There are indeed many successful business persons who essentially just sit in front of their computer screens and operate profitable businesses, but the web based business space is becoming increasingly competitive because of the many tools which are becoming more and more readily available to anyone who has a mere $100 to spend. You can get a fully functional, dynamic website up within a matter of days if you’re willing to pay for it and if you know who to collaborate with, so it makes for good practice to try and work towards incorporating an offline environment in which the business operations play out.
Taking things into to the “real world” should be a real goal and while you’re busy sharpening your teeth with the remote business you’re running online, you should be careful not to get too comfortable and start neglecting this ultimate goal. That said however, thinking of an online, remotely run business as one which functions in the real world is the way to go, because that’s actually how it is and you’ll need to apply the “real-world” business principles that govern the functioning of a successful venture.
So, what are the things you need to consider, especially when taking into account just how competitive things have become?
Value is a conduit of time
By now it should be clear that you should probably try and avoid the self-help or online income opportunity niches, simply because in addition to those being super saturated, people have generally become wise to the fact that they simply don’t work. I mean nobody is going to sell you a revolutionary “system” or “method” that “made them thousands of dollars” for any amount of money. Instead, what you need to focus on is viewing value as a conduit of time – that’s what people are willing to pay for.
For example, while the people you may target to sell beautiful wedding save the date postcards to could very well have gone to the same platform you went to, to create the designs using the available save the date template collection, the one reason they wouldn’t really want to do so is because of time. They would rather spend their time doing other things, such as actually planning the wedding that’s coming up. So, while tools such as these and others are readily available to the end-market, the amount of time one needs to invest in firstly locating them and secondly deploying them to create an end-product is something others are willing to pay to forego.
Now, while you’re busy running your remote business, whatever it is you’re ultimately selling as a product or service, be sure to keep things professional. By the time you try and make the transition into the physical space then you’re already suitably acquainted with the standard practices that come together to increase the chances of your business actually succeeding, after the initial goal of merely surviving, of course.
Otherwise going remote, online is a great way of sharpening your teeth in business.