Starting business is a stressful and difficult period. A novice entrepreneur has to cope with many new problems and dive into some legal and tax nuances. The list of questions is wider, if the business is related to the e-commerce.
However, all problems can be solved. There are many tools available in the Internet that can be used in order to solve them. Each industry has its own approaches. However, it is possible to identify common difficulties that a new businessmen may face. Thereby, it is also possible to identify common key recommendations that will be useful for everyone who decides to engage in e-commerce.
Problems and Solutions
Let’s outline the main issues that newcomers may face:
– Errors in budget planning and insufficient funding;
– Lack of marketing strategy;
– Lack of acknowledgement of the target audience;
– Customer outflow.
Based on this list of problems, we can offer a list of recommendations:
– Pay special attention to budget planning. Think through all possible expenses, including unexpected ones;
– Choose a reliable online acquiring provider and establish online payments;
– Create a marketing strategy;
– Determine your target audience; create a portrait of your potential customer;
– Adapt and evolve.
Let’s consider each of these key points in detail.
1. Budgeting
Starting a new business, it is important to know whether it can grow, what are the sources of development. It is also necessary to know the required costs and their sources. This is impossible without a financial plan.
Not to mention large ventures,even a small startup needs budget planning. It’s not enough to know what you want to do. You also need to know where you’re going to get the money to launch it and the possible ways you’re going to spend them.
Whatever the sources of funding are – personal savings, a business loan, investors’ capital or crowdfunding – only a clear financial plan will allow you to use the money by the most efficient way.
2. Determine your target audience
Who is your customer? Even the most promising startup may end up with nothing without a customer image and acknowledgement of your target audience.
Every product, every service has its customer. Your task is to define his image, and to understand which audience your commercial message will be directed to. First of all, you need to clarify the following questions:
– Age;
– Gender;
– Social status;
– Education;
– Employment and income;
– Marital Status;
– Product/service selection criteria;
After defining the image of your client and creating his portrait, you can significantly reduce advertising and marketing costs. Also you will be able to anticipate and even create demand before launching a new product.
3. Marketing strategy
Every business, especially the new one, needs advertising and promotion. Today the optimal solution for small and medium-sized businesses is the promotion in social networks, SMM (Socialmediamarketing).
According to the data of the current year, there are 3.8 billion active users in social networks all over the world. Compared to the previous year, the number of regular visitors of social networks has increased by 9.2%.
Undoubtedly, the importance of social networks as a place of communication between business and customer has increased noticeably during the period of quarantine restrictions and the transition to remote work.
A well-thought-out social media marketing strategy, given the right customer image, can significantly promote your business. When launching online advertising, you need to take into account both the geographic location of the audience and its demographic characteristics.
4. internet acquiring
A successful online business these days is impossible without online payments. This means that the choice of an Internet acquiring service provider will also be an important point.
Statistics shows that more than 20% of customers of online stores do not complete the purchase because of the complex and inconvenient system of making payments. Integrating a payment gateway from trustworthy provider into your site will help to solve this problem!
UNONAPAY offers modern payment solutions which will help you to increase your sales significantly.
5. Adaptability
Business is not static, it is continuous. And an important condition of success in our difficult times is adaptability, the ability to adapt to constantly changing conditions and trends.
Adaptability implies the ability to make quick decisions. The events of 2020 related to the coronavirus epidemic demonstrated the enormous importance of adaptability. Entrepreneurs who were able to instantly navigate the situation, have transferred their business to the Internet, and have organized work in a changing environment. They were able not only to maintain but even expand their businesses. Those, who have been unable to adapt to the new conditions, have failed.
We hope that these recommendations will help you to form a correct idea of the key moments of creating and developing an online business, and you will be able to open your own business, avoiding typical mistakes.