reliably into the bank account.
It's not that you don't want to work, it's just that you've done that and the only way you can face another day is to know there is a way out. Once, that location independent income would have been found through investments, but even if you've just received an inheritance or a lump sum pension, or found a Renoir in the attic, you'd be forgiven for giving the stock market a wide berth right now, so how can you live your dream?
Writers and artists have seen the benefit of location independence for centuries. You can choose where to live according to what matters to you; the food, the people, the scenery or quite often, the tax regime. Today, online business is the way to go, but what can you actually achieve? The web is filled with claims of millionaire stardom. All you do is buy a course to tell you what to do and and off you go. Of course the cost of the course is every penny of your savings, but that doesn't matter, there are millions to be made!
As always the truth is a little different. There is money to be made online and there are people who make a lot of it, but it's not a trivial process and you have to be prepared for a lot of work as well as a lot of learning.
Many choose to sell a product. Problem number one is deciding what to sell. You need to find something people are looking for, Google's keyword tool can provide the answer, but then the question is why are they looking? Is it because they intend to buy or because they want information?
Your next hurdle is supply. Where can you find the product? To make a profit you need to buy at wholesale prices. Can you afford a wholesaler's minimum order? Where can you find one who will deal with smaller, start-up companies? It's important to look carefully at the prices and make sure there is profit to be made. Bulk buying can make a big difference. Comparison is so easy on the web; customers won't buy from you if they can buy the same thing elsewhere for less, at least not unless you give them a very good reason. You may buy your item in quantities of 100 and get a good wholesale price, but the giant stores like Walmart can buy in vast quantity and will always undercut you.
If you are new to business as well as the internet, or if you have limited start up capital, drop shipping may be the way to go as this can reduce your startup risk. Although the price you pay per item may be higher, you have no need for staff to pick and pack, or space to store your inventory.
In a brick and mortar store there is no shipping charge, the price is what the customer pays. On the web shipping costs can double the cost of some items. Some web sites build it in, some give the customer a nasty shock at checkout. Can you use a drop shipping company? If so make sure the drop shipping charge doesn't eat up all your profit. The Internet can be cutthroat when it comes to price.
The next problem is creating a web store. It's perfectly possible to do this yourself, but if you don't want to learn you're going to have to pay serious money to have this done for you. And once that's done there's the problem of customers. They don't just turn up. You have to go out and find them, either by paying for advertising or working hard at making your site visible through search engine optimization. Or both.
So when someone comes and tells you they will help you through the whole process for just one (not so small) fee, what should you do?
Be skeptical. There are reliable sources of information out there but there are far more who are out to take your money. The largest sector on the Internet is people who say they can teach you to make money on the Internet, but the truth is they mostly know only one way to do it, and that's through exploiting you. There are very few Internet fortunes built on one product or for that matter one business.
It's often the ability to spot needs and trends before others have time to react that sets the successes apart from the failures. Once you are successful you'll need to do it again, and again, so there are several good reasons for doing it yourself the first time and learning the ropes rather than relying on hyped claims from Internet consultancies.
You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on scam schemes to make your dream a reality. All you need is a little cash, some hard work a willingness to learn and some reliable sources of information and you too can make money while you sit on the beach, waiting for the sunset.
