How To Start An Online Business: 6-Step Beginner's Guide

As a blog coach, I’ve got people asking me questions about how to start an online business. They’re bloggers who want to transform their sites into businesses. However, some are starting from scratch and are seeking a guide to start an online business for beginners.

So let’s assume you don’t have a site right now. Nothing… nada.

Just an idea or passion for a hobby that you’d like to transform into a business.

You need some help figuring out the key steps to creating a plan for starting your business.

You’re in luck. In this post, you’ll get an overview of the key steps AND you’ll get access to a free 30+ page free workbook for starting an online business.

Let’s jump right to it!

Disclosure: I recommend products I would use or have used myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links. I may make a small commission on any purchases you make using these links, at no extra cost to you. Read my full Disclaimer.

How To Start An Online Business: 5 Key Steps

This guide will give you an overview of what you need to do and consider before launching your business.

It’s a great exercise if you’re in the process of reinventing yourself in your 40s and you want to take your passion and make it profitable.

1. Research And Determine Your Niche & Market

Does your niche business idea have a potential customer base?

Or is it so obscure that small that it won’t make much money?

Research is your niche.

For online businesses, see if your products or services are popular on sites such as Etsy, Amazon and others.

Also, consider if you need specific certifications to run your business for credibility and legal reasons.

Understand your potential customers as well. Research to see what their needs are, where they spend their time getting information and what they believe.

When you have a good idea of who your potential customer is, you can create the rest of your plan.

2. Define Your Brand

Once you’ve chosen your niche and determined who you will help, the next step in starting an online business is defining your brand.

What is your mission statement and vision for your business?

What are your core values?

What about your brand personality and tone of voice?

Defining your brand also includes the fun stuff: visual branding. Create a visual brand guide by using Canva.

3. Determine What You’re Going To Sell

Now that you’ve got a niche and branding, what are you going to sell and what is it going to be priced at?

Here are other key questions:

What is your product or service going to be?
What core problem will it solve?
What kind of format will it be in?

When it comes to pricing, you’ll need to consider what your market can bear.

TIP: Think beyond your products and services and determine what other ways you can monetize your business.

4. Create A Marketing Plan

The next step in starting an online business is your marketing plan.

This is the part that I love the most, since I’ve been marketing and promoting brands since 2000.

If you’re over 40 and if you’ve worked in corporate settings, you’ve most likely had exposure to marketing plans.

Here’s where it all starts: research your competition. Find out what they are doing, and what works for them.

Then create a unique marketing strategy, based on your unique brand messages.

You’ll need a few things for marketing your products/services:

A website: introduce your brand and showcase your products/services
A content plan and strategy to generate traffic to your site
Social media strategy to build awareness for your business

In terms of content, a blog is one of the smartest ways to generate credibility and niche expertise. If you’re running a business where you aren’t front and centre, it’s still important to have a blog that showcases your niche focus.

Bring your brand mission, vision and values to life with content that helps your readers.

TIP: Join Facebook groups for women entrepreneurs so you can get tips and tricks to help you shape your marketing strategies.

5. Determine Your Legal And Financial Needs

Now come the legalities and financial considerations for starting an online business.

In terms of legal elements to your business consider these questions:

How will your business be structured? A sole proprietorship? LLC (US), Corporation (Canada)?
What kind of legal templates and pages will you need? Consider the core legal pages your website will need (Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Terms & Conditions).
Will your business need any special licenses or requirements?

For financial considerations:

What will you need to manage your finances? (Bookkeeping software, accountant…)
Investing in your business: to start up and run your business what tools and resources will you need to invest in?
What will you need for your company’s website? Consider things like your platform (self-hosted WordPress site, SquareSpace, etc.), visuals, special third-party platforms like Podia or Sendowl, etc.

6. Finalize Your Goals And Create An Action Plan

Now you know how to start an online business – but there’s one last step: finalizing your goals and creating an action plan.

Success comes when you take things in chunks. Trying to have several goals at the same time leads to burnout and mistakes.

Whether you use the SMART method (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) or other methods to create your goals, the key thing is to have them.

I recommend you create an action plan for the next 30 days, and action plans for the next 3 months, 6 months and one year.

Make your action plans realistic. I like to break it down to one key priority or action a day.

Start An Online Business Before You Retire

One important tip: start planning your online business before retirement. Starting it and letting it grow as a side hustle is important.

You need the time to learn how to be your own boss – from the technical aspects to marketing to work-life balance.

Read this excellent 5-tip post from my blogging friend Sandi on how to become your own boss after retirement.

Starting An Online Business For Beginners: A Free Workbook

Now that you know the key steps, let’s get you started with a free workbook. I’ve pulled this together because I know how overwhelming and confusing is it with so many moving parts to starting a business.

I did all of this without a guide, and the one thing that I learned was this:

Always look for resources like workbooks to help get your business plans in order.

So, grab my free workbook and get started today!

NOTE: If you need help with choosing a niche, fine-tuning your brand or getting started with a website for your business (especially a blog), let’s connect. I offer online business and blog coaching!

QUESTION: Wondering how to start an online business and getting nowhere? What do you think is holding you back from moving forward?

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How To Start An Online Business: An Easy Guide For Beginners

How To Start An Online Business: 5 Key Steps