Here at Meet the Bowdens, we have a passion for teaching families how to build a life they love by teaching them how to start an online business at home.
We believe the best way to do this is by earning passive income through creation of online courses. But there are some other options as well!
Let’s talk about some of the things you should do to get started with your own online business.
First: Do you want to work for yourself or someone else?
Do you find yourself wishing you didn’t have to work for someone else? Feel like you’re stuck in a 9-to-5 lifestyle?
Starting an online business at home and working for yourself may just be the solution you are searching for. If you choose to work for yourself, you can run your business in a way that will help you achieve your deepest desires in life.
Some examples of reasons you may want to run your own business might be: spending more time with family, having freedom with finances and time, serving others, making an impact on the world, happiness.
Make sure you know what your why is before you begin. This is what will keep you motivated even when things get hard in your business.
Step 1: Find your niche
Once you have decided to start your own business and you know your why, you need to find your niche. A niche is comprised of what you’re passionate and knowledgeable about, who you are serving, their problems, and your solution to those problems.
To find your niche, think about each of the components listed above. What is something that you love to do and you’re good at? Who exactly do you want to help? What problems are those people facing? What is a unique solution you can provide for those problems?
Answering each of these questions will help you narrow down your niche and show you what to focus your business on.
Step 2: Find your audience
While you are trying to find your niche, you need to be very clear about who is a part of your audience. Who would be interested in this topic? Who do you want to help? Who do you relate to?
Get specific! How old are they? What is their occupation? Their relationship status? How about their hobbies? Once you have decided these things, you have found your ideal customer avatar (ICA).
Step 3: Create free content to establish yourself as an expert
You want to offer free content to your audience so you can become known as the expert in your niche. The purpose of free content is to give people value, build trust with your audience, and to get people on your email list.
You could provide free content through an opt-in to get people on your email list, blog posts on your website, or social media posts.
Step 4: Create paid products
Once you have provided your audience with free content that proves you are the expert in your niche, you can start asking them for money through paid products.
Some paid offers you might consider creating are: mini-courses, live workshops, recorded workshops, templates, digital downloads, a signature course, a membership, or coaching.
Step 5: Market & Sell
Marketing is how you tell your ICA that you have a solution to their problem. It allows you to establish yourself as an expert and eventually how you sell your offers to your audience. You can utilize both organic (free) and paid marketing strategies to get your content in front of the right people.
Organic marketing is any marketing you don’t directly pay for, so basically anything other than paid ads. Types of organic marketing you can use in your business are: email, long-form content, Pinterest, and social media.
Paid marketing is marketing that utilizes paid ads either through Google or Facebook. You may not use much paid marketing at first until your business starts earning some money.
I hope that these tips helped and you feel ready to start your online business at home!
