Working from home (online only).

XtraPound

Hi, I was wondering, has anyone here started their business from home, online only, what has your experience been?, I ask because I've been told time-and-time again, the high street is disappearing, more and more companies are moving online, I like the idea of working online, from home, and as the business would build (after tough marketing) would move to a small to medium size warehouse if viable. I do have an idea, but I'm not at the stage of opening a website tomorrow, planning is needed, business plan would need to be sorted well before hand, I know about Business-Link (with thanks to reading other posts here ).

I look forward to your reply.

Thank You, .

anandp

I've done that before - it takes time, patience & perseverance. If you stick with it, and believe in your concept strongly, then there's all the early day perseverance will pay handsomely down the line.

Online is great, in fact, my early-day ventures are still online and providing some income still & I haven't touched them in years! My current businesses are both online too (one is purely online). I think I remember reading on the weekend that recently online shopping took over offline for the first time.

If I were to offer one piece of advice: Do as much reading as you can on SEO/PPC marketing & avoid the many, many cow boys that are out there offering these services. Only buy these on recommendation!

XtraPound

anandp wrote: »

I've done that before - it takes time, patience & perseverance. If you stick with it, and believe in your concept strongly, then there's all the early day perseverance will pay handsomely down the line.

Online is great, in fact, my early-day ventures are still online and providing some income still & I haven't touched them in years! My current businesses are both online too (one is purely online). I think I remember reading on the weekend that recently online shopping took over offline for the first time.

If I were to offer one piece of advice: Do as much reading as you can on SEO/PPC marketing & avoid the many, many cow boys that are out there offering these services. Only buy these on recommendation!

Thank You Very Much!

Sarah_Harvey

I wouldn't say that I started a business from home, but have participated in various online projects to make money to look after my online gaming habits (And no, I don't mean casino gaming, I mean MMORPG gaming!).

I make anything from $10 to $250 a month, depending on what projects are available. Yes, I am aware I stated it is in Dollars, only because it is on an international scale and most sites/businesses pay in US Dollars.

However, I have been dabbling with the idea of starting up a business to work from home. I do have the experience and knowledge to make a good go of it in the marketing arena, however I am also hesitant and unsure since it is not stable like a job where I get a guaranteed income at the end of the month.

If I knew for certain that I could get a few clients within the first week of starting up, I would feel so much better, but then that is what it is all about- taking risks.

If you are thinking of selling a product and need a website, then I suggest you do all your research and a few weeks before even opening your business, start on promoting your website and get it ranked in Google and other search engines. Make sure it is nicely designed or a nice and clean design with not too much clutter or advertising, unless you plan on making a living off the actual website in the sense of Google Adsense. But that is more geared toward people who supply quality information and use the websites to make money.

Providing information is still the no.1 money maker these days. Well that is my opinion.

daz501

I would agree with the poster who mentioned learning SEO. I recommend "Google for Dummies", a book available in your local library. I'd also join internet marketing communities and do as much reading as possible.

w00dys

theres only basic things you need to do to ensure good seo listings

choose the correct keyphrass - get them in the title and h1 tags then links

go for local searches to start with if possible - i do seo , pm me and ill give you some help

terra_ferma

if you work from home don't forget the basics..
If this is purely online, no face to face interaction and working from home all day everyday, you'd need to consider:

is your home/office comfortable enough for you to be spending most of your life there?
if you are a sociable person and live on your own will you cope with being on your own all the time and not hearing the sound of your voice (or anyone else's)?

Pennywise

I'd endorse the advice to learn about website design and marketing yourself and not to rely on the "professionals" as there are a lot of con-merchants and cowboys out there.

I had a client who had a sweetshop and wanted to sell online. They hadn't a clue about the internet and paid about £5k to a firm for what should have been a fully SEO'd professional website. They waited in eager anticipation when it went live, and waited and waited. They got just 1 or 2 orders per day from it. Website firm were contacted time and time again and fobbed them off saying the website was fine and that it was just people didn't want to buy sweets online. I did a few printouts from ebay showing sales of dozens per day from several ebay sellers - at comparable prices! Eventually they sacked the professional website firm and did it themselves with one of those cheap "DIY" websites and actually got more sales than a so-called professional site!

Another client started a website from home, no previous website skills at all - just taught herself by using forum advice and now has a £1m turnover firm employing several staff - still to this day, she hasn't paid a penny to a web designer.

Get recommendations for a web designer and critically look at the websites they have created. Teach yourself a bit about websites and SEO so that at least you'll have a fighting chance of knowing whether your chosen web designer is up to standard or not.

Twin1

I have just started my own online business. But it is hard.
Im not sure what ideas you have but my website sells handbags and jewellery, i still work full time as i viewed this business as a 'pension plan' and not something i could live off straight away and there are so many costs that are involved that you possibly dont think about from the word go so i am glad i had some income.
I have experience in building websites but decided to buy an 'off the shelf' eccomerce package which i could then tailor for my own business and this has helped a lot, i managed to build my entire website in about a month (it was only an hour or so a day).
As other people have mentioned you need to brush up on your PPC and SEC knowledge otherwise money can disappear without you getting any return.
I found selling ebay useful aswell.

There is so much competition you need to think of all the ways you can market your business without it costing alot of money. I am just getting banners printed and am going to put them up in my local area and also produce flyers that i can hand out.

I would recommend doing it but it does take alot of time and dedication and results might be slow at the beginning.

terra_ferma

Twin1 wrote: »

I have just started my own online business. But it is hard.
Im not sure what ideas you have but my website sells handbags and jewellery, i still work full time as i viewed this business as a 'pension plan' and not something i could live off straight away and there are so many costs that are involved that you possibly dont think about from the word go so i am glad i had some income.
I have experience in building websites but decided to buy an 'off the shelf' eccomerce package which i could then tailor for my own business and this has helped a lot, i managed to build my entire website in about a month (it was only an hour or so a day).
As other people have mentioned you need to brush up on your PPC and SEC knowledge otherwise money can disappear without you getting any return.
I found selling ebay useful aswell.

There is so much competition you need to think of all the ways you can market your business without it costing alot of money. I am just getting banners printed and am going to put them up in my local area and also produce flyers that i can hand out.

I would recommend doing it but it does take alot of time and dedication and results might be slow at the beginning.

Very interesting.
Well done!
I'm planning to go solo at some point, but without ebay I would have not even started. Particulary as I did not have a strong commercial knowledge of the sector.
It's much easier to get a return on ebay, but you have less control on your business, and with ebay you never know what the future holds...

mr-mr_2

Pennywise wrote: »

Another client started a website from home, no previous website skills at all - just taught herself by using forum advice and now has a £1m turnover firm employing several staff - still to this day, she hasn't paid a penny to a web designer.

Course she did.

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