What's the best way to start an online business with little money?

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I started the online thing with very little money. I will tell
you some of what I did. I started selling stuff on eBay
and Amazon. I would advertise items I didn't even have
in my possession and wouldn't order them until I made
a sale. I called it just in time order fulfillment. That was
in 1999. Back then people were still sending each other
checks and money orders, PayPal wasn't a thing yet.

Over the years, that eBay thing evolved and eventually
my average sale was $3,500, I had a couple of those
each week. I sold over $20,000 in one day once. That
was a great day for me. But I was using the dropship
method to fulfill my orders and the whole thing became
a drag. It was too much work and hassle. So I started
doing something else.

Would I recommend starting off the way that I did? No,
because everybody's doing that same thing now and
the market is saturated with products, ebooks, videos,
webinars, comparisons, etc. You'll be competing with
thousands of other people who want to make money
from nothing, as well. So now you, and everybody
like you, will need to figure out not only how to start
with nothing, but also how are you going to set your
products apart from what everybody else is doing.

There are going to be people that tell you to do this,
that and the other thing, they will tell you that it's all
so easy and you can make big bucks with very little
effort. That can all be done but you've got a lot to
learn.

Anyway, good luck with all of that, stick with it and
you'll be fine.

I think you should start by building awareness .Blogging and vlogging are 2 to good tools to use to get your message out .

Stay active in forums and groups like this .

The more awareness you bring and value that you offer the more likely people are going to trust you .

Keep networking and learning as well.

Since you have absolutely no real idea how or what to do, I would suggest you start simply with google and youtube.


They are both free and you can get a bit education about online businesses.


If I were you I would really start to learn everything for a few weeks or a month until there is some kind of idea inside your head of what you would like to do.


Oh and of course this forum here is also perfect to learn, maybe even better than google and youtube because here are people with real experiences who are not only focused to sell you something

Hi Rodney

Welcome to the forum.

Sounds like you are interested in starting an e-commerce brand?

With regards to your second question, you need to do the research and see what your product costs are to determine your start up capital, you need to factor in costs for shipping (to you or a 3PL service provider).

Your ongoing costs may include monthly operating costs (website like shopify and apps). Cost for creatives (photos, videod and ads) unless you plan to do those yourself. Then there's the actual cost of advertising and shiping rhe producr to your customers. Before you commit you need to. run the numbers and make sure whatever product you choose still results in a profit after accounting for the expenses.


How much you do youself depends on your skills and how much of time you have to learn to do it yourself.

In my opinion, you would be wasting your time and money trying to build an online business. Think about it... if it was easy, everyone would do it.

The web has become very competitive. In any niche that you pick, there are already established competitors who really know what they are doing, and are well-funded (especially things like vitamins/supplements or electronics). A poorly funded newbie will be roadkill.

Rather than trying to build a business where you do not have the knowledge or skills to effectively compete, why not think about things in your life where you have some skills or advantages?

The first basic factor that you need to have is awareness of what do want to do and how, basically marketing plan. To achieve that you need to educate yourself in this field, use Google, YouTube, forums, tutorials and case studies
When you get the understanding of what you are doing and how to do it then you can start testing

There are 3 things that you need to get out of the way before you start an online business

1) Clarity - What are your goals?
2) Consistency - Do you plan to put in some consistent work over a period of at least a few months and beyond
3) Patience - Are you willing to be patient enough to wait for the results? Don't start off on a hot note but fizzle out a couple of weeks, some even days later and claim it doesn't work.

If you can get these 3 things out of the way, then you can be successful online.

The greatest approach to generate money online is to learn how to do so first. The internet is a large place where you may quickly get lost if you don't know what to do moreover if you do know the right thing to do

Have a supplier and start informing people about what you sell

The fastest way with little money is Ebay. I rely on Ebay more than Amazon. I dont want to sit here and tell you to start a web hosting company or something complex like that. There's also a site called Fiverr that you can check out. Why do you want to sell electronics and supplements? Both of these require inventory investment. How much are you looking to put down to invest in product?

Hey Rodney,

Well I can only speak from personal experience, my advice is start educating yourself about the industry learn the basics.

How to create a website
learn about email marketing
learn wordpress
how to write articles ( including structres)
Traffic (how to get traffic, free and paid)

Alot of this you can outsource if you have he funds in the begining, but if you dont have the funds then you better start learning for free from this forum and youtube.

Just remember online your either selling a service or a product, and they need to be marketed to the right customers. How you market them can depend on different business models.

Start with this forum and you'll learn so much very quickly or in a short time.

Birdi

I found success in zooming into niches over the years.

It can be a niche way of using a product (like vitamins for plants and soil), a niche group (like multi-vitamins for hikers, mountain climbers, for aging pets), a niche way of doing stuff (vitaminized milk for adults, try different pills shapes), new ways of packaging (first order comes with a beautiful cottage shaped pill container, or tent shaped, guitar shaped, depending on who you targetting), etc. People like different, people like new. Add your own twist.

Easiest way to get your word out is through your own supportive groups (family, friends, colleagues). Give them a URL to buy from and to send traffic for you (to their whatsapp groups, FB groups, Insta groups, and whatnot). Having a website really helps. If you have some cash, GOOGLE ads work too but there's no guarantee you'll win on this one.

If you're thinking about affiliate sales (like AMAZON), it's merely advertising the product link. It's a big topic though, not as easy as most people try to imply. You've got to be ready to do work. I just found out.

If you're thinking about drop-shipping, you;ve got more than advertising the link to do. It's even more work. For starters, affiliate should still be the easiest - no inventory, storage and employees, no quality check, no dealing with complaints and refunds, no delivery, no bargaining, no rental (phew), etc.

Hope the above helps.

Exactly what you SHOULD do.

This comes from my Xtreme arrogance, normally, I only use normal arrogance when telling other people what they should do. Do this, and you won't be clueless in a week. DON'T do it and we'll see you here next year whining how nothing works.

YOU should: Mark the next 7 days off on your calendar, allowing two hours a day. First two days spend here at Warrior Forum going over the archives, start with the threads Kay linked to in this thread. Start a new notebook, take notes and write down the names of those Warriors who give you advice that you resonate with or feel confident they know what they are talking about. Read their threads and posts, again, taking notes.

Day 3. In your notebook, answer one question. WHY? WHY do you want to start an Internet business and WHY CHOOSE vitamins/supplements or electronics?

Do you have expertise in either field? If so, what is it? You say you want to: "start an online business with little money", right? Why?

I'm just now starting out on this online thing and I haven't got a clue.

The first thing then, is to GET a clue, eh? You do that by spending the time reviewing this forum and what people have been doing for the last 20 years, both successfully and what they have failed at, and why.

Second thing about getting a clue is; WHAT do you bring to the table? What experience, knowledge or expertise can you use and share online? Bring an empty basket, chances are good it will stay empty for a long time to come.

Are there any laws that I need to be aware of?

Local business laws, your country laws all apply, you're starting a business, which means you MAY (or may not) need some sort of permit, and certainly TAXES to consider.

What kind of money should I expect to put forth to start up a vitamin/supplement business, or selling electronics? (I haven't decided which, yet).

You state you want to start with little money, which is very possible, however, a general rule of marketing online is; the less money you can invest and buy other people's skills, the more TIME you will have to spend. You could start for NO money, but you better have something in the basket your brought along. Again, why are you choosing between those two, they sort of limit you too, but if there is a good reason, then you want to spend at least a full day searching and studying those industries to see how others are succeeding.

What's the best way to get the word out that I'm in business?

I take this to mean; how do I get customers, right? Here is where a lot of time (or money) comes in, in researching your market to find out where they are at, what they currently buy, how you can enter that market and why you should.

In that notebook, write out a page each defining what your IDEAL customer, one for supplements and one page for electronics.

Can you clearly identify who you want as a customer, why and then where they "hang" out on the Internet? You get the word out, by participating in some way (social media, forums, blogs, Facebook, etc.) in the places where your IDEAL prospect spends their time.

What's my part in all this vs. what others do?

Simplified answer: No money, you have HUGE part, doing almost everything yourself. The exception is affiliate marketing, where the HUGE part is getting qualified prospects to other peoples' offers. Not an easy task.
The more money you have the bigger part others can play, but they don't necessarily have to.

How much do I ride on others' coattails against what I have to do personally? What are the basics?

By spending the time reading through the treasure trove of how to info here at the Warrior Forum, you will be dragged along on the coattails of other people. Some, like savidge4 showed us a way to start making money on eBay, and to leverage that into a substantial income, in less than a year.

On the other side, you'll find Warrior lamentations about working a DECADE or longer and not having any success, and those who did great, made 100 thousand dollars a year, then suddenly went broke. All good, bad and ugly lessons are here, if you choose to get a clue.

THE BASICS: Something to offer to people, and the people to offer it to. You need a product or service. Your own, or someone who offers an affiliation of some sort with theirs.

MONEY comes to you as a result of a transaction. You offer, they want and pay, you deliver.

IF you spend the week in the forum and go through this, you will see many variations of this, with all kinds of nuances and twists to it.

You need a PRODUCT. A PROSPECT. An INTERSECTION.

Product can be service, virtual or physical. You can create or acquire your product.
Your prospect is online somewhere, YOU find them.
You then intersect with them with some sort of offer or promotion.

Now you have the basics and if you ASK the right questions, of yourself, like WHY, who, what, where, when and how...

You will leave the dark shadows of the clueless and enter the bright warmth of IM success. Or at least be off to a good start.

GordonJ

Greetings Rodney G.

It sounds like you have narrowed it down to two areas, Vitamin/Supplement (Health & Wellness niche) and Electronics, which is great. You already have at least 50% of the equation handled. Pat yourself on the back! That's a win.

When I started everything seemed so exiting that it was easy to end up all over the place losing so much time, time that I can't never get back which is more valuable than money. I know that may sound a little off because the money is why we're all here. This is what helped me I hope this can help you. Lets put pen to paper.

1. Be decisive and make a decision on one of your choices. 2. Become an authority in that area. Be the "GO TO GUY" not the just selling a product guy. 3. Unless you have your own products it's ok to edify the creator of the product are the brand. It shows that you're doing your home work and builds your credibility as the "GO TO GUY". 4. If you have a Facebook page re-introduce yourself, clean up your page. If you have anything out there that could be taken out of context remove it. Create a Facebook business page for your brand (Which is you). You can do the same thing on IG and any other social media you frequent. You're not pushing to sell products your announcing to the world that your here just like you did here, cool right. 5. If you're comfortable you can start a YouTube channel just making short videos on your industry that can lead to product reviews. Putting out a couple of post on your pages every few days about your industry and making some fun short videos for you business creates a success mindset and a winners attitude.

These are just a few of the traditional things that still work that you can do which don't cost a lot of money but it will be time well spent after you have everything in place. Now you can structure your schedule (time) on how you want to build your business.

There's no magic bullet or one size-fits-all, online are offline but they both start with a basic foundation and you adjust as you go.

Thank you for the question because it helped me stay focused and continue to build on these basics.

Hope this was helpful

Create a blog and do product reviews. Just be as honest as possible, so you stay compliant.

You can then take the link from that review and go to Fiverr and pay someone $5 to do a social media blast for you.

You can also put banners on the sidebars of the posts.

Keep driving traffic to your blog and monitor the stats with Google Analytics.

You can also add an optin form in the sidebar and build a free email list using Mailchimp and continue to market to your list.

Look for a supplier and start little

I've been working online since quitting my last job in 2010. Last month I earned $27k revenue, $22k profit (my best month yet).

I earned that mostly through affiliate marketing but I would NOT advise that you go into affiliate marketing right off the bat.

IMO, for most people starting from scratch, freelancing or getting a remote job is the best way to start earning online.

With either of those paths the odds are good that you'll be earning a full-time income within 6 months. That's not something I can say about any other kind of online business.

(I know a remote job isn't really a "business" but it is a good way to earn money online and gain some experience, so it should be considered as an option. In total there are 19 different types of online business, according to my own framework.)

Think about freelancing or a remote job as a stepping stone to eventually building and running your own business. You can start earning relatively quickly AND you'll learn valuable skills along the way that you can apply to your own business later.

For example, if you eventually want to get into affiliate marketing, take some free (YouTube) or cheap (Udemy) courses on SEO or Facebook Ads. Learn enough to start taking on some small freelance gigs. Work your way up to bigger freelance gigs or a remote job. Try to work for established affiliate marketers who need help with SEO or Facebook ads or whatever skill you learned. Do awesome work and learn as much as you can from those established entrepreneurs.

Eventually you should be able to earn a living working only 20 hours a week. At that point you should have the time, money and knowledge to make a good run at building your own thing. And even if you fail, you'll have freelancing or a remote job to fall back on, so very little risk or stress.

I'm not saying that's the best path for everyone, but I believe it's the path most likely to lead to success for the vast majority of people. Nothing sexy about it, but it usually works well. And it costs you pretty much nothing to get started.

The fastest and easiest way is to work as an affiliate marketer

Find a product that you can promote for a commission

Create a landing page for this product and invest in paid ads to show this page to a target audience

This method may cost you some money, but you are buying time with money in this case

You may not get sales the first time but, always Test products, ad platforms, landing pages, offers, etc

Finally, you will find the profitable deal

Hey there,
I'd do a few courses first from People that have set up these types of businesses.

It seems you need a lot of guidance.
Are you looking to start up an online store, or are you looking at affiliate offers?

Best of luck

Part of the money is best invested in order to receive passive income.

Step 1) Try to go to meetups in your city about digital marketing, online business etc. You will meet a few people who are already making money online. Become friends with them and ask them what they are doing, and courses they listened to in order to get started.

Step 2) Listen to the course and start working.

Step 3) Profit.


If you have a little bit of money saved, you could go directly to a place like Bali, Medellin etc and you will meet tons of people working online.

Hey Rodney G
A lot of people have given you a lot of good advice on here. My take on it is - you're staring with a physical product and if that's what you want to do, great. But I think you might be better off with an Amazon affiliate store to start out.

Their are various programs where you can build an Amazon store at a reasonable cost. This way you wouldn't have the cost of buying stock and you could learn the marketing side without forking out a load of money.

I would advise choosing a niche market and finding a specialist area of it. Sure , you won't make a fortune with an Amazon store, but you will gain valuable experience for when you open an ecommerce store.

So, RodneyG, a one post wonder, wanting advice, wanting to know the basics.

I have to wonder where Rodney is today, did he go the Rich Jerk route and start a million dollar a year supplement business?

Honestly, who cares?

All we can do is offer up our best tid bits of advice, and sit back and watch. There are so many RodneyG types here at the WF. But every once in awhile someone comes along and listens, and gets rolling down their own success blvd., whatever that means to them.

Wouldn't it make for a nice study, to follow-up on the wannabees to see where they are today? Oh, wait, we know... two years from now, they'll come back telling us how desperate they are and how every thing they tried failed.

Anyhow, in spite of RodneyG, I would like to thank fellow Warriors for taking their time to offer up your advice and opinions, even if RG is long gone, other Warriors might benefit from your efforts. Thank you participating Warriors.

GordonJ

Rodney's either so involved in his new business he hasn't had the time to respond - or he doesn't recognize a clue when he sees one.

Either way, there's some sound advice in this thread for those willing to learn. So cheers, Rodders.